The War for the Sun & Moon

by Maxes Altho - NavyBrony

Rating: teen
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe, Other, Changelings, Original Character, Comedy, Tragedy, Main 6
Length: 52895

Twenty years after The Fall, a small group of rebels tries to wrest control away from the Empire. Sound familiar? Well, it's not.

Twenty years.

Twenty years since the day that would come to be known as the Fall of Celestia.

The Queens are in control of all Equestria, and are quickly branching to neighboring countries. All seems lost.

There are rumors that Celestia and Luna still live, providing power for whatever twisted abominations Empress Twilight has. It is the goal of The Warriors of the Sun and Moon to free the immortal Diarchy, and bring peace to the land once more.

Rise. Rise and fight the Empire. May the Sun guide you on your way, and the Moon bolster your unwavering resolve.

For the scoop on why the buck Twilight and Co. are in charge, see The Fall of the Sun &Moon

Published 2015-01-07 18:10:01 UTC
Last updated 2015-02-17 14:13:05 UTC

One

“Two days ‘til retirement,” the night guard moans as he trots the catwalks.  He should be fine; nothing’s ever happened to this old warehouse anyways.  It just so happens Queen Applejack wants him on high alert tonight of all nights.

“Let’s hope the bonus she promised is good enough.”  Usually, his job consisted of just sitting on his flank in the guardroom, watching the warehouse through the multiple cameras positioned throughout.

Hey, that’s one upside to Empress Twilight taking over: Equestria saw a huge technological boon in the past twenty years.  Telephone, and by extension the handheld radio, recorded media (like the cameras), air vehicles, even weapons of fantasy thirty years ago were alive today.

Sitting in a cushy chair, sipping fresh-brewed coffee was definitely better on his aging bones than walking around, checking every nook and cranny of the place.  He telekinetically nudged his sidearm in its holster under his leg.  It was standard issue, small, only meant to slow down a potential intruder.  The guard sighed.  Nothing ever happened here, but if the Queen—

“H-hewwo? Hewwo?  Is anywone thewe?”

What?  The guard scans the shelves below, and catches a glimpse of a short tail going behind one. There should be nopony else here!  He descends the nearest stair, and pursues the lost filly.

“Hewwo?  Can somepowny hewp me?”

“Yes, where are you?  Please, you don’t have to be sca—” he rounds the corner to behold not a filly, but a fully grown mare in black clothes with an evil grin on her face.

“Scared?  Man, Ventri doesn’t need to be scared; you should be,” says a deep voice from behind.  He doesn’t have time to turn before a hoof collides with his head, sending him into the nearest shelf, unconscious.

Ventri pouts.  “Come on, Tank!  You could’ve at least let me have a bit more fun!”

“Oh, shove it Ventri.  We’ve got a job to, remember?”  Tank reaches into his pocket and produces a radio.

“This is Tank.  Guard is down.  Proceed with the objective.”  With nary but a whisper, five more ponies in stealthy black suits slither out of their hidey-holes and begin searching the warehouse.

About five minutes later, Tank’s radio squawks “Sir.  I have located the target.  Uh… you might wanna see this, sir.”

Tank trots over to his Number Two, who is nudging towards a large open box.  Within is not blueprints, documents, or weapons as their intel showed, but a note attached to a timer.

Better luck next time!

10…9…8…

“It’s a trap!” Everypony is somewhat panicked, trying to escape as quickly as possible.

5…4…

Some sixth sense of Tank’s kicks in, and he looks to the rooftop windows.  The moon is glaring brightly through them, except for the one on the end.

2…1…

“MECHS!”  With a crash, a ten-foot monstrosity leaps through the window, coming down with a bone-jarring thump.  It is vaguely pony-shaped, somewhat like a fabled alicorn, but with differences.  Instead of wings like a bird, it has two giant guns on its sides.  Instead of a horn, on the head is something akin to a lightning spike.

The mech wastes no time in locating its first victim. It charges, and crushes Ventri’s barrel with one huge armored hoof.  It then opens fire on a group of the intruders, reducing them to shreds of magic-filled strips of flesh.  Tank tries to run for the front door, but is stopped when it opens, and a sight worse than a ten-foot killing machine arrives.

He doesn’t even have time to react as a blast of magic pierces his heart and sends him tumbling to the ground.  Long, powerful legs step over the body and approach the mech.  Several other beings fan out around her, securing the rest of the facility.  The being speaks regally, but with a strange, insect-like buzz, and the slightest hint of a southern drawl.

“Hello, brother.  Ah trust you are unharmed?”

“Eeyup.” A voice sounds from within the monster, deep and metallic.

“Good.  Don’t want ya getting rusty, am I right?”

“E’Nope.”

Suddenly, a weak laugh comes from behind.  Both turn, and behold the last surviving intruder.  He is laughing, and coughing up blood.

“Yo-you think you’re so *hack* invincible… you are weak. *cough* we know the Goddesses still li-live… you can’t hope to stop… The Warriors…” he breathes his last.  The being quickly uses her magic to fish a radio out of a pocket of her suit.

“Empress Twi, this is Queen Applejack.  Tell Pinkie I owe her a hundred bits.”

A voice, similar to hers, but a touch lighter, answers, “Good.  Right as always, she is.”

“There’s one spot that troubles me, though.”

“What is that?”

“These saboteurs, they’re from The Warriors… Twilight, they’re back.”

Okay, that part might’ve confused some of the younger foals, so allow me to explain.

About two years after the Fall, Empress Twilight and her Queens decided that the rebel factions needed to go.  So they went about purging all their cities of rebellions.  This was when most of the other small groups died out, and the large ones took major hits as their sites were found and summarily destroyed.

The Warriors of the Sun and Moon were a smallish group who saw this coming a country mile away.  Don’t ask me how, but the leaders knew.  We went underground, and by that I mean deep.  We disappeared off the map entirely.  Like, ‘not-even-a-tuft-of-fur’ gone.

Turns out, that was both the smartest and stupidest move.  Smart, because the Empress’ forces (and the Queen’s specialists) stopped taking notice of the secret meetings we held, the intel we traded, etc.  The stupid part?

Grumbling is heard.

Shut it, C.  I know you owe the Warriors your life, but even you have to admit they fucked up from time to time.

The stupid part was the anonymity meant we had a hard-ass time growing.  We could search for those who didn’t like the Empire, but it was super difficult to try and contact them to have them join up.  So, it was kinda a win-lose situation.  We still grew, just much more slowly than our superiors wanted.

Fast forward to FoC + nineteen point five years, and we get this recording.  Our leader got a juicy bit of intel on a new weapon being held in a warehouse in Fillydelphia, so they sent our best team to retrieve it.  As you can tell, it ended up being a trap, and Tank (God, I’ll always miss that sonuvabitch) and his team were slaughtered.  The footage was captured by our best stealth pony, who was, obviously, the only one to survive.  She retired soon after.

This is important because this was the moment everything was thrown into motion.  The Empress now knew we still existed, and with the conquests of the outlying countries mostly wrapped up, she could devote all resources to finding us.  Thankfully, our eighteen years of hiding made it extremely difficult for all parties involved.  For us, the War for the Sun and Moon had officially begun.

Go again half a year later, and we find the day I discovered my destiny…

More grumbling from C.

Yes, C.  Seeing as how we pretty much solved the whole thing, we have to talk about my giganto ego and how we got ourselves into this mess of a war.  Go play with Tiny until we get to your part.

Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out.

“Private Star, your mission is a go.”

I open my eyes to behold a deserted city block.  At least, it appears deserted.  I know for a fact there will be traps on the street, combatants in the windows, and general muckaround necessary to stop me.  My mission?  Make it to the building at the other end of the block and secure the blueprints located inside.  Easy peasy.

I take a step forward, and a pony steps out from the side alley and, as his horn lights up, coats the street in front of me with liquid fire.

Fuck! I catapult backwards, and dash down the other alley.  I float my sidearm out of the holster as I near the end of the alley.  It’s a simple thing, made to take the magic-filled cartridges, funnel it into the gun, and turn it into concentrated blasts of death.  I don’t know how the engineers make it, ask Battleborn if you’ve ever got the time.

I sidle up to the corner, and see another enemy, watching out the alley, waiting for me.  Too bad the idiot never thought I’d be behind him.  I pistol whip him to the back of the head, dropping him like a rock, and take up his sentry position.  Cool! I’ve always wanted to pistol whip a guy!

From my vantage point, I see at least three others watching the street I should be coming from, one in another alley, one Pegasus in a high window with a sniper rifle, and another in a storefront with a small machine gun.  The sniper would be the one to see me no matter what I do, but thankfully, I’ve got my magic.

It may not be strong, but I’ve more than made up for it in ingenuity.  I don’t have super-duper TK, or destructive magic, healing, movement, transformation, elemental, or any of those other kinds of magic.  What I do have is supreme mastery of anything relating to light, with a healthy dash of illusory magic.  For example:

I summon my magic, creating a simple ball of light in front of my horn.  I infuse it with a few party favors, and launch it towards the building the sniper’s in.  Sure enough, I hear the crack as the rifle fires, then a shout of surprise.  After he hit the orb, it split into a hundred shards that fly up, then instead of falling down, a hundred Pegasi descend, all of them training guns on his position.  He starts firing at the illusions.  I use his distraction to dash towards his compatriot in the store.  I down him with a quick burst from my gun.

Now for the real fun.  I concentrate, and all the remaining Pegasi turn into solid shards of light.  I send them all at the sniper, and I hear several sickening crunches as they strike home.  Three down, one clueless, and who the fuck knows how many more to go.

I’m sure the street ahead is full of traps, as there aren’t any more ponies trying to kill me.  Time for a magic reveal.

I summon my magic again, but this time form it into shadows around my hoof.  I rise up, then strike the cobblestone with all my might.  A wave of shadow arcs forth, turning about a quarter of the stones ahead dark.  One of my best tricks; I call the shadow to darken anything hidden, like spike traps, goop traps, stuff like that that are underneath the stone. Basically, if it’s heavier than a normal street stone, I now know it’s not safe.  I gingerly step around the traps, confident I’m in the home stretch.  Then, my hoof catches on something.

SON OF A… my thought is cut off as arrows, yes, medieval honest-to-bucking-god arrows, shoot out of the alley.  I leap forward, and trigger another trap.  This one is a siren, meant to draw the attention of everything in the area.  Shit shit shit shit shit!I’m running now, activating more traps in my wake, but I’m moving on pure adrenaline, avoiding most and leaving some nasty roadblocks for any pursuers.

I stop inside a store a few streets down, breathing heavily.  I’m leaning against a clothes rack, and checking my ammo.  Plenty built up in the gun, and a few spares.  I’m about to shove off towards the target when a quiet sobbing stops me.  It sounds like a mare, coming from the alley right next to the store.  Shit, there aren’t supposed to be any civvies in the area!

I cautiously round the corner and see, yes, it’s definitely a civvie.  She has her back turned, and is crying about… something.  She is cradling something in her hooves, but I can’t tell what.

“Uh, Ma’am?”  I wander closer, watching for any hint of a trap.  She just keeps crying.  “Ma’am, what are you doing here?  Uh, Miss?”  I reach a hoof for her, when the sob turns to a cackle, and she turns on me, brandishing a knife and lunging at me.

As the knife passes through my neck, the city block fades.   I’m in a small dark room, with the worst thing ever blaring through the speakers hidden throughout.

“Test failure, Private Shining Star.  Please report to Drill Sargent Loudmouth for review.  Welcome back to the real world, Shiny.”

Two

“So, Private.  Care to tell me what went wrong?”

I’m standing at attention in front of the desk of Drill Sargent Loudmouth, a large green Earth pony with a megaphone for a cutie mark.  He’s not shouting yet, so I might be able to defuse him before it comes to that.

“Sir!  Once the simulation began, I made my way towards the objective, downing every enemy combatant I came across, and disarming or avoiding every trap.”

He raises an eyebrow.  “Until?”

I sigh, “Until I slipped on a concealed tripwire, Sir.  It set off a chain reaction of traps, which I narrowly avoided.  I hid out in a shop until the coast was clear.  Then, a deviation occurred.”

“Deviation, Private?”

“Sir, I heard a civilian in the area.  The parameters of the simulation said there would be no innocents!”

“I see… and what, pray tell, makes you think she was an innocent?”

I take a step back.  “Sir?”

“If you recall, Private, you failed the test because you let your guard down in hostile territory.  The mare wasn’t a civilian, she was a combatant.”

“But, sir!  There was nothing in the briefing—”

“Yes, I had Shimmer throw in a little extra.”

“What?”

He smirks.  “I know all you maggots have been told by the big boys what the test is like.  What they have sworn not to tell you is that each test is unique.  Hell, the objective is the same, but the means are always different, carefully molded to test not only your training, but your mind, Private.”

I’m dumbstruck.  “S-so what does the test say about me, Sir?”

He moves around from behind his desk and lays a hoof on my shoulder.  “It means, son, that you let your conscience get in the way of the objective.  You aren’t ready for real combat yet.  Now, Star…” Wow, he almost never uses names.  I look up.

“Yes, Sir?”

He slaps me across the face with his hoof.  “GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY OFFICE UNTIL YOU GROW A BACKBONE, YOU PATHETIC EXCUSE FOR A SOLDIER!”

Shit, he’s loud.  I still can’t hear anything but a ringing in my ear.  I’m walking through the tunnels of the main Warriors base, leaning against a wall every now and again for support.  Some of the higher-ups say that Loudmouth is so loud, he could reduce a Hydra, Manticore, and Minotaur to almost nothing, all at the same time, using only his voice.

It doesn’t matter what he says though.  Only one thing matters: I failed.  I had wanted to join the ranks of the Warriors since I could remember, and now, that chance was gone.

I did, in fact, owe the Warriors my life.  The way they tell it, I was found on the steps of a small orphanage in Manehattan a few years after The Fall.  I guess my parents didn’t realize the orphanage was actually a cover for the Warriors.  They took me in, and as I grew, I learned just how big our reach was.  Manehattan, Fillydelphia, Las Pegasus, we even had a small outpost hidden under Canterlot at one point!

Then, the purge came.  All of our outlying outposts were hit, with the main base here in Manehattan being the only one not found.  We lost a lot of ponies then, and still haven’t restored our full numbers.  We’ve grown big enough to branch out tentatively to cities like Fillydelphia, but they were quickly pulled back when that raid failed.

However, I have no more time for reminiscing the past as a flurry of clopping fills the tunnel, and I am bowled over by three small bundles of pure energy, sugar, and big puppy-dog eyes.

One of the bundles lands on top of the heap of pony limbs.  “Owowow… sorry mister…hey, it’s Shining!  Hi Shining!”

As my vision unblurs, I behold a very young Pegasus colt.  “Hey, Squirt.  What’re you guys doing running around down here?  Shouldn’t you be up in the dorm level, with your parents?”

Another bundle recovers, revealing a white unicorn filly, Angel. “Yeah,” she says matter-of-factly, “But we heard you did the Test today.  We wanna know how you did!”

The third is, of course, the red-furred Earth colt known as Brick.  As thick as one in the head sometimes, but hits like one too.  “Uh, yup.  How’d you do, Shiny?”

I untangle myself, and stand before them, my head held low.  “I…failed, guys.”

A cacophony of indignant cries fills the deserted tunnel, but I quiet them down.  Squirt flaps his wings, and gains enough altitude to look me in the eye.  “What happened?”

Now, I have to sugarcoat this a little; they may have been born into a world at war, but they don’t need to be exposed until the time is right to just how fucked the Warriors are.  I pat him on the head. “Well, Loudy,” they giggle at the Drill Sargent’s nickname, “said I’ve got the skills, but not the heart.”

“But, Shiny!  You’ve prob’ly got the biggerest heart here!”  Brick mumbles.

But not the kind of heart that lets me look into a defenseless pony’s eyes and pull the trigger, my mind says.  What my mouth says is “Yeah, but I let my heart rule what I did, not my mind.”

The three look deep in thought for about two seconds, enough time for a little more backstory.  See, these three are part of a group called the Crusaders.  The leadership saw all these little colts and fillies homeless, desperate, or born into our ranks, and took them in.  The mission of the Crusaders is to find what each young pony is good at and how they can tune those skills into helping the war effort.  Supposedly, the term originated from a trio called the Cutie Mark Crusaders, three fillies who were, get this, the sisters of three of the Queens!  After the Fall, two of them, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, were conscripted into their sister’s ranks, becoming two of the worst abominations the Empress ever created.  Scootaloo… nopony really knows what happened to her.  She was in Cloudsdale when Queen Rainbow Dash overthrew it.  She fought hard against the Queen’s changeling army, but she and all the other Pegasi warriors were defeated.  She took a bad hit, scorching off most of her wings and sending her tumbling to the earth below.  They never found a body.

However, abomination or dead, their legacy lives on.  We have about ten Crusaders in the current group, including these three.  Speaking of which…

Squirt’s eyes suddenly light up.  “Ooh, Shining!  Can you do the thing?  You know, that thing you can do?”

Great.  As if I could go one fucking day without the universe shitting on me.  My mother must have slept around with Murphy while pregnant with me, because I’ve been cursed.  I am a Hybreed.

Grumbling.

What, C?  Oh, that term isn’t used very much?  Well, allow me to explain.

You see, when a mommy pony/changeling loves a daddy pony/changeling—

“Sir!”

Alright, alright, I’ll cut to the chase. *sigh* A Hybreed is what you get when a changeling and a pony mate, okay?  If the conditions are right, the mare of the pairing becomes pregnant.

It’s not uncommon to see pony/changeling pairs nowadays.  The trend started about FoC + five.  Some ponies and changelings found they had a genuine attraction to the other species.  Since changelings can become basically anypony they want, they filled in the other half of such relationships.

Anyways, the mare eventually gives birth to what looks like an average foal.  However, the foal has a small amount of changeling power too.  The foal is a Hybreed.  It varies from pony to pony, but mostly it involves being able to shapeshift a certain part of our bodies.  The lucky ones get almost full-coat transformation, allowing for near-changeling levels of infiltration.  The unluckier ones get, at most, one part.  They can change their mane and tails, maybe one part of their face, stuff like that.

Then, you get the Forsaken.  These are the most twisted of the bunch.  Instead of shapeshifting, they gain a changeling’s ability to feed off of emotion, but something about it got twisted with the pony DNA.   They can suck literally anything.  Emotion, magic, strength, stamina, you name it.  This makes them very powerful, and very dangerous.  I’ve only gone up against a Forsaken a couple of times, and man, you do not want anything like that, not even upon your worst enemies.

Thankfully, I was of the middling group, but with a bit of an added bonus.  I could only change my hooves.

“Okay,” I smile through strained teeth, “What do you want to see?”

Angel thinks for a moment, then blurts out, “I wanna see you walk on the ceiling!”  The colts agree.

“Alright, I can do that.”  I concentrate, and glimpse the familiar green flames around the bottoms of my legs.  I will my hooves to become viscous and soft, like a slug’s body.  I carefully step up to the wall, then stick one hoof to it.  It sticks (this time), so I proceed with climbing the wall.  I have a bit more trouble when I reach the junction of the wall and ceiling, since gravity wants to pull my hooves back down, but I eventually get right above the foal’s heads.  I’m panting slightly.  “Is this… good enough… for ya?”

A weight lands on my chest.  “Cool!”  Squirt has landed on me, his legs curled under him, his small wings fluttering with excitement.  The unexpected weight breaks my focus, and my hooves become hard and ponylike again.

Shit shit shit!I plummet downwards, Angel and Brick moving out of the way just in time.  We hit the ground, hard enough to knock the wind from me again.  Squirt immediately jumps off, worried.  “Sorry, Shining!  Did I hurt you?”

“No, no I’m *cough* good,” I groan.  “Jus…Just don’t try and break my concentration next time.  I can’t hold the change if you distract me.”

“Oh, man, I’m really sorry Shining.”

“Hey,” I get to my hooves.  I am ready to lay into them, but they all give me the sad dog eyes.  Now, that’s just cheating.  One, I could handle.  But bringing out all three, complete with pout?  That’s bordering on WMD territory.  My heart melts.

“Hey, it’s no problem.  You guys should probably be heading home, right?  You don’t wanna miss time with the other Crusaders.  Maybe some of them got their Marks while you’ve been down here.”  The hall is now empty, except for me and three dust clouds strangely resembling the foals who were in front of me not a moment before.

I chuckle.  Kids, right?  They can’t ever pay enough attention.  They just run and run and run and run until they drop from exhaustion, only to get back up the next day and repeat.  Speaking of exhaustion, I’m sure feeling it now.  The test might’ve been nothing but an illusion, but your mind believes it’s real, through and through.  So, I can feel the pain in my snout when I faceplanted after the tripwire, the singe of my coat avoiding fire traps, and several other aches and bruises, even though nothing shows on my body.  I slowly make my way to the dorm level, find my room, and drop into bed.  I think I’m out before I hit the pillow.

I’m in a castle.

Oh shit.  It’s not just any castle; it’s the Canterlot Fortress, the HQ of Empress Twilight and the seat of power for the Equestrian Empire.  I recognize the grand hall I’m in from the many State of the Empire speeches the Empress gives from time to time on the television; the throne room.  Seated at the throne is The Menace her royal self, Empress Twilight, regal in all her bitchy glory.  Tall holey horn, half-bug half-pony wings, flowing purple hair, lightish purple body, crown with the blackened Element of Magic, and piercing eyes staring right at me.  Arrayed around the foot of the dais are her Queens, the other Elements.  They’re poised to protect their Empress, their horns charging, pointed right at me.

Suddenly, I feel movement to my sides.  I look around, and six other beings step forward, moving easily into point-blank spell casting range.  Their forms are fuzzy, but I can make out a few details.  One is very short, another with a twisted horn and a very dark form, and a couple with wings.  The one at the front speaks; I can’t tell what he’s saying (sounds like a he), but whatever it is, it is causing confusion amongst the Queens.  Suddenly, the Elements around the Queen’s necks burst apart, and the shards begin circling the six.  An even greater crash is heard, and I look up to see Empress Twilight’s crown break, and the pieces join the veritable tornado surrounding the six.

Six beams of light erupt from the maelstrom, and strike at the former Bearers.  It isn’t like the fabled rainbow of the Friendship Cannon, as it was called when the Bearers summoned the power.  This is more like a positive-negative correlation: three vibrant colors, and then three that could only be described as the polar opposite of those colors. Whatever it is, the Queens and Empress try to strike back, answering with their own magical energy, and as the beams collide, the room is bathed in white.

I bolt up, trying to block out the blinding light.  I lower my hooves when I realize there is no light, I’m not about to die, and I’m in my room at the Warriors base.

“Holy shit, what a dream.  Okay, Shiny, no more forgetting to eat before bed.”  I glance at the clock; meh, close enough to my normal wake-up time.  I get up, and make my way to the mess hall, the crazy dream fading into the back of my mind.

Three

Splorp.

A gelatinous pile of glorp falls onto my tray.  I gaze at it in indifference; there’s some fancy name for the food, but everyone just calls it what they want.  It contains all the vital nutrients a fighting pony needs, all in a single serving. Filling, but definitely lacking in the taste department.  I thank the food lady (remember kids, be thankful no matter what), and make my way to a secluded table.  I don’t have that many friends; I’m sorta in between groups.  Too old for the Crusaders, and not skilled enough to sit with the actual soldiers.  My one real friend doesn’t ever leave his workplace.

A hiss of static fills the room; somepony’s turned on the television. Instead of showing the propaganda news or anything, the screen shows the royal seal and a blare of trumpets sound.  I mentally check the calendar.  Great, it’s the Empress’ personal Shit-on-the-Warriors day.  Sure enough, the seal fades to show Her Royal Bitch in front of a podium.

“My always faithful little ponies,” she begins.  Booing fills the room.  “We are gathered here today to remember the tragedy that befell us eighteen years ago.  Eighteen years and some months ago, I bore my first, and only, child.  I was at the height of ecstasy.  Finally, an heir to the throne!” cheering is heard in the background.  The Empress puts on a sad smile.  “Yes, it was a wonderful time.  Then, eighteen years ago to this day, rebel scum broke into my palace and stole the Crown Prince from under my nose.”  Intense booing from the crowds near the cameras.  “Yes, I was distraught.  No demands were made, no ransoms delivered.  It was as if my dear son had fallen off the face of Equis.  So, I made it my personal goal to utterly destroy all rebel groups until we found my son.  We were successful in destroying them, but we never found him.  Then, six months ago, Queen Pinkie Pie had a vision.  A vision that there was a group still alive!  We laid a trap, and sure enough, one rebel faction took the bait.  Queen Applejack led the operation, and gained a rousing success.

“I am here today to tell the world we will not stand for these rebels!” the cheering grows louder.  “The State of this Empire is strong!  We will not kowtow to the likes of the scum of the earth!  We will hunt down this group, and remove them from existence!” the shouting reaches a crescendo.  “We shall devote any and all resources to exterminating these ‘Warriors of the Sun and Moon’.  I shall not rest until every one of them pays for their crimes against the Empire!”  She steps down from the podium amidst the uproar from her precious subjects.

I, personally, couldn’t give a damn.  I was only an infant when it happened, but what I do remember is, yes, the Crown Prince was stolen from his crib when he was only a few months old.  Now, don’t go thinking I’m him; that’s impossible.  The orphanage owners who found me said I was there months before the whole foalnapping fiasco.  Nopony has ever come out and admitted to it.  It is one of the Empire’s greatest mysteries, topped only by why Queen Pinkie keeps punching holes in walls, then screaming into said holes.

And yeah, she’ll try to find us.  She tried before, and we endured.  Speaking of enduring, I should go see how Battleborn is doing.  I plop my tray down into the cleaning line, then make my way towards the Armory.

Ah, the Armory, where I first realized I wanted to fight hoof-to-hoof against the Empress’ forces.  The smell and crackle of the fires, the glorious sound of a hammer striking metal, the sight of a shitload of blueprints surrounding an impressive number of workstations.  It almost feels like a real home.  Well, if this is a home, and I must be the son, I go to find Daddy.

I find him hunched over a workbench, fiddling with some mechanism in his light blue magic.  I stop when I get about ten feet from him.  He doesn’t like to be interrupted while he works.  Eventually, though, some part of his training kicks in, and he puts down his project with a sigh.  “What do you want, Shining Star?”

I have that momentary flash of panic at the thought of being found out.  I mean, he’s awesome and all, but you’d think age would have dulled his senses a little.  Well, that’s what you get for thinking ill of an ex-Royal Guard.  Yeah, Battleborn was one of the personal guards of Celestia and Luna.  He was outside the castle when the attack came, and he was able to escape.  He and a couple others got together, and actually started the Warriors, built us from the ground up.  He’s provided us with all the weapons and armor we couldn’t steal.

“Hey, Battle.  I just wanted to see what you’re working on today.”

“Well,” he turns with a gruff pause, “I’ve been trying to adapt some of the tech the Empress has been dishing out to work for us.  Wanna see?”

Boy do I!  It’s like Hearth’s Warming whenever Battleborn creates a new toy!  He holds it up; it looks like a regular magic-fed pistol.  I gingerly take it in my magic, and gasp.  It’s a hell of a lot heavier than a regular pistol.  He leads me over to the range.  I take up my position, aim, and fire once.  A flurry of bolts flares from the gun, and the recoil knocks it out of my grasp.

“Holy shit, Battle!  You managed to make an automatic pistol?”

He grins.  “Yup. Now we get the power of the Empress’ fancy rifles with the haul ability of a simple pistol.  However,” he picks the pistol off the ground.  It’s sparking and has smoke coming from the chamber.  “Still needs more work.”

“Well, if anyone can do it, it would be you, Battle.”

“Thanks, Shining.  Now go.  I need to focus.”

I salute, and exit.  He’s a bit weird sometimes (the doctors call it PTSD; a side effect from the action he’s seen), but mostly he’s pretty friendly.

I make my way up towards the residential section, where I spend all of my free time.  I stop near the main entrance, to converse with the only two soldiers that would give me the time of day.

“Hey Blockade, Signal.  What’s happening?”

They smile; nopony else usually gives them a second glance.  Being the guards, they watch everything, and tend to blend into the background.  “Hi, Shining.  Not much, I’m afraid.  We’ve had a few to the surface, but nothing to report, as always.”

“Cool.  Hey, I’ll try and put in a good word for you to the chef, maybe get you a little something extra during your lunch.”

“Man, you the best, Shining!”

“I try, Blockade, I try.”  I start trotting away.

“Hang on…” Signal Flare mutters.  I pause.

“What?”  She fires up her horn.

“Single pony… coming down tunnel… fast…light hooffalls…changeling!”  I almost drop a load.

If changelings finally found us, that’s it.  Game over, man.  Game over!  Signal fires up her horn again, and shoves it into a special slot on the wall.  A pulse of light rips through the compound; high alert.  I back off, and hide around the corner, ready to leap in if they need help.

A gallop enters my field of sound, and a single changeling appears at the end of the tunnel.  It’s limping somewhat, with the closest thing to desperation on its buggy little face.  It collapses about ten feet from the guards, then struggles to its feet.  It speaks in a raspy voice.

“I am… Chryssid… Last son… of Chrysalis… I come seeking one pony…” his gaze reaches me, and his eyes go wide.

“You… you are who I am looking for…” he tries to step towards me, but is stopped by Blockade.  He backhoofs the changeling, and it crumples against the wall.  Blockade turns to me.

“Go get the others!  There may be more on the way!”

I scurry off, the thing’s words somehow at the forefront of my mind.  Why would a bug be looking for me?

Four

The changeling is locked up in the highest-security cell we could manage, monitored twenty-four/seven by no less than four guards.  Mrs. High Mighty, the one in charge of internal Warriors affairs, got statements from the guards and me.  I told her the truth: I went to Blockade and Signal Flare, conversed a bit, then the changeling comes down the tunnel, apparently looking for me.  Blockade stopped him before he could get too far.  No, I have no fucking idea why a changeling would want me; I haven’t ever been outside the compound!

In the end, she had no choice but to let me go; I truly didn’t know anything about this.  The base remained on alert for a while, until it was confirmed nothing else had found the entrance.  As I settle uneasily into bed, one thought keeps playing in my mind.  Why was he looking for me?

I land in the middle of a street.  I shakily climb to my hooves; I look up to behold a massive purple and black dragon looking down on me, mouth open, green flames licking the back of its throat.  I can’t move; my feet refuse to respond.  As the dragon unleashes his fury, I am tackled by another being, falling into an alley.  I look; it’s the changeling!  I try to scramble him off of me, but I seem to be merely an observer.

He points to the street.  Five other somewhat familiar, but blurry, shapes stand against the drake.  He climbs off, and joins them.  This is different; five unknowns, and the changeling.  What could it mean?

The dragon fires again, but a dark shield erupts over the group, absorbing the flames.  One of the fliers now holds a small ball of green fire in its hoof; it launches the ball back at the dragon.  As it impacts, everything turns white and green.

My eyes blast open.  What in the ever-loving fuck was that?Whatever it is, that changeling is part of it.  I leap out of bed and make for containment.

I get there easily enough; it’s getting in that proves to be the difficult part.  I manage to wear the guards down to where I can at least go to the room with the one-way glass, and watch the interrogation.

The pony in charge of the interrogation is one I’ve never seen before, but he’s grilling into the changeling with all he’s got.  The changeling isn’t budging at all.  “I will only speak to the dark-furred one, the one who controls the light and the dark.  It is imperative I speak with him!”

“Buddy, you aren’t speaking with anypony but me.  How did you find our base?”

“I will only answer the dark-furred one.”  This goes back and forth, but I went numb after the first sentence.  First, this thing is looking for me, and claims to know who I am.  Then, I get that dream with him in it.  Now, he knows my magic specialty!  How?

I turn to the guard.  “Get me in there.”  The guard argues, but I cut him off.  “It’s obvious he’ll only speak to me.  If he wanted to kill me, I think you guys wouldn’t be able to stop him.  I would’ve died in my sleep last night, and he could’ve slipped out without anypony ever knowing.  And why would he come in alone, undisguised, at the main gate?”

The guard rubs his chin in thought, then turns to an intercom.  “Hey, Eye Spy, get in here.  Got a bit of a proposition.”  The interrogator stands with a huff, and walks out of that room and into this one.  The changeling watches him leave patiently, then his eyes focus right on where I am; that shouldn’t happen, it’s called ‘one-way glass’ for a reason!

Eye Spy enters, and spots me.  “Oh no. No no no no no!  We are NOT sending a foal in there!”

“Boss, just hear him out.”  I explain myself, and Spy visibly becomes tenser.  I finish with, “And just in case, I’d like to have one guard in the room with me.  He can’t take out the both of us.”

Spy sighs.  “Fine.  I wasn’t getting anything out of him anyways.  You have five minutes, kid.  Then, you’re coming out even if we have to drag you out.  Shield, you go with him.”  The guard salutes, then leads me into the room.  I sit in the same chair Spy was in.

“Okay, buddy-”

“Please, I am Chryssid.”

“Alright then, Chryssid.  Why did you come here?  Even better, how did you know about this place?”

“I learned of it in a vision.  A vision involving you.”  I try not to let my emotions show, but it’s hard trying to get your jaw not to drop when you almost lose all muscle control.  He had a vision with me, just like I had a vision about him?  This is just getting weirder and weirder.

“O-okay.  Now, we’ll get back to that in a minute.  For now, how did you get here?”

“Sir.”

…

“Sir, I believe I would be more qualified to speak about my flight across Equestria than someling who only heard it.”

… Fine, C.  You have the mic.  Just don’t bore the prospective audience, ‘kay?

“I shall keep my journey focused on the most important aspects.”

Okay.  I need a drink.

Sound of a door opening, then closing.  A shuffling is heard as Chryssid sits.

“I am Chryssid, the last son of Chrysalis, and this is the tale of how I fell into the rebellion.”

I took the title of ‘Last Son’ because I was the last egg ever hatched under the rule of Queen Chrysalis.  As the one known as Twilight Sparkle and her cohorts destroyed my mother, I was spirited away by a small group of other changelings who, in and of themselves, were rebels.  They had become disgruntled over Chrysalis’ decisions, the invasion of Canterlot, the severe rationing of resource, the personal vendetta against Sparkle.  They broke off from her control, and were working to free all of the changelings when Sparkle attacked.  All the drones were immediately re-enslaved, then used in another attack on the pony capitol.

Unlike Chrysalis, though, she succeeded.  I was told all of this by my primary caretaker, the changeling who gave me my name.  She had no name of her own, as the Queen never allowed any drone something as individual as a name.  We hid out on the outskirts of Zebra lands, siphoning just enough energy off of the nearby villages to survive and not draw attention.

We hid, until the Empress marched on the Zebras.  We ran again, but everywhere we ran, the armies of Equestria followed.  The griffons, the Minotaurs, the dragons, none were spared the Empress’ wrath.  We lost some along the way, until it was just me and her.

By the time we were forced to return to Equestria, some seven years after the Fall to a small town called Ponyville, Empress Twilight had abolished the control of changelings, and made them all citizens of the Crown.  Thankfully, this made things easier for the two of us; we could interact openly with ponies, undisguised.  However, some ponies still bore… resentment.  My friend fell when a group of anti-change (yes that is what they called it) ponies cornered her in an alley and slit her throat.  I continued on; one of the lessons passed down is that no matter who falls, you keep working to make sure they are not missed.

I worked as a model for the owner of a store called the Carousel Boutique.  It had business, but was a bit tarnished by the fact that one of the Queens had called the place home before the Fall.  It was degrading, but one of the best jobs a changeling could get.  Because we can take almost any form we desire, I helped the owner with both pony and changeling garments.

I worked successfully for the next twelve years, until about one week before my encounter with the Warriors.  I had rented a room from the owner to call my own, and had settled down for the night.  Changelings do not require sleep, but we have been known to enter a state of dreaming in the late hours of the night.

In my dream state, I beheld a great city, watched over by a beautiful purple-maned Queen.  I stood on the outskirts, with six others.  Five were obscured in shadow, but the sixth showed clear as day.  He was tall, strong, with a muted purple coat and piercing light purple eyes.  He motioned for me to follow, and the other five faded away.  He led me through the city, through the many twists and turns of the streets and alleyways.  He led me down into the underground, to a carefully concealed tunnel.  The dream ended with him looking me in the eyes and saying, “Find me.”

I awoke, and immediately set out for the city.  I told the owner first; he was unhappy I was leaving, but he understood that sometimes, people just have to move on.

I gathered all the money I had accumulated, and boarded the first train for the great city of Manehattan.  I tried to remember the route the dark one had taken me on, but once within, the skyscrapers quickly became an impossible maze.  I was chased through the streets; the resentment here against my kind was strong.  I finally found a familiar section, but became cornered by a group of young ponies.  They began beating me, yelling speciesism slurs.  I did not retaliate, because I was afraid I would send the wrong impression and call the law enforcement down upon me.

The younglings eventually left, laughing as I lifted my bruised body up.  I stumbled towards the underground entrance, and located the tunnel.  The rest, Shining Star has already spoke.

The door opens again, remaining partially open.  A slight dripping is heard.

Hey, C?  Tiny sabotaged the bathroom again.

“Why do you not go fix it then?”

Because you’re obviously done with your piece, and it’s your turn.  I did it last time.

*grumble* “Fine, Sir.”

Chryssid slides out of the chair and out the door.  Shuffling, as Shining resumes his place at the table, still dripping.

Okay, now that that’s done, Chryssid told us how he got to the Warriors, and how he knew of the entrance.

Now, the only problem is, I had to stop the rest of the Warriors from executing C for finding our base.  Hey, I didn't like him any more than any other pony, but there was something special that the two of us were a part of.

“Sorry, kid.   There’s nothing I can do.”

“Come on, Battle!  There’s something strange going on, and that changeling can help!”

“Shining, you know you can’t trust a changeling!  What if he’s here just to get us to lower our guard, so he can call all his buggy friends?”

“But what about the shared visions?”

“Shared?”

Oh yeah, I never told Battleborn about my dreams, and the changeling’s vision.  I tell him, and his eyes widen.

“Son, why didn’t you tell me earlier?  This changes it!”

I’m suddenly hopeful.  “Really?”

“Yeah.  Princess Celestia had a certain sense of, premonition let’s say.  She would know when events were going to happen, and was able to plan accordingly to stop whatever force.  For instance, when Nightmare Moon began to make her comeback, Celestia sent her student to Ponyville to make friends that would prove essential to defeating Moon.  Some called it blind luck, but I knew Celestia had the whole thing planned out.

“Your dreams are similar.  When you see six beings fighting the Empress, and one of these beings just so happens to be a changeling that JUST SO HAPPENS to find our base the next day, that’s fate.  Now, I don’t know exactly what kind of fate, but we can’t let them kill him.  Come on, I know who to talk to.”

He leaps from the workbench, and I scramble to follow.  He leads me on a twisting path through the base, eventually stopping beside a large iron door.

“Sorry, Shining.  This is where I go on alone.”  I’m taken aback.

“Why?  I need to be with you to explain everything!  Uh… what’s back here that we need to explain this to anyways?”

He smiles.  “Sorry, kid.  Maybe someday.”  He slips inside, locking the door behind him.

Fifteen minutes later:

I’m busying myself bouncing a ball of light against the wall.  It’s just something to keep me from going insane with the wait.  Chryssid’s execution is going to happen any time now!  Where is—

Ch-thunk.

The door unlocks.  I quickly wink out the ball and stand up.  Battleborn steps out, floating a piece of paper beside him.  He takes off down the tunnel.

“Come on, kid!  That execution’s not gonna stop itself!”

We make it back to the Armory with barely any time to spare.  Battle skids to a stop at the firing range.  Chryssid is at one end, shackled to the ground, standing proudly in the face of death.  Five ponies are leveling guns at him from the firing boxes.

“Ready… Aim…”

“STOP!”  I shout.  I see Loudmouth about to give the order to fire, but he is startled by our sudden appearance.  Battleborn slaps the piece of paper into Loudmouth’s face.  He pulls it off, and reads it.  He then gestures at the firing squad.

“Release the prisoner.”  The ponies are confused.

“But sir, it’s a change—”

Loudmouth turns his wrath on the unfortunate victim.  “YOU WILL DO AS I SAY, SOLDIER, OR YOU’LL BE BACK TO PRIVATE BEFORE YOU CAN FINISH THAT SENTENCE!”

The pony cowers, and meekly obeys.  Battleborn motions the changeling over.  “Shining, meet your new roommate.”

Everything stops.  “What?”

“Read it and weep.” He hoofs me the paper.

Battleborn,

The changeling identified as Chryssid is to be immediately released from imprisonment, and welcomed into the Warriors with open arms.  He will be placed under the care of Shining Star until he can prove himself loyal to our cause.

The winds of Fate are blowing; let us hope they are in our favor.

Signed,

The Commandant

Five

It has been a week since the changeling known as Chryssid dropped into our oh so wonderful lives.  Somehow, word got around that Chryssid was a guest, so everypony pretty much ignored us.  Pretty much, except for the doubled guards posted everywhere.  I get the feeling it’s more for our protection than the other pony’s, but it’s still kind of unsettling.

We managed to avoid all but two disasters.  The first was during the tour of the base.  In the Armory, Battleborn was in one of his dark, PTSD-fueled moods, and pinned Chryssid halfway up the wall with a rotary saw.  Me and a few of the guards were able to calm him down, but it left its marks.  Never bring Chryssid to the Armory before first checking Battle’s mood.

The second involved the Crusaders.  The foals absolutely loved C.  They bombarded him with questions, and he answered as best he could.  Then, Squirt comes up.  “Wow, you can change shape, right?  Didja know Shining can do that too?”

Shit.  C shoots me a death glare, so I explain the whole Hybreed thing to him.  I show him my hooves as I change them to griffon claws, lion paws, and even going so far as to pull off a Minotaur hand change.

“It’s just a part of who I am.”

“I care not; the breeding of a pony-changeling bastard is not natural.”

“Hey!  I may be a bastard, but I’m a damn good bastard!”

“Really?  Then who gave you your name?  You said you were left on the stoop of an orphanage, another thing I will never understand about you ponies.  If you had no parents, how did they name you?”

Damn, he had me there.  Don’t ask me how, but pony parents all seem to have a knack for looking into the future, and naming their kids what they’ll be good at when they get their Marks.  Like Angel, for instance.  She hasn’t shown much magic potential yet, but her skills in healing are astounding for such a young filly.

“Well, at the orphanage, the caretakers had the parental knack for naming, but it took some time to figure it out, I guess because they weren’t the natural parents.  I got the name Shining Star when my magic started working, and my first spell was this,” I concentrate, easily summoning a ball of light, bright like the sun.  “Before I got TK, before I even got walking down, I could do this.  They named me ‘their little Star, shining in the night’.  So, in a reversal, how did your quote-unquote ‘mother’ name you?”

“Simple, Shining Star.  I was named with the male version of the name Chrysalis.  My caretaker named me so I could carry the legacy of the last true Changeling Queen.”

“Some legacy,” I huff.

He stalks up to me.  “And what, pray tell, does that mean?”

“It means, Your Royal Nothingness, that Chrysalis didn’t leave a good impression on Equestria.  She tried to kill the Princesses, for fuck’s sake!  How is that a ‘legacy’?”

“You were not born a changeling; I don’t expect you to understand.  With the attack, even though it failed, Chrysalis made us a force to be reckoned with!  No longer were we restricted to the shadows!  We became fear for your kind!”

“Actually, no.  The Empress created the fear for us, the Warriors.  The only reason we have guards at all entrances at all times is to test for changelings!  We can’t risk having an infiltrator impersonate one of us and find the base!  In fact, the only fucking reason we haven’t offed you yet is because of some stupid dream I had!”  I storm off.  Shield, that guard from before, works as our primary shadow now, and will get Chryssid back to our room.  I just need to vent, so I make my way to the rec. room.

I lay various kicks to the training dummies about the place.  The few other ponies training there know to stay out of my way; the few times I’ve come here in a bad mood, I’ve ended up throwing a pony through a mirror, breaking several pieces of equipment (which I worked to replace), and badmouthed everypony who thought talking could calm me down.  Talking can’t calm me down like this; the only cure is to work out my frustration.

Smack.

I’m not truly mad at Chryssid, per say, just mad at the universe in general.  Why put him under me?  I’m a nobody!  I failed my test, have next to no friends I can relate to, and no family to call my own!

Smack.  Thwack.

And then there’s this Commandant person.  Who is it?  As far as I know, Battleborn, High Mighty, and The General, who forsook his name for his position, are the ones in charge of the Warriors.  Now I find there’s another pony behind the scenes, pulling the strings?

Wham!

“Ow.”  I spin; Chryssid was hiding behind that last dummy.  He steps out, rubbing his nose.

“What the fuck do you want?” I growl as I do a spin kick at another dummy.

“I have come to apologize.  My actions were unjust.”

“Doesn’t make them any less true.”

“What do you mean?”

I slump.  “I am a sorry excuse for a pony; a.k.a. a bastard.  I don’t have parents, no friends… I’m a failure.”

“I do not believe that is accurate.”

I look up.  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“The young ones told me of your recent test.  Why did you fail?”

“Loudmouth said I don’t have the heart of a fighter.”

“No.  Why do you think you failed?”

“I-I… I…” I stop.  Why did I fail?  “I guess I let my heart rule what my mind was saying.  I knew, somewhere in the back of my brain, that I shouldn’t have investigated the crying.  My heart refused to listen.  I have this want, you know, to make sure everypony is alright, except for the ones who try and hurt me.  My heart rationalized that a crying pony wouldn’t be a threat.  It’s my greatest weakness, you could say.”

He doesn’t answer.  I look up just in time to catch a holey hoof to the side of my head.  I fall to my side.  “The fuck was that for?”

He starts walking away.  “You say you do not hold back against those who wish you harm.  I have now struck you, causing harm.  I can see you are a liar as well as weak.  Your mother was right to leave you abandoned.”

Oh, the little shit.  There’s obviously some things he doesn’t understand about pony culture; you don’t make passes at a guy’s daughter without permission, you always wipe your hooves before entering somepony’s house, and, if you value your life, don’t.  Insult.  The mother.

I roar, and launch myself at him.  He ducks at the last moment, sending me flying into one of the dummies.  I get up; it is so on!

I charge, and launch a flurry of kicks and hoof-punches at him.  He either blocks or dodges all of them.  He strikes out, catching me in the gut and sending me away again.  I struggle to my feet; he’s standing in the middle of the room, confident.

“Come on!  Stop trying to hit me and hit me!”

I go at him with all I’ve got.  I don’t care if I’m supposed to take care of him; I’ll rip that shell off of his back and drink soup out of it!  If he would… just… stand still!  I would so totally go Stallion M. Jackson on his sorry buggy ass if he could just let me!

God damn it!  Somehow, I’m in a pile of training dummies again.

“Do you know why you cannot win?”

I stumble.  “You’re better, faster.  I can’t keep up.”

He slaps me again.  “Wrong.  You can definitely keep up; you are still standing, after all.  Your mind and heart are out of sync.  Your mind wants to beat me to a pulp, and knows you have the skills to do so.  Your heart is holding back, because you have a personal responsibility to care for those you wish to care about.  The foals, me, that mare in the simulation.  You chose to care, and it led to your downfall, just like here.”

I roar (although it probably came out more like a mewl), and try again.

Beat him to a bloody pulp!

No, we need him alive!  Fate, remember?

No!  He must pay for those insults!

What did he insult?  You know he’s right.

But… mom!

You care about our mother, but why did she leave us?

We… uh… kill…?

No, we are not going to kill him.

But he must pay…

Yes, he will.  But forcing him away will fracture the alliance.

So… no kill. But make him pay anyways?

Yes, that will do nicely.

Make him submit.

Suddenly, my punches start connecting.  I see a concerned look on his face, but also a new respect in his eyes.  I blink, and he’s on his back on the floor, my hoof changed to a dragon claw at his throat.  He smiles.

“Now, you can pass the test.”

I jump off of him; strangely, all of my rage is gone.  “The fuck just happened?”

“You found the medium.  That one place where both the heart and the mind can coexist.  Both working in harmony, neither overpowering the other.  Your fault is that your heart controls your actions; that would prove fatal on the field of battle.  However, you are not a killing machine; you must have both the heart and mind.  Now, you can succeed where before you have failed.”

“Private Star, your mission is a go.”

I’m moving before Shimmer even stops talking.  I’m scanning for any enemies- aha! Sniper on the roof.  He’s already seen me, so I use a ball of light to blind him, then turn it into a light-ning bolt and slice his throat.

I scan, and don’t see any more.  Trap time.  This time, I pull off my best trick.  I’m sure there are very few ponies who can pull this off, but I found a way to give light mass.  I can create solid light.  This isn’t like the light-bolt, that trick I heat to a magma point; it will cut through anything with that heat.  My name for that?  Sun’s Fury.  As bright as the star that orbits Equis, and burns like a bitch.

Solid light is a whole tier up on the complexity scale.  I blanket the street ahead in a layer of light, and push, giving every square the weight of an average pony on top of it.  Sure enough, a dozen traps activate.  I duck down a side alley, and blast the enemy at the end while he’s watching the fireworks.

This pattern repeats until I finally reach the building: an abandoned-looking warehouse.  I burst in, downing three guards.  Now, if I were blueprints, where would I hide?  Probably in that office overlooking the floor.

I make my way up, and am about to kick open the door when a voice stops me.  “Shining?  Is that you?  Help us!”

“Squirt?”  I am literally only a dozen hoofs away from my target, and the wild card happens.  I dart in, grab the blueprints, and walk towards the other door, the one Squirt’s voice came from.  I still have to exit the building; my mind is telling me to do so, but I can’t leave my friends!  Then, the medium hits; I’ve got a plan.

I nose open the door, holding my gun to the paper.  Sure enough, two hostiles are in the room, pointing guns at Squirt, Angel, and Brick.  They look nervous; I can see the sweat rolling down their muzzles.  “You guys were supposed to protect this, right?” I wave the paper around.  “You know, this very important, one-of-a-kind blueprint where the creator was shot once he finished so nopony would know of it?  It would sure be a shame if my gun just so happened to go off while pointed at this priceless blueprint, huh?”

“Look man, just put the piece down, and we’ll release the foals, okay?  We won’t hurt them.”

Suspicious, but I comply.  Of course, the moment I set my gun down, the other guy takes it.  Now there’s four guns pointed at me, being held in magic fields.  “So, chump.  Any last words?”

I smile.  “Uh, yeah.  You guys ever heard of the Clapper?”

“The what?”

I stomp my hoof.  “You know.  Clap on,” stomp stomp, “Clap off,” stomp stomp, “Clap on clap off.  The Clapper!” with a final stomp, I suck all the light from the room, and roll.  Shots are fired at where I was.  I then turn the gathered light into two beams of Sun’s Fury, melting the hostile’s brains where they stand.  As the beams exit the backs of the guy’s heads, the light level in the room returns to normal.

I help the foals up and out of their restraints, and we leave the building together.  The area turns dark.

“Test… success!  Private Star, please report to Drill Sargent Loudmouth for debriefing.  Good job, Shiny!”

I never thought I’d say this, but thank the Goddesses for that changeling!

I end up saying that at least a hundred times over the course of the war.

“One hundred and twelve, Sir.”

Not helping, C.  Anyways, Loudmouth debriefed me, congratulated me on passing the test, flying colors for actually rescuing the ‘secondary objective’, and I was granted the rank of Soldier. That meant better pay, better food at the mess, and a bit more respect.  Of course, I couldn’t let myself take all the glory.

“You did take all the glory.”

Of course I did!  Imagine what would’ve happened if it got out that it took a changeling to knock some sense into me?  Good Goddesses, C, I knew you were dense, but I didn’t think you were that dense!

I got high praise from everypony for passing the test; I was feeling pretty good about myself.  Then, I got the summons for my first mission…

Six

Bang bang bang.

Oh, my clopping head…

Bang bang bang.

“Hang on, I’m comin’.”  I sit up groggily, nurturing a massive headache.  I didn’t go to bed drunk, but it sure feels like it.  I slip out of bed as C pops his head out of the upper bunk that was installed.  That’s another thing: for a bug that says he ‘does not require sleep’, he sure snores like a manticore!

The banging persists, so I shove open the door to see a guard levitating a piece of paper.

“Soldier Star, please report to the briefing room at 0700 hours for your first assignment.”  He reads another part, does a double-take, then speaks again, “And you are ordered to bring the changeling with you.”

“Okay, will do.”  The guard salutes, then trots away.

Chryssid seems a bit more awake now.  “What did that bzatting idiot want?”  Goddesses, the one endearing thing about bunking with a changeling; their swearing.  All I can tell is, whatever he’s cussing, it has absolutely no Equish equivalent.

“Well, C, we’re going on our first mission.”

“Good.” He rolls over, pauses, and then sits up.  “’We’?”

“Yup.  I guess they don’t trust you on your own yet.”  He launches into a string of changeling curses as I smirk.  Today is going to be a good day.

I knock on the door to the briefing room at exactly 0659.  A tall muscular Earth stallion answers; I salute.

“Soldier Shining Star reporting for duty! … Oh, and my companion, Chryssid.”  The stallion doesn’t even flinch as C comes into view.  Instead, he smiles warmly.

“Well, hello, Shining, I’m Tread.  Welcome to Epsilon Unit.”  He opens the door wide and ushers us in.

Four other ponies are lounging around on sofas.  Two dirt brown Earth ponies, one unicorn mare, and a Pegasus lazily swinging around a bat.  There are mixed reactions when we enter the room; first, curiosity about me, then fear, anger, and outrage over Chryssid.  The Pegasus looks ready to charge over and shove his bat up C’s tailhole, but the unicorn grabs his tail in her magic.  Tread comes to our defense.

“Calm down, everypony.  Shining Star here’s promised to keep the changeling on his leash.”  C, still in a bad mood from being woken early, interjects, but I stop him.  We don’t need our team hating us for any reason.  Then, the introductions, courtesy of Tread.

“As I already told you, I’m Tread, the team’s heavy-hitter.  Over there’s the twins Dig and Dug.  You need a hole anywhere, they’ll make it.”  That earned a snicker from the Pegasus.  “The flyer’s Scout.  He was originally part of a group of nine, but the others moved on.”

“Bonk,” says Scout.  I’m not sure what it means, but it’s probably all I’ll get out of him.

“And this little lady is Heart Pulse, our combat medic.  Just call her Pulse.”

“Really?  What kind of combat magic?”

Pulse pushes up a small pair of glasses on her muzzle, which is pointed in the air like a snob.  “Anything projectile.  Heat, water, light, you name it, I can cast it.”  Then she looks at me.  “What do you bring to this little party?  You know, besides a pet bug?”

I summon up a half dozen balls of light, and float them in a circle above my head.  Pulse yawns.  “So you can make light.  Goodie.”

Well, now I have to make an example.  “Hey, Pulse.  Do me a favor and stand perfectly still, okay?”  I plunge the room into blackness, and orbit the orbs faster and faster.  As they spin, I begin colliding and elongating the orbs, until I am left with something akin to a six-pointed star.  I give it some mass, and send it hurtling away.  I hear a yelp and a thunk.  I bring the light in the room back up, and see Pulse, still standing in the exact same spot, major worry in her eyes.  My light star is embedded in the wall behind her, barely inches above her head.  I dispel it, and several shreds of Pulse’s mane fall to the floor.  I smirk, “Any other questions?”  All of them shake their heads.

Tread stumbles over to the wall, and examines it.  Sure enough, there’s a half-inch wide incision in the stone, about six inches deep, if I made the spines correctly.  He looks to me, then smiles.  “Holy shit man.  Don’t let me catch you in a bad mood!”

“Am I interrupting something?”  We turn, and see the Colonel standing in the doorway.  Like the General, she gave up her born name when she took up her title; a strange trend with the higher-ups in the military side of the Warriors.  We all quickly salute.

“At ease.  I take it you are Shining star, correct?”  I swallow, and nod.  She nods back.  “Good.  I’m sure you’ll do great things with this unit.  Now, to your mission.”

She walks forward, depositing folders on the single table.  “Seeing as this is Star’s first mission, you are tasked with a simple asset retrieval.”  We take the folders as the Colonel’s horn lights up and projects the image of a building above the table.  “This warehouse is where our Intel places the asset, codename ‘Bomb Squad’.  It’s on the outskirts of Manehattan, and security should be light.  As always, discretion is up to the Unit Leader.  Tread, if you may.”  The stallion in question steps up.

“Alright, everypony.  Standard infil/exfil.  Dig and Dug will put us as close to the objective as they can, and the rest of us will continue on hoof.  Scout, you’re our spotter.  Get on the roof and call out anything, and I mean anything, you see.  And please, use the radio this time.”  This gets a snicker from the twins.  “Pulse, you and I will take up positions at the front door after eliminating any hostiles.  Shining, you and Chryssid are to enter the building, locate Bomb Squad, and leave as quickly as possible.  We will give you ten minutes, then we’re pulling out.  Any questions?”

I raise my hoof.  “Uh, yeah.  What does Bomb Squad look like?  Is it a weapon, pony, what?”

The Colonel answers, “The protector of Bomb Squad is a mare.  She will answer to the code phrase ‘Purple Pumpkin Lollipop’.  She will then hoof over Bomb Squad, and leave through her own means.”  She catches my look.  “No, we do not know why she chose that particular phrase, but we are not one to question, and unfortunately we do not know what Bomb Squad is.  If you are unable to retrieve it, destroy it by any means necessary.  You will depart at 1700 hours tonight.  Use this time to learn about your team, Star.  This meeting is adjourned.”  She walks out.

Tread smiles.  “You heard the mare.  Let’s mingle, shall we?”

“I do not think any of them like me,” C grumbles.  It is 1645, and we’re relaxing in the ready room, waiting on the rest of Epsilon.

“What do you mean, C?  I think Tread has taken a liking to you.”

“That is not what I mean, Shining.  They seem friendly, but refuse to open up.  I know as much about them as we did this morning.”

“I feel your pain, man.  I think Pulse is attracted to me, but she’s having a really bad time trying to show it.”

Chryssid shoots me a look.  “You are insufferable sometimes, you know that?”

“Yeah, I love you too, man.”

The rest of the team arrives, Tread lugging bags of gear.  He dumps the bags onto one of the tables, and begins to sift through it.  He comes up with two sets of hoof coverings, which he passes to the twins.  He puts on a custom-made battle saddle with twin snipers.  He passes several parts of a medical kit to Pulse, and a strange-looking pistol to me.  I hold it in my magic, turning it around.  It looks like a magic pistol, but with an elongated barrel.  Pulse notices my confusion, and clarifies, “It’s a silenced pistol.  It’ll fire magic bolts like a normal magic projectile weapon, but with much reduced noise.  Battleborn recently came up with it.”

“Thank you Battle!”

As if sensing my other question, she states, “The coverings for the twins augment their Earth pony magic, actually allowing them to move the earth around them.”

“Wow.”

She smiles.  “Yeah, wow.  It takes a lot of skill, and they end up going through the gear like madponies, but nopony else can do what they do.”

Tread kicks his saddle into gear.  “Alright, everypony.  We all clear on the mission?”

“YES SIR!”  We shout.

“We all gonna make it home in one piece, hear?”

“YES SIR!”

“Epsilon Unit, move out!”  He leads us out of the base, to the underground entrance.  Instead of going up to the fresh air, however, he leads us further down into the tunnels.  He stops at a nondescript wall.

“Okay, Dig, Dug, you’re up.  Destination is three clicks straight ahead.  Get to work.”

Dig places himself ahead of us, and Dug behind.  Dig places a hoof on the wall, causing the coverings to glow, then spins and kicks the wall down (literally down, like a sheet), revealing brown earth behind it.  He turns, and punches the dirt sideways.  Dig makes us a tunnel from nothing, and once we are all in, I turn and see Dug strike the earth with his front hooves, and raise the stone wall back into place.  Tread motions to me, and I create a ball of light to light the way.

We continue like that for the length of the transit, Dig making the path, and Dug removing it.  We have to make detours around what I assume are sublevels of the buildings above, but the twins have a strange connection with the very ground around us, always keeping us on the right path.

Eventually, I notice we’re moving upwards.  Dig stops, and motions to Tread, who nods and turns to us.  “Okay, ponies.  We’re right behind the closest building to the objective.  The plan stays the same:  Scout’s the lookout, Pulse and I are vanguard, and you two,” hoofing at me and C, “are retrieval.  Let’s go.”

Dig blasts the earth away, and fading sunlight fills the tunnel.  In an instant, Scout is gone, flying up the side of the building to the roof while the rest of us, minus Dug, scramble out.

“Yo.  Two guards at the door, two more on the roof, and another pair patrolling around.”  The radio crackles.

“Roger that, Scout.”  We’ve reached the edge of the building, and are looking at the warehouse across the insanely wide street.  “I can take the guys on the roof.  Pulse, eliminate the patrol.  Shining, you figure out the two at the door.”

“I may be able to assist with that.”  Chryssid speaks up.  We turn to him.  “Allow us to go with Pulse when she removes the patrol.  I will disguise myself as one of them, and draw the two at the door off, where Pulse and Shining can take them out.”

Tread looks dumbfounded, then breaks into a wide smile.  “See, I knew there was a reason you two were with us!  Let’s do this.  I’ll wait for your signal, then off the roofies.”

The three of us take off on a wide loop around to the back of the warehouse.  Pulse stops us at the adjacent building, and slips off her saddlebags.  “Chryssid, is it?  I’ll need your help.  Just chase after me.”  She takes off towards the warehouse.  He looks to me, I shrug, and he pursues.  I sneak to the edge, and observe.

“Somepony help me!  There’s a changeling after me!  He’s trying to rape me!!”  Pulse tears towards the patrolling guards, who bolt to attention when they see her coming, and when they see C hot on her tail.  Pulse ducks down behind one of the guards.  The other pulls his gun and aims it at C.

“Watcher, radio the others.  We might need backup.”  At this point, C is within a few hoofs of the one guard.

“Yes, it occurs to me you may need assistance.” C points behind the guard, and he turns to see Pulse snapping the neck of the other.  He doesn’t have time to react as C slugs him in the side of the head, dropping him like a sack of potatoes.  C immediately moves to the guard, stripping him of his uniform.  Then, his changeling magic kicks in, enveloping him in green fire.  When the light fades, standing there is the downed guard’s body double.  Except…

“Uh, C?  The guy’s a Pegasus,” I remark, pointing to the wings.  C nods, and the fire flares up again, giving him wings.  He then dons the guard uniform.

We follow him through the alley between the buildings, and stop at the mouth.  I send up a small ball of light, just bright enough to get Tread’s attention, then we hide behind a dumpster.  C walks out at a slightly panicked pace, and I see two muzzle flashes across the street.  Again, no sound.  C approaches the door guards.

“Guys!  Watcher’s down!  He needs help!”  Shocked into action, the others don’t even question ‘the guard’ as he leads them to the alley, keeping up a constant babble.  As they pass the dumpster, Pulse and I jump out.  We down our respective targets quickly, although the adrenaline rush is somewhat hampered by the bile rising in my throat.  You can act brave, strutting your stuff about how you’re going to be the next big badass, but when you actually take another pony’s life?  It’s a hell of a thing.

The four of us regroup at the doors, C having shed his disguise.  Tread and Pulse put on the newest deceased guard uniforms; more to go unnoticed by any passers-by than anything else.  I push open the door, C and I step through, and everything goes white.

Bang bang bang.

Oh, my clopping head…

Bang bang bang.

“Hang on, I’m comin’.”  I sit up groggily, nurturing a massive headache.  How much did I have to drink last night?  I stumble over to the door and open it.  Tread stands on the other side, a big shit-eating grin on his face.

“Sorry to wake you, Shining, but the Colonel wants to debrief you now.  She wanted to do it once we got back, but you went out partying instead.  See you at the briefing room in ten.”  He trots off.

“What did that bzatting idiot want?”  Chryssid asks.  He sounds as wasted as I feel.

“The Colonel wants to debrief me.  You can go back to sleep.”

“Okay.”  Then, he sits up.  “Shining, do you remember anything about last night?”

“Nah, can’t say I do, but apparently we got wasted.  Don’t worry about it, man.  It happens.”

I trot off towards the briefing room.  This is gonna be a good day.

Seven

The debriefing went off without a hitch.  I met with the Colonel, who had nothing but praise for my actions.  I tried to tell her that it wasn’t all me, C came up with the plan to get us in, but she would have none of it.

However, what C said kept niggling me in the back of my mind.  I couldn’t remember anything past entering the warehouse last night.  I tried to broach the subject by asking her what Bomb Squad was, and that’s when the strangeness happened.  She froze.  No, not like ‘lost in thought’ or ‘trying to figure out what to say’ kind of stop; she completely stopped moving, for about five seconds.  Then, like the flip of a switch, she was all smiles.

“Soldier, I shouldn’t have to tell you that we need to keep our assets a secret from the enemy.  When you returned, I had a specialist wipe your memories of the operation.  All you need to know is Bomb Squad is safe and sound.  You are dismissed.”

With nothing else to do, I salute, and make my way back to my room.  C’s finally woken up a bit, and starts grilling me.

“What did the Colonel say?”

“Oh, you know, praise for a successful mission, how if it wasn’t for me, we wouldn’t have made it out…”

“In your own words, bullshit.”

“And something about them wiping our memories of the mission to keep Bomb Squad a secret.”

C lets that sink in. “…What?”

I shrug.  “In a strange way, it makes sense dude.  If a soldier was captured, mind-wiping would at least rule out any conventional means of interrogation.”

“Then why do I remember leaving the base, going to the warehouse, and taking out all of the guards?  Shining, something is not adding up.”

“Yeah, whatever, C.  I’m gonna go take a walk.”  I leave him and his crypticness behind.  He picks at anything outside the norm like a scab.

I don’t know where I’m going, but anywhere I go can give C some space.

Okay, now I’m getting a little weirded out.  It’s not something that I picked up on immediately, but something strange is happening.  Any time I enter a room, all ponies in that room turn and stare at me.  Now, that’s usually not strange, but they keep watching me just a little too long, way past the point of politeness.

There’s also the guards.  It’s almost like they don’t want me to go anywhere.  I wanted to go see Battle, thank him for the new weapons, but two guards were at the door to the Armory, and something compelled me to stay away.  There’s also a lot more of them than usual.

I meet with Chryssid for lunch.  He’s looking nervous, which means something is very wrong.  C prides himself on stoicness, on not showing his emotions.

“Shining, Scout keeps following me.  He is saying he wants to be friends with me.”

I laugh; more paranoia.  “C, he’s part of our team.  Of course he wants to be a friend.”

“No, Shining, you do not understand.  He will not stop chasing me.  Whenever I speak to him about it, he passes it off as ‘trying to get to know me’.  This is not the same Scout as before.  I implore you, Shining, something is very wrong.”

“What, you mean like this is a dream?  Sure feels real to me.”

“If that is so, this is more of a nightmare.”

“Okay, man, first, chill.  Second, if you think this is a dream, I’ll prove it’s not.”  I spy Heart Pulse across the room, and wave her over.

“Hey boys, what’s up?”

Do I really want to ask this?  Worst case, I end up getting slapped across the room.  I can live with that.  “Hey Pulse, you wanna be my marefriend?”

“Okay, sure!”

“See, C?  ‘Over my dea—’what?”

“I said yes, you silly colt!”  She blushes at me.  I shoot a glance at C; we both take off running.

“Holy shit, C, you’re right.  This isn’t normal.”  We’re running through the base, avoiding anypony we can.

“I do not want to say ‘I told you so’, but for some reason, that does not seem sufficient anymore.”

We make it back to our room, and bolt the door.

“Okay, C.  What is this?”

“I do not know.”

“I mean, neither of us can remember anything past entering that warehouse, right?”

“Correct.”

“Then, what is this?”

“It means your mind’s being jacked, fool!”

I look at Chryssid.  He looks back.  Neither of us said that, and I’m sure as Tartarus neither of us sound like a school-age filly.  Suddenly, an explosion rocks the room, decimating the front wall.  As the dust clears, we are met with, yes, a filly.  An Earth pony filly with flat hair the colors of an explosion, a peach-colored coat, and an explosive bloom on her flank.  She looks at us, a wild smile on her muzzle

“’Sup?  I’m Tiny.  Heard you guys’re lookin’ for me.  I’d love ta stay and chat, but right now, we gots some baddies that need to be introduced to my lady’s badonkadonks.”

“Uh…”

“Oh yeah!  Peeps, meet my ladies.”  She pulls out two small pistols with hoofstraps from seemingly nowhere.  “This one’s Missy Higgles, and this one’s Snuggleuffagus.”  She sees us still standing there, our mouths collecting flies.  “What?  I got something in my teeth?”  She begins picking at her mouth with one of the guns.

Chryssid, somehow, recovers.  “What are you doing here?  Where, in fact, is here?”

“Oh, Queenie Fussy-Britches got here first and set some kind of trap.  As soon as you two lame-o’s came in, her peeps hit you two with some kinda spell.  You currently trapped in your own minds while they’s breaking into them.”

“Then how are you here?  How do we know we can trust you?”

“Oh, I’m holding one of the baddies at ‘nade-point and had him put me in here.  He tries anything, he goes boom.  Hmm, trust me, how do you… Purple Pumpkin Lollipop.”

That shocks me into action.  “What?”

“You know, Purple Pumpkin Lollipop.  The super-secret code that the pony guarding me was supposed to answer to?  She’s gone now, had me hide while she dealt with some things.  The good news, they’ve barely started on you, so they don’t know anything.  However, if you don’t move your lame asses right the buck now, your buddies are gonna be in a world of hurt.”

She turns and gallops away.  We pursue.

“And how are we supposed to get out of here?”

“I dunno.  How would you usually get out of this place?”

C and I share another glance.  “The main entrance?  It can’t be that easy.”

“Uh, it ain’t gonna be so easy.”  We skid to a stop and behold every pony of the Warriors filling the tunnel ahead, almost all of them brandishing weapons.  “Woo hoo!  This is what I love about dreams!  Light ‘em up!”  She pulls out her pistols, and almost comically, they change into giant, fifteen-barreled rocket launchers.  She fires, and all the ponies in the first ten rows are blown back.

“What are you doing?  Those are our friends!”

“They sure as buck ain’t!  These things are just keepin’ yo dumb mind busy while they break in!  Look!”  Tiny points, and I see Pulse walking out of the piles of ponies.  At least, half of Pulse.  The other half is an off-white coat, pink and purple swirly mane, and a piercing forest green eye.  When she speaks, I can’t help but listen.

“Come now, just submit.  Wouldn’t that be easier than running around like an idiot?  Just lay down and nothing will ever trouble you aga—”

She is cut off as C jams his hoof halfway through her muzzle.  She shrieks, then dissipates into a cloud of ash.  I shake off the influence, and stand by the others.  The not-ponies have rallied, and are advancing on us.

“What now?  There’s too many of them!”

“Well, Mr. Buggy just took out their leader, so you’re in control now, big boy!  Get creative!”

Creative, huh?  I focus, and three quarray eels burst through the tunnel walls, gobbling up half of the not-ponies.  And hey, since this is my mind after all, I turn my horn into a flamethrower and roast the other half.  We book it up the path to the main gate.

We come to in the middle of the warehouse floor, surrounded by panicking unicorns.

The one from the dreamscape is the only one holding still, trying to regain control of the others.  Oh Celestia fuck me with the might of a thousand suns.  The one leading this is Sweetie Belle?

Yeah, when Queen Rarity took Manehattan, she also took her little sister.  Being the Element of Generosity, she was more than happy to give her sister ungodly powers, and put her in charge of her elites, the Investigators.  Suddenly, everything falls into place.  The Investigators are a group of unicorns skilled in mind manipulation.  Even better, they would interrogate by breaking into their victims minds and scooping out all the useful information.

I also see a small, peach-furred filly running around, pulling explosives out of bucking nowhere and lobbing them everywhere; impressive, for an Earth pony.  One lands in front of Sweetie Belle, and she looks down in time to cast a shield and bounce backwards a few feet, away from the blast.  Unfortunately, this places her just outside the door.  I hear a ka-thwack! as a pair of hooves, probably Tread’s, connect and send her sideways out of view.

Chryssid helps me to my hooves, and the three of us escape.  With a nod to Tread and Pulse, we book it across the street to where Dig and Scout are waiting.  Tiny stops us before Dig can contact his brother and make the tunnel.  She fishes through her mane, and pulls out a small box with a large red button.

“Now for my favorite part,” she starts singing:

“All around the Poison Joke,

The Ursa chased the po-ny.

The Ursa thought ‘twas all in fun,

**POP!”

Tiny hoofs the button, and the entire warehouse explodes in a shower of metal and fiery bits.

“Goes the po-ny!”

She turns to us, and giggles when she sees all of us gawking at the explosion.  “Hey, it’s what I do.  Now, can we go home?  I wanna see my new home!”

I look at her, and smile.  “Sure, Tiny, let’s go home.  Welcome to the Warriors.”

Nine

“Are we there yet?”  Tiny whines.

“Not yet, sweetie.  We’ll be in Las Pegasus soon.” I reply, leaning on ‘sweetie’ just a little too much.

Me, Tiny, C, and the rest of Epsilon are on a train headed for Las Pegasus to investigate a rash of griffon disappearances.  Given that we don’t want to attract any kind of attention that could be drawn back to the Warriors, we are, of course, all using assumed names.  The funniest part is C disguised as an Earth pony mare posing as Tiny’s (going as Tiny Bloom) mother, and me as ‘her’ son, Bright Nova.

“So, Mom, what is first on our agenda?”  I ask of C, or should I say Cherry Sweet?  I am going to have so much fun with this.

“Well dear, I’ve always wanted to see the Blue Pony Group, and their shows are based in LP, and I’ve heard that it is fun for the whole family.”

“Yeah, Nova, we’re gonna have all sorts of fun!”  That would be Tread, or Hard Hoof as he’s going by, leaning over from the other booth.  He, Pulse, Scout, and the Twins are here as a group of friends of mine, and our successful father sent us on a trip to the party capitol of the world, with (ugh!) Mom as supervision.  Working as a stock broker in Manehattan left us with quite a bit of money left over from all the bills.  We will be staying at a house our father has procured a little ways from the main strip.

A perfectly believable plan, since it has just enough truth in it.  We are all friends, we are going to LP, and the Warriors have enough money to fund operations like this.

“Next stop, Las Pegasus!  End of the line!”  The conductor shouts, and we all shove our heads out the windows to see the flashing lights of Las Pegasus.  It’s a sight to behold.

The city is actually in two parts.  The land area comprises most of the casinos, restaurants, and clubs of the city, while the cloud area (hence the name Las Pegasus) houses most of the entertainment venues, the shows, theaters, and such.  Who says a mission is all work and no play?

“That.  Was.  AWESOME!” we’re all walking out of the BPG Theater after seeing one of their famed shows.  “I never thought I’d hear pipes that sounded so good!”  Tiny walks behind me, a small half-eaten marshmallow sculpture made by the blue-painted ponies balanced on her back.

The joy, however, is somewhat subdued by our mission.  Speaking of which, C splits off from our group, forcing me and Tiny to follow.  S/he approaches one of the event coordinators.

“Excuse me, sir.  Can you take a moment to answer a few questions?”

The pony smiles.  “Why of course madam.  What do you wish to know about our fair city?”

“I had heard there were some amazing griffon performance groups in Las Pegasus, but none of the brochures seem to have any information.  Do you know where those shows are?”

That got his attention.  As soon as C mentioned griffons, he gets all stiff.  Definitely hiding something.  “I am sorry, ma’am, you must have heard wrong.  We have no performing griffon groups in the city at this time.  They travel quite a bit, you see, and only come into Las Pegasus at certain times of the year.  I’m afraid you came during the off season.”

“Oh, poo.  Well, thank you anyways!”  We wander back over to the group, and by unspoken agreement, we all head towards the safe house.

“Uh, no.  That’s complete bull crap.”

“It’s what the guy said.”

“And I’m tellin’ ya, doc, that’s absolute bull crap.”

We’re at the safe house, a modest little home with, thankfully, enough bedrooms to house everypony.

“Sorry Chryssid, but Scout’s right.  A year ago, during a few light raids here, ponies reported you couldn’t go five feet without running into a griffon.  We’ve seen absolutely zero.  Traveling groups?  That’s not too uncommon, but where do you think those groups bunk down during their off time?  Right here in LP!  We can at least confirm now, based on previous reports, a severe lack of griffons.”

“Okay, we believe you.  So, what’s everypony’s plans for tomorrow?  We should have enough cash to get us through this week, then we need to report back.  Tiny wants to wander the city, and as her big brother, I need to keep her safe; we can ask some of the city ponies about the griffons.”

“Ooh!  Make sure to ask about the Griffon chop houses!  Their knife work is superb and their dishes, both griffon and pony, are to die for!  At least, that’s what I’ve heard.”  Pulse titters nervously.  “I want to go to the spa, and I know Mrs. Cherry Sweet could use a day of relaxation…” she smirks at our buggy friend.  He puts his holey hooves up defensively.

“I can take any form I please, endure pain beyond what any of you can stand, and infiltrate the highest orders of government.  What you are asking is too much.  I will not degrade myself with a day at a spa.”

“Come on, Mrs. C, you know nopony should go out there alone.  Scout and I are heading back to the entertainment district tomorrow, and the Twins are going to some science convention thing.  You’re plumb outta luck, unless you want to spend the entire day here.”

C looks down in defeat.  “Fine.  But do not expect me to enjoy any of it.”

“Trust me, C.  When I’m done with you, you’ll feel like an entirely new mare!”  We all burst out laughing at that, C excluded.

“Nova!  I’m bored!  My hooves hurt!  I wanna go back home!”

“Now now, Tiny Bloom, you wanted to do this, so enjoy yourself.”

“Okay.  Can I ride on your back?”

“I dunno, you’re a little old for- Oof!  Alright, since you’re already up there…”

“Yay!”

I’m definitely feeling the boredness.  I could be checking out the casinos for griffons, but having Tiny along makes that a no-go, no matter how many times she promises not to blow up a slot machine.  Nopony could tell us where we could find any of the famed chop houses either.  It’s almost like griffons never existed in this city to begin with, and given the reports, that’s not possible.  Griffonia is Equestria’s western border, and LP is basically the link between the two countries, so there have to be griffons somewhere!

We’re walking down a side street when something interesting happens.

“Hey.  We heard you two asking around about griffons.”  We look and see two figures in an alleyway.  Tiny hops off my back and darts behind me.

“Who wants to know?”

“Why, only Her Majesty, Queen Pinkie Pie.”  They step out of the shadows to reveal wide smiles and matching blue uniforms.  Crap, it’s the 5-0.  “Would you kindly come with us?”

“How about hell to the no.  Let’s go, Tiny.” We cautiously start stepping away as one of the police steps forward.

“I don’t think so.  That wasn’t a request.  You will come with us.”

“No.  Hey, you guys ever heard of the Clapper?”

“I think we lost them.”  We duck down a different side alley and hide behind a dumpster.  The two cops race by, still trying to clear the fog around their heads I conjured up.  They slow to a stop as I lower the magic field.

“Get on the radio.  We’ve got a couple griffon-lovers we need to catch.”  The one, an Earth pony, pulls out a radio and starts barking our descriptions into it.  The other, a unicorn, fires a flare into the sky.

“Shit.  Come on, Tiny.  We need to find the others.”  We take off as police start swarming towards the flare.

“Hello, and welcome to the Las Pegasus Day Spa.  How may I—”

I cut the receptionist off.  “We have a couple friends here, a grey unicorn and an Earth pony, both mares.  It’s imperative we see them immediately.”

She flips through a few pieces of paper.  “Yes, we do have two clients here matching those descriptions, but I cannot allow you to—”

“Then can you give them a message?  Tell the grey one there’s a shining mark on her record, and I can’t accommodate her anymore.”

She goes through a door into the spa proper, and less than a minute later Pulse and C, in changeling form, burst through into the waiting room.  The receptionist follows, but C growls at her, and she retreats.  I notice his shoulders are relaxed, his chitin is polished, and his holey hooves have perfect circles.

“So, didn’t enjoy the spa, did you?”

“Shut up.  What is the problem?”

“The blues got a little nosey.  Pulse, you need to get back to our friends, get them out.  We can confirm, the witch has the packages.  C, you come with us, and trust me.”

He looks uneasy.  “I am guessing this has to do with that dream you had?”

I nod.  “We need to see the witch.”

“Oh hell no!  I am not abandoning you guys!”  Pulse looks ready to blast us unconscious and drag us with her back to the base.

“Pulse, please trust me.  When you guys get home, ask my uncle about my dreams.  He knows all about them.”

She shuts up at that.  It’s no secret I am really close to our ‘uncle’ Battle. Hopefully she’ll be sated by what he tells her.  “Okay.  I saw a back door in there.  Just come home safe, right?”  She lays a hoof on my shoulder, then dashes off.

“Awright, suckas.  How many are we takin’ out before we let ‘em get us?”  We look, and Tiny is assembling enough explosives to arm a small country.

“Where?  How?  No!  No killing the ponies.”

She pouts.  “Aww, why not?”

“Because we need to get to the Queen, not spend eternity in her dungeon for killing her police.  Just, put those back wherever you had them.”  Me and C head for the front door.  We hear almost nothing as Tiny squeezes her way between us.  Someday, I’ll find out just what she does with all her stuff.

“No you won’t!”

Gah!  Tiny, how did you get here?  Why are you under the table?

Creaking is heard, as Tiny hops into Shining’s lap.

“Foo, you know a girl never reveals her secrets!  I’m jus’ hiding out cause somepony, not naming any names, might’ve put a stinky bomb in Ms. High Mighty’s bedroom.”

A keening wail is heard, followed by a mare’s screech.  It is far off, but the volume speaks of years of experience.

“Where is that foal!  I’ll have her thrown in the brig for what she did!  Or banished!  Or banished, then thrown into a dungeon in the place I banished her to!”

Tiny, you know she’ll eventually come after me for that.

“Yeah, but it was totes worth it.  Ooh, you talkin’ about our awesomest adventures? I wanna tell my part!”

Will it involve enough explosions to put Michael Neigh to shame?

“Duh.”

Then no.  This is supposed to be about how we somehow took out the Queens and saved Equestria.

“But my part has all of that!”

Tiny, no.  Now go apologize to High Mighty.  Take Battle with you; that’ll probably reduce your sentence to some time in your room.

“Okay.  Laters, loony butt!”

Galloping, door opens and closes.

Sheesh, I never thought she’d leave.  Anyways, we turned ourselves in, and in no time found ourselves approaching the throne room of the Queen of Crazy.

“Please conduct yourselves appropriately in the presence of our fair Queen.  We would absolutely hate to harm any of you,” a curly-mustachioed butler states as we wait outside the opulent (and confetti-covered) doors to the throne room.  “As such, my associate will now scan you for any metallic objects you could use to bring harm to the Queen, yourselves, or us in any way.”  The nearby unicorn fires up his horn and runs it up and down our bodies.

C and I check out okay, but his horn goes bat-shit insane when pointed at Tiny’s mane.  With another burst of magic, no less than a dozen assorted grenades, bombs, and detonators float out of her hair.  We all stare.

“What the fuck, Tiny?”

“What?  Where do ya think I keep all my toys?”  The horn moves lower, and Tiny kicks out, catching the unicorn on the nose.  “Hey!  There’s a few places you don’t put your horn, buddy, and you just got dangerously close to one of ‘em.”  The unicorn looks at the butler, who waves him off.  The doors open, and the butler leads us through, guards in tow.

The room is exactly as my dream showed.  Massive, tall enough to house the capitol building of Cloudsdale, and decked out like a birthday party from Tartarus.  There’s just too much color in the room to focus on anything, except the Queen herself.

The Queen is, surprisingly, the most ordinary-looking thing in the room.  Tall, pink alicorn, but everypony knows the truth, no matter how much they deny it.  All the Queens are part changeling, twisted by dark magic and given ungodly amounts of power.  She is reading a piece of paper as we enter.

“So, my ponies tell me you are griffon sympathizers, eh?  Well, we know how to deal with—” she puts down the paper, and stops dead in her tracks when she sees us.  “Mr. Higglebottoms!  All the rest!  Leave at once!”

The butler’s smile falters by just a tiny bit.  “But my Queen, how will we—”

“Guards!  Please escort Mr. Higglebottoms to the Happy Room, and remind him of the one rule I place upon you.”

Everypony quickly hurries out, leaving the three of us at the mercy of the Queen.  A wild look appears in her eye as she leaps off the throne and paces in front of us.  “Unicorn, changeling, Earth filly. Unicorn, changeling, Earth filly, unicorn, changeling, Earth filly, Earth filly, unicorn, changeling, changeling, Earth filly, unicorn…” with a sproing, she bolts back up to the throne.  Yes, she sproinged.  Not sure how a pony could ever make a sproing, but she managed it.

“You know, I have a friend who told me about you three.”

I step forward.  “Really?  And what did this ‘friend’ tell you?”  Could she have placed an informer in the Warriors?

“Nope, can’t tell you.  He made me Pinkie Promise to not tell anypony ever.  But, there’s only three of you here.  He talked about four… oh!  I think I have it!”  Her horn flares, and a griffon crawls out from under the stairs of the dais, a heavy chain fixed to the foot of the stairs and her foot.  “My friend told me… oh darn it!  Stupid Pinkie Promise!  I can’t tell you!  But he can tell you all about it!  Mr. Snuggles!”

A guard pokes his head in.  “Yes, Your Majesty?”

“Please bring me a No. 4 Wall.”

“Right away, Your Majesty.”

A minute later, the door opens and a few guards drag a grey stone wall into the room and set it at the foot of the dais.

“This wall lets me talk with beings from other dimensions!  I figure he can talk to you, tell you all you need to know.”  She punches the wall, leaving a hole, then starts babbling into it.  C makes a ‘loopy’ motion with his hoof.  I look at Tiny to see her slowly, meticulously, pull a small grenade out of the base of her tail.  I raise my eyebrows at her.

“What?  I told that guy it was a danger zone.”  She calmly pulls the pin with her teeth and lobs it between the wall and the griffon’s chain.

“Hey Maxes, you there?”

Oh god, my computer’s talking again.

“No silly, it’s just me!  Queen Pinkie!”

Even worse.  *sigh* what do you want?

“I have some friends here, you told me about them.”

Shit, this part.  Okay, Pinkie, they can’t hear me.

“What?  But I can hear you!”

Yeah, see, that’s how I wrote you.

“Whaddaya mean?”

They can’t hear me because only you can hear me.  Nothing else in this story can communicate with me.  I wrote you to be just a teensy tiny bit absolutely bat-shit insane.  I’m not actually the author; I’m just a figment of your imagination you thought up to deal with your boredom.

“But that doesn’t make any sense!  You’re contradicting yourself!”

I don’t have to worry about that, I don’t exist.  Also, grenade.

“What?”

*BOOM*

The small grenade makes an impossibly big explosion, shattering the chain, the wall, and half of the dais.

The griffon is blown sideways, and falls unconscious to the floor.  C darts over and hefts her over his shoulders.  With the Queen still dazed from the bang, we make a mad dash for the exit.

“You aren’t getting away so easily!”  I look back to see the Pink Menace taking to the air and soaring right at us.  I pivot, launch several balls of light at her, and continue running.  I hear a thud as she goes down, blinded.

“That magic…” suddenly, she is whooshing through the air again, her voice booming.  “Guards!  Capture the unicorn!  Dispose of the others!”

By this time, we are out in the hall, desperately trying to get out.  Guards are everywhere, some scrambling for the throne room, others moving towards the exits, and some noticing us and moving to intercept.  With no time, we hit a staircase and move up.

Shit.  We hit the rooftop helipad.  Nowhere to run.  I blast the door, hoping it’ll hold for long enough for us to get away.

“Shining, we are out of roof.  What do we do?”

“Can you fly us across to another roof?”

“Not while carrying this griffon, and we have no time for me to make three trips.”

Several floors below, a wall of glass shatters.  “Capture them!”  I glance over the edge, and immediately wish I hadn’t.  In addition to the vertigo, a large pink blur is shooting up the side of the building.

“Shit.  Okay, I have an idea.  Never tried it before, so trust me.”

“I have never not trusted you.”

“Okay, here goes.”  Thankful the sun is just beginning to set, I set out performing my biggest piece of magic yet.  I cast out tendrils of magic, searching the nearby rooftops for the largest shadow I can find.  I locate it, on top of the nearby casino.  With the destination in mind, I order C and Tiny to stand at my back as I faced the fading sun.  I hear the roof door bang open, but I can’t lose focus now.  I turn my shadow black as night, and drop C, Tiny, and the griffon through it.  In theory, shadow walking is just altering a teleportation spell to focus on two shaded points.  It can reduce strain on the caster, but increases the pressure to get just the right location.  Otherwise, the teleportee might end up not all there on the output.

What the experts on teleportation don’t tell you, for good reason, is to never try and teleport anypony other than yourself.  Simple objects, like quills and paper, are easy enough, but trying to teleport an actual living pony?  Absolute madness, even if you are trying to teleport with the subject.

I’ve never tried shadow walking before, and I just shadow walked three other living beings more than one hundred feet.  The result?  Complete magic burnout on my part.  As I am surrounded by guards and one pissed looking Queen, I fall to the ground, and lose myself to blissful unconsciousness.

As I come to, several things become apparent.

I’m alive.

There’s a dull roar in my ears, and I can see out a window, so I’m not in some dark dungeon.

The clouds outside are moving fast, and they are all I can see, so I’m in some kind of airship.

I’m on my back, tied to (I think) a chair.  It would explain the itching around my barrel.

There’s a light yellow unicorn mare standing over me, smiling, close enough that our horns are almost touching.  Obviously she never learned about how intimate relations happen between unicorns, or she doesn’t care, or I got drunk and slept with her, and she was secretly a Dom.  I’m gonna go with the first option.

“Hey, look who’s up!”

“Oh, is our guest awake?” I turn my head and see a light tan Pegasus stallion step out of what I assume is the control room, also smiling.

“It’s okay, you’re safe here.  You’re just on your way to see the second best pony ever!”

“Second best?  Who?  And who are you?”  I manage to croak out.

“Well, I’m Pound, this is Pumpkin, and we’re off to see the Empress!  She’s only second best because Queen Pinkie is obviously the bestest pony ever!  I mean, she gave us our jobs, gave our parents jobs, and makes everypony around her happy all the time!”

“But you can’t actually make ponies happy all the time.  Ponies require more emotions than happiness to live.  Joy, pain, sorrow, desire.  You can’t just- wait, what are you doing?”

My big fat mouth.  Why can’t it learn to shut up?  Now I’m dangling out of the door of the airship face first, my chair only held by the mare’s magic.

“Listen here, idiot.  You think you and your little rebel buddies can take away our happiness?  I don’t know what screwed-up part of Equestria you grew up in, but Pinkie is all that we ever need.  I wonder, can you fly, little unicorn?  Let’s find out, shall we?”

“Pumpkin!”  I’m yanked back inside the ship to see an extremely mad pink alicorn.  “I told you he is not to be harmed in any way!  What in the name of happiness were you thinking?”

Pumpkin is sweating.  “I… uh…”

“Exactly!  You weren’t thinking!  Tell me, can you fly, Ms. Cake?”  She shoves the yellow unicorn out the door.  I can only gape in shock.  I look back, and Pinkie is counting.

“Eleven… twelve… thirteen… fourteen… fifteen… Pound, be a dear and see what’s taking your sister so long, okay?”

“Right away!”  He jumps out the door.

“The Cake Twins.  I love ‘em, but they can be such clods sometimes, don’t you think?  I mean, Pumpkin can teleport so she should’ve come back immediately, right?  And Pound, well, he’d forget his flank if it wasn’t attached.  But, being twins, they’re always supporting each other, helps make their halves whole, you know what I’m sayin’?”

“Why don’t you just kill me?  The Empress is gonna do it anyways.”

She looks perplexed.  “What makes you say that?”

“Don’t shit with me.  I know the Princesses are still alive, and whenever she gets her fucking little hoofsies on a rebel, she marches them in front of Celestia and Luna, and executes them.  So just kill me now, save them the torment of seeing another of their faithful citizens die in front of their eyes.”

“Oh you silly!  I’m not gonna kill you, and neither is Twilight!  She has special plans for you, you little special one.”

Special?  How can I be special?  I’m nothing but an almost nineteen-year-old purplish-grey stallion in a slowly failing rebellion.  Granted, a stallion that’s been having dreams, one of which has come true, but otherwise, completely average.

Speaking of below average, Dumb and Dumber fly back into the ship and start apologizing to Pinkie.  She dismisses them and they go back into the control room, bonking heads in the process.  I swear, if you combine their IQ, and then pay that number in bits, you wouldn’t even be able to buy a soda at the market.  Pinkie then floats me downstairs and makes me comfortable for the rest of the trip, ropes included.

Several hours later…

Oh my sweet Celestia.  The Empress must be trying out some new torture techniques.  If I have to spend one more minute with Queen McCrazy, I’m going to throw myself out the window.  I’m almost glad to see the spires of the Canterlot Fortress as we get closer.  Almost.  Then I remember why we’re going there, and the panic sets in again.  Thankfully, the Queen left a minute ago to make a call, probably to have our hosts ready the nastiest torture chamber they could, so I decide to test my magic.

I focus on the lights in the room, and work on brightening and dimming them sequentially and simultaneously.  A slight struggle, but it works.  I contemplate using my light blade to cut the ropes, but I’ve heard bad things about those who defy Queen Pinkie.  Heck, I saw her push a mare out of a moving airship for disagreeing with her!  So I am content with filing that trick away for my actual escape.

In no time, we are docked at the main helipad.  The Queen picks me up in her magic and exits the ship, where no less than ten royal guards wait.  They surround the Queen and me, and we make for the throne room.  No chance for me to escape when the elite of the elite are watching me like hawks.  I could make a solid light shield and expand it, blasting them all against the walls, but I don’t think it would work on Pinkie, and I’d still be in the middle of the most dangerous place ever.  All I can actually do now is hope the Empress makes it quick.

As we enter the grand throne room of the Empress, I can't help but gawk at the opulence.  A plush carpet rolls down the length of the hall, coming to rest at the throne.  Stained-glass windows line the walls, depicting the Elements defeating Nightmare Moon, Discord, returning the Crystal Heart to the Crystal Empire, now just the Crystal City.  The other windows are more recent, the Empress throwing down the Princesses, their conquest of the world, and the birth of the Crown Prince.  Guards line the room, one on each side of every window.  Just far enough to appear nonexistent, but close enough to leap to the Empress's defense in an instant.

Speaking of the Bitch Witch herself, the Empress is sitting on her throne, looking at me intently.  For all the flak I have in my arsenal of insults for the one who made the Warrior’s lives a living hell, she is beautiful.  Tall, regal, perfectly kept sweeping mane and tail.  The only hints that she isn’t completely a pony is the small holes near her hooves and the fangs that glisten from all the way across the room.

Queen Pinkie unceremoniously drops me to the floor and bounds across the room towards the Empress.  “Twilight!  Twilight!  This is him!  This is the one I told you about on the phone!”

When she speaks, she speaks with the weight of her position, and years upon years of experience.  “And you are sure the magic signature matches?”

“Absolutely!  Well, it was a little bit muddled, but I’m at least ninety percent sure it’s the same.”

She nods, then faces me.  “My Queen tells me your magic signature is familiar to her.  If it is familiar to her, it will be familiar to me.  Defend yourself!”  She launches herself off the throne and right at me.  With a flash, I rip the ropes apart and leap to my hooves.  A quick glance confirms that the guards aren’t going to do anything in this fight, so I unleash with everything I’ve got.  I plunge the room into darkness and roll.  A moment later, her hooves impact the chair, breaking it into splinters.

“Really?  A simple light removal spell?  I mastered that when I was five!”  She stomps around, giving me her exact location.  See, through all my years mastering light spells, I’ve attuned my body to be able to work fluidly in any level of light.  In this case, for instance, since my eyes are all but useless, I use my ears to pinpoint her location.  As she moves, I reduce the field of dark until there is a moving half sphere of it following her everywhere.  I hear her wings flap, to try and get herself out of my fog, but I turn the outermost part of the fog into a solid light shield and dissipate the rest.  She taps a hoof on it.

“Hmm, a shield. Still mastering the basics, are you?”  With a single shot from her horn, the shield shatters and I drop the spell.  She is staring right at me, more curious than bloodbent.  She charges her horn and fires a bolt straight at me.  I retaliate by creating a shield of darkness to absorb the blast, and it barely holds.  I then create a hundred balls of light and launch them towards, not at, her.  She catches one and inspects it.

“Really foal, how are you supposed to defend yourself with such party tricks?”

“I’m not done yet, bitch.”  I set all the balls to orbiting her, faster and faster.  Once they are fast enough, I combine them all into fifty light blades and launch them at the witch.  She sees it coming and teleports back towards her throne.  She smiles at me.

“Interesting.  What other secrets do you hide, little –” she stops as a few strands of hair fall from her mane, right in front of her face.  Everypony, me included, looks in awe.  I actually got her!  I landed a hit on the Empress!  I’m… oh so very dead now.  She isn’t just going to kill me; she’s going to kill me, bring me back to life, kill me again, bring me back to life, clone me, and then kill all my clones and then me again.

She steps off the dais and towards me.  I’ve got no tricks left; I need to buy some time.  But how?

Oh yeah, I keep forgetting about my ‘special talent’.  I morph all of my hooves into griffon claws and quickly climb a nearby tapestry.  It’s a lot harder than it looks; I’m used to four hard hooves, not the dexterity of a claw.  I can barely hold on as I turn and launch bolts of solid light at her.  She deflects all of them, but her eyes are sparkling.

“So, the little foal is a Hybreed?  Very interesting; I thought I knew of every Hybreed within the Empire.  Do you have a name, young one?”

I know she’s just buying time until my claws wear out and I fall, but a lady did ask for my name, so I should oblige.  “My name is Shining Star,” I say with as much confidence as I can muster, “Soldier of the Warriors of the Sun and Moon.  My death today does not matter; we will destroy you and your bitches, and restore peace to the Kingdom of Equestria.”  Of course, my claws choose that moment to give up, and I fall to the floor hard, knocking the wind out of me.

I try to get up, but I must’ve hit a rib or something; it’s very painful to breathe.  I see her standing over me, and I close my eyes in defeat.  I’m ready for it to end; decapitation, impalement, disintegration, immolation, evaporation, her to touch horns with me, drain a tiny bit of my fading magic, and embrace me… wait, what?

I feel something hot and wet on my shoulder.  I chance a look up, and see her crying.  “Why would I ever wish to destroy my only son?”

Ten

The room is silent, except for the creaking of a chair and the breathing of the single pony on the chair.  Eventually, the scraping of the door is heard.

“Shining?  Are you okay?”

Oh, hey C.  I’m just… trying to figure out what to say.

The door closes and Chryssid pulls up another chair.

“You are trying to find the correct words to describe your time in Canterlot Fortress, correct?”

Hmm.

“If you wish, you could just skip that period of time.”

That’s the point, C.  I can’t.  You know I still have night terrors.  It’s something I don’t want to relive, but I need to to show the true depravity of the Empress.

“However, if it will revert your progress with the psychologist…”

C, this is something I need to do, so butt out, you fucking bug!

“…”

I’m… I’m sorry, C.  But if you went through what I fucking went through…

“You need to confide in your allies, Shining Star.  We trusted you to do the right thing.  Do the right thing now; put the microphone down and come back later.  I can take over until you are ready.”

C, no.  This… I have to do this, no matter how much it hurts me.  Just do me a favor, alright?  Make sure none of this ends up in the official transcript.  Very few ponies deserve to know exactly what happened.  Who knows?  Maybe this’ll eventually get chalked up as one of the greatest triumphs of medical history:  Shining Star, survivor of the Empress’s torture, makes a full recovery from the lingering effects of the torture.

“Fair enough.  I will remain here though.  You need the support of someling.”

Wouldn’t have it any other way, man.

“Why would I ever wish to destroy my only son?”

“Wh-what?” I’m panicking.  This has to be a ruse, something to get me to lower my guard, then kill me fast.  I focus, and teleport away, landing in the middle of the room.  I grunt in pain and fall back to my knees; that fall from the tapestry banged me up worse than I thought.  I hear soft hooffalls as the Empress approaches.

“Come now, a mother always knows her children.  Granted, you are… different from my Shiny all those years ago, but your magic signature doesn’t lie.”

“I… am not… your son.  My name… is Shining Star… I can’t be your son.”

She looks perplexed.  “Shining Star?  That is not the name I gave you when I gave birth to you.  Your name is Shining Resolve, Crown Prince of the Empire.”

“What?”

No, that’s not possible.

She’s right!

It’s not possible, we were left at an orphanage.

We were born to rule the Empire!

We were trained to destroy the Empire!

“Goddesses!  What’s happening?”  I clutch my head.  I can hear two voices, the same two voices when I fought C that one time.  The difference this time is they are fighting each other, and it’s tearing my head apart.  I hear screaming as they fight; it takes a minute to realize it’s me.  I’m screaming.

We belong with the Warriors!

We belong with our mother!

She is not our mother!

Death to the Warriors!

The Empress must die!

Death to the Warriors!

The Empress must die!

Death to the—

Suddenly, both voices are silenced.  I slowly lower my hooves and look up.  The Empress is standing over me, horn ablaze.  “What… what did you do to me?  What happened?”

“It seems there is more to you than meets the eye, my young colt.  This explains so much…” she looks away.  “Guards!  Take the Prince to the Lunar Spire, and call the doctor to take a look at him.  He is not to be harmed in any fashion.”  She looks back at me, and smiles.  “I must do some research, but I will come to you when I have answers.”

She trots off, Queen Pinkie in tow, as a few guards surround me, some using magic to levitate me onto the back of a large Earth pony.  They start moving through the castle.  Of course, even though I swear one of my ribs is poking a lung, I can’t help but mouth off to my captors.

“So, you guys are the Empress’s Royal Guards, huh?  You know, the Warriors have this threat chart hanging in the main rec room, lets us see what is more dangerous.  We rank you guys above smelling a really bad fart, but just below getting a splinter.”  No reaction.  “I think it’s because nopony’s ever seen you guys do anything but stand around, being the Empress’s side bitches.  You know, since the Queens are obviously her main bitches.”  No response.  Tough crowd.  “How many of you does it take to satisfy her?  I want to say she ignores about half of you ‘cause your packages don’t meet the size requirements… actually, make that all of you, especially you, big boy.”  I pat the shoulder of the one who’s carrying me.  “I wanna say you’re majorly compensating for something here, what with the big armor, big muscles, big head, all to cover up the fact you have a really tiny—Ow!” he jostles me, just enough to dig into my ribs. It shuts me up for the rest of the trip.

Heal up first, then escape while making snide remarks at the guards.

We make our way up a tall tower, and the guards deposit me inside a large bedroom, like large enough to encompass all of the Warrior’s main command rooms and still have enough room for a part of the residential section.  The dominant theme is blue and dark purple, with the ceiling covered in mosaics of the constellations.  They drop me onto a bed large enough for at least five ponies to sleep comfortably without touching any of the others, and back out.  I would get up and make my escape, but my ribs and legs don’t want to move, and I know at least four guards are outside the door, waiting for me to try something like that.

I busy myself for about five minutes with light tricks, forming spheres of light into ever-increasing complex shapes, when a middle-aged unicorn with glasses and a doctor’s coat enters the room.  He stops when he sees me, adjusting his glasses.

“By the marks of the Six, it is!  When they told me the Crown Prince had been returned, I almost didn’t believe them, but here you are!  Now,” he bustles over to the bed, “what seems to be the trouble?”

“I think I cracked a rib and sprained a couple knee joints when I fell from a tapestry trying to get away from the Empress.  Wait, how do you know who I am?  I don’t even know who I am!”

“Boy, I’ve delivered many foals, both before and after the Empress took me in.  I remember every one of them clear as day.  You were a special one.  I mean, who else can say they helped the Empress give birth to her only foal?  Not that she hasn’t tried since, but every time, failure.”  He lights his horn and begins going over my body with it.  “Yes, your predictions seem accurate.  Some light bone bruising, rib definitely cracked, one knee sprain and one dislocated joint.  You say you don’t know who you are?  What do you know?”

As he begins healing the lesser wounds, I tell him exactly what I know.  “My name is Shining Star.  For the last fifteen years, ever since I got my mark, I have been training to join the ranks of the Warriors to take down the Empress and restore the Princesses to their rightful place.  I was born… I was… born… as…” the memories refuse to surface.  I can get hints of them, but it is like they are locked behind a wall.  “I was left… as an orphan… but also born a few months later… how is that possible?”  Just saying that increases the pressure on this wall, like the two voices want to come out.

“Bite this,” he hoofs me a pillow.  I comply, and he pops my leg back into place, earning a muffled groan from me.  “I do not know.  I am a master of the healing arts, not of the spiritual or mental, but I have heard of some dark rituals.  Rituals for transmogrification, immoral alchemic practices, and even theories for combining living beings into one.”  I jerk my head up at the last one.  “Just theories, mind you.  Star Swirl the Bearded surmised that two beings who shared similar souls could, in theory, come to inhabit the same body.  Sort of like two conductors of a train that instinctively know what the other was going to do, before the other even knew it himself.  Every time he tried, however, he was forced to split each soul in half, and ended up destroying both in the process.  He deemed it a failure.”

“What, you think somepony got his experiment to work?”

At that moment, Empress Twilight bursts into the room, trailing a long scroll.  “Somepony got Star Swirl’s experiment to work!”

She’s bouncing like a school-age filly, until she remembers who she’s dealing with, and her mood sours.  She shoves the scroll into my face.  “Do you recognize any of this ritual?”

I take it in my magic and scan through it.  “I don’t even know what half of these words are, and I’ve never heard of this ritual before.  The closest we have to a mind specialist is the group’s psychologist.  I would say any of the ponies who do know are probably dead by your hooves.”

“That is… disappointing, but this is the only explanation.  Somepony, somehow, fused two souls together, one of which was my little Shining Resolve.  The result was you.”

“That still doesn’t make any sense!”  I’m scanning the room for anything I could use to distract her, the doctor, and the guards, and get out of this loony bin.  It’s just not possible that I could be the Crown Prince.

“Then why, when I used my magic to scan your mind, did I find two distinct forces within?”

“I don’t know.  You do know about the whole id and ego thing, right?”

“Yes, but both of these forces have their own id, ego, and superego.  They also have their own likes, dislikes, and thought patterns.  Either you look almost exactly like my Shining Resolve and are, or you have the worst case of a split-personality disorder ever recorded.  In fact, the latter can be thrown out completely because those pony’s brains switch back and forth; they don’t have more than one set of thoughts at a time.”

“So what did you do to my head?  Can you control me now?”

“I would never do any such thing!  What I did was create a blockage of sorts between the two souls.  They were conflicted, unable to work together as they usually would, and were tearing your mind apart in their battle.  This blockage should keep them from fighting, and keep your mind intact.”

“So, can you make me do the can-can now?  Ooh, what about the Macarena?”

The Empress becomes flustered.  “What is it with young ponies and their ignorance?  Alright, let us examine your magic then.  Am I right in surmising you have propensity for light-bringing spells?”

Where is she going with this?  “Yeah, what of it?”

“Most ponies who gain that knowledge are usually limited to creating the simple ball.”  She does so, floating it above her hoof.  “Yet, in fighting me, you displayed far more alternatives to the spell than any pony I know, other than myself.  Shields of light to deflect magic-based attacks.  Solid spears of light that can actually cut.  No pony would ever think of using light that way.  While I do not understand your use of just light, the experimentation you showed matches the same level of experimentation I exhibited while learning magic.”

“So we had the same study habits.  That still proves nothing.”  I want to believe it, but something in the back of my brain is calling my continuing arguments complete BS.  “I use light spells because that’s all I can do.  If you want even more experimentation, there’s one unicorn I know that can…” crap. What is this mare doing to me?  I shouldn’t be just spilling Warrior secrets to her!

“We shall come back to your magic proficiency later then.  For now, let us return to the two soul’s concept.  These two forces, did they ‘speak’ anything to you?”

“Yeah.  One was saying I belong with the Warriors and was left at an orphanage at a very young age, and the other was the opposite of what I believe: that you are my mother, and I was born to rule the Empire.”

“I think I know of a way to prove once and for all you are harboring two souls.  What else can you do with your light?”

“Pretty much anything.”

“Can you use it to project an image?  Like, if a pony were to describe something to you, you could magically recreate it?”

“I-I guess so.”  I have a sneaking suspicion what she’s asking.

“Then I shall lower the blockade I placed in your mind around one of the forces.  I want you to project that force through your light spell.”

She approaches, horn alit.  “I guess I have no choice in the matter.”

“Not really.”  Then, I hear one of the voices return.

The Empress must di—wait, what happened to the other?

Before it gets any ideas, I focus on what the force thinks it is, and cast several light balls.  They coalesce into a pony-like shape, slightly taller than me, muscular, a unicorn.  Then the Empress casts some kind of spell, and addresses the apparition directly.

“Who are you?”

[i]My name is Bright Star, orphan by your doing.

“What do you mean by that?”

My mother and father left me at an orphanage as a newly-born foal because they were on the run from you and your forces.

“What happened to you, child?  In the orphanage?”

I was bullied growing up, because I could not make friends.  They made fun of me because I made a friend in a small half-changeling pony who called himself Shining.  We helped each other through the years up until the day we got our cutie marks.  On that day—the apparition fizzles, then returns to normal.  It shrinks a little, then speaks with my voice. – And from that day forth I was known as Shining Star.

“What happened?!  What happened when you got your cutie mark?”

The apparition concentrates, then suddenly starts screaming in agony, causing me to scream as well as it literally tears itself apart.  I cut off the spell, and the screaming stops, replaced by a quiet voice in my head.

Please don’t make me go back out there.

I’m panting; the Empress is looking at me sternly.  “What did you do?”

“Nothing!  It just started going insane and tearing itself up!”

“Are you ready to try again?”

“The fuck do you mean?  I’m not doing that again!”

“Do not worry; I only wish to speak with the other half.  I will be less… forceful with my questions.”  With a wave of her horn, the voice stops, replaced by the other.  I perform the same spell again, and this time the light forms into a smaller stallion, also a unicorn, but with holes in the hooves and much darker, as if my light spell inverted into a dark spell.

My name is Shining Resolve, Crown Prince of the Empire.  I was taken as a newborn by very bad ponies.

“Sh-Shiny?”  Through the strain of casting the same intense spell twice, I see the Empress, tears glistening in her eyes.  “What did they do to you?”

They took me to an orphanage and raised me as a homeless brat.  I was picked on because I was part changeling.  Then, I found one colt who didn’t make fun.  He became my… friend… and we learned to support each other.  Then, the day finally came we found what we were meant to do in life.  We earned our cutie marks—the same fizzle, and the ghost grows, and again speaks in my voice.  – And from that day on we were known as Shining Star.

In my shock, I drop the spell, and it vanishes, replaced by the voice in my head.  The voice starts pounding, wanting to get out, forcing me out of the way to freedom.  Through the sound of rushing water in my ears, I hear the doctor pleading with the Empress.

“Please, you must put the spell back!  I don’t claim to know as much as you, but having a partial soul take over will destroy him!”

The pain stops.  I feel the bed creak as the Empress climbs into it and puts her hooves around me.

“Oh Shining, my Shining, what did they do to you?”

I’m in a field, surrounded by tall grass.  A veritable mansion stands a ways off; the orphanage I grew up in.  What am I doing here?

Two foals run by me; one tall, for a colt, light coated, and the other smaller, a deep purple coat and a crooked horn.  I give chase; I don’t think they can see me, but I need to know what happens.

They run through the grass at speeds only a determined colt could attain, and eventually happen upon a cave right outside a forest.

Don’t go in.  Don’t go in, it’s too dangerous.  For the love of Celestia, stay away! I want so badly to scream at them to run away, but my lips are sealed.  They dash inside.  A few minutes later the ground shakes and screams emanate from the cave.  A blinding white light shoots out of the hole, right through me.

I bolt awake, trying to rub the light out of my eyes.  I’ve made some pretty damn bright lights before, but that was like staring straight at the sun.  It takes me a moment to realize I’m not in my bunk in my small room in the Warrior’s base, a changeling sleeping in the bunk above.  I’m in a massive bed in an even more massive room in a spire of the Canterlot Fortress.  Another few moments, and I remember the events of last night.  Shining Star is a lie.  Two foals; something happened to two foals, and they became me.  Shining Resolve; Bright Star.  I am both, yet I’m neither.

And now the pulsing headache is back.  I think the pulses are from the two souls trying to break out of the walls the Empress erected in my mind.  Slowly, I realize somepony is knocking on my door.

“Allo?  Monsieur Prince?  Are you awake?”  With a click, I unlock the door with my magic, and two Earth pony mares walk in.  One is blue with a pink mane, the other is pink with a blue mane, both with boxes on their backs.  “Allo.  I am Aloe, and zis is Lotus Blossom.  We have been sent by Her Majesty ze Empress to prepare you for today’s events, non?”

“What events?”

“Why, ze celebration of ze Crown Prince’s return, of course!” she hops her box onto the bedside table as Lotus Blossom ushers me out of bed and towards a vanity mirror and stool.

One grooming later, my mane and tail are brushed out, my coat is polished, and my hooves are perfect.  The girls kept up a constant stream of babble in some foreign language, with Aloe acting as the translator whenever Lotus asked a question.

“So, are you guys Prench?”

“Oui.  My sister and I are Prench by birth.  However, I was ze only one to learn ze Equish.”  She unleashes a stream of Prench at Lotus, who bustles over to the box on the side table (the other box had all the grooming supplies).  “We both love our native tongue, but I enjoy ze language of your people.  It is a language of peace, and warriors.” With that, she presses a small piece of paper into my hoof with eyes that say ‘not here’.  I give a small nod, then transform my hoof into a changeling hoof and slip the paper into a hole, transforming it back to my hoof afterwards.  I make sure to keep the hole present, but closed at both ends; I don’t need paper poisoning my blood.

A few moments later, Lotus returns with a snazzy looking suit.  As they help me into it, I’m surprised at just how well it fits, and how comfortable it is.  Almost white, but a very faint yellow too, to complement my muted purple coat.  A high collar to accentuate my neck and facial features, topped off with a small over the shoulder cape of a deep red.

“Wow.  How did somepony manage to make this?”

“Ze Empress called upon her best seamstress for a rush order.  She is always happy to do work for ze Empress.”

“But how did she get it to fit so well?” If I could take this with me when I escape, I could sell it and get enough bits to keep me sated for a long time.

“It turns out you are nearly identical in build to your uncle Shining Armor, albeit a little bit thinner.”  Okay, the one souring note appears.  When Twilight went after the Crystal Empire, they tried to fight, but like all the rest, were quickly defeated.  She allowed her sister-in-law, Cadance, the only alicorn left, to remain the ruler of the Crystal City.  However, she banished her brother and forbade Cadance from ever marrying again; a major blow to the alicorn of love.  Last I heard, Shining Armor is out in the Badlands, trying to scrounge together a force to retake his wife’s city.

With a pop, the Empress materializes into the center of the room.  She is looking even more stunning than usual, drop-dead gorgeous.  “Is he ready?  Good.  Aloe, Lotus, your services are no longer needed.  You are dismissed.”  With a pair of bows, they leave the room.  With another pop, she teleports the two of us to another part of the castle.  I stumble a bit; teleporting oneself is fine, but teleporting another pony causes disorientation in the other.  “Now that you have had a night to mull it over, do you believe now you are my son?”

“I think I’m half your son.  Something happened about fifteen years ago, and two foals became me.  I-I think they got hurt, and in order to save both, whoever completed that ritual was forced to sacrifice half of both.”

“You remembered something.”

“Not really.  I had this dream, I saw two colts, they must’ve been Shining Resolve and Bright Star.  They wandered into a cave, everything started shaking, I heard screaming.  Then I woke up.  I’m sorry you don’t have closure for your son.”

“It is alright, Shining Star.  With you, I at least have some of him back.  Now, to business.  We are about to reveal your righteous return to the Empire.  When I introduce you, you are to step out onto the balcony and wave.  You are to do nothing to attract the attention of your ‘friends’, the Warriors.  Any ideas of doing so, and I may just forget you are my son.  There will be no place on this planet you can hide.  Understand?”

I gulp.  “Loud and clear.”  By now, C and the others must have gotten back to the Warriors and told them of my capture.  Imagine their surprise when they see me on the television, alive and well!  Of course, they could call it all a ruse, which it sorta is, since I’m not truly the Prince, but whatever.  As long as they know I’m alive, they can work on breaking me out.

She pops away and a television in the room blares to life.  For an announcement like this, all stations are overridden by the Empress’s command.  A reporter is giving the viewing audience the heads-up.

“We are currently outside Canterlot Castle.  The Empress has called together the press for a special announcement and the crowd is abuzz with rumor.  Some say she is unveiling a new weapon, while others think she has finally captured the leader of the nefarious Warriors.”

“The Prince has returned!  I foretold it!”

“And some lunatics think the Crown Prince has finally been found.  Needless to say, we eagerly await- ah, here she is now, Empress Twilight Sparkle.”

The camera pans to focus on Her Royal Plotless.  “My faithful ponies,” she pauses while the sudden uproar dies down.  “I come to you today with a proclamation of joy.  Last night, a small team of rebels attempted an attack on Queen Pinkie Pie.” So much booing, I can hear it without the television present.  “Their attack was unsuccessful, and while they managed to take one prisoner, we reciprocated by capturing one of their own.”  Several chants of ‘Death!’ are heard.  “No, my ponies, this one will not die for his crimes, for I have found him to be familiar to me.  And now, I present to my Empire, the newly returned Prince Shining Star!”  With that I step forward to the edge of the balcony…

And am almost blown backwards by the roar of the entire population of Canterlot.  Remembering her warning, I give a half smile and wave and surprisingly, the roar grows louder.  I see a Pegasus out of the corner of my eye focusing a camera on me, but I just keep waving.  Eventually, the roar dies down, and at the end, a single voice shouts out “I foretold you so!”

“Yes, my ponies, today is a day of celebration.  Today marks the day of the reunion of my family, and the downfall of the rebel faction known as the Warriors!”

I falter a bit.  What did she say?  “Now that they lack their one safe card, I hereby remove the restrictions placed upon the forces hunting them down.  Our armies will now turn their focus inward, and destroy the Warriors with extreme prejudice!” the roar starts up again as the guard’s usher me back inside.

The Manse of Queen Rarity, some four hundred miles away…

(This information relayed by an infiltrator placed deep within the house of the Queen of Manehattan.  If this data had been reported earlier, much of my torment may have been avoided.)

“So, Rarity, what kept you up all last night?”  Sweetie Belle watched as I poured her morning bowl of cereal.  She may have matured, but seems to have retained her streak of bad luck.  I mean really, who sets fire to cereal?

“Oh, just a quick personal project for Twilight.  Don’t worry about it.”  With a flourish, Queen Rarity enters the dining room.  With a glance at the clock, she gasps.  “Quick, turn the TV on!”  I do so, and a live feed of Canterlot Castle appears.

“—think the Crown Prince has finally been found.  Needless to say, we eagerly await- ah, here she is now, Empress Twilight Sparkle.”  She begins speaking of some great accomplishment, and Sweetie Belle looks on with indifference.

“And now, I present to my Empire, the newly returned Prince Shining Star!”  I hear a splash; Sweetie Belle has dropped her spoon, and some of her jaw, into her bowl.

“RAR-IT-Y!!!” the screech happens right in my ear.  “We need to get to Canterlot, NOW!”

“Whatever do you mean?  I know I did a fantastic job on the Crown Prince’s outfit, given I did it in only five hours, but—”

“You remember that last operation, the one you let me lead?”

The smile drops from the Queen’s face.  “What of it?”

Sweetie Belle points at the screen.  “He was there.  I started breaking into his mind when the foal threw everything into chaos.  He knows everything about the Warriors, I’m sure of it.  And since I already have a hoofhold into his mind…”

“You want another shot.  Very well, I was planning on visiting Twilight anyways, meet him for myself.  Reginald, prepare our chariot.”

“Right away, my Queen.”  I bow and leave the room.

If I knew then what I did now, I could have spared Shining Star so much pain.  I would have sacrificed myself to save him from what the Queen and her chief Investigator did to him, if only to give him a few more hours.

Eleven

“Please talk to me, Shining.”

The two of us are ‘enjoying’ an early lunch in the Empress’s chambers after her little announcement.  I managed to situate myself as far from her as physically possible, and am doing everything I can to not look at her.

“What did I do wrong?”

“What did you do wrong?  How about sentencing all of my friends to their deaths!” I shoot back as venomously as I can.

“If it makes you feel any better, you may compile a list of the ones you wish to save, and I will ensure they remain unharmed.”

“Gee, thanks.  I’ll get started on that.  First on the list would be the entire fucking group!”

“You know that will not be possible.  For me to crush a rebellion, some must die in order to prevent it from happening again.”

“Then what are you going to do, ‘Mother’?  You won’t be able to find them anyways; we’ve hidden from you far too long for you to find us now.”

“Oh, don’t worry; we’ve managed to capture you, chances are we will capture another soon enough.  I know just the pony to help in this endeavor.  I just need to write her a letter and—”

“Your Majesty?”  We turn and see one of the butlers standing at the door.  “I am sorry to interrupt, but Queen Rarity and Lady Sweetie Belle are just outside, and wish to see you.”

“Oh, I guess I can tell her in pony.  Please show them in.”

Personally, I’m freaking out.  I need to get out of here right now, before Sweetie fucking Belle gets in here and recognizes me!  No nearby windows, no convenient escape poles, not even a bed to hide under or a closet to hide in!  It’s at times like these I wish I was gifted with full-coat Hybreed transformation; I’d change my coat to blend in with the wall.  I just need to—

“YOU!” too late.  I turn and, just in time, magic up a bubble of light around me as a blast of magic hits it.  I get knocked back out of my chair and come up facing an enraged marshmallow pony with those horrid green eyes.  She keeps blasting my bubble with magic, but I’m at full strength, and not backing down.  As she tries to get around my shield, I form the top part into a veritable armada of light guns pointed right at her.  So we have Sweetie Belle, streaming magic at me, trying to break my shield, and me with the shield, several light-formed machine guns and even a rocket launcher sprouting out of it.  I prepare to fire…

“Stop!”  Both Sweetie and I are picked up in fields of magic and moved next to our respective elders.  The Empress looks pissed.  “What is the meaning of this, attacking my son like that?”

“He’s not your son!  He’s part of that stupid Warriors group!  They’ve embarrassed us time and time again I won’t give him a second chance!”

“What does she mean by that?” Twilight asks of me.

“Well, there was this mission I was a part of to retrieve a young pony, and her brats ambushed us, tried to force open our minds.  It was thanks to the young pony we were able to escape; I remember one of my team knocking you pretty hard, bitch.”

“I’ll knock you hard!”  She tries to lunge at me, but is held back by Rarity’s magic.

“Sweetie, control yourself!”  She winces at Twilight.  “I’m sorry, we’ll get to the root of her anger issue soon enough.”

“It is quite alright, as long as neither are caused lasting harm.  Shining, you have my leave to wander the castle; if you need assistance, just ask one of the guards.”

“Okay.”  Anything to get away from the evil marshmallow pair.  However, I think they’re gonna talk about me, so I disguise casting a shadow scout spell (the same one I used with the Commandant) as picking up a scone from the table and munching on it as I leave.  Once I’m out the door, I duck behind a nearby hanging curtain and listen in.

“So, how is Prince Blueblood?”

“Oh, this week he’s just Blueblood, dear.  He thought it prudent to be looking at other mares.”

“He’s been with you for fifteen years, Rarity.  When will he learn?”

“Probably never, which is why I love him so much.”

“On another note, have either of you ever thought about having foals?  Sweetie, aren’t you seeing that brown Earth pony, now what was his name?”

“Button Mash, and it’s not really going anywhere.  He keeps mumbling something about copyright infringement every time we’re together.  I think he’s going a bit insane.”

“Oh.  What about you Rarity?  Ever think about getting a child from Blueblood?”

“Good heavens no!  I would, but I’m afraid they’ll end up like the sire.  I don’t need a young Blueblood taking up all of my already limited free time.”

“I am starting to understand what you mean.  Young foals can be especially nosy.”  Before I can react, a small jolt of magic runs up my horn, breaking my concentration and the spell.  Shit.

Shaking my head to clear it, I decide to head back to my royal chambers.  Hey, until I get rescued, I might as well make the most of things.

After getting lost a few times, and hitting more dead ends than I care to admit, I finally end up flopped on my opulent bed.  However, any chance of relaxing is marred by a slight itching inside my hoof.  Now what could—oh yeah, Aloe’s note.  I cast a quick blanket detection spell, to ensure no peepers, then pull the note out and unfold it.

Soldier,

You are not alone here.  Meet me in the gardens tonight at midnight, in front of the pedestal of Discord.  Make sure you are not followed.

May the Sun guide you on your way, and the Moon bolster your unwavering resolve.

Well, rescue may be closer than I think!  I can kill time until midnight.

11:59. I’m waiting in a copse of trees with a clear view of the pedestal that Discord once stood upon.  The last reports put Discord in the care of Queen Fluttershy.  Poor bastard.  Since the Empress stole almost all his magic, the Queen of Mean has kept him at an empty tank, using his chaos magic for… something.  Our spies never last long enough to say what she’s doing.

I hear a rustling beside me.  “You do not wait in plain sight; smart pony you are, non?”

I smirk and turn to face the pink coated mare.  “I learned from the best.”

“Ah, oui.  Loudmouth, correct?  He would not have anyzing less.”

“What do you got for me?”

“Zer are quatre in my group.  I, a very large Earth pony guard, one cleaning Pegasus, and our relay in ze city.  We are in such a way zat ze Empress cannot trace one back to ze others.”

“Wait.  A large pony guard, like larger than any others?  I think I tried to piss him off yesterday.  Told him he had to be compensating for all that muscle.”

Aloe muffles a giggle. “Zen you will love his name.  Small Fry.”

I nearly bust a gut trying not to laugh.  “Seriously?  Small Fry? That’s the name his parents went with?”

“Apparently.  Do you wish to send a message back to ze command?  Unfortunately, rescue is not an option right now; security will be high until ze Empress deems you safe.  Even once security calms down, rescue will be nigh impossible; nopony leaves the Fortress and city but by order of ze Empress.”

“Okay.  Tell them I am unharmed, not under any form of mind control, and eagerly awaiting any help they can send.”

“Oui.  I will make sure the message gets where it needs to be.  Oh, I must warn you: ze Queen and her Investigator are your biggest threat.”

Duh.  Sweetie Belle already wants to tear me a new one and rut me with her horn.  “Already know that.  What else?”

“I know zat ze Investigator is a horrible gossip.  She has spoken of a ‘second chance’ at you.  What does she mean?”

Oh shit shit shit Luna lend me strength shit fuck me with a concrete rebar pipe damn it damn it damn it!  “She knows I know something, and she’ll try anything to get at that knowledge.  She’s going to try to break me again.  Any tips on how to prevent a severely determined pony from cracking open the eggshell that is my mind?”

“I would say, learn how to discern ze real from ze fake.  She is skilled at illusions, but every illusion has a flaw, something ze caster has no control over.  Take care not to show her ze flaws you find.  If you can find ze flaw, you can be assured it is not real.”

“Alright, I’ll try.”  I turn to leave, but glance back.  “Thanks, Aloe.  It’s good to know I’m not alone.”

“One last zing,” she says suddenly.  “I probably do not have to tell you zis, but under no circumstances are you to ‘find’ ze base.  If you go home, she will zen know where ze others are.”

I gulp.  “Roger that.”

Boom.

I turn over in my bed.  It’s really comfortable, like sleeping on a cloud.

Boom.

Mooom, I dun wanna go to school today.

Boom!

I am jolted awake as the massive doors fly off their hinges.  Looking around, I see Pulse and C standing in what used to be the doorway.

“Come on you idiot!”

I shake my head.  “Wha?”

“We’re busting you out!  Get your furry ass moving!”

Oh shit.  That was fast!  I leap out of bed and follow them down the spiraling stairs.  Guards lay unconscious every few yards; the Empress must’ve been keeping a platoon here to keep me ‘safe’.  At the bottom of the stairs we run into Tread and Scout.  Without a word, we group together and set off, our hooves indenting the plush carpet as we run.

“So what’s the plan, Tread?”

“We’ve got a train coming in five.  You gotta be on it.”

Okay, we’ve never used a train before, but I guess the Twins couldn’t dig into a mountain without the residents above getting suspicious.

We make our way to the main doors, and into the largest force of RG and army ponies ever.  We try to fight them off, but we’re quickly overwhelmed, hoofcuffed, and led back into the castle.  We end up back in the throne room with the Empress casually lounging on her throne.

“Did you really think it would be that easy to escape, Shining?  I guess you need more convincing that my rule is absolute.”  She stalks off her throne and towards us.  With a click, my hoofcuffs fall off as she pulls a pistol from behind her back.  “Take this gun and kill them.  Or, I will take this gun and shoot you, then shoot each of your friends.  Either way, some of you aren’t walking out of here.”  She floats the gun in front of me teasingly.  I would gladly die for my cause, but either way, my friends die.  I seriously doubt she would just let me take the gun; it would be too easy to take a shot at her.

“Just do it, Shining.  It’ll be alright,” C calls out.

Everything stops.  Did C just use a contraction?  C doesn’t use contractions.  In a fit of rage, I take the gun, press it to the bug’s head, and pull the trigger.  “You aren’t C!”  Everything goes black.

“Oh Goddesses!” I bolt upwards.  It takes me a minute to realize I’m safe (relatively), I’m whole, and I didn’t actually shoot my best friend.  It felt so real, though…

Knocking at the door.  I call the knockers, and Aloe and Lotus saunter in.  Lotus sets the one box they brought near the mirror as Aloe helps me out of bed.  She looks concerned.

“Did she…?”  I nod numbly.  “Mon dieu, she’s already started.  Remember what I told you.  You must remain strong.”

“I thought it was real.  It just felt so real.”

“Zat does not matter.  What does matter is zat it was not.”  With that, she drops the whisper as I sit on the stool.  “Today, ze Empress has given you leave to do what you want.  You are to meet her for breakfast when we are done here.”

“Okay.  Girls, make me handsome.”  Aloe giggles, then once she translates for Lotus, she giggles too.

Ten minutes later, I walk into the dining room (which is different from the mess hall everypony else eats in), to find the Empress… and Sweetie Belle enjoying a meal.  They look up as I enter.

“Ah, my Shining.  I trust you slept well?  No unsettling dreams?”

I shoot a glare at the Empress.  She knows.  Of course she knows; she Okayed the witch to start burrowing into my mind.  I force a smile.  “No, not really.  Just the overlying hope I’ll bust out of here eventually.”  I sit and start eating.  The food doesn’t matter; what does matter is how they think they’ll break me, how they observe my every calculated move.  “So, where’s the Main Bitch #1?”

Without skipping a beat, Twilight calmly replies, “Queen Rarity had to return to Manehattan.  Certain matters forced her to be unable to stay.  In her stead, Sweetie Belle will be living at the castle for the net while, to help you acclimate to your new life.”  She takes a bite of her toast.  “I have few rules here, but the most important is that I will not have you swearing like a common sailorpony.  You are royalty; I expect you to start acting like it.”

I shrug.  I am who I am, and these bitches aren’t going to change any of that.  “Aloe told me you’re basically letting me do what I want today?”

“Yes.  I have some matters to attend to, so I will be unable to be with you.  I am hoping I will be able to blow off some nobles later today and spend some time getting to know my son.”

“Okay.  I kinda want to go out to the city, wander around a bit.”

“That can be arranged.  Lady Sweetie Belle can accompany you.”  I smile, entirely forced.  My trip through my own personal hell had already begun.

“So how was your ‘date’ with her?”

Shut up, C.  It was horrible.  Even though all I could see was her, I knew the Empress had changelings watching me everywhere.  The witch subtly tormented me the entire day.  She would never admit it, but I would bite into a cupcake and it would end up being, like, a bran muffin.  I would trip over cracks in the sidewalk that I never saw.  Shit like that.  The fucked up part was, that was just the beginning.

“What do you mean?”

You know exactly what I mean.  It took you guys what, two months to rescue me?  What you saw then… the really fucked part?  She had such an easy time because of our first mission.  She already had that one worm in my mind.  She just grew it, slowly, until I nearly went… I need a break.

“Shining, I will not allow you to give up now.”

I’m not giving up.  I just… need to clear my head for a minute.

“We need to get through this so you can put it behind you.”

You think I don’t know that? You know what?  Here.

The telltale tinkling of magic is heard, then a poof.  A thump; something lands on the table.

“And what is this?”

A journal.  I started keeping a log a few days after the first nightmare.  It helped me keep my sanity just a few days longer; after that, it just became habit to write what I thought I knew.  I’ll be back later.  Try… try not to lose yourself like I did.

Clopping as Shining exits.  Shuffling as Chryssid pulls the microphone and journal closer to himself.

I must admit, I am afraid of what I will find within these pages.  When we found him, he was almost as the Forsaken: a shell of what he used to be.  However, he has told noling of what he went through.  Maybe this journal will finally sate my curiosity.

Supplemental 2 - The Journal of Shining Star

The Journal of Shining Star

As read aloud by Chryssid, Last Son of Queen Chrysalis and companion to Shining Star

For the sake of clarity, thoughts voiced by Chryssid will be placed in brackets []

Opening thoughts by Chryssid:

I do not claim to know what will be contained within these pages.  My ally Shining Star had been captured by one of the Queens and taken to the Empress.  We presumed him dead until a television announcement proclaimed him to be the long lost Crown Prince.  Then, a few days after, we received a message from an infiltrator deep within the Canterlot Fortress that yes, the announcement was true, Shining Star is the Crown Prince, and he was eagerly awaiting any help we could provide.

We could not get our assets into place until almost five weeks later.  By then, it was almost too late for him.  The Investigator Sweetie Belle, highest ranked among Queen Rarity’s forces, worked ceaselessly during that time to break into Shining Star’s mind and reveal his secrets, most notably the location of the base of the Warriors.  For him to have held out that long…

This journal contains whatever he went through those five weeks.  As is my duty, I shall report everything within.

Day 5 since capture:

I’ve decided to start keeping track of what I do each day.  Hopefully, if I succumb to madness, this journal will warn everypony just how depraved the Empress’s lapdogs are.

For the last three nights I’ve been having the same damn dream with different variations.  On Day Two, we were escaping and were caught right outside the castle.  Day Three, we dug under the castle and hid in the basement of a shop somewhere in Canterlot.  Before we could get out, however, the owner came down, transformed into the Empress, and killed my friends.  Last night, I didn’t have a nightmare which means either she let me have a night’s sleep or she’s planning her next move.  I’m gonna go with the latter.

I would confront Sweetie Belle about it, but I know she would start questioning how I knew and that would lead right back to Aloe, and I’d rather not lose my only ally.

Today was the first day the Empress could actually spend ‘quality time’ with her ‘son’.  Turns out ‘quality time’ means finding out just what I could do with my magic.  Light ball, light blade, light and dark shields, light and dark beams, the Clapper, the light crusher (where I create a flat surface of light above something and give it the mass of a hydra, crushing anything under it), so on and so forth.  I tried my hoof at shadow walking again, with limited success.  I’m just so afraid of burning myself out again but I know I’ll need it for my eventual escape.

Speaking of needing it, I have to find a place to stash this.  It’ll have to be someplace nopony would ever think to look for a small book.  For now, I’m hiding it in the rafters of my room, but that won’t last forever.  Those bitches will do anything to try and get an upper hoof.

Day 7:

I would have written yesterday, but I couldn’t shake the feeling of eyes watching me wherever I went.  I wasn’t even safe in my own room.

Today was the public unveiling of me to the world.  Yeah, the bitch gave the announcement last week, but today all the Queens flew in, so it became this grand event with a big parade through Canterlot and hoof waving.  So, so much hoof waving; I can’t feel my leg, it was seriously way too much.

Just for posterity’s sake, I guess I should jot down a bit about the Queens outside of a public context.  Somepony could analyze this, find out how to take them down.  In order of threat level:

Queen Fluttershy: an imposing sight.  In public, she remains stoic and heartless, not hesitating to order anypony (besides the other Queens or the Empress) around.  I guess that comes from ten years of leading Equestria’s military against all our neighbors, pounding them into submission one by one.  However, once behind closed doors, she fell head over heels for me.  Apparently before the Fall, she ran an animal shelter, co-run by her rabbit, Angel Bunny.  She holds a certain reverence for Twilight, and will follow her to the ends of the planet.

Empress Twilight Sparkle:  I place the Empress just below a Queen because while the Empress is cunning, Fluttershy is ruthless.  I was unable to get a good read on her, on how she is around her friends, because she is a planner.  Every step, every breath, every word is planned out for maximum efficiency and purpose.

Queen Rainbow Dash:  She is third not because of her prowess, but her resources.  She commands the Shadowbolts, the most ruthless hunters in the Empire.  While in public, she exudes an aura of confidence and badassery to match the toughest Minotaur.  Once the doors closed behind us, she turned from Sonic Rainboom Extraordinaire to groveling dog at the Empress’s heels.  Whatever twisted, foul magic made them the way they are, it turned the Element of Loyalty completely subservient to her Empress.

Queen Pinkie Pie:  fourth because of a combination of her resources and power.  Resources: that giant airship she brought me here on?  It has a massive cannon mounted on the underside which she uses, and I quote, ‘to give all the ponies who deserve it my special brand of Pinkie Pie Happy Magic!’  from what I’ve heard, her ‘happy magic’ is really a twisted substance that controls the emotion centers of the brain, making any pony under its effects more than happy (almost orgasmic) to follow any order given by her.  Power: she has this strange sense that tells her when something is about to happen.  I was weirded out the first time her tail shook and everypony ducked under a table until it stopped, when a sneaky reporter pony fell from the ceiling!  He was escorted out, and the Empress gave me the quick rundown on the Pinkie Sense.  She gets these little twitches and twinges and springs sometimes that only she can decode, that tell her what is going to happen, such as something falling from the sky.  I would say more on the matter, but I missed a Pinkie Sense Signal and got hit with a door.

Queen Applejack:  raw power.  She holds the Empire’s industries under her hoof.  90% of all Equestria’s factories are in Fillydelphia, where she rules, so she has the most resource of any bitch on this list.  She also has the most physical power.  That reporter?  When he dropped, Applejack picked him up, asked if he was okay, then bucked him through the nearest window and all the way down the mountain.  Never be within range of her back hooves.

Queen Rarity: most dangerous if you are captured, like me.  She may seem all glitz and glam, but that hides a devious center.  She will stop at nothing to get what she wants which, currently, is the location of the Warrior’s base on  silver platter, probably with my head on it as well.  However, her mind magic only really works if she can get control of the pony.  A large group will be able to do the most good against her.

Two other things.  Aloe is in cahoots in the rumor mill with the two ponies in charge of Sweetie Belle’s beauty.  She said Sweetie is going to try something new tonight.  I shudder to think what it could be.  The other thing is I may have found a place for this journal.  I was wandering the castle yesterday, trying to get rid of the eyes, and happened upon a bunch of old storerooms.  I found an old dusty statue of Princess Celestia raising the sun, and a small alcove behind the plaque in the marble.  I will try sending a blank page to the spot by shadow-walk tonight, see if it works.

Day 8:

[The quillwork in the first half of this entry is much worse than either of the previous.  Shining must have been rushed to try and get the content down as fast as possible.  Either that, or this is the first sign of mental instability.]

Oh fuck.  Oh fuck fuck fuck!  I am so far beyond fucked, that ‘I’m fucked’ isn’t even in the same universe!  I have about two minutes before those two come in to pretty me up.  I almost want to tell them to go fuck themselves, but

Oh Goddesses.  Just threw up a little.  Okay, Shining, why are you writing?  The dream, focus on the dream.

I woke up strapped to an examination table in a room filled with all sorts of shiny pointy objects.  Sweetie Belle was there, which was a first for my dreams.  She was examining all the tools and telling me that since she could not coerce me to give up what I knew willingly, she would have to resort to more drastic measures.  She picked up a dragon claw knife (don’t ask me how I knew that) and stepped up to the table.  She ran the dull edge around my neck, saying that if I wanted to avoid a lot of pain, I could just tell her where the Warriors are, and she would stop.  I think I spit in her face, and she dug the tip of the knife into my back leg, just above the hoof, and dragged it upwards.  Oh sweet and merciful Celestia, the pain was unbearable.  I was writhing on the table, trying to avoid that blade, but she just smiled and cut open my other back leg.  I was bleeding everywhere, and through the haze, she was telling me she didn’t cut all that deep, wanted me to watch what came next.  She rotated the table so it was more perpendicular to the ground, and showed me Pulse chained to the wall.  She cocked her head and gave me a big goofy smile, like she was happy to be there.  Sweetie Belle stroked Pulse’s mane and told me that when she had been captured she may have wandered in front of one of Pinkie’s party cannons, and asked if I wanted to be happy too.  When I didn’t respond (due to the pain), she sighed and picked up a large metal stick covered in spikes and barbs and other pointy stuff.  She then shoved the stick up Pulse’s

Oh Luna, threw up again.  That thing must have been killing her on the inside, but the pink bitch’s magic made it so she only felt joy at those sensations.  I know because she was screaming in an almost orgasmic bliss.  Sweetie placed the blade at my shoulder, and said it was my last chance.  When I screamed in her face she flayed open my front leg while twisting that vile stick, tearing Pulse apart from the inside.

It was then that I woke up.  I tried to move but only one of my front legs would work.  I craned my neck and saw red blood covering the sheets.  I tried to escape, but Aloe and Lotus came out of nowhere and held me down, still bleeding out.  Sweetie Belle sauntered onto the bed, holding the blade against my neck.  I tried to tell her to stop, but she said it was too late for me to start listening.  I felt the blade pierce my skin…

And woke up for real.  No blood, no open wounds on my legs, no murderous white ponies with knives that could cut steel.  I started to get out of that accursed bed, but stopped when a tingling in three of my legs started.  I parted my coat on one of my back legs to find nothing there, but the itch persisted.  I think that movie, the Maretrix?  It was right on one thing.  My mind believes it to be real, so my body does also.  My body is trying to clot a wound that isn’t there.

That brings us to right now… and there be the knocking.  I need to remain strong, show the witch she can’t affect me.

[The text after this point in this entry is still shaky, but much more legible.  Probably an end-of-day entry, like the others have been.]

I’ve been forbidden from entering the city proper without an armed escort.  Twilight and I were having a day on the town, going to various sights and stuff, even going to one of her favorite places, Donut Joe’s.  We were enjoying the best pastries I’ve ever had when a brick sailed through the storefront window, followed by a flaming bottle.  Twilight caught both in her magic, and with a stomp of her hoof, the street outside fell silent.  We went outside to see she froze everypony out there, including a few ponies dressed in head-to-hoof black clothes.  She unmasked them and asked if I knew any of them.  Truthfully, I didn’t; none of these ponies were part of the Warriors.  I think she believed me, but had them carted to her dungeons anyways, since they had tried to assault the Empress.  We went straight back to the castle after that.

I can say the shadow-walk spell worked.  The paper came back in one piece, so tonight I’m going to try with a book I got from the castle’s library that’s about the same size as this journal.

I just need to hold on.  C and the others will come rescue me.  Eventually.

[There are several torn out pages between this and the next entry.  I took a moment to ask Shining about it; he said he does not remember doing so, so the pages were ripped out during his imprisonment.]

Day 12:

[The quillwriting has become shaky again, but not as severe as Day Eight.  If he started breaking down this early, then I commend him on his resilience.]

Having every hair of fur burned from your body one by one.  Being ripped to shreds by a pack of starving Timberwolves.  Have the choice of slowly having all of your blood drained, pint by agonizing pint, or watch your friends suffer the same fate and be forced to drink their blood.

Sweetie Belle is trying her hardest to break me, the bi-wait, Mother says I am not to swear.  Swearing is for sailorponies.  I am not a sailorpony, I am the Crown Prince!  Well, half the Prince.  The other half is an orphan pony.  Both had decent lives until whatever happened in that cave.

Mother wants to know what’s on my mind.  I want to tell her, so so badly, that Lady Sweetie Belle is all that’s on my mind.  That, and the secrets about the Warriors that I need to keep secret.  Mother says I can trust her with all my secrets, but I keep seeing those green eyes everywhere.  I want to tell Mother, but the Lady will do bad things to my friends if I let her know.

I had another meet up with Ms. Aloe last night.  She sounded concerned for me, can’t imagine why.  I love being with Mother!  Ms. Aloe thinks I’m letting the Lady get into my head, letting her twist my perception of things.  That got me thinking, what if Ms. Aloe, or somepony else, is watching me while the Lady isn’t?  I must do some research into the ponies around me.  I can’t have a spy for one of the Queens watching my every move!

Day 14, I think:

[If it was not apparent before, Shining is clearly starting to lose it.  The quillwriting has been replaced by pencil writing, and as such is much less refined.]

I… Mother says I’m not allowed in the kitchens anymore.  She raised her voice at me; she never does that.  It’s not like I was doing anything wrong!  All I was doing was hiding in a bag to spot any Queen spies.  I saw a pony coming towards my bag, and I thought I had been found out.  How was I supposed to know he was a cook, needing another cup of sugar?

I think somepony saw where I put my journal.  I don’t know how, but I got that itching feeling when I brought you out today.  In fear, I ate the last few entries.  Note to self: paper does not taste as good as it feels, and quill ink tastes even worse, so in the event I have to hide evidence, I am going to pencil writing.

I think the spies aren’t going for me.  The spies are watching Mother, trying to find where she slips up so the Queens can take over!  Well, I won’t let them!  Nopony’s gonna be trying to take down Mother while I’m around!

Day 16?

I’m not having nightmares anymore.  Now, I am getting daymares.  Could be just because I haven’t been sleeping well, but sometimes, when I close my eyes, I open them and see ponies trying to get me out, or a chamber with sharp tools lining the walls.  I feel like I should recognize the ponies, but names escape me.

My investigation into the Queen spies hasn’t turned anything up yet.  I suspect one of the Pegasus guards, Lotus Blossom, and this one purple-grey unicorn who likes to be in my room whenever I’m in it.  I can see him now, sitting on another bed across the room, through a hole in the wall.  He doesn’t let me into his room, though.  Every time I get close, he gets close too and stops me.  I’m starting to think—

Wait, that’s a mirror.  By Celestia, I am going insane, aren’t I?

Is it Day 20?

I still can’t find any spies, no hidden bugs, nothing.  I keep telling Mom the Queens are trying to undermine her, but she keeps blowing me off.  I’ll show her.  I’ll show them all once I bring them proof of nefarious activity!

In unrelated news, I’ve been banned from all the mare’s restrooms for the foreseeable future.  I was just trying to find someplace nopony would ever find you.  How was I supposed to know they were occupied?

In possibly spy-related news, we got a visitor to the castle today.  A representative of Queen Applejack’s, a yellow Earth pony with red hair and a large bow.  She seems to be friends with Lady Sweetie, so I know she’s alright.  Lady Sweetie Belle is such a nice pony, always lending me a helping hoof always nearby in case I get another daymare.

[The next entry is nothing but gibberish.  I fear by this point he is almost gone.]

Day… something.

Mom says I can’t go into the wine cellars anymore.  At least I can say that out of all the bottles I looked at yesterday, there were no spies in them.  In completely unrelated, I woke up with a splitting headache.  Heh, splitting.  It’s funny, you know, since I’m actually two split ponies?  Yeah, they took the bodies, cut them in half, then put them back together to make me!  It’s funny like that.

i keep getting daymares with nameless ponies getting tortured by green eyes.  should i care for them?  i feel like i should, but i cant imagine why.  then, later they come for me wanting me to go with them but i don’t wanna go with them i wanna stay with Mom ive decided punctuation is overrated whats so great about a period anyways it means a full stop but i dont wanna stop ever ever ever i wanna stay with Mom forever and ever and ever i will find the spies i will make sure Mom stays safe but now i sleepy so i sleep good night good friend

Day 23:

What happened?  I just subconsciously cast a shadow-walk spell and this journal dropped into my lap.  I… I think this is my journal, given the childish “Keep out!  No girlz allowed!  Shining’s Secret Journal!” messages written on it.  I… oh Celestia, what did Sweetie Belle do to me?  I read through this; she warped my mind, caused me to forget my friends, all to try and kill those close to me.  I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again:  fuck that witch.  And hey, since this is my day-to-day journal, I might as well write what happened today.

I woke up today with an abnormally clear mind, if the previous entries are anything to go by.  Aloe and Lotus came in as usual, and at least Aloe was shocked by my calmer demeanor.  I asked her how long Sweetie Belle had been skullfucking me.

Imagine my surprise when she said a little over three weeks.

Imagine my rage when I knew just where to find her.

Imagine her surprise when I burst into the dining hall and backhoofed her across the room, demanding to know just what she had been doing to me.

Imagine my  surprise again when she didn’t even react, but got up, got in my face, and asked how I had blocked her access.

I don’t know how I—I dreamed last night!  Not one of the witch’s nightmares, but a dream, like the one that started it all!  I saw C, the griffon, and five ponies that must’ve been Epsilon wandering through sewer tunnels to find… somepony important.  I think another of the six beings from the first dream.  I think the most important part was the factories above.  They need to go to Fillydelphia, without me.

Of course, I didn’t remember that at the time, so I told her the truth.  I had no idea.  Then, before things could come to blows, the Empress booted me out of the room.  Of course, I had to grab a pastry from the table on my way out, as well as cast a shadow scout under a hanging curtain.  I guess the purple witch didn’t think I would be that sane, because she never found the scout, so I heard everything.

What I did hear was unsettling, but some of it was good.  Last night, when I dreamed, Sweetie Belle found my mind completely blocked from her influence.  She couldn’t seem to explain my sudden sanity though, so Twilight demanded her to escalate the process and was giving the marshmallow bitch permission to use the twin souls against me.  This was the ‘oh shit’ moment.  If she gained a hoofhold against Shining Resolve and Bright Star, I’m as good as dead.  There’s a major reason why it is illegal to screw with a pony’s soul; you can very easily remove what makes them a pony.

I needed to do some planning, and the one to help with that was Aloe.  I found her and Lotus’s quarters eventually, totally not getting lost several times along the way, and thankfully caught her at a time when Lotus wasn’t around. I told her to get a message to our mutual friends, and I quote: “Tell my uncle there is another under the apple, and hurry up with the rescue.  The witch is gonna get… personal.”

So, message aside, how was I going to keep my sanity?  If she fucks over my soul, I’d become worse than the Forsaken, and I know the Empress wouldn’t want her ‘son’ becoming an animal.  She wants control over me.  From what I could tell when she spoke with my soul halves, she will want to crush Bright Star, and probably shove me out of the way so Shining Resolve can take my place.  That leads me to believe that it will become easier to figure out if what I’m seeing is real or not; anytime I see either of the stallions, I know it will be fake.  I almost want to talk to them, but I remember all too well what happened the last time, and I haven’t been able to figure out the spell Twilight used to blockade them within my mind.

I may have set up some other contingency plans, but I definitely don’t want to put them in writing.  I snuck a bottle of booze into my room earlier.  Here’s to getting out of this alive!

[I have spoken with Shining Star.  He says he remembers every detail about that day; the two of us and the psychologist believe that the dream he had, which allowed us to rescue a Pegasus by the name of Quick Writ, acted as a reset of sorts.  It healed his mind from the corruption of Sweetie Belle.  Unfortunately, the calm did not last.]

Day 24:

What kind of fool am I?  How can I think I stand a flea’s chance in a shampoo hurricane against that white witch?

I went to sleep last night and woke up in the same dungeon as the previous days.  Hanging on the wall was Bright Star and Shining Resolve, and Sweetie with her back to me.  She was contemplating how best to break the three of us.  She started with sawing off my ho

Celestia darn it, gotta stop throwing up.  She sawed off my horn, then forced me to try to use magic to stop her from cutting off their horns.  I failed, and had to endure an even greater pain as it felt like my horn was getting cut off again and again.  She would have tried more, but the pain forced me awake.  I heard somepony, probably Bright Star, try to say something, but Sweetie Belle put the walls back up before I could make out what he said.  I don’t think I’m gonna make it if she keeps this up.

Day 27:

Lady Sweetie Belle was so nice today.  She introduced me to two friends only we could see.  Their names are Bright Star and Shining Resolve.  Both of them like me, which is good, so I’m sure Mom will approve.  Shining won’t stop looking at me weird though, and Bright wants to get me alone for some reason.  I want to tell him I don’t swing that way, but I think he already knows.  I don’t wanna be with an orphan pony anyways, Shining’s a whole lot cooler, and knows a lot more.  They’ll be staying in my room for now, but I don’t mind.  I was getting bored of the other grey-purple unicorn anyways.

Day 28:

I had another dream last night.  In it Bright Star was strapped to a table, and Shining Resolve was offering me a knife to hurt him with.  I didn’t want to hurt my new friend, so I refused, and he started cutting off Bright’s hooves, which caused my hooves to hurt.

When I woke up, Bright was a bit smaller than yesterday, and Shining was taller.  I didn’t ask why; Mommy says it’s rude to discriminate based on appearance.  He was acting mean to Bright, so I tried to make them happy, and I think it worked.  We played the whole day, it was fun.

Day 29:

Another dream of Shining hurting Bright.  I shielded Bright with my own body, and got hurt instead, but it was worth it to not let a friend get hurt.  Something is happening; Lady Sweetie Belle was all smiles today, and Mommy was happy about something.  I guess somepony who’s been gone for a while is coming back to the castle tomorrow.  I hope he wants to be my friend.

Day 30:

[The writing has changed.  It was continually getting worse, more childish, but this is flowing like a script.]

This is Shining Resolve, keeping up the tradition that kept young Shining Star happy all that time I was trying to break out.  The last dream finally broke Bright Star, allowing me to take over.  Oh, Shining Star and Bright Star are still in my mind somewhere, locked away in their own dungeons.  Mother says we might have to pull Shining Star out at some point, and I would be alright with that, as long as I come back.

Mother was so happy to see me return, even though I am trapped in a body not my own.  No matter what she thinks, as long as I can roam free.  There are certain… contingencies I must plan for.

I also regret announcing the fair Aloe is no longer among the free ponies, as well as the guard Small Fry.  Somepony found incriminating evidence in their quarters, and were apprehended by the Royal Guard and imprisoned.  I managed to plea with Mother to spare their lives for now, and I know she will do anything for her dear Crown Prince.

One last thing.  I may be free, but I am no fool.  I have to make some plans, and one of those plans requires the Warriors to remain standing.  As such, I have not willingly revealed the location of the base to anypony.  Lady Sweetie will no longer be monitoring my dreams, which is a plus.  I felt every bit of pain she put him through.

Do not worry, Shining Star.  Your body is in good hooves with me.

I… I had no idea the pain Shining Star went through.  For one being to hold complete sway over the mind of another… it is an appalling thought.  Hopefully, someling can use this information someday to ban the practice of mind magic for good.  I…

A small thunk is heard as something falls from the journal.

Hold on, what is this?  A letter from Shining Resolve to… me?  What would that xcatz want from me?

Chryssid,

I know you of all beings have no reason to trust me, but the situation is about to turn most dire.  By my calculations, this letter will only appear in the journal after the Empress’s flow of magic has been cut off and Shining Star summons this journal (for the first time) after telling of the first nightmare by Lady Sweetie Belle.  Given how I know my body and your reading speed, you have about two minutes before Shining Star stumbles into whatever room you are using in a drunken stupor, since he cannot come to terms yet with what the Lady did to him, and cannot hold liquor very well.  Contained within these pages which you now hold are my writings of the five days I was in control of Shining Star.  Hide this away, and do not speak of it until you have finished retelling the War.  If Shining Star knew of this, he would most likely destroy it, and by extension, Equestria.

Keep it secret; keep it safe.

From one Prince to another,

Shining Resolve

Twelve

Chryssid,

I know you of all beings have no reason to trust me, but the situation is about to turn most dire.  By my calculations, this letter will only appear in the journal after the Empress’s flow of magic has been cut off and Shining Star summons this journal (for the first time) after telling of the first nightmare by Lady Sweetie Belle.  Given how I know my body and your reading speed, you have about two minutes before Shining Star stumbles into whatever room you are using in a drunken stupor, since he cannot come to terms yet with what the Lady did to him, and cannot hold liquor very well.  Contained within these pages which you now hold are my writings of the five days I was in control of Shining Star.  Hide this away, and do not speak of it until you have finished retelling the War.  If Shining Star knew of this, he would most likely destroy it, and by extension, Equestria.

Keep it secret; keep it safe.

From one Prince to another,

Shining Resolve

What does he—?

The door crashes open.

“Hey, C.  Wha-what’re ya doin in here?  The party’sh all outshide!”

Shining Star, are you drunk?

“What’re you talkin aboot, you shquishy little bug? I-I jusht helped muhshelf to shome of, of thoshe bottlesh in the bashement, ya know, the one my mother told me not to go in?  Thish shtuff ish, li-like, the besht evar!  Woooo!”

A thump, probably Shining hitting the floor.

He will be alright.  I am probably the best candidate for describing his rescue anyways; he was not all there, if I am using the phrasing correctly.

Quick Writ, the Pegasus we rescued from Fillydelphia (through rabid flesh-eating parasprite infested sewer tunnels, no less), turned out to be quite the scholar.  He was able to identify a structural anomaly in the castle foundation on a map, one that Dig and Dug could break without causing a catastrophic failure.

We, that is Pulse, Tread, Scout, and I, made our way into the castle through a cellar built into the mountain.  Everything started feeling like a trap though.  Why did we see no servant ponies, or guards?  As we moved deeper into the castle, we continued to see noling at all.  Then we came to an intersection of hallways, and there we found him.

“C?  Guys?  What are you doing here?”  His voice sounds a tiny bit different, but I chalk that up to being around noble ponies so much, he started imitating them.

“We’ve come to rescue you, man!  Didn’t you get the message?”

“No, I didn’t!  The infiltrator I knew got found out, and they took her to the dungeons!  We need to get her out.  Follow me, I know the best way.”  He darts off, causing us to follow.  If we were to rescue an incarcerated Warrior, that is one less mind they will break to find information.  We end up at a set of large doors, and that is where my danger sense starts going crazy.

“Shining, are you sure this is the right place?”

“Sure it is, I just need to step inside real quick.  Come on!”  He opens the door, and we enter…

Right into the throne room.  Waiting at the other end is the Empress, and no guards.  Before we can turn tail, black curtains of magic slam down on all the windows and the door, trapping us.  We look, and Shining Star is the one with the lit horn.  Pulse steps toward him.

“Shining, what’re you doing?  Shining Star, please!”

He slowly, no, regally steps to the middle of the hall.  “Oh, there is no more Shining Star, isn’t that right, Mother?”

The Empress smirks.  “You are somewhat correct, Shining Resolve.  Star is… around.  He loves making new friends though.  Do you think he would want to make four more, Shining Resolve?”

“I am sure he would adore you very much.”

“Then, Shining Star, would you kindly come out and play?”

Immediately, the pony I used to know falls to the ground.  He gets up a second later completely changed.  His ears are drooped, his eyes are wild, his posture unbalanced.  He looks at the Empress with big eyes.  “You wanted to see me, Momma?”

“Yes, Shiny.  You see those four over there?  The ones Shining Resolve told us about? Don’t you want to be friends with them?”

“Oh boy, do I!”  He turns around and stops.  “Wait, do I know these ponies, Momma?”

“Yes, I think you do, Shiny.  You know what to do.”

Suddenly, he pounces on Pulse.  “Did it hurt?”  He asks her.

“Did what hurt?”  She looks scared, trying to throw him off of her.

“When I tore your angelic wings off and fed them to Cerberus.  I last saw you as an alicorn, and now you’re a unicorn!  I ripped your wings off so I could know you better.  Did it work?”

“No, it didn’t.  I don’t know you any more, Shining.”

“Aww, that’s too bad.  What are you guys doing here?  Didn’t I kill you?  Like, several times?”

I am appalled.  “Shining, you have been trapped here for five weeks.  This is the closest we have gotten to you in that time.  How could you have killed us, or even attempted to?”

“Oh, it was simple!  I saw you guys in the dungeon, and Momma said I could do anything I wanted.  So I got to thinking, ‘what does the inside of a bug look like?’ so I ripped open your shell and drank your gooey insides.”  He mimics doing so.  “Then I wanted to see how many ways a wing could break, how long a stallion could live without a thingy, and if a unicorn could still do magic without a horn.”  I hear someling, probably Scout, throwing up.  “Then Momma let me come back, and you guys were all better!  So I kept doing things to you guys.  I guess Momma’s letting me have another go!”  He stalks towards us.  “Momma says its okay, since you guys aren’t actually real.  She says I can do anything, and it’ll be all okay.  You guys make me happy, which makes Momma happy, and she spreads the happy to all the ponies in Ponyland!  Then we all laugh and dance and play and have fun except you guys because we’re dancing on your bodies as we turn your blood into fruit juice.”

I try to reason with him; maybe I could break him out of the witch’s spell.  “Shining, this is not you.  Please, you must listen to reason.”

“Reason?  I’m being perfectly reasonable.  I’m just doing what Momma wants me to do!”  He gets knocked back a step by a blast from Pulse.  It does not do anything but turn his attention back to her.  “You know, Pulse, I’ve always thought you had a pretty mane.  Do ya think I’ll be pretty if I wear it instead?”  Shining begins chasing her around the hall, bringing a laugh from the Empress.

“Oh, this is too funny.  He will kill all of you, and won’t think anything of it because, to him, you are all just figments of his imagination.  However, don’t let it be said I was not a fair ruler.  If you manage to knock my little Shining Star out, I will give you a ten second head start before my murderous rage kicks in.  I will applaud your valiant effort—” she gawks as Scout comes flying in, breaking his bat upside Shining’s (a metal bat, mind you) head, and sending his victim tumbling.  Everyling can literally see the stars circling his head.

“Hm, it seems I underestimated you four.  Very well.  Ten, nine, eight…”

Tread gallops over, scoops Shining up, then makes a mad dash for the doors.  The rest of us follow, trying to get back to the tunnel before-

“Guards!  The Warriors have broken into the castle and taken the Crown Prince!  Early retirement and promotions to the squad who brings me their heads!”  With a roar, Royal Guards start streaming out of nowhere.  Scout scoops up Pulse as she starts firing a flurry of magic bolts, turning her into a mobile machine gun.  They fly off down a hall, causing half of the guards to give chase, only to be blasted backwards.  This causes more guards to go support their comrades, ending in a rinse and repeat scenario.  Tread and I make for Dig; Pulse and Scout can get out on their own easily enough.

“Wheeeeeeeee.” Shining Star makes random sounds of enjoyment as Tread and I gallop down countless hallways, until we skid to a stop at the cellar door.  “Momma, I wan go gain.” He mumbles.

“There you are, my little ponies!” zacth.  We glance up, and see the Empress descending on us from the rafters.  We quickly move inside the door and crash several barrels and crates in front of it, forming a barricade.

“Dig!  Exit, now!”  Wordlessly, he nods, then turns to the earthen wall.  Just before he can strike the dirt, however, Shining jumps onto his back.

“Hey Dig, long time no see.  You know, I had this theory I was working on that an Earth pony’s neck can withstand about five times as much pressure as a horny or flappy pony.  Let’s test that, shall we?”  Dig tries to buck Shining off as he places both hooves on either side of Dig’s head.  “I think I’ll start with thirty pounds of force!”

Crack.

BOOM!  The wall behind them bursts apart as Dug comes, too late, to his brother’s aid.  He bucks Shining off his brother, sending the unicorn into a nearby barrel.  He quickly lunges over, rearing back to finish the job, when Tread intercepts.  “Dug, no!  We can’t risk any more lives!  We can save him, get him right in the head again!”  Dug tries to move around Tread, murder in his eyes, but Tread forces him back towards the hole.  “Start digging or else we’re all dead!”

As if to accentuate the fact, the barricade begins groaning, and the Empress’s screeches can be heard clearly through the door.

“Kill them!  I want their bones on a silver platter!”

That shocks Dug into action, and he leaps into the hole and starts burrowing.  Tread lands Shining on my back, and dons Dig’s earthmovers.  I eye him warily.  “Are you sure you can use those?”

He grunts as he pulls them on; they are fit for slightly smaller hooves.  “Yeah, I can.  We’re trained to use all equipment.  My results just won’t be as finesse as…” he lets the thought die off.  We moved into the tunnel, collapsing it behind us.

With no spare ponies, we unfortunately had to leave Dig behind.  We never found his body; I assume the Empress locked him away somewhere.

We did make it back to the base, though Tread immediately set off for his bunk.  I do not blame him; moving that much earth must have been tiring.  I got the maximum amount of guards possible to escort Shining to the hospital.  Once there, the doctors confirmed our fears: the Empress broke Shining Star’s mind.  He woke halfway through their analysis and stabbed a doctor through the shoulder with a scalpel, muttering ‘cupcakes’ the entire time.  The doctor’s diagnosis? Throw him into solitary confinement and limit his access to other ponies until the psychologist could make some headway.  I was more than happy to comply; his mutterings of how to prepare bug was… unsettling.

And so we waited, Tiny, Tread, Scout, Pulse, Dug, Quick Writ, the Griffon Grenda Talonflame, and I.  We waited for our friend and comrade to become sane once again; one of us was always nearby in case his stupor broke.

Eventually, he called out to us…

Thirteen

The next day, same room.  A camera is now present.  The door opens, and Shining Star, Chryssid, and a griffoness enter the room.  The griffoness is the first to speak.

“So, what am I doing here?”

See, Grenda, I’ve decided C’s narration is a bit dull, so you’re gonna take over telling about the mission you guys went on while everypony thought I was a bit coocoo.

“But Shining Star, I was under the assumption—”

Yeah C, you’re boring, no offense.

Chryssid huffs.

“None taken.”

And Grenda, I would go with Quick, but he’s just as boring as C sometimes.

“I heard that!”

The three turn.  The camera pans upwards to view a small blue Pegasus flapping in front of the one window in the room.

Quick, aren’t you supposed to be watching Tiny today?

“Um, wasn’t it Grenda’s turn?”

Oh Goddesses.

An alarm rips through the building.  Shining Star sighs.

C, take Quick with you and find Tiny.  And make sure you get to her before High Mighty does.

“I have never failed yet.  Come with me, Quick.  I believe I know where to look.”

Chryssid leaves the room.

Listen Grenda, here’s how it’ll work.  I’ll set it up, and you take it from there.  I didn’t go on that mission, so I can’t say what happened.  Will that work?

“I dunno, Shiny…”

Just trust me, okay?  It’ll be alright; you’re just talking into a microphone.

“O-okay, I’ll do my best.”

Thatta girl.

So, it took about two weeks before my sanity returned.  Not that anypony believed me; apparently I had had several such 'fits' before, and usually ended up causing harm to whoever was around me.  What made this fit different, however, was the dream...

Gems.  Gems everywhere.  An entire city made of sparkling gems.  A population of ponies, living gems.  Living in the gems, with the gems, trading the gems to other cities.

In front of a giant gem building, the largest for miles around, walks three beings.  A black bug, a slouching lion-bird, and an airborne blue pony.  They are searching for something-no, someone.  Somepony is also searching for them; black shapes hug the shadows and rooftops of nearby buildings.

Zoom to another building, this one much smaller, where red eyes glow in the dark, waiting.  Behind the eyes, another shape looms, taller than a pony, with wicked horns.

“Oh, my fucking head.  Hey, C, you up there?” I ask without opening my eyes.  Getting no response, I slowly open my eyes, and gulp.  This is definitely not my room; I don’t remember having an all-white room covered in white padding.  I try to get up, but fall flat on my face.  I’m wearing a white suit, one that has trapped my hooves against my sides.  I start panicking; I try to teleport somewhere, anywhere, but a buzzing above my eyes stops me.  I’m wearing a stupid magic-nullifying ring around my horn, so I’m pretty much screwed.

I notice one block of white has a black border around it, with another, even smaller block of full black set high on it.  A door?  I scooch over, and amend that statement: a door with no handle.

“Hello?  Is anypony out there?”  Wow, great soundproofing, no echo whatsoever.  I turn myself around so my back hooves face the door, and begin pounding.  “Hey!  Get me out of here!  I’m not prone to being locked up like an animal!”

The black block slides away, revealing a pair of cold hard eyes.  “Shut up in there!  It’s not food time yet, prisoner.”

I know that voice.  “Blockade?  What’s going on?  Why am I in here?  I’m—wait, I’m a prisoner?  Why?”

“You’re charged with murder of a teammate, and assaulting several members of the Warriors.  The shrink is trying to plea insanity, but—”

My heart stops.  “What?  Who did I kill?”

“According to Tread, you snapped Dig’s neck while escaping Canterlot Fortress.  You also stabbed a doctor in the shoulder, broke the bones of several guards, and tried to tear Pulse’s horn off the last time she visited you.”

“Is he awake?”  Another voice, even more familiar.

“C?  Is that you?”  The hard eyes move away, replaced with the orbs of my changeling buddy.  “C, what happened?  I couldn’t have killed Dig, didn’t hurt anypony, did i?”

The eyes shift sideways.  “I am sorry, Shining, I saw it with my own eyes.  You did indeed kill our comrade.”

“No,” I mumble.  “No, it’s not possible.  I—I… killed…” I hurl all over the floor.  I try and avoid it, but without my front hooves, I fall into the upchuck, bringing a fresh wave out my mouth.  I eventually scooch away, my stomach completely empty.

I black out, and come to to find myself banging my head against a wall, muttering nonsense.  Somepony cleaned up the vomit on the floor and me while I was out, and a pony stands in the room, carrying a tray in his magic.

“Who—who’re you?” I groan; my stomach hurts and my mouth tastes vile.

“You should remember me; I’ve only been here every day I could since they brought you back, Shining.  Here, I brought you some food.  Don’t eat it too fast.”  He sets down toast and a glass of water.  I concentrate, and find I can at least levitate the food.  As I take small sips of the water, his name comes to me.

“You’re Dr. Brain, right?  The group’s head examiner.”  I frown.  “What happened to me, Doc?  I remember being captured by the Empress, but after that, nothing.  Then I wake up here and Blockade and C say I…” I feel a small amount of bile start to rise, but I force it back down.  “Just, what happened?”

He sits on his haunches.  “To be honest, Shining Star, the only pony who knows is you.  I was able to delve into your mind a bit, and what I found disturbed me.  Whatever the Empress did, she forced her way into your mind and broke it.  I found three fragments, all working against each other, and the remnants of a spell from the Empress separating each fragment from the others.  The main fragment, which we dubbed S1, seemed to be you.  S2 and S3 were constantly fighting before I could reverse-engineer the spell she used, and put it back up.  That seemed to quell your insanity a bit, but you were far more broken than that.  I found a magic signature from another pony within your mind.  They were burrowing deep into your mind, searching for something.  They tore apart S1 trying to find it, and as far as I can tell, they were unsuccessful.”

“Wait, three parts?”

“Yes, although to say it was an even split would be a lie.  At one point, I would like to say S1 took up about fifty percent of your mind, and the others about twenty-five each.  However, S3 was at about five percent, S2 about forty, and S1 at fifty-five.”

“Bright Star and Shining Resolve.”

Dr. Brain looks perplexed.  “I’m sorry?  Did you actually give names to the fragments?”

“No, nothing like that.  The fragments named themselves.  Tell me, Doc, have you ever heard of a ritual to combine two ponies’ souls?”

“No, I can’t say I have.  Tell me, Shining, can you see the fragments right now?”

“No, but if you take this fucking ring off and lower part of that fucking spell, I can show you them.”

“I will do no such thing.  The last time you suggested that, three guards ended up in the hospital with broken legs.”

I wrack my brain, trying to think of something to get him to listen.  “The Commandant.”

“Excuse me?”

“Battleborn and The Commandant.  They know what happened to me fifteen years ago.  Go find them, and they can back me up.  Somepony completed an ancient ritual designed by Starswirl the Bearded, and saved two foals, Bright Star and Shining Resolve, by combining them into one pony, me.”

“You realize we aren’t letting you get anywhere near Battleborn, and I’ve never heard of any ‘Commandant’ in the Warriors.  I guess you still aren’t ready to reenter society.”  He leaves the room, and his eyes show in the small window.  I move over to the door.

“Please, just tell Battle what I’ve said.  He’s known me for as long as I’ve been in the Warriors, and knows stuff about me that I don’t even know.”  The window slides shut, and I am alone with my thoughts once again.

Two days later (at least, I think it was two days; sorta hard to tell time in a cushy windowless box), I’m close to going insane again just to relieve some of the boredom.  I’ve already paced the floor (more like face-scooted) so much I’ve left indents in the cushion, bashed my head against the wall to stimulate my brain cells (again, hard to do against cushion), and tested what I can do with the stupid ring on my horn.  Turns out, not much.  I can do simple levitation and create a single light ball.  Anything more, and the ring fizzles it out.

Suddenly, I hear the locks creak.  The door opens and a single guard steps in, one I’ve never seen before.  Moving quickly, he clocks me upside the head, dazing me.  Seeing I’m still conscious, he rears back to strike me again, when a blue angel comes to my aid.

“Soldier, that’s enough.  I want him out of it, not unconscious.”

“B-Battle?”  I feel myself, numbly, lifted onto his back.

“Yeah, it’s me, Shining.  Turns out the doc was mistaken, and is letting you out of solitary on temporary leave.  You have to keep the jacket on, though.”

“S-Sco—”

“Yep, that’s where we’re going.”

The trip to Scootaloo’s den passes in a haze, but before I know it, I’m there in the dark room with the single light and the tur-no, tortoise.  The orange Pegasus steps into the light, remaining cautiously distant.

“Shining Star.  Battle tells me you went through quite the traumatic experience.”

“Uh-huh.”

“What information do you have regarding your sudden sanity?”

I think, and a pounding headache comes rushing in.  “City of crystal, C, griffon, Pegasus, searching, one of Them, hunted, waiting in the dark…”

She looks intrigued.  “Another dream?  Like the first and second?”  I nod, the headache slowly subsiding.  She paces back and forth.  “Before Chryssid came, you had a dream regarding him.  Then, right before we lost you, you had another dream about a griffon captured by Pinkie Pie.  Lo and behold, Chryssid and Tiny return with a griffon in tow.  After receiving a message from our infiltrators, we sent Epsilon, sans you and with Grenda the griffon, to Fillydelphia to retrieve a Pegasus by your dreams.  Something is happening, something tied with the threads of Fate.”  She trots over to the door and summons Battle in.  “Shining has had another dream.  Send the changeling, Grenda, and Quick Writ to the Crystal City.  They are to search for… who, exactly, Shining?”

“Dunno.  Red eyes in the darkness, near very tall building.  Tall, horns, waiting…”

“And search for a tall being in the darkness.”

“It will be done, Scootaloo.”  He leaves the room, and Scootaloo turns to me.

“Let’s chat, shall we?”

“And that’s it for me.  The floor is yours, Grenda.”

I’m still not sure about this.  What if I screw up again?

“You won’t, trust me.”

But you kinda did a dick move there.

“Yeah, but what we talked about isn’t important, at least, not to anypony else.  All you need to know is she helped start my road to mental stability.  You should understand that.”

Yeah, you’re right, as always.  So, I just speak what’s on my mind?

“Just make sure it’s about the mission to the Crystal City.  However, it would probably help to give a little background about you first.  I’ll be in the next room if you need a confidence boost.”

Shining stands and leaves, leaving Grenda alone.

Okay.  Hoo boy.  Where to start?  Well, my name is Grenda, Grenda Talonflame.  My parentage doesn’t matter.  What does matter is I was making a living in one of the travelling performance groups as a fire-breather.  Yeah, kinda corny, but everyone goes nuts when they see a non-dragon spout flames.  Of course, they know it’s fake, it’s just a combination of a torch near the beak and a special drink I take beforeclaw.  At least, they think it’s fake; for me, the torch is just for show.  Yeah, I’ve basically been cursed.

My family line somehow goes around a couple dragon lineages.  I never asked how, so I never found out how.  The result is control over fire.  I can breathe it, walk through it, fly in it, hold it in my claws, hell, even douse myself in flames and it all does squat nothing to me.

Sounds fucking awesome, right?  Well, what if the reason I didn’t have parents was because a young griffoness who didn’t know how to control her family power burned down her birth home with her parents inside?  And then she was forced through orphanage after orphanage because small accidents kept happening, small, unexplainable burn marks appearing in the beds and on the personal items of other young griffons who didn’t get along with this chick.  So she eventually ran away from Griffonia, and fell in with a small group of griffons who travelled the world, doing amazing stunts and shows.

It was a decent living, and hey, feeling the cheering of the crowds as you create a ten-foot long stream of fire from your beak, singing their eyebrows, is an amazing feeling.  Then, we came to Las Pegasus.  We usually came through every few months to scope out the competition, see what we could improve, and even pick up some new talent.  What we got instead was a ride in a police chariot to a dank dungeon.  The Queen came to us and singled me out for no reason other than ‘I’m special’.

I waited a week, the Queen’s pet the entire time.  Nearly drove me to kill myself.  I contemplated burning my bonds and escaping, but where would that leave me?  In the middle of a hostile town without a flock to call my own, and from what I heard, no flocks left uncaptive in the city.

Then Shining and Chryssid came, saved my life.  I found a new flock with the Warriors, but I never felt like I could really fit in.  I mean, this is a group of ponies.  The only non-pony is a changeling.  He explained the only reason they found me was because Shining had some screwy dreams that had me in it.  Then, another dream nabs us a bookworm Pegasus.  And now, another dream sends me, Chryssid, and Quick Writ the Pegasus to the far north, to the Crystal City to find something.  Battleborn wasn’t quite clear on who or what exactly, just a tall being in the darkness.

I stretch out on the seat.  “So, Quick, what were you doing in those sewers anyways?  Looking for mutant turtles?”

“Keep your voice down!” He scans the train car, making sure nobody overheard us.  “Never should’ve told you about my comic collection… I was searching for structural weaknesses in the foundations of buildings.”

“May I ask why?”

“I have this friend, specialized in appropriating valuables to sell to the highest offer.”

I smirk.  “So, you’re a thief, your friend was a thief, and you stole stuff to sell on the black market.”

“I… uh… yeah, I stole stuff.  By the Creator, I hated that work.  Didn’t help that he took almost none of the risks.”

“Then why’d you work for him?”

“He’s family.  You never turn your back on family.”  I shut up at that.  I never told them about my family.  I glance around, and my eyes land on Chryssid, or Mr. C as he’s going by, transformed into a suave-looking pearl white Pegasus.  His eyes are darting around.

“What’s up C?”

“I believe we are being watched, but nothing is out of place.”

“It’s just nerves man.  I’m nervous too; we know next to nothing about why we’re here.  Look, we’re almost at the Crystal City now.  Let’s get some food, that’ll probably clear your head.”

“Yes, maybe I just need to feed a bit.”

Half an hour later, the train pulls up to the station, and we disembark.  We never see the three ponies moving in unison through the crowds, keeping us in their sights the entire time.

“What in the flying feathers of Gilda just happened?”

We’re waiting in the entry hall of the Crystal Castle, awaiting an audience with Princess Cadence.  The last ten minutes were a complete blur for me.

Quick gives me the scoop.  “We found a small café, you bemoaned the lack of meat options, got into a fight with the cook, and we got arrested when you tried to use a passing police pony as a bludgeon.”

“Oh.  But you know us griffons, can’t live without meat.”

“I thought griffons were more omnivorous than pure carnivorous.”

“We.  Like.  Meat.  Got it?”  I stalk over to him, or at least, as close as the guards would let me.  He pales in fear.

“Roger, loud and clear, totally got it, no questions here.”  He begins spouting off, a somewhat annoying habit of his.  I’m sure it’s just because he can’t hold all that book stuff in his brain, so he gets rid of it by speaking.

A guard steps through the door.  “The Princess will see you now.  No funny business, keep your wings at your sides at all times.  I see a wing twitch, I clock you.  You make a wrong step, I clock you.  You do anything I don’t like…”

“And you clock us.  We get it, lame-o.”  He makes a threatening step towards me; I step at him, ready to go, but C holds me back.

“It would not be wise to aggravate our captors, Grenda.”  C turns to the guard.  “We would be most delighted to meet with her Highness.”  The guard leads us in.

Wow.  I can at least say this place looks a million times better than Queen Pink’s pad.  Crystal archways of a hundred colors, crystal stained-glass windows, a crystalline throne, one pissed-looking pink alicorn firing her horn at us…

Wait, what?  A beam of pink energy hits C, shredding his disguise and throwing him against the door.

“HOW DARE YOU BRING A CHANGELING INTO MY THRONE ROOM AFTER WHAT THEY DID TO US!”  She leaps off her throne, charging her horn again.  I move to intercept as Quick rushes to our fallen bug.

“Whoa whoa whoa!  What in the talon of Tilnhagan are you on about?  Oh crap, the wedding, right?”  Shit, that did the trick.  Her horn immediately stops, and she breaks down in tears.

“Oh, my sweet Shining Armor.  Why was your sister so cruel?  Why did she have to send you away?”

Chryssid climbs to his hooves shakily smacking his lips.  “Love for the one you have lost, hatred for your perceived enemies, remorse because you know not what you could have done differently… Princess Cadence, I do believe we can help you.  Quick, the letter.”

Quick Writ, true to his name, scampers over to the princess and drops a letter at her hooves.  The sobbing alicorn picks up the letter and reads it.  Slowly, the tears stop, replaced by grim determination.

“Guards!  Leave us at once of I will have your heads mounted on the castle wall! Both heads.”  Wow.  Nothing left except the dust clouds that look like the guards.  She slowly resumes her place on the throne.  “I was wondering when Battleborn would call in that favor.  So, what can I do for the Warriors today?  I wasn’t aware they were so accepting of… other species.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing at all!  It’s just, I thought they were known for their, shall we say, equine supremacy?  How they would use other species for only as long as they were needed?”

This girl’s really ruffling my feathers.  “Listen, lady—”

“Grenda, please.  Let cooler heads prevail.” Chryssid lays a holey hoof on my shoulder, backing me down.  “We have come seeking someling who we believe holds part of the key to defeating the Empress.”

The Princess raises an eyebrow.  “Oh really?  And what makes you think that?”

“My friend Shining Star has had visions detailing the fall of the Empress, and several dreams regarding the three of us.  Each time, the dreams he has had have come true, and he has had another vision of someling in this city.  You are an alicorn; you must be able to feel the presence of the threads of Fate.  Has anything happened lately, any strange beings coming to your city?”

“I have not heard of any—wait, Shining Star?  As in, the Crown Prince Shining Star?  The Crown Prince who was lost, found, and recently lost again?  You are in league with him?”

“Yes, but he is not the Crown Prince.  He has always been faithful to the Warriors.”

She doesn’t believe us, I can tell.  “Okay.  I haven’t heard of anypony entering the city lately, but you should check with the record keepers near the train depot.  They know everypony who enters and exits the city.”  Then her features turn dark.  She speaks too softly for the other to hear, but my eagle ears hear everything.  “If I capture them and present them to the Empress, I could gain favor with her.  She can break them and retrieve her son.  Then, she will love me again because I helped so much, and then she’ll bring my Shiny back!”

Shit.  I motion to the others, and we start backing out.  She catches our movements.  “Aw, leaving so soon?  You don’t want to stay for some tea, maybe?”

I squawk out, “No thanks, you’re Highness.  I’m sure you don’t want a captive audience, right?”  Me and my big beak.  Her eyes shoot daggers at me.

“How much did you hear?  No matter, I always love a bit of sport.  I shall give you one hour to do your business in my city.  If, Twilight forbid, you are still in the city after that, I will devote all resources to finding you three.  Fifty-nine minutes.”

Stomp on my eggshell, why don’t ya?  We rush out, leaving the crazy princess to her counting.

“Do you think she’ll make good on her threat?”  We’re running towards the train depot.

“She is stricken by grief, and has found, in her mind, a way out of the grief.  This will make her desperate.  I do not doubt she will try anything to ensure the return of her loved one.”

“Even though the Empress won’t give her what she wants.”

“Guys, we are so screwed!  We’re screwed we’re screwed we’re screwed we’re—”

“Quick, calm the fuck down.  We’ve still got, what, fifty minutes?  We can handle this.  What do we know about who we’re looking for?”

Chryssid grunts.  “Red eyes.  Behind and above, another.  Tall, strong, smart.”

I screech to a halt (yes, I can make a screech noise in midair, what of it?) and look at him.  “How do you know that?  They never told us that!”

“When the Princess of Love launched me against the wall, she knocked me out momentarily.  I experienced a vision, like Shining Star does. In the vision was nothing but darkness, darkness and a pair of red eyes, animal eyes.  Behind the eyes was another figure, much taller than I, and taller than the average pony.”

“Okay, a really tall guy and his pet.  That’s a start; it’ll at least cut down the options.”

“I’m sorry ma’am, I can’t help you.”

“Come on!  All you have to tell me is if somebody who entered the city matches this description!”

“And I already told you ma’am, that information is confidential.  Now take your friends and feathery rear end and leave.”

Rut me with a spoon, this guy is dense.  I’m ready to call down brimstone on this idiot (literally.  One burst of flame would get him talking, I’m sure) when Quick Writ steps away, speaking loudly.

“That’s too bad, then.  I’d hate to go back to Princess Cadence empty-hooved.  Hey Grenda, how many ponies do you think keep their jobs when they miff off the Princess?  I heard they end up in a specially-made dungeon.”

The stallion at the record house gulps.  “P-Princess Cad-dence sent you?  Why didn’t you say so?  I will personally retrieve the information you have requested.  One moment please.”  He scurries off.

“How’re we doing on time, C?”

“Thirty minutes.”

“Ah, here we are!  Immigrants and New Citizen Hopefuls.”  The stallion returns with a thick ledger.  “Now, who are you looking for?”

“We don’t actually have a name, but we believe he is a tall guy, with a pet with red eyes.”

“Red eyes?  Then you’re looking for Bard.”  Another pony, a mare this time, steps from the back room.

“Who?”

“He’s a nice young minotaur who recently entered the city.  He came in with a single sack, full of odd bits and stuff, but nothing dangerous, and an adolescent albino Timberwolf, if you’d believe that.”

The stallion huffs.  “I still say it was a Birch Timberwolf.”

“No, definitely albino.  The wood looked like oak, but bleached white.  And don’t forget the eyes:  blood red.”

Wow.  Talk about a streak of good luck.  A Minotaur in a city full of ponies?  Easy money.  “Where can we find this Bard?”

“He was looking for the town blacksmith.  The shop is near the center of town.”

“Great.  Thanks.”  Quick fishes a few bits out of the purse he brought (he calls it a messenger bag, but seriously, it’s a purse) tosses them to the ponies, and we take off.  Twenty-eight minutes to go.

“Sorrry, hun.  Bard hasn’t shown up fer work fer a coupl’a days.”

“Do you know where he’s staying?  It’s really important that we find him.”

“Naw, can’t say I do.  Could I interest ya in a claw sharpener?  I always keep a few around, jus’ in case a grif shows up.”

I politely decline, and we move away from the shop.  “Now what?”

Chryssid begins scanning the street, then leads us down a nearby alley.  I get nervous; I need open air.  I can’t even spread my wings out in this dark space.  “What’s up, C?  Why are you taking us here?”

“My vision showed the minotaur to be in darkness.  I am thinking, Minotaurs are a hard-working race.  He would not want to risk being late to work at a forge, so he might be living underground, and have an entrance nearby.”  He stops as his hoof strikes something other than the crystal path with a clang.  We look down.

“Interesting.  This looks like the crystal around it, but cleverly concealed gaps and a hinge reveal this to be,” Quick places his hooves on a certain spot, and the cover pops up, “aha!  A sewer cover, recently made too.”  He inspects the inside of the cover.  “Definitely not pony made.  I don’t recognize any of the tool marks.”  Quick hops into the hole.  Chryssid nudges me towards it.

“Um, maybe I should stay here, and keep watch.”

“Nonsense, Grenda.  If we had a fourth, we could consider it, but since we do not, we move as one.”

Stomp on my—“fine.  I won’t like it though.”  I jump into the hole…

And into murky blackness, which transitions to pitch blackness when Chryssid bounces down, slamming the cover closed behind him.  “Hey C, can you see anything?”

“Unfortunately, no.  What is it with ponies and unrealistic expectations of changelings?  We do not see in the dark.”

Shit.  Son of a taint!  “Alright, stand back a bit.  I have an idea.”  I summon the familiar heat from within, and spit a glob of fire onto my tail tuft, promptly setting it ablaze.  I look at the others sheepishly.  They’re looking at me like I just came straight out of Tartarus.

“Sorry I didn’t warn you.  Don’t ask how, but I’ve got some dragon blood in me.”

Chryssid smiles.  “I knew there had to be something unique about you.”

Huh?  He’s not freaked out?  “Whaddaya mean?”

“Each of us that Shining has dreamed of is special.  I am the final spawn of Chrysalis, Tiny is a master demolitionist, far advanced for her age.  Quick Writ is an ex-thief, and smarter than any non-unicorn.  And now we have you, Grenda, whose blood intertwines both griffon and dragon.  Shining is the son of the Empress.  Do you think it mere coincidence that we have all met under these conditions?”

“Huh, never thought about it that way.  Let’s see what makes the Minotaur special, why don’t we?”  We venture off into the tunnels, me leading the way with flaming tail.

“By the First Egg, how complex are these tunnels?”  We’ve been wandering for almost twenty minutes.  I know the Princess is above, scouring her city for us.  We need to find Bard, and hope he’s got a way out of the city.

“Shh!  Do you hear that?”  Quick sidles up to a nearby tunnel and sticks his muzzle down it.

“Cowabunga dudes!”  The yell echoes faintly.

I can see a tear in Quick’s eye.  “I knew they existed!”

My ear catches something striking the wall, some distance behind us.  “Quick, C, we’ve got trouble.”

“Yep, already know.”

“Huh?  I didn’t think a pony’s hearing was as good as—” the retort dies in my throat.  Quick is staring nose-to-nose with a white Timberwolf as tall as him.  Chryssid has mysteriously vanished.

“Well well well, what do we have here?” a raspy voice sounds behind us.  I turn, and my fire reveals three changelings standing in the tunnel.  We’re trapped.  “A griffon and a Pegasus, both wanted for questioning by Her Majesty the Empress.  Wait… wasn’t there one more?”

“Nope, definitely not.  No other changelings here!”  Faust damn it, Quick Writ.  I hear the wolf growl; shit’s about to get serious.

Suddenly, one of the changelings is knocked over by a black blur from a side tunnel.  The leader turns to assist his comrade, when the Timberwolf leaps over Quick and bowls the changeling over.

“Quick, you alright?”

“Uh… um... y-yeah, I think.”  I hear a smack, then a yell, and Chryssid is launched over our heads and against a wall.

“If you two are finished with tea time, could I get a little assistance?”

I smirk; assist I can do.  “Depends.  How do you feel about Changeling Flambé?”

“What about the Timberwolf?”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine.”  I turn and face the brawl.  The Timberwolf is fighting valiantly, shrugging off blow after blow while tearing one of the changelings apart.  I take a calming breath.

I feel the heat growing.  In, out.  The feeling intensifies.  In, out.  It grows to almost painful temperatures.  In, out.  Then, I release.

A huge fireball shoots from my beak, filling the tunnel.  I don’t even hear the screams as the chitin turns the changelings into kilns.

As the fireball dissipates, three blackened lumps remain, and one standing Timberwolf.  The wolf’s lost all its bark, revealing metallic joints and bones… wait, what?  Quick recovers from the blast and cautiously approaches the thing.

“Amazing.  Completely mechanical, autonomous, able to make decisions, and withstand the heat of a thunderstorm!  Guys, do you realize what this is?”

“That would be Scruffy.” I turn around (again; getting kinda dizzy from it all) to see our quarry: a Minotaur.  He’s kinda small for how tall I thought a Minotaur would be, with small horns poking out of the sides of his head.  The thing quickly leaps over and nuzzles his hand.  “Aw, did those things bang you up?  Don’t worry, I’ve been meaning to upgrade you for a while.  Let’s get back to the shop.”  He looks at us.  “The changeling, the griffon, and the Pegasus, just who I’ve been waiting for.  Come with me.”  He lumbers off into the darkness, Scruffy a few feet in front of him.  With no other options, we follow.

“Hey C, do you know who those guys were?”

“Changeling Death Squad.”

“Sounds bad.”

“Quite.  They only answer to the Empress herself.  Have you heard reports of ponies inexplicably going missing without a trace?”

“Yeah.  Wait, you mean they were…?”

“Yes, they were targeted by the Empress.  As far as I know, this is the first time a death squad has failed.”

The news shocks me into silence for the rest of the trip.  I roasted three of the Empress’s top agents to nothing, and they were supposed to be the best?

“Home sweet home.” The Minotaur pulls open a concealed door to reveal a mechanic’s wet dream.  Metal bits of varying size and complexity line two of the walls of a large room.  One wall is completely taken up by a forge, workbench, and other things I could only guess their use.  The fourth wall has more metal bits, but they appear more decorative than functional, and a door, probably to Bard’s personal quarters.  Scruffy hops onto a pad in the middle of the room as Bard moves over towards the workbench.

“Aw, shoot.  I’m out of wood parts.  Scruffy, you wanna stay a wolf, or go for something a little more edgy?”  He holds up what looks like a large raptor carcass.  The wolf barks happily.  “You want this, right?  Well, you know what I hafta do to you then.  I promise, I won’t ever hurt you.”  It nods, then goes completely still.  Bard moves over and taps something on the skull.  With several clicks and a loud hiss, he removes part of the head from the body.  I feel a bit sick, but since it was never alive in the first place…

He gingerly takes the head part over to his workbench and starts tinkering.  “So, what brings you three to my labyrinth?  I’ll admit, while I was expecting company, I didn’t expect it so soon.”

“To be honest, we came for you.  See, this friend of ours, Shining Star, had—”

“A dream, I’m guessing.”  Noticing my shock, he adds, “A few nights ago, I had a dream too.  In it, a changeling, griffon, and Pegasus came to me, seeking my help in some endeavor.  You need a way out of the city, correct?”

“Um, yeah.  Princess Cadence is gonna turn us over to the Empress if we show our faces aboveground.  We need you to come with us back to the Warriors and—”

His head shoots up.  “The Warriors?  No way am I getting involved with that scum.  I’ll get you out, but then you’re on your own.”

“What?  What is it with everyone hating the Warriors all of a sudden?”

“I assume you heard what happened to my kin, how we were utterly destroyed by your Empress.  However, she kept many of us alive as an example of her reign.  Afterwards, my kin was approached by a different group of ponies, ones who saw a way to defeat the Empress.  The few remaining clans heartily agreed, and mounted an attack on our own capitol, which had been placed under the rule of one powerful unicorn by the name of Trixie.  We were slaughtered by her magic.  When we returned to our camps, defeated, the Warriors ordered us back to the battlefields.  We refused, and in retaliation, they murdered every weapon smith from the southernmost isle to the northern shore.  My master saw this coming, and bid me flee the Isles I called home.  I did the worst thing imaginable: I listened.  I fled the ones I love and my clan, and in doing so, lost all honor.  I tell you truly, I am the last Minotaur blacksmith Equis will ever know.”  He turns to us, rage boiling in his eyes.  “That is why I will not help your clan.  For their crimes against mine own, I should force you from my home right now.  But,” the storm simmers, “fate, it seems, has other plans.  Never before has a single representative of each race come together as such.  I pledge myself to you and your friend, in the hopes of defeating not only the Empress, but the corrupt Warriors as well.”

Wow. I’m speechless.  “You mean to tell me that this group who says they’re gonna save the world really only means the ponies of the world?”

“I would say so.  Does Shining Star know of this?”

We look at Chryssid.  He stands defiant.  “I never heard of such accusations.”  His stance falters a bit.  “However, I have been noticing… deviations.  Certain looks from ponies within the Warriors.  It seems as though, even after rescuing Tiny, Shining, Grenda, and Quick, there are still those in the Warriors who hate me, more than ‘he is just a changeling’.”

“I think our course is clear,” Bard announces, slotting a now-reduced head part into the head of the falcon.  With a series of clicks, the dull eyes glow into red life.  He slips closed a hatch over the casing as the new Scruffy stands and stretches its wings, giving a triumphant screech.  “We must return to the Warriors and retrieve our friends.  Then, we must make our move on Canterlot, destroy the Empress, and find the Princesses.  With their might behind us, we can stand against the Warriors, and cut away the corruption.”

“Sounds like a plan.  One question though,” Quick sounds nervous.  “How are we supposed to get out of the city?  Cadence is after us, and I didn’t see a way out besides the ponyhole cover.”

Bard grins.  “Like I told you, I have my ways.  Follow me.”  Scruffy takes off, testing its new wings, as Bard exits his shop and sets off down another tunnel.  With another puff of flame, my tail relights and we follow him.

Five minutes later, I notice us moving upwards, and I can see sunlight ahead.  I shake my tail out as we enter a large abandoned warehouse, with a large machine standing in the center.

“Bard?  What in Tilnhagan’s tail is that?”

Bard is smiling like a maniac.  “That, my dear griffon, is our way out.”

(This is my speculation of what happened while Bard was prepping his getaway machine.)

“Come on, my ponies!  Find them!  Reports put them still within the city!”  Princess Cadence shouts out to the milling guard ponies.  She quickly takes flight, hopping one street over to the next group of search parties, landing in front of a decrepit warehouse.  “Anything yet, Captain?”

He salutes.  “Not yet, my Princess.  We have cordoned off the area they were last seen and are interrogating the blacksmith they visited, but no results yet.”

A small buzzing starts up, but Cadence chooses to ignore it.  “They can’t have escaped the city.  Spread out your search, envelop the surrounding blocks.”

The buzzing grows louder.  “It will be done, my Princess.”

The buzz grows to a dull roar, gaining volume with every passing moment.  “Good.  Let nothing slip past your—by the name of Faust, what is that noise?”

Suddenly, the door of the warehouse explodes outwards, showering the ponies with shards of wood, metal, and crystal.  Out of the door leaps a massive three-wheeled contraption, spitting fire and smoke out of the back.  As it lands, tires squealing, Cadence looks to find a Minotaur, changeling, griffon, and Pegasus riding atop the beast.  It stops in the middle of the street, and the Minotaur salutes.

“Princess Cadence, I presume?  Sorry our meeting is a little rushed, love your city, the Empress is a bitch, ‘kay thanks bye!”  With a fresh screech from the tires, the machine leaps down the street and towards the edge of the city.

“What the actual fuck was that?” the captain stumbles to his feet.

“That… was them!”  The princess bolts to attention.  “After them!  Don’t let them escape the city!”

“What the fuck is this thing, Bard?” My beak is being vibrated off my face, along with my talons, tail, legs, and eyes.  I’m speaking into a special headset provided by Bard, which is allowing us four to communicate over the roar of the machine.  Bard drives the thing with a large wheel and several sets of levers.

“Back on the Isles, we had these simple contraptions called bicycles.  They allowed us to move at a running pace with less than half the effort.”  He slams the machine down another street.  “I got to thinking, what if I combined the bicycle with the power of an airship?  The result is this baby, the motorized bicycle, Mark 1.”

“I think I’m gonna be sick!”  I whip my head around to the seat behind me.  Quick is holding on for dear life, and looking a bit green around the muzzle.

“Turn and hurl, my friend!  Don’t ruin the upholstery!”

“There is a blockade ahead.  I would suggest turning.”

“Sorry, bug, but this thing only has one speed: full steam ahead!”  Cackling like a mad griffon, he plows right through the blockade.  I notice the buildings are somewhat familiar.

“We’re heading back to the train depot?”

“Yeah!  We can follow the tracks to… what city, again?”

“Manehattan!”

“Another blockade.  We may have a problem with this one.”  I look, and sure enough, another blockade looms in front of us.  The difference this time is the rapidly expanding pink bubble coming from the blockade right at us.

“Scruffy.  Command code: Nullify.”  Immediately, the falcon takes off, somehow keeping up with us at full speed, then overtaking us.  He flies into the bubble, tearing a chunk out of it.  He then flies back out, tearing even more holes.  Suddenly, Scruffy is a blur, crisscrossing the bubble wherever he can, shredding it to pieces.  Soon enough, the bubble collapses completely, and Scruffy flies back to Bard’s side.

“What!  You made a machine capable of bypassing a magical field?”  Quick shouts into his headset.

“What can I say?  Ponies have magic, Minotaurs don’t.  We have to adapt with technology.  the Empress understood that, and respected our strength.  The Warriors want us weak.”

“Princess ahead.  She is charging another blast.”

“Scruffy.  Command code: Deny.  Query: Redirect.”  The bird takes off again, making a beeline for Cadence.  He gets only halfway there when she fires.  Scrufffy is caught in the blast.  I cry out, knowing he’s been obliterated but the cry dies in my throat.  Scruffy is perfectly fine, as far as my eagle eyes can tell.  He’s glowing brightly with a pink tinge.  With an ear-shattering shriek, a pink beam shoots from the falcon straight at the blockade, completely destroying it and sending all the ponies flying.

We roar through the smoldering blockade and out into the cold northern wastes, following the train tracks south by southeast.

About ten minutes later, Chryssid call for Bard to stop.  We come to rest near a cluster of rocks.

“Okay bug, we’ve stopped.  Why?”

“We must send a message back to the Warriors.”  Noticing Bard’s building rage, he amends his statement.  “I will not tell them of your doubts, but we must tell them we are safe and returning to base, nothing more.”

“Fine.  I hooked up a long-range radio on the beast.  Feel free to use it.”

With a nod, Chryssid locates the radio and begins fiddling with the controls.  Apparently finding the right channel, he starts speaking.  “Home base, home base.  This is Charlie Echo Seven, please respond.”

“Charlie Echo Seven, this is Home base, go ahead.”

“Home base, we have escaped the city with package secured.  We will be back by 1700 tonight.”

“Come again, Charlie Echo Seven.  How are you returning that fast?”

“The package is a Minotaur, Home base.  He has engineered a trackless train, able to move across any ground.”

“…Charlie Echo Seven, are you using some new code I’m not aware of?”

“Negatory, Home base, confirmation code CMC3BFF.  Package is Minotaur engineer.  We will be back by 1700 tonight.”

“Confirmation code accepted, Charlie Echo Seven.  We’ll leave the welcome mat out.”

He turns the radio off and turns to Bard.  “See?  Was that really that hard?”

Bard harrumphs.  “The sooner we can get your friends out, the better.”

Fourteen

Grenda sits back in her chair, looking relieved to have finished.

Wow.  That was… something.

She turns, showing Shining Star standing in the doorway.

“How much did you hear?”

Enough to know I wish I’d been there.  Hey, have C, Quick, or Xenon been around since I left?  They seem to have disappeared.

“No, why?”

Damn it!  That means Tiny’s with Bard.

“Pluck my primaries with rusty pliers, Shining!  We’re supposed to keep track of the little devil!”

Okay, calm down, Grenda.  At least there aren’t any—

A siren blares through the base.

–sirens.  *sigh* Okay, you go find the others.  I need to keep the narrative going.

Grenda grumbles the entire way out the door.  Once closed, the door mutes most of the sound from the siren.  Shining takes a seat and pulls the microphone near him.

Faust damn it, how long until we can microchip that filly?  Eh, probably won’t matter anyways.  That girl is like Pinkie Pie; always crazy and unpredictable.

Okay, those four were on the way back to base, and where was I, you may ask?  Well, I was being escorted around like a foal.

“So, what haven’t I insulted about you yet?” I ask of my guard.  By Battleborn’s say so, I can now mingle with other ponies again, but by the orders of the General (who still views me as a threat), I need an escort if I should, and I quote, ‘become dangerous to our group’.  Puh-leeze!  If half of what I’ve heard is true, if I go crazy again – and there is a slim chance of that happening – one stallion isn’t going to stop me.  “Let’s see, I’ve made fun of your fashion, danced on the ashes of your dreams, been reminded how much your coat reminds me of breakfast, insulted your brain size, and thoroughly perforated your mane style.  What else?  Oh, the Royal Guards loved this one.  I bet the reason you don’t get any action is because –”

“Please, would you let me be?  There is a pony that I must see!”  A husky yet feminine voice comes from the entrance tunnel.  Why oh why do things keep happening when I’m near the entrance tunnel?  I move to investigate.

Imagine my surprise when I see Blockade and Signal holding a zebra at hornpoint.

Imagine the flash of surprise across her face when she sees me.

Imagine the relief I feel when I know, without a shadow of a doubt, she is looking for me, and will help this crazy quest somehow.

Now imagine my shock when a bolt of magic comes from over my shoulder, knocking the zebra out cold.

“Sorry, son, but this charade’s gone on long enough.”  I whip around and see the General, Pulse, and the rest of Epsilon behind them, Pulse’s horn still glowing.

“What the fuck?  What’s going on?”

The grayish-blue Pegasus stallion steps forward.  “What’s going on is me arresting you and charging you with conspiracy against your fellow ponies.”

“What are you talking about, conspiracy?  You’ve heard about the dreams I’ve been having!”

“Yes, and I was led to believe this would be a group of ponies who would deal with a pony problem, not a hodge-podge of species!  You can’t ever trust a non-pony!  In fact, I can’t even trust you.  You aren’t exactly a full-blooded pony either, are you?”

“Uh, excuse me?  Chryssid is one of the most trustworthy and courageous beings I know!  Granted, I don’t know much about this zebra or Grenda yet, but if my dreams showed they can be trusted, then I believe it.”

“And how can I be assured those dreams aren’t an artifact of the Empress after she fucked up your mind?  For all we know, the changeling and this… thing,” motioning towards the unconscious zebra, “Are actually spies for the Empress, and you let them right into our home.”

“You’re crazy.  I’ve been having these dreams months before the Empress captured me.  Scootaloo can vouch for me.”

He doesn’t even bat an eye.  “Didn’t you hear, foal?  Scootaloo’s dead.  She died defending Cloudsdale.  How can she support you if she’s not here?”  He turns to Epsilon.  “See what I mean?  He’s obviously lost it again.  Restrain him and take him, the zebra, and the filly he’s always with to the brig, place them in separate cells.”

Okay, this is not good.  Time for an escape, maybe get to Battle.  He can talk to the General, get him to calm the fuck down.  “Alright, I’ll go with you.  I just have one question.  Have you guys ever heard of –?”

I’m clocked in the back of the head.  As my vision fades, I see the General looking down on me.  “Yes, yes I have heard of the Clapper.”

“Hey!  Let go of me!  One vee one me!  I’ll bite your legs off!”

“Ugh… Tiny?  That you?”

“Shiny?  What ‘chu doin in jail?  Why are they putting me in jail?  Why is there a zebra in jail?  They took all my toys away!”

“It would appear that it is as I fear.  These ponies have excessively lied; their anger for others burns deep inside.”

I stumble to my hooves to reveal, yes, I’m in a jail cell.  The long row of jail cells is set up so I can see the two on the other side of the hall, but nothing else.  If my ears serve me right, Tiny is in the one to my right, and I can see the zebra on the other side of the hall, also to the right.  “Tiny, I think the Warriors betrayed us.  They think we’re plotting to take down all of pony kind or some shit.”

“I tell you now that is not true.  Their hate is for non-ponies, like me and you.”

Oh Faust, the headache’s coming back.  “Okay, zebra, do you have a name?  What do you know about the Warriors?  And please, no rhyming if you can.  It’s hard enough to understand you without the pounding in my head.”

“I—sorry, my friend.  My mother was very fond of the rhyme; it is a hard habit to break from time to time.  Sorry.  My name is Xenon.  I came from Zebrica to find you and five others and flee the wrongdoers known as the Warriors.”

“Wait, wrongdoers?  The Warriors are fighting to save the world from the tyranny of the Empress!”

“Yes, but what will happen to the other countries?  Our shamans have foretold the utter destruction of our race, the griffons, Minotaurs, and even the dragons should the Warriors gain power.  They are, as you say, xenophobic.  They removed the Minotaurs ability to create when they refused to fight a losing battle.  Our shamans and witch doctors were targeted when we refused, in order to cut off our connection with the spirits.”

“And they say we’ll behead the griffon warlords and burn the dragon hoards too.  You see what I mean, Soldier?  Non-ponies can’t be trusted!” the General waltzes into my limited field of view.  “It’s just, if they try to fight us, I can’t be held responsible for what may happen to what they care about.”

Faust protect me.  “You’re just as bad as the Empress.  Actually, you’re worse.  She kept the other races alive because they came to an understanding about who was in charge.  You just want the power!”

“Power?  We tried to regain our power, but what happened?  The Minotaurs turned and ran.  The zebras outright stopped us at the door!  We made examples of their specialists because that was the only way to cow them into submission!”  He turns to Xenon.  “And where were the zebras when the Empress attacked?  Sitting in their shit-holes, prophesying the end times and supporting Twilight all the way!  Where were the Minotaurs?  Oh, doing nothing important, only trying to create ways to kill off every pony in Equestria with their technologic monstrosities!  The griffons?  Please.  They are too wrapped up in tradition to help anypony, much less themselves.”

“Don't you still follow the Warrior’s creed?  To bring back the Princesses and return to the way things were?”

He chuckles.  “Boy, you must take me for a fool.  The Princesses are long dead.  Even if they were still alive, they would be weak beyond repair.  After we kill the Empress and her bitches, somepony has to take the reins.  And if a couple of weak princesses are removed in the struggle, that’s no skin off my back.  So, who would lead?”

“Some mad pony like you?”

“I thank you for your vote.”

“You won’t get away with this!”  Tiny shouts out.  “Mr. Bugzy and the others will stop you!”

“My dear naïve little filly,” he moves over to Tiny’s cell.  “Don’t you think I’ve planned for this?  Ever since that changeling came, I’ve been planning.  I don’t believe they’ll try anything as long as their leader will come into harm’s way, isn’t that right, Shining?”

“Sir!  We just received a message on the long-ranger!  It’s from the changeling, sir.”

The General turns on the messenger.  “What?  How?  We never gave them equipment for that!”

“According to their transmission, the package is a Minotaur engineer who created a machine that can travel along the ground without tracks.  But this doesn’t make any sense, sir.  Didn’t we eliminate all the minotaur toolmakers and engineers five years ago?”

“Yes, we did.  I guess we can add a dash of necromancy to those charges then.  When did the grub say they would return?”

“He said by 1700 tonight, sir.”

“Good.  That gives us plenty of time to prepare.”

Long story short, they used me as bait and captured the other four.  We all ended up in separate cells without anything on us.  They even searched through Tiny’s mane and tail!  I got to know Bard by voice, mostly.  He seemed to be in the same boat as Xenon, one I was quickly boarding myself.  Soon enough, the General came for another visit.

“Ah, isn’t it great to have the seven obstacles to my victory safely tucked away?”

“You’re a monster, and you can’t hope to defeat the Empress without us!”

“Oh really?  All because some stupid little dream told you so?  Hear this, Shining Star:  I’ve had a dream since the moment I gained the helm of the Warriors.  A dream with me, sitting upon that throne, using the Empress as a hoofrest, the rest of the world groveling at the power of the Warriors.   As we speak, our forces are moving on Canterlot.  We have recently gained Intel showing all five Queens and the Empress are gathered there right now.  The only other time this has happened is oh, about seven weeks ago when you showed the world how much a traitor you are to your own kind.”

“I am not a traitor!”

“Yeah, you keep telling yourself that.  I’ll send you a postcard.  Ciao!”

With that, he exits, leaving us alone.  Grenda eventually speaks.

“So now what?”

Fifteen

Several hours later, and we don’t have any way out of the cells.  I tried to shadow-walk out and bend the bars with solid light, but I had stupidly forgot, these cells are made to protect against anything a pony could throw at it, plus whatever extra enchantments the General could have his unicorns create to bolster them against changelings, zebras, griffons, and Minotaurs.

As far as I can tell, the order we were placed in is: on my side, Quick, me, and then Tiny.  On the opposite side: Bard, C, Xenon, and Grenda.

“So, one more time.  Anypony have any ideas on how to get out of here?”

“Bro, I already tolds you, I got an idea!”

“Tiny, they took all your quote-unquote ‘toys’.”

“Not all of them!”

What follows is a series of high-pitched grunts and moans.  “Holy shit.  What are you doing, Tiny?”

“Oh Faust.  Shining, she just pulled a bomb out of her…” I hear the unmistakable sound of vomit hitting the floor from Grenda.

“T-Tiny?  What?  Where did you get a bomb?”

“Silly Shiny!  They don’t call it the partyhole for nothing!”

…

$hining$tar_Brain.exe has stopped working.  Would you like to send an error report?  (Y/N)

Error report not sent.  Rebooting…

Last recognized statement reloaded…

$hining$tar_Brain.exe has stopped working again.  Rebooting… ignore last statement…

$hining$tar_Brain.exe online.

“Uh… never mind.  Can you use it without killing yourself?”

“I dunno.  Only one way to find out!”

“Wait, young one!”  Bard’s voice rings out.  “I have an idea.  Grenda, take the mattress, bed, anything you can and pile it in a corner of your cell, and get behind it.  You too, zebra.  It should protect you from the blast.  Tiny, you do the same, and dive for cover once the explosive is armed.”

A minute later, Grenda and Xenon signal that they are ready.  With a few clicks, Tiny declares, “Fire in the hole!” and jumps behind her barricade.  With a loud retort, I see half of the bars of her cell impact Xenon’s.  She stumbles out of her decimated cell, a wide grin on her face.  “Woo!  Best jailbreak evar!”

“Hey!  What’s going on in here?”  Shit, the unmistakable sound of a guard.  I hear a gasp as he spots Tiny.  “Hey!  What are you doing? What happened to your cell?”

She turns on him with those wide eyes that only fillies can achieve.  “I’m sowwy, mistew!  I don’t know what happened!  The jaiow jus’ esploded!”

$hining$tar_Heart.exe has detected dangerous rise in blood glucose levels.

Running Heart_Attack.rar.

Rebooting…

When I come to with a slight pain in my chest, I see the guard unconscious on the floor, and Tiny with a ring of keys in her mouth.  “Uh, Shiny?  You okay buddy?  Ya kinda went still for a minute there.”

“I’m… good.  Can we stop by the patent office?  I need to declare cuteness a WMD.”  With a giggle she unlocks the cell doors, letting the rest of us out.

“Okay, now what?”  Bard rolls his shoulders.  “We’re trapped in the middle of a now-hostile base.  We need to get to Canterlot.”

“Yes.  My visions come true today, or not at all.”  I grin.  “And not all the Warriors are hostile.  I’m thinking, it’s probably all the soldiers who are hostile.  A lot of the non-fighters follow the creed.  And I know just who can help.”  I lead my merry band of misfits through the base to a familiar forge.

“Hey Battle!  We need a way to Canterlot, fast!”

He doesn’t even bat an eye.  “Shining, just the stallion I was looking for!  Hey, didn’t I hear something about you getting jail time?”

“We got off early for good behavior.”

“Unfortunately, I don’t have anything right now that’s fast.  Ah, a Minotaur.  Do you have any ideas?”

“You could say that.  How do you feel about wheels?”

“Holy fucking shit, this is awesome!”  We’re moving west at a fast clip, towards the center of the nation.  In under an hour, Bard, Tiny, and Battle were able to rig together a three seater motor cycle (much easier to say than motorized bicycle), and only have it look a little bit worse than Bard’s.  He’s driving his beast, with Tiny, C, and Quick in the passenger seats, and Scruffy on his shoulder, and he’s given control of number two to Grenda, given she has claws with which to hold the wheel, with me and Xenon riding shotgun.

“By my calculations, we should be nearing the pass up the mountain soon.  I would suggest a reduction in speed.”  C’s voice comes over the radio.

“Can do, Chryssid.  Grenda, remember to go easy on the brakes.  We didn’t have time to test any of that thing’s systems.”

“I’m trying!  You didn’t exactly set this for someone of my size!”

Soon enough, we’re roaring up the train tracks leading to Canterlot.  It’s hard to imagine I escaped from there two weeks ago only to come back willingly.  My, how priorities change.

Two minutes later, we come to a stop at the train station.  As we clamber off the motor cycles, I look around, scoping out our surroundings.

Everything is eerily quiet; no ponies are walking the streets.  We have a straight shot from the station right up to the main castle gates.  It would make sense; most ponies coming to Canterlot want a straight path to the castle.  Where are the Warriors, the Royal Guards, the anypony?

“Hey guys, we didn’t pass any trains on the way up, did we?” a chorus of ‘no’s answer me.  I take a step down the main thoroughfare.

“Get down, you idiot!”  The voice comes from a side alley.  I duck and roll. A high-velocity round impacts the street about two feet behind where I was.  I keep rolling right into the alley.

“Wait, Shining?  What?  H-How did you get out of jail?”  Shank me with a shiv, it’s Epsilon.  A quick glance out of the alley shows the rest of my group taking cover behind buildings.

“Hey guys.  Nice of you to, you know, turn on your teammate and everything.”

Pulse won’t meet my eyes, Scout is very meticulously examining his new bat, and Dig stares at me with unbridled hate.  Tread is the only one who’ll talk.  “Man, it’s not like we had a choice.  It was that or be charged with sedition!”

“So you guys don’t think I’ve gone crazy again?”

“We saw you as crazy.  We’re still recovering.  You ain’t crazy.  Crazy Shining would have already tried to kill all of us.”  He shuffles, uneasy.  “The General says you’ve gone a different kind of crazy.  He says ‘the creatures you’ve been associating with are plotting the downfall of the Warriors!’  Is that true?”

“No!  Well, maybe… I don’t know!  Some of the Warriors want peace, but just for ponies. They want to keep all the other races under their hoof.  You ever heard of the extermination of the Minotaur engineers and tool smiths?”

“Yeah.  Wait, are you saying-?”

“Yep, the General ordered it when they wouldn’t go on a suicide mission.”

“So, what do we do?  Most of the Warriors here are completely loyal to the General.” Pulse steps forward.

“You guys need to make sure my friends and I aren’t followed.  The end of the War is determined by their actions today, and nopony else’s.  Now, how do we take down that sniper?”

“The problem is we don’t know where the fucker is.  He has a view of the entire main road.  We’ve tried sending troops up the side paths, but they don’t return.  He can’t be a flyer, the splatter from Avalanche,” he motions to a red streak on a wall near the station, “means the weapons too big for anything except a stationary mount.”

“It also means it’s a single shot.  It takes time to reload a beast like that.  Scout, care to show how fast you can move?”

“Hell yeah!”

“Then on my signal, get as far up the road as you can.  Give yourself a five count, then duck behind another building.  Let’s draw this fucker out.”

I power my horn, and create a shadow doppelganger, like I did way back before this all started, during the Test.  I walk it out into the street, and sure enough, a hole immediately appears in its head.  “Scout, now!”  He’s gone like a lightning bolt, and five seconds later, I hear the sound of another round hitting the pavement.

“Yo.  Got about three streets up.  Still no sign of him.  What now?”

“Gonna try again.  Grenda, you nearby?”

“One street behind you.”

“When you hear the first shot, take a peek up the main road.  Use your eagle eyes and find that fucker.  Watch for the flash.”

I summon another shadow, this time one street up and across the main.  Again, it dies the moment it steps out.

“Got another two streets.  He’s getting faster.”

“Saw it.  You aren’t gonna like this, Shining.  He’s in one of the towers.”

“Shit.  The blue roof or the yellow?”

“Blue.”

“The Lunar Spire.  I can take it from here.  If I’m not back in five, move up without me.”

“Shining, no!  We have to do this together!”

“It’s okay, C.  Fate, remember?”

I start powering my horn, but Pulse steps in front of me.  “Just… just come back to us, okay?”  Then she leans in and plants a kiss right on my cheek.  Holy shit, she does like me!

Celestia damn it, Pulse.  That surprise kiss attack nearly threw off my aim.  I’m thankful I picked the closet in the Lunar Spire; enough darkness that I could afford a little leeway.  Feeling somewhat drained after the shadow-walk, I quietly open the closet door.

Sure enough, a pony with a target for a butt tattoo sits on the balcony, a huge freaking sniper rifle mounted to the railing.  He’s pulling back the bolt to chamber another round; he’s not getting off another shot if I can help it.  As he puts his eye to the scope, I summon a field of darkness to obscure the scope as I silently move towards him.

He curses, takes his eye off the scope, sees the sky is still perfectly clear, and settles in to put his eye back on the scope.

“You know, buddy, you look through those too long, your vision’s gonna get all messed up,” I say, laying a hoof on his shoulder.  Before he can react, I grab his shoulder and slam his head into the railing.  Instant K.O.  I summon a light blade and sever the mount, completely obliterating the usefulness of the gun, then send up a flare, signaling that the sniper is down.

“Well well, the prodigal son returns.  How… expected.”  Oh shit.  How did I miss the marshmallow on the bed?  Before I can react, a bolt of magic hits me in the back of the noggin.

“Oh poo! What did those shrinks do to you?”  I whip around and raise a shield as she tries to hit me again.

“Guess what, bitch?  I’m not under your control, or the Empress’s control, anymore.”  I begin pushing a bolt of light towards her, forcing it up her stream of magic.  “So just get out of my way, you mindfucking bitch!”

“Oh, you want a mindfuck, do you?  Well, how does this feel?”  With a flip of her mane, Sweetie Belle’s magic changes.  It flows all over my shield, and into the point of origin: my horn.  My magic breaks apart as the feeling of a thousand bees, scorpions, and spiders stabbing my brain at the same time forces me to my knees, writhing in pain.

“Feels good, doesn’t it?  Why don’t you try some more?”

“Sweetie Belle!”  The pain immediately ceases.  I can see a blurry marshmallow in front of me, with a more blurry larger marshmallow behind the first one.  “That’s the Crown Prince you are torturing!”

“You think I don’t know that?  You know as well as I do that he’s not really the prince.  So, really, I can do whatever the buck I want to this peasant!”

The small marshmallows top starts glowing green, but is swamped by the large marshmallow’s blue glow. “No, Sweetie!  The Empress shall decide his fate.”  Now my hooves are glowing blue, and I can’t feel the floor anymore.  Oh, wait.  She picked me up and is taking me to the Empress.  I should be worried about that, shouldn’t I?

Oh Celestia, I need to be worrying about that!  I wriggle, trying to break free so I can defend myself, but her magical grip is too strong.  Soon enough, I’m back in the throne room.  Sweetie Belle broke off from her sister at some point, so it’s just me, the Queens, and the Empress, all six wearing the blackened Elements of Harmony.  She’s looking less than amused.

“Really?  You seriously thought you could attack my capitol and live to tell the tale?  What part of that plan made sense to you?”

“Didn’t… know… the plan.  Was… locked up… at the time.”  She stands from her throne, beckoning me to follow.  Seeing as how I’m currently surrounded by six of the most dangerous mares in the world, I comply.  She goes through a door I hadn’t seen before, and with the tang of a fixed teleportation spell, we end up in a cave in front of a deep chasm.

“Spike?  Oh Spike!”  The ground shakes, and a large black and purple head rears out of the chasm.

“Yes, Twilight?”  It growls.  Even its voice causes rumbles in the earth.

“We have some uninvited guests down in the city.  I want you to go have some fun.”

The dragon sniffs.  “Hmm, zebra, griffon, and ah!  Minotaur.” He starts salivating.

“Yes, I want you to make them go away, by any means necessary.”  With a nod, the cave turns into a tornado simulator as he beats his massive wings and takes off towards a gap in the roof of the cave.

Twilight calmly, regally walks back through the door.  “Now we sit back and observe the destruction of your little rebellion.” She points her horn at a blank wall which promptly turns to water.  She casts what is obviously a scrying spell, and we now see what the drake is seeing.

Clouds rushing past, then he cranes his neck and focuses in on the small group moving up the main road.  He lands about thirty feet in front of them, and something catches his attention.  He looks down to reveal a mare I don’t know between his feet.  He rears back to roast her alive when a small black shape shoots out of nowhere and shoves her into a side alley, leaving the dragon with nothing but some burned pavement.  Spike refocuses on the group of five in front of him, especially Bard.

“He did always have a hankerin’ fer Minotaur after tha’ one visit to Trixie, didn’t he?” Queen Applejack remarks.

I say nothing; I know how this next part plays out.  Sure enough, he bathes the group in green hellfire, bringing a gasp from the Queens.   I smile; they’re in for quite a shock.  The fire fades-no, contracts, to a single point, that point being in Grenda’s claw.  Then, half of the spell shuts off.

“What?  What happened to Spike?  How did that griffon--?  Who could--?” the Empress turns on me.  I can’t help but keep smiling.  “You.  You know what happened.  Explain!”

“What can I say?  You underestimated us.”  I lean back on my haunches.  “You know what?  I’m getting kinda bored.  Unless you have something for me to do, Your Royal Plothead, I’ll just be going.”

She looks ready to rip me a new one, but then a light comes on behind those brilliant eyes.  “Yes, I do in fact have something for you to do.  One of Applejack’s favorite games.  It’s called ‘Dodge’.”

“Dodge wh—” my world explodes in pain as I’m flung backwards.  I shake the stars circling my head, and see Queen Applejack’s hindquarters as she lowers her back hooves.

“Okay, I get it now.  Do you want to know one of my favorite games?  The Clapper.”

“Ooh!  How does that work?  I mean, we can’t clap since we don’t have hands or claws like Minotaurs or griffons but we have hooves so we clop instead!”

Ignoring Queen Crazy in the corner there, I continue my explanation.  “It’s simple.  You just follow a little jingle.  Clap on *stomp stomp*, Clap off *stomp stomp*, Clap on clap off.  The Clapper!”  Like before, I plunge the room into darkness, gaining just enough time to launch a wall of solid shadow at the Apple Queen.  She dispels the darkness just in time to get a face full of shadow, knocking her backwards, onto her back in front of the throne, dazed.

The Empress looks wary.  “Hmm.  Rainbow, please make him… not conscious, please.”

“You got it, Twi!”  She flies right at me…

And right through me, landing muzzle first into the carpet.  I step out from behind a curtain and cancel the spell.  “They never expect the shadow clone.”

She gets to her feet cockily.  “You know what?  They say the same about the Sonic Rainboom.  Twilight, which window can you live without?”

“Oh, pick any of them.  I’ve been meaning to commission a new one anyways.”  Queen Rainbow grins, then shoots out the window of ‘my’ birth.  I glance in the direction of the Empress.  She’s thrown up a pretty solid shield in front of her and her Queens.  What the heck is a Sonic Rain—

BOOM!

I’m thrown against a wall again; I taste colors.

“Did anypony get the number on that bitch?”  I moan.

“Rainbow Dash.”

“Thank you.”  I stumble to my feet.  I try and spit the taste of red out of my mouth; too spicy for my tastes.

“Ugh, what are you ponies doing?  I said knock him out, not make him tumble!  Well, if you have to do something,” a shadow appears in front of me, “might as well do it yourself.  Hello, son.”  I feel a hoof press down on my back, hard, forcing me to my knees.  “Just lay down and forget all about this.  It will be all over soon.”

She thinks she has me beat.  I’ll show her what I can do.  She foolishly left herself open by getting so close to me.  I power my horn, ready to do a reverse crusher and send her into the ceiling, when her other hoof almost breaks my horn in half.  She tsks at me.  “Oh, we can’t have you using your magic against your Empress, can we?  I have a much better use for that instead!”  She leans in close, and whispers in my ear, “Shining Resolve, your mother needs you.”

Immediately, I’m thrust out of control of my body.  I can still see, but somepony else is telling my limbs what to do.  “Yes, Mother?  You called?”

“Resolve, you fucker.  Give me back my body!”

“He won’t listen.”  Inwardly (I guess you could say my mental self-inside my own mind), I turn and see a small scared colt trying to hide in a corner.

“Bright Star?  Is that you?”

“Yes.  Resolve won’t listen; his mom called him out, so he has to listen to her.  If he tries to listen to us, he’ll come in here and hurt me again.”

“Bright, nopony’s gonna hurt you while I’m here.”

“That’s what you said the last time too, Shining.  Then Resolve’s mom called you, and you went, and then you came back, and tried to hurt me.”

“No, I wouldn’t hurt you.  I would never--!” My head starts pounding.  Well, my head as in my mental representation of—you know what, just my head.

“Knock, knock, Shiny.  We were wondering when you would join the party again.”  I look, and who enters the ‘room’ other than me.  Well, crazy me, I guess.  Wild eyes, crazy mane, evil sadistic smile.  Yeah, totally me when I went off my rocker.

“Oh, don’t be like that.  You never went off your rocker; we just found a new one, so to speak.  One that Momma says we can decorate with the pelts of all our friends!”

“Okay, okay, whoa.  First off, crazy me, who from now on in this setting I will call Star, fuck off.  Go back into whatever dark corner of my mind you crawled from, and never come back.  Secondly, Bright, why don’t you fight Resolve?  In here, you have at least as much power as him.  Thirdly, I need a way out and a way to force Resolve back in.”

“Oh, don’t shove me away from such a good show, Shiny!”  Star points towards the eyes.  Through them, I see the General and a small force of Warriors behind him at the end of the throne room opposite the throne.  He’s shouting something at me, but I can’t tell what.  Then, Twilight’s voice comes to me.

“Shining Star, would you kindly come and play?”

“That’s my queue!”  Suddenly, Star is gone, replaced with Resolve.  He looks at Bright.

“I never did like that one, Bright.”  Then, he notices me.  “What?  Aren’t you—how did— *sigh* He came back, didn’t he?”

“If you mean Star, yeah.  So, Resolve, any ideas on putting me back in control?”

“Why should you go back to the driver’s seat?  I mean, yes, Star is insane, but I am obviously the better fit, and Bright outright refuses to do so.”

“It’s all my fault!”  Bright shouts out.

“What?”

“That day, the day we got our cutie marks.  I got a star flare, Resolve got a shield with a magic burst.  We thought we were invincible, so we went to that cave on the edge of the orphanage property the caretakers always said to stay away from.  We were both Daring Do, searching for lost treasure in the Forbidden Mines.”

“What happened?”

Resolve points towards the eyes.  “Now is not the time to focus on the past.  It seems Star is having fun, and that buys us enough time to get rid of him.”  I look, and yeah, fun would be putting it lightly.  He’s dancing my body through incoming unicorn and gunfire, moving like a ballerina and breaking a bone whenever an unfortunate pony gets too close.  Star is making a beeline right for the General, who is backing up and forcing his soldiers to take the brunt of ‘my’ assault, the ass.

“Resolve, this is MY body.  I need to be in control, or risk that,” I throw my hooves in the direction of the eyes, “getting loose.  He’ll kill everypony we love.”

“I understand that.  Do you know how long the Lady Sweetie Belle tormented you and us?  You held out four weeks before she was forced to resort to torturing us.  Every day, he grew more powerful until he forced himself into your place.  As far as we knew, you and Star were the same pony.”

“Well, we’re not.  We need to beat Star; he’s the one who forces control out of my hooves.  Any ideas?”

“Two of us alone are not enough, even if Bright wanted to fight him.  The only way is for the three parts to work as one to force down our errant ‘brother’.  And the only way for us to fight him is…”

“For you to resist the Empress’s call.  So all we can do is wait.”

“It would appear that way.”

So we settle in to watch the show of Star mercilessly breaking the Warriors apart to get to the General.

“Soldier, what are you doing?  I order you to stand down!”  The General is quickly running out of ponies to put between him and Star.

Star tsks at him.  “Silly stallion, I don’t listen to you.  I only listen to Momma.  Right, Momma?”

The Empress nods.  “Yes, little Shining Star.  And right now, Momma wants to see what the inside of a Pegasus looks like.  Bring me his cutie mark.”

“Okay!”  He darts forward.  The General backs up against the door; he’s out of ponies.

“No, please!  I’ll do anything you want!  Just don’t kill me!”  A coward to the core.

“Okay, I want to hold your heart in my hooves.  Literally.”  Then with a sickening crunch, Star actually punches into the Pegasus’ chest and pulls out his heart, Maretal Kombat-style.  After the body slumps to the floor, Star rips apart the combat uniform to reveal the General’s cutie mark: a single jag lightning bolt with wings sprouting from either side.

“S-Soarin?”  Rainbow flaps over to the body.  “How?  You died at Cloudsdale.  I buried you.  You fought the hardest of any of the Wonderbolts, and you were the only one to die that day.  How are you here?”

“It doesn’t matter, Rainbow.  What matters is we finally cut the head off of those wretched Warriors.  Shining Star, your job is done.  Shining Resolve, your mother needs you.”

With a poof, Star returns to the room in my mind.  He looks around, and sees both me and Resolve standing to either side of him.

“Hey, what’s going on?  Resolve, aren’t you supposed to be out there now?”

I clarify his question.  “Oh, Resolve’s decided to ignore our half-mother.  That, and a dose of sensory magic assures that we all stay here until we resolve this unfinished business; namely, you.”

“What?  What’s the problem with me?  I’m awesome!”

“No, you’re an out of control psychotic fragment of my mind that shouldn’t have existed in the first place.  Are you gonna come quietly, or do we have to beat you into submission?”

Star raises his hooves.  “Alright, I’ll go quietly, let me just—” he darts left, driving his hoof into Resolve’s stomach.  I leap at Star, but he pivots, planting his other hoof into my nether regions, making me fall to the ground with a squeak.

“Bright?” I croak.  “Could use a little help here.”

He looks fearfully at Star and Resolve duking it out all around the room.  “I… I can’t,” his voice comes at a whisper.  “I don’t wanna hurt anypony, not like the last time.”

“What happened?”

“I didn’t know the cave was weak.  I saw something shiny in the wall.  I grabbed it, and the cave collapsed.  Resolve teleported us out, but also got a lot of the falling rocks out too.  They landed on us, it was all my fault.”

I drag myself near him, careful not to do any more damage to my jewels.  “It wasn’t all bad.  You guys survived, I was born, so to speak, and look where we are now!  Fighting to free the world.”

“But that doesn’t free us from our own demons, like Star.  You know what he is, right?”

“I have an inkling of an idea.”  I wince as Resolve gets the business end of a vicious uppercut.  We need to help him, soon.

“He’s my desire to be free, to not be such a weakling.  Unfortunately, it’s also all my bad feelings.  That’s what Sweetie pulled out when she tortured us, all our evil, and combined them into Star.”

“Then you two are the culmination of the good things you had before me.  Your innocence, Resolve’s endurance, your willingness to help others, which transferred over to me, Resolve’s desire to protect those he loves.  Together, we can stop Star, but only together.  Come on.”

“No.  If I do, I’ll hurt one of you.”

“Fine.  Just join in whenever you’re ready.”

I’m about to leap into the fray again, when a voice I shouldn’t hear bursts through the room.

“Shining Resolve, get your flank out here right now young stallion!”  A shaft of purple light shoots down to the center of the room.

“Yay!  More fun time!” Star makes a move for the light, but I knock him away.

“Don’t let him into the light!  There’s no telling what’ll happen!”  I pick up where Resolve left off, giving him a much needed breather.  I don’t make much progress in wearing Star down, but I do keep him away from the light.

“You wanna know what’ll happen if I get control?  Well, your friends will be here soon, and then I get to play all sorts of games with them!  I wanna dance around in a zebra pelt, stab a minotaur with his own horns, see how he likes it, de-claw a griffon, then pluck every beautiful feather from her wings and make them into a hat to wear on my butt, just because.  And Momma will love me no matter what, even as I snuggle into her fur and break her neck.”  The shock from that statement allows him to land another kick to my groin.  “Yeah, Momma will love me so much after that!  Then she’ll come back and be all better and will love me even more!”

I gasp for air.  While I recover, Resolve goes at him again.

“Bright, please.  We can’t do this without you!  Think of all the ponies he’ll hurt if he gets free!”

“But what about hurting you?  You need to be in control of this body; I can’t do it.”

“Just help us al—” my eyes pop out of my head as Star AGAIN slams me in the no-go-zone.  I fall to the ground even more.

“He keeps kicking me in the dick.  Why does he keep kicking me in the dick?”

“Cause its fun!”  He spin-kicks Resolve away, and makes a mad dash for the light.

“Bright, you have to stop him!”

“No!” the shout rings out across the room, then everything falls silent.  I chance a look up.  Bright is standing in front of the shaft, head down, his horn piercing through Star’s chest.

Star coughs up blood, cackling.  “You think a little wound like that can stop me?  I’m you, I’m him, I’m Shining, I am all of you.  No matter what you do, I will be there, in the shadows, waiting for the right moment to regain control.  I will be waiting…” Star slowly dissipates.

I stand, as does Resolve.  We move to stand to either side of Bright in front of the light.  “Now what?”

“Shining Resolve!  You answer me this instant!”  Twilight is on the edge of panic.  Ever since she called her son back out, Shining Star’s body has been unnaturally still, not even breathing.  Then, after about a minute, he takes a sharp breath.  He smiles at the Empress.

“Sorry for worrying you, Mother, I was having a disagreement with Bright Star and Shining Star, is all.  Also, it would appear Shining Star’s friends are here.”

Sure enough, a moment later the doors burst open and six figures step into the room.  They stare in shock at the mostly unharmed body of their friend, not realizing he isn’t in control.

“Good.  Shining Resolve, please show your friends the proper hospitality regarding rebels.”

“Why, of course, Mother.” He gives a grand bow.  “But first, Mother, I have something to say to you.”

“Hmm?  What would that be?”  She leans forward expectantly.

“You are a horrible fucking excuse for a mother.”

The smile drops from her face.  “What?”

“You don’t even know when your true son is in control.  You granted a white-coated bitch permission to dig into your son’s mind.  You made me go insane out of your fucking pride that everything must be perfect for you.  You never cared for your son at all.  In fact, Resolve is telling me he’s glad the Warriors took him in.  He couldn’t stand how you treated us.  And look, as Shining Star, I’ve made more friends than you would ever allow, from all walks of life.  And these six are the ones who, today, are going to utterly destroy you.  You know why?  Because there is one thing, one fucking thing, you can’t plan for: fate.”

As if that was a hidden command, the six step forward, between Shining Star and the Empress and her Queens.  The words come unbidden from Shining Star’s mouth as the Elements begin to shake of their own accord.

“Chryssid, who came to the Warriors when they knew they would kill him, all on the hope I would help, represents the Element of Courage!”

Chryssid nods.  “Indeed.”

“Tiny, the crazy filly who pulled us out of the control of Sweetie Belle, who will never give up, no matter the cost, represents the Element of Will!”

“Boom, bitches!”

“Grenda, who holds within a raging fire, ready to ignite at the slightest touch, yet always in control, represents the Element of Emotion!”

“If you say so.”

“Quick Writ, the Pegasus who found weaknesses in buildings and who holds as much knowledge in his head as an entire library, represents the Element of Wisdom!”

“Are you sure?  You know what I did before this.”

“Bard, who thought he lost everything when he left his home.  You didn’t lose anything.  In fact, you gained a new clan to call your own, representing the Element of Honor!”

“I… I have a clan?  Yes, my own clan!”

“And finally Xenon, who knew the risks of coming to the Warriors, but trusted in her heritage to see her, and us, through thick and thin, represents the Element of Spirit!”

“That I can see.  I can tell it suits me.”

While Shining Star has been talking, the Elements of Harmony worn by the six mares burst apart, one by one, the shards circling the six other beings.

“These six have faced every trial thrown against them by friend and foe.  These six have shown you no longer have the ability to wield the Elements, and so they take up their mantles as the new Elements of Harmony!”

“No!  you will not take us down so easily!  Girls, give me your power!”

A brilliant beam blasts from the Elements to meet another blast from the Empress and the Queens.  They dance back and forth, but something is amiss.  The Elements are losing ground, bringing the new Bearers closer to destruction.

“That should be it!  What’s missing?”

We are.  Two ghostly apparitions appear to either side of Shining Star.  The group is not complete.  Alone, they will fall.  They need a binding force.  They require Balance.

“Balance?  How do I represent Balance?”

You are the very definition.  Two souls intertwined into one being, both vastly different, yet coexisting as one.

“But the dream—”

The dream only showed part of the outcome, as every dream has.  Fate is fickle.

“Balance.  I-we are the embodiment of Balance.”  Shining Star moves forward, into the maelstrom.  Immediately, the beam triples in strength, quickly overtaking the Empress’s beam, washing the throne room in white, blinding light.

Sixteen

The light slowly fades.  As it fades, it reveals the seven new Bearers of Harmony still standing, and the Empress and her Queens on the ground.

“Whoa.  What the heck just happened, Shining?  Shining?  Wow, Shining, on your head!”  Shining Star reaches a hoof up to feel something upon his brow.  He pulls it off to reveal a crown, similar to the Empress’s, but with a two-toned black and white gem set in it, with the black portion wrapping around the white, and vice versa.

He looks around.  “I’m not the only one with new bling.”  Sure enough, each of the seven inspects their new Elements.  Grenda wears a golden necklace bearing a large flame-shaped ruby.  Around Xenon’s neck, one of her neck rings now bears an amethyst representation of the glyph on her flank.  Bard now wears two silver arm bracers with onyx hammer and wrench gems.  Chryssid, Quick Writ, and Tiny each has a torc with a lapis heart, quartz book, and citrine explosion bloom gems, respectively.

The seven converse excitedly amongst themselves until the Empress begins to stir, drawing their attention.  All six false ruler’s glamour has fallen, revealing their true forms: hybrid pony-changelings.  Each has holey hooves, horns, and wings, fangs, and still stand taller than the average pony.  There are slight differences, such as Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy’s wings being larger, and somewhat more pony like, and Rarity and Twilight’s horns being larger than the others.

The ex-Empress climbs unsteadily to her hooves, then shoots a death glare at the new Bearers.  “You can’t expect to have won, right?  I still have enough power to… power to… what?  Why can’t I magic?”  Her horn tries to light itself in preparation for a spell, but something stops it just short of actually glowing.

“I believe we can answer that.”  The wall behind the throne shimmers out of existence, revealing, at long last, the objects of the Warrior’s turmoil: Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, the rightful rulers of Equestria. Behind them lies two piles of shattered glass.  They walk towards the throne, but stumble.  Grenda and Quick quickly dart over and assist them.

“We thank you seven for freeing us from the grip of my student.  Twilight, what caused all of this?  Twenty years ago, you said it was because fear of my weakness ruled your heart.  We both know that isn’t true.”

“I knew I could be better than you!  You are weak, you are worthless, you aren’t meant to rule!  I was literally born to rule this pathetic nation, and I did!  Why… won’t… my horn… work?”

Luna places her horn near Twilight’s.  “It is as I feared, sister.  The Elements have completely drained her magic.  Not just the unicorn magic either; I sense no alicorn, changeling, Pegasus, or Earth pony magic.  They have become Forsaken.”

“But, they’ll get that magic back, right?  Then they’ll be just as dangerous again.”

“’Tis not what it seems, young unicorn.  The Elements of Harmony have completely knocked these six out of the magic field.  They will never regain their power.”

Celestia moves to step down the dais, but stumbles again.  Again, Grenda and Quick Writ keep her on her hooves.  “Princess Celestia!  What’s happened to you?”

“It is alright, young ones.  Twilight kept us drained of most of our magic, leaving only enough to allow us to raise the sun and moon each day.  With time, we will regain our full strength.  Now, young unicorn—”

“Uh, my name is Shining Star, Your Majesty.”

“Very well.  Now, young Shining Star, what has befallen our kingdom these past twenty years?”

Before he can answer, the large doors bang open, and a small flood of ponies enter the room.  “General!  I’ve come with—” the Colonel stops when she sees the broken unconscious forms of the General’s strike team, and openly cries out upon seeing the bloody lifeless form of the General.  Her eyes dart around, searching for any possible culprit.  They eventually land on Shining Star.

“You.  You killed him, you traitor!”

He puts a hoof up defensively.  “No, I didn’t do this!  Well, I kinda did, but I wasn’t in control of my body when it happened!  It was the Empress!  She was controlling me, forcing me to do stuff like that!”

“Lies!  The General told us you had turned against the Warriors, took to conspiring with lesser races, and what do I see here?  You stand beside a changeling, griffon, Minotaur, and a zebra.  You know changelings are nothing but evil, and the other three races never lifted hoof, claw, or hand to help us!  Soldier Shining Star, as commanding officer of the Warriors, I hereby charge you with treason against your fellow pony.  Your sentence is death.”

“And as the Princess of Equestria, I hereby overturn that ruling.  These seven, who had no reason coming together in the first place, have done what no singular group of ponies could ever do: they have saved the world from my student and her corrupted friends.  Lay down your arms, and let us seek peace.”

“Never!  We will never accept that a lesser race could accomplish anything!  You have made an enemy of the Warriors today, Princess.”  The Colonel turns and runs from the room, followed by her strike force carrying the limp bodies of their comrades.

Luna looks to her sister.  “Cel, do you think they will try something?”

“Not yet, Princess.” Shining Star steps forward.  “If I know the Warriors, they’re gonna try and salvage as much as they can, then go into hiding.  We won’t have to worry about them for at least a few months.”

“But am I right to assume that there are non-fighters within these Warriors?”

“Yeah, but I know most of them.  They won’t believe that I would turn on them like that, and one of the remaining leaders is my closest friend, besides these six.  In any case, we should probably get to them sooner rather than later.  They can help start the rebuilding of our nation.”

Celestia nods.  “I would enjoy going outside again.  What about you, Luna?  The last time I actually saw my sun was, what, twenty years ago?”

“And so, the nine of us gathered a small group of surprisingly still loyal guards (turns out there were those still loyal to Celestia after all this time), and made for Manehattan, making it to the Warriors base just before the Colonel.  With the help of Battle, and Scootaloo, who finally came out of hiding, we were able to convince most of them of the General’s deception, and gained a new force to begin the work of rebuilding.  We all came back to the castle, where Celestia set the seven of us up in this sick suite of rooms.  We commandeered this small study room to use for this retelling, and I guess that brings us up to now.”

Shining Star leans back in his chair.

“Wow.  It’s over.  I still can’t believe it’s over.  All that pain, all that suffering, all to stop the Emp- I mean, Twilight.  She isn’t much of anything anymore.  She and the others are now in the darkest dungeon Celestia could staff.  Even though they have no more magic, we don’t need them out and about, sowing possible rebellion.

“Huh.  Have we just become the Old Farts?  You know, the ones I talked about before this retelling, who send all their Young People to war to defend themselves, yet always fearing retribution from within?  Well, hopefully we won’t be going to war again any time soon.”

The door opens, and Chryssid stand in the doorway.

“Shining, is it done?”

“Yeah, C, it’s done.  You wanna give some kind of ending notes?  There’s something I have to do.”

“As you wish.”

Shining steps off the chair and leaves as Chryssid takes the seat.  The cameras change, following Shining Star as he trots through Canterlot Castle.  Eventually, he reaches a large iron door guarded by two ponies, one in Solar guard armor, and the other in Lunar guard armor.  With a nod, they open the door and let him through.  The cameras now show very little light; the path Shining Star takes is sparingly lit by wall-mounted torches.  He comes to a stop in front of a wall of bars.

“Hello, Mother.”

Something shifts in the darkness, and the fallen Empress is revealed.  Her mane is unkempt, her legs are trembling, and all four hooves are chained to a wall, with some slack to allow a certain degree of movement.

“Why Shining, finally decided to visit your dear mom?”

“Cut the shit, Twilight.  I’m not here for small talk.  I need answers.”

“I’m sure Celestia, may she go blind from her own sun, can answer any question you have.”

“Not this one.  This is personal.”

Twilight looks thoughtful.

“Hmm?  And what would your question be?”

Shining takes a calming breath.

“Where is my father?”

~~~~~~~~~~

End of The War for the Sun & Moon

~~~~~~~~~~

Prologue

*click* The being turning the recorder on takes a calming breath.

War.

It really sucks, doesn’t it?

Chatter between the being and something else.

What, C?  Oh, this is an official record of the war, huh?  Well, I gotta give a little backstory first.

Yeah, a few generations down the line, hopefully the schoolfoals reading this transcript won’t know about war, so Uncle Shining Star’s gonna tell ya all about it.

See, war goes like this:  You have these two groups, Old Farts A and Old Farts B.

More chatter; the other has come closer and can be heard.

“Sir, I do not believe this is the best use of your time.”

Shut it, C.  This is my story, I tell it how I want.

“Sir, I really must disagree—“

C, if you aren’t gonna be any help, leave until it’s your turn to speak, ‘kay?

Muffled thumps as C storms out.

There goes Hurricane C, always raining on my parade.  Now, where was I…?

Ah, yes.  War.

You see, Old Farts A wants something that only Old Farts B has.  A says to themselves “You know what?  Let’s send all the young people to fight B’s young people, while we sit back and profit!”  And so, Young People A fight Young People B, while Old Farts A and B sit on their fat flanks and get even fatter!  Eventually, the Young People are like “Why are we doing this?  We shouldn’t have to fight for something we don’t need.” So the Young People A and B rise up, and stop Old Farts A and B from continuing the path to destruction, and find a more peaceful solution.

There’s your history for the day, kids.  That is the synopsis of every war ever.

However, about twenty-one years ago, the Young People wanted a change.  The Old Farts weren’t at war, so the Young People went to war; specifically, the six known as the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony.  According to them (who we have locked up until it can be proven their powers are gone for good), they traveled around the world a bit, and the general consensus from the other nations was that Equestria was a weak nation.  Not because of the people, or the army, or even the location.  It was the leader.  So they got drunk on power and removed Princess Celestia and Princess Luna from power.  According to most, they died that day, and the duties of raising the sun and moon were taken by Empress Twilight.  Most.

They made their first mistake on the day known as the Fall of Celestia.  They became the Old Farts.  Their subjects became the Young People, and the Young People weren’t happy.  The Old Farts immediately went to war with all the other nations, the zebras, the minotaurs, the griffons, heck, I heard there was even a brief foray into dragon territory.  The Young People got pissed.  There were some who thought Celestia and Luna were still alive, kept somewhere under the Canterlot Fortress.  Certain groups of Young People got together, and created a few rebellions.  Most of these were quickly destroyed, The Children of the Night and Celesta’s Chosen to name a few, but some got smart during this purge and went into hiding.  One group in particular was The Warriors of the Sun and Moon.  Yeah, a bit of a mouthful, but stated our purpose easily enough: depose Empress Twilight and her Queens, and restore Celestia and Luna to the throne.

That was our goal, and one that almost destroyed all of the planet.  It was only through the acts of six individuals that we were able to take the Empress’ powers away and lock them up.

This is Private Shining Star of the Warriors, and from my mouth and hooves, this is the one-hundred-percent true and totally not embellished for any reason story of the War for the Sun and Moon.

Muffled, Shining Star is not speaking to the device.

Someone get me the friggin’ name guy!  I need to slap a bitch!

Supplemental 1 - The Ravings of Queen Pinkie

There is a planet out in the vast reaches of space known as Equis.  This planet defies any sense of logic: the sun orbits the planet instead of the other way around.

On Equis, there is a country called Equestria, or the Equestrian Empire, depending on who you ask.  In the western reaches of this country lies a city.  A city of fame, fortune, and too much of a good thing.

Las Pegasus, the party capitol of the world.

Within this expansive and brightly-lit city, a few blocks away from the main street, is a building.  Most passing by would just remark that it is just another casino, and a cruddy looking one at that.  Tall, decorated in excessive gaudiness, the only outward symbol that it is not what it seems is a giant landing pad sticking out at the top of the building.

Within this building is, in fact, a casino of the most lavish sort, hosted by many always-smiling ponies.  As you spend your day there, it may become somewhat uncomfortable how happy every pony there is, how they don’t flinch at anything, and their promises that you will leave happier than you’ve ever been.

However, the focus of this tale is not on the casino, but on what is above.  For this, like was mentioned, is no ordinary house of debauchery.

The building is actually the Throne of the Element of Laughter, Queen Pinkie Pie, and this is one of the many tales of her madness.

Queen Pinkie Pie sat upon her streamer-covered throne, lazing about.  Empress Twilight hadn’t given her any new information in a while, excepting the hundred-bit bag delivered from Queen Applejack, and she was finding ruling a city, even one as vibrant as Las Pegasus, to be very…

“Bo-ring!”  She sighed.  Then, like the popping of a balloon, an idea came to her.  She rose, and clopped her forehooves together.

“Mr. Higglebottoms!”  Her Number One Assistant in Everything Party entered the room.

“Yes, my Queen?”  Mr. Higglebottoms wore the ever-present smile that Queen Pinkie demanded all of her servants wear, or face dreadful punishment.  A healthy dash of Pinkie’s specialty Happy Magic helped too.

“Please bring me my Wall No. 4!”

“As you wish, my Queen.”  Less than five minutes later, a brick wall is erected in the center of the throne room.  The smattering of smiling guards and servants leave; they know better than to interrupt the Queen when she is in the mood.

She leaps off of her throne, focuses, then punches through the wall with all of her might.  Instead of seeing the rest of the throne room through the new hole in the wall, though, all that can be seen is an inky blackness.

Pinkie puts her mouth up to the hole and shouts, “Hey!  What’cha doin’?”

The author then recoiled in—What?

“You heard me right!  What are you doing?”

Um, this can’t be happening.  I must be hallucinating, or something.

“Nopey-dopey!  This is real!  So, Maxes, what’cha workin’ on?”

Okay, check medications later, but for now… Well, Pinkie, I’m writing a story.

“Ooh!  I love stories!  What’s this one about?  I hope it’s not like that coocoo one where my friends and I went cray-cray and tried to kill the Princesses!”

Uh… how?

“Buddy, you obviously know us, so you shouldn’t have to ask.”

Well, this is the, heh heh, sequel to that one.

“Nice!  Does it show how cool and kickflank we are as the new rulers of Equestria?”

Not exactly.  See… wait, I can’t tell you anything about it!

“Why the buck not?”

Well, it involves you and the other Elements being… the bad guys?

“What?  No way!  We’re the best Queens for, like, ever!”

That’s not how the Warriors see it.  Oh, shit!

“Hmm, the Warriors, you say?  You wouldn’t happen to mean those icky rebels Twilight keeps talking about, would you?”

Shit! Okay, Maxes think fast… oh! Can I get your promise that you won’t blab this to anything else, like, ever?

“Why?  Are ya afraid I’ll blow everything up otherwise?”

Please, just Pinkie Promise me you won’t tell anyone.

“Ugh, fine.  I promise to not tell a living soul about this.  Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.  There, now what is it about?”

CRASH!

The citizens of Las Pegasus look up, and behold an entire floor’s worth of shattered glass falling down to the street.  As the ponies dive for cover, a single word can be heard, reverberating to the hills.

“WHAT?!”

Holy shit, warn me next time.  I think my ears are bleeding.

“But that’s so not fair!  Why would anypony want to get rid of us!  I’m awesome!”

Did you ever read any of my other works?

“Nah, I didn’t understand any of them.”

Then allow me to enlighten you.  Let’s see, Discord Meets Ruby Rose, Chapter Four, Origin… page four: “…some groups are like a hydra.  You cut off one head, and another takes its place somewhere else.  And you forget your history, my student.  I have had forces arrayed against Luna and me since the first day we imprisoned Discord.”  From the noncanon mouth of Princess Celestia to one Twilight Sparkle.

“Okay, but what does that have to do with this story?”

In my world, our leadership always has opposition.  For the last eighteen or so years, you six have been playing without an opponent.  Which is, regrettably, against the rules.  I dredged up an old opponent to stand against you.  And remember, you can’t breathe a word of this to anybody.

“Humph, fine.  This whole ‘peaceful rule’ thing was getting boring anyways.  I’ll talk to you later, big boy.”

Wait!  I… I need a little advice.

“Really?  On what?”

See, I’ve got three of the primary protagonists set up, but I need three more.  I want them all to be unique, and I have a unicorn, an Earth filly, and a changeling.  Any ideas on what the other three should be?

“Well, besides Gilda, I’ve always liked griffons…  Wait, why do you need six?”

Well, this has been fun and all, but I’m going to power this possessed piece of junk off right now.  Okay by- *click*

“Maxes?  Hey, you get back here!”  Nothing answers her.  She angrily demolishes the rest of the wall.  Not a moment later, her guards burst through the doors.

“Our Queen!  We heard shouting, and glass breaking!  Are you alright?”

“Yes, Mr. Snuggles, I’m okay.  Just a little disagreement with an interdimensional being, is all.”

The guard breathes a sigh of relief.  Just his Queen being herself, as always.  “Will there be anything else, my Queen?”

“Yes.  Clean up this wall, and get the Cakes to send me a treat.”  As the guard retreats out the door, Pinkie shouts, “And don’t forget the extra hot sauce this time!”

Eight

“Hey!  How are my two favoritest inventors in the whole Empire doing today?”

Tiny bolts up from her workbench.  “Shining!  How’s my main bro?  Do me a solid and hold still, ‘kay?” she hefts a weapon off the bench and… right at me?  Before I can react, she pulls the trigger (she still won’t explain how she can do that without magic or wings), and I’m blown into the wall behind me.

“…Ow?”  It didn’t really hurt, it was just so sudden.  Tiny, however, looks hurt.

“Poo!  That was supposed to knock ya out! Either that or explode in my hooves but that’s okay!  It just needs work!”  She bounces off farther into the shop.

A blue glow envelops my body, gently tugs me out of the wall, and sets me on my hooves.  “Thanks, Battle.  How’s the little lady getting along?”

The unicorn in question is beaming.  “I tell you, Shining, she’s got more energy than Celestia did during her pranking fits.  She’s put more blueprints on the walls in three days than I have my entire time arming the Warriors.”  His smile falls.  “On a more serious note, how have your dreams been?  I know it wasn’t easy, that first day after the mission.  I heard from the General you ran into Sweetie Belle out there.  It’s hard to imagine how such a sweet little filly became a monster like that.”

“I…I’m fine, Battle.  C and I have been seeing the Warrior’s shrink.  She’s been able to help convince us that this,” motioning to the surroundings, “is all the real.”  Yeah, we got hit hard after the mission.  I didn’t trust anypony, not until one of the Warrior’s own mind specialists was able to tell me that I was no longer under her control.  I still have half-nightmares where everypony in the Warriors are trying to kill me, all with piercing green eyes…

I shake my head.  It does no good to dwell on what isn’t; I need to focus on what is.  I feel a hoof on my shoulder.   I look up, and Battle is looking down at me.  “Cheer up, kid.  No matter what happens, you have an entire rebellion to help you through this, and some close friends.”

“Friends?  Who?”  I have an inkling of an idea, but I need to hear somepony else say it.

“Me, the changeling, Tiny.  The Crusader foals don’t count; they’re too young.  Your Unit is your best family.  Don’t make the same mistake I did, Shining.”

Battleborn?  Absolute badass, protector of the Princesses, making a mistake?  “What mistake was that?”

“I abandoned my family when the Queens attacked.  I saw the changelings swarming Canterlot, flowing from the castle, and I ran.  I ran from my duty, from my fellow warriors, and it almost cost me everything.  It was only through the actions of one pony I am even here today.  I think… I think it is time you meet them.”

Oh crap.  He doesn’t mean… “Battle, do you mean?”

“Yes, Shining Star.  I will take you to see the Commandant.”

I make my way back to my room in a daze.

I mean, holy shit.  The Commandant, this mysterious pony pulling the strings of Battle, High Mighty, and the General, the one who helped Battle recover from the loss of everything he knew, and I was finally going to meet him, tonight!

Unfortunately, Battle swore me to secrecy about the whole thing, which I completely understand.  The fewer ponies who know about the identities of the leadership, the less chances our enemies have to take them out.

I nudge open the door, and see a familiar black carapace on the top bunk.  “So, how is our young compatriot?”

“She’s doing fine, C.  She knocked me into a wall, but it’s all good.  Hey, you wanna get something to eat?”

“Fine.” He hops down, and we set off for the mess.  As we trot, a thought occurs to me, something that’s been bothering me for a while.

“Hey, C.  Changelings can’t really process pony foods, right?”

“Correct.  Although we contain the necessary organs to do so, we gain no sustenance from consuming actual food.  Joining you and your kind for food is more of a pleasantry than anything else.”

“Then how do you keep yourself alive?”

He stops, causing me to halt as well.  He glances around, making sure we are alone in the tunnel.  “You do know how changelings are supposed to feed, right?”

“Yeah, you either infiltrate a town or capture ponies and suck their love dry.  Wait a minute, is that why I can’t get Pulse to like me, no matter what I do?”

“No, nothing like that, and you are only partially correct.  While love is the main source of nutrition for a changeling, we can actually siphon off any emotion, with varying levels of sustenance.  Take the food you eat, for example.  You may eat a piece of bread, and it will provide energy for a short time, or you could eat a large salad, and keep yourself going for much longer, because your body is meant to process the salad to take all the nutrition from it.  For me and my kin, love is the salad, and all the other emotions are between the salad and the toast.  Also like food, each emotion gives off a unique ‘flavor’, with love being the closest to heavenly as mortals can get.  Happiness, joy, wellbeing, and such give off a flavor of a lesser degree, such as a tasty sweet.  Anger, hatred, jealousy, all those negative emotions can be fed on, but are akin to eating your own feces.  It can be done, but most changelings avoid it.”

“So, you’re feeding off of some positive emotion, and in small enough amounts that nopony can notice.  What emotion?”

“Passion.  The Warriors’ drive to see the Queens deposed and return to the olden days is a wellspring of emotion.  The passion to complete your goals permeates everything you do.  That day we met, the passion of the guards to protect their loved ones was enough to keep me sated for several days alone.”

“Wow.  So, what would happen if you took in too much emotion at once?  Would you become super powerful?”

“No.  It would be like you eating the entirety of a seven-course meal, and ending up sick because of it.  Changelings can process quite a bit, but if I was to overload, I would end up unable to leave bed for days.”  He looks me in the eyes.  “What is with that look, Shining Star?”

“Huh?  What look?”

“The look that says you have an idea.”

“I’m just thinking, when we finally have to face the Empress, would it be possible to subdue her through an overload?  Feed her so much energy she becomes unable to do anything?”

“That… is a good plan, in theory, but you obviously know nothing of the powers of a Queen.  Their reserves are near infinite, and can distribute their own fed-on energy to their drones.  To overload a queen, you would have to overload her entire hive, or cut her off from it first.  As far as I know, Shining Star, not even the entire population of Equestria working as one would be able to accomplish such a feat.”

Damn.  I thought I was onto something that time.  Oh well, we’ll find a way eventually; hopefully before we get to the throne room.

“Are you ready, Shining?”

I swallow hard.  “As ready as I’ll ever be, Battle.”

“Okay, I’ll go in first, make sure they’re ready.” He opens the large steel door and disappears inside.  Less than five minutes later, he emerges.  “The Commandant will see you now, but first, some ground rules.  Be on your best behavior, don’t be rude, and I probably don’t have to tell you this, but from this point on, you are only the fourth living pony to meet The Commandant face-to-face.  Keep it that way.”

I nod.  “Obviously.  Let’s get this over with.”  He holds open the door, and closes it after I step through, plunging the room into blackness.  A lesser pony would panic at the idea, but given my specialty, it is almost like home.  I send tendrils of magic throughout the darkness, a form of sonar like fruit bats use.  The room is fairly small, one door on the far side, probably to the Commandant’s personal rooms.  In the center of the room is a chair, with a pony in it.  I can’t tell any features, but the pony is fairly small.  In front of the chair is a small round object.  With a flash, a single hanging light turns on, revealing…

“A turtle?”  Sure enough, the round object is a small green turtle.  The light is shining in such a way that I can’t see anything beyond the small circle.

“Tortoise, actually.  You must be the new soldier, Shining Star.  Battle has told me a lot about you.”  The voice comes from where the pony sits; definitely a female, but somewhat scratchy and strained.  I remain defensive; definitely don’t want to let my guard down.

“Funny, today is only the second time he’s ever mentioned you.  Care to shed a little light on the situation?”  I ignite my horn.

“Please, no lights.  The fewer ponies who know I’m alive, the better.  What do you wish to know?”

“How about we start with how you and Battle know each other.”

“After the takeover of Canterlot by the newly crowned Empress Twilight, Battleborn fled, ending in a small town not too far from the mountain.  I found him almost dead in an alley, took him to my home, and nursed him back to health.  He told me of how the Elements returned and killed the Princesses, bringing with them an army of changelings to take over Equestria.  I tried to warn the townsponies, but I was just a filly.  Nopony would listen, even as we began getting reports of changeling swarms in Manehattan, Las Pegasus, and Fillydelphia, each headed by a Queen of insurmountable power.  By the time rumor became fact, it was too late to escape the country.  Another Queen was quickly taking over the outlying countries, forcing everything to bow to the Empress.  Battle and I saw this, and knew the best place to hide was in plain sight, so we fled to Manehattan and found the first Warriors.  We were able to perform several small raids on strategic locations, but nothing mattered; their resources were limitless.  Then, a small group went out on their own, against our orders, and tried to assassinate the Queen.  Their skulls… their skulls were mounted in front of the Capitol Building.  Our rebels were distraught; most fled that night.  We knew then that we would need more help, so we found the two bravest and toughest ponies we could find to help lead the new Warriors to victory.”

“High Mighty and the General.  Wait, you said they took over the land-based cities.  What about Cloudsdale?  Queen Rainbow Dash was the last to claim her city, but you haven’t mentioned it.”

A sigh, then she speaks, somewhat shakily.  “I… I went to Cloudsdale right before the attacks, to try and find more warriors, and maybe get the Wonderbolts to see reason.  I was barely able to escape once the siege started, with nothing to show for my efforts.  Could you imagine how different our success would be if we had Spitfire, Fleetfoot, or hell, even Soarin on our side?  But no, the brave ponies they were, they were captured by Rainbow Dash, and turned into the Shadowbolts.

“But enough about the past.  Tell me of your first mission.  I read the reports, but I would rather have a first-hoof account.”

So I recount the details of our mission to retrieve Tiny.  It’s going great, until I talk about the trap.  She gasps, saying something about the possibility of traitors.  I continue with the report, up to the point with Sweetie Belle.  I hear a small intake of breath; that hit her hard.

“S-Sweetie Belle?  Are you sure?”

“Ma’am, we live in Manehattan.  I would recognize the Queen’s main bitch anywhere.  Her picture is everywhere.”  Then, a thought occurs.  “Ms. Commandant, Ma’am, what exactly have you been doing for the past nineteen years or so?”

“After Cloudsdale, I went into hiding.  I have been here ever since, gathering information, sending orders through Battle and the others.”

“So, you’ve been sitting here on your flank for almost twenty years, sending ponies out to get killed every fucking day?  I’ve lost many friends to your orders!  I almost lost my new friends on that mission!  How can you just sit there and let all this destruction happen, when you haven’t really lost a thing?”

“Do not talk to me about loss!” her head darts forward, and I catch a glimpse of purple eyes and a magenta mane.  Holy shit, is she…?  “I have lost my family, my friends, their family, even the one who called me her sister to this damn war.  You never had a family, did you?  You were in an orphanage most of your foal life.  Well, get this:  I feel the pain every time I read those three little letters in any report.  KIA.  It hurts, because every time it happens, that is another pony who isn’t coming home to see their family.  So, do not talk about loss; you know nothing.”

Heavy breathing follows the tirade, followed by a fit of coughing from the mare.  I cautiously step forward.  “Ma’am?  Are you okay?  Ma’am?  S-Scootaloo?”

Her head jerks up at that; holy shit.  The Defender of Cloudsdale, sister to the Element of Loyalty in everything but blood, co-founder of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, presumed dead following the Siege of Cloudsdale, motherfucking mother of Celestia Scootaloo is the Commandant!

“Heh.  You’re pretty smart.  It takes more than brawn to accomplish anything; you’ll do fine in this organization.”  She steps down from her seat and into the light, limping.  Sure enough, the light reveals an orange coat, completing the image of Scootaloo.  Her wings are stubs and she walks with a limp, damage dealt at Cloudsdale.  “Take a good long look, Shining Star.   This is what happens when you trust somepony to the point of thinking they can do no wrong.  I thought I could make Rainbow see reason, help her get that bitch Twilight out of her head!  She wouldn’t listen, scorched my wings and threw me to the cold hard ground.  I lost hope that day; losing my sister, my friends, everything I loved, almost drove me to end it all.  But then Battleborn found me, the same as I had found him one year prior.  Together, we made it back to Manehattan, Cloudsdale burning at our backs.  I hid myself away, out of cowardice.  We have been struggling since then; then, one day, Battle comes to me, saying a young soldier has had visions of defeating Twilight.  I almost turned him away, but Battle has never steered anypony wrong.  I have placed my trust in him, and by extension, you.  You are the first glimmer of hope we have had in a long time, Star.”

I’m speechless.  Not only did my world get rocked, but the rocker trusts me enough to put her hope on my shoulders!  “Uh, wow.  I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t have to say anything, kid.  I asked Battle to bring you here so I could see for myself the one who will bring down the Queens, and bring back Rainbow.” She sniffles.  “T-that will be all.  Please, send Battle in as you leave.”  She resumes her seat as I turn to leave.

Before I open the door, I get a little devious.  Once I’m in the darkness, I turn my horn on, and launch a small glob of darkness into the far corner of the room.  I fine tune it to work as a sensory input spell; since my magic controls every aspect of the glob, I can make it hear what goes on in the room, and project it to my mind.  I tell you, the secrets I’ve learned…

I exit, and Battle enters.  As the door closes, I sit down in the corridor and listen in.

“Scootaloo, is everything alright?  I heard shouting.”

“No, Battle, its fine.  He called me out on my cowardice, and I might have revealed myself.”

“Do you feel that was necessary?”

“Yes.”  A few moments of silence.  “Battle, are we wrong to trust him?”

“I have known him all his life; I believe we can.”

“Why?  He looks just like her.  What if it happens again?”

My brain falls into my stomach.  What do they mean?

“I assure you, it won’t.  In fact, I think meeting with you has cemented it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Now he knows who he’s fighting for.  Knowing what he does now, there will be no question to his loyalty.”

In disgust, I cancel the spell.  Even though I met the mysterious Commandant, there are still secrets they are keeping from me.  I storm off down the hall, back to my room.

A throne room greets me.  However, this isn’t the throne room of the Empress; this room is pink, covered in streamers, balloons, and strange chunks of rock.  A tall mare stands upon the dais, a mare with pink fur and a dark pink mane.  Queen Pinkie Pie.  But, what am I doing here?  I’m in Manehattan, not Las Pegasus!

I look around, and see three other beings.  C is right beside me, Tiny on his other side, and a griffon sits chained at the foot of the throne.  I blink, and a vision comes back to me; the dream I had back when Chryssid first came.  A blurry figure with a ball of dragonfire in hoof- no, claw. I blink again, and the throne room returns.  I can still see afterimages of the dragonfire above the griffon.  As I watch, Tiny pulls a small device from her tail and throws it at the griffon.  With a bang, the chain holding her explodes, and everything goes white.

Bang bang bang.

I bolt up, catching my horn on the bunk above me.  “Ow.  Coming!”

I open the door to see Tread.  “Hey Shining.  General’s got a new mission for us.  Be at the briefing room in ten.”

“Got it.”  He trots off.  I turn around to see C awake, and thankfully not in a cussing mood.  We make our way to the briefing room.

“Any weird dreams, C?”

“No.  Why do you ask?  Did you?”

“You could say that.”

We continue on in silence and reach the room with time to spare.  The rest of the team is already there, looking through folders.  Tread hands both of us one each.  As soon as I see the location, a few pieces of the puzzle fall into place.

“We’re going to Las Pegasus because something is happening to the griffons there, right?  And we think Queen Pinkie is behind it.”

Tread’s jaw drops.  “Yeah.  How?”

“I’ll explain later.  What don’t I have right?”

“Well, we’ve been getting reports of griffons just disappearing all around Las Pegasus.  Over the course of the last week, the griffon population has dropped by half.  Now, the griffons are a warring species, and the General was hoping to eventually appeal to them to help our cause, but decant do that if there aren’t any griffons left in Equestria.  Our mission is to pose as tourists to Las Pegasus, determine the cause of the disappearances, and free as many griffons as we can.  Any questions?”

I raise my hoof.  “Yeah.  Can we bring Tiny along?”  He shoots me another odd look.  “I have my reasons.  She’ll be important, trust me.”

“Okay, not sure how such a little filly could help, but we can make the exception.  We leave tonight, and will be in Las Pegasus tomorrow.  No weapons; we are there as tourists, not freedom fighters.  If we find the captives, we are to escape the city and contact the waiting strike teams.  They are tasked with the cleanup.  Take this time to prepare yourselves.  It’s time for a vacation!”