Mortal Coil

Chapters

I - Canterlot Castle
II - Exodus
III - The Siren
IV - Arrival
V - Clemency
VI - The Wreath
VIII - The Kindness Of Strangers
X - Sweet Apple Acres
XI - First Blood
XII - The Dishonoured
XIII - Homeward Bound
XIV - Home Sweet Home
XV - Maverick
XVI - Infiltration
XVII - Debrief
XVIII - Assault On The Dreadnaught
XIX - Into The Woods
XX - Checkpoint
XXI - Arcana
XXIII - Honesty
XXIV - Reunion
XXV - Rescue Mission
XXVI - Monsters
XXVII - Friends, Family and Allies
XXVIII - Port Mule's Most Wanted
XXIX - Alliance On The Horizon
XXX - Typhoon
XXXI - Puppets
XXXII - Heroes
XXXIII - The Bask
XXXV - Interrogation
XXXVI - Battlemage
XXXVII - Countdown
XXXVIII - The Job Never Ends
XXXIX - Monster Sightings
XL - Restoration
XLI - The Ghost Town
XLII - The Restless Dead
XLIII - A Colourful Character
XLIV - Strength Above All Else
XLV - Iron Sights
XLVI - A Soldier's Philosophy
XLVII - Champion Of The Coliseum
XLVIII - Fearless
XLIX - Dragonfire
LI - ...Old Rivals
LII - Good News Everypony
LIII - Town Defence
LIV - Teamwork
LV - Fighting The Good Fight
LVI - Belly Of The Beast
LVII - Hell
LVIII - Rebirth
LIX - The New Six
LX - Order And Chaos
LXI - Into The Depths
LXII - Tomb Raiders
LXIII - Waking The Nautilus
LXIV - Summons
LXV - Agnostic
LXVII - The Father And The Grandmaster
LXVIII - Temple Vault
LXIX - The Lion's Den
LXX - Remembrance
LXXI - Crane
LXXII - Ascension
LXXIII - Inspiration
LXXIV - The Mind Of Knowledge
LXXV - The Hooves Of Conviction
LXXVI - The Heart Of Compassion
LXXVII - The Wings Of Valour
LXXVIII - The Body Of Resolve
LXXIX - The Voice Of Inspiration
LXXX - Unity
Epilogue - Story's End
Epilogue - Reunited
Prologue - This Is My Story
VII - First Impressions
IX - Generosity
XXII - The Grinning Mask
XXXIV - The Sound Of Surf
L - New Friends...
LXVI - Trials And Tribulations

I - Canterlot Castle

Author's Note

Part 1

I - Canterlot Castle

Canterlot was an incredible city, the entire place seemed to radiate power and magnificence from where it was perched overlooking its domain. As a filly I once travelled to the city of Arclight, at the time I thought nothing could ever top its level of elegance and majesty, but Canterlot blew Arclight out of the water. I still remember the day we arrived in Equestria, laden with suitcases and saddlebags stuffed full of every possession we could grab before we were forced to flee our home. I had spotted our destination while on the train from Trottingham, and even from several miles away the sight of Canterlot still blew my mind.

Even the rest of Equestria surrounding it, beautiful as it was, was absolutely dominated by the mountain that pierced the sky and the city nestled atop it. Two years on, it had admittedly lost some of that initial amazement value, just as Arclight had done once I was visiting it regularly as a working mare. Two years on and the novelty of living in the most famous city of all the pony nations had subsided and made way for a very different feeling, homesickness.

So when my dear friend Fancy Pants came into my workspace one day to tell me that the Equestrian Government were going to be providing refugees like myself with transport back home, I was over the moon. Being the Gentleman that he is, he had already put in a good word for us and got me and my family places on the first ship to leave, however after much discussion we came to the decision that I should return alone at first while Sweetie Belle and my parents stayed with Fancy Pants a little longer.

I did however have to attend an interview with the Duke of Canterlot, to confirm my citizenship and finalise my place on the boat. Luckily the day of the interview was wonderfully warm and sunny, allowing me to wear one of my more opulent designs without fear of getting it wet. Even with my close ties to Fancy Pants, I had rarely had any opportunities to meet members of the nobility so I wanted to look my very best, and it seemed Princess Celestia was looking out for me that day.

I thought it was a good way to mark the end of my time in Canterlot, being able to traverse the inside of the palace. I had attended a couple of functions there as Fancy Pants’ date, but guests were only permitted to roam the ground floor and gardens. I had to hide my glee when the guards at the front gate instructed me that the Duke’s office was on the third floor. Maybe if I hadn’t been so eager to explore every nook and cranny while I had some excuse to do so, I might not have found myself lost, but nor would I have met her…

Perhaps she noticed the confused look on my face as I tried to deduce whether I had already passed that statue (I had), or perhaps she noticed how panicked I was becoming at the thought of being late or even missing my appointment all together. Whatever she noticed in me, I’m glad she did, of course I wouldn’t realise until much later just how glad I was to have met her.

“Excuse me,” she greeted in a warm voice. “Is there something I can help you with?”

I was a little taken by surprise with her sudden appearance; I might have given a frightened shriek and leapt a couple feet in the air. The first of many things I would be embarrassed to have done in her presence. Although… my reaction did get a stifled giggle out of her, who knows? Maybe breaking down the formal barrier had been a good thing.

“Sorry,” she apologised, hiding her smile behind one of her forehooves. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Not at all,” I tried to say, also raising a forehoof in a vain attempt to hide my blush. “It was my fault for being so distracted.”

Of course I could see she was someone of official status, she was a lavender coated mare wearing deep purple robes. She looked to be about my own age so at the time I assumed she was some kind of aid to one of the nobles.

“I thought as much,” she responded, lowering her hoof to the ground and assuming a much more professional air while still remaining pleasant. “Do you need some help finding your way about?”

“I would actually really appreciate that,” I admitted. “I have an appointment with Duke Blueblood.”

“Oh, of course,” she said understanding dawning on her. “Well his office is on the way to my own, I could take you there if you want.”

“That would lovely, thank you.”

The mare took the lead and I followed by her side, matching her pace. She was extremely friendly, especially to a random mare she had only just met. Of course she knew exactly what I was there about after I had said I was there to see the Duke, so we talked about that for a few minutes, she seemed particularly sympathetic regarding the whole situation.

“That’s a lovely dress by the way,” she said suddenly, changing the conversation dramatically. “Did you buy that here or did you bring it with you?”

“Oh this?” I asked, stumbling slightly as I looked over my dress. “I actually made this myself.”

“You made that?!” she repeated, sounding amazed. “That’s really impressive, you have some real talent.”

“Thank you so much,” I replied genuinely. “Your robes are very nice too; they really give you the aura of authority and wisdom.”

“Well I suppose that’s the idea,” she muttered before brightening up again. “But I’d love to have a dress like that, if you weren’t leaving so soon I would commission you.”

“Well you still could,” I pointed out. “Once I get back home and get settled that is, I used to trade overseas all the time, it’s actually how I came to be friends with Fancy Pants.”

“That would be wonderful… uh,” she suddenly hesitated, slowing her walking pace slightly.

“Oh, I didn’t even introduce myself,” I interrupted, mentally slapping myself for being so antisocial. “My name is Rarity.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Rarity,” the mare said, smiling warmly once more. “I’m Twilight Sparkle.”

Oh how my heart stopped dead in my chest as she said that. That was probably the height of my embarrassment as I stumbled over my own hooves, began blethering incoherently while I tried to get my brain and body back in synch.

“T... T… Twilight Sparkle!” I repeated in shock. “As in, the Twilight Sparkle?!”

Twilight nodded, her face suddenly displaying an uncomfortable expression.

“I’m so sorry, I had no idea!” I exclaimed while I tried to do a mixture between a bow and a courtesy, and ended up looking like I was having a seizure.

“It’s quite alright,” Twilight said, reaching out awkwardly. “You don’t have to do any of that, really.”

I stood up, but I was still shaking like a leaf. I could see that she looked disappointed, but I knew that it wasn’t me she was disappointed in.

“I don’t usually get to talk to ponies like equals anymore,” she began to explain, looking down at the ground sadly. “My position makes it difficult to find… friends.”

I felt awful after she said that, less so for my embarrassing performance and more for how my change in behaviour had alienated her.

“I’m sorry,” I repeated. “Really I didn’t mean to make things uncomfortable for you.”

There was a long moment of silence while we both tried not to meet each other’s gaze.

“We should keep moving,” Twilight said after a tense moment. “I’m sure you don’t want to be late for your meeting.”

The rest of the journey we made in silence, I felt awful. We had been making such a connection until I had to make a fool of myself and draw attention to her position, but then I could never have predicted it caused her so many problems. When we finally reached the Duke’s office, indicated by an overly polished door with a bright gold plaque on it, Twilight took the lead and knocked upon it. Without even waiting for an answer she opened it up with her magic and marched straight in, I followed nervously behind her.

“Blueblood,” she said, greeting the stallion behind the desk. “Miss Rarity has an appointment with you; she got a little lost on her way here.”

“Oh that’s no problem,” Duke Blueblood replied, addressing the both of us. “My earlier meeting actually ran on a bit late so it probably worked out quite well that you’re a little late. Oh, and Twilight, good thing you’re here, I’ve been meaning to have a word with you. Lord Bitmouth just sent word, he won’t be able to attend the assembly this Friday, apparently he fell off his roof and now he’s bed ridden.”

“Fallen off his roof?” Twilight repeated. “What on earth was he doing up there?”

“He says he was repairing some loose tiles,” Blueblood replied sceptically. “Personally I don’t believe it however, the stallion’s never done a day’s work in his life.”

“Well I’ll contact him myself,” Twilight said with a thoughtful nod. “I’ll need to know if he’s sending anyone in his place, but thank you for letting me know.”

Blueblood gave a small nod before returning his attention to the papers strewn across his desk. Twilight turned to leave, but just before she did she looked up at me.

“It was a pleasure to meet you Rarity,” she said, although her voice sounded a little more distant than it had earlier. “I hope this won’t be the last time.”

“Nor do I,” I replied, refraining from giving her a small bow as she left the office.

Once the door closed, the Duke turned his attention to me.

“Please take a seat Miss…” His eyes subtly flickered down to a piece of paper in front of him before returning to meet my own. “Rarity, we can begin soon.”

It was such a small movement, barely lasting a millisecond or two. It was a real politician move and most ponies would never have picked up on it, but then I had always had a keen eye for details. Once when I was just a young filly and my father had realised my skill, he brought me with him to his weekly cards evening with his work friends. With my ability to spot the tells of a group of stallions I had only just met, my father and I left that evening with a quite a few more bits than we had arrived with.

Mother wasn’t too pleased about it, her and father had argued about it and I was forbidden from attending again, and while I never did we often recalled the incident fondly. As I took my seat before the Duke he turned his full attention to me.

“Now, before we begin,” he said clasping his forehooves together. “I need to know if you will consent to a quick, magical identity check.”

“Is… something wrong?” I asked a little warily.

“I hope not,” he replied, his voice perfectly even. “It’s just standard procedure when discussing ponies’ personal details like this. After all, I’m sure you wouldn’t like it if I divulged information about you to some Changeling walking in here and pretending to be you.”

“No, I suppose I can appreciate that,” I agreed, he did make it sound very reasonable at the time. “Of course I’ll consent to an identity check.”

Duke Blueblood’s horn lit up with a pale golden light and I quickly found myself enveloped by it. I had never been subjected to any sort of identity checking spell, so as far as I knew the wave of dizziness I felt was perfectly normal. Even if some part of me had thought it was odd, it was over before I knew it.

“Yes, everything appears to be in order,” Blueblood stated, giving me a strained smile. “Now, Miss Rarity, you have requested to be given a place on the first ship to travel from Equestria back to Panchea. I am correct in believing that you were born there and are officially a Panchean citizen?”

“That is correct,” I confirmed. “My parents were both Equestrian citizens, they had their honeymoon in Panchea and loved it so much that they decided to move there.”

“Mhmm,” Blueblood replied, although I could tell he wasn’t interested in the details. “And I have the records of you and your family seeking asylum here in Equestria back when the war started. Are your family still living here in Canterlot?”

“Yes they are,” I answered. “When we first arrived we were taken in by my friend Fancy Pants, we’re still staying with him.”

“Yes, Mr Fancy Pants came to me personally and requested that you be shortlisted for the first boat back,” Blueblood continued. “Although at the time he said you would want four places, why has your family chosen not to go with you?”

“Well…” I began slightly awkwardly. “We discussed it in great detail, and I decided that what with recent events, it would be better if I went back alone to… test the waters. Make sure things had calmed down enough before my parents and sister join me.”

Blueblood nodded and began jotting down some details onto a form.

“Has it calmed down?” I asked tentatively causing Blueblood to look back up. “It’s just, I know the war is officially over, but… are things okay back home?”

Blueblood placed his pen down and considered the question a moment before answering.

“Miss Rarity,” he began in a professional tone. “While we don’t know for sure, considering our forces are no longer present in Panchea…”

I noticed his voice became a little bitter at that.

“We have heard details that the tensions have not disappeared entirely,” he stated firmly. “It would appear that while the fighting has stopped, there is an ongoing power struggle. I am required to make it clear to you that there is no guarantee you will be safe over there, the Equestrian Government promised you safety when you first sought asylum with us. We will continue to provide that safety right up until you touch down on Panchean soil, but beyond that… I can’t promise you anything.”

I nodded at that, swallowing noticeably.

“It is entirely your decision,” Blueblood continued. “We will be providing one ship to deliver refuges back every three months for the next two years. If you wish to cancel your application for transport and wait until later, you can. But if you still wish to take the first boat over, then we won’t stop you.”

I thought about it long and hard. There would be times later on where I wished I had thought longer and harder, but as it was, my mind was made up.

“I’m sure, I want to go home.”

II - Exodus

Trottingham was a fine enough sort of town, plain and functional, reminded me a lot of my own home town of Port Mule back in Panchea, just without the familial charm. In the two years we had lived in Equestria I had travelled a bit, seen the sights and tasted the local culture. I travelled to Ponyville and Manehattan, pretty much all the major towns and cities except Trottingham. Maybe I avoided going back there because I knew it would remind me too much of the day we first arrived in Equestria, remind me of everything we were forced to leave behind when the war started.

This time was different however, I was back in Trottingham to see Equestria off, to set sail and go home. The train ride from Canterlot had been covered by Fancy Pants, he said it was his last gift to me, I could tell he was sad to see me go but we both knew I needed to get back home. It was for this reason that I didn’t want my family travelling with me to see me off at the docks, as it would have meant Fancy having to pay for a return trip for them even after everything he had already done for us, but they insisted upon coming and he insisted upon paying so there was little I could do to stop them.

As we walked from the station towards the harbour, my father dragging my suitcase along and my sister sniffling after thoroughly bawling her eyes out, I checked myself up and down to make sure I was presentable for Blueblood’s representative. I wasn’t wearing any dress that day; in fact I hadn’t packed anything of the sort. No, instead I could have been a famous explorer with my long, royal blue coat with gold trimmings, a set of tall leather boots adorned with buckled straps, a laced cincher and a leather baldric supporting a matching travel pouch.

All my own pieces of course, while they weren’t what I would normally have worn I thought they would be appropriate for the journey. By the end of this story however, those clothes ended up feeling like a second skin to me. It didn’t take a keen eye like mine to spot the ship I would be boarding as we entered the shipyard, most of the boats docked there were small trading or fishing vessels, only one ship stood out as being the kind of vessel worthy of the Equestrian Navy.

The Siren was an outstanding model, dominating the harbour and drawing the eyes of everypony, if there could have been a boat equivalent of Canterlot itself, it was The Siren. I won’t pretend to have any more than a basic understanding of sea travel; you’d think living in a port town my whole life would have given me some experience to talk about. Certainly my father was obsessed with it all being a professional fisherman himself, but I had always been too wrapped up in my own obsessions with fashion to pay it much heed.

Still, I had seen enough boats to know that the one before me was a truly marvellous specimen; my father certainly seemed to think so as he zoned out just by the sight of it and we had to spend a minute or two trying to bring him back to us. As we approached The Siren I could see there were already a couple dozen ponies milling about the ship, both crew members and refuges like myself who had gotten a place on the boat.

Beside the gangplank a makeshift desk had been assembled, behind which a unicorn sat who we presumed was Blueblood’s associate. Making our way forward we joined the short cue where we stood in uncomfortable silence as we waited for the few ponies ahead of us to sign in and move along. We knew the time for saying goodbye was fast approaching, but none of us were particularly eager to acknowledge it. It had been all well and good saying I would go forth myself and ‘reclaim our home’, but now that the time was actually upon me I couldn’t help but shake, and not just from the chilly sea air.

Two years ago I left my home behind, now I was leaving my family behind. Clearly noticing my distress, my mother pulled me into a tight hug and began whispering comforting words into my mane as she buried her head lovingly into it. When it was finally my turn to approach the desk, I stepped forward while my family stepped a little to the side and watched on.

“Hello…” I greeted, unsure if there was any proper title I was supposed to address this stallion by. “Sir. My name is Rarity; I have my ticket right here.”

With that I opened my pouch with magic and pulled out the silver ticket Blueblood had given me at the end of our meeting. The stallion examined it closely for a few moments before smiling up at me.

“Everything seems to be in order Miss Rarity,” he said, stamping it and handing it back to me while jotting down some notes into his ledger. “My name is Sundial; I will be in charge of ensuring your safety from here to Dawnbreak Landing.”

“Dawnbreak?” I repeated in confusion, glancing over at my parents who looked equally perplexed by that. “We aren’t going to Port Mule?”

“Uh, no,” Sundial admitted, his smile becoming slightly strained. “For various reasons we will be taking you to Dawnbreak, from there we have arranged a caravan to transport you all to Pivot, from there I’m afraid you will have to make your own way south.”

“Oh, well I guess that’s acceptable,” I replied slowly, it certainly wasn’t ideal but I could make do with it if it was what they were providing.

“I hope this isn’t too much inconvenience for you Miss,” Sundial stated in a halfway sympathetic voice. “If you have no further inquiries, Feather Duster here will have your baggage moved onto the ship.”

I noticed that a pegasus had just marched up, looking a little exhausted and particularly sweaty, no doubt from carrying everypony’s luggage on-board.

“You can board at any time,” Sundial finished. “Just present your ticket to whoever is watching the gangplank, and remember we plan to set off in just four hours.”

“Thank you,” I said, giving a small nod of appreciation as I turned back to my family, the next in line already moving up to the desk. “So… I guess this is it.”

My mother gave a little sigh while my father scratched his moustache awkwardly, Sweetie Belle on the other hand charged into me, knocking the wind from me as she wrapped her forelegs around my torso.

“Please don’t go!” She wailed, a fresh wave of tears pouring down her cheeks.

“I have to Sweetie Belle,” I explained sadly as I returned the enthusiastic hug. “You know I do.”

“Then let me come too,” she begged, pulling back enough to stare at me with her tear filled eyes.

Those big, adorable, puppy dog eyes…

“Come on now Sweetie, that’s enough,” my father interrupted, pulling her back slightly.

Good timing, I don’t think I could have held out much longer.

“We’ll join Rarity soon enough,” he continued as he wiped Sweetie Belle’s tears away with a tissue. “Then things will go back to the way they used to be.”

My mother stepped forward, presenting me with a second satchel. Opening it up I found various items of food, from fresh fruit to tubs of home cooked meals.

“I know it’s not a lot,” my mother began modestly. “But I figured any more would have just gone bad during the trip.”

“It’s wonderful, thank you mother,” I said sincerely, bringing her into a hug.

She was right, those supplies would only last me a few days out of the three weeks it would take to arrive on the shores of Panchea, but it was the gesture that counted.

“You write now,” she said sternly. “I don’t want to be sitting up all night thinking something awful has happened to you.”

“I will,” I assured her. “Once a week, though you’ll be getting them a bit later than when they were written.”

“We’ll take what we can get,” father said stepping forward. “Now you be careful over there, you hear? The war may be over, but that doesn’t mean things are going to be all fine and dandy.”

“I know,” I said reaching up and giving him a hug. “But trust me when I say I can look after myself.”

“That’s my girl,” he replied with a kiss on my forehead. “Just a few other things, hope your bags aren’t getting too heavy.”

He pulled back and began reaching into his own bag, pulling out a bulging coin purse.

“Father, no!” I said firmly, taking a step back.

“Rarity, yes,” he replied equally as firmly. “You may need this, especially if you have to start trekking across half the country.”

“I already have money…” I began, but I didn’t get much further than that.

“Don’t bother dear,” my mother said. “You won’t win this argument.”

“Fine,” I grumbled as I let him place the purse into my pouch alongside my own.

“And there’s something else,” he continued, reaching back into his bag.

“No, no more,” I tried to object. “You’ve already given me more than enough.”

He didn’t listen as he pulled out two leather pouches, one round and the other cylindrical, each with long draw strings. Opening them up with his magic he pulled out two objects which shimmered in the light of the sun.

“Oh, father no…” I tried to object, awestruck by what I saw.

“No nothing,” he cut across as he presented the spyglass and compass to me. “These belonged to my pa and his pa before him. I was always going to pass them onto you, now just seems like the best time to do so.”

I had kept it together pretty well up to that point, but I couldn’t hold back the tears that had been building up any longer. When I eventually pulled myself together and we all broke from our tearful family hug, I returned both items to their pouches and hung them around my neck. I remember thinking to myself that my explorer image was truly complete at that point. I inhaled heavily as I prepared to make the long walk from my family to the bottom of the gangplank.

“Well… farewell everypony,” I announced. “I hope to see you all again soon.”

As my parents bid me farewell I began marching along the pier to board the ship, only to hear trotting following closely behind me. Stopping, I turned to see my sister skidding to a halt right behind me.

“I told you Sweetie Belle,” I began calmly. “You can’t come. Even if I did suffer enough brain damage to consider bringing you along, you don’t have a ticket.”

“I know that,” Sweetie Belle replied, a little annoyed by my condescending tone. “I actually had something for you, but I was told to give it to you in private.”

Confused, I glanced up at my parents who were eying us curiously.

“Private?” I repeated. “Who told you that?”

“Mr Fancy Pants,” Sweetie Belle explained, producing a small package from her pocket. “He didn’t say what it was; just that somepony wanted you to have it.”

“Strange,” I muttered, accepting the little brown package. “Why didn’t he just give me it himself?”

I later guessed that he didn’t want me asking too many questions about who his mysterious benefactor was, although that too would become clear in time.

“I’m not sure,” Sweetie Belle admitted before giving me another, much gentler hug. “Promise me you’ll be safe.”

“Of course I will,” I assured her, a little surprised by her worry. “The war is over, everything will be fine.”

“If you’re sure,” Sweetie Belle murmured, not sounding completely convinced by my optimism.

“I am,” I stated. “Now go back to mother and father, we’ll see each other again before you know it.”

I examined the package closely as Sweetie Belle ran back to our parents; it was very small and looked to be wrapped hastily. I deposited into the same pouch where my father’s compass rested, the two fitted quite snuggly together. I couldn’t take my mind off what could be inside, even as I ascended the gangplank and presented my ticket to the sailor standing guard almost subconsciously. I broke my train of thought in time to turn and give one final wave to my family before I crossed the deck and they were out of sight.

I was quickly approached by the same pegasus who had carried my suitcase away, Feather Duster. He had managed to clean up a little so I could now make out his pale grey coat under his white and blue crew jacket, darker mane and tail, and feather cutie mark.

“Welcome aboard Miss Rarity,” he greeted, offering a little salute. “Your luggage is already stored below deck, would you like me to show you to where you’ll be staying.”

“That would be most appreciated, thank you,” I replied, following him towards the entrance to the lower decks.

The first room we entered I recognised as the gun deck, even if the canons had been hastily removed for whatever reasons, I picked up on the closed hatches lining the walls. They probably didn’t want to distress the passengers by making it too obvious they were travelling on a war ship, but also this room had been turned into the crew quarters with a number of hammocks strung up. I followed Feather Duster down into the orlop where the cabins were, and presumably where the crew were supposed to sleep.

He led me to a cramped room with only a single bunk bed and a desk sitting against the opposite wall. I glanced at him and he gave me an awkward look.

“I know it’s not exactly first class…” he began, not meeting my gaze.

“Don’t be silly,” I interrupted. “It’s a room with a bed, I couldn’t ask for much more.”

Feather Duster seemed to relax at that as he pulled out a notebook and began skimming through it.

“You’re sharing with a Miss…” he began, his eyes darting back and forth across the page in front of him. “Lyra Heartstrings, but she hasn’t checked in yet.”

“I’m sure I’ll meet her at some point,” I replied casually making my way into the room and throwing my bags onto the bottom bunk.

“Yes well,” he began putting his notebook away into his jacket pocket. “If you need anything from your luggage just ask me or one of the other crew members, we’ll go and fetch it for you. Meals will be served in the galley at least twice a day, I’m afraid we don’t have enough supplies to serve you whenever.”

“That will be fine,” I assured him. “Thank you for your assistance.”

He gave another little salute before leaving the doorway, presumably to help other passengers get settled in. Three weeks in a boat wasn’t my idea of a holiday, but it was already shaping up to be a fairly decent trip. I stayed in my room for a few hours as I waited for the Siren to set sail, at some point Lyra Heartstrings arrived. We chatted amiably for a little while, I learned that she was a musician from Arclight and that she too had been staying in Canterlot under the roof of a cellist she knew from when she was just a filly.

I also learned, to my dismay, that she got severely sea sick. She apologised in advance if she threw up in the room, I forced myself to smile and tell her it would be alright, all while silently praying to Celestia that we have a very gentle voyage with no disturbances that might result in me sleeping in a room that smelt of vomit for three weeks. When I heard the bell signalling our departure, I hurried back up to the deck to see Equestria off. Lyra predictably stayed in the room, but asked me to say goodbye to the solid ground on her behalf.

Quite the crowd had gathered on the dock to see the Siren off, whether they knew of its intended purpose or they were just fascinated by the huge battle ship sticking out of the trading port like a sore thumb, I would never know. Most of my fellow passengers were leaning over the edge of the ship, waving goodbye to the friends who had sheltered them or just getting a last glimpse or Trottingham and Equestria. The crew were busying themselves with the final preparations for moving out.

I noticed the unicorn Sundial was up on the quarter deck, instructing the stallion manning the helm, and in the background Feather Duster was fiddling about with the mizzenmast. Turning my own eyes back to Trottingham I surveyed it for a few minutes before shutting my eyes a breathing in the salty air as my thoughts drifted back to Canterlot. I thought of my Family who would already be on the train back there, I thought of Fancy Pants and his big house, I even thought of the palace and Twilight Sparkle.

Most of all though, I thought to myself ‘would I ever return? Once I was home and settled once more, would I ever have need to come back here?’. It was a sad thought that I might never return in all my years, so I made a promise to myself that one day I would come back, if only to make a dress for Twilight Sparkle. I only opened my eyes when I realised the ship was moving, turning my back on Trottingham I stepped back from the side of the deck and made my way over to the forecastle deck where I gazed out over the immense gulf that separated us from our destination.

Not for long though, in just three weeks I would be setting hoof on the sands of my home country once more. The Siren left Trottingham and Equestria behind and suddenly I was homeward bound.

III - The Siren

Three weeks on a boat, there’s a limit to how enjoyable something like that can be, but with that in mind I’d say we did pretty well overall. The trip was peaceful enough, no krakens trying to drag our ship to the ocean depths or actual sirens trying to bewitch the sailors. It was quite simply three weeks of getting up and trying to find new ways of occupying myself until the sun went down and I had an excuse to go to sleep before the next morning when I would have to do it all over again.

No surprise, the supplies my mother gave me barely lasted two days, although I had shared them with Lyra. I couldn’t bring myself to eat them in front of her and not offer her some. After that I had to make do with the food we were served in the galley, some weird porridge thing, it was surprisingly okay once I got used to it. I spent most of my time in the cabin with Lyra, we’d chat or I’d sketch designs into my notebook while she played her lyre.

I did enjoy spending time on deck, looking out over the ocean and breathing in the fresh sea air, although I was always conscious that I might be getting in the way of the crew. Indeed, while the passengers couldn’t be expected to help with the mechanics of running and maintaining the ship, the crew would sometimes subtly suggest that we lend a hoof in keeping the ship scrubbed down. Some of my fellow passengers were aghast at the idea of being made to do menial labour, and while the crew weren’t about to force us to do anything, I did notice those ponies got slightly smaller portions of gruel than the rest of us who did agree to help.

I ended up getting on good terms with most of the crew, along with some of the other passengers who were continually offering to help. Feather Duster especially made time to come and chat with me, I got the impression he had developed a little crush on me, but I was eager to keep our relationship purely platonic. During my stay in Canterlot, Fancy Pants and I briefly dated; it was a lovely few months that ultimately ended quite badly for us both. We called the whole thing off and managed to salvage our friendship, and while I don’t regret having that time with him, I did give the notion of romantic relationships a wide berth for quite some time after.

Not to say that the trip was entirely uneventful, I recall three events in particular that stood out. The first was only a few days after we had initially set sail. I was in my room with Lyra and we were talking about the things we had brought with us.

“I actually didn’t manage to recover very much before I fled,” Lyra explained. “I gathered up my money and my lyre then made straight for Mule. Everything else I left in my house, I only hope it hasn’t been stolen while I was gone.”

“I doubt the citizens of Arclight would have descended into raiding and pillaging,” I assured her, chuckling at the idea. “But why your lyre? Is there something special about it?”

“Not really,” Lyra admitted, looking over her instrument. “It’s no family heirloom or anything; it’s just something I picked up in a marketplace for ten bits when I was a kid. But I got my cutie mark playing it, and I played it pretty much every day since. It probably has no monetary value, but it’s important to me, like it’s a part of me you know?”

“That’s actually really nice,” I admitted, smiling at her. “I’m the exact opposite really. We lived just twenty minutes from the harbour, so we were able to pack quite a few things. Clothes and food mainly, mother wanted to take all the family photos with her but my father wouldn’t allow it, told her we could take plenty more photos when we got to Equestria.”

We both shared a laugh at that.

“So besides the clothes on my back,” I continued. “I have couple other outfits in my suitcase down in the hold as well as a few books, drawing equipment and stuff for writing letters.”

“What about those bags?” Lyra asked, gesturing to my pair of leather satchels currently resting on the desk. “Besides the food that is.”

“Well the other one has my money,” I explained. “As well as a few basic survival things: a map, matchbox, canteen, pocket knife. You know, the usual stuff.”

“Are you expecting to do much camping?” Lyra asked with a little smirk.

“It was my father’s idea,” I retorted. “He always insists on being prepared for anything. Speaking of which, he gave me these before I left.”

Reaching around my neck I removed the two leather pouches, opening the cylindrical one first.

“A telescope?” Lyra queried as I held it out with my magic.

“Spyglass,” I corrected. “This actually is a family heirloom, along with the compass…”

At that point I reached out with my magic and opened the other pouch allowing the compass to drop out onto my bedspread beside me, but I had forgotten about the package tucked in alongside it which also dropped down beside it.

“It’s a very nice compass,” Lyra said approvingly. “But what’s the other thing?”

I didn’t respond to her however, as I was lost staring at the package, remembering the mysterious circumstances around Sweetie Belle giving it to me.

“Rarity?” Lyra said in confusion.

“Hmm? What?” I said, snapping back to reality.

“What’s that package?” she asked again.

“Oh that?” I muttered, feigning disinterest as I threw it into my satchel out of sight. “Nothing important.”

“Um, Okay,” Lyra said slowly, clearly put off by my change in demeanour. “Well they are very nice items, I’m sure your dad was very fond of them.”

“He was,” I agreed, although my voice was distant as I thought about the package once more.

It wasn’t until much later that evening when I could hear Lyra snoring that I retrieved the package once more. Once I was lying down in bed I held it over me with magic as I unwrapped it carefully, as I folded back the paper a shimmering light emerged from the dull brown wrapping. A small stone lay inside the package, about the shape and size of a raisin, but pulsating with an unnatural, ethereal light. When I was finally able to tear my eyes from it I noticed that a note had been tightly folded in alongside it.

Unfolding it I found that it had been written as hastily as the package had been wrapped, the letters small and cramped to fit the whole message onto the piece of paper that could have been a sweet wrapper for all its size. It read ‘I have seen something in you; I feel you may have need of this one day. Keep it close, it only works once, and yet I pray you will not require it’. A most mysterious package delivered in mysterious means, with even more mysterious contents. While I had no idea what the message meant or what the stone could have possibly been, I felt like I should heed it and keep it close.

Not that I would have separated myself from such a dazzling object anyway. That was the first noteworthy event, one that wouldn’t make sense for some time, the next event worth mentioning didn’t occur until near the end of the second week aboard The Siren. I was helping to scrub the floors of the orlop along with another passenger I only really knew in passing. She was apparently a nurse by the name of Redheart, lived in Timber. We were getting on with our chores, minding our own business when a pair of crew members marched up to us and asked Redheart if she could follow them a moment.

Maybe it was something about the way they said it, but the request really rubbed me the wrong way, so after she obliged and was led out of sight, I put my sponge down and crept after them. I saw them escorting her down into the hold where our luggage was being kept, and that was as far as I dared follow them. At the time I assumed there was just something wrong with her possessions, it wasn’t until much later that I would reflect on the remainder of our voyage and realise that I never saw her on the ship again after that.

The last event that would be important later down the line occurred only a day before we caught sight of the coast of Panchea. I was up on the deck, enjoying what would be my last full day on the open sea when I heard the most unexpected noise, the cawing of a bird. Surely we weren’t yet close enough for the gulls, and indeed we wouldn’t see any of those until the next day. No, when I turned to face the source of the noise I saw a bird, just not the bird I had assumed.

It was a crow, bigger than any I had ever seen before, its feathers jet black and its steely grey legs gripping into the forecastle railing like a set of knives, and it was perched only a few metres from myself, staring directly at me. I stared back it for what felt like a long time, its gaze disturbed me, like I was staring right through its eyes to another place far away. I was torn between stepping closer and running away, but before I could make up my mind Feather Duster called my name, causing the crow to swoop away.

I asked Feather Duster about it but he appeared to have no clue what I was talking about. When I tried to point it out in the sky I discovered that it had completely disappeared from view in a matter of seconds. Fearing that Feather Duster might think I was crazy, I took him over to the forecastle and showed him where the crow had dug in its claws. Thankfully he did see that, but was completely bewildered as to what could have done it since he insisted that he hadn’t seen any crow.

The crow bothered me all night, I’m not a superstitious mare, but a small part of me feared it was some kind of dark omen. I suppose it was lucky it occurred so close to us reaching land, as the next morning I was able to forget it in favour of catching our first sights of the Dawn Coast and the Wyvern Heights in the background. Everypony gathered on the deck to see Panchea as we drew close, even Lyra who hadn’t strayed above deck for the whole trip.

“There it is,” she said in awe as we both gazed out. “To think after two years we’re finally home.”

“It is quite the feeling,” I agreed. “But don’t celebrate just yet; we still have half the country to trek across before we reach our actual homes.”

“Way to be a downer Rarity,” Lyra responded with a deadpan expression before we burst out into laughter.

“I hope you ladies enjoyed your stay on the Siren,” Feather Duster said from behind us.

“It’s been lovely, thank you,” I said sincerely.

“Yeah, lovely,” Lyra concurred, a little less sincere as she had just glanced over board and was now turning even greener.

Smirking I looked back towards the bow and the town of Daybreak Landing in the distance. My homeland was finally in sight, and I couldn’t have been more prepared to set foot on dry land. I only wish I could have been more prepared for all the stuff that would come after…

Author's Note

End of Part 1

IV - Arrival

Author's Note

Part 2

IV - Arrival

Daybreak Landing was a small town spread over a wide area; the entire Dawn Coast was pretty bare. The ponies living there had no delusions, they knew ponies arriving from Equestria weren’t there to visit them, just stop for a quick bite to eat before setting off beyond the Wyvern Heights for more interesting places. As such the town itself was no more than several dozen houses and inns dotted sparsely along the absurdly long harbour. Maybe they once had ambitions of being as formidable a port as Mule, but considering ours was the only ship present, I could see why they might have given up on those ambitions.

Actually that did surprise me quite a bit, I had never visited Daybreak before, not having any reason to, but I was sure it was supposed to be busier than it was that day. From what I knew the majority of transport ships from Equestria, like our own, travelled there rather than swinging around the entire country to get to Mule. As well as that I figured they saw some trading vessels, so the complete absence of boats was a bit confusing. I reasoned that tourism was hardly going to be booming right after a war, and maybe overseas trading had declined a bit as well.

I wobbled a little as I stepped off the gangplank onto the pier, having forgotten what steady ground felt like. I felt a rush of wind through my mane as Lyra galloped past me, straight off the pier before collapsing to her knees and kissing the sand. Rolling my eyes I began following after her, tightening the straps on my pair of satchels as I did. I was going to make some wise crack about what she had just done, but before I could get the words out a voice addressed us.

“Good to be home Rarity?” Feather Duster asked, stepping up to my side.

“Very good,” I confirmed, smiling at him.

“We’re gonna unload the ship now,” he explained. “You could probably wait over in that tavern until we’re done.”

I nodded in agreement before carrying on my way, scooping Lyra up as I went who was spitting sand from her mouth. Most of the town’s inhabitants had come out to see the arrival of the ship, some of them glanced our way and began whispering among themselves, I’m not sure what they thought of us. Choosing to ignore it, I did as Feather Duster had suggested and made my way into the tavern that looked straight out at where the ship was now tied up.

Like all the buildings in Daybreak it had whitewashed walls, wooden tiled roof and slatted shutters closed over the windows. The inside was a little bleaker, the shutters making it so very little light penetrated the spacious tavern. There were round, wooden tables dotted around, each with a few stools around them, there was a cleared path to the bar that sat directly opposite the door we entered from.

As I led the way over to it I noticed the place was entirely empty except for one dark corner where half a dozen bulky stallions sat, their eyes following us as we made our way up to the bar and took a pair of stools. The barman stepped out from what I assumed to be the kitchens just as we did; he seemed surprised to see new customers there.

“Oh, what can I do for you?” he asked, I immediately picked up on the excitement in his voice.

“Two glasses of water please,” I requested pulling out my money purse.

His face dropped slightly at that, which Lyra seemed to pick up on before me.

“Actually Rarity,” she began quickly. “This is a pretty important occasion, why don’t we celebrate with something?”

“I suppose so,” I agreed a little warily, I had been putting off having a celebratory drink until I got home, but it made more sense to do it then when I had someone to drink with.

Lyra made the order, a bottle of red wine, a brand I wasn’t familiar with but she assured me it was a good one. We each paid half while the bartender poured us our glasses, definitely looking more pleased.

“Has business been slow?” I asked, taking my first sip.

“Like you wouldn’t believe,” he replied, wiping up a small spill with the cloth he had draped over his shoulder. “Used to be we’d see several ships a week, ponies passing through almost all the time, a pony could make a living. But when the war started, business dropped like a cannon ball in water, hasn’t picked up since.”

“That sounds pretty bad,” I replied, taking another drink, it was pretty good. “Didn’t you ever consider moving?”

“Nah,” he replied. “The lack of business had a silver lining, this town wasn’t considered all that useful so we managed to stay well out of harm’s way during the fighting. I doubt much fighting happened at all this side of the Heights.”

“So do you know how badly the rest of the country got it?” I asked, edging forward in my seat.

“Can’t say for sure,” he admitted. “The little bits I heard didn’t sound good though.”

I pursed my lips and stared down at my glass.

“Still,” he continued, probably trying to change the subject quickly. “Maybe you ladies coming here is a sign that things are about to get better.”

With that he turned and made his way back into the kitchen. I looked to my left at Lyra but noticed she was looking a little pale, not touching her drink.

“Is there something wrong?” I asked, worried she was about to be sick.

“Those guys are still watching us,” she whispered back.

I froze as soon as she said it, my fur standing on end. There was a mirror on the wall opposite us, I managed to angle myself so that I could see the corner table and confirm that the stallions were indeed staring directly at our backs. I also noticed for the first time that they were decked out in some mean looking leather armour, each carrying some kind of weapon at their sides. I was about to whisper to Lyra that we should slip out now, if we could get outside they surely wouldn’t try anything in front of the sailors.

Before I could do so however, one of the stallions stood up and began marching over to us, he was carrying a bearded axe across his back. I began shaking as my thoughts started racing at a million miles a second. Should we run? Should I call for the barkeeper? We couldn’t fight him, we wouldn’t stand a chance, and if his friends joined in…

I was so panicked I didn’t even realise how quickly he covered the distance between us and them. Before I knew it he was standing directly behind us, I could see his mouth opening in the reflection in front of us. Desperate, my eyes landed on the bottle in front of me, reaching out with my magic I picked it up and raised it over my glass as if to refill it, ready to swing it around and smash it across his head.

“Excuse me; I hope I’m not disturbing you.”

The voice came as such a shock to me that my magic fumbled and I almost dropped the bottle, catching it just before any of its contents were spilled. The voice had definitely come from the stallion, but it was so soft and measured I couldn’t believe I was hearing him right.

“P… Pardon?” I stammered, turning around slightly to face him myself.

“I’m sorry, I was looking for a moment when you didn’t look busy so I wasn’t disturbing you,” he continued in that soft voice. “I was wondering if you two were part of the crew of that ship outside, the Siren is it?”

“Crew? Ship?” I repeated, still a little dazed by what was going on. After a few seconds my mind cleared enough for me to set the bottle down and address him properly. “No, we were passengers on it, the crew are still unloading.”

“Alright, my mistake,” he apologised. “I’ll go out there now, I need to speak to a… Mr Sundial about the travel arrangements to Pivot.”

“Of course,” I replied. “He’s the one wearing the tricorn.”

“Thank you,” he said, giving a small bow of the head. “I’ll let you ladies get back to your drinks.”

With that, he turned and marched off; making for the doors while his friends went back to their own drinks, no longer paying us any heed. I turned to meet Lyra’s eyes and saw that she looked as bewildered as I felt.

“Wow…” she uttered.

“Wow indeed,” I agreed, taking a large mouthful of wine.

“Talk about not judging a book by its cover,” she continued, turning in her seat back to the bar.

We stayed there for a while longer, chatting and trying to forget the awkward encounter. Eventually Feather Duster entered, informing us our bags were outside. We managed to convince him to have one drink with us as a thank you for the help he had been for the last few weeks. When we were finished, we said our farewells to the barkeep and made our way outside. The other five stallions had left earlier and were now loading the luggage onto a wooden cart.

The sixth stallion who had spoken to us was talking to Sundial while the other passengers were rounded up by the crew and brought to the front of the tavern. When the stallion and Sundial shook hooves and the latter marched away towards the ship, Feather Duster glanced over at us; I could tell what was coming.

“Well, I guess this is goodbye,” he said. “I must say, it was a lot more fun than I was expecting it to be, but then I wasn’t expecting the passengers to be so friendly.”

“Well that makes two of us,” I replied, before glancing at Lyra. “Or three…”

“Nah, I was pretty optimistic about the whole thing,” she said waving her hoof dismissively. “Plus I didn’t throw up so that was a major plus.”

“Isn’t that a bit of a contradiction?” Feather Duster began, scratching his head before shaking it off. “Anyway, important thing is you’re heading home now, and tomorrow so will we.”

“Do you think you’ll ever come back?” I asked. “It would be nice to catch up again sometime down the line.”

“Uh, not likely,” he replied, glancing away from me, muttering something under his breath.

“Pardon?” I asked, quirking an eyebrow.

“Nothing, it’s not important,” he stated quickly. “Let’s just say this is goodbye for… for who knows how long.”

“Well if this is the last time we should meet, it was a pleasure to meet you.” Against my better judgement I leaned in and gave him a small kiss on the cheek, which resulted in him blushing slightly.

“I’m not going to kiss you,” Lyra stated before levitating the almost empty bottle of wine. “But if you come find me when I’ve finished this off I might feel differently.”

That got a hearty chuckle from both me and Feather Duster.

“Goodbye to you too Lyra,” Feather Duster replied with a little roll of his eyes.

There was a call from one of the crew members aboard the ship and Feather Duster turned to leave, but before he got more than a few metres away he stopped. He turned his head back to look at us, but something had changed about his demeanour. His smile had faded, replaced by him biting his lower lip as if he was trying to bring himself to say something. Before he could however he seemed to change his mind, shook his head slightly before turning and continuing back to the ship.

Of course I realised he was struggling to say something, perhaps something he shouldn’t have been saying. At the time I had assumed he was going to try and confess his apparent feelings for me, and so I felt letting it go unsaid would have been the best thing for both of us. It feels weird to think how different things could have been had he told me then and there, but I digress. With Feather Duster gone we joined the rest of the passengers who were assembled in front of the cart of luggage, the stallion who had approached us in the tavern was standing a top it getting ready to address us.

“Is everypony present?” he began, still in that bizarrely soft voice that somehow managed to carry over the fifty heads facing him. “We’re running a bit behind time so we’re going to need to get moving soon if we’re to reach the pass before nightfall. For those of you who don’t know, my name is Hammerhead, this is my team and we have been charged with escorting you safely from here to Pivot.”

I should have pieced it together sooner than that, Sundial had said they arranged a caravan to transport us to Pivot, and Hammerhead did ask for Sundial by name. Perhaps the thing that threw me off was how well armed they were. I looked again over their weapons and armour, that was probably the first time I was really concerned about what I was walking into. I knew there would still be some tensions following the war, but the idea that we needed an armed squad to protect us while travelling between towns suggested a level of danger that I hadn’t comprehended before.

It seemed I wasn’t the only one in the crowd who had picked up on this as a number of ponies began exchanging worried glances. Whether Hammerhead noticed the slight panic or not, he carried on as if he hadn’t.

“The ponies who got you this far have paid us good money to keep you safe,” he announced. “So I can promise you you’re in the safest hooves, we take this job very seriously. We only ask two things in return, the first being that you do not slow the caravan down. We will be taking it in turns to pull the cart; all you have to do is walk. The second thing is a slightly more sensitive matter…”

My ears perked up at that.

“We would greatly appreciate it if you refrained from telling anypony who paid us to protect you,” he finished in a firm tone. “If anypony insists on dragging the rest behind or poses a threat to our security, we will ask them to leave and make their own way home. Now, if there are no questions we shall set out now.”

Plenty of ponies seemed to have questions, but Hammerhead apparently only asked as a formality, for as soon as he finished speaking he turned and began leading the way out of the town. Lyra walked on ahead of me, not realising that I was still frozen still at the back of the group. If I wasn’t suspicious from the weapons, I definitely was after Hammerhead’s rousing speech. He didn’t want others to know they had received payment from the Equestrian government; I was starting to get the feeling that we would find little love for Equestria once we reached the major cities.

It also explained why the Siren had dropped us off at the more obscure Daybreak Landing as opposed to Port Mule, that barkeeper had said himself that they had remained fairly well out of the way during the war, perhaps staying out of the way and under the radar was exactly what the Siren was attempting to do. It all made me wonder, if there was such negative feelings associated with Equestria that they couldn’t even travel to the major port town, and this band of stallions felt at risk if their loyalties were revealed… then how would ponies react to us?

We walked for hours to get to the pass that would take us through the Wyvern Heights, the huge mountain range that stretched all the way from the south to the north of Panchea, and into the heartland of the country. The Dawn Coast was a long stretch of featureless grassland, the path we followed was mostly flat, but occasionally Hammerhead cut away from it over patches of hilly terrain. It wasn’t as easy on our legs but I knew he was trying to take us the most direct route to the pass, indeed when we finally did reach it the sun had already disappeared behind the mountains hours ago and the light was fading fast.

Walking in the shadow of the mountain for so long had resulted in us becoming quite cold, worse so when a strong wind picked up. It was for that reason that when we finally did reach the pass and some of our company looked ready to pass out from exhaustion, Hammerhead insisted that we move further into the valley before setting up camp so we would be more sheltered from the cutting wind. He had made the right decision I felt, when we were finally permitted to stop walking and rest while him and his men set about securing the area and gathering fire material, I did notice how much better sheltered we were there than if we had stayed at the mouth of the pass where we had initially planned on setting up camp.

One of the stallions reported that there was a stream nearby and I gladly went along with several others and refilled my canteen. I was quite content as I lay on the hard earth while Lyra played a little tune, I had never been one for hard work, but I could appreciate the feeling of satisfaction you got after seeing something through, I figured I might get used to it yet. Few others were as happy as me after learning that they would be expected to kip out under the stars as there were no actual tents.

Indeed the stallions had only brought a dozen bedrolls which had been offered first to a pair of elderly ponies and mother and her young filly before being doled out randomly among the rest. Lyra had been lucky enough to receive one of the bedrolls, which she received a few envious glares for, but she just stuck her tongue out in response. She offered to share it with me but I declined, I’m not going to lie and say I did it out of being noble or selfless or anything, it was just because it wasn’t particularly big and it would just bother me to have to share it with somepony else. It actually stirred some amusing memories of a past partner I had where I would constantly hog the bedsheets.

As I watched the dozens of other ponies, loudly voicing their discontent with the travel arrangements, it made me think long and hard about the kind of ponies I was travelling with. When the war broke out and Equestria offered protection for citizens who didn’t want to be dragged into fighting or get caught in the crossfire, the offer had been far from free. Truth be told it was probably quite selective, most of the ponies who could have afforded passage to Equestria or had the right contacts with the right ponies, were probably not the same ponies who went out camping as a hobby.

My father had dragged me out several times in my lifetime, when I was Sweetie Belle’s age I absolutely hated it, but as I grew older and Sweetie Belle herself joined the family and came along with us I became more favourable to the trips. Maybe it was because I saw how happy Sweetie Belle was and how much fun she had when we were camping that I was willing to take on a different perspective. Thinking about Sweetie Belle being so far away hurt, it was my first day back in Panchea without them and I was already wishing they were there with me. I thought fondly of what we would be getting up to if they had.

Father would probably be rushing on ahead of the rest of the caravan, shouting back and calling us slowpokes. Mother would probably have found dozens of obscure plants and fruits that she would then cook up over the fire Hammerhead and his men built, she always knew more about plants than anypony I had met up to that point. Sweetie Belle would probably be hunting for fireflies or shouting to hear how her voice echoed in the pass, and me… I would be watching on, just happy they were there with me.

Even with Lyra snoozing by my side, I felt so alone in that moment. I didn’t feel alone for long though, as I pulled out my father’s compass and spyglass from their pouches and hugged them close to my chest. Even after my initial objections, I was very glad I had taken them from my father before I left, having them close always made the nights feel a little less cold. I don’t think a single day went by after that where I didn’t feel slightly homesick, or family sick rather, but I would always clutch my treasures close and then I wouldn’t feel so bad.

I was able to drift off smiling that night, and I might have woken up smiling too… except I woke up the sounds of screams and the clashing of swords.

V - Clemency

I snapped into a crouching position almost instinctively while Lyra flailed about next to me for a second before joining me by my side. Together we saw the camp was in absolute chaos, our fellow passengers of the Siren were either running away, crying for help or huddled behind rocks or shrubs in the hopes that our attackers would not find them. The attackers themselves were engaging our guards, from where I was I counted four of them, all armed with swords or spears and wearing steel plate armour that shimmered in the dying light of the campfire.

While they definitely seemed better equipped than Hammerhead and his men, they were outnumbered and our escorts fought with savage ferocity. I don’t think the attackers expected the caravan to be protected; we later reached the conclusion that they were just bandits looking for easy prey to rob. I had once witnessed the Canterlot guards practicing their manoeuvres, it had all seemed so measured and precise, but this… this was madness. If there was any notion of fighting with honour in these stallions' heads, it had escaped them when the fighting started.

Both parties were content to strike mercilessly at their opponents, while our protectors had no qualms about ganging up on a single attacker. I could see Hammerhead specifically, taking on one of the attackers on the far side of the fire. The stallion stood no chance; Hammerhead brought his maul down hard on his sword hoof causing him to scream out in agony as it fell to the ground. Without a second's delay he swung his maul again, smacking the attacker in the side of the head causing his helmet to crumple and his whole body to collapse to the ground.

The other attackers weren’t faring much better, another lay motionless on the ground, while the remaining two were already fleeing further into the pass, one hobbling behind as he pitifully dragged one of his hind legs which I figured had been broken during the fight. Hammerhead’s men made no attempt to pursue them, a pair of them went to round up those of our own who had run away while the others stowed their weapons away and went around the camp, trying to calm everypony down. I turned to Lyra, we were both breathing heavily while her eyes were wide and terrified, I imagine I looked the same to her.

“Are you both alright?” Hammerhead asked, walking by us.

“F… Fine,” I stammered. As he made to walk on I called after him. “Who were those ponies?”

“Who knows?” he replied nonchalantly. “Dragoons maybe. It really doesn’t matter who they are, the bottom line is they were a threat and we dealt with it.”

With that he carried on, seeing to the other ponies shaking in shock and fear. He really did deal with the threat, but I wondered to what extent he had gone to. Standing up on shaking legs I began making my way across the camp to the figure that Hammerhead had taken down. Lyra called after me but I ignored her, my attention was completely focused on the still body of the attacker. When I reached him I knelt down beside him and looked him up and down.

He was a pegasus stallion, not much older than myself by the looks of him. Now that I was looking close up, I saw that his armour wasn’t as fine as it had appeared from a distance; it was well worn and bore the marks of seeing much conflict before this one. I turned my focus to his head, a trickle of blood was seeping out and pooling on the ground. Reaching out I took hold of his helmet and tried to remove it, a difficult task considering how badly it was caved in, but I managed it after a few hard tugs. Once it was off I was relieved to see that he was still breathing, although his breaths sounded ragged and pained as they came out. One of Hammerhead’s men approached me from behind and looked down at the body before crouching down next to me, producing a small first aid bag.

“You… you’re going to help him?” I asked with a mixture of surprise and hope.

“We aren’t killers,” he replied solemnly before adding, “If we can avoid it. I’ll patch him up enough that he won’t die from the injury, but that’s as much as we can do for them. If their friends don’t come back for them after we’ve left this place I doubt they’ll survive.”

I gulped at that thought, but rather than objecting I opted to leave him to it and returned to where Lyra still sat, lost in her own thoughts.

“Is he… you know?” she asked nervously.

“He’s alive,” I replied, which allowed her to relax slightly. “But… he says we aren’t bringing them with us. They’re going to leave them here tomorrow for their friends to collect.”

“Do you think they will come back for them?” Lyra asked uncertain.

I didn’t reply, just bit my lip and sat down with my back to her. The truth was I didn’t believe they would, the idea that the kind of ponies who assaulted what they believed to be an undefended caravan of innocents could also give a damn about their comrades was unbelievable to me. We didn’t get much more sleep that night, nopony did. Our guards who had previously been taking it in shifts to watch over the camp now stayed awake and alert. When morning finally came and Hammerhead ordered us to move out, I couldn’t help but look back at the two bodies next to the dwindling fire.

“Lyra,” I began, lagging to the back of the group.

“Yeah?” she replied as she slowed down herself.

“I think I’m going to do something very stupid,” I explained as I began removing my satchels with shaking hooves. “Hold onto these for me, will you? If things go badly I don’t want them taking these.”

“Them?!” Lyra exclaimed as I thrust the satchels and leather pouches into her forelegs. “Rarity, don’t!”

“Just cover for me,” I begged as I began back tracking. “I promise I’ll catch up.”

Lyra opened her mouth to shout after me but then forced herself to shut it. Turning away with an exasperated sigh allowing me to begin heading back towards the camp. We hadn’t travelled far from it, so it didn’t take long to reach it and find both the figures still lying there, the fire now almost completely extinguished. I was relieved to find that they were still both groaning and shifting about in their sleep. Once I was there I set about gathering more dead branches and lumps of moss to throw into the fire, I didn’t want them getting cold.

Once the fire was burning brightly and sending a strong plume of smoke skywards, I sat down next to the stallions and began waiting. After the first half hour I was starting to get fidgety, after the first hour I was pacing back and forth. By the third hour I was losing all hope that anypony would return for them. I dropped to the ground, a feeling of hopelessness washing over me. When I first went back to the camp I didn’t really know what I had been hoping to accomplish, had I been feeling altruistic and just wanted to make sure they were warm and taken care of while they waited, or was I just being selfish and wanted to see their rescue for myself so I wouldn’t have to feel guilty?

Whatever my reasons had been, it didn’t seem to matter then as I was convinced their friends weren’t coming back for them. The fire was getting low once more and if I didn’t set off soon I might never catch up with the caravan. I could feel my eyes beginning to sting with tears at the hopelessness of it all, at the thought of leaving and allowing two stallions to die. I also felt angry at their ‘friends’, I felt bitter towards the kind of ponies that would rob others using violence and then abandon their own team members to die.

At the time I had a very naïve outlook on life, other ponies and the concepts of good and evil, but eventually I would learn that all individuals were more complex than how I initially saw them, that if I was willing to look I would see that everyone was capable of being good and bad. It may have even started that day when I heard the trundling of a cart across the stony ground and turned to see a trio of ponies coming my way, all wearing the same steel armour as the attackers from last night. One of them rushed forward, I noticed his slight limp and wondered if he was maybe one of the attackers who escaped.

He ran straight past me and fell to his knees beside his comrades, checking to see if they were alright while the other two brought the cart up. The one who hurried forward stood up, sighing with relief.

“They’re okay,” he told the other two who looked equally relived at that news. He then turned to me. “Did you patch them up?”

“No,” I admitted, bracing myself. “That was one of the stallions who fought with them; I was part of the caravan they were guarding.”

The stallion looked at me with a mixture of confusion and shock, I continued quickly before he got the wrong idea.

“They had to move out early so I opted to stay behind and watch over your friends while you came to collect them,” I explained.

“Your guards helped them?” he muttered, almost to himself. “And you stayed with them… even after we attacked you?”

“I… couldn’t just leave them,” I replied quietly, looking down at my hooves.

There was an awkward silence between us while the two bodies were loaded into the cart.

“I can’t believe you would do that for us,” he said in disbelief after making sure both men were comfortable. “After what we were going to do to you.”

“Why did you?” I asked, uncertain that I should be prodding in this direction.

“It was nothing personal,” he tried to explain. “We just really needed the money. I know that doesn’t excuse what we did, and you had every right to just leave these men. Still you didn’t, you’re a good pony, and I owe you an apology for what we did.”

The other two ponies also thanked me, it all sounded very genuine and I was left feeling very light headed from how surreal the situation was. We began walking down the pass together for a while, mostly in silence, but when we eventually came to a narrow pathway splitting off from the main pass they stopped and turned to me.

“Our camp is just up here,” the stallion who had done most of the talking explained. “We’ll make sure they’re okay.”

“I’m glad,” I replied with a little nod.

“Here, since you’re falling behind from your companions you might need this,” he continued, reaching into the cart and pulling out a small duffle bag.

I opened it and found it full of apples.

“You’re giving me this?” I asked in surprise. “But I thought you needed money?”

All three looked slightly guilty at that.

“We actually stole those the other day,” the stallion explained. “We hardly deserve them, and after what you did for our friends here, it’s the very least we can give you.”

I threw the bag over my back and smiled at them.

“My name is Rarity by the way.”

“I’m Cirrus,” the stallion replied, smiling back. “These guys are Cyclone and Zephyr, and the two guys you helped are Eerie and Alabaster. We already talked among ourselves last night after I got back and we’ve decided that we’re going to return to Olympus and try to get real jobs. If you’re ever up that direction and you need help, we’ll be more than willing to give you it.”

“I’m glad to hear that, I wish you all the best in your travels,” I finished.

Once we had said our farewells and the stallions left up the mountain trail, I began making my own way through the pass in the direction of my long lost caravan. As I walked, and occasionally ran to make up lost time, I thought back to everything that happened with those stallions. They had attacked us because they needed money; even our own protectors were accepting money from Equestria despite the apparent risks it presented. It seemed that following the war the economy had taken some kind of major hit; it seemed bad if it was driving ponies who turned out to be quite decent to such criminal acts.

The longer I travelled across Panchea, the more I realised just how bad the war had taken its toll on the ponies living here. Of course I always heard stories while staying in Canterlot, but nothing could have prepared me for the reality of it. I heard tales of armies waging great battles in the Grand Pastures, what I hadn’t heard was how the fighting hurt more than just the soldiers fighting them. It was like a poison, seeping into every aspect of life in Panchea until everypony was suffering because of it.

I hoped that when we reached Pivot, or even Glean, I would get some straight answers as to just how bad everything really was during the war. I ended up being very thankful for the apples Cirrus had given me as I had to travel without a moments rest in order to catch up with Lyra and the others. Once I was free of the pass and I could see the Grand Pastures stretching out before me for many miles I was able to see the caravan off in the distance. As I galloped across the grasslands, feeling the breeze in my face and the long grass brushing beneath my hooves and around my fetlocks (I had taken my boots off so they wouldn’t get too sweaty while I worked to catch up), I was able to forget all my doubts and worries for a while and just enjoy being back home.

I finally caught up to the caravan around early evening beside a small wood. Hammerhead was watching the rear at the time and noticed me sprinting up to them. He didn’t look surprised to see me so I figured Lyra had told him what I had done.

“Did they come back?” he asked, confirming my suspicions.

“Yes,” I replied, absolutely breathless.

“That was a big risk you took,” he chastised. “They might never have returned, or worse they might have come back and tried to rob you again.”

“I left my stuff with Lyra,” I explained. “Just in case.”

“You’re still wearing clothes which look like they could fetch a fair price,” he continued. “And you’re a mare.”

“What’s that got to do with anything?” I asked indignantly. “Do you think I can’t defend myself?”

“That’s not what I meant,” he stated darkly.

I left him at the rear as I trotted up to Lyra.

“Holy Celestia you’re okay!” She exclaimed upon seeing me. “How’d it go?”

“Much better than I expected,” I admitted. “They came back for their friends and they were surprisingly friendly too.”

“Friendly?” Lyra repeated, giving me a sceptical look.

“Yes, friendly,” I asserted. “They even gave me some apples that they had stolen the other day and apologised for what they tried to do.”

I threw her one of the apples as I spoke which caused her to quirk an eyebrow.

“Well then, talk about not judging a book by its cover,” she said, biting into the apple.

“You already used that line,” I pointed out.

“It’s a good line,” she replied simply, giving a little shrug.

We came out the other side of the wood to find the farmlands of Glean before us; it was good timing too as the sun was beginning to set once more. Lyra mentioned that if we wanted to rent a room somewhere we would have to pay for it ourselves. We agreed to share a room between us and when we crossed the farmland and entered the town itself we set about looking for an inn. We found an inn very quickly; in fact we found a number of inns, what was harder was finding an inn that was actually open.

In fact very few houses had lights shining out of their windows, while quite a few of those that didn’t had ‘for sale’ signs posted outside them. We eventually found a building pertaining to be an inn that was thankfully still open. Leading the way in I found myself in a rather spacious communal dining area, with the kitchen visible from behind the bar where a tired looking stallion sat, doodling on a napkin. The place was very nice, I imagine it attracted quite a few patrons before whatever happened to drive so many ponies away from this town.

“Excuse me sir,” I began, announcing our presence and causing the old stallion to jump with surprise at being addressed. “Are you open? As in, are there any rooms available for rent tonight?”

“Open?” the stallion repeated as if he couldn’t believe his ears. “Certainly we’re open!”

“Good,” Lyra said before sticking her head out the open door to shout to the others that we had found an open inn, before popping back in with a smirk on her face. “Because you’re going to be seeing quite a lot of business tonight.”

The little old pony looked ready to faint at the influx of customers; we were the first in line to book a room, receiving our key and being directed upstairs. Obviously he couldn’t show every individual to their room so we made our own way there. Just like the first floor, the bedrooms were very comfortable and appealing to the eye. While I had never been to Glean, everything I had heard about it was that it was a backwater farming village, I never expected to find a gem like this here. I was particularly pleased to see the en suit bathroom, and was content to remain in it for half an hour before Lyra hammered on the door.

“Are you done yet Rarity?” She asked, sounding irritated. “You’re not the only one who stinks.”

“Just a minute darling,” a called back, slipping into my old habits as a result of the pampered feeling. “Cleanliness is a particular vice I haven’t been able to indulge for quite some time, you can appreciate that I’m trying to savour this moment.”

“I wouldn’t say being clean is a vice,” Lyra pointed out through the door.

“My father certainly would after I spent hours at a time in the bathroom,” I replied in a reminiscent voice.

“Well please don’t take hours this time,” Lyra begged. “I need to get cleaned and I was hoping we could go downstairs to get a proper meal. Keeping in mind that it’s getting late and we need to sleep at some point if we’re going to be setting out early tomorrow morning too.”

I relented after that and forced myself out of the tub, I left the bathroom as I towelled myself dry and Lyra rushed past me. The first thing I heard after the door was shut was the sound of the toilet seat being put down. I didn’t bother to get redressed once I was dry, we would only be going down stairs after all. So while I waited for Lyra to emerge from her own bath time, I set about cleaning my clothes. I would never say I was an expert at magic, far from it, but there were a collection of spells that I did pride myself on, spells that usually aided in my work.

One such spell was being able to clean clothes and fabrics using only my magic, particularly handy in this situation as it made no sense to put on dirty clothes after going to the effort to clean yourself. Once Lyra was finished we made our way down stairs and approached the bar once more and placed an order for two large bowls of stew. Before we went to one of the many empty tables I noticed the napkin the manager had been doodling on, it showed a pair of stick figures brawling over a doughnut with a label reading ‘the last doughnut in the world’, I got a smile out of that as we sat ourselves down.

When the old stallion returned and set our food down before us, which looked and smelt amazing, I decided to ask him about the town.

“I noticed a lot of houses seem to be for sale,” I began. “And we couldn’t find any other inns open, what happened here?”

“What happened?” he replied, looking at me as if I had two heads. “Where have you ladies been hiding? The war happened. When those damn rebels came in here and burned the crops and slaughtered the sheep, most ponies lost their livelihoods, selling possessions and property was their only choice. If I wasn’t indoors I would spit at having to bring up those blasted rebels.”

Clearly put into a bad mood, he stormed off back to the kitchen leaving me and Lyra to eat our food in awkward silence. The rebels had won the war, and from what I heard it was a pretty decisive victory, it gave me chills to think the kind of ponies who burnt crops and butchered animals were the ones now running this country. When we were done we returned to our room to catch some much needed rest, Hammerhead intended to reach Pivot tomorrow evening, which no doubt meant we would be leaving Glean at the break of dawn to do so.

As I felt myself drifting off, I thought I heard sounds coming from downstairs. I was too tired to pay it any heed however so I told myself it was just another customer arriving late. I was able to get to sleep very quickly after that.

VI - The Wreath

I hadn’t been wrong about Hammerhead wanting us up at the crack of dawn, as I was rudely woken from my peaceful slumber by him hammering on my door, no pun intended. Luckily I hadn’t slipped so far back into old habits that I would roll over and try to ignore him; rather I forced myself out of bed and started dressing myself. Lyra had gone ahead to find the inn keeper and pay the rent, and once I had the straps on all my satchels and the strings of my pouches tightened I went downstairs after her. I found her waiting by the bar, rapping her hoof in agitation while she apparently waited for the inn keeper to show up.

“He might be asleep you know,” I pointed out as I joined her at the bar.

“He’s not, I already checked his room,” Lyra explained, craning her neck to try and see around the open kitchen as if she expected to see him hiding behind a counter.

“Pay your debts quickly and meet us outside,” Hammerhead called from the door. “And try to get the rest of your companions out of bed before we come in and drag them out.”

“You’d think he’d be pretty eager to collect our rent after what he was saying about business being slow,” Lyra commented as Hammerhead exited the building.

“Maybe he’s just in the back or something,” I proposed, walking around the bar and entering the kitchen area.

Lyra didn’t object as I navigated my way to the pantry door, it was slightly ajar and there was no light coming from within. Still, I thought it was worth a quick search, and if he wasn’t there I would go outside to look for him. I threw open the door with my magic, opening my mouth in preparation for calling out… only to have my words fail me.

“Did you find him?” Lyra asked, only half interested as she approached from the side.

I would have replied with ‘yes’, but again, I was incapable of forming the words. Lyra discovered soon enough as she reached me, looked through the pantry door and leapt back in horror. The little, old stallion was hanging from a ceiling beam, one of the bar stools was toppled beneath him. He was quite clearly dead and my mind instantly jumped to suicide. Naturally we didn’t set off like Hammerhead had intended, as much as I could tell it annoyed him to delay the journey, he knew it wasn’t right to just walk away from something like that.

As time seemed to speed by and word of what happened spread to our travelling companions and the few townsponies who still lived in Glean, I found myself refusing to leave the inn as the reality of what had happened refused to sink in. It just made no sense, true he made out that things had been difficult for him and the town after the war, but surely our arrival meant a great boom in business for him. Of course I could never have known what things were happening in his life from one conversation, perhaps to somepony who knew him this would have come as no surprise, perhaps this had been building up under the surface for a long time.

The truth was I had no right to make any assumptions on why this pony might have done what he appeared to have done, but I just couldn’t help myself, and it was all because of his suicide note. It was one of the first things we picked up on once we managed to get over our initial shock at seeing the body. It was a sheet of fine parchment pinned to his shirt, it bore no writing however, nothing that might have indicated a motive. Instead the paper displayed a single drawing, a wreath of thorns. I was immediately sceptical that it even could be classed as a suicide note, but Hammerhead brushed it off by saying that ponies in that mind set are hardly thinking rationally, and that drawing might have meant something important to him at the time.

Still it bothered me, and it didn’t take long to realise why. The drawing was incredible, as an artist myself I could appreciate the skill that went into it as my eyes swept over it, picking up the finest of details. However I did not believe that the old stallion was such a skilled artist, and the discarded napkin on the floor beside the bar was proof of that. Sure you could argue that he was only messing around when he drew those stick figures and that even a skilled artist could doodle without putting much effort into making it look good, but I just couldn’t fathom such a range in skill being realistic.

Lyra told me I was overthinking things when I tried to explain it to her, and Hammerhead told me I should let it go, that suicide was just an unfortunate reality and I shouldn’t try to disprove it just because it was unpleasant. Reluctantly I agreed, and when Hammerhead decided we had wasted enough time and it was time to move on, I was more than willing to obey. The mare who lived next door to the inn said she would take care of the body, as well as try to hunt down the stallion's relatives to pass on the unfortunate news.

I asked if she was going to approach the authorities about it, she replied with ‘What authorities?’. I left the vacant town feeling rather hollow, and as we passed through the fields in the outskirts I realised how barren the farmlands truly were, something we hadn’t noticed as we first arrived the night before. We journeyed in silence, ordinarily Lyra would talk away, but even she was oddly quiet, no doubt she too was bothered by the morning’s events. Not everypony was feeling put off however, I did overhear a couple of upper-class mares discussing how much of a steal our stay at the inn was before having a chuckle.

After a couple hours we arrived in another wood, in doing so we had to cut away from the path which took the long way around. A few of our companions expressed displeasure at that but Hammerhead insisted he knew what he was doing, and I could tell he wasn’t in the mood for ponies questioning him after how much the morning’s events had set us back. It was similar to how we crossed the Dawn Coast when making for the Wyvern Heights, except instead of hilly terrain we were faced with mud and awkward trees with low hanging branches and roots that jutted up through the earth.

Several times, some of us, myself included, would get tangled up in brambles, trip over rocks and roots or walk down what seemed like a perfectly good path but ended up being too narrow and having to back up. The guards however navigated the wood with ease, never encountering any difficulty even as they pulled the luggage cart along behind them. I was going to ask Hammerhead how they knew the route so well, but as we stepped out from the tree line onto the bank of a river my question very quickly answered itself.

We were still in the woods, in fact there were even more trees on the opposite bank. We had just arrived into a small clearing where a high, wooden bridge had been erected over the river and on the other side was a small log cabin and a loading crane sitting next to the river. I knew the river joined The Neptune to the Lonesome Lake, I also knew that there were two main bridges across it nearer to both those locations, but I never knew this place existed. I could guess however that it was used as a checkpoint for loading and unloading barges travelling along the river.

“I helped build this place,” Hammerhead said out of nowhere, appearing next to me.

“You did?” I queried earning a nod in response.

“Supply Lines are important in a war,” he explained. “It was pretty early on in the whole thing, the enemy started ambushing our supply barges further down the river, so we needed somewhere else to collect the cargo before they reached enemy territory.”

“So you did fight in the war,” I responded, I had my suspicions, and now I just had one more question. “Which… which side did you fight for? If you don’t mind me asking.”

“The rebels,” Hammerhead stated casually before gesturing to his men who were already spread out, manning the crane to pick up the cart. “We all were, it was how we met.”

He began moving towards the bridge which some ponies had already crossed and a couple others were in the process of doing so, I followed closely in the hopes of hearing more.

“It seemed right at the time,” he continued. “Fighting for the rebellion that is, but the fact that this place was just left abandoned says a lot.”

“So you don’t think they should have won?” I asked curiously.

“It’s not that,” he tried to explain. “I just think they rushed into conflict without having any idea what they would do if and when they won. Maybe if they had some plan in place, the country wouldn’t be in the crappy state it’s in now.”

When we stepped off on the opposite bank Hammerhead walked off to help his men before I could ask him anymore questions. Instead I wandered over to where Lyra stood, peering into the window of the cabin.

“What were you two talking about?” she asked as she saw me approaching.

“He was telling me about how he helped build this place during the war,” I replied.

“Neat,” Lyra said with a contemplative nod. “That explains why he brought us this way. Quicker to cut through the woods and he knew the crane would be there to lift the cart…”

It was as if fate had been eavesdropping on our conversation, and what happened next was just fate trying to spite us. Lyra was cut off by a loud crashing noise, we both spun around the see the arm of the crane had broken clean off, dropping both it the cart which had been hanging from it into the river. Many ponies began shouting and cursing as they saw their suitcases plunge into the river, Lyra and I also ran up to the bank and stared in in horror. Almost without hesitation however, the stallions whipped their weapons and armour off, threw them onto the grass before diving in to recover the luggage.

As they began hauling the suitcases out, I stepped up and skidded down the bank until I my forelegs were in the river. Lyra followed me and together with a few other ponies who weren’t afraid to get their boots wet we used our magic to take the cases off the stallions and deposit them back on the dry land. The whole process was very hectic and stressful, not helped by a number of ponies who were concerned enough about their belongings to shout and roar at Hammerhead and his men, but not concerned enough to help retrieve them. It was being asked to help clean the Siren all over again.

After a while we were forced to call it quits, we had recovered a surprising amount, however a good number had either been lost to the depths or carried down river by the current. My own case had been lost, although I was less concerned for myself than I was for the mother and her small child. They weren’t carrying any other bags so all their belongings had been in that one suitcase that we were unable to recover. There were quite a few tears from both her and the filly, I could tell Hammerhead and his men were thoroughly shamed by it, not quite as much by some others who had lost their stuff, as in the ones who had opted to stand back shouting.

Lyra had been one of the lucky few, but she along with a few other charitable souls were quick to offer their spare clothes to the mother as well as some bits to help her on her way to her old home in Arclight. I wasn’t surprised when it was decided we would spend the night there, I also wasn’t surprised at the uproar when Hammerhead revealed that the few bedrolls we had were also gone. It was still early evening, so while everypony began getting at each other’s throats, I decided to take a short walk. I wasn’t too bothered by the loss of my suitcase, sure the clothes in it weren’t exactly cheap to make, but all my important items were still on my person and in my satchels.

True I had also been keeping my blank letters in the case, but I was sure I would find more stuff for writing letters when I reached Pivot or Mule. I hadn’t really had a destination in mind, I was just walking in a random direction… or at least that’s what I thought. If a pony walks back and forth across a particular length of ground a few times, their hoof prints will eventually wear the ground down enough so that the faintest path appears. Other ponies pick up on this slight path and feel drawn to follow it themselves; I suppose that is how most roads are formed.

In this case the path was faint, but without even realising it my hooves followed it as if with a mind of their own. It was only when I reached the end of the path that I picked up on all this, on the path that had led away from the river checkpoint and on the large tree stump in front of me. At first I was prepared to brush it off, trying to decide whether I should carry on or turn back, the stump didn’t really factor into the decision making process until I paced around and my eyes landed on what was carved into the rotting bark.

Lyra was a little worried when she saw me sprinting towards her from the woods; she probably thought I was being chased by timber wolves or something. Before she could say anything however, I grabbed her by the shoulders and began shaking her.

“You have to come quickly!” I exclaimed. “You won’t believe what I just stumbled across.”

“Rarity, wait a moment!” Lyra tried to object, but to no avail as I dragged her along the trail.

The path was easier to follow intentionally now that I knew it was there, and when I came to the tree stump I wasted no time in pulling Lyra around to the right side and showing her the carving. She didn’t speak, only stared in confusion at what was etched in front of us.

“Is that…” Lyra began, looking at me with concern.

“I think so,” I whispered back.

The wreath of thorns was clear as day, the dark, damp bark chipped away so the pale wood beneath shone through, forming the shape.

“Are you absolutely sure that’s the same symbol from the note?” Lyra asked, understanding instantly what the implications of the discovery could mean.

“I am,” I replied, whipping one of my notebooks from my bag and flipping open to one of the first few pages.

“Did you take that?!” Lyra asked in horror as she looked at the drawing of the wreath in my notebook.

“No!” I snapped back quickly, a little insulted by the insinuation. “I just drew a copy of it. But look, it’s the exact same design.”

“It really does look like it,” Lyra admitted, running her hoof over the carving. “But what does it mean? And I didn’t even know it was possible to carve something this…”

“Intricate?” I offered when Lyra couldn’t come up with the word, she nodded in response. “Well I don’t know what it means, and I noticed the drawing was also very well done, whoever made them must be a very skilled artist.”

“You don’t think it was that stallion who…” Lyra began to ask before cutting off and quickly changing the direction of her sentence. “Surely he could have come out here sometime, we’re not too far away from Glean.”

“Don’t you remember what I was trying to tell you at the inn?” I asked impatiently. “He wasn’t a good artist, we saw that napkin.”

Lyra pursed her lips in thought, when she didn’t reply I began circling around the stump, examining every inch of it for something out of the ordinary. Seeing what I was up to, Lyra joined me in investigating it. While I was crouching down, looking at its roots, Lyra had climbed up and was now looking into the hollow.

“Hey Rarity!” she called down. “There might be something in here.”

Jumping up quickly, I scurried up next to Lyra and peered in. The hollow stump was full of dry leaves and damp moss, nothing that would have been out of the ordinary, but I managed to see what Lyra had. A glimpse of something metal where a small patch of the moss had been brush aside, perhaps by some woodland animal. Lyra and I exchanged a look, agreeing pretty quickly on what to do. Together we reached out with our magic and pulled the metal object from the stump and lowered it onto the forest floor.

Climbing down the stump we examined it closely, discerning it to be a medium sized lockbox. It was fairly rusted and it was little more than half the size of the case I had lost. I didn’t know any lock picking spells, but then I didn’t have to, neither of us did. Levitating a large rock, I brought it smashing down onto the rusted catch. The padlock looked fairly new and indeed held, but the box itself cracked open, making the padlock pretty redundant.

We both knelt down before it, looking like a pair of fillies on Hearth’s Warming morning about to open their presents. I lifted the broken lid slowly and the dwindling sunlight seeped into the box, illuminating its contents. I’m not sure what I was expecting, I probably would have been surprised no matter what turned out to be in it. It turned out however to be a very interesting variety of objects, including seven arrows and two crossbow bolts, a coping saw, some sealed food and a set of knives. I levitated the knives out first and began examining them while Lyra looked at the saw. They were very stylish blades, double edged, leather wrapped grips, looked to be made of silver though I wasn’t entirely sure.

They were also stored within matching leather sheaths which, I took quick notice of, would go quite nicely attached to my cincher.

“This saw looks like it was used recently,” Lyra pointed out, indicating chunks of saw dust clotting the teeth.

“Well these knives look pretty new,” I added, stowing them in my own bag before levitating out the other objects. “So do these arrows actually.”

“I wonder what all this is for,” Lyra mumbled, looking back into the box at which point her eyes widened. “Hello there! What do we have here?”

Looking over I saw her whip out a sheet of paper from the bottom of the box that we hadn’t noticed with all the other objects on top of it. The paper was covered in writing, but as our eyes scanned over it quickly became apparent that it was written in gibberish.

“Well that was disappointing,” I commented as I stood up and brushed myself down.

“Not entirely,” Lyra began. “At last now we know pan fried eggs do cartwheels down volcanos in swimsuits.”

“Good point,” I replied sarcastically. “Truly we both walk away from here enlightened.”

We shared a little laugh as we packed everything, minus the knives back into the box and began carrying it back towards the checkpoint. When we reached the cabin we spotted Hammerhead talking to one of his men, a lump of wood sat between them. When he saw us approaching he excused himself and marched over to us.

“Where were you two?” he questioned, before looking specifically at me. “I’m sorry about your bag by the way.”

“It’s fine, there was nothing important in it,” I replied, brushing it off with a hoof. “As for where we were, we found something interesting in the wood.”

Lyra floated the lock box up to Hammerhead who looked at it curiously before accepting it.

“We found that hidden inside a hollow tree stump,” I explained as he began searching through it. “The tree stump was marked with a wreath of thorns, the same wreath of thorns that was on that old pony’s ‘suicide note’.”

Hammerhead didn’t seem to have heard me however, as he lifted the saw out, eying it with a curious expression.

“Oh yeah that,” Lyra commented. “We thought it looked like it had been used recently.”

“You’re damn right it has!” Hammerhead exclaimed, dropping the box and storming over to the lump of wood I had seen, the saw in his mouth.

Lyra and I both looked at each other confused before following after him, hoping to get some kind of explanation.

“This was the arm of the crane that broke,” Hammerhead explained, gesturing his hoof angrily over it. “One of my men recovered it, notice anything odd about it?”

Unsure what he was getting at, I crouched down and began looking it over. After a moment I came to the end that had snapped off from the rest of the crane, only… it wasn’t snapped, at least not entirely.

“This has been sawn,” I stated, looking up at him for confirmation.

“That’s right,” he said, his normally soft voice sounding more like a growl. “Sawn half way so that any weight would have resulted in it breaking and whatever it was holding dropping into the river.”

“You think this saw was used to cut it?” Lyra asked, her voiced concerned.

“It seems like a pretty big coincidence that we discover this sabotage,” he began. “Then you show up having just found a used saw hidden in the woods.”

“So whoever hid that box,” I began, levitating the box back over to us. “Probably cut the crane, and might also have been involved in that stallion's death. Why would anypony do all that?”

“Maybe the note has something to do with it,” Lyra suggested.

“Note?” Hammerhead repeated, raising an eyebrow.

“Here,” I said, passing him out the piece of paper. “It’s not much use though, absolute gibberish.”

Hammerhead read over it a few times, his brow furrowing as he did.

“Does it mean something to you?” I asked, hopeful that we might get to the bottom of this.

“No,” he answered before donning a thoughtful expression. “But this writing style does seem very familiar, I’m sure I’ve seen a letter written like this before.”

He handed it back to us before continuing.

“But considering those are military rations in that box it could be some sort of code,” he explained. “Might be that you two found a dead drop for supplies. We should be careful tonight; I’ll let the guys know we’re on high alert just in case the owner of that box shows up again. You two should go get some sleep.”

Indeed the sun had set some time ago, but somewhere among all the excitement of discovery and mystery we hadn’t even noticed. As Hammerhead went to talk to his men, we found a relatively comfortable patch of earth outside the cabin to lie down for the night. Before we called it a night we quickly discussed what to do with the box's contents, since me pocketing the knives hadn’t slipped past Lyra, she gave me the coded letter to hold onto as well. The rations we split and the other items we left in the box, perhaps Hammerhead would be able to make use of them.

If he couldn’t, which wouldn’t be surprising since none of his men carried any sort of ranged weapon; I could always sell them in Pivot, which we would certainly reach tomorrow despite all the delays we had encountered. It had been an unusually eventful journey thus far, foolishly I believed the worst was behind us and once we reached Pivot it would be smooth sailing straight to Mule and home. How wrong could a mare be…

VIII - The Kindness Of Strangers

As I sat down in the mayor’s office, I was immediately reminded of Duke Blueblood’s office back at Canterlot Castle. It already felt like a life time since I had sat in that particular office, I began fidgeting with my compass as I thought back to the peaceful life I’d agreed to leave behind that day. Just before the mayor shut the door, he called down to somepony I couldn’t see, a secretary I presumed, to fetch some tea.

“Now, Miss…” he began as he circled around his desk and sat opposite me, wringing his hooves in one another.

“Rarity,” I informed him in an even voice.

“Miss Rarity,” the mayor finished. “My name is Pen Pusher; I am the mayor of Pivot, as you no doubt know already.”

At that last comment he puffed out his chest in a very unsubtle manner to emphasis the bright red rosette on his jacket lapel. He coughed awkwardly and sat up straight when he noticed the disdain in the look I was giving him.

“Anyway, my secretary informed me that you were here to check the records office,” he continued. “Something about finding a particular business.”

“Something like that,” I replied coolly. “I needed to know which businesses were still running.”

“Well I can understand that,” he admitted. “It’s hard to come by an open shop these days.”

“And why is that?” I asked curtly, which he seemed taken aback by.

“Pardon?”

“Why is Pivot in this state?” I demanded, leaning in. “The last time I was here this town was booming.”

“Well, there was a war,” Pen Pusher answered, as if it were obvious. “Surely you knew.”

“The war is over,” I reminded him. “So what are you, as mayor doing to fix things?”

“Me?!” he exclaimed, his brow sweating slightly. “I can assure you Miss Rarity that I am doing everything in my power to make Pivot the great city it once was.”

“Really?” I asked sceptically. “Because the pony working in the records office is passed out, drunk!”

He tried to mumble some excuse but I cut across him.

“I overheard that shelters are full and yet the streets are full of homeless ponies,” I continued, leaning in even closer. “Local businesses are going under and buildings lie in ruins. So I’ll ask you again, what are you doing to fix all this?!”

It was at that moment the secretary entered, wheeling a tea trolley in. She stopped dead when she saw me leaning over the desk, almost snarling at the mayor who was cowering in his seat. I sat back in my own seat, adopting a calm and composed demeanour.

“Thank you Inkie,” the mayor muttered as the secretary set a cup in front of each of us before leaving again.

“My apologies for losing my head,” I began, trying to keep my voice calm once more. “But I still expect an answer.”

“I told you, I’m doing everything in my power,” he repeated, levitating his own tea cup. “Believe me when I say that cleaning this city up, supporting local businesses and funding more shelters are on the top of my to-do list, but for all those things I need money.”

“Am I to take it you’re lacking that?” I inquired, sipping from my own cup, almost gagging at the vile taste.

“She’s new,” the mayor explained bitterly. “It’s so hard to find good help these days, but then you probably know that if you saw Lens Flare.”

“The old mare in the records office?” I asked.

“That’s the one,” Pen Pusher replied with a little nod. “I know what you’re going to say, that there are plenty of ponies out in the streets who could maybe do these jobs better, but it all comes back to money. Ponies like Inkie and Lens Flare may be a bit useless, but they’re the only applicants who were willing to do their jobs for practically no wages.”

“You’re not going to make any money if you refuse to spend any to start off,” I tried to explain. “If town hall isn’t running effectively then of course the rest of the town is going to fall apart, but in order to get this place running properly you need to hire the right ponies to do the right jobs.”

Pen Pusher opened his mouth, presumably to object but once again I interrupted him.

“And that means having to fork out a lot of money,” I insisted. “But it’s necessary, Pivot isn’t going to recover if you aren’t willing to take some risks to make it happen. And since you got voted to this office, ponies must think you’re capable of doing that.”

Pen Pusher squirmed uncomfortably in his seat for a moment, which gave me pause for thought.

“You were elected, right?” I asked in a wary tone.

“Well… not exactly,” he murmured, which caused me to groan. “You have to understand that as bad as this place looks now, it was much worse when the war ended. The rebels needed to put someone in charge, so… I volunteered.”

“So the rebels got you into this office,” I repeated. “Is that why… Sufferthorn was meeting with you?”

“Um…” Pen Pusher shrunk in his seat once more. “Sort of, it’s not really important.”

“Is it not?” I muttered darkly. “Well however you came to be here, you’re the mayor now and that means the responsibility is on you to clean up this town up.”

I stood up; intent on leaving since I didn’t think Pen Pusher would be any use in finding the businesses I was looking for.

“You should seriously think about what I told you though,” I continued. “You’re not going to change anything if you hoard every bit you have for fear of being broke, you need to spend money if Pivot is ever going to make any. I had a business myself before the war, so I can promise you I know what I’m talking about.”

“Yes, yes,” Pen Pusher agreed, standing up and hurrying to the door to open it for me. “I’ll be sure to get right on it, thank you for your advice, truly. Also I’m sorry we couldn’t be more help to you, but I hope you find what you’re looking for and that your stay in Pivot is… well I’m not going to say pleasant, you’ve seen the state of it, but I hope it is satisfactory.”

I was pleased to find that when I left the office, the crowds of ponies weren’t still waiting in the entrance hall to stare at me some more. I was able to slip out relatively unnoticed, as I did leave however I noticed the rest of the guards I had seen earlier. These ones definitely appeared to be guards as opposed to soldiers, and like Inkie and Lens Flare it looked like they were the cheapest the council could afford. The one standing next to the door didn’t even notice me as I walked out right past him, he was too busy picking his nose and yawning at the same time.

Once I was back out into the town square I was able to see how low the sun was getting, obviously I wasn’t leaving Pivot that night, so I decided to put off looking for a transporter in favour of finding somewhere with rooms to let. As luck would have it, there was an open tavern almost directly opposite the doors to town hall, right on the corner of where the main street entered the square. It was surprisingly well lit, packed and noisy, even if they didn’t have rooms I might be able to talk up a few locals and find what I was looking for elsewhere.

There were several ponies standing outside with their drinks, laughing and talking loudly, completely oblivious to the homeless sitting mere metres away from them. As I made for the door, one pony hurried past me, he was a youngish stallion wearing filthy rags and eagerly counting out the bits he had collected in his metal cup. I wasn’t sure how to feel about that, the boy was lucky enough that his begging earned him some money, but now he was going to spend it all on a drink. Maybe that was for the best, if you had nothing left to your name and no hope of building a better life, a drink might ease the pain and help you forget.

I walked into the tavern after him, glad to see that nopony here was paying any attention to me either. I made a beeline for the bar, weaving in and out of poorly placed tables. The vagrant was already at the bar hoofing over his money, a part of me wanted to stop him, but as he was given a tankard of cider which he began chugging down in desperation I decided that it was none of my business. Clearly there was a problem in this town, and I wasn’t going to fix it by reforming one stallion.

That thought gave me pause, since when was I trying to fix anything? All I came to Panchea to do was get to my house and see if everything was alright for my family to travel over so we could restart our lives. Shaking my head I carried on towards the bar and leaned against it while waiting to be served, as I waited however I began to get a prickling sensation on the back of my neck, as if I was being watched. Almost instinctively my magic began reaching out to the knives that were now strapped to my cincher, I had no desire to use them, but after my encounter with those soldiers I wasn’t about to take any risks.

“What can I get you?” the mare behind the bar asked, tearing my thoughts away from the possible threat.

“Oh, uh…” I mumbled trying to remember what I can in for. “Oh yes, I was wondering if you had any rooms to let.”

“All taken I’m afraid,” the mare replied. “You aren’t the first we’ve had to turn away tonight.”

“Oh, well in that case I’ll just take a cider,” I said, slightly disappointed. “Just a half pint please.”

As she fetched my order and I began fishing out a few bits from the purse tucked safely inside my satchel, somepony approached me from the side and joined me at the bar.

“Excuse me,” she began, grabbing my attention. “Did I hear you were looking for a place to stay?”

I glanced up, taken aback by the mare’s sudden presence. She was a small pegasus, lime green coat with blonde mane and tail, her cutie mark was a twisting serpent.

“I was…” I replied warily. “Why?”

“Well I sort of run a shelter,” she explained. “My name is Grass Snake by the way.”

“Rarity, and if you own a shelter,” I began as the mare returned with my drink and I slide a few bits across the bar to her. “Then why are you offering a room to me? There are plenty of ponies outside who I’m sure would appreciate it.”

“Sorry I should have made it clear,” she began quickly. “I wasn’t exactly just giving you the room, like… for free.”

“Oh, of course,” I replied, taking a swig from my glass. “Some shelter then.”

“No, no, it’s not like that at all,” Grass Snake insisted, sounding panicked. “We’re pretty packed already which is why I’m not out there taking in strays… but we’re also pretty poor. You could squeeze in for the night, or more if you wanted, and in return you maybe you could give a little to help us keep everypony fed.”

I thought about the offer for a moment, it definitely sounded like they weren’t fit to be keeping anymore ponies under their roof, but it’s not like I need much space and I’d be giving them something in return to help with the upkeep of the shelter, which was more than what the mayor or the council was doing at the moment.

“I think that could work,” I replied. “Do you want leave now?”

“Not just yet,” Grass Snake replied. “I came here to pick up something.”

As I glanced around I noticed the mare who had served me was standing by with an unmarked bottle of clear liquid.

“Next time I’m going to have to charge you, you know that?” the mare asked as she handed the bottle over.

“I know, I promise I’ll get some money before then,” Grass Snake replied gratefully as she accepted the bottle.

With the transfer made, Grass Snake turned and began to make her way out of the tavern while I followed closely behind.

“It’s medicinal alcohol,” she explained. “For one of our residents. It’s the best I can get since the pharmacy closed down.”

Together we exited the tavern and began making our way across the square, Grass Snake quickly explained where her house was, somewhere in one of the outer districts. I noticed she walked very quickly, I wondered if maybe it wasn’t safe to be on the streets at night, and indeed the sun was already set and the last light of day was fading fast. As we left the ex-business centric part of Pivot the number of homeless ponies dropped dramatically, no doubt they chose that area to beg in specifically as it was where most ponies would be traversing.

“So how many ponies are you sheltering?” I asked in an attempt to break the eerie silence as we walked through the residential areas.

“At the moment,” Grass Snake began, thinking quickly about it. “Five.”

“Five?!” I exclaimed. “I thought you said you were packed!”

“We are,” she insisted. “Trust me when I say my house is tiny, besides… it’s not exactly a normal shelter.”

“What do you mean?” I asked curiously.

“You’ll see soon enough,” she replied. “We’re almost there.”

I didn’t respond after that, I simply kept my mouth shut and followed Grass Snake until we arrived in a narrow street where all the houses were tightly cramped in next to one another. I could tell what she meant about her house being small, assuming it was the same as the rest of these houses which were all three stories tall but only a single small room wide. About half way down the street Grass Snake turned left and ascended the front steps of one of the many identical, tiny houses.

“Pixie!” Grass Snake called out while knocking on the door. “It’s Grass Snake, could you open the door for me please?”

There was a moment’s pause while Grass Snake glanced up and down the street nervously, but the entire estate was deserted. Then I heard the snap of a lock… followed by the click of another, and the rattling of a chain. Just when I thought it was over there were several other clicks in close succession followed by one loud thump. I gave Grass Snake a worried glance but she just took all this in her stride like it was normal for her.

As the door opened, she hurried me in before squeezing in behind me. I found myself in the narrowest of hallways; two fully grown ponies would have to squeeze past one another if they tried to cross each other. There was an even narrower staircase on the left hand wall while the right side of the hallway lead to an open door at the end of the hallway and another door leading off on the right. In front of me was the pony who had presumably opened the front door, I wasn’t sure what I had been expecting, perhaps a scruffy stallion. What I was not expecting was a unicorn filly who looked younger than my own sister, staring up at me with barely disguised fear.

“Thank you Pixie Dust,” Grass Snake said as she closed the door. “We have a guest; can you go make sure the den is tidy please?”

Pixie Dust nodded, still looking nervous towards me, but she turned and hurried down the hall to the door on the right. I turned, ready to question Grass Snake but stopped when I saw the door. The sounds I had heard gave me an idea, but I couldn’t have been ready for the sheer number of locks and bolts on the inside of the front door. As Grass Snake finished resetting all the various locks, she lifted a wooden plank that was leaning against the wall and set in place to barricade the door.

“We… take safety kind of seriously here,” she explained, looking sheepish when she noticed my wide eyes.

“I can see that,” I murmured.

“Why don’t we head into the den,” she suggested, gesturing for me to take the lead. “I’ll introduce you to the family.”

Nodding, I turned and began making my way down towards the room Pixie Dust had disappeared through. As I walked I noticed a small, grotty kitchen through the open door at the end of the hall, if looked very unsanitary. When I turned into the den I found a small room with two sofas that looked ready to fall apart, a single rickety bookshelf that was only half filled with a mismatch of titles from children’s picture books to the complete works of famous poets, and a wooden crate that Pixie Dust and two other fillies were putting some toys away into.

Apart from that the entire room was stripped bare, literally in the case of the wallpaper, and the floor looked in such poor condition that it may very well have been sandblasted at one point. An aged unicorn stallion sat in an armchair that was in just as poor a condition as the sofas, he looked up in surprise at me also entered, as did the other two fillies.

“Everypony,” Grass Snake began as she stepped in past me. “This is Rarity; she’s going to be staying with us for a few days.”

That earned a few confused looks; I noticed that most of the glances were directed at my clothes.

“I am paying,” I explained quickly. “Grass Snake said you could do with some money to help keep this place up and running, and I needed a place to sleep safe for a night or two.”

That elicited a groan from the stallion.

“So I take it you had no luck at the town hall,” he said despondently to Grass Snake.

“No luck,” she replied with a little sigh.

“Town hall?” I repeated. “You were at town hall?”

“Yes I was,” she admitted before looking to the three fillies. “Do you three maybe want to go upstairs while the grownups talk for a bit?”

The three fillies went without arguing and as I heard their hooves clopping of the wooden stairs I was invited to take a seat on one of the sofas.

“My apologies Miss Rarity,” the stallion began. “I should have introduced myself first, my name is Lock Pick.”

“I take it you’re responsible for all those locks on the front door then?” I enquired, noticing his keyhole cutie mark.

“That I am,” he confirmed. “You can’t be too safe these days, especially when you’re looking after children and…”

He stopped abruptly as he entered into a coughing fit. Grass Snake leapt up and went straight to his side but he managed to stop without any assistance.

“And old cripples,” he finished, giving me a weak grin.

“Those girls,” I began, glancing up at the ceiling. “Are they… related to either of you at all?”

Both Grass Snake and Lock Pick looked solemn at that.

“No,” Grass Snake stated as she took her seat again. “They’re all orphans.”

“Orphans?” I repeated quietly, thinking about what that meant. “Wait a second, do you mean they became orphans because of the war?”

Grass Snake nodded sadly.

“The war took its toll harder on some more than others,” she continued. “Surely you know that though. You look like you’ve been doing pretty well for yourself, but surely you haven’t been blind to the effects all around you.”

“Actually,” I began, looking away guiltily as I remembered Sufferthorn’s comment about me being a coward. “I moved to Equestria before the war, I only returned a few days ago.”

“You got a place on one of those refugee ships?” Lock Pick asked to which I nodded. “Well you were one of the lucky few then. So did you know nothing of what happened until you got back?”

“I heard stories,” I answered. “Oh there were plenty of stories, but nothing could ever have lived up to the reality of it all. The longer I’m back, the more I hear, the worse it all seems.”

“Well now you know just one more terrible truth,” Grass Snake said. “Everypony knows that wars claim lives, but what most forget is the children who are left behind when their parents die fighting or are simply caught in the crossfire.”

“So that’s why you only keep a few ponies sheltered?” I enquired.

“Yes,” Grass Snake replied. “I am fully aware that there are others out there who need a place to stay, and it kills me to ignore them, but those girls have suffered enough. I want to give them a home, not just a square foot a floor to sleep on.”

“And that’s why you were in town hall?”

“Yes, I went there in the hopes of getting some funding,” she continued. “If I was really lucky I might have been able to expand the shelter into some other houses that are vacant at the moment, but I didn’t get a single bit.”

“I’m sure you tried your best Grass,” Lock Pick said, trying to console her as she buried her head in her forelegs.

“I actually saw you there,” she said, brightening up slightly. “But then everypony saw you. I was still at the back of the line when you had your little… spat, so I was only just finishing up when you left. When I ran into you in the Trapper and heard you were looking for a room I thought… well anypony who has money to buy clothes like that, and has the guts to stand up to Sufferthorn…”

Lock Pick began coughing and sputtering at that.

“Maybe they’d be willing to help,” Grass Snake finished, getting up once more to check on Lock Pick.

“I actually make all my own clothes,” I began. “It’s what I did before the war, but I do have a bit of money on me now, and of course I’ll pay you well for letting me stay here. Although I should point out that I had a strong word with the mayor, and he might actually start to get things fixed around here.”

Both ponies chuckled at that which I raised an eyebrow at.

“Sorry, I don’t doubt that you gave him what was coming to him,” Grass Snake explained. “But I can tell you now you’re not the first pony to do so.”

“That Pen Pusher is the most corruptible stallion I’ve met,” Lock Pick spat. “He takes money from the coffers to help fund the rebellion, and in return they keep him in power so he can keep living comfortably in his big house while the rest of the town falls into squalor.”

I gritted my teeth at that, I felt like such a fool, believing that he had been sincere when he said he would take my advice. It made sense that he would be passing bits under the table to Sufferthorn; it would also explain their meeting when I got there.

“I know it’s hard,” Grass Snake said in a slightly morbid tone. “Heart breaking even, to see what this city and country has come to, and to know that the ones in power are doing nothing to try and fix it.”

“What about Port Mule?” I asked suddenly. “Do either of you know what things are like down there?”

“I take it that’s where you live,” Grass Snake answered to which I nodded. “From what we hear it’s much better off than Pivot, although that might have something to do with the Liberators raising their banner down there.”

“The Liberators?” I questioned.

“You haven’t heard of them yet?” Grass Snake said in a surprised tone. “I figured you would have if you had been staying in Equestria, although maybe word hasn’t reached there yet. The Liberators are a group, they…”

Before Grass Snake could finish however, one of the fillies called down from upstairs.

“Aunty Grass!” she called. “Granny Willow needs you!”

“Sorry, I’ll be back in a bit,” Grass Snake replied, scooping up the bottle of medicinal alcohol before hurrying upstairs.

“She’s a good pony,” Lock Pick said sadly. “She does so much for all of us; I dread to think what would have happened to those girls if she hadn’t taken them in.”

“What about you?” I asked without stopping to think that I might be intruding in on something personal. “How did you come to be here?”

“Me?” Lock Pick began, pondering the question for a moment. “That’s complicated.”

I frowned at that, sure he wasn’t going to continue but after a few moments of silence he opened his mouth again.

“I used to live in Brine,” he began. “I was a locksmith, no surprise there. It was about a year into the war when I left, fighting in the area had intensified and it wasn’t safe there anymore, so I packed my things and ran. The next year was a bit of a blur as I travelled from place to place, always trying to stay one step ahead of the fighting; I… wanted nothing to do with it. When things began to cool down, I ended up here in Pivot and found that I just couldn’t travel anymore.

“My health was failing me,” he explained. “But I had nowhere to go, and not a single bit to my name. I ended up being just another tramp on the streets until Grass Snake found me. I don’t know why she chose to save me of all the ponies that needed saving, I never brought myself to ask, but she’s been taking care of me ever since and in return I do whatever I can to help around here and looking after the girls while she’s out.”

Lock Pick fell silent as he presumably thought back to the time he was describing; I wondered if there was something he wasn’t telling me.

“It must have been a hard time for you,” I said after a while when I didn’t think he was going to speak again. “Before you met Grass Snake that is.”

“More than you know,” he whispered in a hoarse voice. “But if there’s one thing that I learnt from my experiences, one thing that you should take from all this, is that you can’t always do things on your own. And while it may seem difficult to find somepony to trust in times like these, if you put your faith in the goodness of other ponies, in the kindness of strangers... you may just find what I found in Grass Snake, and you’ll know that you’re stronger with your friends than you will ever be on your own.”

“I’ll be sue to take that to heart,” I assured him, smiling at him as a faint warmth began emanating from the pouch around my neck.

X - Sweet Apple Acres

Big Mac turned out to be a fine travelling companion, rarely speaking, leaving big silences for me to fill in myself, but anytime he did talk, it was oddly profound. For the big, strong farmer, he came off as surprisingly thoughtful and intelligent, it’s always nice to see stereotypes being challenged. He was also one of the most powerful stallions I had ever met, when I say he kept a steady pace the entire journey, I mean that never once did he drop below a speed that most ponies would have to trot to match, but for him, was a mere swift stride.

I was concerned that he was pushing himself too hard, but he insisted he could handle it, that he was well used to the journey between Pivot and their Homestead. However, as insistent as he was, I had to put my hoof down when we reached the bridge that would mark just over the halfway point for our journey. He had pulled the cart nonstop with me on top of it, by the time we reached the bridge, it was well past midnight and he had no intentions of stopping to rest.

“It’s alright,” he told me, as I jumped off the cart to stretch my legs. “If you’re tired, you can nap in the cart and I’ll keep walkin’. Nopony is gonna cause me any trouble.”

“If I’m tired?!” I repeated in disbelief. “How are you not tired?!”

Big Mac just shrugged.

“Us Apples have always been hard workers,” he explained. “We need to be, there aren’t many of us on the farm, so when one of us goes to the cities to sell the produce, they need to be quick about it so they can get back and carry on workin’.”

“Well I can’t fault you for your work ethic,” I stated. “But you should at least take a break for an hour, if you’re not going to sleep for the night. If you keep going at that rate, you’ll burn yourself out, then you won’t be doing much farming at all.”

Big Mac didn’t argue with me on that one, so I decided to press my advantage.

“Why don’t you unhook yourself from that and sit down for a bit,” I suggested, although my tone made it clear he wasn’t getting an option. “I’ll gather up some sticks and light us a fire.”

The river we had arrived at was one that split off from the Lonesome Lake, and travelled west into the Tranquil Forest where it led off to various sources. The water itself flowed away from the forest into the Lake, where it would then go south along a very winding path into the Horseshoe Bay next to Port Mule. This particular river was lined with small patches of woods, so it wasn’t difficult to gather up enough dead wood to light up a small fire back where we parked the cart. I hadn’t had any need up until that point to use the matches my father had insisted on me taking, but as the pair of us sat on either side of the fire, I was glad he had talked me into taking them.

“So tell me about your farm,” I began. “And your family, who all lives and works with you?”

“Well the farm is called Sweet Apple Acres,” he began, before I quickly interrupted him.

“Wait, the Sweet Apple Acres?” I asked, receiving a nod. “Oh I know where you’re from now. I feel like an idiot for not realising it sooner, I used to pass by your place if ever I was heading to or from Pivot, back before the war that is.”

“That’s okay,” he replied, brushing it off. “You did say you had been away for… two years, was it? You probably just forgot.”

“It would seem so,” I said, pulling out my map from my satchel. “It’s not marked on my map.”

“Doesn’t really qualify as a town,” Big Mac explained. “Although it’s actually grown quite a bit in recent years. As for mah family, right now there’s just Granny Smith, mah sisters Applejack and Applebloom, and mah cousins Caramel and Braeburn.”

“And you can manage the whole farm, and all the deliveries and trading with just the six of you?” I asked it amazement.

“Well actually, Granny is too old to be working the fields,” Big Mac continued. “But she does most of the quality control and preparing the products for sellin’. As for Applebloom, she’s only recently started working with the rest of us, but she’s still too little be hauling carts anywhere. Although sayin' that, she's pretty good at driving the harvester, she's always had a knack for those weird contraptions. That leaves the bulk of the manual labour and the deliveries to be done by me, Applejack and the cousins.”

“That’s really impressive,” I told him with all honesty. “I wish I was as hard a worker as you clearly are, once I get settled in home and get the old business up and running, I’ll have to get my flank in gear.”

“Don’t go rushing your work now,” Big Mac warned. “We’ve been doin’ what we do our whole lives, by the sound of it, your trade requires more finesse than ours, so you’re probably better off working at your own pace.”

Yet more words of wisdom from Big McIntosh, I might have to hire him as my life coach. The rest of the hour passed by in relative silence, with only the occasional small talk to interrupt us from the rest we had stopped to get. After a while I noticed that Big Mac was starting to get quite fidgety, so I decided it was time to let him keep walking.

“Do you want to head on now?” I asked rhetorically, standing up and smothering the fire with my magic.

“Eyup.”

We were back on the road within five minutes, as we trundled along, Big Mac suggested again that I catch some sleep while we travelled. Initially I objected and said I would be fine, but after a short space of time, I found myself slouching lower and lower in the cart, my eyelids feeling heavier and heavier until…

A particularly large bump in the road caused me to wake up with a yelp, sitting up poker straight and looking around wildly.

“Sorry,” Big Mac called back. “Just went over a rock in the road.”

“No worries,” I replied, stifling a yawn.

I must have slept for quite a while, as the sun was now peeking out over the lowest sections of the Wyvern Heights and the air was filled with the chirping of birds.

“We’re almost there,” Big Mac called out again.

Looking forward, I saw that he wasn’t lying. We were coming down one final slope in the road, the Sweet Apple Acres homestead sitting within throwing distance. Well, throwing distance for Big McIntosh, but still pretty close. Panning my eyes to the right of the farm, I saw the famous apple orchard. It was split up into three main bodies, although I noticed that the one furthest right of the farm, had been burnt to a crisp.

“Did something happen?” I asked, gesturing to the dead portion of the orchard. “Was there a fire or something?”

“Yes,” Big Mac said, his voice clear, but oddly stern.

I decided not to press the subject and allow Big Mac to complete the journey to the homestead in silence. While I had indeed seen the place in passing years before, I had never really gotten close enough to examine it any great detail, I never had any need to do so. However, the little I did remember was proof enough that it had grown quite a lot, just as Big Mac has said. It now looked like a miniature village, with various buildings laid out in neat formation of one another, giving the whole place a very cosy feel.

We continued to travel on the road, which ran parallel to the perimeter fence; I stood up in the cart so I could get a better look into the different fields beyond. The one directly to the carts right had a flock of sheep in it, which were herding towards the picket fence to get a closer look at us. Beyond that field were a few empty ones, as well as some growing various crops other than apples. I noticed corn and wheat, the idea that they farmed more than just apples gave me even more respect for Big Mac and his family. We quickly reached the entrance to farm, a lane split off from the road and headed directly up to the homestead, with a wooden archway marking the entrance through the fence, a sign hung from it.

“Sweet Apple Acres,” I read aloud. “Are you glad to be home?”

“Eyup,” Big Mac replied before turning off the road, passing under the archway and making his way up the lane to the farm buildings.

As we moved, I decided to hop off the cart and give my legs a stretch. I still had to trot to keep up with Big Mac, but I figured I had allowed him to carry me about long enough. At the end of the dusty laneway, we arrived in a small yard surrounded by grey brick buildings of varying sizes. Only the building directly opposite us stood out, that I presumed to be the farmhouse where Big Mac and his family lived. Without a word, Big Mac turned away from me and began dragging his cart off between two of the buildings, I decided to wait there in the yard for him to return.

The buildings were very quaint, with their thatched roofs and red painted doors; some had external staircases made from stone or wooden ladders to reach second floors. Peeking in through some of the darkened windows I saw that the buildings were used for a variety of things, from equipment storage to animal pens, one building even looked like it was used for blacksmithing. The yard too had a rustic charm, with old cartwheels and wooden barrels leaning up against the outside of buildings, there was also a well in the very centre of the yard.

The farm house was much bigger than any of the buildings around me however, with two stories on top of foundations, and the dormer windows suggested that there was an attic room on top of all that. The walls of the house were made from horizontal wooden panelling, painted white. The roof was comprised of red tiles as opposed to thatch, although the doors and shutters on the windows were the same red as the doors on the brick buildings around me. The front of the house had an extended deck on the first floor, covered by a veranda which was topped by its own narrow section of roof that met the wall of the second floor.

The house was definitely not what I would have associated with a farm, but clearly the Apple family weren’t about to live in squalor, and while they may not be living in a mansion, they clearly looked after themselves. Speaking of the Apple family, it was at that point that I heard Big Mac return, but as I turned to face him, I saw that he wasn’t alone. The pony walking with him was a mare, much closer to my own size, although even from a distance I could see that she was far better built than I could ever hope to be.

Her coat was a light orange, her mane and tail a pale blonde, both tied back in red ribbons. She wore no clothes beyond a worn, brown Stetson upon her head. I guessed that this was the sister Big Mac had mentioned, although at the time I couldn’t for the life of me remember her name. I briefly wondered whether she would be as friendly as her brother or not, although it quickly became apparent that there was nothing to fear, as when she saw me, she flashed me a wide grin.

“Howdy there Sugarcube,” she greeted in a loud, merry voice. “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance. The name’s Applejack, and I want to give you a big welcome to Sweet Apple Acres on behalf of the whole family.”

“The pleasure’s all mine,” I stated, a little overwhelmed by her instant friendliness. “My name is Rarity.”

“Well just you make yourself at home here Rarity,” Applejack continued, shaking my hoof with such force that it was left vibrating even after she let go. “Mac here told me all about what’s goin’ on, told me about how you helped those nice ponies up in Pivot.”

“He told you about that,” I murmured, blushing slightly.

“That he did,” Applejack boasted, giving her brother a rough pat on the back, who looked rather sheepish at being called out. “And let me tell you, I know that lady Grass Snake and her kids, knowing what you did for them… well that makes you a friend in mah book.”

“I don’t know what to say,” I replied uncertainly.

“Well you’ll have plenty of time to think of something,” Applejack cut across. “Mac says you’re headed on down to Mule, but you’re welcome to stay here as long as you need.”

“Uh, thank you!” I uttered in disbelief. “Thank you so much.”

“Think nothin’ of it,” Applejack assured me. “Now we were all just wrapping up work to head in for some lunch, why don’t you go on ahead and we’ll be in in a minute?”

After quickly agreeing and saying goodbye, I watched as Applejack trotted back the way she came, I assumed to fetch her cousins and the other sister. I glanced over at Big Mac, my eyes wide, my head swimming with questions.

“She seemed very energetic,” I said first, a little lamely.

“She ain’t always like that,” Big Mac replied, a little solemnly. “We got lucky today, she was already in a good mood before I found her. And then when I told her about you and what you did when we met, she was over the moon.”

“So she isn’t always happy like that?” I asked as we began walking towards the farm house.

“Enope,” he replied, closing his eyes and shaking his head. “She’s been having a hard time lately, she’s pretty much in charge of this place and she works herself to death over it, and that’s not even mentioning the war…”

I was going to ask what he meant by that, but decided against it and shut my mouth at the last second. We were all getting along very well; I didn’t want to risk upsetting things by being nosey. As we entered the house, Big Mac wiped his hooves on the mat and called out to his Granny, informing her that they had a visitor. Granny Smith hobbled into the front room a minute after, while I was wiping the soles of my boots. She was a wizened old mare, reminding me in many ways of Willow back in Pivot, only Granny Smith’s coat was lime green, and despite her rickety limbs, she seemed to possess much more energy than the other.

“Well ain’t this a surprise,” she began in a high pitched voice. “And here was me ready to give up on you Mac, and then all of a sudden you show up with this pretty little thing…”

“Oh, it’s not like that…” I began quickly, panicking slightly at the idea of a misunderstanding developing, but I stopped when she began laughing to herself and Big Mac rolled his eyes.

“Oh I’m just yankin’ your tail dearie,” Granny Smith said, chuckling. “Everypony knows our Big Mac’s barn doors don’t swing that way anyway.”

“I didn’t know,” I muttered to myself while my cheeks turned red.

“O’course, if you fancy taking a look at his cousins you’d be more than welcome,” Granny Smith continued with a wink.

“Granny, this is Rarity,” Big Mac began to explain, cutting through his grandmother’s antics. “She’s gonna be stayin’ here until she decides to continue on down to Mule.”

“Say no more,” Granny Smith replied. “Apples have always been known for their hospitality, even when I lived on the first Sweet Apple Acres back home in Equestria. That dang war may have scared ponies off, but this might just be a sign that things are finally gettin’ back on track.”

“You used to live in Equestria?” I asked, a little surprised.

“That’s right,” Granny Smith replied proudly as she led me into the kitchen where she was already in the middle of setting the table. “I even met Princess Celestia herself, back when I was just a young’un. My folks petitioned her to give them some land to start up a farm; she obliged and gave us the pastures that we turned into the first Sweet Apple Acres.”

“So how did you end up here?” I asked from the table, while Granny Smith and Big Mac busied themselves with laying out the food. “Is the first Sweet Apple Acres still running?”

“Oh it is, bigger than ever, from what from mah cousin Apple Rose tells me,” Granny Smith replied, placing a large plate of apple strudels in the centre of the table. “As for why ah left, ah just decided it was time for a change, time to go out and see more of the world. Although it wasn’t until ah was married that ah actually did leave, we had intended just coming over here for our honeymoon, but we liked it so much and saw so much potential for a second farm, that we decided to stay in the end.”

“Hey, that’s how my parents ended up living here as well,” I replied, which gave us something to laugh about.

It was at that moment that Applejack entered the kitchen, followed by two tan stallions, who I guessed were her cousins.

“Smells great Granny,” she announced. “Only the best for a guest.”

I smirked at that as she took a seat next to me. Now that she was closer and I wasn’t being distracted by conversation, I could make out the finer details in her appearance, such as her triple apple cutie mark, her vibrant green eyes, and the freckles that were uncommon in a mare her age.

“Is Applebloom not here?” Applejack asked, looking about the kitchen for the youngest Apple.

“Was she not with you?” Big Mac asked from across the table.

“She was, but she disappeared just before you two arrived,” Applejack explained. “I figured she her snuck off early to get something to eat ‘fore the rest of us.”

“Well she hasn’t been in this kitchen,” Granny Smith declared, sitting herself at the head of the table. “If she had been, ah would have made her lend me a hoof.”

“She’s probably off playing with Winona,” one of the cousins suggested, the one wearing a brown jacket.

“Well she’ll need to hurry her flank up,” Applejack said, grumbling slightly. “Before somepony…”

Applejack was cut off from whatever she had been about to say, by a terrified shriek coming from outside.

“Applebloom!” Applejack cried out, leaping out of her chair before charging to the back door.

Big Mac and the two cousins were quick to follow, even Granny Smith tried to hobble after them, a fearful look in her eye. I hurried out of my own seat and joined Granny Smith in the back yard; I could see the others charging off into one of the orchards.

“Wait here,” I told Granny Smith. “I’ll go help them.”

Before she could argue or agree, I sped off, galloping down the trail towards the spot where Applejack and the others had vanished into the orchard.

XI - First Blood

My breathing was ragged as I galloped through the orchard, trying to locate the youngest Apple or the others who had went in before me. I supposed that they would know these orchards like the back of their own hooves, but for me having just sprinted in for the first time, it was like a maze. I could make out various noises from multiple directions, but nothing that explained what was going on. Skidding to a halt, I focused on listening to what was around me and trying to locate the direction I should be travelling in.

I could hear the shouting of stallions, at least one voice I recognised as Applejack’s cousin. In another direction I could hear loud thwacks, as if a wrestling match were occurring. Dead ahead however, I could make out muffled cries as well as a gruff voice. Whatever it was, it sounded the closest of all three, so lowering myself to the ground, I crept forward. Weaving around a few trees, I arrived on the edge of a small clearing where two figures were struggling, one was a small yellow filly with a pink bow atop an amaranth mane, the other was a large stallion wearing steel armour.

The first thing that struck me about the filly as my eyes fell onto her, was that she must have been about Sweetie Belle’s age, very similar size too. I guessed immediately that this was Applebloom, and while the stallion also seemed familiar, I didn’t stop to think about that before leaping from the trees to confront him.

“Hold it right there!” I shouted, sounding a lot braver than I felt.

The stallion swung around, Applebloom still held tight in his forelegs. As soon as our eyes met, both our jaws dropped.

“You!” I screamed in shock.

“You…” the soldier growled, the very soldier who had assaulted me back at the town hall in Pivot.

Applebloom’s terrified eyes darted between us as she tried to struggle against her captor, but his hold wasn’t letting up.

“I was hoping I’d run into you again,” he said, narrowing his eyes at me.

“Let her go,” I ordered, my horn glowing blue as I levitated one of my daggers out of its sheath and held it before me.

“Or what?” he asked with a bark of laughter. “If you even try to throw that knife, I’ll just use this girl as a shield, assuming I don’t break her neck first.”

Tears began rising to Applebloom’s eyes at that, she looked over at me with a desperate expression on her face. I gritted my teeth and tensed my body, the knife still hovering in front of me, blade directed towards the stallion’s face. I might have been able to let it fly quicker than he could harm Applebloom, but I wasn’t willing to take the risk.

“Where’d all that bravery go?” he asked, grinning sadistically at me. “Lost your nerve after you stood up to that whore Sufferthorn?”

I didn’t reply, although I did pick up on the way he described his officer.

“Drop the knife!” he ordered suddenly, tightening his grip around Applebloom’s neck. “Drop it right now, or I kill the girl.”

I was shaking now with a mixture of rage and fear, but as I saw the stallion’s muscles tense, I let out a sigh. The knife fell to the grass in front of me, the magic around it dissipating. The stallion grinned, but not for long, before he noticed that my horn never stopped glowing. He opened his mouth, perhaps to shout at me, perhaps to threaten Applebloom’s life again if I didn’t stop whatever it was I was doing, whatever he was about to say, he never did as the second knife I had been slowly floating around behind him, drove itself into one of the gaps in his armour, burying itself to the hilt in his barrel.

He let out an agonised scream, his legs flailing out, Applebloom darting out of his grip as soon as she felt it loosen. He tried to reach out and grab her again, despite the immense pain he was in, he was still standing and he wasn’t about to let go of his leverage, but I wasn’t having any of it. Fury burning inside me, I charged forward, putting myself between the pair of them where I reared up and brought my whole weight crashing down on his head. He fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes, when I saw he wasn’t moving, I turned away to see Applebloom standing paralysed in fear a few feet away.

I hurried forward and knelt down in front of her, however she flinched back as I got close.

“It’s okay, it’s okay!” I assured her. “I’m a friend of your brother and sister.”

“Y…you are?” she asked, unsure if she should trust me or not.

“Yes, Applejack and Big Mac,” I said, hoping that by saying their names she would trust that I was telling the truth. “We came in here to find you after we heard you scream.”

“They… they came out of nowhere!” Applebloom told me, her voice shaking as tears streamed down her face. “They chased after me and… and grabbed me.”

“It’s alright, you’re safe now,” I told her, pulling her into a loose hug. “But we have to get back to the farm before that one wakes up.”

She nodded quickly, as I let go of her and stood up, I glanced about me trying to figure out which way I had come from.

“It’s that way,” Applebloom told me, pointing a shaking hoof in a seemingly random direction.

Trusting her knowledge of the area, I levitated her onto my back before trotting off in the direction she indicated. As we ran, I noticed a second soldier lying in a broken and bloody heap under one of the many apple trees. Paying it no heed, I carried on until we burst out of the orchard, back into the backyard where a skirmish seemed to be taking place. There were another three soldiers here too, one lying unconscious while the other two were locked in a tense struggle with the rest of the Apple family.

One stood no chance, constantly backing up before he was absolutely overwhelmed by Big Mac and the two cousins. The last one was carrying a weapon, which he was using to try and take down Applejack; however she too had produced a large claymore herself and was duelling ferociously with him. They all noticed our arrival, including the two remaining soldiers. I recognised one of them as well, mainly from the badly broken nose I had left him with after I kicked him in the town hall.

“Brag!” the one with the broken nose called out to the one duelling Applejack. “It’s that bitch that kicked me, the one who got us fired!”

“Then kill her!” Brag shouted back, barely paying attention as he and Applejack were in a deadlock that he was slowly losing.

The other soldier ducked under a swing from Big Mac that could have snapped a pony in half, before sidestepping the two cousins. He was surprisingly quick on his hooves despite the heavy armour he wore, and he was charging straight for me.

“Applebloom, run!” I shouted, using my magic to cast her off of me while I drew my third and final dagger in an attempt to block his charge.

I was too late however, and I was thrown off my hooves when he collided with me, my magic sparked out and the dagger was dropped somewhere. I landed heavily on my back, wheezing loudly from the force of the impact. I coughed and choked on my own breath, rolling over on my side slightly as the stallion appeared over me, raising my own dagger, ready to plunge it downwards. I didn’t have the strength to roll out of the way or stand up, and I lacked the focus to use my magic against him. For a brief moment, I was sure I was going to die.

However, within a split second the threat vanished as I heard a loud twang and saw something speed into the side of the stallions head, just before his body was thrown off of me. The sound of rushing hooves signalled Big Mac’s arrival, who skidded to a stop over me, leaning down to scoop me up. He placed me over his back; from there I was able to see Granny Smith standing in the open door to the kitchen, holding a crossbow in front of her. I also glanced to the side slightly to see the last soldier’s sword drop to the ground, and Applejack to swing her claymore in a wide arc, taking his head clean off his shoulders.

With the threat dealt with and a deathly silence fallen over the farm, we all began shuffling inside. Once we were in the front room, Big Mac lay me down on a sofa while Applejack and Granny Smith both hugged Applebloom tightly. Braeburn and Caramel said something about dealing with the bodies before departing, once the rest of us were left alone and Applejack allowed herself to be pried away from Applebloom by Big Mac, she made her way over to me.

“You saved Applebloom,” she said, her voice weak as she knelt down to face me. “You saved my sister.”

“It was nothing,” I said in a croaky voice, my lungs still weak from landing so hard on my back. “It’s just what friends do for each other.”

“No,” Applejack said, shaking her head slightly. “After what you did, you’re more than just a friend, you’re family.”

“Darn tootin,” Granny declared, walking up beside Applejack. “And if there’s one thing we Apples value above all else, it’s family.”

“Eyup!” Big Mac agreed.

“Thank you Rarity!” Applebloom said, rushing over and pulling me into a gentle hug.

I was feeling a bit overwhelmed at that moment, quite speechless actually. I was a little relieved when Applejack suggested giving me some space, Big Mac and Granny Smith took Applebloom away, saying something about getting her fed and then taking the rest of the day off work. Applejack went outside again, presumably to see if her cousins needed help, that left me to recover on my own. It didn’t take long to get over the shock and to begin moving again, I was a little wobbly on my legs and my head was spinning, but I deemed myself well enough to go outside and see if I could do anything to help.

“Winona get your nose out of that!” was the first thing I heard as I stepped out into the back yard.

Applejack was telling off a small brown and white collie that was sniffing at the patch of bloody earth that marked where Applejack had beheaded her enemy. Applejack herself was over by the body of the soldier who had attacked me while the other two were with the last guy, who appeared to have regained consciousness.

“You really should take it easy,” Applejack told me as I approached her. “We can take care of this messy business.”

“I’m fine,” I assured her. “I’m not hurt, I was just in shock.”

I looked down at the body of the stallion who had been about to kill me, I saw the crossbow bolt had driven itself right through the side of his skull. I made a mental note to give the few bolts and arrows I still had to them, as they might be able to make use of them.

“What this one shouted,” Applejack began, gesturing at the body. “Right before he ran for you, did you know them?”

“Back in Pivot, I got into a fight with some soldiers,” I explained. “They were going to arrest me for no reason, so I kicked that one in the face.”

“He mentioned something about gettin' fired,” Applejack reminded me.

“Well I did have quite a string word with their superior,” I continued. “She said she would deal with them, I honestly didn’t believe she would. Why were they here though?”

“At a guess, ah’d say they were planning on robbing us,” Applejack proposed. “They probably saw Applebloom on her own and figured they could use her as a bargaining chip.”

“And I thought they were asses back in Pivot,” I muttered angrily. “But threatening to hurt a child, that’s just plain low.”

“The rebellion has always attracted the worst kind of pony,” Applejack spat. “Those that stayed after the war was over think they’re so high and mighty, think they can walk over anypony.”

I stayed silent as Applejack brooded over what she had just said, it was clear she didn’t like the rebels, perhaps that was what Big Mac had meant about why the war made her angry.

“Big Mac said he left one in the orchard,” Applejack continued at last. “And you took down the one who had Applebloom, so that makes two.”

“Yeah, I passed the one Big Mac dealt with on my way back here,” I confirmed. “I think I can find my way back to where they were.”

“We’ll go there now,” Applejack said, turning to the orchard. “If they’re alive, we should probably help them. Even if they don’t deserve it, mah folks would be ashamed of me if I just left them to die.”

“It’s the right thing to do,” I told her as I began to lead the way in among the trees. “Don’t sink to their level. Besides, I need to get my knives back. I never actually thought I would need to use them, but after today, I will definitely want to keep them close from now on.”

“Oh yeah, that one you dropped in the yard,” Applejack began. “Caramel left it by the back door for you.”

I nodded in appreciation before we carried on. It didn’t take long to find the tree where the other soldier I had seen was lying, it was easy to spot with the patches of blood on the grass, but there was no body to be found anywhere around it.

“Mac said he was still breathing before he left,” Applejack said, more to herself than to me. “He must’ve woken up and gotten away.”

“Is that bad?” I asked.

“Only if there are more of them out there,” Applejack replied. “Ah’m really hoping that isn’t the case, since we don’t need them attacking a second time lookin’ for revenge.”

I shuddered at the thought, we had been very lucky this time, but the idea that they could come back in even greater force seeking blood was deeply worrying. We carried on to the clearing where I had found Applebloom, where thankfully the stallion I had fought still remained where he had fallen. I allowed Applejack to go ahead of me; I didn’t want to be to close when she kicked him awake. He did not wake however, he didn’t even move as Applejack prodded him.

“This one’s dead Sugarcube,” Applejack said over her shoulder to me.

“What?!” I exclaimed, rushing forward. “How?! Did he bleed to death? Was it the knife?”

“Looks like he broke his neck when you hit him,” Applejack told me in a neutral tone. “Must have been a mighty kick, looks to me like it killed him instantly.”

Her voice sounded a little impressed, but I was barely hearing it at that point. My eyes had unfocused and my whole mind slowed to a snail crawl. Applejack was saying something to me, but she stopped when she looked up and saw me shaking like a leaf. Her expression became worried, before turning outright horrified when I collapsed to me knees, my eyes filling with tears. Applejack dropped to her own knees beside me and began shaking my shoulders, still trying desperately to get through to me, but nothing she did could reach me.

I was a murderer, I had taken the life of another pony, and if I had been in shock before, it was nothing compared to what was happening to me after I heard that revelation. My breathing was getting increasingly more rapid, my body became wracked with sobs, and my head became a maelstrom of screaming thoughts. It was as if the spirits of everypony I ever knew and cared about was trapped inside my skull, condemning me for my sins and making me realise what a monster I was.

I don’t know what I would have done if Applejack hadn’t take affirmative action, as in to say she slapped me… hard… across the face.

“Ah’m sorry Rarity,” she said, I was hearing clearly again after that. “Really, but you have to get a hold of yourself.”

“I’m a killer,” I told her in a weak voice.

“Yeah, you are,” Applejack said, opting not to mince her words and just cut straight to the point. “There’s no escaping it, that’s just what happened, and that’s just what you’re gonna have to accept.”

I didn’t reply to that, just gulped and tried to sniff back my tears.

“I know it’s hard,” Applejack said in a sympathetic voice. “Your first always is, believe me ah know. But you know in your heart that you did what you had to, and while ah’m not saying he deserved to die, ah will say that he was a bad pony. Celestia knows my first was nothin’ of the sort.”

I snapped my head up at that comment, hearing the deep sadness in Applejack’s voice and seeing the faraway look on her face.

“Your first?” I said in a weary voice. “The first pony you killed… they weren’t bad?”

“No,” Applejack answered, shaking her head. “Far from it, they weren’t a criminal or even an enemy. They were just an ordinary pony in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“So why did you do it?” I asked before I could stop myself.

“Because that’s what I was ordered to do,” Applejack replied in a hollow voice. “Ah said the rebellion attracted the worst kind of pony, what ah didn’t say, was that for the rest it attracted… it turned them into the worst kind of pony.”

There was a long, horrible silence following Applejack’s confession. I didn’t know what I could possibly say that wouldn’t make the situation worse; I had to hold in a sigh of relief when Applejack changed the subject herself.

“Come on, let’s go home,” she suggested in a tired voice. “We’ll grab your knives now, but some of the others can come out later and pick up the body. Right now, let’s just back to the house and get sat down, ah’ll break out the hard stuff.”

I couldn’t have agreed faster, retrieving both my fallen knives, I began following Applejack back through the orchard to the farmhouse. I still felt terrible, but knowing that Applejack was with me, and that she could relate to what I was feeling helped to lessen the burden. I only hoped that my first kill would also be my last… in retrospect that was a silly thing to hope for.

XII - The Dishonoured

It had probably been my first good sleep since I had arrived in Panchea, although the copious amounts of alcohol I drank with Applejack may have had something to do with that. So when I felt myself being gently shaken awake, I was sorely disappointed.

“Rarity,” the young voice said softly. “Breakfast is bein’ put out, do you want some brought up to you, or will you be gettin’ up soon?”

“Just five more minutes Sweetie Belle,” I grumbled, refusing to open my eyes and rolling over slightly, away from the pony trying to wake me.

“Sweetie Belle?” the voice repeated, sounding confused. “Who are you talking about? I’m Applebloom.”

My eyes cracked open and I rolled back over in order to look at who had been talking to me, indeed it was Applebloom standing by my bed, her eyebrows quirked out of curiosity.

“Oh, sorry Applebloom,” I said, sitting up and yawning. “I thought you were my sister for a second.”

“You have a sister?” Applebloom asked.

“I do, she would actually be about your age,” I informed her. “But she’s still in Equestria with my parents.”

“Will you be going back there soon?” Applebloom asked, sounding a little sad at the prospect.

“Oh no,” I replied. “I’m not from Equestria myself; we were just there during the war. I live down in Port Mule.”

“So you’ll be staying?” Applebloom asked hopefully.

“Yes, as in I’ll be staying in the country,” I confirmed as I got out of bed. “And hopefully my family will be travelling over soon too, you’ll get to meet Sweetie Belle yourself, I think you two might get along well.”

“That’s great!” Applebloom declared. “I’ll let Granny know you’re comin’ down now.”

Applebloom turned to leave and I made my way over to the sink in the corner of the guest room, intending on giving myself a quick wash. Applebloom didn’t leave however; instead she hesitated by the door, as if she wanted to say something else.

“Is something the matter?” I asked when I spotted her in the mirror.

“It’s just…” she began awkwardly. “I overheard you all talkin’ last night. I know I shouldn’t have been listening in; I was just going to the kitchen to get a glass of water when I heard you. That pony who grabbed me, the one you saved me from… he’s dead.”

There was a long pause while I tried to think of something that could possibly defuse the situation, in the end I settled with the truth.

“Yes, when I kicked him to the ground he broke his neck,” I told her. “Applejack… thinks he died instantly.”

“Yeah I heard you say,” Applebloom replied, still sounding awkward. “I heard how upset you were, you never… did that to anypony, and now you have because of me.”

“Applebloom, listen to me,” I said firmly, as I walked over and crouched down in front of her so our eyes were level. “What happened is not your fault, you were just an innocent victim in all this. You can’t blame yourself for what that stallion did, or even what I did.”

“But… you sounded so…” Applebloom argued, trying to find the right words. “Distraught”

“Well… yes, I was,” I admitted. “I never intended to… do what I did, it was an accident. But we talked a lot last night, and your Granny said something that made me feel better about that whole thing.”

“Was it to do with how she shot that other stallion to save you?” Applebloom asked.

“That’s right,” I answered. “She told me that she would never feel happy taking another life, but she would never hesitate to do so again if it meant protecting those she cared about. She said that doing the right thing isn’t always easy, sometimes it can seem like the hardest thing we ever have to do. Nopony can blame us if we can’t bring ourselves to do it, but when we can do it, the only blame we have to worry about, is the blame we place on ourselves. And I forget the rest of her quote…”

Applebloom snorted with laughter at that, which effectively raised the mood in the room again.

“But the point is, that seeing you now, alive and healthy,” I continued, placing a hoof on her shoulder. “Well I can’t bring myself to regret what I did, because I know that something good came out of it. I know that it was ultimately the right thing to do, even if that was difficult to see at first.”

“So you’re feeling better about it all then?” Applebloom asked, her voice cheerier now.

“Much better,” I assured her, returning her smile. “Now go on downstairs, I’ll catch up in a minute.”

As Applebloom hurried out of the room and down the stairs, I walked back to the sink and looked at myself in the mirror, frowning at my reflection. It hadn’t been a lie exactly, I was feeling much better than I had been the previous night, I just omitted to tell Applebloom that I still felt some degree of disgust at myself for what I did. I knew Granny Smith was right, and I believed that in time I would come to terms with what I had done, but it would not be for some time yet.

Once I was cleaned up and dressed, I made my way downstairs to where Caramel and Applebloom sat at the table, already helping themselves to pancakes while Granny Smith prepared a fresh batch. I took the same seat I had yesterday, which found me opposite Caramel and beside Applebloom, my stomach growled loudly as I smelt the pancakes over the cooker. I smiled sheepishly before Applebloom passed one of hers over to me, to keep me going until the rest were prepared.

“So where is everyone else at today?” I asked to nopony in particular.

“AJ and Big Mac are already getting to work,” Caramel replied. “I’d be out there too, but one of those asses from yesterday busted my knee, now I have to take it easy. As for Braeburn, he’s taking the survivor off the farm.”

“Where too?” I asked curiously, remembering the injured bandits in the pass.

“Just some ways south,” Caramel replied with a small shrug. “He was pretty eager to get away from us, he just said to get him down the road a bit and he could make his own way from there.”

The small talk died when Granny Smith placed a stack of pancakes before me, one of which I gave to Applebloom to make us even. Caramel left shortly after to get started with some light work that he could manage, despite his injured knee. A little while after that, Applebloom left when Granny Smith instructed her to feed the sheep. I was left alone in the kitchen with Granny Smith who sat down in Caramel’s vacated seat, letting out an exhausted sigh.

“It’s a toasty day out,” she said, fanning herself with her hoof.

Indeed it was, the sun was shining brightly today and there wasn’t a cloud in sight. The weather had been pretty good overall since I had arrived in Panchea, that was my… seventh day since I had stepped of the boat. One whole week, and so much had happened already.

“How are you feelin’ today?” Granny Smith asked, in a suddenly very serious tone.

“Much better,” I said for the second time that day. “At least I’m not hungover.”

Granny Smith smirked at that.

“Enjoy it while it lasts,” she warned me. “You ain’t gonna be young forever, though try tellin’ Applejack that, some days she drinks that stuff like it’s water.”

“Thank you for the breakfast,” I said, standing up and levitating my dish over to the sink, where I washed it in a quick few seconds. “Thank you for everything really, you’ve all been so hospitable.”

“Think nothin’ of it,” she assured me, echoing her granddaughter. “You’re practically one of the family already.”

“Well then, as one of the family, I’d better go lend a hoof then,” I said, right before I walked out the back door.

I walked around the house, scanning my eyes around for somepony I could offer some help to. When I reached the front yard, I saw Applejack hauling a bucket of water from the well.

“Good morning Applejack,” I greeted warmly, making her jump slightly and for a load of water to slosh out over the bucket. “Oops, sorry.”

“That’s alright,” Applejack said, laughing as she shook herself dry. “Mornin’ to you too Rarity, sleep well?”

“Like a log,” I replied. “Seriously, it was the best night’s sleep I’ve had since I got back to Panchea.”

“Well ah’m glad to hear it,” she said, turning to face me. “Do you need help with somethin’?”

“I was actually about to ask you the same thing,” I pointed out with a small laugh. “Since you’re letting me stay here, I was wondering if you needed help with anything around the farm.”

Applejack raised her eyebrows in surprise, before looking me up and down.

“Are you sure about that?” she asked uncertainly. “Ah appreciate the thought, but you aren’t exactly dressed for doin’ outdoor work… even if you were, you’re a bit on the light side.”

“Well I guess I could change back out of these for a while,” I admitted, looking down at my very un-farmerish outfit. “And surely there must be something I can do that doesn’t require too much physical strength; I do have my magic after all to make up for it.”

“Ah suppose so,” Applejack agreed. “And you might spill less water than me anyway, I need about half a dozen buckets of water for the sheep.”

“I can manage that,” I stated, levitating the half empty bucket from her and hooking it back into the well. “Just remind where the sheep are again.”

“They’re in the first field from the…” Applejack began, but as she turned to gesture to the farm entrance with her hoof we both spotted something.

Braeburn was galloping up the laneway, as if he were being chased by all the demons from the Nether Vale. As he got close, I could make out the fearful expression on his face, as well as his fur shimmering with sweat and something red.

“AJ!” he yelled as he got close, his voice ragged from exhaustion.

“Braeburn, what’s goin’ on?” Applejack asked, before she too saw the red and her eyes widened. “What the hay happened to your ear?!”

His right ear had been ripped or cut clean off, leaving a dark hole in the place where it used to be, blood pouring out of the wound. When Braeburn reached us, he stopped running, but his legs immediately turned to jelly and he collapsed.

“Braeburn! Braeburn!” Applejack shouted, shaking her cousin. “Speak to me, what happened?!”

“It was a trap,” he gasped. “That guy I escorted south… there were more soldiers waiting for us. As soon as I saw them, he attacked me… I’ve never run so fast in my life. AJ, they’re coming here… now!”

Applejack swore loudly as she leapt to her hooves and ran to the end of the homestead, where she panned her eyes around, trying to spot the attackers. She ran back less than a minute after, panic in her eyes.

“I can see ‘em on the horizon,” she informed me. “About six of them this time, maybe more.”

“I can help fight them off…” Braeburn began, trying to stand up but failing miserably.

I caught him in my magic as he fell, but he was too heavy for me to keep up for long.

“Applejack,” I began in an urgent tone. “You need to round up the rest of your family; you know where they all are. I’ll get Braeburn inside and get him patched up.”

“Alright,” Applejack agreed before sprinting off, leaving a cloud of dust in her wake.

Taking a deep breath, I reached out a second time with my magic and raised Braeburn up into the air. With much difficulty, I managed to carry him to the front door, at which point Granny Smith rushed out and helped me get him the rest of the way into the den. I quickly explained what was going on while she began treating his wound, when I saw Applejack and the others rush into the front yard I hurried out to join them.

“Granny Smith is taking care of Braeburn,” I told them when they saw me coming. “How long do you think we have?”

“Long enough,” Applejack replied simply, running over to the building I had identified as being a blacksmiths.

“Mac, I don’t think I can fight,” Caramel said weakly, trying to put weight on his bad leg before wincing.

“I have an idea,” I cut in, drawing all eyes to me. “Caramel, can you use that crossbow Granny Smith used yesterday?”

“I can,” he replied, sounding hopeful.

“Get it, and go to the highest point of the house,” I ordered him before pulling out he spare bolts and arrows from my satchels with magic. “Here, take these as spares in case you run out.”

He nodded, accepting the ammunition from me before hobbling towards the house.

“Big Mac, Applejack had a sword yesterday,” I reminded him. “I assume that’s what she’s getting now, but are there any other weapons around the house.”

“Enope,” he replied flatly. “Just AJ’s claymore and the crossbow.”

“Well then what about…” I began as I scanned my eyes around the yard. “Those barrels, do you think you could roll them down the lane at them?”

“Ah sure can,” he agreed, walking over and picking one up with ease. “What if ah miss?”

“They’ll have to jump out of the way and that will give one of us an opening,” I told him. “And if you don’t miss… well I don’t think they’ll be getting back up after it.”

“What about me Rarity?” Applebloom asked eagerly.

It was against my better judgement to have Applebloom anywhere other than safely locked inside the house when the attackers arrived, but something else sprang to mind.

“Big Mac mentioned something about a harvester,” I began tentatively.

Applebloom’s face lit up immediately at that.

“It’s over in the big barn,” she explained. “If you can keep ‘em busy for a bit, I can drive it over here lickity split.”

“Alright, you go and do that,” I said, allowing Applebloom to run off to the big barn.

I didn’t know much when it came to farming, but I did remember when the harvester became a thing. There had been a whole uproar at the idea of machines taking the jobs of honest, hardworking ponies; the whole controversy had been rather silly since a pony was still required to operate it, so nopony was actually losing their job over their development. So while I was probably the last pony who knew whether a harvester was better or worse than a pony doing the work by hoof, I did know that having one of them driving after you would be utterly terrifying.

“So that just leaves…” I began, looking over to the blacksmiths, just as the door was thrown open and Applejack marched out.

She was now wearing a set off tough leather armour, very similar to the type worn by Hammerhead and his men. Her armour had the addition of iron pauldrons strapped to her shoulders, and an iron sallet helmet in place of her Stetson, its visor sitting open. Her claymore was slung across her back, bright and shimmering in stark contrast to the how dull the rest of her armour was.

“Ah am gettin’ pretty sick of these damn rebels,” Applejack growled as she walked over to me. “Dishonourably discharged or not, they’ve been nothing but a pain since the war ended. If they think they can attack mah family a second time, they have another thing coming.”

“We’re all ready,” I told her, levitating my own knives out of their sheaths and holding them out before me.

“Hey Caramel!” Applejack called out to an open dormer window where I could just make out the crossbow poking out over the edge. “Shoot them as they’re coming up the lane, don’t try taking any pot-shots once we engage them.”

“Got it!” he called back.

“AJ! Rarity! They’re here!” Big Mac called from the edge of the homestead.

We both hurried over to his side in time to see the soldiers marching in under the wooden archway, one stopping to smash the sign down with the halberd he was carrying. Indeed they were all heavily armed, as opposed to the one soldier with a sword during their first attack. Big Mac was standing just behind the corner of the building, his first barrel at the ready.

“Now,” I ordered, stepping back once I saw that they had all congregated together in the centre of the lane.

Big Mac stepped out, and with a mighty swing, launched the barrel down at the enemy. It thundered down the lane, taking them completely by surprise. Most managed to leap out of the way, but one unlucky stallion hadn’t reacted in time, and the barrel caught him right in the gut and sent him spinning back down the lane to the entrance. He had looked a bit roughed up before the barrel hit him, so I figured he was one of the two soldiers who survived the last attack, thus he probably wasn’t at peak condition.

While the rest tried to regain themselves, I heard a loud twang from behind us and saw a bolt speed overhead, burying itself in one of the soldier’s hind legs. The remaining five got to their hooves and began sprinting up the laneway to us, Applejack and I readied ourselves, while Big Mac stood out of eyeshot, readying a second barrel. Another bolt was fired, but this one missed a soldier by a few inches, and while he hesitated briefly, he quickly returned to running at us.

“Go for it,” Applejack said, and the pair of us stepped back as Mac threw his second barrel.

They were ready for it this time, and they all spread out, only one was caught in the barrels path. At the last second, he stuck out his halberd, which managed to stop the barrel before it could send him tumbling after his friend. Luckily the axe head ended up deeply embedded in the wood and he couldn’t get it back out, being forced to leave it behind as he ran to catch up with the others, who had just reached the top of the lane and were moving to engage us.

Big Mac was forced to throw his third barrel directly at one of the oncoming soldiers, it knocked him straight to the ground, having been thrown with such force that it shattered on impact with him. As he was down, Big Mac charged in and crushed his sword hoof under his own, considerably bigger one. The stallion screamed out in pain, his weapon dropping from his grip, but Big Mac didn’t let up the assault. The other four tried to gang up on me and Applejack, two on each of us.

I managed to use my knives to block their attacks, but they refused to give me a single opening in which I could retaliate. I ended up being pushed back further and further, until I was past the well and nearing the house. It was taking all my energy and concentration just to keep matching their strikes, let alone delivering my own attacks. Applejack seemed to be faring considerably better, one of her opponents was the soldier who had lost his halberd, and while he was a pegasus and tried to fly around her, she simply swung her claymore in a wide arc, swatting him from the air like an overgrown fly.

I saw Big Mac rushing my way, his own target lying still. I began to swing my knives about in a flurry of steel, not with the intention of striking my opponents, just to keep their eyes focused on me as Big Mac charged head first into one them from behind. The other looked away from me as his comrade hit the ground, giving me the opening I needed to send all three of my daggers slashing through all the gaps and chinks in his armour. Blood sprayed out as he collapsed to his knees in front of me, where I swiftly kicked him in the nose.

Looking over to Applejack, I saw that the pegasus was no longer getting up after she had knocked him to the ground yet again, while the other didn’t look like he was going to last much longer. I was honestly quite surprised things had turned out as well as they had, I really should have seen it coming when Caramel shouted down to us.

“There’s more at the back door!” he yelled in a panicked voice. “They’re trying to break through!”

Applejack smashed the hilt of her sword into the jaw of her last opponent, and as he fell to the ground, all three of us ran around the house to the backyard. We should have prepared for the possibility that there might be more, that the attack on the front of the house was only meant as a distraction. There were another six in the back yard, two armed with halberds, and there was one unicorn who was using his magic to levitated a giant log and use it as a battering ram against the back door.

As quick as lightning, before they saw us, I readied one of my daggers and threw it across the yard striking the unicorn in the horn. His magic fizzled out, and the log he had been raising over his head, swinging back for a might blow, dropped like a… well, like the log it was. It dropped right onto the unicorn’s back flattening him under the weight of it. The other five spun around to face us, readying themselves for a fight. The two ponies wielding halberds charged forwards, their weapons directed forwards. However, we heard rumbling approaching from the rear, steadily growing louder, so as the soldiers drew close, we leapt clear to the sides.

It was at that moment, that Applebloom swung around the corner into the backyard, riding atop the mechanical harvester. The two soldiers who had charged us, took one look at it, at the cylinder of spinning blades moving swiftly towards them, before turning tail and fleeing back to the others, one dropping his halberd as he ran, which was scooped up in the blades of the harvester and reduced to shrapnel. While the soldiers were preoccupied with us and Applebloom aboard the harvester, they failed to notice one of the kitchen windows open, and Granny Smith chucking a pot of boiling water over one of the soldier’s heads.

He screamed in anguish, dropping his sword and running around like a headless chicken. That left only four soldiers, one of which had lost his weapon to the harvester. Applebloom had lost the element of surprise, she had no hope of catching any of them with the harvester while they knew she was there, but she still drove circles around the back yard keeping them moving and unable to focus on us as we darted in and poked before leaping out of range of their attacks.

The pony with the halberd, having regained his courage, took a swing at me. I didn’t try to dodge it however; instead I caught it with my magic and held it still, before wrenching it from his grip and swinging the pole of it into the side of his head. It hadn’t been easy to stop it, and it ended up taking a lot of energy out of me. As I stopped to catch my breath, I saw that Big Mac and Applejack were both taking out another opponent each, leaving just one…

“Applejack?!” a voice exclaimed.

The fighting stopped briefly as the last stallion, who had been scrambling to pick up the sword he had dropped while avoiding the harvester, now stood dead still, staring directly at Applejack. Applebloom put the brakes on the harvester, Big Mac pinned a wriggling soldier under his hoof, and Granny Smith poked her head out the window. All three were staring back and forth between Applejack and the last soldier who somehow knew her name.

“Applejack, that is you!” he exclaimed, lowering his sword. “It’s me, Hatchet.”

“Hatchet?” Applejack repeated, not lowering her own sword as she frowned, trying to place who he was supposed to be. “Wait, ah remember you… from the battle at Olympus?”

“That’s right,” he confirmed. “Oh lord, if I’d known this was your place…”

“So what if you knew or not?!” Applejack snapped, inching closer to Hatchet, her weapon still at the ready. “Does not knowing who owns a farm, somehow give you the right to attack it?!”

“Whoa, whoa,” Hatchet tried to say, raising his sword defensively. “Look, we’re on the same side here.”

“You attacked mah family and mah home!” Applejack bellowed taking a swing at hatchet who leapt back just in time. “How in the name of Celestia are we on the same side?!”

“We’re both dishonoured,” he replied simply. “You deserted the rebellion, well so did we. At least, those of us who didn’t get kicked out first.”

“There is nothing dishonourable about what ah did!” Applejack snapped back, causing Hatchet to take a pre-emptive step back. “Ah was never loyal to the damn rebellion, only to mah family.”

“Look Applejack,” Hatchet said hurriedly, still backing up from Applejack’s approach. “We don’t have to fight; all I’m trying to do is look out for my own. You killed a few of our guys; you have to understand we wanted payback. But if you’re one of us, then that changes things.”

“Listen to me you jackass!” Applejack interrupted. “Ah will never be one of you! Ah will never be the kind of pony who bullies and takes advantage of others just because I have a weapon and they don’t!”

“Fine,” Hatchet said with a little sigh. “Have it your way…”

And without warning, he dashed forward, taking everypony, including Applejack, completely by surprise. She tried to raise her sword to defend herself, but it was too late. His own much lighter sword swept under her body, slicing into the leather armour and drawing blood. Big Mac let out a furious bellow as he charged forward, the very earth shaking under his hoofsteps. I too rushed in, all three knives flying in as fast as I could throw them.

Hatchet took us all by surprise a second time, deflecting all three daggers with a few quick movements of his sword before sidestepping out of Big Mac’s path. As Big Mac stumbled, not expecting to meet air, Hatchet tried to bring his sword down on his back. As quick as I could manage, and at this point I was running on backup power, I summoned one of my daggers back to me. As it flew through the air, it sliced across Hatchet’s sword hoof causing him to drop his blade. My dagger had only nicked him, and he had quickly retreated to a safe distance, scooping up one of the swords that had been dropped by a different soldier.

I had lost track of two knives, and with my magic practically depleted, I took the last knife in my hoof before running forward. If I hadn’t been so pumped full of adrenaline, I might have stopped and realised that I had never once tried to wield any sort of weapon by hoof. As it was however, I ended up clashing with Hatchet and suffering because of it. He very quickly disarmed me and swept my legs out from under me. As I lay on the ground with Hatchet standing over me, sword ready to plunge downwards, I couldn’t help but get an unfortunate sense of déjà vu.

And just like the last time, as he was bringing his weapon down, something rushed in from the side, or in this case somepony. As Hatchet was chased off of me in a flurry of blades, I sat up, looking to see who had rescued me. I had expected Big Mac, or perhaps Applejack having recovered from her injury enough to keep fighting. I was surprised however to see a pony I did not recognise had come to my rescue, it was a stallion, although a rather slender one at that, with a peach coloured coat and a short, spiky rose coloured mane and tail.

Hatchet had been surprisingly fast with a sword, but this newcomer was something else entirely. His movements were so fast, his body seemed to blur as I watched him, with every swing and swipe he made, he would break any attempt at a block Hatchet made and very often slice right through the weak points in his armour, sending droplets of blood flying. After sustaining several wounds, Hatchet finally dropped his weapon and fell to his knees, but the stranger wasn’t done. In one fluid motion he stepped around Hatchet so that he was standing directly behind him, but as he moved, he swept his sword up, running it smoothly across Hatchet's throat.

It had all happened so fast that the stranger was already standing still behind his victim, sheathing his sword before blood even began to pour from the gash in his neck. Hatchet fell face forward into the dirt, where his blood began to pool around him quite rapidly. We all stared in silent horror at what had just happened, I tried to open my mouth to speak to the stallion, but no words came out. Before anypony could muster some words, he turned and darted into the orchard and out of sight.

“What the heck just happened?” Applebloom asked, her eyes wide with shock.

The battle was ended; Applejack was helped into the house by Big Mac and Applebloom, while Caramel and I went around the bodies of the fallen soldiers to see how many had survived. What we discovered, made our blood run cold. Not a single one was alive, they had all been killed, but not by any of us or what we had done. As we examined them all, we found that very few of the injuries we inflicted had been the cause of death. No, what we discovered was that somepony had come around after us, and slit the throats of all the soldiers while they lay either weakened or unconscious.

“Do you think it was that guy?” Caramel asked as we stood over the soldier on the lane, the one he had shot with the crossbow. “The one who appeared at the end there?”

“All the cuts look identical to the one he inflicted on Hatchet,” I stated, although I was no expert in the area, and I could have been entirely wrong in my statement. “And you saw how fast he was, he moved like a ghost. He could easily have done all this right behind our backs, while we were busy fighting.”

We left that body and moved on to the last one, the one who had been hit by the first barrel and ended up back under the now broken sign.

“It’s scary,” Caramel muttered. “He could have done that to any of us and we wouldn’t have been able to stop him.”

“Let’s just be glad he was on our side,” I replied, shivering at the thought.

“Do you think he was?” Caramel asked curiously.

“Well, at the very least we had a common enemy,” I specified. “He definitely seemed to have it out for these soldiers, these deserters.”

As we reached the final body, we saw that he too had his throat cut open, it looked just like the rest of the bodies, except…

“Ugh, this is terrible,” Caramel groaned. “I mean, it’s just monstrous. I know they attacked us, but nopony deserves to be slaughtered like this… uh, is something wrong Rarity?”

I didn’t reply, I wasn’t even listening to him. I was too focused on the piece of blood soaked paper I had discovered under the stallion's head, too paralysed by my horror at seeing it again.

“What is that Rarity?” Caramel asked, looking over my shoulder at the piece of paper. “Some kind of drawing?”

Not just some kind of drawing, but a very specific drawing. A very detailed drawing of a wreath of thorns.

Author's Note

End of Part 2

XIII - Homeward Bound

Author's Note

Part 3

XIII - Homeward Bound

The rest of the day following the assault on the farm was mostly spent cleaning up. Applejack couldn’t be kept down for long, although we were all thankful that she had been wearing her armour, as the wound ended up being a lot more shallow than it would have been otherwise. Even Braeburn was up and about before long; he treated his missing ear as if it were a mild inconvenience, and by the evening, his brother Caramel was already walking, despite his knee. It was certainly a very eye opening experience for me; primarily I got to see that Earth ponies who lived and worked on a farm were unnaturally durable.

While Braeburn, Applejack and Caramel carried on with the farming to avoid losing an entire day of work, Big Mac and I took care of the bodies. They were all brought to the front yard, where we stripped them down. All armour and weapons were taken and left inside the blacksmiths, Big Mac said that Applejack would look them over later and see if they were worth keeping, selling off or breaking down. Generic items like food or coins we stored in a box which was left in the house, but personal items like jewellery or trinkets we decided to leave on the bodies.

Once there was nothing left to do with them, we loaded them onto a cart, four at a time, and wheeled them out to the northwest orchard. The orchard I had noticed on our journey here, the one that had been burnt down. After a few runs, Big Mac had all the bodies shifted from the front yard to the scorched earth beside the old orchard. While he had been making the runs, I went ahead and started digging the graves, magic doing most of the work.

“Are you absolutely sure we should be doing this?” I asked uncertainly, as Big Mac lifted the first body and went to put him in the ground. “What if they have family that will want them back?”

“We don’t have the time to haul all these bodies across the country lookin’ for relatives,” Big Mac replied as he placed the body in the first grave and climbed back out. “Besides, if they did have families, then they shouldn’t have been here attackin’ us, they should’ve gone home.”

I still wasn’t overly comfortable with the idea, but I opted to keep my mouth shut and carry on digging while Big Mac followed behind me, placing one body in each hole before filling it in. It would have been so much simpler if that mysterious stallion had never intervened, sure he saved me from Hatchet, which I had wanted to thank him for, but he didn’t have to kill all those soldiers. They had been beaten, they weren’t a threat anymore, killing a dozen ponies while they lay unconscious or in too much pain to fight back…

It made me think about the drawing I had found on the last body, the wreath of thorns. It matched up perfectly with the one I had copied into my sketchbook, and by extension, it matched up perfectly with the ‘suicide’ note I found on that innkeeper in Glean, and the carving on the stump where I found my knives and that coded letter. As far as I could see, there were only two possible explanations for this image appearing again. Either one of the soldiers had been responsible for its earlier appearances, or more likely, the mysterious stallion had left it there after he killed the pony.

If it was the latter, did that mean the stallion had also been responsible for that innkeeper’s death? Everything about the circumstances surrounding his death pointed to suicide, and even though the drawing bothered me at the time, I was never about to dispute that, now I wasn’t so sure however. After a few hours and a lot of sweating, which made me glad to have left my clothes back in the guest room before starting, Big Mac placed the final body into his grave, and together we began filling it in.

“You never told me what happened here,” I pointed out, gesturing around us at the charred remains of the apple trees. “You sounded angry when you said there was a fire.”

Big Mac frowned, but did not answer, it looked as if he was trying to decide whether to confide in me or not. In the end he didn’t have to, as another voice cut in from behind us.

“It was the rebels,” Applejack said, making us both jump slightly. “During the war, they were holding this place as a strategic location, squeezin’ it dry to feed their army.”

Applejack strode up beside me and stared out over the remains of the orchard.

“It was just over a year into the war,” she continued. “The Equestrian army was approaching; the unit left to hold Sweet Apple Acres stood no chance against them. They decided to retreat, but before they did, they wanted to ensure the farm couldn’t fall to the enemy, that they would never take our supplies for themselves. So they tried to burn it all to the ground, they started with the northwest orchard before the family even knew what was going on.

“When they found out, they fought back,” Applejack said, glancing over at Big Mac who was staring solemnly at the orchard. “It was a risky move, but it paid off. They managed to hold off the rebels long enough for the Equestrians to arrive, at which point they retreated without setting fire to the rest of the farm.”

“That’s why you left them,” I stated quietly, Applejack nodded slowly.

“Ah was way up north when I heard the news,” she explained. “We were fighting in Olympus, it was where ah met Hatchet. When the news reached me, ah… ah was furious. Ah only agreed to enlist in return for my family’s protection, and then they go and pull somethin’ like that! Ah had enough, ah never gave two tosses about the stupid war to begin with, and that was all the persuasion ah needed to turn mah back on the whole thing.”

“I… see,” I replied pathetically.

I didn’t know what to say to that, to me, Applejack’s story was just the cherry on top of the terrible cake that was the rebellion. Ever since I had arrived back in Panchea, I had heard nothing but terrible things about them, not to mention my own personal run ins with its soldiers and officers. It was baffling to think that they won the war, or that they ever had so much support.

“You said you enlisted in return for your family’s protection,” I began. “But did you ever believe in what the rebellion was fighting for?”

“Independence?” Applejack questioned, thinking about it. “Ah don’t really know to be honest. Ah’ve never had a problem with Princess Celestia or Equestria, it would be weird if ah did, considering how far rooted our family is over there. But ah do understand why the rebels wanted to govern themselves, ah just don’t think goin’ to war was ever the way to get it.”

“Enope,” Big Mac agreed.

“Look, we can talk about this later Rarity,” Applejack said with a weary sigh. “We’ve just about finished the rest of the work, and dinner is on, we should all head back now.”

We left the newly established graveyard in silence, and made our way back to the farmhouse. Once there, we got ourselves cleaned up and sat down around the kitchen table just as Granny Smith was setting out plates. She gave a quick word to the whole table before we began eating, giving thanks for all our safety during the recent, troubling events. The rest of the meal passed by in silence, it was only when I finished my last mouthful that Applejack finally spoke up.

“Alright everypony,” she began. “Things have been difficult lately, what with injuries and invasions. We’ve fallen behind in our work a little, although ah think we could be forgiven for that, all things considered. But we do have to get back on track soon, so it’s gonna be a full day tomorrow, all hooves on deck.”

“I can help too,” I added quickly.

“Ah won’t lie, ah was hoping you would offer,” Applejack said, giving a weak smile. “So early start everypony, and just maybe we’ll be able to make the delivery to Mule on Saturday.”

“You’re making a delivery to Mule?” I asked, a little surprised she hadn’t mentioned that to me sooner.

“Yeah, don’t worry, ah wasn’t gonna keep it a secret from you,” she replied as if reading my mind. “If you want to go home, you’re welcome to travel with me then. But like ah already said, you’re welcome to stay here as long as you want.”

“I appreciate the offer, but I need to get back home,” I told her. “Once I know it’s fine, I can contact my parents and let them know it’s okay to come over.”

With the plans for the next couple of days established, we all hit the hay, as Applejack would say. The next day played out fairly uneventfully, which we were all extremely thankful for. The only thing of interest that happened during all the work, was when Applejack asked me to meet her in the blacksmiths. The little building was very dark and confined, even more so, now that it was packed and cluttered with several sets of rebel armour. Applejack stood over the anvil in the centre of the room, examining a familiar sword.

“This was the sword Hatchet had,” Applejack explained to me. “That is to say, the one he had before you made him drop it.”

She passed it over to me for me to inspect, it was a long, very slender blade. I knew it to be called a rapier, although I had never held one personally. It was the kind of weapon used in duels between noblemen, or at least, they did in fairy tales and the likes. The blade was steel, while the overly decorative hilt and pommel were silver plated, the grip itself was wrapped in black leather, matching its sheath. The hilt was made up of a knuckle guard, crossbar and very intricate sweepings. I tested it in my hoof, something I wasn’t used to, preferring to use magic for this kind of delicate work.

The blade was shockingly light, similar in weight to my knives, and while it was easy enough to get a hold of thanks to the overly convoluted hilt, the tricky part was keeping my balance on three hooves while I swung it.

“You make it look so easy,” I said to Applejack, who was trying to stifle her laughter.

“Ah’ve had a lifetime of practice using mah hooves,” she explained. “No offence, but unicorns tend to be over reliant on their magic; you forget that using your hooves is pretty instinctual. Give it a little time and it’ll all come back to you.”

“Why are you giving me this?” I asked, sheathing the sword with my magic so as not to make a hash of it. “I figured you’d want it destroyed after what Hatchet used it to do.”

“Ah’m not so vindictive that ah gonna take my revenge on an inanimate object,” Applejack replied with a role of her eyes. “Besides, that sword is definitely not a standard rebel weapon, looks pretty expensive too, so ah’d bet money that Hatchet stole it.”

“So I can keep it?” I asked, levitating the sheath to my side and imagining how it would look with the rest of my outfit.

“You’re pretty good with those knives,” Applejack began. “But it’s easy to lose sight of them, if you drop them. So yes you can keep it, most of this stuff will end up bein’ sold and ah know rightly that it will just end up finding its way back to the rebels.”

Applejack turned to leave, as she walked out of the Blacksmiths, she carried on talking, more to herself though.

“Or the Liberators…” she muttered. “Or the Dragoons… or some other bunch of battle crazed idiots.”

The rest of the day passed by far too quickly, and before I knew it, I was already packing my things the following morning, while Applejack loaded the cart. Once I was cleaned and dressed, the sword did end up matching my outfit nicely, I exited the farmhouse to find the whole Apple family waiting to see me off. Applebloom was first to say goodbye, rushing forward to meet me and pulling me into a tight hug.

“Good luck on your journey Rarity,” she said in a muffled voice as she buried her face in my coat lapels. “Ah hope you’ll come visit us soon.”

“Of course I will Applebloom,” I assured her, as we both walked over to where the rest were standing. “Once I get settled in home, send a letter to my parents and see about getting back to work, I’ll come straight back to see how you’re all doing.”

“Make sure you do,” Granny Smith said, giving me a much gentler hug. “Family don’t forget about one another.”

“Forgetting about my friends and family is the last thing I’ll do in this world,” I told her.

“And don’t forget to go see your friends up in Pivot again,” Big Mac reminded me, while giving me a one legged hug.

“Don’t worry, I have big plans for the next time I see them,” I replied with a little wink.

After saying a quick goodbye to Braeburn and Caramel, Applejack and I began walking down the lane to the exit and the newly repaired sign. I glanced back as we neared the arch, and saw the rest of the Apples waving goodbye to us, I waved back and smiled, although I felt a slight pang in my chest.

“Don’t worry Sugarcube,” Applejack said in a comforting tone. “You’ll be back soon. You will, right?”

“First chance I get,” I promised her. “I wasn’t lying about that.”

The journey south was wonderfully peaceful, and to make matters even better, the weather still hadn’t turned, so we were able to bask in the warm glow of the sun all day. As we walked, we made small talk, we joked and laughed and talked about our lives before the war. I learned that Applejack’s parents had passed away when she was very young, right after Applebloom’s birth. Things had turned momentarily chilly after that revelation, but Applejack was quick to assure me that she had long since adjusted to it.

Applejack was strong, having absolutely no difficulty with the apple cart. Although her strides weren’t nearly as long as Big Macs, so it was easy for me to match her pace on hoof, rather than forcing her to carry me about. The distance between Sweet Apple Acres and Port Mule was almost exactly the same as the distance Big Mac and I had travelled from Pivot, it meant that those two towns were the main trading locations for the Apples. It also meant that it would take us over a day to arrive there, so we’d be camping out for the night.

I wasn’t sure if Applejack took things easier than her brother, or if she was just pretending she did for my sake. Judging from the way her family described her, I would say the latter was more likely. We did make very good progress during the day, so that by the time the sun had set, we were on the edge of the wood that grew next to the river. Once we passed through the wood and crossed the river, it was a quick walk directly to Mule. It felt weird to know I would finally be home after what was easily the most interesting week of my life.

As we sat on opposite sides of the fire, Applejack regaled me with tales from her time with the rebels. Obviously these were times before she found out how corrupt they were and left. She had definitely got around Panchea while serving with them, not a single town, village or city had been spared from the war, so one day Applejack could be taking part in a sea battle in the Horseshoe Bay, the next she could be marching all the way up to Cragsburg to help carry out an invasion.

“Applejack,” I began after a long silence following one of her stories. “A while back I met a guy who used to serve in the Rebellion, he believed the rebels didn’t have any real plan for what to do if they won the war, and that’s why the country’s in a poor state now. Do you think that’s true?”

“Of course it’s true,” Applejack agreed quickly before hesitating. “Well… maybe it would be more accurate to say they had a plan, one that hinged on the rebel leaders sticking together.”

“They didn’t?” I asked, confused.

I didn’t know much about the politics of the rebellion, I knew in general terms what they wanted, but I couldn’t tell you who the main figures were, or what exactly they did. When the rebellion first emerged, I had paid it little heed. It had started off as a small group of intellectuals who began voicing discontent with the way the country was governed. I was sure it wouldn’t last very long, even when the initial group grew into a vast movement, holding rallies and party meetings across the land. I was content to keep my head down and get on with my work, always sure that it would blow over.

Needless to say I was taken completely by surprise when the war was declared. I could tell my naivety on the subject was catching up with me by the incredulous look on Applejack’s face.

“Sometimes ah forget you were away during all this,” Applejack said, shaking her head slightly in disbelief. “Still, ah thought you’d heard stuff since you returned. As the war went on, there were some… disputes among the leaders regarding their ideologies. Some split off near the end of the war, some waited until Equestria officially surrendered. Basically when ponies talk about the rebellion today, what they’re really talking about is what’s left of the Rebellion, the few who didn’t break off.”

“Few?” I repeated curiously.

“Well, few compared to some of the other factions that emerged,” Applejack specified. “Ah bet there’s enough ponies still loyal to the original rebellion to form a decent sized army, but they’ve got nothin’ on the numbers the other groups have.”

“What other groups are we talking about here?” I asked, leaning in conspiratorially, forgetting we were alone in the middle of the Grand Pastures.

“From what ah know, there were three main groups that split off from the rebellion,” Applejack explained. “Out of the original big three who led the Rebellion from the very beginning, two of them separated to form their own groups. On top of that, the Marshal of the rebellion also left to form his own faction.”

I raised an eyebrow at that, I was sure that when I had faced off against Sufferthorn in Pivot, she had mentioned being the Marshal of the Rebellion. Either she was exaggerating her position, or she had been promoted after this other Marshal left.

“Now ah can’t remember which leader started which faction exactly,” Applejack continued. “But there was the Arcane Order in Arclight, the Dragoons in Olympus, and the Liberators in… well, in Mule. Ah’m really surprised you haven’t heard about them.”

“Grass Snake mentioned them before,” I said, remembering back. “But she never got to tell me what they were.”

“Basically they’re bad news,” Applejack told me. “Say what you want about the rebels, but the Liberators are much more extreme.”

“Extreme?” I repeated. “What do you mean?”

“Well…” Applejack began awkwardly. “You know how the Rebellion started over a plan to separate from Equestria? Basically the Liberators have this interesting idea that we should go a step further… and take over Equestria.”

I had really picked a bad time to take a drink from my water canteen, although my spit take really helped to emphasis my shock at Applejack’s statement.

“Take over Equestria!” I repeated, aghast. “Wanting self-governance is one thing, but that would just be insane!”

“Ah know that,” Applejack replied calmly. “Plenty of the rebels knew that too, that’s why they had to split off.”

“But you said the split off groups had greater numbers than the Rebellion,” I reminded her. “Does that mean there are lots of ponies joining these… Liberators?”

I inwardly groaned as I realised the reasoning behind the name.

“Maybe they have a really good PR department,” Applejack replied sarcastically. “They’re riding off the steam left over by the war, Equestria surrendered and plenty of ponies saw that as a sign of weakness and decided to enlist.”

“Well what about the other groups you mentioned?” I asked, hoping they weren’t going to be as radical and outright crazy as the first one. “What are they doing differently?”

“Ah can’t tell you a thing about them,” Applejack stated. “Ah just know they exist, but ah haven’t a clue what they want or what they do.”

“So if the Liberators are in Mule,” I began, worry creeping into my voice. “What does that mean for the town?”

“You shouldn’t have to worry,” Applejack assured me. “Ah’ve been down this way a few times since the war ended, the Liberators do all their business in the fort. The rest of the town seems fine, way better than Pivot at least.”

I relaxed a little at that, while it was still weird to think of extremists in my hometown, it was nice to hear somepony confirm the town's wellbeing. We didn’t talk much more after that, we needed to get some rest if we were to set off early the next morning, so we would arrive in Mule before midday. That had been the plan, but that plan counted on the bridge still existing when we arrived at the river. What we found instead was the ruin of what was once a bridge, now reduced to rubble lying on both banks.

Two mares waited at the site, one on either side of the river. They wore dark plate armour that covered every inch of their bodies, but carried their visored barbuta helmets under their foreleg. They were each armed with a battle axe, and strapped to their backs were kite shields, emblazoned with the image of a hoof smashing upwards into the sun.

“Morning travellers,” the mare on our side greeted, she sounded friendly enough for a pony fully clad in armour. “Sorry but the bridge is closed… which was probably obvious.”

“It was pretty obvious Kiwi!” the other pony called over.

“Shush Green Bean,” Kiwi called back. “We’re supposed to be professional about this.”

She turned back to, trying too hard to look serious.

“So yeah, the bridge is out,” she repeated. “We had some trouble with rebel bandits a while ago, who ended up destroying it.”

“And now we get the great job of standing here all day, to tell travellers about the whole mess!” Green bean shouted over.

“Ah think we know the bandits you’re talkin’ about,” Applejack cut in. “We had a run in with them ourselves, but they shouldn’t be causing you any trouble from now on.”

“Well that’s the first bit of good news we’ve had all day,” Kiwi said, glancing back at Green Bean. “The only other news being that the repairs on the bridge have been delayed for another few days, which means we get to stay out here even longer.”

“So is there no way to get across until the bridge is repaired?” I asked in dismay.

“Of course there is,” both mares said at the exact same time.

“There’s a temporary bridge a little west of here,” Kiwi continued. “That’s the other half of our job, to direct travellers there.”

“Well thank you kindly,” Applejack said before reaching into the cart and pulling out half a dozen apples. “Here, you can have these on the house. It can’t be easy standing out here all day, especially with this weather and that heavy armour.”

“Wait, seriously? Wow, thank you,” Kiwi said in shock, accepting the fruit gratefully.

“Thank you!” Green Bean shouted over. “But if it’s not too must trouble, can you wait here until she throws a few over to me? I’m worried if you leave, she’ll keep them for herself.”

“I would not!” Kiwi exclaimed, indignant at the idea.

We both stared at her for a second before she got the hint and tossed three over to the opposite bank.

“Well, we better get movin’,” Applejack said, turning right. “Thanks for your help you two.”

“What a weird couple they were,” I whispered to Applejack as we started walking, the river to our left, the wood to our right.

“Probably the heat gettin’ to them,” Applejack replied, nodding her head sagely.

We didn’t arrive at the new bridge until around midday, the time Applejack had planned on being in Mule. The bridge really was the height of temporary, literally being several planks placed from one bank across to the next. Another pony in dark armour waited here; this one was sitting down, examining the design on their shield with undisguised distaste. As we got close and he heard the cart, he quickly stood up and posed poker straight.

“Find the place alright?” he asked as we approached. “This whole bridge fiasco has caused us a lot of bother.”

“Well the ladies at the… ex-bridge pointed us in the right direction,” I explained as Applejack began crossing the planks very slowly.

“They didn’t happen to say how long it would be before the bridge is fixed did they?” he asked hopefully.

“They actually said it was going to be delayed be a couple of days,” I replied, cringing slightly as I knew it wasn’t what he wanted to hear.

“Typical,” he muttered, staring darkly at the shield he had dropped on the ground.

I was quite thankful when Applejack made it across the makeshift bridge quite quickly and I was able to follow her. Once we were clear of the river and finally back on track, we trekked for a short while before we came to the top of a hill, giving us the perfect, scenic view of the Port Mule and the Horseshoe Bay. The city was mostly obscured by the stone wall that surrounded it, travelling into the seas a little before cutting off. I could just make out the roofs of some particularly tall buildings over the top of the wall, as well as the fort at the most northern end of the city.

Beyond the city itself, I could make out the harbour stretching out into the bay, and all the boats and ships that were either tied up or anchored further out. Turning my eyes back to the wall, I could see the western gate which was bustling with activity, that was where we would be headed next, and from there…

I felt my chest seize as I looked out over the city I had lived my whole life in, that I had been separated from for two years. I could already imagine being back in my room in the house, creating dresses while my mother worked in the garden, and my father arrived home from a day on the sea. And Sweetie Belle would surprise us all with dinner, that we’d take one look at before one of us suggested eating out for the evening. I was broken out of my fantasy when Applejack placed a hoof on my shoulder; I glanced around at her to see her smiling at me.

“Welcome home Rarity.”

XIV - Home Sweet Home

Port Mule, the city I had been born in, the city I had grown up in, the city I hadn’t seen in over two years was now finally in front of me. Even now after my time in Equestria, I still knew it like the back of my hoof. While it was smaller than Pivot, it definitely had a lot more packed in, as a result the cobbled streets were very narrow and many buildings were tall. You might have a very boxed in feeling as a result of this, traversing streets that might as well have been alleyways while walls rose up all around you. On top of this the winding streets made the town very difficult to navigate for anypony unfamiliar with the layout of the city; this was compensated for by having signposts on every junction.

The city was built on a slope, so there was always a gradual incline as you walked from one end of the town to the other. The port that gave Mule its namesake was at the lowest end, and made up the largest of all the districts in the city, while the fort that had been affectionately nicknamed Fort Mule was at the highest end of the city. It was a fat behemoth of a structure, squatting at the top of the city, built in the same functional form of the city walls. By stark contrast the buildings that made up the city itself were designed to be a lot more aesthetically pleasing, reminiscent of the Equestrian renaissance period when Mule was first built.

This could be seen in the stone columns and arches, as well as the facades on the walls of buildings, all of which served no real purpose beyond making the building in question more eye-catching. There was also a large focus on flora, from hanging flower baskets to ivy creeping up the walls and wrapping around pillars. All this emphasis on style served as a visual representation of class and wealth in Mule, the wealthiest homes and the most prosperous stores had more architectural extravagance and carefully maintained plant life.

While this used to encourage a great deal of elitist attitudes, it had calmed down somewhat in my lifetime, and by the time I was working for myself very few ponies cared one way or another how wealthy a store was before shopping there, or a family was before associating with them. Mule was much like I remembered it being as Applejack and I entered through the city gates, although there were still a number of things that I was quick to pick up on. For starters the gate I just mentioned was now flanked on either side by a number of ponies in dark armour, their shields baring the same emblem as those of the ponies at the bridge.

Indeed, there were an alarming number of guards throughout the city, some standing guard at street corners while others patrolled the streets in units of four. Not only this, but Grass Snake hadn’t been metaphorical when she said the Liberators had raised their banners in the city. It didn’t seem to matter where one went, there was always at least one banner in view, whether it be hanging over a shop window or lining the city walls on standards. Another difference I noticed was the evidence of the war, like Pivot many buildings had been marred by the recent events, but unlike Pivot attempts were being made to repair the damage.

I was pleased to see that the economy of Mule hadn’t suffered like Pivot had, I didn’t see a single homeless pony around and the narrow streets were packed with ponies going about their daily lives. It actually seemed a bit surreal, and I was more than a little suspicious as to how the two major trading cities of Panchea could be doing so vastly different, especially considering they relied on one another for most of their business. Applejack wasn’t too bothered by the whole thing however, with the amount of products they were just giving away to the ponies of Pivot, they really needed the extra sales here in Mule so she wasn’t about to complain that they were still doing so well.

The last difference that caught my eye, which wasn’t hard as it was quite a big difference, was the fort itself. For as long as I had lived it had been little more than a giant cube shaped keep, very basic, intended only to serve as a town hall in times of peace. Now however, it had grown exponentially, it was much bigger and definitely more complex than the mere box it had once been. While I could have understood the need for an upgrade during the war, the fact that there was still a great deal of scaffolding and tarpaulin around most of it suggested they were still building.

Applejack and I didn’t have to walk long to reach the market square, perhaps the most open area of the whole city. Once we arrived there she began setting up her stall while I unloaded the first lot of apple related goods for selling. As we worked to get started up, I scanned my eyes around the market looking at all the individual ponies going about their business. I recognised a few faces, nopony I knew well enough to greet, but the majority of faces were unfamiliar to me. I figured what with how well Mule seemed to be doing, quite a few ponies had moved in from other towns that weren’t doing quite so well, like Pivot or Glean.

“You know you don’t have to stay and help,” Applejack said once we were finished setting up. “You can go over to your house.”

“I’ll have plenty of time to do that,” I replied. “Besides, I want to help.”

The day ended up being quite busy, and I’m sure Applejack ended up appreciating having an extra pair of hooves to deal with all the orders. Occasionally we’d get a few soldiers on patrol come over and buy something; one group in particular took notice of my weapons and Applejack’s… body.

“You look like you could handle yourself in a fight,” one of the guards said to me. “I don’t know many mares who walk around with a sword, would you be interested in enlisting with the Liberators?”

“It’s mostly for show,” I replied with a little laugh. “To scare off bandits on the road, I assure you I don’t know the first thing about fighting.”

“Smart,” the guard continued. “Bandits have been a real problem lately, but then that’s the rebels for you, they can’t keep their men in check. The Liberators never have problems like that.”

“I don’t doubt it,” I replied, trying to hide my scepticism.

“What about you?” the guard said, turning to Applejack. “Now don’t tell me you don’t know how to fight, you look like you could beat all of us up.”

“As temptin’ as that sounds,” Applejack began, the guards probably thought she was referring to enlisting, but I knew she meant beating them up. “If I ran off to join the army then who would work the farm and bring these apples here for you every week?”

“Fair point,” the guard admitted. “I suppose if everypony joined up there wouldn’t be much of a country left to fight for.”

I frowned as they walked away, so far the Liberators seemed much friendlier than any of the rebels I had met, with the exception of those who had left willingly like Applejack and Hammerhead, and judging from what that guard had said they definitely seemed to believe they were fighting for a good cause. The Liberators must have some very good propaganda if they can make invading Equestria, the most powerful kingdom in the world, sound like a good idea or a noble cause.

It ended up quite late in the afternoon before Applejack had sold out; apparently their previous trips to Mule had taught them to overfill the cart. She even made herself a fair amount of money for the day, I was a little worried that she might get robbed on the way back, but then I noticed her claymore in the cart that had previously been hidden by some strategically placed apple crates. Even if she hadn’t had the sword, this was Applejack I was thinking of, any bandits would be stupid to cross her path, no matter how many of them there were. I wonder if the battle at Olympus had suffered without her after she deserted.

“Right, well ah guess that’s that done and dusted,” Applejack said after loading the last empty crate onto the cart. “Now to sort out your cut…”

“Yeah, I’m going to stop you right there,” I interrupted. “You don’t owe me anything, you’ve done more than enough for me and I don’t need your money.”

“Now Rarity, don’t be stubborn,” Applejack replied. “You did a day’s work, so you get paid for a day’s work. It would be different if you were comin’ back to the farm, but you’re not, so just take the money so ah know you have some to keep you goin’ should anything go wrong.”

Applejack practically thrust the bits into my chest which I reluctantly levitated one by one into my own purse. I could see Applejack fidgeting over the rest of the money, I could tell she gave me a reduced amount so I wouldn’t complain and she desperately wanted to rectify that.

“Just keep it AJ,” I said. “You’ve got a family to think about.”

That seemed to do it for her, so she put the rest of the bits away all while muttering something under her breath.

“So, that’s business taken care of,” Applejack began, looking back up at me. “We should head over to your house.”

“I can make my own way back,” I argued. “And unless you want to stay the night or stop in for a rest, which I know you’d refuse anyway, you’ll need to head out as soon as possible so you can get back to the farm in good time.”

“Alright,” Applejack groaned. “Ah suppose ah can trust you to find your way home alone.”

“Applejack, I was raised in this city,” I replied with a small chuckle. “If there was ever a place I was in my own element, it’s here.”

“Well okay, but don’t forget to come visit as soon as possible,” Applejack insisted.

“I will, you act like I’m going to forget to if you don’t keep reminding me,” I assured her.

After a drawn out farewell and some more reassurance, Applejack finally hooked herself up to the cart and began making her way out of the market square and out of sight. Truth be told I was a little relieved, when Applejack had suggested I go straight home rather than stay and help her at the stall, I had been tempted to accept. All day I had been itching to get back to my house and the more I delayed the more agitated I got, it was only the knowledge that staying and helping was the right thing to do and what a true friend should do that made me stay with her.

Now that she was gone however I took no time in hurrying through the familiar streets to get to my home district. There were five districts in Mule, the Harbour District which as I said was the largest and easily the most important. The Merchant District where we had spent most of the day, the Home District where the majority of ponies live, and the Defence District where the fort was located. Lastly was the Botanic District, where all the wealthiest ponies live as well as where the main touristy attractions could be found like the theatre or the public gardens, that was where I lived.

It really sounds like I’m tooting my own horn, that I’m making myself out to be ridiculously wealthy, but I assure you my parents were anything but. They were both as working class as working class ponies could get, and they worked very hard their whole lives so that they could afford to live in such luxury and give me and my sister the upbringing we received. What I said previously about elitist attitudes declining in my lifetime helped as well, making the houses in the Botanic District aimed more towards the middle class as opposed to the super rich.

However as I made my way out of the narrow streets of the Merchant District into the more reasonably sized ones of the Botanic District, I quickly realised something was wrong. Even in the late afternoon the city was still busy, there were still a great many ponies milling about making lots of noise, but not here. The Botanic District was unearthly quiet, the large houses that lined the streets sat dark and empty, the whole place looked abandoned.

I quickly wished it had just been abandoned, but as I passed by the first few houses and came to one that lay completely demolished I realised it was worse than that. I ran down the streets, passing by ruin after ruin, some were the blackened remains following a fire, others looked as if they had been systematically dismantled brick by brick, and some looked as if they had been blown apart from the inside out, all left to lie. The number of houses which remained whole became fewer and fewer as I ran, but it made no sense to me as panic started rising. Buildings had been damaged all over the city, I had seen that, but they were being repaired even as I walked through with Applejack. So why were these houses being left in their current state?

I wasn’t particularly religious, I liked Princess Celestia because she was a physical being who actually lived and actively ran a kingdom, but I was more sceptical about the legends of the other five alicorns who made up the Six which so many ponies worshiped. As I ran however, I found myself praying to Celestia and to the Six and to every other being of myth and legend I could think of that my house, the house I had been born in was one of the few that had been left mercifully untouched. I ran passed number thirty-eight, it was whole. Number thirty-nine was lying in disrepair. Number forty had been bombed to oblivion, now only a crater remained where a house once stood. Forty-one had been set alight.

Finally I reached number forty-two, and as I stood at the tall iron gates peering in at my house, I knew my prayers had gone unanswered. The house was unrecognisable, perhaps it had been set on fire or perhaps it had been blown up, I really couldn’t tell. I had travelled all this way, gone through so much, always so confident that at the end of it my old house would be waiting for me, good as new. In retrospect I was a fool, and as I slid the foot of the iron gates and began sobbing quietly to myself I became a pathetic fool.

I don’t know how long exactly I had sat there, but by the time I finally found the strength to stand up and open the gates it was dark. I walked very slowly down the garden path, looking forlornly to either side at what had once been my mother’s pride and joy, after me and my sister of course, now reduced to dry, cracked soil with the odd lifeless plant dotted about. The house itself, once so magnificent, was now nothing more than a husk. The roof was almost entirely gone, there were a great many gaps in the walls, the windows had been smashed in and the doors either smashed to pieces or were just plain gone.

As I stepped beyond the threshold and found myself in the hallway I had to struggle not to burst into tears again. Everywhere I looked was another cruel reminder of what had been lost, the staircase that I used to race Sweetie Belle up, now collapsed in on itself. The coat rack that father always used to hang his hat on the moment he stepped in the door after a day’s work, completely absent. The family photos in their frames and their glass fronts that my mother had wanted to take with us before we left for Equestria, a few now lay on the ground, dust and debris obscuring how badly cracked and smashed they were, most were missing.

I continued down the hall, nearing the door to the parlour. I was so absorbed in my own misery that it wasn’t until I was right up beside the door that I heard the faint crackling of a fire. Curiosity overtaking anguish, I pushed the door open and edged into the room. This room was no better than the hall, but somepony had clearly made some effort to restore it. There were planks boarding up the smashed windows to prevent any drafts from entering, the furniture was all missing, but in their place were a couple old armchairs that looked like they had been dragged out of a skip.

The fire I had heard was inside the fireplace, but there must have been something wrong with the chimney, possibly collapsed, and the smoke was now coming into the room. To counter this, a large hole had been smashed into the ceiling just above the fire place to allow the smoke to exit, at least I hoped that’s why the hole was there and it wasn’t just another bit of mindless destruction. Beyond this, the room had been stripped absolutely bare, in some parts the floorboards had even been pulled up. It wasn’t hard to figure out who had lit the fire, especially considering he was curled up in one of the armchairs staring right at me.

“Good evening,” he said in a gruff voice, before his eyes moved down to look at my sword and a worried expression crossed his face. “I don’t want any trouble.”

The stallion looked like he had seen better days, he reminded me of the homeless ponies I saw up in Pivot, even dressed like them. As I walked closer to him I could make out the scruffy beard he had going, and how thin he was beneath the equally thin garments. This pony looked absolutely miserable, but he also looked absolutely terrified and I realised I had just made my way closer to him without telling him I meant no harm.

“I’m not here to cause any,” I said at last.

“Then take a seat,” he offered, visibly relaxing.

I was slightly irritated at being offered a seat in my own house, but then I felt a sharp pang when I realised this was probably his house more than it was mine. I sat down in the chair opposite him, it was a horribly uncomfortable thing, I could feel loose springs sticking into my backside.

“You don’t look homeless,” he commented, taking in my clothes, weapons and bags. “What are you doin’ here?”

“I live here…” I began before catching myself on. “Or, I used to live here…”

“Before the war,” the stallion finished for me, to which I nodded bitterly. “Can’t imagine this is too easy for you then, your eyes tell that much.”

I realised my eyes must look very bloodshot after all my crying.

“So where have you been all this time?” he asked. “You a soldier too? Is that where you got your fancy sword?”

“No, I’m not a soldier,” I replied in a hollow voice. “I’m just a coward, my family and I ran away to Equestria when the war started.”

“And how does that make you a coward?” he asked in an even tone, the question taking me by surprise. “Your sister was pretty young, would it have been brave if your parents had stayed here and let her live in a country ravaged by war?”

I gaped at him.

“How do you know about my sister?!” I exclaimed, a little bit frightened.

“The pictures,” he answered simply. “I recognised you as soon as you walked in, but that don’t answer my question. Would it have been brave?”

“No, it wouldn’t,” I answered, trying to inject some firmness in my voice.

“No, it would not,” he agreed. “But maybe you stayed here while they went to find safety elsewhere, is that bravery, to leave your family in a time of crisis?”

“No…” I replied awkwardly.

“No is right,” he jumped in quickly. “So your family left the country and you went with them because that’s what family does, so how are you a coward?”

“I… I don’t know,” I answered lamely.

“Well if you can’t say, then what right does anyone else have to say so?” he asked, giving me weak smile.

His words rattled around in my head for a moment while I tried to make sense of what I was hearing; eventually I gave him a genuine smile in return.

“You’re right, thank you,” I said, wiping my eyes. “My name’s Rarity by the way.”

“Name’s Mashed Potato,” he replied. “So, where’s the family now?”

“Still in Canterlot,” I replied, frowning once more. “I came over on my own to see if things were safe enough for them to come over as well, but after everything I’ve seen… and now this, I know it’s anything but safe for them.”

“Yeah, things are pretty bad,” Mashed Potato agreed, nodding his head sagely. “I still remember when Equestria surrendered, when the war was finished. We were over the moon; we thought life would finally get back to normal. But for a lot of soldiers, they left the Rebellion to find that there was no life to go back to. That their homes were destroyed, their families killed or missing. We waited for the Rebels to make things right, to take control of the country and restore it, we’re still waiting to this day.

“We had the choice to go back,” he continued. “To keep fighting for the rebels even after the war was over, but would they pay us to do so? Could they pay us to do so? They could not. During the war most fought out of a sense of patriotism, they believed we were fighting the good fight, but once the war was finished and the Equestrian armies had left our shores… what were we still fighting for? We won, so why were we now being expected to fight each other? Even if he rebels could pay me for my services, I don’t know that I’d want to go back, knowing that I might be asked to fight ponies I once fought alongside just because they switched faction.

“So if I won’t fight and there’s no life left for an ex-solider, where does that leave me?” he asked before spreading his hooves out around him. “Right here, sheltering in the ruin of your house, hoping that the Liberators will pass this place by another day. It won’t last forever I know, one day they’re going to come in here to break it down and harvest it for materials to expand that accursed fortress, and when they find me I’ll be given the same choice all homeless ponies in Mule get. Join the Liberators in their insane fight against Equestria, or be sent to Pivot to die in the streets alongside the rest of the ponies there.”

“But why?” I asked, I had stayed silent throughout Mashed Potato’s story but now I couldn’t stop myself. “Why can’t the Rebellion do anything? Why are they now fighting each other? Why doesn’t Mule want homeless ponies?”

“The first one is easy,” Mashed Potato began. “The Liberators control Mule, the remnants of the Rebellion control Pivot, the two oppose one another so the Liberators do everything in their power to break the economy in Pivot. Cutting trade between the two cities, filling Pivot with ponies who are too weak to work and don’t have any bits to pay for local services or products, and many other dirty tactics intended to ruin Pivot and by extension the Rebellion’s main power base.

“As for why they’re fighting,” he continued. “Well they want different things, and so they each want to take control so that they can get those different things. The Liberators want to conquer Equestria, the Rebels do not, and whoever controls the country decides which happens. I suppose that also answers your first question too; the Rebellion can’t do anything so long as their power is being constantly undermined by the other factions. The only major city they have any influence in is Pivot and in its current state it’s no use to anyone.”

I groaned and leaned forward in my seat, the entire country was in chaos and ponies everywhere were suffering because of it, and why? Because the few ponies who led the Rebellion had a falling out and until one of them wins or they come together nothing can be fixed.

“You seem to be quite knowledgeable when it comes to these matters,” I pointed out.

“When I was in the Rebellion I was in… one of the more secretive units,” he explained.

“Secretive?” I repeated curiously. “You mean like a spy?”

“I suppose so,” he admitted with a small shrug. “To be good at that sort of job you need to have a firm understanding of the political ongoing and intrigues of your enemy’s leader base. Those skills can equally be applied to your own leaders, especially when towards the end of the war divisions were already starting to appear and I was being asked to help come up with a special code for messages that only a select number of individuals would be able to decipher.”

“A code?” I repeated, imagining a small light bulb appearing over my head as I remembered what was in my bag. “You mean like this?”

I rummaged through my bag and pulled out the now thoroughly crumpled piece of paper that I had found in that hollow stump with the wreath of thorns carved on the side.

“How did you get hold of this?” Mashed Potato asked in disbelief as I presented the letter to him. “This is definitely a coded rebel message, although the code looks to have been slightly altered since I first helped develop it.”

“Can you decipher it?” I asked eagerly.

“I think so, yes,” he stated as his eyes scanned over it. “No names of recipient or sender, that’s typical, but there are also no names of the ponies being referenced. These are orders, they are instructing the agent this was sent to go to the town of Glean and check in a specific inn. Apparently their target is being kept hidden there under the innkeeper’s protection. The agent has been told to allow the innkeeper one chance to hand the target over, if he does not oblige he is to be…”

Mashed Potato grimaced slightly at what came next.

“Basically he is to be eliminated, although the letter gives rather… specific instruction,” he continued.

“Does it say anything about making it look like a suicide?” I asked quickly, my heart beating rapidly as the mystery began to unravel.

“Yes actually,” Mashed Potato confirmed, looking at me a little suspiciously. “How did you know that?”

“I found the innkeepers body,” I replied quietly. “Before I found this letter.”

“I see,” he said in an understanding voice before carrying on. “After that the instructions are to find the target and escort them to a pre-specified location for questions, after which they too are to be eliminated and their body dealt with.”

Mashed Potato looked disgusted as he folded the letter and handed it back to me.

“So this is what the Rebellion does?” I asked in a rotten tone. “What it still does?”

“The war behind the scenes is just as brutal as the one in the limelight,” Mashed Potato replied. “Anyway, it’s late; I was going to get some sleep. You’re welcome to stay, not that you really need permission to sleep in your own house.”

“No,” I said in a dull tone as I stood up from the armchair and made my way over to the parlour door. “This isn’t my home… not anymore.”

XV - Maverick

I woke up the next morning, lying in the corner of my old bedroom and workspace, clutching my father’s items while clinging tightly to an old curtain that had been ripped from the window, one of the only things left behind when the house was ransacked. It probably hadn’t been wise to sleep in my old room as it only elicited more memories and tears before I was finally able to drift off, but I had chosen it mainly for being one of the few rooms with an intact ceiling and whole walls. Once I was awake I simply sat there for what felt like the longest time, completely at a loss for what to do next.

It felt as if my journey was over, and at the end I had received no reward, only misery. Where I went from there was a mystery to me, I had plenty of plans that hinged on my house being whole and untouched. I was going to write home, get back to work, start living a normal life again, but most of all I planned on returning to Pivot and inviting Grass Snake and her family to come and stay in my home with me. It was certainly big enough for all of us, and after seeing how much better Mule was than Pivot, life could only have been better for them here.

Well that plan was certainly out of the window, which left me clueless as to my next move. I could always return to Sweet Apple Acres, I had no doubt Applejack would welcome me back with open arms and let me stay as long as I wanted, but I hated the idea of being over reliant on her family’s kindness. Maybe there was work to found within the city, preferably some that didn’t require me to invade Equestria. It was possible that I might find work relating to my old profession of tailoring and fashion design, at least with that I knew I would be good at it.

I would work hard and save up my bits, then maybe one day I could buy a home fit for my family. That wasn’t much good either, it didn’t matter how hard a worker I was, I would never earn enough to support both my family and Grass Snake’s, and I had no intention of leaving them to fend for themselves. Maybe I should travel further across Panchea, find fortune elsewhere, but then where in this chaotic land was unmarred after the war? Where could I possibly go where there were no factions messing things up for everypony?

It occurred to me that pretty much all my problems could be sourced back to the things Mashed Potato told me about how the Rebellion split apart, perhaps the key to fixing my problems was dealing with the trouble the factions were presenting head on…

I shook my head at that, trying to rid myself of such a ridiculous notion. What could I, a single mare who hadn’t even been present during the war do to solve such a massive crisis? Well, while the road ahead wasn’t clear, I did have a few questions I wanted to ask Mashed Potato before I turned my back on this place, so without further thought I stood up and made my back through the house to the parlour. Jumping down to the first floor entrance hall was much easier than having to hoist myself up to the second floor landing the night before.

As I entered the parlour, I found Mashed Potato sitting in the same spot I had left him in, staring blankly into space.

“Mornin’,” He murmured to me as I took a seat in the second armchair.

“Good morning,” I replied, although there was nothing good about it.

“Suppose you’ll be leaving soon,” he stated matter-of-factly.

“I… I guess I will be,” I answered after a moment’s hesitation. It was the only thing I knew for sure, that I wanted to get away from this place. “I just had a few things to ask before I went, about what happened here.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t ask last night,” Mashed Potato pointed out, as if he knew exactly what I planned on asking all along.

“I was… a bit overwhelmed last night,” I answered honestly. “It was hard to get my thoughts out.”

“Understandable,” he agreed, nodding slightly. “Well, ask away.”

“What happened here?” I began. “Why are the houses in this district so badly damaged? Why is the rest of the town being fixed up while these are being left to lie?”

“I imagine it wasn’t long after you left,” Mashed Potato replied. “You’ll find most of the ponies who accepted Equestria’s offer of asylum lived in this district; many ponies who were loyal to the rebellion saw that as a betrayal. I’m sure you can imagine what they did as an act of punishment for those ponies, although you don’t have to imagine since you’ve seen it for yourself now. They destroyed homes indiscriminately, whether its occupants had fled to Equestria or not, from what I hear some still had ponies living inside when the mob stormed through.

“They stole everything that wasn’t fixed down,” he continued. “If you’re wondering where all your possessions are now, you’ll probably never see them again. I imagine those pictures outside were only left behind because the only value they had was sentiment, not monetary. Once they took everything they could lay their hooves on they proceeded to set fire to a number of the houses, others they took their time with and basically demolished.”

“I had thought as much,” I replied after contemplating his answer for a moment.

“As for why they haven’t been rebuilt,” Mashed Potato picked up. “Do you recall what I said last night about the Liberators breaking this place down and harvesting it for materials?”

“Yes, you said that’s what they’re using to expand the fort,” I recalled.

“Indeed,” he confirmed. “Why pay for materials and pay for repairs when you can hit two birds with one stone? And with how big the Liberator army is becoming, it’s no wonder why they would need a larger fort.”

“So eventually this place will be dismantled too?” I asked, knowing full well what the answer was even before he nodded. “Nothing like putting salt in the wound.”

“So what will you do now?” Mashed Potato asked, causing me to sigh. “Where will you go?”

“I honestly have no idea,” I stated with all honesty. “I think the best thing for me now would be to go find my friend and figure it out from there.”

“Well, wherever you end up and whatever you end up doing,” Mashed Potato began, standing up slowly from his chair. “I wish you all the best.”

“What about you?” I asked as we shook hooves. “Are you just going to wait here for the Liberators to come find you? And what do you eat anyway?”

“Don’t you worry about me,” he assured me, his voice suddenly very serious. “My time with the Rebels has taught me to look after myself, just focus on finding your own way now.”

“Alright, goodbye Mashed Potato,” I said awkwardly as I began walking towards the parlour door again. “Maybe we’ll see each other again someday.”

“Maybe,” he replied quietly.

At that, I opened the door and stepped out into the entrance hall. I waited there for a brief moment before walking over to where the picture frames lay in the dust. Bending down I used my magic to free each individual photo from its damaged frame, once I had them all collected I stored them safely inside my sketchbook before standing up and making my way to the front door. It was still early morning when I stepped out into my old front yard; it looked even grimmer in daylight. Choosing not to hesitate there any longer, I quickly strode to the iron gate, intent on getting away from the old house and finding somewhere I could get a bite to eat and think about my next move.

Once I reached the gate however, I stopped dead. There, pinned between the two gates was a sheet of paper, a very familiar symbol drawn on it. I quickly glanced around me, worried that the mysterious stallion might leap out of nowhere and I would end up like those soldiers at the farm. I was completely alone thankfully; there was no sign of anypony in the yard or in the street beyond the gate. Turning my attention back to the paper, I reached out with a hoof that trembled slightly, taking hold of it and quickly ripping it way from the gate.

The first side bore the same wreath of thorns, still drawn as intricately as always. However, for the first time there was something on the other side of the paper, there was writing! My heart beat rapidly as my eyes scanned over the note, reading the elegant, curvy, joined up letters. The note read ‘Go to the harbour, find a red barge, it is time for us to meet face to face. If you do not arrive by midday you will be declared our enemy and you will be eliminated.’

I stood, absolutely frozen as my eyes unfocused. The stallion was summoning me to a meeting, but why? Perhaps he found out I stole from that lockbox, or he knows I was looking into that coded letter. Asking these questions was pointless, the only way I would get any answers is if I went to the meeting, but was that wise? If these notes really had been left by that stallion from the farm, then I was dealing with a killer, going to meet him could be suicide. Then again it didn’t sound like I was being given a choice in the matter, the letter made it very clear what would happen if I didn’t attend.

So I was faced with a choice, attend a meeting that seemed suicidal, or don’t attend which was also suicidal. It was a tough choice, but after almost no time spent thinking about it I knew what my decision was. So as I stepped out through the iron gate I began making my way out of the Botanic District and back through town until I reached the Harbour District. As I walked, one thought repeated itself in my head, over and over again, why on earth was I not running as far away as I could?

Okay, two thoughts, how was I ever supposed to find a single barge in the harbour of Port Mule? The place was always filled to the brim with boats and ships of various sizes and colours. Indeed when I arrived in the Harbour District I found that today would be no exception, but the last thing I wanted was having some assassin hunting me down just because I spent to long looking for the meeting place. Luckily the harbour was packed enough that nopony paid me any heed as I trotted through the crowds, scanning my eyes back and forth over all ships, trying to find the red barge mentioned in the note.

In the end it wasn’t the barge I spotted first, as I neared the western end of the harbour and began walking down a relatively empty jetty, I caught sight of a pony. While I had only seen the stallion the one time, I could never have forgotten him. I recognised his peach coat and spikey rose coloured mane. Of course he was standing perfectly straight at the bottom of a gangplank that led up to the deck of a red barge. Taking a deep breath, and questioning my own sanity one last time, I began marching down the wooden jetty towards him.

“Well,” I began, trying to quell the fear in my voice. “Here I am.”

He didn’t reply to my statement, he had of course been watching me ever since I had caught sight of him, possibly even before that. Now that I was directly in front of him and talking to him, watching me was all he did, it was quite eerie considering he didn’t even blink as he surveyed me with the most unreadable expression I had seen on any pony ever.

“You summoned me here,” I reminded him. “Well here I am, so what is you want?”

Still he said nothing, just stood statue still and stared directly into my eyes.

“You saved me at Sweet Apple Acres,” I pointed out. “But you also killed all those ponies, didn’t you?”

Again I was met with only silence.

“Why won’t you answer me?!” I demanded, fear ebbing away to be replaced with frustration. “You called me here so why won’t you talk.”

“He won’t talk,” a voice called out to my right. “Because he cannot talk.”

My head snapped to the right, and as I stared up the gangplank at the figure who had appeared on the deck of the barge my jaw dropped.

“Come aboard,” Sufferthorn commanded, looking down on me with cold eyes. “Your presence is required.”

I quickly snapped myself out of my shock, glanced once at the stallion who still had not moved before beginning up the gangplank. Once I set hoof on the deck I looked directly at Sufferthorn who was still looking at me with undisguised hatred.

“I thought you advised me not to cross paths with you again,” I reminded her bitterly. “And now you want to talk to me?”

“Hold your tongue!” Sufferthorn ordered. “I have no desire to talk to the likes of you… but the master does.”

With that she turned on the spot and began walking towards the door to the cabin while I was left to try and figure out what she meant by ‘master’. As I stood there I felt a gentle prodding in my back, and glanced back to see the stallion standing directly behind me, still looking at me with that passive expression. I jumped slightly, I hadn’t even heard him walk up the gangplank after me. It was clear he wanted me to follow after Sufferthorn, so rather than antagonise anypony further I did just that. As I walked up to the door where Sufferthorn stood, she threw it open, beckoning for me to go in first. As I walked into the dimly lit cabin, I heard both other ponies follow me closely before the door was shut.

The room was lit by an oil lamp that hung in the centre of the ceiling, its light revealed a very bare room, containing a single table with two chairs, and a ladder in one corner that led below deck. One of the chairs was empty, which I quickly guessed was for me while the other was occupied by the pony I assumed to be the master Sufferthorn was talking about. The unicorn stallion was grey all over, grey coat, grey mane, grey suit. The only things that weren’t grey were his red bowtie and circular spectacles that completely obscured his eyes.

“Welcome Miss Rarity,” the stallion greeted. “Please take a seat, there is a great deal to discuss.”

I briefly glanced behind me at the two other ponies who were both flanking the door, the stallion remained as blank as ever while Sufferthorn’s glare made it clear that I should obey this stallion’s command. At this point there was no getting out even if I wanted to, so the best thing for myself was to do as I was told, so I walked forward and sat myself down on the wooden chair opposite this new figure.

“Thank you for cooperating,” he said, giving me a sickening smile. “I really want this relationship of ours to get off to a good start.”

Maybe I was feeling particularly brave after I sat down, or I realised that there wasn’t much I could do to make my situation any worse so I might as well stick it to this guy.

“Considering my interactions with your two goons there,” I began, even as the rational part of me screamed to stop. “I’d say we’re off to a pretty bad start already.”

“Would you?” the stallion asked, not at all put off by my statement. “My mistake, I was sure that after Sufferthorn punished those stallions who assaulted you in Pivot, and Stranglethorn saved your life at Sweet Apple acres, you would be feeling more favourable to them.”

Stranglethorn? Was that the name of the stallion? It would make sense considering the wreath of thorns, but then why was his name so similar to…

“Yes, that’s right,” the stallion said as if reading my thoughts. “They are brother and sister, and my two most loyal agents.”

“Your agents?” I repeated, as everything began to piece together in my mind. “Wait, does that mean you’re…”

“Oh goodness, where are my manners?” the stallion cut in. “Miss Rarity, my name is Maverick; I am the leader of the Rebellion.”

I sat in silence as I tried to comprehend what was going on, I was sitting in a darkened room, speaking directly to the leader of the Rebellion while his Marshal and her brother stood guard. I think the one thing that really screamed out at me was, what have I gotten myself into?!

“There’s no need to worry Miss Rarity,” Maverick assured me, still talking in a voice that was practically dripping with caramel it was so sweet. “You’re in no danger here, we simply asked you to come here today so that we could talk.”

“Talk about what?” I asked, unable to hide my nervousness.

“About your recent exploits of course,” Maverick answered. “You’ve done quite a lot since you got back to Panchea, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Have you… been spying on me?” I asked, really panicking now.

“We never intended on watching you specifically,” Maverick replied. “But we had our eyes on all the ponies who returned from Equestria, you just happened to catch our attention. And from the sounds of things, we’ve caught your attention as well.”

“Hard not to,” I responded, trying to brush it off. “I mean, the Rebellion is pretty big at the moment, it’s only natural I’d hear about you.”

I tried to keep my voice calm, but I could feel anger bubbling up inside me. The Rebellion was at the heart of everything that was wrong with Panchea, and now I was sitting opposite one of the ponies who was directly responsible for all that. It was taking all my willpower not to scream in his face, but I think he knew that, hence what he said next.

“You don’t like us, do you?” he stated. “Why don’t you tell me why that is and maybe we can come to some sort of understanding?”

I bit my lip, it was tempting to let it all out there and then, but I was still wary of the two ponies standing behind me, one of which I knew was a professional killer.

“Where do I start?” I asked rhetorically. “How about what happened at Glean? That pony you had killed, I know what you did, I read the letter.”

“Yes, you did read the letter,” Maverick agreed. “Remind me who it was who helped you do that again.”

I quickly shut my mouth tight, realising I could end up putting Mashed Potato in danger if I outed him.

“Never mind, we know exactly who helped you translate it,” Maverick said after a moment of silence. “It doesn’t matter though. You read the letter, yes, but then you will also have read that we offered the innkeeper a chance to help us. Needless to say he refused…”

“So you killed him?!” I exclaimed, furious. “And for what? Who was this target that was so important it justified killing an innocent pony?”

“I’m afraid that is none of your concern,” Maverick said flatly. “Not yet at least, we’ll see how this meeting goes first. And while you may not like it, know that even with the war ended we are still living in dangerous times, times which require extreme actions to be taken for the good of the country.”

“Is that what sabotaging that crane in the woods was?” I asked in a cold voice as I glanced back at the Stranglethorn who still hadn’t reacted to anything that was being said. “For the good of the country?”

“Ah, that was an unfortunate accident,” Maverick said, sounding genuinely put off. “I can understand your thinking, but I can promise you that act of sabotage was performed weeks before your caravan arrived in those woods. We had lost control of that checkpoint to the Equestrian forces, Stranglethorn damaged the crane in order to set them back should they ever try to use it. Since they never did, the crane was left in its damaged state for when you arrived, like I said, it was an unfortunate accident.”

“Maybe less unfortunate accidents would occur if you weren’t so quick to destroy things just because the Equestrians might have got hold of them!” I snapped.

“Ah, you’re referring to the fire at Sweet Apple Acres,” Maverick said, grimacing at the thought. “Now that I can promise you was not our doing, the order had been given by Sufferthorn’s predecessor without our knowledge, it was one of the reasons he is no longer the Marshal of this Rebellion. He was responsible for similar incidents in the towns of Glean and Brine as a matter of fact, burning crops to keep them out of Equestrian hooves.”

“Well what about Pivot?!” I cut in. “You won the war, why the heck are you allowing Pivot to collapse under your regime?!”

“Oh come now, you know better than that Miss Rarity,” Maverick responded with a smirk. “We don’t have a regime and you know it, the Rebellion has no power as long as those who split from us continue to undermine us. You must know that the Liberators here in Mule are actively trying to break our hold over Pivot by destroying its economy.”

“Well I don’t see how you’re helping matter by keeping a corrupt pony in as mayor and using him to steal from the coffers,” I pointed out, that made Maverick flinch ever so slightly and I smiled at the knowledge of having won an argument.

“True…” Maverick said very slowly. “We haven’t been managing the Pivot situation as well as we could. We needed that money to help support our remaining forces and we needed Pen Pusher to stay in office so we could maintain control over the city. I’m not going to lie, they’re dirty tactics, but we’re running low on options. The Rebellion is losing strength fast, everyday troops either desert us or we’re forced to send them away due to… disgraceful behaviour. So we’re forced to take desperate measures to keep what remaining force we have together, for if we don’t the Liberators will have nothing standing between them and declaring a second war with Equestria, and that’s not even mentioning what the other divergent factions will do without us keeping them at bay.

“It was our main reason for having Stranglethorn eliminate the deserters who attacked Sweet Apple Acres,” Maverick continued. “They had been causing trouble down this way, and so long as they wore our armour it made our relationship with the Liberators, as bad as it currently is, even worse. No doubt you heard what they did to the bridge outside of Mule, if they had been allowed to terrorise this area much longer like that then the Liberators would no doubt have marched on Pivot and finished us off by force. So I had them cut down, you were probably going to use that as an argument against me, but I stand fully behind that decision.”

“Why are you so concerned about the Liberators?” I asked. “You went to war with Equestria just to get them out of this country; I figured you had no real love for them.”

“I never wanted a war with Equestria,” Maverick said solemnly, shaking his head. “I never even wanted the civil war to occur. The aim of the Rebellion was never to make enemies with Equestria; we always intended to remain allies with them. But if the Liberators go to war, then Equestria will never wish to ally with us.”

I was a little taken aback by that, I admit I never realised the Rebellion had intentions of forming relationships with Equestria after the war.

“So Miss Rarity,” Maverick said, regaining his composure after a long pause. “Are there any concerns I’ve failed to address?”

“Yeah, one,” I said in a neutral voice. “Why are you telling me this?”

Maverick smiled at that as he placed his forehooves together under his chin.

“Tell me Miss Rarity,” he began, his voice turning sickly sweet once more. “What are your views on the goals of the Rebellion?”

“I… never really thought about it,” I answered, not sure I would like where this line of conversation was going. “I guess I can understand why ponies here would want to be able to govern themselves, rather than Equestria ruling over them despite the massive distance. And yeah, a local government would probably be able to work more effectively since it would know more intimately the issues this country faces.”

“Now what do you think of the Liberators?” Maverick asked. “Knowing that their aims are quite similar to ours, having split off from the Rebellion to begin with, but that they wish to overthrow Celestia and colonise Equestria for themselves.”

I took a long sigh, knowing exactly where Maverick was going with this.

“I don’t agree with them at all,” I stated, knowing what I was resigning myself to.

“Now, you know that the Rebellion is currently struggling,” Maverick continued. “Ponies who I once considered to be my friends have betrayed me and formed opposing factions that now threaten to destroy everything the Rebellion was trying to achieve. We’re beginning to take decisive measures to ensure the safety of this country, but these measures I can only entrust to certain individuals whom I trust wholeheartedly. Sufferthorn and Stranglethorn have proven their loyalty to me and our cause time and time again, but the things that are to come, we can’t do alone. So I need to know, can I trust you among our number?”

“Maverick,” Sufferthorn began, almost in a growl. “We still can’t be sure that she’s not…”

“Keeping in mind,” Maverick said loudly, cutting off his Marshal. “That the things you do could help build a safer world for those you care about. Your family, the farmers from Sweet Apple Acres, those orphans in Pivot, they would all live better lives if you helped us finish what the Rebellion started. You could see to it that a war that was never supposed to happen, and all the death and tragedy that came along with it, was not in vain. So what will it be, Miss Rarity?”

I didn’t respond immediately, the offer echoed in my head and for the longest time I simply reflected on it in disbelief. Just that morning I had been trying to figure out what I was supposed to do with my life, and now this opportunity had just presented itself to me, but was it the right path for me? I wonder what my friends would think, those who had turned their backs on the Rebellion, Applejack, Hammerhead and Mashed Potato, would they hate me if I accepted Maverick’s offer. And who could even say that Maverick was telling the truth, as much as I prided myself in being able to read ponies I couldn’t be entirely sure that everything he had told me was genuine.

What if he really had given the order for Sweet Apple Acres to be burnt to the ground? What if he was taking money from Pivot, not out of any kind of necessity, but simply because he could? And what if he was telling the truth about everything? What if I really could help bring about some positive change, not just for the ponies I cared about, but for the country as a whole? That morning I had convinced myself that I couldn’t do anything on my own to fix things in Panchea, but what if I could…

“Maverick,” I said at long last. “Just call me Rarity, and what do you want me to do exactly?”

XVI - Infiltration

I never once stopped questioning my decisions, never once stopped wondering how it would all have changed if I had made different ones, never stopped wondering how it would all end if I carried on my current path. As I walked back through Mule, trying hard to look as if I wasn’t up to anything suspicious, I began questioning everything I’d done up to that point. I could have stayed in Equestria; we could have built new lives in Canterlot. I could have stayed at Sweet Apple Acres and worked to earn enough money to help Grass Snake and maybe one day bring my family over to join me.

I could have refused Maverick's offer and walked away, or more likely have my corpse thrown to the bottom of the Horseshoe Bay. As much as I was questioning my decision then, that doubt would only grow further down the line as I got dragged further into a life I had never expected to become a part of. I stopped once I reached the market square, the same one where I had spent my last moments with Applejack, from there I glanced up at the fort, looming over the city. As I steeled my nerves and checked around to make sure I wasn’t drawing the attention of any guards, I began forward once more, this time my thoughts drifting back to my mission details.

“We need you to infiltrate Fort Mule,” Maverick had told me. “It is the headquarters of the Liberators.”

“Infiltrate?!” I repeated in shock, although I’m not sure what I had been expecting. “Why me? Surely that’s the kind of thing you’d trust to one of these pair.”

“As capable as Sufferthorn and Stranglethorn are,” Maverick continued. “We are dealing with ponies who used to be our allies; they know that both of them are working for me. If they are seen then the Liberators will know we’re taking actions against them. You on the other hand, you’re an unknown. You’ve never associated with the Rebellion before so you can waltz right into the fort and it won’t matter who sees you.”

“Am I to take it the fort is still open to the public then?” I asked cautiously.

“Mostly yes,” Maverick replied. “Obviously there will be some restricted zones, and no matter where you go you’re liable to get stopped and asked what your purpose is.”

“So what will I tell them?” I pressed. “I’m a plumber? I don’t think they’ll believe that what with these weapons I’m carrying.”

“You can leave those here in the barge, I promise they’ll be safe,” Maverick assured me. “As for your alibi… I trust you’ll come up with something convincing.”

The Defence District was easily the smallest and most open of all the districts in Mule, consisting primarily of one large square in front of the fortress gates. Back before the war, this square used to serve as a nice place to take a walk or sit with an ice cream with Sweetie Belle or my old friends, now it appeared to be used as a training ground for all the new soldiers. There were three large squads doing drills in the square when I arrived, thankfully they left a path clear to the fort gates which stood open and where even more soldiers stood guard.

I wondered if I would be questioned simply for trying to get through the gates, Maverick hadn’t mentioned it so perhaps it wouldn’t be a problem until I was inside. The guards didn’t look too bothered with what they were doing, probably resentful at being posted outside in that heavy armour in this weather, much like the two mares we saw at the broken bridge. I realised it would be stupid to stand staring at the gate for too long as that would only draw attention to me, so I began walking forward thinking about what I would do once I was there.

It didn’t take long as it turned out, in a moment of inspiration so obvious I wanted to slap myself for not thinking of it sooner, I whipped out my sketchbook and the photos from it which I held out in front of my with magic. Once I got close to the gate I made sure to stand tall and walk with even steps, making sure not to rush, all while looking over the blank pages of my book and the family photos, pretending to be occupied with something very important. As I reached the gate I had to resist the urge to smirk as I walked right in without the guards giving me a second glance.

After all, if somepony looks like they belong somewhere you usually don’t question them. Once I was safely into the large, open entrance hall I returned my book and photos to my bag. Stopping in the centre of the hall I quickly glanced about; I knew my way around this place back when I used to live in Mule, since I ran my own business I had to make regular stops into the fort being that it acted as town hall. While the room remained almost entirely as I remembered it, I could tell it had work done in it sometime recently, perhaps it needed restoring after being damaged in the war or modifications had been made along with the extension to the fort.

As I made my ways to the stairs I thought back over the task I had been sent to accomplish.

“So assuming I get inside the fort in one piece,” I began. “What am I supposed to do here? Obviously I’m not making a donation.”

“No, you’re not,” Maverick replied calmly before nodding to Sufferthorn behind me.

“You will be looking for information,” Sufferthorn explained curtly, stepping forward and laying out a blueprint of the fort. “This is a map of the old fort, before they started construction on it. It’s the best we’ve got right now, although one of the things you’ll need to collect is an updated one that shows the layout of the extension and… any other areas they might have added.”

“A blueprint of the fort?” I repeated, looking it over. “Are you planning a siege on it?”

“We don’t know yet,” Sufferthorn replied. “But the blueprint isn’t our main concern; your objective is to uncover information on what the Liberators are constructing.”

“It’s pretty clear they’re making the fort bigger,” I pointed out a little condescendingly which earned me a glare from Sufferthorn. “It’s probably intended as a symbol of power or they need somewhere to hold their growing army.”

“Both of those things are likely,” Maverick agreed. “But we believe there is a third purpose.”

“Stone and wood aren’t the only materials that have been transported to the fort,” Sufferthorn continued. “Our agents have seen them transporting machinery in, and nothing about the extension on the fort suggest it’s being put towards that. We’ve discovered through various means that the Liberators are working on something much bigger than the fort, something top secret which we fear is something that will allow them to go to war with Equestria.”

“So you want me to find out what they’re building?” I queried. “That shouldn’t be too hard.”

“Weren’t you listening when I said it was top secret?!” Sufferthorn snapped. “You can’t just walk up to the front desk and ask to see what they’ve been working on. You’ll need to find a way into the office of one of the high ranking Liberators and see if there’s anything documenting what they’re up to.”

“So where are those offices at?” I asked, scanning over the blueprint.

“From what we’ve heard,” Sufferthorn began before slamming her hoof down on a certain point. “Third floor, left wing. Now we can tell you right now that section is most certainly restricted, the whole floor probably is.”

“And is there any pony in particular you think will have the information we’re looking for?” I asked.

“Actually,” Maverick began. “There is one pony who is almost guaranteed to have what we’re looking for…”

The second floor of the fort was all offices, but it was a public space, this was the area you were sent to if you had meetings with the various councils or departments. As I walked around I noticed that there were guards here too, although not that many, just half a dozen who patrolled up and down the halls very slowly. Some ignored me, others gave me a polite nod, and one actually stopped me and asked what my business was.

“I’m looking for the Department of Agriculture offices,” I lied, having seen the door earlier.

“It’s back this way, here I’ll take you,” they offered, leading the way back down the corridor.

Once we arrived at the door I quickly thanked them before walking up and knocking on the door, praying that the guard would leave before it was answered. To my dismay the guard stood and waited for me to get in, but neither did anypony come to the door.

“Funny,” I said frowning, while silently squealing with glee. “The lady downstairs told me to come here; I figured that meant somepony would be in.”

“Hang on,” the guard said, stepping forward and trying the door.

The door remained shut, the clicking indicating it was locked.

“Do you actually need to see somepony?” she asked, looking over at me.

“Well no I just had some files to drop off,” I replied casually, my heart racing as my mind began planning out my next steps very carefully.

The guard brought out her keychain and fished out the correct key; once the door was unlocked she opened it and led the way inside. I followed her in and made my way over to a desk at random while the guard waiting near the doorway for me to finish my business, I pulled out my book and photos a second time and began pretending to flip through them for what I looking for.

“Have you been working long today?” I asked over my shoulder.

“Not really,” the guard replied. “I’ve only been on duty since about eight this morning, although I’m not due to finish until ten at night.”

“Wow, that’s rough,” I commented. “I bet you’ll be glad to get back to the barracks, hang that armour up and get some rest.”

“I would, but we have to keep our armour in the armoury,” the guard explained. “It’s such a hassle, once we’re off duty we have to go all the way over the eastern block to leave our equipment back before traipsing all the way over to the western block to get some sleep.”

“You’d think they’d keep the two closer together,” I pointed out, glad she couldn’t see my smile with my back turned.

“They used to be, but then they started working on this extension,” the guard explained as I ripped out a page I had scribbled a load of nonsense over, left on the desk and made my way back over to the door. “But nothing about it is in any way practical, you have to wonder what the ponies in charge were thinking when they authorised all this.”

“I’d never have the patience for that,” I said as we walked outside the office and the guard locked back up again. “I’m just glad I only have to deal with this lot.”

“Yeah, I miss those days,” the guard said forlornly. “Anyway, will that be all?”

“Yes, thank you,” I replied in a tone more grateful than she knew. “Hopefully I’ll hear back from them soon, I’ll just see myself out now.”

The guard nodded and made to return to her post while I navigated back towards the stairs, returning to the entrance hall and making a beeline for the eastern wing of the fort. This was one of the new sections of the fort, although it wasn’t clear from the look of it, if only because they built it mainly from stolen materials. I noticed that the corridors I was walking down were getting considerably less crowded, sure that I was entering a restricted zone I began to creep forwards. Luckily the halls were lined with wide pillars that were perfect for hiding behind when any guards walked past.

After sneaking about for a short while, I came across a set of heavy double doors flanked by two guards. This I guessed was the armoury; it was after all the only actual room I had come across in the entire block. The fact that it was mostly corridors set out in a very particular pattern, most of which lead nowhere really should have alerted me sooner that something was wrong. Now I was faced with the problem of the two guards, these pair definitely looked more alert than most of the ones I had encountered previously, it made sense that they would put their best outside one of their most important locations.

I could always have walked up and bluffed my way through, claiming to be a new recruit, but I couldn’t be sure there wasn’t some sort of pass phrase. If there was and I didn’t know it, it could end very badly for me, so instead I opted for a distraction. Making sure I was concealed in the shadow of a pillar, I used my magic to pull out my pocket knife from my bag. Keeping it steady I peeked out from behind the pillar, waiting for the perfect opportunity to act. My blue aura stood out too much in these dark corridors, if I tried to move the knife at the wrong moment it would almost certainly be spotted and I would be caught out.

I’m not sure how long I waited, but eventually my moment came when both guards glanced off in the same direction, allowing me to fly the knife as fast as possible down one of the opposite corridors. Now that it was far away from me it didn’t matter if the guards spotted it, indeed that’s what I was aiming for. Using my magic I threw the knife back down the corridor, straight into the body of one of the guards. Of course it glanced off his breastplate, but the damage was done.

Both guards snapped into action, drawing their weapons and charging down the corridor I had thrown the knife from, their shields rose to protect them from any more projectiles. With them now running off in the opposite direction, my path was clear to the armoury door. Rushing forward I tested it only to find it locked, but I had been prepared for that which was why I had pre-emptively stolen the keys from the guard upstairs. Quick as I could I began testing one key after another, it hadn’t occurred to me that that guard might not even have a key to the armoury, but before I had time to panic over that possibility I got lucky with the fifth key I tested.

Once unlocked I darted inside and closed the door behind me, the armoury was very spacious, packed full of racks of armour and shelves of weapons. When I thought about how much was in this one room alone, and then how much was already being worn out and about, it really made me worry about the strength of the Liberators. It also made me realise just how strong the Rebellion had once been if the Liberators and the other factions had spawned from it, united it made sense that they had the power to challenge Equestria during the civil war.

I didn’t take a lifetime deciding what to wear like I was shopping for a dress for a high class function in Arclight, I just began grabbing pieces of armour and strapping them on. Luckily it was bulky enough that I could keep the rest of my clothes and bags on underneath, a decision I would regret much later on when the suit of armour became like an oven. Lastly I took a small mace and a helmet that would accommodate my horn, although the main feature of it was that it obscured almost all of my face, leaving only a narrow slip for me too peer out through.

Once I was suited up I turned and made my way back to the door, I could hear talking outside it so I knew the guards had returned. Taking a breath and making sure I appeared relaxed and in no way nervous or out of place, I strode forward and opened to door.

“Where the heck did you come from?” one of the gaurds questioned.

“From there,” I pointed out, gesturing at the armoury behind me. “Quite obviously.”

“I meant how did you get in there?” the guard specified.

“Well you two weren’t here when I came around,” I stated with a small shrug that barely showed what with my bulky armour. “I’m going to be late enough for my shift, I wasn’t about to wait for you two to dawdle back.”

“We were investigating a possible threat,” the guard retorted indignantly before shrinking slightly. “Although if you don’t mention to anypony that we left the door unguarded then we won’t tell anypony that you went in alone.”

“Deal,” I said before striding forward. “Now if you don’t mind the captain is going to get his nark on if I’m late for drills.”

That line had been completely improvised and I wanted to kick myself for it, I had no clue whether any of that information was falsifiable or not, like they might not even use that ranking system or even if they did the captain might not take drills. Luckily they didn’t bat an eyelid at my lie, appearing to take it at face value, so before I could do anything else that might screw myself over I carried on down the corridor. Once I had found my way back to the entrance hall, the corridors only just starting to bother me ever so slightly, I made my way up to the second floor once more.

On my first trip around here I had passed by the staircases that led to the third floor, but they all had a few guards standing at the top, looking very vigilant. I only hoped they wouldn’t question a fellow guard walking brazenly up the stairs, just like the guards at the gates hadn’t questioned a mare strutting into the fort while reviewing some ‘important documents’. As I reached the third floor landing, the guards glanced at me but didn’t say anything as I carried on my way down the hall, trying to figure out if I was in the left or right wing.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out a way to do so, using my magic I pulled out my compass from underneath my armour and held it in my hoof. Once it settled on north I was quickly able to deduce the correct way to go from what I remembered of the blueprint, right and left were a matter of perspective, and in this case the left wing was only on the left if you were facing the direction of the city, rather than the facing the fort itself, hence I knew it was on the eastern side of the fort. I knew roughly where the office I was looking for was, but as I entered the vague area I had to start reading the plaques on the door to narrow it down.

One by one I passed, until finally I reached my destination, the golden plaque emblazoned with the name…

“Typhoon,” Maverick said in a bitter voice. “Once one of my closest friends and associates, together along with our mutual friend we formed the Rebellion, growing it from three ponies in a university room in Arclight to a country wide movement.”

“He was a leader of the rebellion?” I repeated, quickly seeing where this was going. “So that now makes him…”

“Yes,” Maverick confirmed, nodding slowly. “Typhoon was the one who split away when we refused to join his mission in madness to conquer Equestria, he led the bulk of the Rebellion army astray and formed the Liberators, which he is now the leader of.”

“It is unquestionable that anything the Liberators are working on,” Sufferthorn picked up. “He will be managing personally; he was always one for micromanaging so we highly suspect that the most valuable information will be found in his office. We know the general area where his office will be, though we aren’t sure which room it is specifically. Getting to it and inside will be your concern however.”

“What if he’s inside the office?” I questioned. “He’ll hardly be alright with me coming and snooping through his desk.”

“If he is in the office,” Maverick began. “You’ll need to lure him out with a distraction or something, or convince him to go somewhere else if you’re feeling particularly brave.”

Now that I stood before Typhoon’s office, the moment of truth was upon me. If he was in his office I could present myself as a guard and weave some lie to get him to leave, and if he wasn’t in his office… I really doubt that guard was carrying a key to the leader of Liberators' office. Taking a deep breath, both to calm my nerves and to get some oxygen in my lungs as I was nearly suffocating in the stupid helmet, I reached up and rapped loudly on the door.

“Enter!” a voice called out, causing me to sigh with relief just before I entered.

Typhoon was reddish brown pegasus, with greying mane, wearing a full military uniform covered in medals. His office was small in floor space, but unusually tall, rising up at least one other floor. I knew the fort was four stories tall, although the first floor was very tall on its own, so that suggested that somewhere on the fourth floor there was no room because this one extended right up into it. Typhoon had been writing when I entered but now he had his quill down and was staring at me with cold eyes.

“What is it soldier?” he asked in a deep voice.

“Apologies sir,” I began, wondering if I should be saluting him or something. “But there’s a problem outside, two of the drill sergeants have got into a fight over the right way to exercise the units. One says to do it the usual way while the other wants to change things up a bit.”

“Change things up a bit?!” Typhoon bellowed, standing up and slamming his hooves down on the table. “What sort of puffed up pony thinks they know better drills than me? I did not spend days perfecting them so somepony else could walk in and change things behind my back.”

With that he walked around his desk and stormed out of his office, I made sure to keep close behind him until we were out into the corridor again. He seemed far too focused on what was allegedly happening outside that he was paying no attention to me, so as he thundered off down the hallway, I drifted back until I was outside his office once more. It was lucky Maverick had mentioned how he liked to micromanage, I had been thinking up that lie for a while after I saw the squads outside. Now that I was inside Typhoon’s office alone, I hurried about searching for something that could tell me what he was up to.

My first stop was the desk and all the papers that covered the top of it, I flitted through it all, scanning each item for a few seconds before discarding them and moving onto the next one. Everything on the desk seemed to be relating to the economy and trade with foreign nations, needless to say Port Mule wasn’t doing much trade with Equestria these days, or with the rest of Panchea, but they had increased exporting and importing goods with the southern countries, resulting in a massive influx of exotic products that had taken Mule by storm.

All interesting in their own rights, certainly shining a new light on how Mule was doing so well in the wake of the war, but nothing that related to what I had been asked to look into. There was nothing relating to the fort’s extensions or any sort of secret project, there wasn’t even anything that mentioned war with Equestria, not on the desk or in its drawers. I had already wasted so much time searching the desk, I was worried that Typhoon had already found out I was lying and would now be rushing back here to confront me about it.

In my panic I knocked an hourglass off the desk which hit the floor and smashed, my head snapped up as fear flooded my body. I had shut the door after myself which appeared to have blocked out the sound, but still I wasn’t going to be able to fix it before Typhoon returned. As I began to panic, my eyes started sweeping around the room for anything that might be able to fix my problem, when I noticed something on the desk that hadn’t been there before. It was a small, circular hole in the corner of the desk, within which was an even smaller red button.

For a moment I was curious how I missed it during my search before, but then it dawned on me that the hourglass had been concealing the hole. Without many options left to me, I used my magic to press the button and then braced myself should an alarm be set off or something that would equally ruin my mission. Instead I heard a hissing noise behind me, glancing around I saw a square section of tiled floor in the corner of the room had lifted up slightly, and was now rising along with the black cube beneath it.

My jaw dropped as whatever mechanism that caused it to rise ceased and the safe was left revealed. Wasting no time I hurried over and tugged the door open, thankful it didn’t require any combination or key. Inside was a positive goldmine of documents, the very first one I picked up being exactly what I was looking for when the words ‘war’ and ‘Equestria’ popped out at me. I read over several random documents quickly, the nature of the Liberators secret project becoming very clear to me. Taking all the information that appeared vital, as well as the updated blueprints Sufferthorn had hoped for, I stuffed the lot down my breast plate, slammed the safe shut and stood up.

If I’d had time I would have forged copies of the information so Typhoon wouldn’t know somepony had stolen from him, but the broke hourglass was already proof that I couldn’t fix in time. So I pressed the button a second time and as the safe lowered back into the ground I walked quickly to the door, opened and peeked out to make sure nopony was about before darting into the hallway and returning to the staircase down. As I walked through the second floor I subtly tossed the keys I had stolen behind an urn, if the guard found them again she would hopefully presume she had just dropped them.

It wasn’t until I was walking through the entrance hall, perhaps a little quicker than was wise, that things began to change. I saw a few guards running over to others; they would quickly explain something and suddenly all the guards would become more alert. Luckily… now that I think about it, pretty much every success I had during that mission was due to luck. Anyway, luckily I was able to get beyond the gates before any of the guards approached me, the last thing I needed was to be confined within the fort on actual guard duty. Once outside I made my way around the squads who had stopped their drilling while their commanding officers stood off to one side arguing amongst themselves.

I didn’t stop walking until I was beyond the square and back into the narrow streets of the Merchant District. Drifting into an alley I leant up against the wall and breathed a huge sigh of relief, levitating my helmet off so I could breathe properly. All the documents were safely stored underneath my armour, and once I ditched it somewhere I would put them in my bag and take them to Maverick. It was quite a nice feeling to think that my first mission had gone so successfully, particularly considering how risky it had all been.

As I was congratulating myself however, something caught my eye further down the alleyway. Glancing to my left I saw a figure step out the back door of a building, turn the collar of his white and blue coat up and begin walking down the alley in the direction away from myself. Everything about the stallion was so shifty, as if he were trying very hard not to be noticed or identified, but I had noticed him, and I also identified him before he was able to leave my sight.

“Feather Duster?”

XVII - Debrief

Feather Duster was clearly trying very hard not to be followed, taking the most circuitous route to his destination. Taking sharp, unexpected turns and constantly trying to mingle and lose himself in crowds. Unfortunately for him, I was pretty determined not to let him out of my sight, and the fact that I was still wearing the guard armour and had a certain look of determination about me, nopony dared stand in my way. I seemed to be getting pretty good at the whole spy thing already, whenever Feather Duster made to turn around I would quickly put on my helmet and stand still as if I were simply on guard duty.

We travelled all around the Merchant District, at one point I saw him noticeably knock into another pony, I could just picture something passing between the two of them as they did… or it might have been a clumsy accident brought on from him constantly glancing around rather than looking where he was going. As we exited the Merchant District and began traversing the Home District, I hoped he was nearing his destination, the streets here were less crowded and the number of guards fewer, my presence was less subtle and I feared I would get caught out soon.

Ever since I had started following him I wondered to myself what he was doing back here, he was supposed to have been on the way back to Equestria by now; he even said they would be leaving the day after our caravan departed from Daybreak. Something was definitely up here, if his behaviour wasn’t suspicious enough to someone who was paying attention to him, I knew who he was and that his mere presence raised many questions. The Siren had sailed to Daybreak Landing specifically because Panchea-Equestria relationships were rocky, Hammerhead had made us promise not to say who had aided him and his men for the same reasons, and yet now Feather Duster was here in Mule, the last place an Equestrian citizen would want to be caught in.

I was dragged back to the present when Feather Duster finally stopped outside a random house, and quick as lightning he dashed inside. If I had taken my eyes off him for even a second I might have missed it and thought he had run further down the street. The house was nothing special, a small two story apartment, clearly quite cheap by the look of it, the kind of abode that got rented out to sailors spending the night in town before setting off the next day. The curtains were all shut, making it impossible to see in even as I casually walked past the house and gave a nonchalant glance its way. I stopped beside the front door; there was no window in it so I wasn’t at risk of being seen. Removing my helmet I pressed my ear up against the door, I could hear muffled sounds coming from within, but the door was just too thick to make anything out.

For a brief second I considered putting my helmet back on and knocking on the door… or maybe kicking it in, I could pretend it was a raid. Before I made any rash decisions however, I remembered the vital documents stuffed down my breastplate that I was supposed to be returning to Maverick down at the harbour. As much as I wanted to know why Feather Duster was in Mule when he was supposed to be half way back to Equestria, I decided to leave it for another day. Turning away from the house I began making my way to the Harbour District, my thoughts never leaving Feather Duster or the house he was now hiding in.

As I arrived at the water’s edge, still with some distance to go before I arrived at the barge, I made my way under a nearby jetty where I began taking off Liberator armour. Once I had it all removed and piled up beside me, I began taking each individual document and blueprint, flattening them before folding them properly and storing them away in my satchel. I then turned to the armour, I didn’t trust leaving it here in case somepony came across it and it raised some awkward questions, so using my magic I lifted each piece up and levitated them out over the water surface before dropping them and allowing them to sink.

Making sure I wouldn’t be spotted, I climbed back onto the jetty and started making my way along the harbour to the where the barge was waiting for me. This time I spotted the red barge before I saw Stranglethorn sitting at the base of the gangplank, puffing on a pipe. He didn’t glance my way as I walked up towards him; no doubt he had again seen me long before I saw him. Once I reached him however, he gave me a small nod in greeting.

“I’m, uh… done,” I informed him, unsure if there was some kind of lingo I should use.

Again he nodded, taking his pipe out and adding some ground up herbs into the chamber before offering it to me.

“Um, no thanks,” I said as polite as I could manage. “I don’t smoke.”

“It’s not tobacco,” Sufferthorn said, appearing once again at the top of the gangplank. “Those are special herbs; they calm you down and help focus your senses. Good to smoke a little before and after a job. Now get in here before you draw too much attention our way.”

She strode away into the cabin, leaving me and Stranglethorn where we were. As I looked back down I saw that he was still holding it my way, his expression still as passive as ever.

“It’s okay, maybe next time,” I told him.

He gave me another nod, while it was no different from the previous nods he had given me this one felt like it was conveying approval. He put the pipe in his own mouth before standing up and gesturing with a foreleg for me to lead the way. Walking up the gangplank I made my way over to the cabin door which was still open from when Sufferthorn went in, Stranglethorn remained a few feet behind me, moving silently.

Once inside I found Maverick sitting waiting for me, Sufferthorn at his side. One looked pleased to see me, the other less so, no prizes for guessing which. I took the seat opposite Maverick without waiting to be invited, which only seemed to make him smile wider. Stranglethorn came and stood at my shoulder, mirroring his sister.

“Welcome back,” Maverick greeted in his usual sickly sweet voice. “You’ve caused quite the stir, although Typhoon is keeping very quiet about what has actually happened, whatever you did must have really worried him.”

“Well I got the information you wanted,” I explained. “I had hoped to make copies of it so he wouldn’t know it had been stolen, but some things happened and I wasn’t left with much time to get out and back here.”

“Of course, you got the information and that’s the main thing,” Maverick assured me. “After all this was only your first mission, we can’t expect absolute perfection.”

“You took a little longer than we expected,” Sufferthorn told me in a calm voice, only the slightest hint of scorn. “After the guard were put on high alert we figured that if you were coming back at all it would be soon after that, did you make a detour or something?”

“I didn’t want to come straight here,” I explained, I had already decided ahead of time I wasn’t going to tell them about feather Duster until I knew more about why he was here myself. “I didn’t want anyone tailing me back here so I took a longer route to throw any would be stalkers off.”

“The mare’s a natural!” Maverick declared, laughing slight while Sufferthorn simply quirked her eyebrows. “Now Rarity, let’s debrief you, tell us everything that occurred from the moment you left this morning.”

“Don’t leave anything out,” Sufferthorn warned. “We’ll be using this to gauge your performance and how useful you’ll be to us in the future.”

I told them every little detail, from how I got passed the front gates to stealing the keys, getting a disguise from the armoury and finally getting rid of Typhoon from his office. By the time I had reached that part Maverick was looking ecstatic and even Sufferthorn seemed impressed, although she clearly didn’t want to express it.

“Most brilliant,” Maverick complimented. “So that was the point you found the information?”

“It wasn’t as easy as just lifting the documents off his desk,” I explained. “It was completely by accident that I discovered a secret safe where it was all stashed away inside. I looked over it just to make sure it was the right stuff, and I’m afraid to say that…”

I pulled all the files and documents from my bag and began laying them out over the table between us.

“This is a lot worse than you might have realised,” I finished as I opened the second blueprint I had stolen and laid it out for all three to see.

Maverick’s smile vanished and the colour drained from his face as he looked down at the design, Sufferthorn’s eyes widened in shock, only Stranglethorn remained calm at what I had shown them. I had stolen two blueprints, one showing the entire fortress; including the massive underground complex that nopony had been aware of, the second showed what Typhoon was having built down there.

“It’s called the Dreadnaught,” I explained, having learnt as much from the various documents I had taken. “All the information is in that blueprint and those files, it’s a huge ship that can fly through the air and can carry the Liberators army and siege weapons straight over the ocean and Equestria to Canterlot itself in a mere week.”

“Impossible,” Sufferthorn breathed.

“Siege weapons?” Maverick repeated, looking up at me.

“Apparently the Dreadnaught isn’t the only thing they’ve been working on, although it is the main one,” I continued. “From what I was able to read in the brief time I had, they’ve been taking the same technology that they’re using to make the Dreadnaught and are applying it to conventional siege weapons such as ballistae and catapults. It’s all being built beneath the Fort, and the modifications they’ve been making on the Fort itself are all designed so that it can open up and allow the Dreadnaught to rise out of the ground.”

“This is insane,” Sufferthorn said, looking through the documents to confirm what I was saying. “How is it possible for them to make such leaps in technology in such a short space of time?”

“I have no idea,” I admitted. “There might be something I overlooked in those papers, now that you have them you have all the time in the world to read over them and figure out exactly what we’re up against.”

“I always thought Typhoon was mad,” Maverick said, still staring at the diagram of the airship in both fear and awe. “But with this kind of arsenal at his disposal he might actually pose a real threat to Equestria.”

“You’re not going to side with him now that you think he’ll win are you?!” I exclaimed in disgust.

“Of course not!” Maverick replied indignantly. “I’m saying the opposite; we need to put a stop to this before he puts his plans into action.”

“With these plans for the fort we might be able to organise a sabotage mission,” Sufferthorn suggested, bringing the fort blueprints to the top of the pile. “This underground facility seems to cut into the city sewers. Strangle, do you think you can head down there and look for a weak point we can enter through?”

Stranglethorn nodded and within a second he was gone and the cabin door was closed again.

“Is there anything you need me to do?” I asked, leaning forward while Maverick and Sufferthorn began busying themselves with the documents.

“You’ve done more than enough,” Maverick told me. “Seriously, you did an amazing job. You can head down below the deck and get some rest or go outside, although keep your head down if you do that. When we know what our next move is we’ll let you know.”

“I’ll head out for a bit then,” I replied, standing up and making my way over to the door.

Once outside I let out a long, shaky breath. It wasn’t even late afternoon and I was already exhausted from the day’s events, the idea of going below deck for some sleep was tempting but I needed some food first. As I made my way out of the Harbour District on a quest to find a café and the left over adrenaline drained from my system, the fear began to return, the same fear I had felt when I was in Typhoon’s office looking at the diagram of the Dreadnaught for the first time.

The Liberators were intent on conquering Equestria, and if those documents were anything to go by, very soon they would have the means to do so. That airship would travel over the sea and the mainland of Equestria and be at Canterlot before anypony could try and stop it, and then war would be brought to Equestria’s doorstep. Maybe they would win, maybe they would lose, the only thing that mattered is that hundreds, maybe thousands of ponies would die in the conflict, and my family could be among them.

I knew if Maverick asked me to help stop the Dreadnaught, that I wouldn’t hesitate in doing so, but I wouldn’t be doing it because I hated the Liberators or because I was loyal to the Rebellion. I would help destroy that flying monstrosity because I would do the same to anything that posed a threat to my family, simple as that.

I wasted as much time in town as possible, nervously anticipating my next summons and lowering my head to my plate any time a patrol of guards passed by the café I was sitting at. The summons however did not come, so after a couple hours when I could no longer make excuses to keep using a table I made my way back through town to the harbour. It turned out that I had greatly underestimated the time it took to put together a mission of this sort, I should have known better than to think it would be something spontaneous and by extension reckless.

Maverick, Sufferthorn and Stranglethorn were all busy around the table when I entered, going over the different documents, scribbling notes and arrows over the maps and arguing over approaches. The former two leapt up briefly when I entered but relaxed when they saw it was only myself, seeing that they were busy I decided to make myself scarce and take up Maverick’s earlier offer of getting some rest below deck. It was hard to sleep what with the muffled voices over my head and the loud one inside, but eventually I was able to drift off and the next thing I knew I was being shaken awake.

It was a little bit disorienting to wake up and the first thing you see is the face of a professional killer, but what with everything that had happened in my time here, I was beginning to take those sorts of things in my stride. Obviously he didn’t say anything, but his eyes looked directly into mine before flicking briefly up at the ceiling. I knew what he was indicating, so as he backed off I stood up and began getting ready. Stranglethorn went ahead up the ladder while I threw on the rest of my clothes and strapped on my satchels.

As I went to follow him, I opted to carry my weapons behind me rather than equip them in case this mission too required a more subtle approach. Once I was in the cabin I found everypony in the same places they were in last night, but this time without the frantic planning or discussions. Maverick was looking over some things when I approached the desk, but Sufferthorn glanced up at me from where she was leaning.

“Have you got a plan?” I asked, trying to be civil towards her.

“We do, but you needn’t concern yourself with it,” she replied before turning her attention back to the desk. “You can go back to bed if you want.”

“What?!” I exclaimed. “No, I want in on this mission.”

Both of them looked up at me in surprise, although Sufferthorn looked more annoyed than anything.

“Look Rarity,” she snapped back. “You did great yesterday, I’ll admit that, but when we sent you in there we had no idea the Liberator situation had escalated this much. This mission is far too important to entrust to a rookie, capable as you may appear.”

“I can help,” I insisted. “I want to help.”

“There will be other missions in the future, but right now you need to…” Sufferthorn began before stopping midsentence.

I raised an eyebrow in confusion, following Sufferthorn’s gaze over my shoulder at Stranglethorn who had moved and was now leaning up against the door. He was giving his sister a look, not any look in particular but it seemed to mean something to her judging by what she said next.

“Are you serious?!” she exclaimed. “You think we should let her help with this one?”

I opened my mouth to question how she got all that from one blank look, but the smarter part of my brain told me to shut up and let him help me. Stranglethorn gave her another look which she examined silently for a moment before continuing.

“Are you serious?” she said again, but this time the edge had left her voice. “Well… I guess if you really believe that, then it changes matters.”

Stranglethorn nodded once and his sister gave a slightly frustrated sigh before looking back up at me.

“It looks like you have Strangle’s vote of confidence,” she told me. “So you really want to help with this one? Then sit down, shut up and listen, we don’t have a lot of time to get you up to speed and you are not going into this unless you are one hundred percent clear on what the plan is.”

XVIII - Assault On The Dreadnaught

Sufferthorn and I walked through the streets of the Merchant District; she walked rapidly and kept her eyes focused dead ahead while her ears swivelled back and forth nonstop. In all my interaction with her she had never worn any clothing or symbols of authority, nothing that would imply she was such a high ranking member of the Rebellion, not that it was necessary when everypony knew your face. It was probably for that reason, among others that she was draped in a heavy leather cloak, completely obscuring every inch of her body. On top of that her face was now powder white and her mane a vibrant blue thanks to a temporary dye job, although it did little to hide the scowl she wore.

We walked in silence, which bothered me. I had no desire to make conversation with Sufferthorn, she had made it pretty clear that she didn’t like me and I wasn’t exactly fussed on her, but I thought that we might draw less attention to ourselves if ponies looked over and saw what they thought were two friends chatting during their morning stroll. What to talk about was another matter entirely, I didn’t need to know anything about the mission and I knew it would be foolish to discuss it beyond the confines of the barge. Instead I decided to ask her about something that had been on my mind for a while now.

“So… Baby Blue,” I began casually, remembering her code name. “I’ve been meaning to ask about your brother.”

Sufferthorn shot me a glare which was the signal to any sensible pony to back off.

“Is there…” I continued regardless, trying to find the most tactful way of putting my question. “A reason he can’t… you know, talk?”

“Yes, there is,” she replied in a curt voice, turning her eyes forward once more.

I continued to watch her in the hopes that she would continue, she clearly had no intentions of doing so but when she caught my expectant look she gave a low growl before speaking again.

“He had his tongue cut out!” she snapped.

“Oh…” I uttered, I could feel the blood draining from my face. “Was it during a…”

“Yes it was, now drop it,” she confirmed, predicting I was going to say ‘mission’.

“So how can you understand him?” I carried on, clearly not being a sensible pony myself. “Earlier it was like you two were having a whole conversation and all he had to do was look at you.”

“He is my brother,” Sufferthorn reminded me through gritted teeth. “We have been together our entire life, it doesn’t matter if he can speak or not, I know what he would say if he could.”

“You two must be close,” I pointed out. “I have a sister myself, although I don’t know if I could ever do what you two do.”

“We’re here!” Sufferthorn exclaimed, cutting me off and drawing my attention to the manhole cover in the deserted alleyway we had wandered down. “And not a moment too soon.”

Crouching down, Sufferthorn pulled a crowbar out from under her cloak and immediately cracked the manhole open, the heavy metal disc posing absolutely no challenge to her. Once she had it shifted she gave me one look to indicate that I would be taking the lead. Kneeling down, I slid myself into the narrow hole and began my decent into the sewer tunnel bellow. The metal rungs that were fixed directly into the damp brick walls only went down so far, leaving me to leap off at the bottom and land knees deep in freezing, rushing water… at least I told myself it was only water.

“Oh lord,” I muttered in disgust as the stench hit me.

“Quit your whining,” Sufferthorn commanded, leaping down beside me. “You’re the one who wanted in on this so desperately.”

I didn’t respond, as much as I wanted to bite back. Instead I lit up my horn, illuminating the semi-circular tunnel around us for several metres. Sufferthorn pulled her cloak off, throwing it up to hang on the lowest ladder rung as an indicator of where we entered from. Beneath it she was wearing a tight fitting, black combat suit, decked up in leather straps and sheaths bearing various tools and weapons, including my own sword and daggers which she tossed over to me. Catching them with magic I began strapping them on while Sufferthorn reached into her bag and drew out a spherical object.

“Here you go,” she said passing me the first one while she fished out two more.

I took the small bomb in my magic and examined it for a moment before storing it away in my own bag. It was very small, not much bigger than an apple and seemed to be made from clay, or at least the outer shell was, I couldn’t begin to fathom the chemical mixture inside. Once they were all in my bag I looked back to her as she began to explain how to use them.

“Very simple, just throw them with enough force,” she explained. “They’ll go off almost as soon as they break open, so make sure you’re nowhere near it when it does. The blast radius isn’t huge so don’t expect these to take down the Dreadnaught on their own, if we’d had more time we could have obtained something more sophisticated… and destructive, but right now they’re all we’ve got so use them strategically. Also be very careful while they’re in your bag, if they break in there while you’re wearing that thing you will die.”

I suppressed the urge to gulp, not wishing to show any weakness to Sufferthorn. It was times like that I wished I was more adept at magic, I’m sure there was some kind of spell that could have created a force field to protect them while they were on my person. As it was however I would just have to be especially careful and not get myself blown to pieces.

“As you know I will not be going in with you,” she continued as we began walking down the tunnel, the water sloshing around our legs. “If you can manage to do this quickly and quietly, great. I’m only here as back up if shit hits the fan and we end up having to fight our way to the object. Are you clear on what you need to do?”

“Yes,” I answered firmly.

“Do you remember the layout of the facility?” she asked.

“Yes,” I repeated, feeling a little bit like a soldier.

“Do you want to pussy out yet?” she asked, her eyes narrowing slightly.

“No sir!” I said, the reply slipping out before I could help it.

We both stopped dead in our tracks, Sufferthorn looking as awkward as I felt. I could feel myself growing red when she next spoke.

“Let’s just pretend that didn’t happen,” she said, not meeting my eye as she continued forward.

It only took us five minutes to reach our destination through the sewers, which I was immensely glad for considering there was only so much of the smell I could take before passing out. Our destination turned out to be a dead end, or at least that was what it looked like to anypony who didn’t know that the brand new underground extension of the fort lay just behind it. Sufferthorn strode up to the wall and mounted the stone shelf that allowed her to stand free of the churning water, I was very glad to join her there where I resisted the urge to look at my boots and see how filthy they were.

Sufferthorn immediately began busying herself with searching for a weak point in the wall, I simply watched on without a clue what it was she was actually looking to find. After a short moment however she stood up, brought out her crowbar a second time and began driving it into a particular part of the wall, steadily shipping away at it until a small hole had been formed. Once done she drew a fourth bomb, the last one she had left after giving me the other three, and placed it snuggly into the newly formed hole.

“Stand clear,” she ordered just before dropping a small metal disc onto the stone shelf.

We both hopped off back into the water, which made me grimace, and backed up a few metres before turning to face the wall once more. Giving me a quick look and a nod, I turned my attention to the disc she had left on the ground. Dimming my horn, I began to charge up my magic, not for any fancy spell or anything, just for a quick magical discharge fired straight into disc. Once zapped by the blast of magic, the disc lit up blue, the same colour as the magic I had just pumped into it. A wave of blue burst from the disc and spread out, creating a small dome of magic around it which began steadily shrinking even once it was fully formed.

“Anything?” Sufferthorn asked.

Maverick had explained this life detect trinket earlier, so I knew that only I could see the magic it was releasing, and would therefore have to relay any information to Sufferthorn.

“Yes, two,” I reported, seeing the blue outlines of the ponies clearly through the solid wall. “They’re standing still behind the wall.”

Sufferthorn nodded, it confirmed what we they had figured from the documents. Typhoon knew the sewers provided possible entry points and had mentioned in one of his letters about posting guards by them. Sufferthorn drew the small crossbow she had strapped to her back, already loaded with a single bolt, the only one she needed. Pointing it directly at the wall, she held steady, waiting for the moment to let it fly. I had lost track of time myself, but she seemed calm and patient, and sure enough after only a few minutes of waiting and aiming we could hear the distant rumbling.

The noise quickly became deafening as the water levels around our legs began to rise higher, before the sewer levels could finish replenishing, Sufferthorn took her shot. As intended, the bolt hit the bomb and wall was blasted apart, but the sound was almost completely drowned out by the activity all around us. Without hesitating a moment longer lest we be swept away in the much stronger flow, we hurried forwards and mounted the stone shelf once more, striding through the newly formed passage way into the underground facility of Fort Mule.

The two guards I had detected lay against the opposite wall, hardly moving, their heavy armour seemed to have protected them from the blast and the shower of bricks. Luckily the room we found ourselves in was deserted beyond the pair of unconscious ponies, while Sufferthorn busied herself with them I made my way over to the door and peeked out. The next corridor was empty, so without waiting for Sufferthorn to remind me I stepped out and closed the door behind me, it was time to get this sabotage mission underway.

The facility was built similarly to the corridors of the main fort, mainly constructed from brick but also with the addition of metal supports columns every few metres. The corridor was thankfully empty, which we had expected since the documents I had stolen indicated that very few Liberators even knew of the underground's existence, and therefor they didn’t have many soldiers they could put on guard duty down here, although the ones they did were surely the most loyal to the Typhoon’s cause. I darted as quietly as I could down the corridor, pressing myself flat against the wall when I reached the first door I needed to enter through.

The doors down here were all heavy bulkheads that took a considerable amount of force to open, they were also difficult to hear through, but since I only had the one life detect trinket, pressing my ear up against it was my only option. I could hear various muffled noises, hissing and grinding, it sounded like there was a steam train inside. Beyond the strange noises I could just about make out the faint sound of voices, only two at a guess but there could be more just not saying anything. I had memorised the map to the best of my abilities, I knew there were alternate routes to my destination, but this one was the most direct.

I hadn’t been told to avoid ponies, the exact opposite in fact, there was a reason I had been required to bring my weapons with me this time. Taking a deep breath, I charged up my magic once more and once I was prepared I released it straight at the door. The force was enough to smash the door wide open, allowing me to sprint in and head butt the only guard in the room who had been unfortunate enough not to be wearing his helmet at the time. There were three other ponies in the room, but they were all wearing blue overalls and cowered away from me whenever I looked their way.

The room was a small workshop according to the blueprint, and it certainly appeared to be, even if I couldn’t name a single one of the machines I could tell just from looking that they were busy modifying parts for the Dreadnaught or one of the other siege weapons. These ponies were probably just technicians, hired to do a job, nothing more. Rather than buck then into unconsciousness as Sufferthorn had suggested I do earlier to anypony I encountered, I reached into my bag and pulled out several cable ties.

“Sorry to have to do this to you all,” I began, pulling out my sword and indicating with it for them all to move over to the wall. “I’m just going to tie you up and then I’ll be on my way, you won’t be hurt and I’m sure somepony will rescue you all later.”

None of the three technicians argued as they lined up against the wall, their backs to me. I was lucky none of them were unicorns, otherwise tying them up would have been a complete waste of time. Once they were all lying on the ground, incapable of moving and spread out enough that they couldn’t free one another, I turned to one of the noisier machines. While I had no idea what it was doing with the sheets of metal that were being funnelled into it, the pistons on it were making quite the racket. Reaching down I turned the control dial up to its maximum, the pistons began pumping even faster and the noise they were creating would drown out any calls for help the technicians might try to make.

Now that I was done in that workshop, I made my way to a second door in the corner opposite where I had entered from. There was another exit, a large shutter which I knew would take me straight to the main floor of the factory where I would find the Dreadnaught, but I had one other stop to make before I made my way there. Beyond the door was a stairwell, the steps themselves being made from sheets of steel mesh which clanged loudly beneath my boots no matter how quietly I tried to ascend. Once I was at the top, I listened at the door and found the next room to be mercifully silent.

Opening the door slowly this time, I peeked through the gap to confirm that this room was indeed deserted. Edging in I found myself inside a small warehouse like room, stacked from floor to ceiling with crates. As I trotted through the narrow walkways between the crates, I glanced at the different labels on them, they contained various items from nuts and bolts to jars of chemicals. Not wasting any time I made my way to the next door but froze as it began to open from the other side. I jumped behind a crate just as a guard backed up into the room, dragging a trolley behind him.

He walked right down the corridor, muttering something to himself as he looked for a particular crate. He seemed busy with trying to find whatever he had come in for, I figured I could slip out through the still open door without him noticing, I was wrong it turned out. Just as I reached the door I heard him shout out behind me, I spun around just in time to see him charging towards me, drawing a metal baton. I rolled to the side, avoiding his swing and ending up smacking myself into the side of another crate. A little bit dazed, I scrambled to my hooves and ran for it as he took another swing at me.

I ended up back where I had entered from, facing the guard as he made his careful approach, weapon raised. I drew my sword with magic, and idea springing to mind as I recalled my fight with the stallion who had tried to capture Applebloom. Just as intended, he didn’t notice the crate just above his head that was also enveloped in my blue aura and was slowly wiggling its way off the stack. To my dismay he glanced up just in time to see the crate coming down and sprang forward out of harm’s way, the silver lining was that he ended up flat on his stomach a mere metre in front of me.

I closed the door behind me, peering in one last time to make sure the unconscious body was out of sight. I was on high alert as I made my way down the corridor; I only had two more rooms to pass through before I reached my first objective. When I reached the first room I found the door already open, but was surprised to see it deserted. The room was some kind of office with a large conference tale dominating the floor; it was littered with various scraps of paper and plans. The door at the end of the office was also open and I could see the next staircase through it.

I made straight for it, but stopped in my tracks when my curiosity got the better of me. On the wall to my left was a long window that stretched from one end of the room to the other, it was shielded by a metal shutter, but the controls to raise it up were right here on the sill. Just like the last shutters in the workshop, these ones opened straight out to the factory floor. I had of course seen the Dreadnaught in the designs I had stolen, but I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. Walking back to the centre of the room, I turned to the shutter and flicked the switch to raise it.

A huge proportion of the underground facility was just the main factory where everything was being constructed, the workshops, laboratories and storage rooms around the sides were only a small fraction of the extension to the fort. As a result the factory itself was colossal, bigger than the original Fort Mule, perhaps even bigger than it with its above ground extensions. So when you consider how massive the room was, it should give you some idea how daunting the Dreadnaught was that it almost filled the entire space.

My jaw dropped, my eyes widened and I’m pretty sure my heart stopped beating for a second or two. The Dreadnaught had appeared fearsome in the blueprints, but nothing could ever have prepared me for the reality of what I was looking up at. It really did resemble a giant boat with regards to shape, although it would be a boat that was made from metal, and instead of masts and sails it had four stubby wings, two on each side with propellers embedded in them. I was on the third level from the lowest point of the facility, and even then I had to crane my neck to see the top of the beast.

The Dreadnaught was clearly unfinished; the side I could see still had large gaps which dozens of ponies were currently working on patching up with cranes and cherry pickers. The holes in the hull did give me a convenient look into the interior of the ship, and while it’s deck was probably three times the area of the Siren, it was much deeper resulting in around four floors below the deck for loading troops and siege weapons into. Speaking of which, if the factory wasn’t already packed with the Dreadnaught, it definitely was when you took into account the dozens of machines that were assembled on the factory floor.

There were cannons, catapults and ballistae just for starters, all mounted on wheels. One machine that caught my gaze was something that resembled a metal canoe with stiff wings; there were about a dozen of those in the area I could see. I wondered if there were maybe some already loaded on board the Dreadnaught, the ones I could see were already enough to wage a very one sided war, but the idea that there could be more hidden just out of sight really scared me. Finally I looked up at the ceiling, the thin divide between this facility and the fort above. I could see the mechanisms from this side, the metal arms that would tear the fort asunder and allow the Dreadnaught to ascend into the skies over Mule before beginning its journey across the ocean to Equestria.

Tearing my gaze away from the horrors of the factory, I flipped the switch and began quickly making my way out of the office before the shutters were even fully down. The stairs I came to brought me much higher than the previous ones, I guessed I was at least two more floors up from where I was. It made sense as the foreman’s office would need to have the best view of the Dreadnaught. The next room I arrived in was another office, although the design of it made it look like it belonged above ground. It looked like a secretary’s office, although the idea that they would need one down here was a bit bizarre, but it did serve as an antechamber for the foreman’s office, the door to which was lying open.

I could hear voices in the office beyond, or more precisely I could hear one voice talking over the other one. Crouching down, I crept as quietly as I could towards the open door, peeking around the door frame. One of the ponies was a middle-aged stallion with an olive coat and a receding grey mane, he was wearing a white lab coat and delicate spectacles, I guessed he must have been the foreman. The other pony was no stranger to me; I only had to see his military uniform to know it was Typhoon.

“What you’re asking me to do…” the foreman began in a distressed voice, trying to find the right words. “It is impossible! We would need a monze at ze very least.”

“You have one week!” Typhoon bellowed back at him.

While the two were focused on each other, I snuck into the room and tucked myself under the foreman’s desk so I could no longer see either of them.

“Impossible!” the foreman repeated, he had a strange accent I never heard before. “You aren’t listening to me; we can’t do it in zat lengz of time.”

“Then just do whatever you can do!” Typhoon exclaimed. “It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be able to take off and stay in the air long enough for us to reach Equestria. Our enemies know what we’re planning, they infiltrated my office just yesterday and stole all the plans, it’s only a matter of time before they strike this factory and everything we’ve worked on will have been for nothing. We must make our move first!”

“We will do our best,” the foreman began in a calm voice. “But if zis ship goes down in the middle of ze ocean you will lose everysing.”

“Then you had better do more than your best,” Typhoon replied in an obviously threatening manner.

I could just imagine the foreman shrinking beneath the angry pegasus commander. Before he could respond however I heard the rush of hoofsteps and somepony come into the room, panting loudly.

“Sir, we have a problem,” he began breathlessly.

“What is it soldier?” Typhoon questioned, I could hear the faint worry in his voice.

“The fort is being attacked!” the soldier replied in a panicked voice. “It appears to be just one pony, but he’s decimating our forces.”

Typhoon swore loudly and I felt the desk I was hiding under shudder at he smashed his hoof down on it.

“You have one week,” Typhoon reminded the foreman. “Make this happen or I will find somepony else who can.”

With that he stormed out of the room, the soldier in tow. After a short moment of waiting for Typhoon’s hoofsteps to fade away into the distance, the foreman let out a shuddering breath before falling to the ground, that was when I made my move. Stepping out from under the desk, I drew my sword and pointed the tip of the blade right between the pony’s eyes and I stood up straight in front of him.

“Not a sound,” I warned in a low voice that I hoped sounded threatening.

He stared up at me with wide, fearful eyes, his mouth moving but no sound coming out.

“Y… you…” he managed at last. “You are ze one who stole zee plans? You are zee enemy of zat madman?”

I hesitated at that, could it be he was no real ally of the Liberators?

“Are you a Solar?” he asked, almost eagerly.

“Solar?” I repeated, confused. “No, I’m with the Rebellion.”

“Maverick?!” he exclaimed suddenly, his eyes lighting up. “Please you must get me out of here.”

“I’m here to destroy the Dreadnaught,” I replied sternly.

“Of course, of course,” he said hurriedly. “I can help you with zat, and in return you take me to safety, yes?”

“You would betray Typhoon?” I asked warily, to which the foreman spat on the ground.

“Zat man is a monster, and a maniac to boot,” he gave off. “Please, you have to believe I never wanted to help him with zis. I sought it was just a normal job, I didn’t know what I was getting into.”

I considered what he was saying for a moment before lowering my sword and allowing him to stand up.

“Who are you?” I asked curiously.

“My apologies Miss,” he began in a shaky tone. “My name is Cogs, I was a professor at Arclight University… until I was let go.”

He injected quite a lot of bitterness into his voice at those last words; I quickly guessed he must have been fired.

“I knew your leader, Maverick,” he continued. “He and I were good friends.”

“So why didn’t you go work for him?” I asked. “Why choose the Liberators?”

“My dear I never chose to join ze Liberators,” he insisted. “I came to Mule under zee pretence of getting into teaching. I had been lied to, and once I was here zey would not let me leave, not until I built them…”

He drifted off, turning to the shuttered window identical to the one in the downstairs office. Flicking the switch, the shutters rolled up to show off the Dreadnaught once more which he gestured at.

“I had written a paper years ago,” he explained. “Proposing zis kind of technology, but it was all seoretical… until Typhoon forced me to make it a reality.”

“So you’re a prisoner here,” I summarised thoughtfully. “What about all the other workers?”

“I imagine zey have no idea what any of zis is intended for,” he replied. “Zey probably do it wizout question as zey have no job ozerwise.”

I stood in silence for a long moment, contemplating my next move. Stranglethorn wouldn’t be able to keep Typhoon occupied forever, so I needed to destroy the Dreadnaught and get out of here quickly.

“You have to believe me,” Cogs began again. “I have no hatred of Equestria, my sons live zere, I was given zee award for science and innovation by Princess Celestia herself. I do not want to help zem do zis, but I cannot leave here on my own.”

“Alright,” I said at last. “My priority is destroying the Dreadnaught, but once I’m done I will escort you out of here with me.”

“Oh sank you, sank you!” Cogs exclaimed ecstatically.

“But before I do anything I need to know some things,” I interrupted. “Is there anypony here besides you who knows how to build these machines?”

“I am ze only one,” he assured me. “But zey may be able to use zee plans even wizout my help.”

“Where are the plans?” I asked, to which Cogs responded by gesturing all around us.

“Eversing is in zis room,” he explained. “Typhoon was keeping some sings in his office, but zey were stolen… by you I am guessing.”

“Yes, now collect every scrap of paper in this room and put it in that bin,” I ordered, levitating a small trash can into the centre of the room before tossing him my box of matches. “Then burn it all.”

Cogs caught the matches but stared at me in disbelief.

“Z…zis is my life’s work,” he stammered. “Couldn’t we take it wis us or…”

“No,” I said firmly. “Burn it all or I’m leaving you here.”

Cogs gaped for a few seconds before sagging his shoulders and getting to work. I felt bad crushing him like that, I know I would hate to have a week’s worth of work destroyed let alone my whole life’s, but I couldn’t allow that kind of weapon to fall into any pony's hooves, even Maverick. It didn’t take long to gather up all notes and documents, crumple them into balls and pack them into the waste paper basket. Once Cogs was satisfied there was nothing left behind that might allow the Liberators to continue building even after he was gone, he struck a match and reluctantly set the whole lot alight.

“Thank you for that,” I said genuinely, hoping to cheer Cogs up a little. “Now I need you to tell me how I can destroy the Dreadnaught. I have three bombs, is there anywhere I can use them to cause enough damage?”

“Let me see ze bombs,” he requested, I passed out to him very carefully which he examined before tut-tutting. “No, zees will do no good on ze Dreadnaught. Zere are places on ze ship that if you blow up will cause a chain reaction, but wizout remote detonation bombs you would never get clear of it in time to survive ze blast.”

“Well what do you suggest?” I asked in dismay as I placed the bomb back in my bag.

“I do have one idea,” he began thoughtfully. “Tell me, have you ever flown before?”

“Do I look like a pegasus to you?” I asked, giving him a deadpan look.

“Foolish question, I know,” Cogs said, waving a hoof dismissively. “What I’m trying to get at is zat you can use one of ze gliders to destroy it.”

“Gliders?” I repeated, completely at a loss.

Cogs walked back over to the window and pointed out at something, as I went and stood by his side I could see him indicating the metal canoes with wings I had seen earlier.

“It is a flying machine, anozer one of my own designs,” he explained, beaming with pride. “Very simple to operate, and zey are equipped wiz rapid fire cannons, you can shoot ze Dreadnaught apart from zee air. Luckily it is not yet completed, you can aim srough the gaps in ze hull as it is weakest on zee inside.”

“Interesting,” I murmured, rubbing my chin contemplatively.

The factory floor was covered in guards and technicians; it was going to be hard getting to one of the gliders, even harder to avoid accidentally shooting anypony once I was inside.

“Is there anyway of clearing the workers out?” I asked. “I’d rather not hurt anypony if I can avoid it.”

“I could set off zee alarm,” Cogs proposed. “ze guards will stay and try to stop you, but ze rest should run for cover.”

“Good,” I said, making my way over to a door next to the window that would lead me out onto a platform in the factory. “Once I reach the glider, or if I get spotted, raise the alarm.”

“Of course,” he agreed, looking a little hesitant. “But once I do zat you won’t have long before Typhoon returns.”

“Then I’ll have to work fast,” I replied, my hoof resting on the door handle. “Once you do that, fall back to the workshop. I’ll meet you there and we can head to the exit together.”

“Which Workshop?” he asked.

Once I explained the path I took to get here and was sure he knew the room I had meant, I turned the handle and opened the door, stepping out onto the steel mesh platform overlooking the rest of the factory. Keeping low, I started moving down each level as quickly as possible, I encountered one guard on the way down who I managed to subdue quietly before moving on. Once I was on the concrete floor of the factory, I ducked behind a cannon just as a guard walked passed. Peeking out I saw that there was a nest of gliders a couple dozen metres away from me, however there were several guards either standing between me and them or close enough that they’d see me approaching.

Pulling out one of my bombs, I levitated it while looking over in the opposite direction. There was one siege tower in particular that had nopony standing close by, so I lobbed the bomb straight at it with my telekinesis. The effect was quite satisfying, the noise of the explosion was loud enough to be heard over most of the machines in the workshop so it got plenty of attention, and even if it didn’t the sight of the tower collapsing on top of a row of catapults definitely would have. All the guards in the room immediately sprang into high alert, most of them hurrying over to the fallen tower to investigate while the rest all began looking around themselves for the perpetrator.

Seeing a brief opening I darted out from behind my cover and began moving towards my goal, unfortunately my luck had run dry and I was spotted almost instantly. The guard cried out that there was an intruder, the alarms began blaring and the attention of every guard was on me. With my options reduced to sprint for my life or wait to die, I chose the former and began galloping as fast as I could to my target before the guards could catch up to me. It seemed however that the guards had no qualms about utilising the war machines around me; it was only a lucky glance to the side that allowed me to see one of them driving towards me.

It was some kind of cannon, except it had six long, slender barrels all grouped together. They were all pointed directly at me, spinning slowly but steadily getting faster. I dived out of the line of fire at the last second, taking shelter behind a cherry picker from the rain of tiny projectiles that clanged off my cover. When the noise of the firing ceased I risked a look out, the barrels were choking up clouds of black smoke and the soldier sitting up behind them was desperately hammering down on the controls to get them to fire again.

Before he could fix whatever went wrong, I drew my second bomb and tossed it over to him, hitting the cannon directly on the end of its barrels. The whole machine shook with the force of the explosion and the barrels were blasted to bits. The soldier quickly hoped off and made a run for it before the whole machine went up in flames, whatever it ran on appeared to be highly flammable. With the way clear once more, I got up and ran the rest of the way to the gliders, the soldiers were closing in and one had already reached my destination before I had and was waiting for me.

I drew my sword with my hoof rather than by magic, almost instinctively, it turned out Applejack had a point. The guard took a wide swing with his own sword which I leapt to the side to avoid before I slashed out with my rapier, slicing his swinging hoof. His weapon clattered to the floor and he fell to his knees, clutching his injured hoof in agony. I left him be and turned my attention to the glider before any more guards could reach me. There was a small hollow inside for the pilot to sit, shielded by a glass bubble which I opened with my magic.

Clambering in I sat myself into the pilot seat, buckling myself in on the advice of a sticker on the dashboard showing one pony correctly secured with the seatbelt and another smashing through the windscreen. Cogs hadn’t been lying when he said they were easy to operate, the controls literally consisted of an on-off switch, an accelerator pad that my right leg was pressed against, a dial on the dashboard for measuring speed, and a wiggly stick between my legs for steering. Finally there was a large red button on the top of the steering stick which I assumed was for firing the gliders weapon.

As I flicked the switch and felt the glider hum to life, a guard threw himself on top of the windshield, hammering his armoured hoof down on it to try and break it open. I began to push down on the accelerator and the glider started moving straight forward, slowly at first but picking up speed as I pushed the accelerator further in. I tilted the steering stick back towards myself and felt the whole machine begin to tilt up off the ground, the guard looked shocked but clung on regardless, which was going to end badly for him. Once I was up in the air, flying level with the window of the foreman’s office, I turned the stick sharply to the left resulting in the guard sliding off the body of the glider and dropping to the floor below.

I flew a loop around the factory, taking in the Dreadnaught from all sides and firing a few test shots at other siege weapons on the ground, smiling when they exploded or were simply ripped apart by the hail of cannon rounds. I wasn’t sure how much ammunition I had, so rather than waste any more time I set straight into targeting the Dreadnaught. While my shots did little more than ding off the exterior hull, those that got through the large gaps could be seen doing severe amounts of damage to the inside of the ship.

After several minutes of flying around, taking pot shots into the ships interior and spinning to avoid attacks from the siege weapons on the ground, I was sure that I was getting somewhere. Cogs had mentioned parts of the Dreadnaught, that if destroyed could cause a chain reaction. As I saw the rear end of the Dreadnaught explode in a mighty wave of fire and shrapnel I was sure I had struck the place he was talking about. As I pointed myself towards another gap I pressed down on the red button, but this time nothing happened, the glider had run dry.

Still, even without ammunition I could still do some damage, it would just be riskier is all. The Dreadnaught was an airship, but like a regular ship its hull was curved so that it could not sit flat on the ground without keeling over. To prevent this, the ship had been constructed inside a frame of sorts including metal struts to keep it propped upright. Pushing the steering stick straight forward, I went into a nosedive while bringing the glider closer to the side of the ship. Before I collided with the ground I pulled the stick back so I was almost skimming off the factory floor, forcing many guards to dive out of my path.

Giving a quick prayer to Celestia, I directed the glider straight at one of the metal struts and jammed my hoof down on the accelerator. The body of the glider flew right past the strut; the right wing however was snapped clean off as it collided. I felt my whole body get buffeted about as the glider crashed into the ground, spinning so fast that all I could see of the room was a blur as it skidded away off into the corner. The glider only stopped spinning when it forcefully lost its momentum by smashing up against a wall, causing my head to snap forward and right back again, leaving me dazed, in pain and thankful I had worn my seatbelt.

I couldn’t make out a thing as my vision consisted entirely of blotches and splashed of light all around the factory, but the deafening sounds painted a very vivid image of the frame around the Dreadnaught giving out and the entire thing crashing down and laying ruin to all the other constructs on the factory floor. I was very thankful my glider had landed me in the very corner of the factory where I was out of range of the destruction. It took a long, drawn out moment for my senses to clear enough that I could tell what was going on around me.

There didn’t seem to be anypony around me, I hoped the guards had had the sense to leave before the Dreadnaught came down, maybe they realised Typhoon’s ambitions weren’t worth dying for. Unbuckling my seatbelt and lifting up the windshield, gently so it would shatter over my head, I clambered out of the wreck of the glider. My legs felt like jelly as they hit the floor and wobbled to try and hold the rest of my body upright. As I tried to keep my balance I looked around at the factory and assessed my works.

I couldn’t identify a single thing that had survived the Dreadnaught’s collapse, admittedly it might be a very different story on the opposite side of the factory, but I didn’t have time to go all the way around and destroy every siege weapon one at a time. The Dreadnaught was in ruins, blasted apart from the inside out, reduced from its terrifying glory to a flaming scrap heap. It would have taken them months and a lot more horsepower than the Liberators had to clean up everything and begin restoring it, but without Cogs or his plans it might never happen. I smiled at what looked like a mission well done before trotting off down the factory to the workshop I had arranged to rendezvous with Cogs.

Navigating the mess was a little tricky, made all the more unpleasant when I caught sight of an armoured body that hadn’t got out in time. Over the continuing sounds of distant blasts and aching machinery I could hear the rush of hoofsteps and voices calling out. Either help had come for the fallen soldiers, or they were trying to flush me out, either way I quickened my pace to the third shutter from the end of the factory. Once there I spotted a pull chain which I immediately set about tugging on, every length I pulled down the shutter rising a little more.

It was almost at the top when I heard the shout behind me, glancing over my shoulder at the way I had come from, my blood froze when I saw a familiar pegasus charging towards me, two halberd wielding guards in tow. Giving up on the chain I crouched and rolled forward under the partially opened shutter, finding myself once more in the workshop where I had tied up the three technicians. Neither them nor the guard I had knocked out were still here however, but Cogs was thankfully waiting by the door for me.

“Hurry!” I ordered, standing up and sprinting over to him.

He began opening the door, but he was surprisingly weak for an earth pony and it barely moved for him. Once I reached his side I reached out with magic and did it myself, but the short delay had been enough for Typhoon to catch up with us. He dived under the shutter just as I had, coming out of his roll expertly, pointing an odd weapon directly at me. It resembled a stout cannon held in his forelegs, the end of the muzzle flared wide so it resembled a trumpet. We both reacted at the exact same time, he pulled the trigger on the underside of the cannon, and I whipped my final bomb from my bag, which had miraculously remained intact when I crashed the glider, and hurled it right at him.

I had been quicker; as a result the bomb collided with the fired projectile in mid-air mere metres in front of Typhoon. I didn’t wait to see if I had accidentally hurt him, or worse, I simply turned tail and fled out the door, dragging Cogs behind me. We galloped down the corridors quickly enough; I still remembered the route I had taken to get that far. As we approached the room Sufferthorn and I had entered through, I found the corridor littered with the bodies of Liberator soldiers who had been foolish enough to cross blades with the Marshal. Sufferthorn was kneeling down when we entered the room, catching her breath after the apparently daunting task of keeping our escape route open.

“I heard plenty of noise,” she said as we approached. “Is it done then?”

“Yes,” I replied, then I noticed her eyes glance over at Cogs. “He’s the foreman, he was being held against his will, I offered him protection.”

Sufferthorn didn’t argue which surprised me, simply nodded, stood up and collected her weapons again. I gave her mine before we hoped out through the hole in the wall back into the sewers where the water levels had receded to their original levels again. Cogs briefly voiced his disgust, but when he saw that neither of us cared about the filth we were walking through he quickly shut up and followed quietly. When we arrived at the ladder and Sufferthorn retrieved her cloak, using it once more to cover herself up and hide our weapons, we began the ascent.

Because the bottom rung was high off the water surface, we had to boost Cogs up together before Sufferthorn helped me up on her own. As I began climbing up I glanced back in time to see Sufferthorn leap up and catch the lowest rung, pulling her body up with ease. Once I was clear of the manhole and standing back in the alleyway I offered to help pull her up the rest of the way, she refused naturally so instead I just levitated the metal disc back over to cover the hole once she was out.

“Right,” Sufferthorn began, letting out a long breath. “I think it’s safe to say everything went according to plan, let’s get back to the barge.”

Author's Note

End of Part 3

I hate trying to convey accents in writing.

XIX - Into The Woods

Author's Note

Part 4

XIX - Into The Woods

It was an odd feeling, standing just behind Cogs right shoulder as he sat opposite Maverick in the cabin of the barge, while Sufferthorn stood behind his shoulder. To think it had only been a couple of days prior that I had been the one in that seat with Stranglethorn standing where I was now, it was certainly a bizarre turn of events. Cogs was just finishing up explaining to Maverick how he came to be in Typhoon’s service and how I rescued him. Maverick listened to the entire story without interrupted, occasionally glancing up to me for confirmation, which I would give a small nod in response to.

“Well then,” Maverick began when the story was at an end. “I can assure you my friend that we will not allow any more harm to befall you. Needless to say you can’t return to Mule, and Arclight is out of the question, so we can get you safely to Pivot where you can stay until you make your own arrangements.”

“Zat would be wonderful,” Cogs replied gratefully. “I sink I shall travel to Equestria in ze coming weeks, go stay wiz my sons.”

“Certainly, and if you need any help getting that far you can just ask me,” Maverick offered. “Of course if you wanted to stay you could always…”

Maverick cut off when I flashed him a deadly look, I wasn’t about to let Cogs get manipulated by a different group right after escaping the Liberators.

“Er, nevermind,” Maverick continued in a slightly weaker voice. “Anyway, you must be exhausted after your ordeal, you can rest below deck. I have matters to discuss with my agents and I’m sure you can appreciate the need for privacy.”

“Of course, of course,” Cogs assured him, standing up and making his way over to the ladder. “Sank you again, especially you Rarity, I will never forget what you have done for me.”

I smiled as he made his way down the ladder, letting out a little sigh as he was disappeared out of sight and Maverick cast a quick soundproof spell over the floor. I quickly glanced outside to see that the barge was still sailing smoothly out of the bay; Stranglethorn seemed to be doing fine on his own so I closed the door again and went over to sit in my usual seat while Sufferthorn pulled up a stool.

“Well,” Maverick began, letting out a sigh of relief of his own. “I think I speak for us all when I say today couldn’t have gone better.”

“Maverick,” I began awkwardly. “About Typhoon…”

“Do not worry yourself over his fate,” Maverick cut in. “You did what you had to do, there will always be casualties of war.”

“I thought the war was over,” I muttered to myself before speaking up again. “But you two were friends.”

“Once,” Maverick agreed. “But his actions in recent months have made it very clear what our friendship meant to him, I will not resent you for what you did to him. Besides, we won’t know exactly what happened to him until I hear from our other agents inside the city.”

“I’ll be very surprised if that did kill him,” Sufferthorn added. “I once saw him get stabbed right in the chest with a spear during a battle, the pony who did it pushed it in pretty deep, but Typhoon walked it off like it was nothing.”

“Quite,” Maverick said, grimacing slightly. “Now we must discuss our next course of action.”

“We’re leaving Mule,” I pointed out; we had set off from the harbour as soon as Sufferthorn, Cogs and I arrived back.

“It’s only temporary,” Maverick explained. “Today we have struck a serious blow against Typhoon and the Liberators; we must press the advantage while we have it. As such Sufferthorn and I will be returning there tomorrow, while you and Stranglethorn make yourselves scarce for a little while.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because if Typhoon is still alive, it would be the height of stupidity for you to show your face in Mule again until his rage dies down,” Maverick told me. “I also remember that story about the spear, and you do not want to hear of things he did to the pony responsible. No, you need to steer clear of Mule for a while until the heat dies down, until then however I have another task for you if you’re interested.”

“I’m listening,” I replied without much thought.

“You know how Cogs said he taught in Arclight University?” Maverick began. “It’s how I knew him, I taught Literature there myself. He mentioned that he was… let go, do you know why that was?”

“He… didn’t say why,” I answered honestly.

“It was because he is an earth pony,” Maverick announced, causing my eyes to widen in shock. “Tell me Rarity, have you heard of the Arcane Order?”

I scoured my memory for where I had heard the name before; it had been Applejack who had mentioned it when we were discussing the splitting up of the Rebellion before we reached Mule. She had said it was one of three factions that emerged from the Rebellion; two were led by one of the Rebel leaders each while the third was led by the ex-marshal.

“Yeah, they’re one of the factions that split off from the Rebellion,” I recalled. “They’re based in Arclight, right?”

“That is correct,” Maverick confirmed. “Out of all the groups tied into the Rebellion, the Arcane Order is easily the least militaristic. It was formed by the last pony who worked alongside Typhoon and I to form the Rebellion in the first place, a pony by the name of Arcana. He too worked in Arclight University, a professor of Politics and Philosophy. He and I first discussed the idea of Panchea governing itself while we worked together, but it didn’t move on from talking until Typhoon joined us and we began to seriously consider making our fantasy a reality.

“Arcana was never the most tactical of ponies, and he certainly wasn’t a fighter,” Maverick continued. “But he was a master with words and ideas, a real politician. The original plan had been for him to become the first official president of Panchea when we achieved self-governance, but as the war went on I began to realise he had one major flaw that made him unsuitable for the role.”

“What was that?” I asked, although I had a feeling I knew where it was going.

“He’s a massive racist,” Sufferthorn stated bluntly.

“Well, yes,” Maverick picked up rather awkwardly. “He hid his beliefs at first; he was probably waiting until our goals had been achieved before he revealed them, but as the war dragged on his true attitude began to shine through the façade he had painted. Eventually he came to me directly and ordered me to remove Typhoon from his position as one of the three leaders, if I’d known then that Typhoon would split off not long after I would have obeyed just to placate Arcana for a little longer. I refused and he made it quite clear that he believed our future government should be made up only of unicorns, and that the highest position a pegasus could ever obtain was a low ranking military officer.”

“He thought lowest of earth ponies,” Sufferthorn continued bitterly. “Under his rule we would have been little more than slaves.”

“Naturally I put my hoof down,” Maverick carried on. “Not long after, Arcana split off, returned to Arclight and together with his followers formed the Arcane Order, a group dedicated to introducing a racial hierarchy to Panchea with Unicorns at the top.”

“So he has control over Arclight,” I repeated thoughtfully. “Then it was no wonder Cogs was fired, I suppose there aren’t any non-unicorns left working in the city.”

“Not many,” Sufferthorn confirmed. “And those that are only have menial jobs. Arcana prefers it that way, that earth ponies and pegasi do the low paying labour while unicorns occupy all positions of power.”

“So you want me to go to Arclight and do something about this?” I asked.

“Not quite,” Maverick replied. “While taking the Arcane Order down is one of our long term objectives, they are not, as I said, very militaristic and therefor pose no immediate threats to the rest of the country. No, what I need you to do is go to Arclight and get close to Arcana himself.”

“During the war,” Sufferthorn picked up. “Although we didn’t know until very recently, Arcana was keeping in close contact with an unknown party. We don’t know what information passed between the two of them, but we do know that on several occasions Arcana acted without the knowledge of Maverick or Typhoon and moved troops to various places at various times.”

“The purpose of all this is still unclear,” Maverick continued. “Which is why we need you to find out more about it.”

“So you want me to sneak in and steal information again?” I asked.

“I was thinking this time you could utilise some of your other skills,” Maverick replied. “The agents who found out what we already know have been unable to find anything more in writing that could help us, which means that the information we want can only be found inside Arcana’s head. You’ll need to find a way of getting close to him and persuade him to spill the beans personally, we need to know who he was in contact with, what all he did for them and why.”

“We’re stopping the barge at the most southern part of the Sanguine Grove,” Sufferthorn explained. “If you agree to this mission, you and Stranglethorn would set off immediately through the forest to Dolor. He will be your guide through the forest, but will only go as far as the village where he’ll wait for you to return once you’ve either cleared or failed your objectives.”

I rubbed my chin, pondering the mission before me. I hated the way they made it sound like I had a choice, before proceeding to talk like I’d already agreed to it.

“I’m sure you can appreciate that a unicorn is best suited to this task,” Maverick pointed out. “And just like your previous missions, you are an excellent candidate since Arcana does not know you and will not know you are working with us.”

“Well it sounds simple enough,” I put forward. “I have a friend in Arclight, a pony I travelled from Equestria with. Would I be allowed to see her while I was there?”

“It would give you a good cover,” Maverick agreed. “Just in case the police took an interest in you, but you can’t let her know about your mission or involvement with us. She may be your friend, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t an advocate of the Arcane Order since she moved back there.”

“I know, I’ll be smart about it,” I assured him. “So travel with Stranglethorn through the forest to Dolor, make my own way to Arclight, meet up with Lyra and figure out a way of getting close to Arcana.”

“Needless to say,” Sufferthorn stepped in. “You can’t get found out. The same went for your previous missions of course, but in this case your enemies won’t even need to ask questions to get the answers right out of your head, and I doubt you’ve been trained in mental blocking.”

“I haven’t,” I replied, unhappy at having to reveal my lack of expertise in magic.

“It will be fine,” Maverick assured me. “I think you’ve proven yourself to be more than capable these last couple of days.”

The door opened behind me and Stranglethorn walked in, giving a curt nod to indicate everything was fine outside.

“Perfect timing,” Maverick continued. “Rarity will you take over on deck while we go over the details with Stranglethorn? Just keep her going straight.”

I nodded and took my leave. I wasn’t alone on deck for very long before Stranglethorn returned to give me a hand, but then I don’t think he’d ask quite as many questions as I would when being tasked with a mission. We didn’t work for much longer before Sufferthorn came to relieve us, since we were being expected to leave as soon as the barge reached its destination, then we needed to get some rest before then. It did seem a bit nuts to me at the time, the idea of finishing a huge mission only a day after doing another big mission, then mere hours later being tasked with journeying miles to do another.

It was quite clear that Maverick, Sufferthorn and Stranglethorn, perhaps even more agents I hadn’t met, all lived for their cause. A part of me was afraid of becoming like them, I didn’t mind the things I had done so far, I was able to justify them as the right thing to do, but the idea of sacrificing any semblance of a normal life for the Rebellion was something I just couldn’t swallow. It was the earliest hours of the morning when Stranglethorn awoke me, after getting ready I followed him up to the deck where Sufferthorn was waiting in the pitch black of the night, the barge tied up to an old, forgotten jetty on the edge of the forest.

“It’ll probably be a while before we see you again,” Sufferthorn said to me, it sounded like she was really trying to maintain her usual cold tone. “Just do as Strangle does and you’ll reach Dolor in one piece, if there are any questions about the mission, he can fill you in.”

“Uh…” I began awkwardly.

“You’ll know what he means, but if it’s anything too complex he’ll write it down,” Sufferthorn explained, slightly agitated. “Now hurry along, and… good luck.”

I was a little taken aback by that, spinning to face her but she was already retreating back into the cabin. Stranglethorn gave me one look followed by a shrug before hoping off the boat onto the rotting planks of the jetty. I clambered down after him, not nearly as elegant but I didn’t get my clothes dirty. It hadn’t been easy to clean them after trekking through the sewers, but I managed to work my magic on them, I just hoped I wouldn’t have to do so again for a while.

Panchea had its lush parts, small clumps of wood were dotted all around, but little amounted to the forest. It covered roughly a third of the land that wasn’t mountains, so big that it was divided into three sections, each with their own name. The southern section was known as the Sanguine Grove, that was where we began our journey. The Northwest section was called the Hallowed Woods and the Northeast section was called the Tranquil Forest, it’s quite obvious that whoever named them went by a theme.

Arclight and Dolor were the only settlements in the entire forest and both were located a short distance from one another in the Tranquil Forest, although Arclight was almost on the border with the Hallowed Woods. As we began our trek, I examined my map under the light of my own horn and guessed it would probably take us three days at the very least to arrive in Dolor. Stranglethorn however managed to get us there in just under three, it was clear he knew the forest like the back of his hoof, knowing exactly where all the shortcuts were and the best routes that would allow us to avoid predators and pitfalls.

As such, the journey turned out to be rather boring, not helped by Stranglethorn being incapable of making conversation. We started our journey with absolutely no food stuff, although I quickly learnt that Stranglethorn was quite the scavenger. Anytime my stomach began grumbling he would stop and without having to change location he would find something edible in the forest, whether it be berries or flowers or even some rare fruit on a few occasions. I tried to mimic this at one point by plucking some juicy looking purple berries from a bush as we walked, but before I could pop them into my mouth they were slapped out of my grasp.

Stranglethorn jotted the word ‘poison’ onto a notepad he kept in his saddlebag before looking for something himself, I didn’t try to look for food myself after that. I did have my water canister which I was able to fill up regularly; there was an abundance of clean streams flowing through the forest. We only stopped to rest twice in the whole trip when Stranglethorn allowed me to catch a few hours’ sleep, we would always have travelled so far that I passed almost instantly upon hitting the forest floor. As we walked together he began to remind me of Big Mac, only less talkative, on the occasion that I would begin making a very one sided conversation he would listen, clearly very attentively.

I also noticed as we travelled that he would occasionally stop for brief seconds at a time to examine the plant life closely and smile as he did so, it was some of the first emotion I’d seen him display since we first met at Sweet Apple Acres. It was also the first time I began to wonder about his and Sufferthorn’s names. I know parents were suspiciously good at naming their children with regards as to what they were going to grow up to be, but I had never heard of anypony having such… unpleasant names as the pair of them. I had to wonder if maybe they had taken those names on themselves, and if so what were their real names, what kind of lives did they live before joining the Rebellion?

They always kept their cutie marks hidden; dying their flanks to match their coat colours, although I figured that was common practice for Rebel agents to help them go unidentified. Ignoring the fact that a grown pony with a blank flank was more eye drawing that whatever their cutie marks could have been originally. I decided better than to ask Stranglethorn then, making small talk was fine but I didn’t want to draw too much focus from the job at hand, and it might require a little more back and forth than Stranglethorn was capable of.

Only one other thing of interest happened while we made our way to Dolor, it was late in the second day just after we had crossed the imaginary border between the Sanguine Grove and the Tranquil Forest. Stranglethorn froze mid-step, raising his hoof to single for me to stop as well. I did so and saw that Stranglethorn’s ears were swivelling about the same way Sufferthorn’s did before the last mission. I listened hard too, trying to figure out what it was he was hearing, but I only caught an odd rustling noise before Stranglethorn tackled me to the ground, a timber wolf leaping out from the undergrowth at the place I had just been.

I scrambled back up to my hooves while Stranglethorn leapt up and was standing with his short swords drawn before I could even blink. I drew my own sword, by hoof once more as the timber wolf began circling us. We both kept our eyes locked onto its, I was sure we wouldn’t have any bother with it and it would probably realise we weren’t worth the trouble and retreat, but suddenly Stranglethorn whipped around, sweeping his blades into the body of another that had begun sneaking up behind us.

The one in front leapt at me while another two leapt out of the shadows to aid their fallen brethren. I tried raising my sword to block my attacker, but the rapier was too light and I found myself thrown onto my back, the wolf bearing down on me. Without hesitating I pulled all three of my knives from their sheaths and drove them into the wolf torso, it howled in agony before bursting into twigs and wood chips. Rolling onto my belly I saw the other three trying to take on Stranglethorn, which didn’t end well for any of them.

I still remembered how he took down Hatchet back at Sweet Apple Acres; it was quite something to be able to see it a second time, only against three foes instead of just one. Every movement he made was measured perfectly, his limbs moved with such fluidity, each swing moving smoothly into another. He even threw in some kicks with his hind legs if one of them tried to sneak around behind, and when two dived at him from either side he simply flipped out of harm’s way, allowing them to crash into one another and lock jaws before he delivered the finishing blow.

‘Simply’ really was the word for it, he made everything look so effortless; it was like he didn’t need to think about his moves at all. When he was done, which didn’t take very long at all, he sheathed his two blades before carrying on his way down the forest trail, not even stopping to look at the mountain of wood he’d left behind. As impressed as I was, I had to remind myself that this was still the same pony who had mercilessly cut the throats of all those soldiers back at the farm, some would say he did pretty much the same thing there with those timber wolves. There was no denying that Stranglethorn was a cold blooded killer, and a terrifyingly good one at that.

I shivered as I followed behind him, praying that I would never end up on the other end of his blades… or hooves… or anything really as I didn’t doubt he could kill me with a blade of grass if he wanted. I took solace in the knowledge that we were on the same side, and that there was hardly another pony as skilled in taking lives as Stranglethorn… I was very wrong in that assumption, and it wouldn’t be long before I learnt that.

XX - Checkpoint

Dolor was little more than a hamlet, a small cluster of houses with a single pub to share; it acted simply as a checkpoint for ponies travelling to Arclight or back. Naturally I had been through it any time I visited Arclight on business, I never actually stopped there though, I just briefly took in the stout cabins constructed from logs and planks and went on my way. I knew there wasn’t much there, so I wasn’t expecting anything interesting when we arrived, although by that point I really had no right to be surprised anymore when out of the ordinary things did happen.

As Stranglethorn and I pushed our way out of the brambles, I briefly wondered if we would get some odd looks stepping into the village from the forest rather than the path, the sort of attention that I figured Stranglethorn would want to avoid while on a mission. It turned out however; we had nothing to worry about. We didn’t get any odd looks when we entered the village… on account of the fact that there was nopony there to see us. My thoughts first jumped to Glean, but this was a very different kind of situation, emphasised by the fully grown oak tree bursting out of one of the nearby houses.

The entire village was overgrown, as if the forest itself had joined in the war. Some homes were completely obscured by walls of ivy and others had their windows broken, more plant life creeping out from within the buildings themselves. Getting a closer look at one of the more whole houses, I saw that the wood used to build it was heavily rotted, caked in mould and fungus. Even the yards and paths between the houses were overgrown with various weeds; the river that ran through the middle of Dolor was filled with reeds making it almost impossible to see the shattered remains of the bridge.

“So…” I began as we both walked through the abandoned village. “What exactly happened here?”

Stranglethorn glanced back over at me, quirking an eyebrow as if to say it should be obvious.

“Well I assume the war had something to do with it,” I continued slightly exasperatedly. “I mean, how did it get to be like this? I may not be some expert in plants, but even I know this kind of growth in two years isn’t normal.”

Stranglethorn walked up to me, raising his foreleg and pointing at my own head, his hoof hovering about a centimetre from the tip of my horn.

“Magic?” I interpreted, to which he nodded before turning and continuing on his way.

I followed after him until we reached the section of the river where the bridge used to be, Stranglethorn took one look at it before hopping gracefully to the other bank. I didn’t have quite the same confidence in my own abilities, so instead I tested my hoof on the reeds. They were so tightly packed that they appeared to be able to hold my weight, as long as I didn’t stay on them for more than a second or two I wouldn’t sink. Taking my chances, I began stepping across the river, hearing a satisfying ‘squish’ with ever step I took.

Once on the other side, I trotted to catch up with Stranglethorn who was approaching a seemingly random house. At the door he ran the flat of his hoof across the damp, discoloured face, when nothing I noticed happened, he reached up into the corner of the doorframe and knocked a small latch. I never would have noticed it if I hadn’t seen him close it, I starting thinking about what it might do, although I found out as soon as he opened the door and we walked in. Directly over my head was some kind of metallic contraption which looked like a bladed pendulum, it didn’t take much guesswork to realise that the latch Stranglethorn closed had prevented it from swinging down and impaling whoever was trying to come through the door.

I gulped slightly, imagining what would have happened if I had gone ahead of him and opened this house at random. The cabin we had entered was a two story house; the first floor that we stood in was almost completely bare, with only a trestle table as furniture and some rotting kitchen cabinets in one corner. The interior did look much cleaner than I had expected, and this house at least had no plants invading. I guessed from the booby trap set up and what came next that Stranglethorn, or some other member of the Rebellion, had come here previously and set this place up as a base.

Stranglethorn passed the stair case, crouching down in the corner of the room where he waved me over. As I approached I saw that there was a rough engraving in one of the planks he was leaning over, it was the wreath of thorns I had come to associate with him. Squeezing the plank out of the floor, Stranglethorn revealed a small hole which he reached into and pulled out a very familiar brand of metal lockbox. He carried it over to the table before reaching behind his ear and fishing out a tiny metal key, I figured it would be rude to ask how he was keeping it secure back there even though I desperately wanted to know.

“Uh, Stranglethorn…” I began uncomfortably, as a guilty thought began to make itself known. “About that lockbox, and that symbol you carve. You probably already know, but a while back I found one of those boxes and I took some stuff from it.”

It should have dawned on me much sooner, and I wondered if he had looked at my daggers these last few days and resented me for stealing them. Levitating the daggers off my belt, sheaths and all, I lay them out on the table.

“I’m sorry, I don’t have any of the other things I took from it,” I explained. “But you can have these back, I should have returned them as soon as I first starting working with you guys.”

Stranglethorn glanced at the daggers, looking genuinely surprised before shaking his head and pushing them back towards me.

“Are you sure?” I asked, surprised but a little hopeful as I had grown quite fond of them. “But they are yours, aren’t they? And I stole them and sold or gave away your other things, it wasn’t right.”

Stranglethorn shook his head again, this time more forcefully as he donned a pained expression, as if he was struggling to convey words through gestures and couldn’t find the right ones. In the end he whipped out his note book and quickly scribbled something down in his usual flourished writing. He passed the note over to me, looking very uncomfortable as he did; I glanced down at it and read it aloud.

“We’re friends,” I read. “I forgive you.”

I looked up and saw him giving me the most strained smile ever. I giggled into my hoof, stopping when I realised how insanely insensitive it was.

“Thank you,” I said with a little cough. “You’re a good friend.”

He gave me one last quirky smile before his face returned to its normal, blank state and he began unpacking the lockbox. Inside were a number of files including a photograph that caught my eye and two maps, one of the city itself and another of the capitol building, the Tower. Besides that he also pulled out a small bottle made from brightly coloured stained glass, seeing my curiosity he began scribbling another note out. As he passed it to me it read ‘Mind Fog, to help if the police try to penetrate your thoughts, only use in dire circumstances’.

“Thanks,” I said, storing the bottle away in my bag before turning to look at the map. “So I take it Arcana lives in the Tower?”

Stranglethorn nodded, reaching into his own bags and pulling out a printed letter which he passed to me. I skimmed through this one, it was addressed to Maverick and was presumably sent by one of his other agents, it explained that there was a major social function being held in the Tower tomorrow evening at the request of Arcana himself.

“Ah, I see,” I said nodding slowly. “I need to get into this function and I can get close to Arcana without it seeming too suspicious.”

Stranglethorn nodded affirmatively while I reviewed the city map to remind myself of the layout. As I scanned over it I noticed Cadance Avenue where Lyra told me to come find her, perhaps she could help me get into the event.

“Do you know anything about Arcana?” I asked, wishing I’d asked Maverick before we left. “Besides the fact that he’s a massive racist.”

Stranglethorn pondered the question for a moment before jotting a few words down in his notepad.

“Traditionalist, smooth talker, egotist…” I read out, wondering if I could use any of these to my advantage like I did with Typhoon’s obsession with micromanagement. “And what about what he looks like?”

At that Stranglethorn passed me the photograph from the lockbox; it showed a stallion much younger looking than either Maverick or Typhon, although he might have just had a lot of magic cosmetics. He had a long purple mane that was tied back in a single plat, while his coat was a shade of royal blue similar to my own coat... the coat I was wearing that is. He wore majestic looking robes; they were purple although it was hard to tell, what with the gold trimmings shinning like beacons as the light of the camera's bounced off them. I imagined ‘egotist’ really suited him, just from the smug, self-assured look he wore on his face; he might have been good looking if his face wasn’t so punchable.

“Right, well…” I glanced out the grimy window pane at the night sky. “I’ll set off about an hour before sunrise, that should give me plenty of time to look about the city and figure out a way into the Tower.”

Stranglethorn nodded before doing a quick charade of sleeping before gesturing at the ceiling. I took up his offer and went up the stairs where I found a double bed waiting; I inspected it quickly to make sure no other living things had made it their homes before deeming it sanitary and lying down on it to get some desperately needed sleep. I was able to wake up on my own for a change, a real achievement for me, a mare who once head-butted her own father on Hearth’s Warming morning because he tried to wake her up for her presents.

Before long I was back out the door, casting a wary glance up at the sinister looking pendulum as I did. Stranglethorn offered me the pipe again before I left, which I politely declined, I had done fine so far without resorting to that kind of edge, I would rather not start. Rather than trek through the forest alone, I travelled along the road straight to Arclight, which I could see high up in the distance. The city was perched on one of the highest points in the Tranquil Forest that wasn’t a mountain; as such it could be seen like a shimmering beacon for miles around.

Pivot may have been the first pony built settlement in Panchea, but Arclight had existed long before ponies had ever arrived in this country. Its exact origins were a mystery, the natives that lived there long having disappeared leaving only the one city as proof of their existence. It was theorised that their disappearance had something to do with the Nether Vale, the valley north of the Tranquil Forest, nestled between two mountain ranges. However this couldn’t be proved as nopony dared go there, few returned and even fewer came back with any memory of their time there, those that did were never quite the same.

The city was very sophisticated for the time in which it was discovered by the pony settlers, many advances in magic and technology were made simply through studying the mysterious city. The university was one of the main buildings that were added by the ponies, intended as a tribute to the city itself for the knowledge it had provided. The Tower on the other hand had never been touched, it was a monumental structure placed in the very centre of the city with five smaller towers set at intervals around the city walls, to which the Tower was tethered to by wires as thick as a Minotaur. The power generated in the Tower was transferred through those wires across the city, powering everything from the lights to the radio signal.

In all the years since ponies had inhabited it, the same level of magical technology had yet to be replicated anywhere else. While we now understood how to do such incredible things that the city taught us, actually doing it proved to be a very difficult and time consuming task, and by extension, expensive. Canterlot made use of many of the same technologies, and plenty of other towns and cities across the pony nation used some of them in the form of localised electricity, but it was still very exclusive.

The city itself was very majestic; walls were carved from marble, the street tiles were done in mosaic patterns, the streets themselves were wide and lined with slender copper poles topped with balls of ethereal light. The city was very staggered, with many levels beyond the ground. Most buildings were tall enough to be classed as a tower anywhere else, with external steps leading to platforms, balconies and even whole streets on higher levels. Similar to Port Mule, many buildings enjoyed being adorned with creeping wall plants and hanging baskets spilling over with flowers.

The city really was massive, I had forgotten just how big until I was standing at the city wall and had to crane my neck to see the top of it, or even the top of the narrow archway leading in. What was even more daunting was the knowledge that no matter how high up the walls or the buildings in the city went, they were all dwarfed by the Tower itself. While I had never been inside it myself, it was common knowledge that it was over fifty stories tall. On either side of the archway were two unicorns in pale blue robes whom I presumed to be the police I was warned about, they each wore porcelain masks with haunting facial features and a kite shaped purple gem embedded in the forehead just below where the horn protruded.

Beyond the four police ponies and the tall archway, I could see the streets of Arclight, bustling with life as dozens of ponies made their way to work. It didn’t escape my notice that every one of them was a unicorn, as I began walking the last stretch up the inclining road I wondered if there were any non-unicorns left in the city or if they had all moved to somewhere more tolerable. As I reached the archway I did my best not to slow down or speed up or do anything that might draw unnecessary attention my, I still remembered my success at infiltrating Fort Mule and was hoping for a similar success this time.

To my surprise, but by no means my dismay, the police ponies didn’t even look at me as I walked in. In fact, once I was a safe distance away I glanced back to confirm that, sure enough, they weren’t moving at all. It was as if they were simply statues that looked a lot like living breathing ponies, once you added the lack of movement to the creepy masks I was suddenly given even more reason to avoid tussling with them. The ponies in the street however were more than eager to look my way, their eyes gravitating towards my forehead to confirm I was one of them before offering me a welcoming smile.

The first time I visited Arclight I was awe struck by the wonder and beauty of the city, I admit I felt a similar feeling seeing it again for the first time in two years as I approached the wall, but after seeing the guards and the cultish grins of the passer-bys, my awe was quickly giving way to a disturbed feeling. Rather than wait to get ambushed and asked if I wanted to learn more about the lord and saviour Arcana, I quickly made my way down the street to my first destination. While I remembered my way well enough from the map and the memories that were steadily coming back to me, I still read the street signs to keep me right.

I mounted a stone staircase on my way, in doing so I managed to put myself in a position where the tall buildings around me no longer obscured the sight of the Tower. Even at a distance I felt a bit height sick looking it up and down, it was a very shapely structure, with very pronounced curves which I always assumed were necessary to help with whatever technological wonders went on inside. At the very highest point was a bulbous head, a huge sphere shaped room that sat just above the point where the five wires joined into the Tower.

All the way up the length of the Tower there were large metal rings at varying intervals, slowly rotating around the body, occasionally one might shift slightly further up or down or switch the direction in which it was rotating. There were three similar rings surrounding the spherical head, except these tended to moves much faster and gyrated around it in every direction, it was all so wonderful and interesting… and utterly mind boggling. Tearing my eyes away from the place I would find my target, I carried on my way, following one last sign and ascending one final tall flight of stairs to Cadance Avenue.

Only then did it occur to me as my eyes swept over the city houses that I hadn’t a clue which one Lyra was supposed to live in, she had never told me, just to find her in Cadance Avenue. While I pondered my situation, a very familiar, melodic strumming wafted down from an open window into the street that was empty bar myself, that certainly narrowed my search down vastly. Running my gaze down from the open window I saw a front door directly below it, so marching up, I checked myself over in the poor reflection of the frosted glass.

I was presentable, having given myself a quick clean up this morning for this very occasion. I was a bit worried about what Lyra would think of my weapons, but I was confident in my ability to weave together some lie that would put her at ease. Satisfied that I was presentable, I reached out and rapped loudly on the front door, the music stopping almost instantly. I only had to wait a few minutes before the door was opened by the turquoise unicorn who looked briefly confused before she saw who it was knocking on her door.

“R…Rarity?!” Lyra exclaimed, her eyes widening and a grin spreading across her face.

“Hello again Lyra,” I greeted warmly. “I was just in the neighbourhood and thought it might be good to catch up.”

XXI - Arcana

“I’ll be honest,” Lyra began as we made our way into her sitting room, which was in a much better state than my own back in Port Mule. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here so soon. I’m not complaining, it’s just that it’s only been…”

“Ten days,” I answered quickly, five more since we had got off the Siren.

“Yeah, I figured you would have been getting settled into your own home still,” she replied.

“Oh, I’m well settled I can assure you,” I lied easily. “My business less so, I thought it would pay to visit some of my old contacts and see about getting commissions, and since I was here in Arclight, I thought it couldn’t hurt to see how you’re doing.”

“Well I’m doing great,” Lyra said cheerfully, taking a seat in the armchair opposite me. “As you can see, my house is still in one piece, and I’m glad you’re in the same boat.”

“Guess I’m just lucky like that,” I said, although my heart wasn’t really in the lie that time. “I didn’t come at a bad time, did I?”

“Oh not at all,” Lyra said, waving her hoof dismissively. “I was just getting some practice in, I’ve got this function on later, I’m helping with the music.”

My ears pricked up at that, hardly daring to believe that I really was as lucky as I had just said.

“That wouldn’t be the one at the Tower, would it?” I asked, forcing my tone to stay casual.

“Yeah actually, are you going too?” Lyra asked excitedly.

“Uh… no, I only heard about it earlier,” I explained in a falsely disinterested tone. “I assume it’s invite only? Shame, it would have been a great opportunity to suck up to some potential patrons.”

“Only you could make that sound classy Rarity,” Lyra replied, chuckling. “Well if it would help your business take off, you could always come as my plus one. I didn’t have anypony else to go with and I was going to be bored senseless whenever I wasn’t doing a set.”

“You don’t mind?” I asked evenly while my thoughts were cheering and praising Celestia.

“Of course not,” Lyra assured me. “Like I said, I don’t have anypony else to go with. Although you might want to throw together one of your dresses, not that your clothes aren’t cool, I just don’t think you’d get past the doors in them… or carrying a sword.”

“Oh yeah,” I said awkwardly, glancing down at my rapier.

“I see you still have the daggers,” Lyra commented. “But that’s new… any reason you need a sword now?”

“Oh come on,” I began trying to play it off, aware of the slight suspicion in her tone. “You know as well as I do how dangerous the roads between the towns are. You think we had an eventful time travelling to Pivot, you don’t want to know the stuff I had to deal with after we split up.”

“Now that sounds like a good story,” Lyra replied, brightening up instantly. “But it will have to wait until later; because in all seriousness we’re going to have to get you a dress now before the shops get too busy.”

“Sure, I still have some money anyway,” I said without thinking.

Lyra cast me a brief look of concern before making her way to the front door once more, scooping up the keys from a bowl as she did. I unstrapped my weapons and cast them down on the armchair I had just been sitting on before following her. Lyra’s estate wasn’t particularly busy, a couple ponies were just leaving on their way to work as we walked down the street, a couple even greeted her. I admit I felt rather jealous and a bit bitter at how well things had gone for Lyra since she got home, where all I got was a burnt out ruin and few photographs.

The streets got busier as we entered one of the business districts, and as we weaved our way over to a bright little shop wedged between a café and an estate agent, I picked up on the fact that once again there were no non-unicorns in the crowds.

“Something wrong?” Lyra asked as she held the door of the dress shop open for me, probably noticing my frown.

“I was just wondering,” I began in a low voice as we entered the cramped little room. “What are your thoughts on this whole…”

“Good morning dearies,” a mare announced as she walked in from the backroom. “Looking for something in particular or just browsing?”

“My friend needs a dress for tonight,” Lyra explained. “Short notice, I know.”

“I’m sure we can find something that will fit her,” the mare replied as she approached me, holding out a tape measurer.

I raised an eyebrow when I saw she was using her hooves rather than her magic to do so, but I shrugged it off when I remembered Applejack’s advice on handling my sword.

“I’m afraid I’m working under a bit of a budget,” I told her, fishing out my coin purse which was now considerably lighter than when I had set sail from Equestria. “Just whatever this can get me will do.”

“All of it?” the mare questioned, taking the purse from me and counting through it. “Don’t you want to keep some for yourself?”

“It’s fine, I’ll make more,” I assured her, mentally deciding that the next time I saw Maverick I was going to be having a long talk with him about my wages.

The mare nodded and walked over to the rails where she began hoking through for something, as she did Lyra leant into me.

“I hope you’re not going to be skint over some dress,” she began warily. “And what was it you were saying a moment ago.”

“I was just wondering,” I began again, making sure to keep my voice low enough that the mare couldn’t overhear me. “What you thought of this whole Arcane Order. Like, do you think it’s right what they’re doing?”

“Rarity, you worry too much,” Lyra replied in a rather condescending tone. “And you’ve been listening to too many rumours by the sounds of it; their policies aren’t as bad as ponies say. Think of it this way, you remember Hammerhead, don’t you? He was pretty tough, tougher than any unicorn I’d ever met, and you don’t see many mail carriers who aren’t pegasi. Now just look at us, how many tailors and musicians do you know who aren’t unicorns? Different ponies are better suited to different things, you know that. The Order aren’t trying to oppress non-unicorns no matter what you’ve heard, they’re just trying to make sure everypony is in a place where their individual talents can be put to the best use.”

My mind was struggling to register what I was hearing, the way Lyra spoke she sounded like she was advertising the Order. That thought led to another much more worrying one.

“Lyra…” I began in a low voice. “How exactly did you get a ticket to this event?”

“I’m an associate of the Arcane Order,” she told me, smiling as she did. “That’s not a problem is it?”

“Nope,” I said, perhaps a little too quickly but she didn’t seem perturbed. “I don’t care what you’re a member of, you’re still my friend.”

I was very glad Lyra was nowhere near as observant as me, or else she might have seen that my smile didn’t quite reach my eyes. The mare returned with a silvery dress for me to try on, it turned out to be quite tight fitting, but I did like the way it looked like flowing water as I walked and the light reflected off it.

“Looks good,” Lyra commented enthusiastically.

“A little too good,” I muttered before turning to the mare. “Are you sure my money can cover this?”

“Well that one would be for hire,” she explained. “Did you want something to keep?”

“No, no, hire is perfect,” I assured her, turning to the mirror once more. “And yeah, I can make this work.”

As we made to leave and walk back past the café, my stomach began objecting loudly, Lyra took pity on me and bought us both breakfast. It had felt like ages since I had a proper meal, longer still since I’d had consistent meals in one day. After that we returned to Lyra’s home, we made small talk about what we had done since we parted ways at Pivot, very little of my story being true. Lyra took more time to practice her music for the evening while I ran myself a bath and thought about what I was expected to do once I arrived at the Tower, and if Lyra’s position changed anything.

It really had been too convenient that Lyra was attending the very event that I needed to get into, something had to go wrong. Still, I didn’t expect it to be something as wrong as Lyra being the enemy. That thought really horrified me, I’d only been working for the Rebellion for about a week and I was already thinking of ponies as enemies and allies. I relaxed in the knowledge that what I was sent to do had nothing to do with the Arcane Order; all I was doing was looking into events that occurred during the war, before the Order was even a thing.

Dealing with the Arcane Order permanently was no doubt on Maverick’s to-do list, but for the time being I could forget about Lyra’s allegiances and whether they were a bunch of racists or not. My train of thought was brought to a screeching halt as Lyra began knocking on the door, giving me a serious sense of déjà vu.

“Please don’t do this to me again?” Lyra begged. “In future I’ll just have my baths before you, whether you’re my guest or not.”

“Now, are you wanting to take a bath,” I began, smirking to myself. “Or take a shi…”

“Rotten,” Lyra interrupted in a disgusted voice.

“We all do it Lyra,” I called back in an exasperated voice. “It’s nothing to be grossed out by; I mean I was knee deep in the stuff back in Mule.”

“What?!” Lyra exclaimed in a horrified voice.

“So you want to use the bath then?” I said hurriedly as I leapt out and began towelling myself down. “She’s all yours.”

Lyra gave me a bewildered look as I darted out of the bathroom to go get dressed. After about half an hour we were both standing at the front door, dresses on, hair styled, and in Lyra’s case, Lyre levitating in front of her. I myself had the bottle of Mind Fog tucked away down the front of my dress. I hoped I wouldn’t need to use it since I didn’t know exactly what it would do, other than protect me from the police, but Stranglethorn wouldn’t have emphasised only using it as a last resort if it didn’t have some additional effects.

“Shall we be off?” Lyra asked, crooking her foreleg in the way a stallion would for walking alongside his date.

I simply rolled my eyes and headed out the door on my own while Lyra sorted out locking up. As we traversed the streets, Lyra regaled me with tales of her life in Arclight. She pointed out the street corner where she threw up after a wild night out, the music shop she worked part time in, even the street lamp she had her first kiss under. She said it was in the pouring rain and it definitely did not live up to the romance novels. After a while we arrived in the wide, circular street that surrounded the Tower, the heart of Arclight.

Anypony could see from a distance that something major was going on, the tall double doors were pushed wide open, allowing the throngs of guests in formal attire to funnel into the building. There was an obvious emphasis on security here; dozens of masked police ponies patrolled the grounds around the Tower while a few more stood guard at the door. At least seeing the patrolling ones put my mind at ease slightly, just knowing that they could move and weren’t some horrific statue like creatures that would only move when you weren’t looking at them.

We joined the back of the crowd and began shuffling our way towards the door; once we were there, Lyra produced our ticket while throwing a leg over my shoulder to indicate I was with her. We were allowed entrance with no issues, and once we stood on the inside my eyes swept across the huge entrance hall. I heard the Tower was at least fifty stories tall, but if all the floors were as high ceilinged as this one, it might explain why fifty seemed like an understatement when looking at the building from a distance.

“Alright Rarity,” Lyra said, talking close to my ear so I would hear her over the noise of the crowds around us. “I really need to get over to the band to take over. I’ll be on for an hour or so, you can mingle until then and I’ll come find you when I’m done.”

“Sure,” I replied, although my eyes were already sweeping the room for my target.

Lyra darted away, melting into the crowds while I began making my slow way around the outer perimeter of the hall. The room was lined with half pillar embedded into the wall at regular intervals, each with long, flowing drapes woven from a translucent, purple silk hanging on either side which didn’t seem to serve any kind of purpose other than to look fancy. There was the occasional table laden with various appetizers spread out around the outskirts of the hall, none of which looked to be more than a single mouthful, if even that much.

Besides the band Lyra was playing with, there was entertainment in a rather unique form. A single figure was on the left side of the hall, dressed in a red and blue striped harlequin costume; complete with knee high leather boots and grinning mask of porcelain white with a dark gold pattern. The harlequin was performing various acrobatic feats like cartwheels to mime charades, all rather tame, but the figure did them all very well. Quite a number of ponies were gathered around watching the performer, sniggering as they did so.

I knew it was common to laugh at clowns, but this one wasn’t doing anything funny, then I picked up on the mocking tone of their laughter. It didn’t take long for me to notice that this harlequin was the only pony I’d scene in Arclight who wasn’t a unicorn, it would be rather hard to hide a horn under that mask and weird jester hat. So was this what the Arcane Order had reduced earth ponies to, fools who danced for the amusement of upper-class unicorns? I turned away from the scene and continued walking, feeling utter contempt for the ponies who had been laughing, while feeling nothing but pity for the earth pony who was forced to put up with it.

There was also a large centrepiece in the room that I could only occasionally catch glimpses of, but there was an identical one on the ceiling directly above it so it was easy to see what it was. It looked like a marble pyramid with a large brass globe balancing on the point, rotating steadily while occasionally firing sparks to and from the globe on the ceiling. At one point a stream of electricity flew down from the top one and connected with the ground globe, remaining connected for a few seconds before fizzling out.

These occurrences didn’t seem to take anypony by surprise, so I assumed they were all part of the curiosity that was the Tower’s power generator. At the end of the hall, opposite the main doors were two opulent staircases that curved along the wall, their apexes meeting in the very centre. There were no doors or other staircases leading to other floors, just the one set leading to the small platform in the centre, which wasn’t even that high up with regards to the rest of the room. I watched the stairs for a moment as ponies seemed to walk up and down it as they pleased, some even standing part way up, leaning on the brass railings.

My confusions were quickly dismissed when I saw one pony in particular reach the platform, fiddle about with some kind of tablet on the railings before vanishing in a flash of light. They used some kind of magical teleporter to reach the higher floors, and they didn’t look to be out of bounds as more ponies used it the longer I watched. I made my way towards the stairs, a glass of champagne held out before me as I did. If I couldn’t see Arcana from the stairs, I could try my luck with whatever floor the others were going to.

The band were situated on the floor directly in front of the staircase, and Lyra shot me a quick smile when she saw me before returning to her sheet music. I mounted the stairs and made my way up to almost the highest point before stopping to look out over the crowds. If Arcana was out there, I wasn’t going to find him that way, everypony was a unicorn, well dressed and many of them looked smug and punchable, exactly the kind of ponies I should have been talking to if I was doing what I had told Lyra I came to do.

“Splendid evening, is it not Miss?” a random stallion with a bushy moustache said, appearing at my side.

“It is indeed,” I replied, trying to sound sincere while thinking of something I could say that might send me in the right direction. “All thanks to our gracious host, no doubt.”

“Indeed Miss,” the stallion agreed in a pompous voice. “Why the ponies of Arclight owe him a tremendous deal for the way in which he has cleaned this city up.”

“Indeed we do,” I agreed. “You haven’t seen him anywhere, have you? I was hoping to thank him personally.”

“Of course Miss,” the stallion obliged only too eagerly. “You will find him next to the contraption in the centre of the hall; he seems to be entertaining some other guests at the moment.”

I followed his pointing hoof to see Arcana standing at the base of the marble pyramid, half a dozen ponies standing around him, practically scrambling over one another for his attention.

“Thank you dear sir,” I said gratefully, giving a little bow of the head. “Until we meet again.”

He returned the gesture before carrying on his way to the teleporter while I returned down the stairs and began making my way to Arcana. Once I was close enough that I could see him, and presumably he could see me, I veered away and made for a waiter carrying a tray of crackers. I had already had a good idea as to how I was going to get Arcana talking, although I hadn’t been keen on the idea, I was sure it was my best chance, and now was the time to see if I could pull it off.

As I approached the waiter I made sure to walk with my head held high, putting a slight sway into my hips as I took very measured, very deliberate steps. As I stood in front of the waiter, levitating a snack I didn’t actually want, I could see Arcana’s eyes looking in my direction. Whether he was watching me in particular was still unclear, so I tilted my head slightly in his direction just enough that my eyes could meet his. I feigned a look of pleasant surprise before giving a sultry smile a little wink, my efforts paying off almost instantly as the man himself separated himself from his entourage with a few quick words and began making his way over to me.

I am a little ashamed to say that wasn’t my first time using charm and flirtation to get something I wanted from a hapless stallion. Thankfully I had grown out of that kind of behaviour, but I still knew a few tricks for occasions like this.

“I hope you are having a pleasant evening my dear,” Arcana began in an admittedly very handsome voice, like butter melting your ears, much more authentic than Maverick’s at least.

“A truly wonderful night,” I replied. “Even better that I get to meet the stallion of the evening himself, a true honour.”

“Oh no, the honour is all mine Miss…” he began, inviting me to introduce myself.

“Sapphire,” I lied, offering him my forehoof which he took and gently kissed.

“Well Miss Sapphire, it is a real pleasure to make your acquaintance,” he continued, I was definitely impressed so far, I could see why he was considered the politician of the trio. “Tell me, is this your first time in the Tower? I think I would recall seeing you around here.”

“Indeed, this is my first time,” I replied suggestively. “Nothing gets past you Sir.”

“Please, just call me Arcana, I insist,” he offered, gesturing in the direction of the centrepiece. “The Tower is a truly marvellous creation, were we only capable of meeting the fine minds that created it along with the rest of this beautiful city.”

“I don’t see why we would need to do that when we have plenty of fine minds right here,” I said, making sure to massage the ego. “I can think one in particular.”

Arcana made no attempts to hide his self-assured grin as we approached the centrepiece.

“True, but there is still so much we could have learnt,” he continued. “This device for example, do you know what function it serves?”

“I must admit that I am ignorant to its workings,” I admitted.

“It took some of the greatest unicorn minds years to figure it out,” he carried on. “You see, what few ponies realise is that there is just as much taking place beneath our hooves as there is over our heads. Countless devices and machines, both within the Tower and below Arclight itself, and this device before you is integral to keeping the two working in tandem with one another. Magic can be a very volatile thing as you no doubt know; any number of things could go wrong with these devices at any one moment, which is why they must be constantly monitored and maintained.

“This is not just done by us ponies,” he continued. “The Tower itself has many self-maintenance systems that have been in place longer than any of us. This is one such system; the sparks that fly between the two orbs are signals, reporting changes in the behaviour of devices. If the devices in the underground should fall out of synch with those in the Tower, this device will rectify that and keep everything running smoothly.”

“So that’s what it was doing when the electricity began passing down it,” I murmured, more to myself before raising my voice. “It’s incredible, it really is.”

“And one day this kind of technology will be available across the world,” Arcana declared proudly. “Thanks to the continuing efforts of the great unicorns working tirelessly here and in the university to make that dream a reality.”

“I heard that you used to teach in the university,” I commented. “What with the work you do here and how you helped win the war, is there anything you’re not brilliant at?”

“Well I admit I have little time for teaching anymore,” Arcana admitted, although I could tell he was soaking up the praise. “I still take a keen interest in the university, but my time lately has been spent mainly with the Order.”

“Then it seems you’re using your time very well,” I told him.

“It is an important, yet difficult burden that has fallen on my shoulders,” he said. “But somepony must rid this land of the chaos that was left in the wake of the war.”

“We are all very lucky to have somepony like you standing up for our interests,” I said, hoping there would be an opportunity soon for finding out what I needed to know. “I have been wondering, do you think the Equestrians are to blame for the current state of our country, or is it the other Rebel leaders, those who refuse to support the Order?”

“While I prefer not to speak ill of ponies I once considered to be my friends,” Arcana began, even though it was clear that’s exactly what he was going to do and he was probably going to enjoy doing it too. “I know the fault lies with them, they who now oppose our regime of rationality and justice.”

“Were they difficult to work alongside?” I asked, keeping my voice casual.

“Oh, immensely,” Arcana answered. “We once had a pegasus leading our troops by the name of Iron Sights, the most unruly of sorts. He was eventually demoted for his acts of insubordination, but my old friend Maverick simply replaced him by somepony just as bad, perhaps even worse.”

“What made Iron Sights unruly?” I asked curiously.

“Besides the fact that he was a pegasus?” Arcana asked before guffawing with laughter at his own crude joke which I forced myself to join in with. “Well he ordered a farm to be burnt to the ground when it looked like the Equestrians were going to capture it. He also had an unfortunate habit of moving troops without receiving orders to do so.”

I did my best to keep my face straight, but inside I was screaming. This was it; this was what I had come to find out about. A casual mention about troop movements might not have been very important, but I heard the way he said Iron Sights had been acting without higher orders, I knew he was telling a bold faced lie when he said it. It wasn’t enough to go on however; I still needed to know who had instructed him to move those troops and what else they had him do. How I was going to get him to spill those beans I had no idea, there was surely a limit as to how much information he would give in return for flattery.

“You know, it really is crowded in here,” Arcana said suddenly. “Why don’t we go to another room, get a quiet drink together?”

“That sounds lovely,” I agreed, batting my eyelashes at him even as my brain screamed objections.

We both mounted the staircase together, Lyra saw me again but this time instead of smiling she just looked blown out of the water. Once we were at the top, we stood side by side on the glowing blue circle etched into the floor, surrounded by runes that I couldn’t read. Arcana began fiddling with the tablet in front of us which showed a digital blue map of the whole tower, he indicated a floor some ways up and it asked for verification to which he leaned down and allowed it to scan his eye. The actual teleportation was rather anticlimactic, a flash of blue light that obscured everything around me, even my own muzzle, then a second or two passed and everything was clear, while we were standing in what appeared to be a lobby of some kind.

Like everything in this city, the room was opulently designed, thick carpeted floors, potted plants, gold plated skirting boards and door frames. There was only one set of double doors that was being guarded by a single police pony, Arcana strutted forward and threw the doors open with magic to reveal a large bedroom suite beyond. I followed him in, although my mind was still screaming to get out while I still could. The room reminded me quite a lot of Typhoon’s office back at Fort Mule, high ceilinged with marble crossbeams and even a balcony window far too high up for him to make use of. What really drew my attention though, was the massive four-poster bed, the kind of thing you could get lost in.

“What do you think?” Arcana asked as I looked around the overly decorated room, my eyes settling on the life sized oil painting of himself.

“It’s beautiful,” I commented, resisting the urge to throw up at how tacky it all looked. “Fit for a king.”

“And a queen,” he added seductively, passing me a glass of red wine.

The last thing I wanted was to find out the information I needed via pillow talk, I needed to get what I came for quickly and get out before things got too sticky… pun not intended. Perhaps if I got him drinking enough I could convince him to part with some knowledge and get out without him even getting suspicious.

“Perfect,” I said, accepting the glass. “I find it easier to… get in the right frame of mind after a few drinks. Although I hate drinking alone, so you’ll keep up with me, won’t you?”

“Naturally,” he said, sitting down a red velvet sofa and inviting me to join him. “So, tell me a little bit about yourself Miss Sapphire.”

“Oh, I’m hardly interesting enough to talk about,” I said, trying to brush it off. “I grew up in Port Mule and I moved here to Arclight recently to live with my musician friend.”

“I find it hard to believe that there is nothing more to say about yourself than that,” he argued, finishing his own glass and gesturing for me to quicken my pace.

“Well I’m hoping to become a dress maker,” I continued, hoping I could get things focusing on him again soon. “Nothing quite as interesting as being a university professor or a war hero. Nor as difficult, especially with what you told me about that pegasus.”

“Well he served his purpose,” Arcana replied, half muttering. “I mean, you’re a smart pony, if one's comrades were being very… inflexible in their attitudes, it would only be rationale to take decisive, if ever so slightly secretive steps to make your vision a reality, because you know that it is for the greater good, even if they don’t yet see it that way.”

“Exactly,” I agreed, as my heart began racing. “Only a brave leader, confident in his own convictions could do what was necessary in that situation.”

“Precisely,” Arcana said as he stood up and walked over to the counter to pour another glass. “You see, I knew the moment I saw you, you were the kind of mare who could understand me.”

“Oh, I do,” I agreed. “I know that it’s important to have allies who’ll support your efforts, even behind the scenes. I hope you had somepony like that, I’d hate to think of you taking on such a responsibility on your own.”

Arcana turned around, his now full glass raised, his mouth open… but I never got to find out what he was going to say. At that very moment, a figure dropped down from one of the crossbeams where they had been concealed in shadows, a figure dressed in a red and blue striped harlequin outfit, complete with grinning mask and a pair of rondel daggers, one in each hoof. It was if time had slowed down as they descended, Arcana completely unaware of his impending doom, while I sat on the sofa and looked on utterly helpless.

The figure landed squarely on Arcana’s back, pushing him down onto the ground while the figure stood over him on their hind legs. Arcana began to pick himself up, but only got onto his knees before the first knife came stabbing down. He didn’t even scream, perhaps it was the shock of the initial penetration, or perhaps it was how the figure pulled the blade back out almost instantly before stabbing down again with the other. The Harlequin repeated this process, stabbing in with one dagger, pulling it out and striking with the next.

Arcana must have been stabbed over a dozen times before the figure ceased their assault and threw one leg over to the same side as the other so they were no longer leaning over him. As they moved, they swiped one of their blades in a diagonal motion across Arcana’s throat in a move very reminiscent of how Stranglethorn killed Hatchet. As the dagger made a clean cut through Arcana’s neck, the attacker quickly sheathed both daggers into their belt before finally coming down to rest on all fours again.

It was as if time had slowed down, and I watched the entire assassination take place in slow motion, watching every individual move play out in long, drawn out detail. In reality however, I saw the entire thing happen in a matter of seconds, the Harlequin jumped down onto Arcana, he tried to get up at which point the attacker began stabbing him repeatedly over and over again in ridiculously quick succession. Before he could even register the number of fatal wounds that had been inflicted upon him, the attacker moved away from him, slicing his throat in one smooth, fluid motion as they did.

Arcana’s body dropped like a sack of bricks, blood literally spraying from his numerous stab wounds. I just stared at the scene with complete shock and horror, not only because of how close I had been to finding out what I needed to know, but because it made no sense. I looked up at the ceiling when I first entered, there was most definitely nopony up there then, and this harlequin was no pegasus. Most of all however, it was simply impossible for a pony to do all that in so little time, even Stranglethorn with all his expertise took more time than that to kill anypony I’d ever seen.

I was so busy trying to figure out how any of this made sense, that I briefly forgot I was sitting in a room with a killer. I looked straight at them, my eyes staring into their mask; presumably their eyes were staring back from beneath it. After a long moment of tense silence, the pony raised a foreleg and mimed a shushing motion, made all the more disturbing by the constant grin affixed to their face. After which they flipped with such incredible dexterity up to the crossbeams, swinging around until they were perched upon it, from where they dived out through the open balcony window, giving no care for how high this floor was off the ground and how that should have been certain death.

I was left alone in the room as Arcana’s blood slowly soaked into the maroon carpet after it had finally done spraying and moved onto oozing. I was still trying to get my head around what just happened, how it just happened, and why in the name of Celestia it had to happen right then. All my thoughts came to a crashing stop when I realised one important fact, the killer had fled the scene of the crime, and I doubted after what they pulled off in the bedroom that they were now splattered across the street outside. That left me, alone in the bedroom of Arcana, the leader of the Arcane Order, who was currently lying dead a mere five metres in front of me.

“Oh… Shit!”

XXIII - Honesty

I’ve had some strange travelling companions since my journey began, Lyra and Applejack were about as normal as anypony could get, although the former came bundled with almost fifty other ponies and an armed escort. Big Mac wasn’t much of a talker, but still held up his end of the conversation as best he could, Stranglethorn on the other hand was insanely awkward to travel with, although the exact circumstances of our travel alleviated most of the tension that would have otherwise been there. My new companion however, she was pretty much the exact opposite of Stranglethorn, to the point where I wondered if she was physically capable of not talking.

Yes, Pinkie Pie was a talker, and while it made for a very entertaining walk, I did end up with a very bad headache by the end of it. Seriously, maybe she should forget the daggers and resort to talking her enemies to death. She did allow me plenty of opportunities to talk, she seemed obsessed with learning everything about me, her excuse being that she knew every little thing about all her friends. A part of me thought it was unwise to divulge too much to this girl I had only just met, but her friendly nature totally broke down my defences and before I could stop myself I was telling her everything.

I told her stories from my time growing up in Mule, my life as a working mare, my time in Equestria during the war, even the events that had occurred since I returned to Panchea. In return she told me many stories as well, although hers were much more fanciful and… insane. At the time I was sure most of what she told me were outright lies, but the more I came to learn of Pinkie Pie, of her true nature, the more I realised anything was possible when it came to her. By the time I felt well enough to set off from Dolor, my dress hidden safely beneath the loose floorboard Stranglethorn had shown me, Pinkie had already droned my ear off with some story about Yaks who tried to destroy a village until she threw a big party for them.

“That’s my special talent,” Pinkie said as we began pushing our way into the forest. “You can’t see because of my suit, but it’s three cute little balloons to signify how I’m the bestest party pony in the whole wide world. I don’t get to throw as many parties as I’d like to these days, most of my time is spent travelling the world, seeing sights and making new friends.”

“And killing ponies,” I added, regretting it immediately. “Sorry, that was low of me.”

“No it’s okay,” Pinkie said, her cheery tone not diminishing any. “Most ponies are put off by that, but I promise you I only kill beings who I believe in my heart deserve it. Even if I’m being paid for it, which I don’t do as much as you might think.”

“You said earlier that you didn’t care who Arcana was,” I reminded her as we continued south to where Stranglethorn said he would leave my equipment.

“Yeah…” Pinkie replied with a small sigh. “I’m glad he turned out to be a racist pig, because I hate straying from my beliefs, but I had been blinded by my search for the… Well, I’ll tell you all about that some other time.”

By the time we reached the dead drop, a fallen tree that had been hollowed out, Pinkie had already changed the topic to something more upbeat. I wasn’t really listening to whatever tale she was telling me as I dug out the lockbox and sack that were hidden in the tree. My clothes and weapons were in the sack, but I tossed them to the side as I turned my attention to the lockbox, my heart beating faster as the dreadful thought that they were missing entered my mind. Pinkie had stopped talking and looked over my shoulder as I rummaged through the lockbox, finding what I was looking for.

I clutched the two leather pouches close to my chest, letting out a long sigh of relief. I opened up them both up and held the two treasures before me with magic, doing nothing for the longest time but sitting on the forest floor staring at my father’s gifts.

“Oh, pretty!” Pinkie exclaimed, swiping the spy glass out of my hold.

She briefly extended it and peered through it before tossing it back to me, giggling as she took the compass and stared mesmerised at the spinning arrow.

“Pinkie, no!” I screamed, catching the spyglass and trying to snatch the compass back.

Pinkie jumped back slightly, sticking her tongue out playfully at, holding the compass over her head.

“Come and get it,” she said in a sign song voice, dancing out of my reach.

“Pinkie, please,” I begged, tears stinging my eyes. “That was my fathers, I can’t lose it.”

Pinkie had frozen as soon as she saw my eyes, her face stricken with guilt as she gave it back to me.

“I’m sorry Rarity,” Pinkie said in a genuinely apologetic tone. “I was only playing around.”

I didn’t reply as I took the compass back and looked it over for any scratches or blemishes, I also checked the back compartment briefly to confirm that the glowing stone was still hidden inside.

“You and your father must be close,” Pinkie commented, sounding hopeful.

“Not as close as I’d like to be,” I murmured, thinking about the ocean that separated me from my family. “He’s still in Equestria with my mother and sister.”

“Why don’t you tell me about them?” Pinkie suggested with a warm smile.

That was how I first started telling her about myself, telling her my own stories in between hearing hers. I got dressed as we talked, strapping on my satchels, buckling my boots and sheathing my weapons.

“Very cool looking,” Pinkie commented in an approving tone. “So where do we go from here?”

“Well Stranglethorn suggested I take some time off and see Applejack,” I began thoughtfully. “I suppose it would be nice to see how she’s doing. Was there anything you wanted to do?”

“I’ll just follow your lead,” Pinkie relied as she looked over my map at where I had marked Sweet Apple Acres. “Although, if you fancy making a quick detour we could go to the meeting place where those robed ponies tried to do away with me. They aren’t able to tell you anything, but they might have something on them that can help you find out what you needed to know about Arcana.”

“Good idea,” I agreed. “Can you lead the way?”

“I sure can,” Pinkie agreed, taking the lead in the opposite direction of Sweet Apple Acres.

It didn’t take long to reach the clearing where Pinkie claimed to have met her mysterious employers; however it was clear when we arrived that we wouldn’t be finding much out. The clearing was deserted of any life or bodies, although the copious amounts of dried blood splattered across the grass was enough evidence for me to believe what Pinkie had told me. Pinkie frowned as she looked around, it would have been several hours since she had her run in with the robed ponies, enough time for somepony to come and clear away the bodies, although that didn’t explain who could have known to spirit away the bodies so quickly.

“Maybe some animal carried them off,” I proposed.

“I don’t think so,” Pinkie argued, rubbing her chin as she inspected the scene. “There’s no blood trail, any predators in these parts would have to drag their prey away unless they stopped to eat them here, and if that were the case there should be some remains.”

“Wow, very deductive,” I said, rather amazed.

“I’m full of surprises like that,” she said, flashing me a grin. “I can only assume ponies carried them away, but who?”

“Police ponies maybe,” I suggested. “They could have been searching for us in the forest and came across them.”

“I doubt it,” Pinkie disagreed. “If they were going to search for us, surely they’d check Dolor first rather than a random spot in the forest.”

“I guess, although it is a wonder that they’re making no attempt to search for us beyond the city walls,” I commented. “These robed ponies must have had allies then, someone who didn’t want us coming back and finding out who they were.”

“Very possible,” Pinkie agreed, still pacing around the clearing. “But they would have to have been nearby for them to clear the bodies so quickly, and if they were, why weren’t they here to help them take me down?”

“Perhaps they didn’t view you as a threat, pretty foolish of them if you ask…” I began before a flash of light caught my eye. “Pinkie, take a look at this.”

Pinkie bounced over to where I was crouched at the edge of the clearing, looking in at a scrap of material tangled up in the bramble bush.

“That’s from their robes alright!” Pinkie declared as I pulled the tattered scrap out and inspected it.

The scrap was black, embroidered in a fancy, curly style using some very impressive thread that shone with all the colours of the rainbow when looked at from a certain angle. It was the first time my skills as a fashion designer had come in handy with one of my missions, my extensive knowledge told me that this was a very expensive material, the thread especially. As good fortune would have it, I had seen that exact thread one time before during my career.

“There was a competition I was in years ago,” I began to explain as Pinkie examined the cloth herself. “This was back when I was just starting out; the pony who won the show used thread just like this. It was her own patented product, and last I heard she was still not allowing any other designers to use it.”

“You think she might have made those guys’ outfits?” Pinkie asked.

“It’s possible,” I agreed. “From this piece alone I can tell somepony very skilled made them, and unless she sold the patent it must have been her. We could start our search by asking her who commissioned the robes.”

“That’s brilliant!” Pinkie exclaimed. “See this is what I’m talking about, you and I are going to make an amazing team.”

“We just might,” I admitted as I placed the material in my bag. “She used to own a shop in Pivot, if we’re lucky; she hasn’t closed down because of the war.”

With that settled, we gave the clearing one last sweep before turning back the way we came. We quickly agreed that we would travel to Sweet Apple Acres first, even though it would be a little longer than going straight to Pivot. We would rest there for a bit and catch up with the Apples before making our way to Pivot, Applejack might even be making a delivery there and could join us. It took us roughly a day and a half to travel though the forest, which gave us plenty of time to get to know one another and it was during this time that most of our stories were exchanged.

This time however, our trip through the forest wasn’t quite as peaceful as when Stranglethorn travelled with us. For starters we didn’t have his expert knowledge of plant life which made finding food very tricky, although Pinkie was more than happy to eat anything she could lay her hooves on, poisonous or not. I wouldn’t allow her to risk it however, as weird as she was, I didn’t want to find out whether super immunity was on her list of abilities or not, particularly as I was really starting to warm up to her during our travel. Speaking of her abilities, I quickly learned that being able to brutally kill a pony in a couple of seconds and leap off ridiculous heights without killing herself was only the tip of the iceberg when it came to what Pinkie Pie could do.

She had an amazing, although slightly irritating, habit of appearing out of nowhere. One second she could be standing by my side, the next she would be somewhere entirely different, all in the time it took me to blink. I told myself that she was simply the fastest pony I had ever met; I refused to believe that she could teleport as an earth pony. However when she began doing stranger things like grabbing objects with her mane or using her tail as rotor, allowing her to hover off the ground... It had been quite early on when she adjusted her outfit to allow her tail to poke out, which turned out to be just like her mane and thus equally confusing how she kept it tucked into her costume without it showing.

It was only when Pinkie popped her head out from inside a tree that was too small for anypony to physically fit inside that I finally questioned her on it. I wasn’t surprised when she didn’t answer, she simply acted like she was doing nothing out of the ordinary and quickly jumped into another tall tale, this one about turkey calls which it turned out she was quite good at. The main reason our trip wasn’t peaceful, was that the predators of the forest weren’t as reluctant to approach us as when Stranglethorn was there, on the contrary they almost seemed attracted to Pinkie, which might have had something to do with the way she bounced instead of walking, talked loudly and burst into song every so often.

The first time we were ambushed by timber wolves, perhaps looking for revenge for their fallen brethren, we stopped and fought them off. Pinkie once again showing off her incredible combat skills, much like Stranglethorn she was able to take out three in the time it took me to deal with one. When the fight was over and I was crouched down, panting heavily and wiping the sweat from my brow, she looked just as energetic as before. Nothing she did seemed capable of tiring her out, when we stopped to set up camp I was worried she would never go to sleep and would stay up all night talking my ear off. Thankfully that wasn’t the case as she passed out as soon as she lay on the ground without so much as a ‘goodnight’, and didn’t wake up again until the sun had risen.

Pinkie Pie was a mystery, but by the time we stepped out of the forest, looking back out over the Grand Pastures, I was quite happy to have her with me. We followed the river out of the forest, walking along it until we came to the bridge where Big Mac and I had stopped to rest on my last trip down this way. It was getting late on our second day when we got that far, but we decided to push on and reach Sweet Apple Acres, if only because we were both starving. Seeing the farm from a distance really made my heart soar, I even burst into a light trot to cover the final length that little bit faster.

It was pitch black when the pair of us arrived at the entrance, stopping to look up at the sign before beginning our way up the lane to the homestead. It was just as I remembered it being, a small part of me was relieved to see that it was still in one piece and that no other bandits had attacked since I left. We were just approaching the well when I saw a small figure pass by the sitting room window, stopping as they saw us before rushing to the front door. It was almost kicked open as Applebloom rushed out, charging straight into my gut and knocking the wind from me as she hugged me tightly.

“Rarity, you’re back!” Applebloom exclaimed, hopping back slightly so he could look up at me.

“I did promise,” I reminded her.

“Who’s your friend?” Applebloom asked, looking Pinkie up and down with wide eyes. “Is she… a clown?”

“You bet I am!” Pinkie declared, leaning down so she was level with Applebloom. “My name’s Pinkie Pie, what’s yours?”

“Ah’m Applebloom,” she replied, returning Pinkie’s smile.

“Oh, so you’re Applebloom,” Pinkie began. “Rarity told me all about how you kicked some mean ponies’ butts using your awesome skills on a harvester.”

I had indeed told Pinkie that story, although I hadn’t used those exact words, I could see she was just as good with kids as she was with… well, myself.

“Applebloom, would you come insi…” Applejack began as she appeared in the doorway, stopping midsentence as she saw us. “Mah goodness, welcome back Rarity!”

Applejack hurried down to greet us, giving me a much gentler hug than her sister, although it still contained the same amount of affection.

“Ah didn’t expect to see you again so soon,” Applejack admitted. “But come on inside, we were just about to hit the hay, but ah can rustle you up somethin’ to eat and we can catch up.”

We all made our way into the house; I walked alongside Applejack, asking her how things were going there on the farm while Pinkie walked with Applebloom. We settled into the kitchen while Applejack began sorting out a quick meal for us, the other Apple family members came in when they heard us arrive and greeted me. They were all delighted to see me and were pretty insistent on learning how I had been since I was last there. I did my best to evade their questions as I wanted to tell Applejack first, wary that she might not be pleased about my recent activities.

Once we had our food and the rest of the family gave us some peace, Applejack sat opposite me and introduced herself to Pinkie Pie. Not a lot was said between the two of them, mainly because Pinkie’s mouth was so stuffed full of apple based foodstuff that even she couldn’t talk, but also because Applejack had quickly figured out something was bothering me. I finished my meal, thanked Applejack before pushing my plate to the side, we both looked awkwardly at each other before glancing at Pinkie Pie.

“Um, Pinkie,” I began. “Would you mind giving Applejack and I some space? You could go introduce yourself to Winona.”

“Okie dokie lokie,” Pinkie said, bouncing back into the sitting room where the collie was watching us curiously.

“So Sugarcube,” Applejack said once we were alone. “What’s up? Ah can tell somethings botherin’ you.”

“Yeah…” I said slowly. “I have a confession to make Applejack; after we parted ways in Mule I made my way back to my old house…”

“Yeah I remember,” Applejack replied. “Has something happened?”

“Yeah,” I stated, nodding sadly as I pulled out the photographs from my bag. “My house was destroyed during the war; all that was left were these.”

“Oh no…” Applejack breathed as she looked over the photos before taking my hooves in her own. “Why didn’t you come back? You know we would have let you stay, I hope you haven’t been living rough this last week.”

“No, I haven’t,” I responded, dreading how she would take what was coming. “I actually found something to keep myself occupied while I was in Mule. Applejack… I started working for the Rebellion.”

There was a long silence following my confession, Applejack didn’t remove her hooves from mine but I could feel her grip loosen slightly.

“You… joined the Rebellion?” Applejack repeated in a blank voice that could have rivalled Sufferthorn.

“Yes… and no,” I answered, shaking my head slightly. “I was approached after I discovered what happened to my house, they… questioned me. In the end they asked for my help with some jobs and… and I agreed.”

“Rarity…” Applejack started after another short silence. “Ah’m not goin’ to judge you, but ah think you should tell me everything that’s happened.”

I swallowed a lump in throat and nodded. I told Applejack of how Maverick got in contact with me and everything that took place on the barge, the look on her face made it clear she wanted to interrupt after that, but she kept silent until I was finished. I then told her about my two missions against the Liberators, skimming over most of the details but telling her all the important things no matter how confidential they may have been. Finally I told her of my mission in Arclight, and ended my story on my escape from the city following the failure.

“I know what you think of the Rebellion,” I said quickly before she could respond to my tale. “And you have every right to be, but I just want you to know that anything I’ve done for them, I did because I truly believed they were the right things to do.”

“Ah… really don’t know where to start,” Applejack began, letting out a long breath. “Ah guess first of all ah should say that you don’t have to worry, ah’m not about to disown you over all this. Ah trust you when you say you only had the best intentions… ah don’t trust your friends though.”

“I’m not asking you to,” I told her. “Although Stranglethorn is the only one I would call a friend. Sufferthorn definitely hates me and Maverick… I find it hard to trust him let alone like him.”

“You’re right to be wary,” Applejack agreed. “Ah don’t know whether ah believe what he claimed about those orders to burn down the farm, do you believe it was really down to this marshal?”

“I’m honestly not sure yet,” I admitted. “I recently found out that the marshal was doing some other shady things, so I don’t find it hard to believe he was involved, but whether Maverick really did give the order or not… I’m just not sure.”

“We’ll see, but that can wait,” Applejack said. “About the jobs you helped them do, ah can see why you did, and truth be told ah can’t blame you for doin’ so. If ah was in your position ah probably would have helped stop those Liberators, although ah can’t say the same for what you did in Arclight. Stopping a war with Equestria is one thing, but all this… intrigue, are you sure you aren’t getting to deep in all this?”

“If it can help put an end to all this pointless fighting, isn’t it worth it?” I asked.

“Like ah said, if you think it is then ah’m not about to stop you,” Applejack repeated. “Ah just want you to be careful is all, the way they recruited you, doesn’t sound like they were giving you much of a choice. Are you sure that if they ever ask you to do somethin’ you ain’t comfortable with, that you can say no and still walk away in one piece?”

I opened my mouth to reply but shut it after a moment’s thought. I thought about how Stranglethorn killed Hatchet and dealt with those timber wolves, as well as all the ponies Sufferthorn had eliminated while she waited for me to destroy the Dreadnaught. If I ever refused a mission, and they weren’t happy about it… I wasn’t sure I would be able to walk away.

“The fact that you even have to think about it is worryin’ enough,” Applejack said when I didn’t reply. “Ah’m glad you’ve managed to look after yourself this long, but you should seriously consider just lettin’ it go. You stopped the Liberators, maybe that’s enough, maybe your part is done.”

“I…” I began, unsure of what I wanted to say. “I don’t know yet, I’ll see what happens when Stranglethorn returns.”

“Well, just know that if you decide to call it quits,” Applejack replied, gripping my hooves once more. “You’re welcome to live here with us, heck you can even bring your family over.”

“That’s asking a lot,” I pointed out.

“It’s no trouble,” Applejack insisted. “We have the room, you’d all be allowed to stay as long as you needed, however long it takes to get you all back onto your hooves.”

I smiled at Applejack before we were both distracted by the sound of tumbling. I turned around to see that Pinkie was rolling on the floor while Winona ran around her, excitedly wagging her tail.

“About your friend,” Applejack began, raising an eyebrow in confusion. “How exactly does she tie into all this?”

“Oh, she was the one who killed Arcana,” I explained before I could stop myself, Applejack looked alarmed so I quickly spoke up. “Don’t worry, she’s harmless… mostly.”

“She killed a pony and she’s harmless?” Applejack repeated sceptically, Pinkie overheard us speaking about her and stopped rolling.

“She was hired to,” I tried to say as Pinkie entered the room. “But the ponies who did tried to have her killed afterwards. I know it’s hard to believe, but I do actually believe she’s a good pony.”

“Aw, thanks Rarity!” Pinkie said, pulling me into a bone crushing hug. “And don’t you worry Applejack; from now on I’m on the good side. Team Rarity all the way!”

“Uh, sure…” Applejack replied, hesitantly. “Well, ah trusted you over the Rebellion stuff, ah see no reason to stop now.”

“I know this is all very bizarre,” I told her. “Believe me I know, but it’s all temporary until things settle down.”

“Whenever that is,” Applejack commented. “Anyway, you two are probably tuckered out from your walk here. You can take the room you had last time Rarity, you don’t mind sharing do you?”

“That should be fine, right Pinkie Pie?” I asked.

“It sure is,” Pinkie said, nodding her head rapidly. “You could join us too and we could have a slumber party.”

“Ah think ah’ll pass on that one,” Applejack replied with an awkward grin. “Ah have to get up early tomorrow for work, we’re making a delivery to Pivot soon and we need to get everything ready.”

“Hey, we were planning on going to Pivot!” Pinkie exclaimed, shaking me by the shoulders. “We can all go together!”

“Another mission?” Applejack said, raising an eyebrow at me. “Ah thought you said you were being given a break.”

“No mission, just a quest of our own,” I explained. “We’re looking for a fellow fashion designer I used to know, she might be able to lead us to the ponies who hired Pinkie and subsequently tried to… remove her.”

“Fair enough,” Applejack said, rolling her eyes slightly. “Well you are welcome to join me, and hey, we might see your other friends there too.”

“The thought has been on my mind,” I admitted. “Although I had been hoping to have some extra money the next time I saw them.”

“I’m sure they’ll just be happy to see you,” Applejack assured me. “And we’ll give them some apple treats on the house as always.”

With that decided, Pinkie and I made our way to the guest room where she passed out quickly again while I stayed awake dwelling on everything that had happened. I was relieved that Applejack wasn’t angry at me for aiding the Rebellion, but her concerns did give me pause for thought. It had been some time since I had considered Maverick to be a possible threat, but if I ever did want out, would they allow it? I was just glad that we would be returning to Pivot soon, a peaceful trip there and a reunion with Grass Snake and the others was exactly what I needed.

XXIV - Reunion

It was certainly a nice change of pace, staying at Applejack’s again. I hadn’t realised how exhausting my day to day life had become until I was back on the farm, I think Applejack noticed that as well which was why she insisted on me doing only the simplest of chores, mainly domestic stuff. Occasionally Pinkie and I would help Applebloom around the farm itself or Granny Smith preparing the apple cart for travelling to Pivot the next day. Naturally Applejack asked us both to keep quiet about Pinkie Pie’s… lifestyle, which didn’t seem to bother her in the slightest; I figured she was used to pretending to be something she wasn’t, which was truer than I could ever have guessed.

When the day’s chores were done, we all sat down around the kitchen table and ate while expressing our relief at not being attacked again. After that, Applejack offered to take me to one of the more secluded parts of the farm and give me some pointers on using my new sword. I had always figured I was pretty decent at wielding it, but once I was going up against Applejack and Pinkie Pie, both of whom were going easy on me, I realised just how sloppy my technique really was. Applejack was kind about it however, saying it was probably just down to my lack of experience in using my hooves, which she claimed had improved since the last time we met.

We sparred for a short while, Applejack showing me how to use my rapier while Pinkie gave me some tips on using my knives. By the end of it I didn’t feel much better at it, although the short training session turned out to be quite valuable in the future, I would certainly end up relying on my magic considerably less for a start. The next day we were setting off early, although this time we weren’t held up by long, drawn out farewells, I had every intention of returning with Applejack to the farm once our business in Pivot was concluded.

The journey back up to Pivot was a little slower than when I travelled the same road with Big Mac, it was also considerably less quiet thanks to Pinkie Pie. I was already used to her overbearing personality by that point, but for Applejack who hadn’t spent a huge amount of time with her on the farm; it came as a bit of a shock. I just found the whole thing to be rather amusing, having to resist the urge to laugh every time Applejack looked at me with pleading eyes to make Pinkie stop talking for a few minutes.

“Oh, nice move,” Pinkie commented as we walked. “However I’ve still got a few tricks up my stripy sleeves. I’m going to move my queen’s bishop to D4, check!”

“Um…” Applejack began, giving me another desperate look. “Ah’ll move mah… knight?... kings knight?... to F6?”

“Ha!” Pinkie exclaimed, pressing her face right up against Applejack's. “You fell right into my trap! I move my queen to F6 and take your knight, check!”

“Ah…” Applejack tried to say, I could practically see the gears in her brain trying to comprehend what was going on. “Ah have no idea.”

“Pinkie darling,” I started, taking pity on Applejack. “I don’t think our dear Applejack knows how to play imaginary chess as well as you do.”

“Ah think ah could manage…” Applejack argued. “If there was an actual board and pieces.”

“But Applejack, the lack of board and pieces is integral,” Pinkie told her in an urgent tone. “That’s what makes it imaginary chess.”

“Sounds like bullshit,” Applejack muttered, only to have Pinkie gasp in horror. “Ah mean…”

“Darn it!” Pinkie interrupted, kicking her hooves on the road. “You called my bluff; I guess you win, congratulations Applejack.”

Pinkie shook Applejack’s hoof then continued walking along the road while the pair of us were left standing still, staring at each other in utter bewilderment.

“I guess…” I began, searching for the right words. “It’s just Pinkie… being Pinkie.”

The rest of the journey was equally wacky, and when we came to stop for the night Pinkie finally got that slumber party she had been hoping for. Applejack lit up a campfire, thankfully having brought her own matches as I had never got my own back from Cogs, and Pinkie produced a bag of marshmallows out of nowhere which we roasted while telling ghost stories. For a short while before we called it a night and went to sleep, life actually felt like it was back to the way it used to be, no conflicts or troubles, just a few friends spending time together and having fun.

There was never enough of those times, I often found myself thinking back on them, wishing I could simply relive them over and over again, especially considering what awaited us the next morning. We all awoke, our fire having burned out sometime during the night; nothing was out of the ordinary, nothing that could have alerted us to what was waiting for us just around the corner, or more accurately just down the road. We made the final leg of our journey, Pinkie still talking and Applejack still dragging her cart, it was only when we reached the crest of a hill and Pivot came into view that we knew something was wrong.

When I first reached Pivot when travelling with Lyra and the others, I knew something was wrong just from how lifeless the town looked. This time that very lifelessness seemed even more pronounced, aided by the huge column of smoke rising from the centre of the town. We all glanced at each other, even Pinkie looked slightly worried. Without a word I pulled out my spyglass, extended it and peered through the lens down at the city. The road we were standing on led straight to the main street of Pivot, which went directly from the outskirts of the city to the square before the town hall.

As such I was able to see the town hall in the distance and the square in front of it, we were still too far away to make much out, even with the spyglass. What I could tell was there seemed to be a great deal of activity in the square, although trying to decipher what was like watching ants. What I could tell was that the source of the smoke didn’t seem to be any buildings on fire, rather there was some kind of large bonfire in the square. I turned my attention away from the square and moved my gaze down the main street to the entrance of the city.

Things were a little clearer there, I could see more ponies milling about and what appeared to be a hastily thrown together barricade constructed along the city entrance. Lowering my spyglass I turned back to my friends and told them what I had just seen.

“A barricade?” Applejack repeated. “Are they expectin’ to be attacked or something?”

“Should we go down and ask?” I questioned, neither of them looking too keen.

“Ah’m not sure,” Applejack replied slowly. “If somethin’s goin’ on down there, we should figure out what it is before marchin’ on in.”

“I agree with Applejack,” Pinkie stated. “We should approach the city from a different angle; see what we can figure out.”

Agreed on our next move, we all set off west, stopping occasionally so I could take a closer look at the city perimeter. Pivot was the only major city in Panchea that didn’t have a wall surrounding it, intended so ponies wouldn’t have to hike around the city depending on which direction they were approaching from. This served us well as there didn’t seem to be any other barricades erected and we quickly found a relatively deserted section that we could enter from. Applejack left the cart at a safe distance, hidden by some tall grass; we all agreed that if anything went wrong, that would be our rendezvous point.

As we neared the city, we saw two ponies walking around it, it looked like they were on patrol. We quickly decided not to hide from them, we could question them on what was going on in the city, and if something went wrong… well we had the advantage of greater numbers. They stopped when they saw us approaching; they were each wearing a uniform I had never seen before and carrying battle axes. Their outfit consisted of a forest green robe with hoods drawn up, on top of that they were wearing a breastplate, pauldrons and gauntlets, all crafted from a strange looking metal that resembled granite.

They watched us closely as we walked towards them, they were whispering among themselves but stopped suddenly when we got within a dozen metres, as if they had only just noticed something. They both drew their weapons and took a defensive stance while we froze, getting ready to draw our own if they tried anything.

“Sisters!” one of the ponies cried out. “Seize that abomination at once!”

We all hesitated, glancing quickly around us, worried that something had snuck up on us while we were walking.

“No!” the pony shouted out once more. “The unicorn, seize it so that we can present her before Lord Terra.”

“Unicorn?” Applejack repeated.

“It?” Pinkie added. “What are you talking about? Rarity is a ‘she’, not an ‘it’. Is it hard to tell? Are stallions particularly feminine looking where you come from?”

“You would give the creature a name?” the other pony said, sneering at us. “This is the only warning we will give you, join us and capture that abomination so that it can be castrated, or you too will be declared enemies of the Children of the Earth!”

“Castrated?!” we all exclaimed in horror as I crossed my hind legs instinctively.

Without another moment's hesitation, we all drew our weapons, preparing ourselves for a fight.

“You would betray your own kind?” the first pony said in disbelief. “For the sake of this creature? Gaia may show mercy to reluctant earth ponies like yourselves, but we will not forgive your ignorance!”

They both charged forwards, giving loud battle cries, one being swiftly cut off as Pinkie leapt down on one of them from behind and drove one of her daggers into the back of his skull. Applejack moved in on the second one, swinging her claymore in a wide arc, knocking the axe right out of the ponies grip. I tried to rush in and pierce his side with my sword, but at the last second he turned and my blade bounced harmlessly off his armour, not even leaving a scratch in it. He dived for his axe but my knife buried itself in his rump before he could take hold of it.

He screeched in agony as we all converged in on him, Applejack grabbing him by the neck of his robes and pulling him up so they were face to face.

“What the hay is goin’ here?!” she demanded. “Who are you and what’s goin’ on in the city?!”

The pony opened his mouth but never got a chance to speak as we all heard the shouting of more ponies dressed just like him, most likely drawn over by his scream. With few options, I pulled my knife out of his backside and charged after Applejack and Pinkie Pie as they retreated into the city. We were quickly able to lose our pursuers with a few sharp turns and ducking into an alleyway where we stopped to catch our breath.

“Okay…” I began, panting. “This seems bad.”

“Definitely,” Applejack agreed, peering out of the alleyway to make sure there weren’t more nearby. “We can’t stay here; we should get out now while we can.”

“What about Grass Snake and the others?” I asked in a panicked voice as it dawned on me just how much danger they might be in.

“We should go to their house,” Pinkie proposed. “They might still be okay.”

“Ah still think Rarity should go back at the very least,” Applejack tried to say. “Those crazy ponies are after unicorns by the sounds of it, us two should be fine though.”

“But I know where Grass Snake’s house is,” I argued. “Have you ever actually been there yourself?”

“Well, no…” Applejack admitted.

“Besides, we can’t leave Rarity on her own,” Pinkie added. “If those bad guys come after her, she won’t be able to take them on her own, no offence.”

“I’m not about to argue with that,” I said, honestly not offended in the slightest.

“Fine then,” Applejack relented, although I could tell she wasn’t happy about it. “Let’s get to Grass Snake’s house then, quickly and quietly.”

It wasn’t easy to find their house as I only knew the way there from the town square, and having to constantly change direction to avoid the patrols we ended up getting quite lost. Thankfully after much trial and error I got us onto the right track with only one other run in with our apparent enemies, an unlucky pony on his own who Pinkie made quick work of after he tried to sound the alarm. We crept up the narrow street Grass Snake had taken me down when we first met; I counted along the houses for the one I knew to belong to her.

I was certain it was right as we began to climb the front steps, I gave one quick look down either end of the street to make sure there was nopony approaching before I began knocking. There was no reply, pressing my ear up against the door I heard no sound coming from within. They might have been hiding so I knocked again, this time calling out in as loud a voice as I could risk.

“Grass Snake,” I called. “It’s me, Rarity. Pixie Dust? Is anypony there?”

There was still no reply, I glanced back at the other two and saw they shared my worried expression. It tested the door handle and found that it was unlocked, that made my insides freeze. Stepping slowly into the deserted hallway, I glanced at the other side of the front door and saw that all the locks had been broken. I was shaking as I carried on down the hallway, silently praying that they were all okay somewhere. I glanced in the sitting room and the kitchen, both of which were undoubtedly empty.

Making my way upstairs I found the second floor deserted too, but the third floor was not. I froze as I saw Willow lying in her bed, quite clearly dead. Applejack saw her over my shoulder and made her own way over to her as I stood paralysed on the top step. She looked her over briefly before glancing back at me, a solemn expression on her face.

“Ah don’t think she was killed,” Applejack told me. “Looks like her heart just gave out.”

I opened my mouth in the hopes something would come out, instead I heard a scream come from downstairs. My mind snapped from grief back into action in a second as I sprinted down stairs, reaching the hallway of the first floor where I saw Pinkie Pie dodging attacks being delivered by…

“Grass Snake!” I exclaimed.

Grass Snake ceased trying to bludgeon Pinkie to death with what looked like a broken chair leg and looked up at me as I leaned over the banister.

“Rarity!” Grass Snake exclaimed, dropping the chair leg and pushing past Pinkie to reach me.

She threw her forelegs around my neck and began sobbing into my shoulder; I simply rubbed her back while I looked around the hallway. I saw there was a small cubby hole door in the side of the staircase that I had never noticed before, which was now lying open, Caramel peering out fearfully.

“Grass Snake, what happened?” I asked, holding her by the shoulders.

“It was awful!” she sobbed. “Caramel and I were in town when they attacked, we hurried back here but… but they had already been here. Lock Pick, Pixie Dust, Emerald, they were all taken, and Granny Willow… she’s… she’s…”

Grass Snake couldn’t go on, breaking down once more. With great difficulty we managed to move her into the sitting room where Applejack and I sat down on either side of her while Pinkie tried to comfort Caramel.

“Grass Snake,” Applejack began in a firm voice. “Ah know this is hard, but it’s important that you answer these questions. When did all this happen?”

“Just yesterday,” she replied, sniffing.

“Do you know where the others are now?” I asked, she shook her head in response.

I decided not to ask if she believed them to alive or not, instead I glanced up at Applejack and tilted my head towards the hallway. We both stood up and Pinkie followed us after inviting Caramel to sit with Grass Snake. Once in the hallways we all looked at each other in silence for a moment before Pinkie spoke up.

“The town square,” she stated simply. “Whatever’s going on there, it might have something to do with all this.”

“You think the captured ponies are there?” Applejack asked.

“If they aren’t, we might be able to figure out where they are,” I reasoned.

“There’s bound to be more of those… Children of the Earth ponies at the square,” Applejack pointed out. “All five of us can’t go, but we can’t leave these two here alone either.”

“They need to get out of the city,” Pinkie said. “It’s too dangerous for them here, even if they aren’t unicorns.”

“They took Pixie Dust too,” I reminded her. “She was a pegasus, perhaps they’re targeting anypony who isn’t an earth pony.”

“That’s disgustin’,” Applejack spat. “But it’s all the more reason for Grass Snake to get out of here with Caramel.”

“I agree, but I’m not leaving the others to be…” I began, stopping myself from saying the dreaded word, whatever it meant to these ponies. “I have an idea that might work, but you probably won’t like it as it involves splitting up.”

“If you think you know somethin’ that will work, ah’ll help,” Applejack told me.

“Me too,” Pinkie agreed.

“We’ll wait here for a few hours and move under cover of darkness,” I began, looking directly at Applejack. “Then you escort Grass Snake and Caramel out of the city, out of all of us you’ll have the best chance of getting them out safely, especially if you run into any trouble. Take them to the apple cart and wait for us to return.”

“What will we do?” Pinkie asked eagerly.

“We will head to the town square,” I explained. “If we can get into the town hall and climb the clock tower, we might be able to find out what we need to know about the prisoners and devise a plan to rescue them. Once they’re rescued, we’ll escort them out of the city and meet up with Applejack, from there we’ll head back to Sweet Apple Acres.”

“What about the rest of the town?” Pinkie asked.

“There’s nothing we can do for it on our own,” I replied sadly. “I’ll tell Maverick what’s happened here and he can do something about it, it is after all in his best interests to hold onto Pivot, he’ll never accept this group coming in and taking it over.”

“That sounds agreeable enough,” Applejack said thoughtfully. “Ah can definitely get these two safely out, and you’re sure you can do your part without getting caught?”

“I have no doubt that Pinkie Pie can,” I began, smirking at her. “As for myself, they don’t call me a part time spy for nothing.”

XXV - Rescue Mission

I stood by the top of the staircase while Grass Snake and Caramel said their final farewells to the body of Granny Willow. Applejack and Pinkie Pie were waiting downstairs, ready to get the mission underway. Caramel left first, walking straight past me down the stairs while Grass Snake stopped in front of me when she was done saying goodbye.

“She’s… taking this all very hard,” Grass Snake explained. “She is happy to see you again, really she is.”

“It’s alright,” I assured her. “Once we rescue the others and get you all to Sweet Apple Acres, things will get better.”

“I can’t ask you to do this,” Grass Snake tried to say.

“Then it’s a good thing you don’t have to,” I replied as I started down the stairs, Grass Snake following closely behind. “We’re rescuing the others, I promise you that.”

“You’re too good Rarity,” Grass Snake said, shaking her head slightly. “You hardly know us really, why do you do so much for us.”

“That’s what friends do,” I responded as we arrived back in the hallway where Applejack was prepping Caramel. “Are we all set?”

“Think so,” Applejack replied. “You ready Grass Snake?”

“Yeah, anything I should know?” she asked.

“Just follow my lead, do everything ah tell you,” Applejack began. “And if things get hairy and ah tell you to run, you run.”

Grass Snake nodded firmly, with everypony ready, Pinkie opened the door and poked her head out, checking to see if the coast was clear. Once she pulled back and gave us a nod, we all walked out into the street. Not wasting any time, Applejack led Grass Snake and Caramel down the way we had come from while Pinkie and I set off down a different junction, making for the town square. We crept along in absolute silence, I was a little surprised, but I quickly reminded myself that Pinkie wouldn’t have made a very good assassin if she sang all the way to her target.

We only had to change route a couple of times to avoid patrols, for the most part we were able to maintain a fairly direct route to the northern end of the square. The closer we got, the louder the noises from the square became. There was shouting, screaming and wailing, I dreaded what we would find when we got there. Once we reached the edge of the square, we found it pretty difficult to cross the open space to the back door of the town hall. Our moment came when the shouting at the front of the building intensified and the guards posted around the back hurried around to investigate.

We quickly darted forward and tried the door, finding it unlocked. Slipping inside, we closed the door behind us and continued on our way. The back rooms were mainly used for storage, janitorial equipment and filing that didn’t fit or hadn’t been sorted into the main offices. They were also mercifully empty and we were able to find a ladder that led straight up to the clock tower without encountering a single threat. Once we were on the tower it was a different story, there ended up being four guards posted there, all armed with crossbows, looking out over the square.

Pinkie and I looked at each other and exchanged a quick nod before splitting off in opposite directions around the tower. I came up behind two guards who were standing side by side, looking out over the southern side of the tower. They were both wearing the same green robes and rock like armour as all the rest, I knew that armour was pretty much impenetrable, but I had already seen Pinkie stab one through the back of his hood, so clearly their outfits left a lot of weak points.

I drew two knives, one in each hoof, saving my magic in case I messed my attack up. I crouched low, taking a long, quiet breath, readying myself. When I was sure I could do it, I pounced, bringing both knives down into the two guards’ necks where their spines met their skulls. They both collapsed instantly and I tugged my knives out and looked over their bodies as a deep red stain began forming in the back of their hoods. I started to feel sick, I wasn’t sure I would ever get used to taking lives, but I reminded myself of what was at stake and forced myself to carry on and not collapse like I did at Sweet Apple Acres.

“Nicely done,” Pinkie whispered to me as she joined me, obviously having no trouble with her own two targets. “So, what can you see?”

I drew my spyglass once more, extending it and peering down over the edge of the clock tower at the gathering in the square. My eye was first drawn to the source of the smoke earlier, and I nearly dropped my precious spyglass off the tower when I saw what it was.

“They’re burning bodies,” I hissed.

Indeed the fire was piled high with the bodies of a couple dozen ponies, and it was still burning brightly, smoke funnelling into the sky. Turning my attention away from the fire, I looked to the survivors. They were all chained together, forced to their knees by the many robed ponies infesting the square, they all appeared beaten and bloody.

“That’s weird,” I murmured, more to myself.

“What is it?” Pinkie asked.

“Most of their prisoners appear to be earth ponies,” I explained. “But I thought it was pegasi and unicorns they hated.”

“Maybe those are earth ponies who refused to join them,” Pinkie proposed. “Like me and Applejack, maybe… maybe they burn the unicorns and pegasi!”

“I’m not sure…” I muttered, looking back down.

The chained up prisoners were on either side of the square, all the earth ponies on one side while the few remaining unicorns and pegasi were on the other. That was the first thing that bothered me, there was far more on the earth pony side than the other, which was when I noticed the ponies who were not chained up or dressed in green robes. Besides the two groups of prisoners, there was another large group of ponies who looked relatively unharmed, all corralled outside the Trapper, the tavern where I met Grass Snake.

They were being held back by a line of robed ponies, and they certainly needed holding back as they were trying their hardest to push through and help the chained ponies. I watched the group closely, noticing the same thing about them that I had noticed about the first group of prisoners I had seen; they too were all earth ponies. That made no sense, it was hard to believe all those prisoners were earth ponies as well as these others being held back, it would mean there was vastly more earth ponies living in Pivot than I realistically believed, and it didn’t explain why there were so few pegasi and unicorn prisoners…

My answer came when one of the pegasi was unchained and dragged, kicking and screaming into the centre of the square for all to see. I focused on him as another robed pony made his way down the town hall steps to where the pegasus was being restrained. This new pony had his hood lowered and I could see a crown of laurels resting atop his head. As he reached the pegasus, I noticed many prisoners looked away, clenching their eyes shut while others screamed in objection. The crowned pony turned to one of his subordinates who handed him a very bloody saw, and my whole brain kind of crashed as I realised what was happening here.

Those earth ponies being held in place by the Trapper were the only real earth ponies in the square not wearing robes, the prisoners I had mistaken for earth ponies were the missing pegasi and unicorns. This was what they had meant by ‘castration’, they were taking the captured unicorns and pegasi one at a time, and cutting off their horns and wings in front of everypony. As I looked over the ponies I had mistook for earth ponies, I could now make out the wounds in their sides where wings used to be, and the severed stumps of what used to be their horns.

Shaking, I lowered the spyglass and moved back from the edge of the tower. Pinkie asked what was wrong, but before I could answer I emptied my stomach over one of the dead guards.

“Rarity, what’s wrong?” Pinkie asked again, sounding even more worried this time.

“They’re… they’re cutting off their horns and wings,” I told her, passing her the spyglass with a shaking hoof.

Pinkie’s eyes widened and she snatched the spyglass up and looked out over the edge of the tower, coming back after a minute, a look of fury on her face.

“This is… this is…” she tried to say, her face growing red as she ground her teeth. “Monstrous!”

“I know, but keep it down,” I urged her. “The last thing I want is to be caught if it means ending up like that.”

Pinkie bit her lip.

“What about your friends?” she asked uncertainly.

I could feel the colour drain from my face as I remembered what we had come here to do. Taking the spyglass back, I forced myself to look out again, the pegasus was just being dragged away, adding another streak of blood to the ground beneath him while the crowned pony carried his wings away towards the town hall. I looked first to the group of prisoners that were not yet maimed, praying that I would see Lock Pick, Pixie Dust and Emerald among their numbers. I checked… and double checked… and triple checked before I accepted that they weren’t.

Gulping I turned my attention to the prisoners who had already been dealt with, I felt my heart stop when I saw that males and females of all ages were represented in their numbers. I looked for a few minutes, it was hard to tell because all the ponies were soaked in blood and shared looks of misery and agony, but I found all three of them. Pixie Dust and Emerald were next to one another, while Lock Pick was several ponies down from the pair, none of them had been spared the horrific act. I could feel my own fury building up inside of me, Pinkie was right, monstrous really was the word.

I reported my findings to Pinkie and we sat together in silence for a moment while we thought about what to do.

“We might have to wait,” I said hopelessly. “We can’t take them all on, and there’s no way we’re sneaking down there and freeing them. We’ll have to wait and see what they do, maybe they’ll transport them somewhere else when they’ve finished.”

“Applejack can’t wait forever,” Pinkie commented. “But I think you’re right.”

And so we waited, occasionally I would take another look down to see how far along the prisoners they were. A few times I saw the prisoner that had been brought to the centre, break the hold of the robed ponies. Sometimes he would escape only to be ganged up on and brutally murdered, other times the crowned pony would slip with the saw and cut something vital, and the pony who tried to escape would be left to bleed out on the ground. Once they were dead, they were added to the bonfire, which did suggest they had intentions for them beyond killing, we just needed to find out what those intentions were and hopefully we would be able to devise a plan to rescue our friends from it.

They were almost finished when the newcomers arrived, the crowned pony was in the middle of removing a mare’s horn when a group of seven, striped figures emerged from the main street and began making their way over him. He stopped what he was doing and went to greet them, leaving another robed pony to finish the mare off.

“Zebras?” I stated in bewilderment.

“Excuse me?” Pinkie said from where she sat fiddling with her daggers, clearly eager to get some pay back for the prisoners below us.

“Seven zebras just arrived,” I explained. “They’re talking to the leader guy; he’s… showing them the prisoners.”

“Let me see,” Pinkie requested, I let her look down at the newcomers herself. “Slavers, I think.”

“Slavers?” I repeated.

“It makes sense,” Pinkie muttered. “These ponies treat unicorns and pegasi like animals… no, less than animals. Once they break them it makes sense that they would then use them for slave labour, in this case they’re selling some on.”

I took the spyglass back and watched as the head zebra began picking out half a dozen prisoners from those who had already had their horns and wings removed. It didn’t escape my notice that they chose only mares and fillies, I was sure I might be sick again before the mission was finished. Six ponies had been unchained and passed over to the other zebras who tied them in a single file line with rope, but the head zebra didn’t seem to be done. He looked the prisoners over once more before stopping by Pixie Dust and Emerald, looking them up and down before saying something to the crowned pony.

The robed ponies began unchaining them and Lock Pick screamed out in objection, trying feebly to stand up, only to collapse where he continued to cry out in anguish for the two girls who were screaming and fighting to get back to him. A robed pony came over and began kicking Lock Pick in the face as the two fillies were tied to the rest of the zebras’ slaves. Lock Pick refused to stop shouting though, so the robed pony hit him over and over again until he was no longer capable of shouting.

The crowned pony gave an order to another one of his lackeys who, with the help of the pony who had delivered the beating, dragged Lock Pick’s sobbing body away from the rest of the prisoners, straight out of the town square. The head zebra and the crowned pony exchanged a large bag of money, and the zebras went on their way, whipping the slaves to keep them moving. I pulled back from the edge of the tower and looked straight at Pinkie, only then noticing the tears streaming down my face.

“They’ve taken Pixie Dust and Emerald,” I told her. “Lock Pick tried to stop them and they… they…”

Pinkie pulled me into a tight hug as I tried my best to reign in my emotions.

“They dragged him off somewhere,” I continued. “I might still be able to save him, but I have to hurry. You need to get out of the city, find Applejack and tell her what’s happened. The two of you might be able to ambush the slavers once they’re clear of the city.”

“I’ll make it happen,” Pinkie promised me, darting away towards the ladder without another word.

I placed my spyglass away, took one last shuddering breath before hurrying after her, one of the guard’s crossbows slung over my back. I never caught up with her; once she was out of my sight she was gone, leaving me alone to exit the town hall. I kicked open the door and stepped out to find two robed guards standing there on either side, they both turned to face me, but they were too slow to prevent me from dishing out some justice on them and their twisted group.

Using magic I pointed the crossbow at one of the guard’s face, and shot him at point blank range. His body was propelled away by the force of the bolt, and while the other guard was still reeling from this, I swung the crossbow through the air and smashed it across his head. He stumbled back from the impact and before he could recover I drew my sword and drove the blade through his right eye. I was finding that after seeing what I saw from the tower, I felt considerably less reluctance in killing these ponies.

Sheathing my sword, I hurried across the square to the street where I had seen them dragging Lock Pick towards. I galloped down the street, not giving a toss as to whether I was seen or heard, but I very quickly found my prey. It was a church on a street corner, at least four guards positioned outside it. It was a church to the Six, I had never been fussed on them as I’ve mentioned, I could never understand building a religion around six alicorns when five are nothing but myth. Clearly these ponies cared even less for the Six however, as one was busy scrawling the words ‘false god’ in what I hoped was red paint across the front door, and somepony had previously put the windows through.

Two of the robed ponies were talking amongst themselves; one was busy with his graffiti while the last was the only one who seemed intent on keeping guard. He was the first one I took down, drawing one of the knives that was already stained with the blood of his comrades, and hurling it through the air so it embedded itself in his face. The other guards were quickly alerted but there was nothing they could do. One of the many ruined houses stood directly opposite the church, and a particularly large piece of rubble sat in the middle of the street, it would have been far too heavy for me to lift generally, but my fury gave me strength and the boulder felt like a pebble in my magical grip as I lifted it up and threw it into the two ponies.

The last robed pony stood still at the door, paralysed in fear as I walked up towards her. She tried to draw her Warhammer, but I wrenched it from her grip and tossed it to the side. She backed up against the door, probably getting red paint all over her robes as she did, I reached out with my magic grabbing hold of her and lifting her into the air before punching her through the door and sending her flying into the church. I hurried in, finding the inside of the church empty before rushing to the vestry and opening it up to find Lock Pick lying in the corner.

He wasn’t even restrained; the guards probably knew he couldn’t escape no matter how much he wanted to. I ran over and dropped to my knees next to him, cradling his head in my lap and trying to mop up some of the fresh blood running from his head wound with my sleeve.

“Lock Pick!” I called out. “Please wake up, can you hear me?”

His eyes blinked open and he looked up at me weakly.

“Rar… Rarity?” he said in a quiet voice. “Why… are you here? You need… to leave… before they…”

“It’s okay Lock Pick,” I interrupted. “Nopony is going to find me.”

“I…” he began, tears welling up in his eyes. “I couldn’t save them.”

“Pixie Dust and Emerald?” I asked. “Don’t worry, we’re going to…”

“I failed them…” I continued, I wasn’t sure he was really listening to me. “Just like I failed my own son.”

“Your… own son?” I repeated in confusion.

“He wanted to join the Rebellion,” Lock Pick continued miserably. “He thought I would be proud… of him. I wasn’t… I said… awful things… things I can never take back. He left, and the next time I heard of him… was in a red letter. I didn’t stop him… I didn’t do my duty as a father… and I never even got to say goodb…”

Lock Pick cut off when he went into a fit of coughing. I began patting his back the same way I remembered Grass Snake doing when he went into a coughing fit, although this one was much worse than when they were back in the house and I saw some blood come up.

“I… failed him,” he said once he got his voice back, although it sounded even weaker now. “And now I’ve failed… them too. Please… please… don’t let them suffer anymore. Save them… I beg you.”

“Lock Pick,” I began looked him straight in the eye. “I promise you, no harm will ever come to them again so long as I live. Now I’m going to get you out of here…”

“No!” Lock Pick exclaimed, bursting into another fit of coughs from the effort of speaking up. “I’ll only slow you down… I’m too… ill. Don’t throw your life away for an old cripple like me.”

“But I can’t just leave you here,” I tried to say. “I can’t let them hurt you anymore.”

Lock Pick raised a trembling hoof and placed it on his chest.

“My heart… is right here,” he told me. “You can make it quick.”

My own heart froze as I realised what he was asking me to do. At first I was going to object, but then I saw the pleading look in his eyes. I reached down and drew my third knife, the only one that wasn’t stained with the blood of his captors. My heart came back online, beating rapidly as I prepared myself, my breathing almost as shaky as my hooves. I forced myself to calm down, knowing that if I botched this up he could end up suffering more because of it.

Once I was steady, I held the knife over his chest where he had indicated.

“Goodbye Lock Pick…” I murmured before I plunged the knife in.

XXVI - Monsters

I don’t know how long I had been separated from Applejack and the others by the time I left the church. I could only hope Pinkie had reached them in time, explained the situation and that instead of worrying about me, they would be dealing with the slavers. I needed to get out of the city and go to aid them, that meant sneaking back through the streets and avoiding patrols of robed ponies. I probably could have killed them, but I couldn’t bring myself to do that after I ended Lock Pick’s life, with his death the red mist faded and my rage was replaced by doubt and regret.

It wouldn’t take me long to leave the city, all I had to do was pick a direction and keep walking until I reached the outskirts then simply walk around to where the apple cart had been left. It wouldn’t have taken long, but that was before I ducked into an old business district to avoid a patrol and found myself in front of a very familiar shop. What with everything that had happened regarding the Children of the Earth, I had completely forgotten the other reason Pinkie and I wanted to come to Pivot.

It was rather amazing that I should find myself outside the shop of one of my old business rivals, Suri Polomare. I had known Suri for a long time when I was working in fashion, it had been her who won the competition using her rainbow thread, I had only come second, but the next time we competed against one another our places were reversed. This led to a small rivalry between us which I sort of lost track of as my career took off and I lost interest in petty quibbles like the one we had. Naturally I lost track of her when I left for Equestria, it wouldn’t have surprised me if she too had got a place on one of the boats, she certainly had enough money to.

As I looked at the shop, completely abandoned, striped clean, not even boarded up, I could tell she hadn’t been here for a long time. If she could have helped us find the robed ponies who wanted Arcana dead, she wasn’t here to do so. I got so distracted looking through the shop window at the dark showroom that I didn’t hear the sound of approaching hooves. My ears pricked up just in time for me to glance around and see two robed ponies turn the corner and stop dead as their eyes fell on me.

“Let’s not do anything rash here,” I said, giving a weary smile as I started backing up.

Both ponies gave loud battle cries and drew their weapons, but I had already turned and bolted in the opposite direction. I heard them giving pursuit, so I made a few sharp turns in the hopes of shaking them off, these two seemed a little more competent than the enemies I was used to, refusing to let me out of their sights long enough to escape. I ended up becoming a little lost and even picked up another three guards in my haste to escape the first two. If I had stomached my apprehensions and killed the first two I would have been fine, but now there was too many to attempt to take on.

I turned right and charged into an alley way, regretting it almost immediately as I found it led to nothing but a dead end. I tried to go back, but they had already followed me in and, seeing I had nowhere to run, began slowly approaching. I ran to the end of the alleyway, hoping for a back door to a building or a sewer entrance or something, I was completely out of luck however. I turned back to see the five ponies had formed a wall and were slowly encroaching on me, there was no way I was giving them the slip.

“There’s nowhere to run abomination!” called one of the ponies as they moved in.

It really felt hopeless for a second, when suddenly something dropped down onto the middle pony’s head, something wet and sticky which dribbled down the peak of the hood. The pony gave a disgusted yell and stopped moving, the others stopped too to see what the problem was. The pony reached up and wiped the liquid off his hood, he tried to flick it off his gauntlet but most of it stayed on and simply dribbled off. Another large drop of the liquid fell down onto another pony’s shoulder, it was only at that point that I and the five guards all turned our heads up to see what was hanging over the alleyway.

I was at a safe distance, but the five ponies were standing directly under the creature, it must have looked terrifying as they stared up into its gaping mouth, filled with long shimmering teeth dripping with strands of saliva. The first guard to scream was the first to be pounced on as the creature dropped down from where it had wedged itself between the two buildings. The creature fell with its mouth wide open, swallowing the pony almost whole before snapping its mouth shut and driving its teeth into his body. The guards quickly forgot about me and turned their weapons on the monster, but that only made it angrier.

The creature appeared to be a mass of green fluff with naught but a mouth, a great, gaping maw filled with multiple rows of teeth that made my sword look like a buttering knife. It made quick work of the ponies, their attacks seemed to do nothing but make it angrier, or hungrier. It quickly devoured the first pony and moved onto the next, driven by a ravenous appetite for anything that could fit in its mouth. I watched the display from the end of the alleyway in horror, the robed ponies were picked off one by one, and I knew once the creature was finished it would be my turn.

I saw the second last pony pull out a familiar object, it was a bomb, very similar to the one I used when taking on the Dreadnaught. This one had a fuse however, and the pony was still searching desperately for his matches when the creature attacked him. The bomb was dropped and it rolled down the alleyway towards me, I dived and scooped it up, searching in my own bag for matches before stomping the ground in frustration when I remembered giving them to Cogs. The creature was moving onto the final pony, I didn’t have much time left to either light the bomb or find a way out.

The creature was so large it filled the width of the alleyway on its own, when it took five ponies to do so previously, so getting past it wasn’t an option. I turned back to the bomb, I didn’t have matches, but I did have something those Children of the Earth ponies didn’t, magic. I held the bomb up to the tip of my horn, channelling all my magic into my horn but not releasing it so it would build up, as I did the heat of my horn also began to build up and the occasional spark was released. The creature finished off the last pony and turned its attention of, shuffling forward on obscured feet.

“Come on, come on, come on!” I urged as the creature got closer.

Then I heard a small hissing noise as one of the errant sparks managed to ignite the fuse. I was thankful for how short it was when I chucked it forward, getting it right into the monsters wide mouth before it reached me. The bomb went off with a muffled explosion, sending out a shower of bodily fluids and clumps or fur. I had turned at the last second and sheltered myself with my forelegs, but I could still feel lumps of the stuff hit me on the back. Looking back I found that the creature had been reduced to pulp which now coated the walls and floor of the alleyway.

Taking some rapid breaths, I quickly calmed down, remembering that I still needed to escape the city and that explosion would no doubt draw in even more guards. I ran out of the alley and got myself to a safe distance before slowing down and making a much quieter exit from the city, once I was clear I used my compass to find out that I was roughly southeast of Pivot, which meant I didn’t have far to go before I reached the others. It was dark enough that I was able to sprint over the hills without fear of anypony in the city seeing me, and the grass muffled my hoofsteps.

It turned out that I had even less distance to travel than I expected before I found the others, as when I reached the road leading to and from Pivot, I could see the light of torches further down and the sounds of metal clashing. I guessed Applejack and Pinkie must still be engaged with the slavers, so I hurried south, staying off the road so the sound of gravel crunching under my boots didn’t give me away. As I got closer to the flickering lights, the sound of fighting ceased and I wondered if it was over, but once I was close enough to make out figures, I saw that wasn’t the case.

Applejack and Pinkie both stood, facing me and Pivot, while three of the seven slavers stood in a line with their backs to me. As I crept closer I could make out the crouching shapes of the slaves who were cowering in fear, and the bodies of the other four slavers, but I also saw that two of the three remaining slavers were each holding one slave as a human shield, curved swords pressed up against their throats. The head zebra was shouting something in his native language, gesturing for Applejack and Pinkie to lower their weapons.

It was at that point that I was close enough for my friends to see me; they glanced at each other and gave a small nod, lowering their weapons to the ground very slowly. That was my moment to strike, drawing a knife and dashing forward before leaping into the air. The head zebra spun around but was helpless to stop me from landing on his shoulders and bringing him crashing to the ground, my dagger buried to the hilt in his throat. The other two stared at me, shocked at what had just happened, Applejack and Pinkie Pie took that as their opportunity to take them down.

Pinkie did her usual thing of appearing behind the slaver to my left in a second as soon as everypony had taken their eyes off her, sticking one of her daggers into his sword hoof and the other into his back. Applejack simply charged the last slaver head on, his grip on the slave was slackened so Applejack tossed her roughly to the ground when she got close enough before swinging her claymore in a wide arc, taking the zebra's head clean off. When the head fell with a small thud onto road, we all sheathed our weapons and went about untying the prisoners. Any rope that we were able to untie rather than cut, we gathered up and I shoved it into one of my bags.

“Rarity?” Pixie Dust said in a quiet voice when she saw who was undoing her binds.

“Yes, it’s me Pixie Dust,” I whispered back to her. “Don’t worry; I’m taking you both to see Grass Snake now.”

Once all the slaves were liberated, the three of us stepped off to one side to give them all a moment.

“Was he…” Pinkie began, noticing I wasn’t with Lock Pick.

“I… he asked me to make it quick,” I said, quietly so the two fillies wouldn’t hear. “I could never have got him out of there.”

“It’s okay Sugarcube,” Applejack told me, putting a foreleg around my shoulder. “You did what you knew was right, you always do.”

“Yeah…” I began before Applejack whipped her leg back in disgust, seeing what I was covered in.

“The heck is this?!” she exclaimed, her leg covered in matted clumps of green fluff.

“It’s a long story,” I replied. “Let’s just say those Children of the Earth got to see what a real abomination looked like. What happened here?”

“Well Pinkie came to me just like you said to,” Applejack explained. “Ah left the others over at the apple cart and we came down here to get the jump on them. They took their time mind you; they must have stopped to stock up on supplies or somethin’.”

Applejack gestured to a cart further down the road that I hadn’t noticed before, there were two small crates on it which we discovered contained various items of food.

“Shall we take this with us?” Pinkie asked, rapping her hoof on the cart.

“Might as well,” Applejack replied, nodding towards the bodies of the zebras. “They’re not gonna use it.”

Pinkie and I hooked ourselves up to the cart and Applejack helped Pixie Dust, Emerald and another young filly on board. She then quickly instructed the others that we were going to meet up with our friends, referring to Grass Snake and Caramel, then we would all head down to Sweet Apple Acres. Most of them were too traumatised by their horrific experience of being captured, tortured, mutilated and sold into slavery to even acknowledge what Applejack was saying; they did as they were told however. We set off to the west, following Applejack’s lead to where the apple cart had been hidden.

My first hint that we were getting close was the sound of somepony rushing through the grass, once they got close I saw that it was Grass Snake who stopped in front of Applejack. Applejack gestured back to Pinkie and I who were at the rear of the party, Grass Snake ran around the other ponies with us and soared through the air, landing on the cart.

“Grass Snake!” the two fillies cried out, rushing into her embrace.

“You’re okay…” Grass Snake began before she saw just how wrong she was. “Emerald, your horn?! Pixie… What did those monsters do to you?!”

“I’m sorry Grass Snake,” I said as we continued hauling the cart up the hill. “We arrived too late to do anything about it.”

“You girls saved them,” Grass Snake said firmly, even as her voice shook with anger. “You have nothing to be sorry for… Wait, what about Lock Pick? Your friend said you went after him.”

“I…” I began, deciding quickly on the spot whether I should tell the truth or not. “I’m sorry; he was already gone when I caught up with him.”

“Oh…” Grass Snake said feebly still clutching onto the two fillies. “I… I just don’t believe this. How could this kind of thing happen? I thought the worst was behind us… But you tried your best, and you saved Pixie and Emerald, I can never thank you enough for everything you’ve done.”

We reached the apple cart where Caramel was waiting, once the other two fillies dismounted the cart, they rushed over to her and they all held each other and cried together. Grass Snake took this time to speak to the other filly, a pegasus whose carer had apparently died when they were taken. While Pinkie checked on the three girls, I walked with Applejack around the other mares to see if they were alright and if they were happy to come back to Sweet Apple Acres. None of them objected to that arrangement, some were very appreciative for the offer and rescue, one mare in particular threw her hooves around Applejack and sobbed uncontrollably, just saying thank you over and over again.

With that decided, we all got a quick bite to eat from the two carts before Applejack hooked herself up to her own cart and led the way back along the path we had come that very morning. Grass Snake and the other mares walked behind Applejack while Pinkie and I took up the rear once more with the zebras’ cart, the four fillies were placed in one or the other, in the back of ours sat Emerald and the new filly, Scootaloo. We walked straight through the night, stopping only to rest around midday once we were sure we had travelled a safe enough distance from Pivot.

We didn’t make it back to Sweet Apple Acres until early evening the next day, by which time everypony was thoroughly exhausted from the trip and their ordeal. Applebloom came out to greet us, she was excited at first but skidded to a halt when she saw all the ponies with us, particularly how they were covered in dry blood. It was a hectic few hours while all the new ponies were taken up to spare rooms and had their wounds treated, a difficult task considering the Apple family only had the most basic understanding of first aid.

Braeburn set out that night, making for the town of Timber to the east. There he would warn them about what happened in Pivot, try to get word up to Glean and see about fetching a doctor to come out. Being the only unicorn still with a horn, I was left in charge of tending to the others who had theirs removed. A unicorn’s horn was mostly made from the same material our hooves were, with only a light dusting of fur to give it it’s colour, but the core of the horn was packed full of nerves and neurons, it was basically an extension of our brain.

When they were being removed, the victims wouldn’t have felt any pain at first, but when the saw got far enough in… It was a truly terrifying prospect for any unicorn, the kind of thing we had nightmares about. It was very possible for a unicorn to become brain dead from losing their horn, if the damage that led to its removal was severe enough to… tug on the rest of the brain beneath. These wounds however were fairly clean cut, and had been done slightly above the base of the horn, leaving a small stump. I dreaded to think how much practice that crowned pony had to get so efficient at removing horns at just the right place to stop the pony from ever using magic again, but still able to carry out other functions.

Without any real medical knowledge, I resorted to treating it like I would any other wound, clean and disinfect the area before bandaging it up. However we learned quite quickly that trying to disinfect the area when the poor mare’s brain was literally exposed only made things worse. When we came to the rest of the unicorns we skipped that step, praying that when the doctor arrived they would be able to sort something out for the victims. To make matters worse, one of the unicorn mares was heavily pregnant, due to give birth in a matter of weeks. Granny Smith checked her over, having some experience in the matter when it came to the birth of her grandchildren, she reported that the baby was still alive despite all the stress the mother had been through, but they would have to monitor her very carefully over the coming days.

The pegasus wings were left to Grass Snake, as she was in the same boat I was in, however they weren’t able to do much either before Grass Snake began insisting they needed surgery if they were going to make any improvement. Once all the victims had been treated to the best of our abilities and put to rest, the Apple family, Pinkie Pie and I gathered in the kitchen with a bottle of strong cider. Grass Snake took the spare room I usually slept in with her three fillies while Scootaloo stayed with Applebloom in her room. The pregnant mare took the second spare room while the other five were divided between Braeburn’s vacant room and Applejack’s, who opted to sleep on the sofas in the living room with Pinkie and myself.

“Well…” Caramel said after a long moment of silence in which we all just sat and drank. “That was stressful.”

“Eyup,” Big Mac agreed, downing his own drink in one gulp.

“It was awful,” I added, getting a round of nods.

“How long before Braeburn gets back with the doctor?” Pinkie asked.

“Braeburn’s fast,” Granny Smith assured her. “He’ll be back before you know it.”

“Ah hope so,” Applejack muttered. “Ah don’t know how long those girls will manage without some real treatment.”

“Eyup.”

I rested my head on the table, groaning in frustration at how bad everything had turned out. I didn’t raise my head again, even as the others discussed what was going to happen for the next few days. As I lay there I could feel myself drifting off, and when I came around again I had been moved onto one of the sofas, Applejack and Pinkie Pie already fast asleep elsewhere in the room. Needless to say the farm work would take a hit over the next couple of days; the Apples could only task one pony at a time to managing the usual work while the rest busied themselves looking after their guests.

It didn’t help that the very next day, two mares and Emerald were already developing fevers. I had just got a free minute in the afternoon after helping granny Smith tend to Autumn, the pregnant mare, which I spent walking around the farm with Pinkie Pie.

“A giant ball of fluff…” Pinkie repeated thoughtfully. “With teeth. Sounds like the kind of thing I’d do.”

“Excuse me?” I said, quirking my eyebrow at her.

“Nothing,” she said quickly. “But still, now we have actual monsters, what’s the deal with that.”

“I have no idea,” I said honestly. “But before I encountered it, I found the shop of that mare I was telling you about.”

“Your fashion friend?” Pinkie asked. “The one who made those robes?”

“That’s the one,” I confirmed. “It was just luck that I came across it after… after Lock Pick… But it’s been abandoned for a while by the looks of it.”

“Forget that for a while,” Pinkie said, waving it away. “Are you still sad about what happened?”

“I had to kill a friend,” I reminded her with a deadpan look. “Of course I’m still sad; unlike you I don’t enjoy killing other ponies.”

“Hey now, no need to be mean,” Pinkie replied, looking hurt at the accusation. “I don’t like killing ponies, in fact I hate it. I wish nobody ever had to die… but then I also wish nobody ever did anything to hurt anybody else.”

“Sorry, I’m just…” I began, rubbing the sides of my head. “Yesterday, after seeing what those ponies did… I just lost it. I didn’t even realise until after I left Lock Pick what exactly I had done.”

“You’re not really feeling bad for them are you?!” Pinkie exclaimed. “The Children of the Earth, after what they did to the poor ponies in that town?”

“I don’t feel bad, I just…” I tried to argue. “Don’t think I’ll ever be cut out for doing what you do, killing ponies who deserve it.”

“You don’t have to do what I do,” Pinkie pointed out. “I do what I do, and the world doesn’t need two mes.”

I didn’t reply, just turned and kept walking through the orchard.

“Look, maybe you will have to ki… take more lives,” Pinkie continued, hurrying to catch up with me. “And you’ll probably always feel bad about it, but that’s a good thing! Being able to feel guilt and question your actions, always checking yourself to make sure that what you do is always for the greater good, that’s what makes you better than them… that’s what makes you a good pony!”

“Do you really believe that?” I asked in a dull tone.

“I do!” Pinkie declared. “And I always stick to what a believe in. We might not have been friends for very long, but I know you’re a good pony inside, and you’re always trying to do the right thing.”

“Thank you Pinkie,” I said, smiling for the first time that day. “I’m very glad to have a friend like you.”

“You don’t need to thank me,” Pinkie replied. “Making ponies smile is what I live for. So, now that your frown has been turned upside down, what will you do next?”

“I really should stay here and help with looking after the others,” I began. “But I also need to get back to Mule, Maverick has to hear about what’s going on in Pivot, something needs to be done to help those ponies we left behind.”

“Well if that’s what you think, maybe you should do just that,” Pinkie suggested. “These ponies are in safe hooves now, Applejack and her family will look after them, and the doctor will be here soon.”

“I’ll bring it up with Applejack first,” I said after a moment’s thought. “If she agrees and thinks she can manage here without me, then I’ll go.”

“Well, I wish you the best of luck with that,” Pinkie said, patting me on the back. “I just know that once I get back everything will be sunshine and lollipops.”

“Get back?” I repeated. “You’re leaving?”

“Just for a wee bit,” Pinkie replied. “I’ll travel about, look around, ask a few questions. I’ll see if I can’t figure out more about those robed ponies, or that monster that attacked you, or your fashion friend who went missing… what was her name again?”

“Suri Polomare,” I informed her. “And for all we know she didn’t ‘go missing’, she might have just moved or something.”

“Exactly, ‘for all we know’,” Pinkie repeated. “We don’t know what happened, and we won’t know until one of us finds out, and since you have more important things to be doing, I’ll take care of it.”

“Well then you should keep hold of this,” I said, pulling out the scrap of embroidered robe. “You might need it if you do find her. Just hurry back, what with everything that’s going on in this mad country, I’d hate for anything to happen to you.”

“Don’t you worry about me,” Pinkie said, rubbing my head a little condescendingly. “I’m full of surprises; I’d just love to see somepony try to get the drop on me.”

With that see pulled up her jester hood, her bushy mane disappearing beneath it, before pulling her grinning mask out of nowhere.

“Tell Applejack I said goodbye,” Pinkie said as she slipped the mask on. “Oh yeah! And you… Goodbye Rarity!”

“Goodbye Pinkie Pie,” I replied in a choked voice as I was pulled into another bone crushing hug. “I’ll see you… whenever I see you.”

Pinkie released me and I doubled over, panting to get my breath back. When I looked up a few seconds later, she was nowhere in sight.

Author's Note

End of Part 4

XXVII - Friends, Family and Allies

Author's Note

Part 5

XXVII - Friends, Family and Allies

I was alone in the kitchen the next morning, washing my hooves in the sink before I started preparing breakfast for everypony; I wanted to do one last thing to help before I left that afternoon. Needless to say I would be preparing something with apples, I found it bizarre that Applejack and her family could eat almost nothing else and never get sick of them. While I was making a start, Big Mac came in through the back door, already having been outside working since the break of dawn. He pulled a carton of orange juice from the fridge and sat down at the table, pouring himself a glass.

“It’s hard work, livin’ on a farm,” he said randomly after he finished his glass.

“I’ve gathered that,” I replied, glancing back over my shoulder at him. “First those deserters, now this. I bet you miss the days before the war, back when this kind of thing never happened.”

“Eyup,” he said, pouring another glass. “But give it time, things are bad now, but they’ll get better. As long as we have ponies like you, workin’ to make it so.”

I blushed slightly at the compliment, glad I had my back to him. Before I could reply, Granny Smith called down the stairs for Big Mac to come up and help her with something.

“If ah don’t see you before you leave,” Mac began, gulping down his orange juice and standing up. “Good luck out there, and like AJ said, don’t let those Rebel guys bully you into doin’ anything you don’t wanna.”

My head snapped around just as he left the kitchen, I wondered if he had overheard Applejack and I talking or if she had told him. Either way I probably should have been annoyed at the invasion of privacy, but I was touched to know he cared about that.

“Why are all the good ones gay?” I muttered to myself, smirking as I peeled apples.

“Who’s gay?” a small voice said from beside me.

I jumped slightly in surprise, glad I was holding the peeler with my magic rather than my hoof. I looked down to see that Scootaloo was standing next to me.

“Oh, nobody,” I replied quickly. “I was just making a joke.”

“Oh, okay,” Scootaloo said before brightening up. “Do you want some help?”

“Um…” I started, wondering if she shouldn’t be resting.

“I tried asking the others,” Scootaloo continued. “But they’re all busy with... the others, I don’t really know how to help with that, but I’m pretty good at cooking.”

“You’re looking awfully chipper Scootaloo,” I pointed out, reaching down and feeling her forehead. “Wouldn’t you rather be resting?”

“That’s what the others said,” Scootaloo mumbled, looking put off. “But I’m fine, really!”

I looked past her eager eyes at the two bandaged nubs on her back, wiggling irregularly.

“Don’t worry about those,” Scootaloo said, noticing what I was looking at. “Doesn’t hurt a bit, not even when they…”

Scootaloo froze and her face paled as she remembered exactly what happened, I guessed she was trying to repress it.

“It really doesn’t hurt?” I asked, completely bewildered at the notion.

“Not for me at least,” Scootaloo replied, glancing up at the ceiling, a concerned look on her face. “Don’t tell the others that, they might… hate me for it.”

“Why would they hate you?” I asked, confused by such a notion.

“Because I didn’t suffer like they did,” Scootaloo explained in a low murmur. “And I know they did, I remember their screams when it happened.”

“But you didn’t?” I asked again, leaning down to her.

“No, I could hardly feel it,” Scootaloo said in a despondent tone. “First time my… condition ever helped me.”

“What condition was that?” I asked, not sure if I should be probing so much this soon after the incident, but she seemed to be taking it well.

“My wings were never properly formed,” Scootaloo told me, giving a slightly angry look at her back as her nubs wiggled some more. “They were small, feeble, the doctor said they’d never grow properly and I’d never be able to…”

Scootaloo clenched her eyelids shut for a few seconds, holding back tears. When she opened them again there was no trace of them and she carried on talking like it hadn’t happened.

“But I could also hardly feel them,” she continued. “So when those… ponies cut them off, it hurt a bit, but nowhere near as bad as it was for the others.”

“Well I’m sorry to hear about your condition,” I began sincerely. “But I’m happy you’re not in any pain. And while the others may be in a lot of pain, I’m sure they won’t resent you for it.”

I regretted saying that, how was I supposed to know whether they would resent her or not, they were in agony and ponies could be very irrational when they’re in pain.

“But Scootaloo, are you sure you’re not… upset about anything else?” I asked slowly. “It was a terrible ordeal even if it didn’t hurt you as much, and… a lot of ponies died.”

“You think I care about my foster mother,” Scootaloo stated, suddenly sounding very bitter. “Well I’m not, I never cared about her and she never cared about me.”

“I’m sure that’s not entirely…” I began, a little disturbed by the filly’s sudden anger.

“It is true!” Scootaloo snapped, interrupting me. “You want to know how she died back there? When they came for us, she tried to escape on her own, she was going to leave without me!”

“Ponies do stupid things when they’re scared,” I tried to explain.

“Yeah, well her stupid thing got her head chopped off,” Scootaloo replied, shuddering at the memory. “I don’t care about her, she meant nothing to me.”

Without much thought or consideration I reached out and pulled Scootaloo into a hug, still making sure to avoid her bandages.

“Well you’re safe now,” I told her in a firm voice. “And we aren’t going to let anything bad happen to you.”

“Um… thank you Rarity,” Scootaloo replied in an awkward, yet honest voice. “I never did thank you three for saving me, and looking after me here… Everypony is so nice, and Applebloom’s really cool.”

“Well get used to it,” I said, pulling back. “Because you can stay here as long as you want. So, you wanted to help me cook?”

Together Scootaloo and I prepared apple pancakes for everypony in the house, which by that point totalled up to sixteen ponies. Needless to say, Applejack was forced to retract her offer of allowing my parents and sister to come and stay. I didn’t mind in the slightest, after the incident in Pivot I was damn sure my family wasn’t coming back to Panchea for a while yet. That conversation did raise an awkward point, mainly that I hadn’t yet written a letter to them. They wouldn’t be worried yet as they knew it took three weeks for any mail to travel across the sea, but it wouldn’t be long before the worry began to settle in.

I would have to bring that up with Maverick as well as the Pivot situation when I met up with him, if anyone had the money and authority to get a letter to Equestria, it would be him. Once we had delivered everypony’s breakfast to their respective rooms, I sat back at the kitchen table with the Apple family and Scootaloo, Grass Snake eating her with the other fillies in their room.

“So you be careful out there missy,” Granny Smith said with a mouth full pancakes. “And if things start to look too dangerous, you run straight back here, you hear?”

“I will,” I assured her. “There’s only so much trouble I can get myself into before I have to draw a line.”

“And if your friend doesn’t think that helping the ponies of Pivot is a good use of his time,” Applejack added in a stern voice. “Then you give him a buck from me.”

“I will certainly try if I think it won’t get me killed,” I replied, noticing the curious looks from some of the others at the table.

Once the plates were cleared up and the Apples were already filling out to deal with their various chores, including Scootaloo who went with Applebloom to tend to the sheep, I made my way upstairs to the spare room where Grass Snake and the fillies were. There was a very solemn atmosphere in the room when I arrived, Caramel smiled up at me but the other two didn’t even acknowledge my presence, an awful change from the three fillies I remember giving me the adorable puppy eyes when I tried to leave their house the first time.

“Hello Rarity,” Grass Snake greeted in a tired voice. “Thank you for the breakfast, everypony loved it.”

I noticed that Pixie Dust and Emerald had hardly touched their own plates.

“No problem,” I replied, deciding not to comment on it. “I was just about to head on.”

“Oh, one moment,” Grass Snake said, standing up from the bed and making her way to the door where I stood.

We both stepped out into the hallway and she closed the door behind her before turning to face me.

“Thank you again for everything you’ve done Rarity,” she began sincerely.

“How are they?” I asked, nodding towards the closed door.

“Not good,” Grass Snake admitted, biting her lip. “Pixie especially, but Emerald’s fever is getting worse.”

“The doctor will be here soon,” I reminded her.

“I think they’re hurting in ways no doctor can heal,” Grass Snake said in a pathetic voice, staring at her own hooves. “When I took them in I thought I could protect them, but now they’re suffering more than ever and there’s nothing I can do to help.”

“You can be there for them,” I replied firmly. “You’ve been like a mother to those fillies, and now they need you more than ever.”

“The things those monsters did to them…” Grass Snake murmured, growling slightly. “How can I ever make them forget about that?”

“I guess you can’t,” I admitted. “But then forgetting and coming to terms with something are different things. Sure it’s hard now, it might be for a long time, but you’ll get there… someday… together.”

“Thanks,” Grass Snake said, wiping her eyes dry. “To think I used to be a zoologist.”

We shared a brief chuckle at that before her smile faded again.

“They won’t talk about Lock Pick,” she informed me. “What exactly happened? They didn’t… see it happen did they?”

“When the slavers took them,” I began in an uncomfortable voice. “He tried to stop them, but they beat him down and dragged him away. They didn’t see him… go, but by the time I caught up with him, it was too late.”

Not exactly a lie, but I didn’t have it in me to admit to what I had done, at least not to Grass Snake.

“I hope…” Grass Snake said, sniffing. “I hope they didn’t make it too… painful for him. At least he’s at peace now; they can’t hurt him anymore, him or Granny Willow.”

“They’d both be happy to know that you’re all alive and safe,” I told her.

“He did adore those girls,” Grass Snake agreed with a small nod. “They probably reminded him of his…”

She stopped talking when she realised what she was about to reveal, although I knew she was referring to his son I couldn’t let on that I knew, lest it raise awkward questions about when he told me.

“So you’re leaving?” Grass Snake asked. “Back to your house in Port Mule?”

“Uh, not quite,” I replied, not wishing to get into that story. “But I am going to Mule for a bit to see some… business associates. I’ll be coming back here whenever I’m done, so you’ll see me soon enough.”

“Well you stay safe out there,” Grass Snake said, pulling me into a hug. “After everything you’ve done for me and the girls, I couldn’t bear to think of something bad happening to you.”

When Grass Snake returned to her room, I began walking down the hallway, stopping when the door behind me burst open and Caramel came rushing out, throwing her forelegs around my neck.

“Thank you for saving us,” she said, burying her face in my mane. “My sisters appreciate it too… even if it’s hard to say. You’ll come back soon, won’t you?”

“Of course I will,” I told her. “I still owe you three dresses I believe.”

Once Caramel returned to her room I made my way downstairs and out the front door, walking through the front yard just as Applejack came out of the blacksmiths.

“You headin’ off?” She asked, removing her apron.

“I am,” I replied, noticing the look on her face. “I’ll be careful, I promise.”

“Okay, okay,” Applejack said, raising a hood defensively. “Ah believe you, you’re definitely gettin’ better at using those weapons at least.”

I glanced down at my rapier and set of knives, all of which I had cleaned meticulously along with my clothes.

“I just hope I don’t need to use them much more,” I stated honestly. “The day I can put these away for good will not be a sad day.”

“Ah agree,” Applejack said solemnly, looking over at her claymore which was leaning against the anvil in the centre of her room behind her. “That will be the day.”

After a quick hug, Applejack went back to work and I went on my way down the lane. As I reached the exit I saw Applebloom, Scootaloo and Winona trying to round up the sheep in the field to my left. I gave them a wave before I carried on which they both returned enthusiastically, I was happy that they had taken so quickly to one another as I walked away. I also wondered if, when my family did finally make it over, would Sweetie Belle fit in just as well, I was sure the three would make a great team.

As I began walking south, clouds started building overhead. The dry spell had lasted so long; we were well overdue for a proper rain. It made me wonder how Panchea ever managed without controlling the weather the same way they did in Equestria, the randomness of it all was surely difficult for the farmers. Perhaps when all the madness and chaos was behind us, when order had been restored to the country, real change could start being made. A railway would be good, growing up I never realised how tedious all the walking between towns and cities was until I moved to Equestria and discovered just how expedient having trains was.

The last time Applejack and I had made this trip, we reached the river before we had to stop and set up camp, but we had set off first thing in the morning. Since I hadn’t left until early afternoon, I ended up waking well into the night. I wasn’t too tired, and was well supplied this time, so I decided to just keep going until I reached the bridge, assuming it had been rebuilt. It turned out to be a wise move on my part, continuing to travel through the night as I reached the woods on the edge of the river shortly after the rain began to fall.

I was a little wet, but I managed to reach the shelter of the canopy before it started lashing down. I decided to walk just a little further and find out if the bridge was reconstructed before I stopped to rest, at least that way I would go to sleep knowing roughly when I would reach Mule come morning. If the bridge hadn’t been rebuilt, I would have been very surprised, the Liberators seemed to be quite efficient when it came to fixing things up, the buildings in the Merchant District were evidence of that even if the Botanic District was not.

As the case was, there was brand new bridge waiting for me when I reached the river, but more than that, there was a small wooden hut on the opposite bank, a light shining through its window. Curious, I began making my way over the bridge to the hut, wondering who could be inside. As I crossed the bridge, I was able to make out four banners standing at each of the corners, bearing the Liberator’s sigil of the hoof smashing the sun. Clearly Maverick hadn’t finished off the Liberators since I left after all, I did wonder what progress had actually been made in my absence.

As I neared the hut, a dark figure in the window moved, he must have seen me because the next thing he vanished from the window and the door to the hut opened and he stepped out. He was wearing the dark plate armour of the Liberators, but something about him seemed familiar to me.

“Travelling a bit late, aren’t you?” he pointed out, sheltering his head from the rain. “Do you want to stop inside?”

“That would be lovely, thank you,” I replied, wary that I might get recognised if I stepped into the light.

“I really hope you’re not here to cause trouble,” the stallion said as he let me enter the warmth of the hut. “I’ve been posted here ever since they fixed up the bridge, haven’t had one problem yet, I’d like to keep it that way.”

“Well I assure you I’m just travelling to Mule on business,” I told him. “The last thing I want to do is cause trouble for you.”

The stallion invited me to sit down at the table next to the window where he had been when I arrived.

“Well I’m glad to hear that,” he said, pulling out two tin cups and a water jug. “I have to watch this place to make sure nopony tries to destroy it again, like I’d be able to stop them if they tried. Drink?”

“Please,” I replied, accepting the cup and taking a sip. “I came by here when the bridge was out, I was helping to make a delivery and having to trek down to that temporary bridge was not fun.”

“Tell me about it,” the stallion agreed with a small laugh. “I was posted over at the bridge for a while…”

He stopped laughing suddenly, as if he just noticed something about me.

“Is there a problem?” I asked, worried that I had just been recognised.

“No, it’s just…” he began before standing up and walking over to a desk where he picked up a scrap of paper.

I began sliding off my chair slowly, getting ready to bolt for the door.

“White unicorn…” he read. “Curly, purple mane… Blue eyes… Blue jacket, boots, carries a sword!”

I sprung to my hooves, dashing for the door. To my surprise he didn’t try to pursue me, instead he just called after me, but his voice didn’t sound aggressive, it sounded almost… pleading.

“Wait, don’t go!” He shouted out just as I exited the hut back into the pouring rain.

For some reason, despite how stupid and dangerous it was, his tone made me stop and look back.

“Please, come back in,” he pleased. “I’m not your enemy, I won’t arrest you.”

I was hesitant, but something about him seemed sincere enough that I made my way back into the hut, although I still kept a close eye on him, readying myself in case it turned out to be a trap.

“Sorry, I should have realised that would startle you,” he began awkwardly. “You’re a member of the Rebellion, aren’t you?”

“You already know that much,” I said, gesturing towards the note on the desk.

“Yeah, you’re like…” he began, thinking of the right words. “Port Mule’s most wanted.”

“Great,” I grumbled, that was going to make getting in a pain. “So why aren’t you going to arrest me?”

“Why? Because I hate the Liberators!” the stallion exclaimed. “I used to be in the Rebellion myself, but when Typhoon split off, my whole unit went over to his side. We weren’t even asked, we were just told one day that we worked for him and only him, and apparently our new mission was to take over Equestria! Now I’m stuck with them because my brother and his family live in Mule, if I deserted they might take it out on him.”

“Huh, I always wondered why there were so many Liberators,” I commented. “Are there many who got forced to join?”

“More than most ponies would think,” the stallion replied. “My name’s Spoon Bender by the way.”

“Rarity,” I replied, shaking his hoof and choosing not to question his name when he was a pegasus.

“For a while you were all anybody could talk about,” Spoon Bender informed me. “Nopony really knows the details, all we heard was that somepony threw a bomb at Typhoon’s face and ruined some big secret plan he was hatching.”

“You don’t know about the plan?” I asked curiously.

“I’ve heard rumours about an underground dungeon and Typhoon making monsters,” Spoon replied. “But like I said, nopony really knows what’s going on.”

“What about Typhoon?” I asked, a little more eager this time. “Is he… alive?”

“Oh yeah, but few see him anymore,” Spoon replied before shuddering. “Whatever you did to him left a mark, and he has not been happy about it.”

“So the entire guard is on the lookout for me,” I muttered to myself thoughtfully.

“Well they were, but things have relaxed recently,” Spoon explained. “I guess everypony assumed you’d never come back.”

“Well I’m back now, and I need to get back into Mule,” I told him.

“Are you going to help with a secret attack or something?” Spoon asked, sounding almost excited by the prospect.

“I hope not,” I replied. “As long as the Liberators don’t pose any immediate threat to this country or Equestria, then I’m not about to do anything rash. No, something terrible has happened in Pivot and I need to get to my allies and warn them.”

“Really?” Spoon asked, clearly worried by the seriousness of his tone. “It must be bad if you’re going to risk returning to Mule to find help.”

“Well at this point I think the Rebels have the best chance of saving the city,” I explained. “But now I need to figure out a new way into the city.”

“I might be able to help with that,” Spoon began slowly, to which I stared in surprise. “Like I said, I hate Typhoon and the Liberators, and since you’re with the Rebellion, you might be able to do something for me in return.”

“Depends on what it is,” I replied.

“It’s nothing over the top, don’t worry,” he assured me before continuing. “I just need you to explain to your officer or whoever you report to, that if you’re ever going to try and take down the Liberators once and for all, some of us are still loyal to the Rebellion, and many more are just serving because they have nowhere else to go. So what I’m asking is… please don’t kill us, I know I’ll just surrender if a battle ever starts.”

“I’m sure my superiors will be glad to hear that,” I told him. “The fewer unnecessary casualties, the better, however if I’m to deliver that message to them I need to get into the city safely.”

“Don’t worry,” he said, giving me a wink. “I have just the thing.”

XXVIII - Port Mule's Most Wanted

“I really don’t think this is going to work,” I said from beneath my helmet as Spoon Bender and I marched towards the city gates. “I already used this tactic in one of my previous missions; they’re bound to check their own guards.”

“Trust me, I have never been checked,” Spoon assured me. “Even with my helmet on, these guys just don’t care enough to. Besides, they had this coming when they left a spare suit of armour in that hut.”

The gate to Port Mule was now being guarded by six armoured ponies, three on each side; this didn’t seem to deter travellers however. The guards watched everypony closely as they walked in and out of the city, but one of them had his helmet off despite the light rain, and true to what Spoon Bender told me, he didn’t look like he was paying very close attention. As we approached the gate I was very glad for the weather turning, the last thing I needed was to get cooked inside Liberator armour a second time, that would not have been good if I was required to run or fight at any point, plus the rain gave me a good excuse to keep my helmet on.

“Okay, now’s the moment of truth,” Spoon said, starting to sound worried now that we were about to carry out our plan. “I hope your acting is good.”

“My acting is fine,” I whispered back before raising my voice just loud enough to sound casual. “So he charged me the full price after all, even after I showed him the voucher.”

“Seriously?!” Spoon replied in false shock as we kept walking straight towards the gates. “Did you ask to see the manager?”

“I did, but he just told me the same thing,” I told him as we began meandering through the ponies outside the gate. “Well of course I made a scene, told them they wouldn’t be receiving my patronage ever again.”

“Did you get anywhere with that?” Spoon asked, giving a polite nod at the guards to our left as we passed between them.

“No, they didn’t seem to care,” I said as we left the guards behind us, completely unaware. “I spent the entire evening looking for another cake shop that could manage the order on such short notice.”

“Cake shop?” Spoon repeated once we were far enough from the gates that we could drop the act. “You were talking about a cake shop? I was picturing a green grocers.”

“What kind of green grocers does orders that involve vouchers?” I asked in bewilderment.

“You know… green grocers,” Spoon said weakly. “Anyway, let’s keep moving. The last thing I need is someone going up to the bridge and seeing I’m not at my post.”

“You can head on now if you want,” I told him. “I should be able to make my own way from here.”

“It’s okay, I’d like to make sure you get there without any trouble,” he replied, taking the lead before stopping short. “You didn’t actually tell me where we’re going.”

“The Botanic District,” I lied simply. “Come on, I’ll lead the way.”

“Where about exactly?” he pressed as we began walking. “I mean, if we get separated we can meet up there.”

“You’ll see soon enough,” I told him. “Can’t risk anypony overhearing, you know how it is.”

We began walking through the city, the whole way Spoon Bender stayed right by my side. I decided to take the same route I did when I first came here with Applejack, that meant travelling through the market place and out the other side to the streets that would take me to the Botanic District. Before we left the Merchant District I took a quick turn into a side street, Spoon Bender almost losing track of me before hurrying to catch up.

“What are you doing?” Spoon asked. “I thought you said Botanic, it’s the other way.”

“I know,” I replied. “But you should always take the most roundabout route to your destination. It’s a spy trick, helps throw off… tails.”

“You think we’re being followed?” Spoon whispered to me, not looking back.

“We can’t be too careful,” I told him. “Don’t forget that we’re going to a top secret Rebel hideout.”

“Of course,” he replied eagerly, quickening his pace to match my own. “Still, you should slow down. It’ll look suspicious to anyone who sees us.”

“Well if we are being pursued we wouldn’t want them catching up with us,” I pointed out, only picking up more speed. “Anyone who sees us will just assume we’re on our way to investigate some disturbance, this disguise really is wonderful like that.”

“I suppose…” Spoon grumbled.

We kept moving at a quick trot, Spoon trying desperately to keep up with my strides and sudden turns. We ended up running all across the Home District before we finally arrived in the Botanic District, only then did I finally slow my pace to a proper walk as we made our way down the wide street, passing by the ruined houses until we reached my old home. I hadn’t wanted to return here, but it was a matter of necessity, I needed someplace safe to return to and this was the only location that I knew would be suitable.

“Here we are,” I said, stopping outside number forty-two. “You should feel very privileged, very few agents know of this location, and we’re only permitted to share it with ponies we trust completely.”

“This is it?” he asked, looking over the burnt out shell. “This is where the Rebel leaders are hiding out?”

“Yes, why don’t we both go on inside?” I suggested.

“M… me too?” he stammered.

“Of course, after how you helped me reach here,” I began, pushing the gate open. “I’m sure the boss will want to congratulate you personally.”

“Well, alright…” he replied slowly, glancing back down the deserted street.

“Expecting someone?” I asked in a sweet voice, smiling beneath my helmet. “Come on, if we stay out too long they’ll get suspicious. They might even make a run for it if they think we’re a threat.”

“Oh, okay, let’s go now,” Spoon said quickly, following me through the gate and up the garden path.

As I approached the house, I removed my helmet, allowing my hair to tumble out and settle before indicating to Spoon to do likewise. He took off his own helmet, quickly glancing back into the street before following me the last stretch to the front door. Once there I knocked three times, paused, then knocked twice before opening the door. I gave a small sigh as I looked around the old house again before making my way over to the parlour doors which lay wide open.

Once inside I found the room almost exactly as I remembered it, although the fireplace looked like it hadn’t been lit in some time and Mashed Potato was nowhere to be seen. I briefly wondered what became of him, if he moved on or if the Liberators found and dealt with him. Spoon Bender walked up beside me, looking around the empty room, a look of agitation growing on his face.

“So… where are they?” he asked, clearly struggling to keep his voice even.

“Oh, they’re about,” I replied nonchalantly as I griped my helmet in my magic and wound it back.

“About where?” he demanded, turning to face me only to receive a face full of metal as I swung the helmet through the air, smacking him right across the face.

He was knocked to the ground, clutching his jaw and moaning loudly in pain.

“Huh…” I muttered. “That usual knocks ponies out. Here, let me try again.”

His eyes snapped open and stared up at me in fury before the helmet came crashing down a second time. Once he was unconscious, I striped his armour off, chucking it into the corner of the room with my own before dragging his body over to one of the armchairs and began tying him up, using a length of the rope we had recovered from the slavers back outside Pivot. While I waited for him to regain consciousness, I searched the house, making sure Mashed Potato wasn’t somewhere else, hiding from what looked like two Liberator guards marching up to the front door.

I wasn’t surprised when he was nowhere to be found, I just hoped he was safe somewhere far away from Port Mule. When I returned to the parlour I was glad to see Spoon Bender coming around, I took the armchair opposite him and waited for him to regain his senses. It took a little longer than I expected, and I was forced to wait in the armchair the entire time. I wanted to stretch my legs, but I was worried that if I left he would wake up and I wouldn’t be there to sit and look in control. So I waited impatiently, and when he finally did come around properly and open his eyes to me sitting with one leg crossed over the other and my head leaning lazily against my foreleg, the result was considerably more anticlimactic than I had hoped.

“Wha… Ha… muh…” Spoon mumbled in an incoherent voice, not staring straight.

My shoulders slumped in disappointment as he shook his head and tried to clear his thoughts.

“You?!” he exclaimed suddenly. “What did you do?!”

“You know…” I began, getting as comfortable as I could in the armchair even though I could still feel that accursed spring jutting into my rump. “I was sure I knew you from somewhere, the moment I laid eyes on you I knew we had met before. At first I was convinced you were the pony guarding the temporary bridge when my friend and I went to cross it, it certainly seemed that way when you admitted to being posted there for a while, but then I realised…

“You were the pony who came to the market that day,” I continued. “The one who tried to get me to join the Liberators, you said I looked like I could handle myself in a fight. I admit you’re a very good actor, you had me going for a while, that you really hated the Liberators and wanted to help the Rebellion, I didn’t even think to question it when you went outside for that very long toilet break. You weren’t posted at that bridge to protect it; you were waiting there for me to come by, weren’t you?”

Spoon Bender was grinding his teeth in anger and struggling against his bonds.

“You could have captured me then and there,” I told him, unable to help smiling at his frustration. “Even better, you could have had me captured at the city gates once I was outnumbered, but you were just too ambitious. You heard me say that I had to meet my superiors somewhere in the city and you thought you could capture us all in one fell swoop.”

“I was going to make you pay!” he spat. “I was going to make you all pay for what you did to Commander Typhoon and the Dreadnaught!”

“Oh, so you did know about that,” I replied, a little surprised. “It makes sense; you’re clearly quite devoted to your cause. So, you brought me into the city, but instead of taking me then and there, you tried to have me take you straight to Maverick’s doorstep. I saw those guards at the gate begin following us as soon as we started walking, you signalled them when you nodded, didn’t you? And is that what you were doing when you were off having that incredibly long pee, sending word ahead and letting them know about your brilliant plan to destroy the Rebellion? Well it was a real shame I took all those turns and walked so fast, by the time we got here your allies had already lost track of us.”

“They’ll find you!” Spoon snapped. “They’ll come for me and they’ll find you.”

“I’m sure they’ll come for you,” I agreed. “But by the time they find you here, I’ll be long gone. You really didn’t help yourself, being so insistent that you come with me to the hideout; I had doubts before that, but you pretty much gave yourself away at that point. So, before I go on my way and leave you here to be found, why don’t you tell me what the Liberators have been up to since my last visit, any new weapons of mass destruction?”

“Like I’d tell you anything, Rebel sow!” he shouted back.

“I should warn you,” I began in a sing song voice, for a moment I really was turning into Pinkie Pie. “I’ve killed a pony, well… more like a dozen ponies.”

“Really? You’re going to threaten me?” Spoon said, laughing at the idea. “Sorry lady, but you’re a bit too stuck up and snobbish looking for me to take that seriously.”

I hesitated, playing with the idea of living up to my threat, of sticking my knife into his hoof. He would probably talk then, once he was done screaming that was. Before I could do anything of the sort however, my eyes were drawn to a chip in the mantel of the fireplace, a chip that had been there long before this house was torn apart during the war. I had been just a small filly, playing ‘the floor is lava’ with the sofa cushions strewn across the floor. After one particularly powerful jump I sprung off the cushion I landed on, propelling myself into the fire place where my head collided with the stone mantel.

My horn knocked a small chip out of it and I fell to the ground, screaming my head off. My mother rushed straight in, scooping me up and kissing my forehead better. She sat down on the sofa after replacing the cushions, with me still on her lap, there I lay curled up while she gently rubbed my head and sang softly until I drifted off to sleep in her embrace. I stared at the chip in the mantel for a long time, deaf to Spoon Bender's shouting while I relived the memory over and over again. Once my mother was in my head I couldn’t get her out again, and I couldn’t help but wonder what she would think of her little filly now, a murderer who was contemplating using torture to gain information from her prisoner.

I tried very hard not to think about how my parents would see me if they knew the things I had done, but now I couldn’t stop myself. It was only when Spoon Bender shouted particularly loudly that I finally turned back to him.

“About time you woke up…” he began before he saw the tears in my eyes, his anger switching to confusion in a second.

“Call for help,” I muttered, making my way past him out of the parlour. “I won’t be here when it comes.”

Without waiting for any kind of response, I entered the hallway and made my swift exit from the house. I made it all the way to the street before my shaking legs gave out beneath me and I became a sobbing wreck on the pavement. For what felt like forever, I sat there weeping in the rain, truly hating myself. Even when I heard Spoon Bender’s muffled shouts coming from within the house I still didn’t move, I just couldn’t find the motivation to get up and keep going. I heard the faint sound of clopping, approaching hoofsteps and I still didn’t look up, I heard no metal in those steps so I doubted it was a guard in their heavy armour.

“Excuse me Miss,” a warm voice spoke in front of me. “Is something the matter?”

Sniffing back my tears I craned my neck to see who was talking to me, and saw myself looking up at a lavender unicorn wearing in an old brown robe.

“Twilight Sparkle?!” I exclaimed in amazement and no small amount of shock.

Twilight gave a loud ‘eep’, leaping back from me, her eyes initially fearful before recognition began to dawn on her.

“Uh… Rarity?” she asked, uncertain. “The dress maker from Canterlot?”

“Yes,” I confirmed as I stood up, my previous thoughts temporarily vacating my mind. “What in the name of Celestia are you doing here?!”

“Well, the thing about that is…” Twilight replied nervously, glancing up and down the street to make sure it was deserted before she leapt forward.

I instinctively stepped back from her, but not before her outstretched hoof grabbed hold of mine and her horn flashed with a brilliant purple light. The teleportation was just as I remembered it being when I was in the Tower back at Arclight, a brief second in which I could neither see nor feel my own body, and when the light faded my surroundings had shifted. This time when the light faded I found myself in a neat little bedroom, complete with a single bed, ensuite bathroom and window that looked out over the Horseshoe Bay.

“Where are we?” I asked in bewilderment as Twilight began pacing back and forth across the room.

“My safe house…” Twilight replied quickly before flinching. “Actually, forget I said that! Oh, it’s just my luck that I run into the one pony in Port Mule who’d recognise me.”

“Aren’t you pretty famous?” I asked, but Twilight seemed too lost in her own dilemma to acknowledge what I was saying.

“And now I have to deal with you so you don’t tell anypony you saw me,” she said, more to herself than to me.

“D… deal with me?!” I stammered, backing up from the other unicorn who turned to face me.

“Could you please not tell anypony you saw me today?” she asked, giving a wide, strained smile to which I just stared back in mild fear. “Oh it’s no use; I told Princess Celestia she was sending the wrong mare for this.”

“The Princess?” I repeated. “Twilight, what’s going on? Don’t you realise how dangerous Mule is for you?”

Twilight glanced back at me, now she was the one who looked surprised.

“Oh, uh, don’t worry about me,” she tried to assure me, although I could tell she was just trying to take the focus off her. “But what about you? Don’t act like I didn’t just see you crying in the street.”

“Oh, that,” I murmured, trying to look away from her even though I was sure my eyes were still bloodshot. “It’s… personal.”

“If you’re sure,” Twilight replied uncertainly. “But I’m here to help even if you need me, I know we don’t exactly know each other beyond a single brief meeting, but you’d be surprised how often I have to help other ponies through their problems.”

“In your position, that doesn’t surprise me at all,” I told her, contemplating the idea.

Perhaps talking to somepony who had no knowledge of all that had happened was exactly what I needed to help clear my head.

“Well…” I began slowly. “As I said, it’s rather personal but… The thing is, ever since I came back to Panchea I’ve… done some things that I’m not proud of. Sometimes I did them out of necessity, other times…”

Twilight stopped me by putting her foreleg around my shoulders and leading me over to the bed where she sat me down, placing a pre-emptive box of tissues between us.

“Thank you, but I think I’ve cried myself out for today,” I said with a humourless laugh. “I’ve been telling myself that it’s all for the right reasons, for the greater good, but recently I started thinking about what my family would think of me if they knew. Once the thought was in my head I couldn’t get it out, and I… But then you came by, it was kind of hard not to lose track of my thoughts after that.”

“Well I’m glad my screw up did some good for one of us,” Twilight replied with a weak smile. “So you’ve done some things, and you’re worried about what your parents will think about you.”

I nodded as Twilight contemplated the situation briefly.

“But you also said that you did it out of necessity,” Twilight continued. “That you believed it was the right thing to do.”

“Sometimes,” I reminded her. “I wish I could say I never had a choice.”

“You can’t always make the right choices though,” Twilight pointed out. “You’re going to make decisions that you’ll come to regret, everypony does, but if you go into those decision with the best intention, and feel that very regret when they go badly, then you’re still a good pony at heart. I know it’s hard to see right now, but I’m sure whatever it is you did, given time you’ll come to terms with it. And you shouldn’t worry about what your family will think of you, if they love you, they’ll understand and accept you no matter what mistakes you make.”

I grabbed a tissue for good measure after that, sitting in silence while Twilight’s words sank rang in my head.

“Thank you,” I said quietly. “I really do make the most wonderful friends.”

“Friends?” Twilight repeated with no small amount of shock. “You consider me… a friend?”

“Well of course,” I replied casually. “Only a friend would sit and listen to another pony’s problems and show genuine care.”

I dabbed my eyes with the tissues while Twilight sat in silence, while I waited for her to respond, I thought back to our last meeting. I remembered how embarrassed I was at making a fool of myself in front of her, I remembered her complementing my talent at dress making, and I also remember how put down she was when I treated her differently upon learning of her status. She had said it herself, how her position made it difficult to find friends, the idea that I had just called her one must have been mind-blowing.

“I… I don’t know what to say,” Twilight stammered. “Um… thank you! I think.”

I couldn’t help but explode into a fit of laughter at that, all my previous worries forgotten as I fell back onto the bed and rolled around, giggling my head off. Twilight turned bright red, screwing up her face in annoyance which didn’t last long; very quickly her own laughter sputtered out and took over. Once we had finally calmed down, I just lay there getting my breath back, I felt so at peace with my new friend that all notion of secrecy vacated my mind and my next words ended up being very stupid.

“I need to get back to Maverick soon,” I mumbled to myself. “I’ve wasted too much time already.”

“Maverick?” Twilight repeated, causing my eyes to snap open in horror at what I had just said. “You don’t mean… the leader of the Rebellion, Maverick?”

“Uh…” I droned, my mind too relaxed to come up with a convincing lie.

“You do mean him!” Twilight exclaimed, I couldn’t tell whether she was angry or not. “So you’re a Rebel soldier… wait, you’re not a Liberator are you?!”

“Of course I’m not,” I insisted quickly. “I lived in Equestria for two years; I would never help those maniacs. Also I’m not a soldier…”

“Well, what are you?” Twilight pressed. “Because I very much doubt Maverick meets up with general supporters.”

“I’m an… agent,” I replied awkwardly. “Sort of… it’s part time.”

“I really didn’t take you for an agent,” Twilight told me, raising an eyebrow. “No offence, you just don’t strike me as the type.”

“Well I’m nothing officially,” I explained. “I just helped with a couple important missions, I don’t even really care about the Rebellion or its goals, I just want to bring an end to all the fighting.”

“Really…” Twilight replied thoughtfully.

“Like you wouldn’t believe how close the Liberators were to declaring all-out war on Equestria until I helped stop them,” I continued, all sense apparently leaving me as I continued to divulge information to Twilight. “It’s actually the reason the entire Liberator army is out for my head right now, it was a real pain trying to get back into the city.”

“This is… very interesting,” Twilight said slowly. “So you’re now a Rebel agent, as in you have direct contact with Maverick and the other leaders.”

“It’s just Maverick now,” I explained. “The other leaders all split off, it’s actually Typhoon who leads the Liberators.”

“Ah, I see,” Twilight replied. “Needless to say, Equestrian intelligence is practically non-existent in Panchea following the war; we’re a little sketchy on everything that’s been happening since we surrendered.”

“Well, I am in contact with Maverick,” I continued. “He was the one who tasked me with helping to stop the Liberators.”

“So the Rebels and the Liberators are enemies?” Twilight asked. “As in, the Rebels don’t also want to take over Equestria?”

“On the contrary, Maverick told me he wanted to form an alliance with Equestria in the near future,” I informed her.

“Is that so?” Twilight said, beaming. “This is perfect, the Princess and I wish for the same thing. Oh… but that makes my mission all the more important.”

“Your mission?” I repeated curiously. “Why exactly are you here? And in Port Mule of all places? If the Liberators found you here, you’d be in serious trouble.”

“I’m aware, but my mission is too important,” Twilight explained. “Especially if an alliance is ever going to work out in the future. Tell me Rarity, since you’re in the Rebellion, have you ever heard of the Solar Empire?”

“I… don’t know, I’ve never heard that name before,” I replied honestly.

“They are a group, made up of rogue Equestrian agents,” Twilight continued. “Some ponies didn’t like the fact that Princess Celestia surrendered the war, they felt losing Panchea would only be the first step in Equestria losing its global power and influence. So a number of them banded together and have been working undercover here to retake Panchea for the Equestrian Empire. Think of them like the Equestrian equivalent of the Liberators, and like the Liberators, if they succeed in their mission or even attempt to put it into action, it could destroy any hope of our countries becoming allies in the future.”

“So you’re here to put a stop to them?” I asked. “They must be a serious threat if the Princess would send her closest advisor to deal with it.”

“They really are,” Twilight confirmed. “And while we know they are being led by members of the Princess’s court and government, we haven’t been able to identify who exactly, where they operate or what their plan is. So my job was to travel here in secret, identify the rogue agents and have them captured and returned to Equestria for trial. I’ve been here for a week now and not only have I made absolutely no progress; I’ve also been identified by your good self, making my most secret mission not so secret. Like I said, I am the worst pony for this job.”

“Don’t be like that,” I said, trying to comfort her. “The Princess must have believed you were the best pony for the job, and sure it might not be secret anymore, but maybe that’s a good thing. I’m surprised Maverick and the others don’t know about this Solar Empire, but I’m sure it would be in their best interest to help you stop them.”

“I was actually thinking the same thing when you revealed you were working with them,” Twilight admitted. “I just don’t know this country or this city as well as you would, I don’t think I can do it on my own.”

“Well then today is your lucky day,” I told her. “Because as your friend I will not let you undergo this mission alone.”

“Thanks Rarity,” Twilight replied before jokingly adding. “I don’t suppose you’ve seen any rogue Equestria agents wandering about Port Mule, have you?”

We both shared a laugh, although I very quickly cut off as a memory began to surface and my eyes went wide.

“By Celestia, I actually have!” I exclaimed.

“Wait, seriously?!” Twilight replied, equally shocked. “I was just joking when I asked that.”

“It was a while back,” I explained. “After my first mission for Maverick, I was returning to the hideout when I saw a pony I knew. His name was Feather Duster and he was a sailor on the ship that transported me back to Panchea from Equestria.”

“A sailor on the Siren?” Twilight repeated. “In Port Mule? That can’t be right, those ships were supposed to dock and drop the passengers off at Daybreak Landing.”

“It did, which is why I found it so weird that he was here in Mule,” I continued. “And he was even acting like he didn’t want to be seen. I was curious as to why he was here so I followed him to a random house in the Home District.”

“Rarity, do you know what this could mean?!” Twilight asked, her voice brimming with excitement. “If Feather Duster is one of the rogue agents, then you might have just discovered one of their hideouts!”

I was left reeling after that possibility, the idea that I had accidentally stumbled upon an enemy faction’s headquarters and identified one of their agents, but that had been over a week ago, and this was Feather duster we were talking about. I just couldn’t believe that that friendly deck hand could be part of a secret group plotting to take over Panchea, but then I remembered my final interactions with him. He turned back to me, looking as if he wanted to say something important, in my foolishness I assumed he was going to confess some feelings for me, but what if it had been something more serious he wanted to confess to… to warn me about?

“We should go meet Maverick,” I said. “He’ll help us deal with this, and I have other important business to bring to his attention.”

Twilight bit her lip, hesitating.

“Is something wrong?” I asked.

“It’s just… this is my first lead,” she explained. “I really don’t want to risk losing it by waiting too long.”

“No, I understand that,” I replied. “Fine then, we’ll head to the house now and take care of it ourselves.”

“Are you sure?” Twilight asked, still a little uncertain. “It’s okay if you want to get reinforcements.”

“No, it should be fine,” I assured her. “I mean, you’re only the most powerful mage in Equestria and I’ve gotten pretty good with this sword.”

“If you’re sure you don’t mind,” Twilight said with a single nod. “Then lead the way Rarity.”

XXIX - Alliance On The Horizon

Reaching the house I had seen Feather Duster disappear inside without getting seen by the guards turned out to be more difficult than I had anticipated. Twilight Sparkle had been able to give me a worn, brown cloak identical to the one she was wearing, however as we made our way through the streets, I wondered if it wasn’t more suspicious to see two ponies wearing identical cloaks that hid them almost entirely than it was to see just another white unicorn with a purple mane. For the most part we managed to avoid the patrols and found routes that didn’t take us past soldiers standing on guard, but our luck ran short just before we reached our destination.

“Hey, you there!” a voice shouted behind us.

I glanced back to see two fully armoured guards walking swiftly towards us, my first instinct was to make a run for it, but Twilight gripped my shoulder and held me in place.

“I’ve got this,” she whispered as we both turned to face the guards. “Is there a problem officer?”

“Lower your hoods,” one of the ponies ordered gruffly. “Both of you!”

“That won’t be necessary,” Twilight replied, a faint purple glow illuminating beneath her hood. “We are not the mares you’re looking for.”

“Come on,” one of the guards said to the other. “These aren’t the mares we’re looking for.”

With that, they turned and began walking away from us, as if the whole encounter never happened.

“Did you just mind control them?!” I asked in amazement.

“No, it was a suggestibility charm,” Twilight explained as we carried on walking. “Only works on one pony at a time.”

“Then how did you…” I began, feeling a little confused and out of my depth.

“I only used it on the guard who spoke,” Twilight explained. “But when he repeated my words to the other guard, the charm passed on. I was counting on that, but that’s why the spell is risky when dealing with more than one target.”

I was most impressed as we carried on our way to the house; it seemed I had an affinity for picking up companions who were experts in their own fields. As we neared the house, I was glad to see the street was pretty much deserted, there were some ponies walking about much further down the street, but they were too far to see what we were up to. We slowed down as we neared the house, it was just as I remembered it, small and squat with all the curtains drawn shut. Twilight glanced at me and I nodded in confirmation to which she crept up to the front door and lowered her horn to the lock.

“Hmm, that’s odd,” she whispered to me as her horn glowed briefly before going out again. “The door’s unlocked.”

We both shared a brief look of concern before positioning ourselves on either side of the door.

“Three, two, one,” Twilight whispered before casting the door open with telekinesis and leaping in.

I was right behind her, jumping into the front room of the house, my sword drawn while Twilight’s horn shone with a brilliant light. There was nopony in the room, but it sure looked like someone had been there recently. The table had been upturned, the drawers on the desk and cabinets had been pulled out and some thrown the floor, the carpet had been pulled up in places and the furniture had been ripped apart. Twilight walked into the middle of the room, looking around at all the destruction while I closed the front door behind us.

“They must have moved on,” I said, no longer whispering as I glanced at the stairs. “Do you think they’re hiding?”

“Hang on, I’ll cast a life detect spell,” Twilight replied, releasing the energy that was still building up in her horn.

Just like the trinket I had used in the sewers when going to destroy the Dreadnaught, this life detect spell could only be seen by the one casting it. Twilight looked around the room, apparently seeing nothing before she turned her gaze to the ceiling, at which point her eyes went wide.

“Above…” she tried to shout, but it was already too late.

The ceiling over my head exploded in a shower of splinters and wood chips as the figure dropped down behind me, pulling me into a vice like grip before pressing the blade of their short sword to my throat.

“You really shouldn’t have betrayed us, Rarity,” Sufferthorn said through gritted teeth as she pressed the blade up against my neck, making it slightly difficult to swallow the lump in my throat.

“Suffer…” I tried to say. “Sufferthorn… what are you doing?!”

“What I should have done the moment you stepped on that barge,” she replied. “I knew you couldn’t be trusted, but Maverick wouldn’t listen, well now he’s going to see you for traitor you are.”

“Let her go!” Twilight demanded, her horn lighting up as she took an aggressive stance in the middle of the room.

“Twilight Sparkle,” Sufferthorn said, as if only noticing her for the first time. “I never would have guessed that the leader of the Solar Empire was you, and there I thought you were more loyal to the Princess than anypony, or perhaps you think you’re doing all this for her.”

“I don’t know who you are,” Twilight responded calmly. “But I am here to stop the Solar Empire, not lead it.”

“Tell that to Maverick when he gets here,” Sufferthorn replied, using her free hoof to pull out a small crystal which she threw onto the ground where it shattered.

After several seconds there was a flash of golden light as Maverick teleported into the house, looking around in confusion at the scene before him.

“Sir, I have apprehended the Solar Empire agents,” Sufferthorn informed him. “They had fled when I first arrived but foolishly returned, they must have thought they could ambush me.”

“You knew about the Solar Empire?!” I exclaimed, feeling the blade loosen slightly. “Why didn’t you tell me?!”

“Lady Sparkle?!” Maverick said in disbelief, ignoring my outburst. “You’re behind this?”

“I am not,” Twilight replied calmly. “I am here under Princess Celestia’s orders to find and bring an end to the Solar Empire.”

“She’s here to help us you fools!” I snapped at them. “She doesn’t want to take over; they want the same thing we do, to form an alliance.”

“That’s right,” Twilight agreed. “The Princess supports your desire for self-governance, but we still wish to remain allies.”

“You support us?!” Sufferthorn repeated, almost laughing at the idea. “Is that why you declared war on us?”

“That was never our intention,” Twilight bit back. “The Princess and I tried to prevent the war from occurring in the first place.”

“You mean to tell us that Princess Celestia couldn’t stop her own country from going to war?” Sufferthorn asked sceptically.

“Yes,” Twilight began, sounding irritated now. “Because despite what many ponies seem to think, Equestria is not a dictatorship. Princess Celestia may be the monarch, but we have a government comprised of nobles and dignitaries from all across Equestria. The Princess and I may have wished to give Panchea its own government, but the rest of nobles refused to allow it, they believed it would make Equestria look weak if we gave into their demands. We were trying to convince the majority to support the plans for giving Panchea independence, but your leaders became impatient and threatened war, a challenge that many of our nobles were more than happy to meet.”

“Then how did you know to come here?” Maverick asked, gesturing around us. “We have been investigating the Solar Empire for some time now, and we only recently discovered this was where their agents were hiding.”

“Rarity followed one of their agents back here after her first mission,” Twilight explained. “She and I just met a short while ago; she told me this information when I explained my mission to her. Speaking of which, let her go this instant!”

“Sufferthorn, do as she says,” Maverick commanded.

I felt the blade lift away almost instantly and Sufferthorn’s hoof push me roughly away from her.

“So you discovered this place after your first mission?” Sufferthorn repeated. “That was quite some time ago, and you didn’t think to bring it to our attention, so how am I supposed to believe you when you say you aren’t secretly working for the Solar Empire?”

“Because you never told me about them!” I snapped back at both Sufferthorn and Maverick. “After everything I did for you, you still didn’t trust me enough to let me know that the Solar Empire was out there. Well look what happened as a result, if you had told me, I would have figured out what Feather Duster was doing here and I could have told you what I’d seen. You would have discovered this place ages ago and you might just have caught them before they moved, but because you didn’t trust me enough, now you have nothing and the Solar Empire is still out there!”

There was a very long period of silence following my outburst; even Sufferthorn looked taken aback by my sudden assertiveness.

“You’re right,” Maverick said at last. “We should have trusted you with this information, if we had we might have had something to show for it, but now…”

As he hesitated, Twilight came up and checked my neck to make sure I was alright, there was only a small cut left. When Maverick was done contemplating, he turned to Sufferthorn and addressed her.

“We’ll take the search from here,” he told her. “We have no further leads anyway; you can head north and take care of that other problem.”

Sufferthorn cast me one last glare before giving a short bow and marching from the house, leaving Maverick to turn to us.

“I’m… very sorry for this confusion Lady Sparkle,” he began. “And you too Rarity, after all you’ve done for us you shouldn’t have been treated like that.”

“So what happens now?” I asked him in a cool voice.

“Now, I would like to have a talk with Lady Sparkle about the possibility of combining our efforts to stop the Solar Empire,” Maverick said, giving a hopeful look to Twilight. “Perhaps we could also talk a little about this alliance? I can teleport us all back to the barge if you like.”

“Very well, take us to this barge of yours,” Twilight agreed. “But keep in mind that while I speak on behalf of the Princess, I cannot make decisions on her behalf regarding something as major as an alliance between our countries.”

“Of course Lady Sparkle,” Maverick replied, his voice returning to its normal sickly sweet tone.

Stepping forward, he invited us each to place a hoof on his shoulder. As we did, his horn shone with a bright gold light and we were teleported from the house to the cabin of the barge.

“Rarity, you wouldn’t mind giving us a moments peace, would you?” Maverick requested. “I’m sure you can appreciate this will be a very private conversation.”

“You would do well to keep Rarity involved with this kind of discussion,” Twilight reprimanded. “She definitely seems to be one of your more rational agents.”

“It’s quite alright Twilight,” I assured her. “I’m sure he’ll tell me all the important things afterwards, right?”

“Of course I shall,” Maverick promised. “I won’t be making the mistake of keeping information from you again. Speaking of which, when we are finished here I need to debrief you on what happened at Arclight.”

I gave a curt nod and made my way over to the ladder and descended below the deck. I was relieved to see Stranglethorn sitting on one of the beds, sketching away at something. He saw me approaching and gave me a small smile and a nod in greeting.

“Hey Stranglethorn,” I greeted, sitting on the bed next to his. “It’s been a while, how are you?”

He gave another nod which I assumed meant good before he frowned, as if just noticing something for the first time. He did a slicing motion across his throat before pointing at me; I was confused for a second before I realised he was indicating the small cut Sufferthorn had left me.

“Oh, this?” I said, pointing at the insubstantial injury. “You can thank your crazy sister for that, she thought I was an agent of the Solar Empire.”

Stranglethorn frowned even more at that, before reaching under the bed and pulling out yet another lockbox. I got the vibe he had those stashed everywhere as he pulled the key out from behind his ear and opened it up. He kept the lid sitting straight up so I couldn’t see the contents as he rifled about them, finally producing a small unlabelled tub which he passed over to me. I opened up the tub and reared back as an awful, pongy smell hit my nostrils, inside was some white salve which absolutely reeked.

“Thanks, but I think I’ll pass on this…” I tried to say, but he began rubbing his own hoof over his neck to indicate that I should apply it to the cut. “If you’re sure.”

I pulled off my boot and gathered a small dollop onto my own hoof before rubbing it in to the cut. I didn’t feel anything as I did, no soothing sensations, but no stinging either, I just closed the tub and hoped it would do its job if I waited. I tried to pass it back to him but he shook his head, the same way he did when I tried to give him back his knives.

“You want me to keep it?” I interpreted, to which he nodded. “Are you sure you won’t need it?”

He pulled out another identical tub to indicate that he really didn’t need the first one back, so I put it into my bags. Before I closed my bag, I noticed my sketchbook which I hadn’t used much since I got off the boat, pulling it out I passed it over to him.

“You look like you’re running out of paper in that one,” I said, pointing to his own sketchbook which he was almost at the end of.

He accepted it and flicked through the first few pages that I had actually drawn anything in, he nodded approvingly at the various dress designs I had created before coming to the copy of his signature wreath of thorns.

“Oh, that,” I said, having completely forgotten it was in there. “It was after the Glean incident, I made a copy of your symbol… it felt important at the time.”

Stranglethorn stared at it for a moment before pulling out his notepad and quickly jotting something down and passing me the piece of paper. I read it over, discovering that it revealed the reason Stranglethorn had killed that innkeeper.

“He was harbouring a Solar Empire agent?” I asked, making sure I wasn’t reading it wrong.

Stranglethorn nodded in response while I thought it over.

“Did you learn anything from the agent?” I asked, to which he shook his head.

He wrote down the single word ‘escaped’ on another piece of paper.

“Somepony escaped from you?!” I said in disbelief to which he nodded solemnly. “But hey, don’t feel bad. Twilight Sparkle is upstairs, she’s going to be helping us catch them, so if you describe this agent to her she might be able to identify them.”

Stranglethorn contemplated it briefly before nodding, giving me another smile in return for my idea. The rest of my wait passed by in silence, minus the sound of Stranglethorn’s quill scribbling across the paper, but I found that noise oddly relaxing. After a while however, Maverick called down to request my presence in the cabin, as I ascended the ladder, I saw him and Twilight shaking hooves over something, although neither looked particularly enthusiastic about it.

“Thank you for your time Lady Sparkle,” Maverick said. “We will be in contact shortly.”

“Until then,” Twilight replied before she noticed me and her expression brightened considerably. “It was a pleasure seeing you again Rarity, I hope we won’t have to wait another month before our next encounter.”

“Nor do I,” I replied, noticing how put off Maverick was by Twilight’s change in demeanour around me. “If I don’t see you for a while, good luck with your mission.”

“You too,” Twilight concurred before making for the cabin door.

Once she was gone I took my usual seat opposite Maverick.

“Now Rarity, it’s been quite a while since our last meeting,” he began.

“Stranglethorn said you would contact me,” I pointed out. “Did you run out of things for me to do?”

“Not quite, it’s just been difficult to find anypony not up to their eyes in work who could go fetch you,” Maverick explained. “But it would be just like you to seek us out on your own initiative. Now, about your mission in Arclight, Stranglethorn filled me in and I just want you to know that we don’t blame you for what happened, you could never have predicted things would take that turn.”

“I’d like to think you don’t blame me,” I retorted. “Considering I wasn’t the one who killed him.”

“Well quite,” Maverick replied dismissively. “Now Stranglethorn reported that you did not find out who he was in contact with, is that correct?”

“Well yes, but since then I’ve been looking into myself,” I explained.

“You have?!” Maverick exclaimed, grinning widely. “You really are becoming a valuable asset.”

“Yes, isn’t it nice you stopped Sufferthorn from chopping my head off?!” I replied snidely before carrying on. “I actually had a run in with the assassin who killed Arcana, we believe the ponies who hired her are also the ponies who Arcana was working with and they wanted to have him silenced before he could reveal their identities to me?”

“We?” Maverick repeated.

“Yes, the assassin and I have been working together,” I continued. “The ponies who hired her tried to have her killed afterwards, so now she’s helping me. We returned to the place where they tried to kill her to search their bodies for clues…”

“Their bodies?!” Maverick exclaimed.

“But someone had moved them before we got there,” I said, ignoring his interruption. “We did manage to find a scrap off one of their robes however, and I was able to identify it as the work of a designer I once knew before the war. It was our only lead, so we went to Pivot to find her… but something terrible has happened in Pivot.”

“Yes, we know all about that,” Maverick acknowledged.

“You… you know?!” I almost bellowed. “Why haven’t you done anything about it?!”

“We have been,” Maverick replied calmly. “We knew the Children of the Earth were marching on Pivot, that’s why I called Stranglethorn away from you to help with the preparations. We’ve been gathering all our remaining troops in Glean; Sufferthorn is headed there right now to lead the attack against the invaders.”

“You knew about the Children of the Earth as well?” I growled. “Just how much is there you aren’t telling me?!”

“Nothing else, I promise you,” Maverick assured me. “As for the Children, they’re a cult based in Cragsburg, led by some fanatic called Gaia. They’re mostly harmless, and they’ve kept confined to Cragsburg until very recently.”

“Mostly harmless?!” I repeated, my voice shaking with rage. “I saw what that mostly harmless group of psychopaths did! They rounded up all the unicorns and pegasi in the city and cut off their horns and wings in the town square!”

“They did what?!” Maverick shouted, his face draining of all colour.

“You didn’t know?!” I shouted back. “They are torturing and killing, even earth ponies who refuse to join them. They’re even selling some ponies to zebra slavers after they mutilate them; I had to kill one of my own friends to put him out of the suffering they subjected him to!”

“I… I don’t… I didn’t…” Maverick stammered, his calm and controlled composure shattering.

“My friends and I managed to rescue some ponies,” I told him, trying to calm down. “But there are still hundreds in Pivot who need help.”

“Of course, of course,” Maverick agreed quickly, trying to regain control of the conversation. “Sufferthorn will be marching on Pivot soon; I’ll send a messenger to explain the new situation to her. We’ll get doctors on the scene, we’ll make this right.”

“I hope so,” I replied, unable to stay angry at him anymore when he looked so lost and out of his depth. “And what about us? What are we going to do?”

“Actually, this news makes your next mission all the more important,” Maverick stated, his voice recovering slightly. “I’ve been planning this for some time, but with the possibility of an alliance with Equestria on the horizon, it’s more important than ever that we deal with the Liberators once and for all. This news about the Children of the Earth is all the more reason that we need to stop fighting and start working together.”

“You want to negotiate with Typhoon?” I asked, genuinely surprised.

“Not quite,” Maverick began slowly, looking me dead in the eye. “I want you to negotiate with Typhoon.”

XXX - Typhoon

It was a little bit funny, walking boldly through the streets, even as guards everywhere began stopping mid-patrol, pointing me out to each other and begin pursuit. I had a similar fantasy where I would walk through the streets of Canterlot and all the rough, military stallions would stop and stare at me, but because I was so attractive and not because they wanted to arrest and execute me for throwing a bomb at their commander's face. I must have picked up a dozen by the time I reached the Defence District, they didn’t even try to arrest me, clearly my brazen attitude of walking up to the Fort in broad daylight without even attempting to disguise myself gave them pause for thought.

The courtyard before the Fort was just as I remembered it being when I came here on my infiltration mission, as in it was mainly occupied by soldiers taking part in training drills. As I made my way between them to the fortress gates which no longer stood open, but were still flanked by several guards, the soldiers began to stop their drills as they saw the me and the dozen or so guards following me at a distance, whispering among themselves. By the time I reached the closed gates, every soldier in the courtyard was staring at me, most looking confused, some looking angry. The guards at the gate looked at each other awkwardly as if silently nominating who would approach me.

After a silent argument, one of them reluctantly stepped forward, putting himself between me and the Fort entrance. He didn’t say anything, but because his helmet was off I could see his mouth desperately working to find something to say.

“Hello there,” I greeted clearly so my voice carried over the court yard, the old saying ‘famous last words’ came to mind as I continued. “I have an appointment with Typhoon.”

I really had to question the competence of the Liberator army, that they felt it necessary for over a dozen city guards, half a dozen gate guards and two full drill platoons to apprehend me and escort me through the Fort to Typhoon’s office. It was only when we reached the staircase that a few soldiers had the inspired idea of having just a handful of ponies take me upstairs while the rest got back to work, rather than leaving the front of the Fort completely unguarded. Naturally they searched me, but of course I had left my weapons, bags and heirlooms back on the barge, there was no way I was letting them get confiscated, especially the last items.

The entrance hall of the Fort had been considerably more deserted on this occasion that my last visit, Maverick had explained that after our last operation, Typhoon had tightened the security so nopony was allowed access unless they presented evidence of their business, which then had to be verified inside before they would be permitted access. Apparently this just put most ponies off from coming at all, and the city was beginning to encounter a number of problems as a result. Of course the only evidence of my business I needed was for my face to match their description, they didn’t even notify Typhoon to tell him they were bringing me up, he was certainly in for a surprise when they did.

“So…” I began in as casual a voice as I could muster as the much smaller group of ponies ascended the staircase to the third floor. “Anypony read any good books lately?”

“You’re trying to get punched, aren’t you?” a mare asked, giving me a withering look.

“I’m just trying to be friendly,” I replied coolly. “But if you don’t want to be my friend, that’s fine.”

“I read the latest Harry Trotter book over the weekend,” one of the stallions said, earning a glare from the mare who had spoken first.

“Well at least you’re friendly,” I said to the stallion before sticking my tongue out at the mare. “I haven’t read the latest one, is it any…”

“You!” a voice roared further down the hall we were walking.

I looked forward, expecting to see Typhoon, but instead was surprised to see Spoon Bender storming towards us, two nasty looking bruises on his face from where I had hit him with the helmet.

“You…” he seethed as he stopped in front of me, the other guards looked a little confused. “You… got captured… by them?! No, I was supposed to be the one to capture you and make you pay!”

“Actually, she turned herself in,” another one of the guards informed him.

“T… turned herself in?!” Spoon repeated, his eye twitching. “This… this can’t be!”

“What on earth is going on out here?” an authoritative voice asked from behind us.

We all turned in unison to see the a familiar pegasus marching towards us, still wearing the same black military uniform with all the same medals, but now one half of his face had the reddish brown fur stripped away, the flesh underneath blackened and distorted. Even with his injury, Typhoon still stood taller than anypony around me and radiated power like few others could. The guards around me all sidestepped to either side, allowing my presence to speak for itself. When his eyes met mine, he didn’t respond, he didn’t even react.

He stood still for what felt like a very long time, staring back at me with an emotionless expression. The guards around me all began to shift and fidget uncomfortably, suddenly regretting their decision to bring me directly to him. Eventually one of them found the courage to speak, although his voice trembled the entire time.

“She just turned herself in Sir,” he explained. “She just walked up to the Fort and… and said she had an appointment with you.”

Typhoon still didn’t speak, but his eyes began to narrow slightly.

“She didn’t bring any weapons with her Sir,” said the mare who had subtly threatened to punch me. “And she came alone.”

“I came to negotiate,” I said at last, in the strongest voice I could muster, even though my bravery was steadily draining in his presence.

“Negotiate…” Typhoon repeated in a low, rumbling voice that made all the guards around me take one simultaneous step back. “You did this to me… and now you walk right up to my front doors… turn yourself in and expect me to negotiate?”

I drew in a long breath, preparing myself for whatever came next.

“Yes,” I said simply.

Typhoon stared, then his mouth began to creep into a smile and within a few seconds he was overcome with loud, barking laughter. This shift in demeanour seemed to disturb the guards even more than when they thought he was angry; even I was starting to feel pretty disturbed.

“You are something else,” Typhoon growled at me when he ceased his laughter, although his smile remained. “I’m going to enjoy killing you, but right now…”

He raised one of his forelegs and gestured down the corridor.

“Soldiers, you are dismissed,” he ordered. “As for you, you know the way to my office.”

I let out the breath I had been holding, flashed him a quick smile before turning and making my way to where I knew his office was as he began marching behind me. The guards who had escorted me began shuffling awkwardly before steadily making their way back the way we came, Spoon Bender however, remained standing, unable to register what had just happened.

“Sir, I don’t think…” Spoon began to say, his voice shaking with barely contained anger.

“I thought I told you to leave,” Typhoon said calmly as he walked straight past the other stallion, not even sparing him a glance.

“Yes, but I don’t think you should be negotiating with that… that witch!” he continued, pointing an accusing hoof at me. “At least let me stay with you in case she…”

“In case she what?” Typhoon interrupted, stopping and turning to look at Spoon Bender who quelled beneath his gaze. “Do you think I am not capable of defending myself against one mare?”

“Of course not Sir, it’s just…” Spoon tried to say.

“Just nothing!” Typhoon snapped. “And what happened to your face soldier?”

“That was me, sorry,” I explained. “I did it yesterday.”

“Yesterday?” Typhoon repeated, looking to me now.

“He helped me get into the city,” I explained, seeing the blood drain from his face as I did. “He could have had me captured as soon as we reached the gates, but he chose not to.”

“Sir, I can explain, I was only trying to…” Spoon began desperately.

“Get out,” Typhoon said in a low, threatening voice.

“Sir?” Spoon uttered hopelessly.

“Get out of my sight,” Typhoon continued. “Out of my Fort, and out of my city! I don’t want to hear your pathetic excuses, you had an opportunity to apprehend this mare yesterday and you failed to take it. As far as I’m concerned you’re no better than a traitor, so get out before I have you dragged off to the dungeon.”

Typhoon didn’t wait to see if he would leave, he simply turned on the spot and carried on towards his office. I didn’t dare wait to follow him, but I cast on final look at Spoon Bender who looked as if his whole world had been destroyed. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him, I never thought that Typhoon would do something so harsh, but when I considered what he probably had in mind for me, I knew Spoon Bender got off lightly in his books. As we entered Typhoon’s office together, I thought back to my briefing from Maverick the day before.

“You want me,” I began after a long moment of silence. “The most wanted mare in Port Mule, to try and negotiate with the stallion who I threw a bomb at? Do you have any idea how insane that sounds? I’ll be killed before I get within a hundred yards of the front gates.”

“It’s not as insane as you might think,” Maverick replied a little smugly. “You injured Typhoon, something very few ponies have managed, but you also did something that nopony has managed.”

“What?” I asked flatly.

“You injured him and got away,” Maverick explained. “Not only that, but you single handedly destroyed his prized Dreadnaught and all his plans to take over Equestria…”

“Remind me why he isn’t going to have me flayed alive?” I interrupted sarcastically.

“You also got back into this city despite his increase in security,” Maverick carried on, ignoring my interruption. “If you walk up to that Fort tomorrow and ask to see Typhoon, I have no doubt he will agree to meet with you.”

“Please, do explain,” I said with a little sigh.

“Typhoon can be a hot head,” Maverick began. “But he’s a true soldier at heart, as such he respects strength. After everything you’ve done, he will no doubt see you as a strong opponent, by turning yourself over and showing you have no fear of him you’ll only cement that idea in his head. This will allow you to talk with him, and you need only get one line in and I can guarantee your safety.”

“What line is that?” I asked, genuinely intrigued.

“Just say, Maverick has guaranteed my safety,” he stated. “Typhoon will know what that means and after that he wouldn’t dare harm you.”

Typhoon invited me to take one of the seats in front of his desk, as I sat down he began fiddling with the broken remains of an hourglass.

“I liked this hourglass,” he told me. “Was breaking it really necessary?”

“It was an accident,” I replied. “And how did you know that was me anyway?”

“I didn’t,” he explained, taking his own seat behind the desk. “Not for certain, but you just confirmed my suspicions. So, you want to negotiate with me, how about we start by negotiating why I shouldn’t have you publically executed at sundown.”

“Because Maverick has guaranteed my safety,” I relayed, word for word.

Typhoon’s eyes widened slightly and his head snapped up, his eyes darting about the high vaulted ceiling, as if he expected to see somepony hiding just overhead. When he looked back down, he looked a little annoyed by whatever the safety phrase meant for him.

“I really hate that guy,” Typhoon muttered before he addressed me properly. “So tell me, why has my old friend only now decided it’s worth negotiating?”

“Because he needs you,” I replied, receiving a quirked eyebrow in response. “And you need him too. Face it, your big plans for Equestria are finished, you’re neglecting your role as a leader and very soon Port Mule will collapse just like Pivot did… thanks to your efforts.”

“You think Port Mule will ever sink that low?” Typhoon said with a bark laughter. “Look outside, this city is thriving, my recent neglect in favour of security will have no lasting effects.”

“I wasn’t referring to your economy or your politics,” I explained. “I was referring to the Children of the Earth.”

“You mean that little gang of earth ponies nestled up in Cragsburg?” Typhoon asked sceptically. “You’ll have to try better than that if you’re planning on scaring me.”

“Little gang?” I repeated in disbelief. “Wow, Maverick was right…”

“Right about what?” Typhoon asked, suddenly curious.

“You’ve become so fixated on Equestria that you haven’t even looked into your own backyard,” I retorted. “The Children of the Earth have become more than just a ‘little gang’, you can stop your campaign against Pivot because the Rebels don’t control it anymore. The Children of the Earth took it over days ago, they rounded up everypony in the city, cutting the horns and wings off unicorns and pegasi.”

“You’re lying,” Typhoon replied in a wary voice.

“You’re blind!” I snapped back. “Panchea is in chaos and you don’t even realise it, you’re too busy trying to drag us into another war, and for what? Who exactly are you fighting for? Because it doesn’t look like you’re representing the citizens of this country when you don’t even know how much they’re suffering. This country needs strong leaders now more than ever, Arcana is dead if you didn’t know, Maverick has next to no power outside his increasingly exclusive faction, and you’re fixated on conquering Equestria. Why on earth do you care so much about Equestria anyway? You got your independence; you won, so why can’t you stop fighting?”

“I wouldn’t expect you to understand!” Typhoon shouted back, finally sick of me talking down at him. “You may be an exceptional agent now, but I look at you and I know you never fought in the war. You never saw first-hand what the Equestrians were willing to do to keep us under Celestia’s iron hoof, everypony who died in that damn war died because they didn’t give us what we asked for! You ask why I’m fighting, it’s so nopony ever has to suffer under Celestia’s tyranny ever again!”

“And you’re so much better?” I asked in a calm voice. “You, who actively stunted the economy of Pivot, and the rest of the country by extension, just so you could weaken those who were once your allies. You have one of the largest armies in this country, and yet you don’t use it to restore the peace and put down groups like the Children of the Earth who are actively killing and torturing innocent ponies. Your actions and your neglect have led to hundreds, if not thousands of ponies in this country suffering, does that not sound like a tyrant to you?!”

Typhoon sat in his chair, looking like all the air had been squeezed out of him. He wore a rather gaunt expression as my words echoed in his head.

“You said you were here to negotiate,” he said in a low voice. “What are Maverick’s terms?”

“First, you need to drop this insane crusade against Equestria,” I began. “If you feel like there is some problem with Equestria that needs correcting, you can address it peacefully in the future, but you will do nothing that will harm the chances of an alliance with them.”

“An alliance?!” he snapped, suddenly active again.

“Yes, an alliance,” I repeated. “Port Mule may be doing well from its trade with the southern continents, but other cities rely on Equestria’s exports. Secondly, you will unite the Liberator armies and the Rebellion armies under that same banner again, we’re going to need the numbers if we’re to… to…”

My voice failed me as the office and Typhoon began swimming before me. I tried to speak, but my mouth began feeling very dry and my head very heavy. I thought I could hear Typhoon speaking, but his words were drowned out by a loud humming noise that seemed to fill the air all around me. I saw the blurry figure of Typhoon stand up and I tried to do likewise, but my legs began to wobble dangerously as soon as I did. I felt myself falling to the ground as the office before me stopped swimming and started fading away altogether instead. The last thing I made out before I slipped into unconsciousness, was Typhoon leaning over me.

XXXI - Puppets

Perhaps losing consciousness was not the right term, but it was certainly what I thought was happening until after I had awoken and the truth was made clear to me. As I started coming around, I could hear a voice, although it sounded like it was a far way away. The voice sounded… panicked? Annoyed? It turned out to be a bit of both. As my other senses returned to me, I could feel that my clothes had been removed and I was suffering from pins and needles in my hooves, but when I tried to move my legs, I felt restraints tightening. I began shaking my head from side to side as if trying to throw off a great weight, my eyes aching I as forced them open.

The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was a piercing light which forced me to clench them shut again. Once my eyes stopped stinging I risked opening them again, this time only squinting out as my eyes adjusted to the light. The light itself was purple, it wasn’t that it was necessarily bright, it was just so close to my face that it appeared so, and its source was the tip of a unicorn’s horn.

“T…Twilight…” I mumbled weakly, my voice slurred.

Twilight sat directly opposite me, still wearing her old brown cloak, her own eyes shut, her head inclined slightly so her horn was pointing directly at me.

“She can’t respond,” the voice that had seemed far away said. “She should be finished in a moment.”

I craned my neck until I saw Maverick standing a few feet to my right; the look he gave me was as cold as ice. As my sight recovered, I realised I was below the deck of the Rebel barge, and glancing down I saw that I was tied to a chair, my legs restrained by straps emblazoned with glowing runes. I had a feeling I knew what those runes meant, but just to confirm I tried to draw a little magic into my own horn and wasn’t surprised when nothing happened.

“What’s going on?” I asked, my voice a little clearer now but still sounding tired.

“You tried to kill Typhoon,” Maverick explained.

“Wha…” I began but he quickly cut me off.

“Did a pretty good job of it too, by the sounds of it,” Maverick continued, still glaring. “I never knew you were capable of such spells.”

“Spells?” I repeated, my voice now slightly distressed. “I didn’t attack anypony!”

“It’s a bit late claiming innocence,” Maverick replied with disinterest. “Stranglethorn saw the whole thing, if he hadn’t stepped in, one of you would be dead right now.”

At that moment Stranglethorn appeared, walking down the room to us. I cast him a pleading look and he made his way across to me, shooting a glare at Maverick as he went. He stopped next to me and crouched down, reaching up and placing a wet cloth over my head. I hadn’t even realised how much my head was killing me until the cold hit it, I smiled at Stranglethorn appreciatively. My gaze was pulled back to Twilight as the light of her horn began to dwindle and fade, once it was completely extinguished she held her head up straight and opened her eyes.

“Oh, Rarity, you’re awake,” Twilight declared, a little surprised to see me looking back at her. “How are you feeling?”

I opened my mouth to reply, but Maverick interrupted.

“We don’t have time for pleasantries Lady Sparkle,” he chastised. “What did you find out?”

“She wasn’t acting of her own fruition,” Twilight replied, narrowing her eyes at Maverick as she spoke to him. “And you really should show more concern for your agent, rather than jumping to conclusions of guilt.”

“I don’t understand,” I cut in, looking between them. “What happened?”

“You were being controlled,” Twilight informed me. “Tell me Rarity, what is the last thing you remember?”

“I remember…” I began as I pondered the question. “I was talking to Typhoon… we had been arguing but… we finally got around to discussing terms, then… I think I passed out.”

“I suppose, in a way you did,” Twilight responded. “Your mind was being shut down by magic, while an outside force took control of your body, it made you attack Typhoon.”

“I attacked Typhoon?!” I exclaimed, I didn’t really believe it until Twilight confirmed what Maverick had already told me. “What happened? How am I still alive?”

“You can thank your friend for that,” Twilight said, indicating Stranglethorn who gave a little nod when I looked up at him.

“You were there?” I asked in confusion.

“I had him follow you,” Maverick explained, his voice not quite as harsh now. “When you told Typhoon that I guaranteed your safety, he realised that Stranglethorn was hiding just out of sight, and if he attempted to harm you in any way he would be killed.”

I thought back to how Typhoon’s head had instantly snapped up, as if expecting to see somepony. He also said he hated some guy, at the time I figured he meant Maverick, but in actual fact he was talking about Stranglethorn.

“So I attacked Typhoon, and you saved me?” I summarised, looking over at Stranglethorn. “Thank you.”

Stranglethorn nodded and I looked back to Twilight who had just produced my canteen and offered to help me drink from it. Once I had finished the last mouthful she put the stopped back on and set it onto a table next to all my other items, including my compass and spyglass.

“I’m sorry about the restraints,” Twilight began. “But until we knew why you attacked Typhoon, we couldn’t take any risks, and now that we know why, it might be for the best that they remain on until I can do something about it.”

“You said somepony was controlling me,” I recalled. “Who?”

“That’s exactly what I want to know,” Maverick concurred. “Because they just ruined our chances of putting the Liberator threat behind us once and for all.”

“We don’t know who did it,” Twilight told me, more sympathetically. “But this kind of spell, it’s one I recognise. Basically it allows the caster to take control of another sentient being remotely, like a puppet on strings, however it has very particular requirements when it comes to casting. Firstly, it can’t be cast from a distance, the caster and the subject must be in close proximity, it also takes a minute to cast.”

“So what you’re saying is, it wasn’t cast on her in secret?” Maverick questioned. “What about in her sleep then?”

“That’s the second requirement,” Twilight said, shaking her head. “The subject’s mind needs to be fully aware for the spell to infect it. This spell is almost impossible to cast on a pony without their knowledge, the best chance of using it successfully on a non-consenting target is to cast it while they are restrained. Rarity, has anything like that ever happened on your missions?”

“No, I can say that much with certainty,” I replied with confidence. “I have never had a spell cast on me that I didn’t know the effects of.”

“I would suspect a member of the Arcane Order,” Maverick proposed. “Rarity certainly made enemies of them, and they are comprised solely of unicorns, one of them is bound to know this spell.”

“And it couldn’t have been the Children of the Earth,” I added. “All earth ponies there, and it wouldn’t make sense for anypony in the Rebellion or the Liberators to cast it on me and then make me attack Typhoon.”

“Hang on a second,” Twilight jumped in. “There’s one thing I haven’t mentioned, and that’s the magical signature.”

“Magical signature?” I repeated, glancing around at the others.

Stranglethorn looked just as lost as I did, but Maverick and Twilight looked at me in surprise that I didn’t know what it was.

“You don’t know about magical signatures?” Maverick asked in disbelief. “I thought it was common knowledge for all unicorns.”

“I’m not… amazing when it comes to magic,” I replied, shifting awkwardly in my seat. “I only studied magic at a primary level, and I wasn’t even very good at that.”

“That’s alright Rarity,” Twilight assured me. “You might be surprised just how many unicorns don’t know about magic that doesn’t relate to their special talent, you don’t have to feel bad.”

“A magical signature can be found in all spells cast,” Maverick explained. “Every unicorn has their own unique trace that can be found and identified in their spells. Say you transform a rubber duck into a block of cheese, if another unicorn examines that cheese they will find your magical signature left on it from when you cast the spell.”

“It’s very subtle,” Twilight added. “You probably pick up on them all the time but don’t even realise, but even when you do recognise a magical signature you still have to figure out which of the unicorns you’ve encountered in your life it belongs to, and the average pony can encounter hundreds of different unicorns in their life. So unless you saw them cast the spell, the chances of being able to identify the caster by the signature alone is very slim… possible, but slim.”

“Well it doesn’t sound very helpful then,” I replied a little disappointed.

“That’s the thing though, in this case it might just help us,” Twilight argued. “Because I actually recognise the magical signature on this spell.”

“You do?!” Maverick exclaimed. “Do you know whose it is?”

“Not a clue,” Twilight replied, giving an apologetic grin. “But I know it’s a signature that I’ve come into contact with before, most likely on a regular basis. That might not sound helpful, but when you think about it, that rules out most ponies native to Panchea. It being far more likely that for me to recognise it so strongly, it belongs to a pony from Equestria. So what group do we know is made up exclusively of Equestrians and would have a vested interest in seeing Typhoon, the leader of a notoriously anti-Equestrian group, removed?”

“The Solar Empire,” I answered in a low voice.

“Precisely,” Twilight replied. “And Rarity was even living in Equestria for two years. Look, I know it’s not a flawless theory, but it’s possible and it would give us a good starting point.”

“I think it’s a great theory,” I stated. “It just has one major flaw… I don’t remember having this spell cast on me even when I was in Equestria.”

“Well I very much doubt the pony responsible was going to tell you what the spell would do,” Maverick pointed out. “They could have claimed it was anything and you might not have been any the wiser.”

“If that was the case then what hope do we have of identifying them?” I asked in an exhausted voice. “I probably had loads of spells cast on me that I thought were genuine, anything from Changeling checks to aphrodisiacs!”

“Changeling checks?” Twilight repeated.

“Aphrodisiacs?” Maverick added.

“Quiet a second,” Twilight ordered Maverick before looking back at me. “What in Equestria were you getting a Changeling check for?”

“It was that day we met,” I recalled, not sure what Twilight’s fuss was about yet. “At the start of my meeting with the Duke, you know, the one about coming back here on the Siren.”

“And he performed… a Changeling check on you?” Twilight questioned, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah…” I said slowly, not seeing the obvious problem just yet. “He said it was a standard procedure when discussing matters like that… you know, for safety.”

“Rarity, I have lived and worked in Canterlot Castle most of my life,” Twilight stated in a worried tone. “And I can promise you we have never made Changeling checks standard procedure.”

I opened my mouth but no words came out, instead I just sat with my jaw hanging open while the full meaning of Twilight’s words sank in. There was a long silence in the barge; Twilight looked like she couldn’t believe what she just heard, while Maverick looked like he couldn’t believe his luck. Stranglethorn just sat back, watching us all with a fairly neutral expression.

“So…” I began in an uncomfortable tone.

“This Duke?” Maverick queried.

“It can’t be…” Twilight said, almost whispering. “I’ve known Blueblood since I was just a filly; he would never be involved with the Solar Empire. I know he opposed the surrender, but he’s more loyal to the Princess than most ponies I know, the idea that he would go behind her back like this is unthinkable.”

“But remember what Sufferthorn said when she thought you were leading the Solar Empire?” I reminded her. “She asked if you thought you were doing it for Princess Celestia, isn’t it possible that Bluebl… the Duke is doing this out of some misguided sense of loyalty.”

“Perhaps, but still…” Twilight tried to say, unable to form a counter argument.

“I don’t see what the issue is Lady Sparkle,” Maverick stated. “You said so yourself that you believed somepony high ranking was in charge of the Solar Empire, you said it was the only explanation for how well resourced they were and how they managed to work under the Princess’s radar for so long.”

I figured this must have been stuff they talked about while I lay down here with Stranglethorn, it certainly sounded clear cut when Maverick presented those points. Twilight bit her lip and stared at her own lap, clearly unable to come up with a reason why Blueblood wasn’t part of the Solar Empire, let alone in charge of it.

“You said he opposed the surrender,” I stated. “If he was really loyal to the Princess, why would he oppose her decision to do so?”

“He wouldn’t,” Twilight muttered. “By Celestia, it really is him, how could I have been so blind?”

“It’s alright Twilight,” I assured her. “It can’t be easy to think of your friends as enemies. So what will you do now? Go back to Equestria and confront him?”

“Oh lord no!” Twilight exclaimed. “If I made an accusation like that with no solid evidence there would be hell to pay. No, I need to stay and help root out the agents here in Panchea, that way once I return to Equestria with them, they can be questioned on whether Blueblood really is involved or not.”

“What I don’t understand is,” Maverick began. “Why would he cast that spell on Rarity? Sure, she was travelling back here, but he just assumed she would one day be in contact with the leader of his enemies?”

“Well he knew for a fact I would be returning to Panchea,” I said. “After all, that’s why I was meeting with him in the first…”

I shut up as soon as the truth hit me like a slap to the face, Twilight and Maverick both looked at me with concern, perhaps worried I was being controlled again.

“It’s not just me,” I whispered, more talking to myself than the others. “It wasn’t random…”

“What are you talking about?” Maverick asked, a little impatiently.

“He cast the spell on me when I was meeting him about travelling back here on the Siren,” I recapped. “But I wasn’t the only one on that ship… every passenger had to attend the same meeting as I did.”

Twilight gasped as she picked up on what I was getting at.

“He put the spell on all the passengers?!” Twilight declared. “All the passengers on one ship… one ship every three months for two years…”

“What’s fifty times eight?” I asked, too panicked to count.

“Four hundred,” Twilight answered. “That’s their plan, to fill the country with sleeper agents who can be activated and ordered to kill at a moment’s notice!”

“Two years…” Maverick repeated in a quiet voice. “It’s no wonder we haven’t seen much activity from them, they’re in it for the long con. This Blueblood has patience, I’ll give him that.”

“What do we do?” I asked, mainly directed at Twilight. “You can remove this spell from me, right? We can find the others and remove it from them too.”

“No!” Twilight shouted suddenly. “We can’t interfere with the spells on the other passengers.”

“And why not?” Maverick demanded. “These are Panchean citizens Lady Sparkle; you do not get to decide what’s best for them.”

“They knew Rarity was in Typhoon’s office,” Twilight pointed out. “They knew where she was and that it was the most optimal time to activate her. That means they must be able to track the whereabouts of the sleeper agents, but if we remove the spell they’ll lose track.”

“I fail to see the problem with that,” I retorted. “We don’t want them to know where these ponies are.”

“If we remove the spell from you, they probably won’t care too much,” Twilight argued. “They were clearly taking a risk by activating you early; they saw a window to remove Typhoon as a threat, so they took it. If they lose track of you, they’ll assume you failed and were killed, but if all the ponies they put the spell on begin disappearing from their sights, they’ll know we’re onto them.”

“They’ll scrap their current plans,” Maverick continued. “Their agents will go further into hiding and they’ll devise something else that we have no knowledge about.”

“Exactly,” Twilight said, nodding. “I don’t like it any more than you do Rarity, but if we want to stop them, we have to let them think that nothing is wrong.”

“Okay,” I agreed, I was a little reluctant, but I trusted Twilight knew what she was doing. “One thing I don’t understand is, why did they make me attack Typhoon now? I’ve been in his office before, and I meet up with Maverick and have never been made to attack him, surely the Solar Empire would consider him an enemy too.”

“It’s probably because they’re completely unaware of who you’re meeting here,” Twilight proposed. “They see you go into a random barge every now and then and think nothing of it. As for Typhoon’s office, this is just a guess, but I believe the Solar Empire agents here are mapping out the city, the first time you were in his office they probably hadn’t classified the area as being anything to do with him.”

“This all sounds like guess work,” I pointed out. “Lots of ‘ifs’.”

“Every investigation starts this way,” Twilight responded. “You can’t start walking until you pick a direction.”

“And while it might sound like ‘guess work’,” Maverick added as he made his way over to the ladder. “It’s the best theory we’ve got. Lady Sparkle, once you’ve cleaned her up, meet me upstairs, we need to discuss our next move.”

“Of course,” Twilight replied in a falsely sweet tone before letting her façade drop once he was out of earshot. “I can’t stand that guy.”

“Neither can I,” I agreed, to which we shared a small giggle. “What did he mean by ‘clean’?”

“I need to purge the spell from your mind,” Twilight explained as she looked over at Stranglethorn. “Stranglethorn… was it? Could you help me move Rarity to the bed? This could take a couple of hours and she’s probably uncomfortable already sitting on that seat for so long.”

Stranglethorn obliged and assisted in untying me and carrying my body over to one of the beds, however the straps remained affixed to my hooves. Once he lay me down, he removed the cloth which had dried considerably and went to re-soak it while Twilight pulled a seat up beside the bed and positioned herself for the ‘purging’.

“Is this going to hurt?” I asked, suddenly a little worried to have Twilight Sparkle rattling around inside my head.

“It… might be a little uncomfortable,” Twilight admitted, flinching slightly. “But I promise I’ll make it as easy for you as I can.”

When Stranglethorn returned, Twilight took the cloth from him, giving a quick thanks before placing it over my head. She then used her magic to fluff my pillow before placing her right foreleg against her chest while breathing in; as she exhaled she stretched her leg out again.

“Are you ready?” Twilight asked.

I nodded and she smiled reassuringly back at me, then she leaned in, her horn glowing as she touched the tip to my own.

XXXII - Heroes

The purging process turned out to be… more than a little uncomfortable. I could tell Twilight was going easy on me, simply be the strained look on her face, and how she flinched uncomfortably when she went too hard and a bolt of pain shot through my skull. The best way I can describe the process, is having strand of spaghetti pulled out of your brain, one at a time, and at the end of every strand there’s a little moment of shock as it pops out. Twilight wasn’t lying when she said it would take hours, although I wondered how much of that was due to her going intentionally slowly to reduce the pain for me.

Needless to say, neither of us spoke during the experience, to do so would have felt a little bit wrong with the way our horns were touching, it was almost intimate. I briefly thought how funny it would be to ask Twilight if she fancied getting a meal together once we were done, but I decided not to jeopardise our blooming friendship with a poorly timed gay joke. During the first couple of hours Stranglethorn occasionally popped down to check on us and replace the cloth on my forehead. I didn’t think it was necessary anymore, but I appreciated the gesture and I didn’t want to risk offending him by refusing it, especially after I bungled up our interaction in Dolor when he admitted to considering me a friend.

After a while however, he came down and held a note in my line of sight. It explained that he had a job to do and he would be back shortly. I tried to nod in response without shifting my head too much and disturbing Twilight’s focus so it ended up being little more than a twitch of the face. When the lengthy process was nearing its end, Twilight spoke up for the first time since we started.

“Alright, I’m almost done,” she explained a calm voice. “Now you might feel a small…”

I’m going to assume she said twinge, I didn’t actually hear because at that moment it felt like a double pronged whisk had just been driven into my eye sockets. I wanted to scream and thrash away but my body was completely paralysed, it felt like my whole mind was being sucked into a vacuum, and before I knew it I wasn’t in the barge any longer. Images began flashing before my eyes, I felt things that were alien to me and remembered memories that were not my own.

I saw the world around me engulfed in flames, while a terrible demon towered over me and I felt fear unlike anything I had ever known. I saw a crystalline tree radiating with light… I stood before it with five figures at my sides and felt a connection with them. I stood before a statue and felt the tear runs down my cheeks as I felt a sorrow that threatened to tear my heart in two. I saw a bright light in the sky, a star that shone even in the day and brought the end of all things, I spread my wings and I flew straight into its path… and I knew peace.

I came rushing back to the present, my mind crashing back into my own skull like it had been travelling at the speed of light. I sat bolt upright, my real eyes snapped open and I was in the barge once more. Twilight staring at me with wide eyes, struggling to get her breath back as sweat streamed down her body.

“What in the name of all things holy was that?!” I demanded once my lungs had filled with air.

“I… I have no idea!” Twilight panted, looking as exhausted and confused as I felt. “I was just finishing off when… something happened.”

“I gathered that much,” I replied sarcastically. “I saw… I don’t even know what I saw.”

“Neither do I…” Twilight agreed in a wary voice. “I saw… it doesn’t matter. What’s important is the spell has been removed from your system, you’re free to take those off.”

With Twilight’s help, I removed the straps around my legs; the runes ceased glowing once they were no longer in contact with my body. I offered them back to Twilight, but she shook her head, reminding me of Stranglethorn when he let me keep something.

“You can hold onto those,” she told me. “You never know when they’ll come in handy, especially in your line of work.”

I gave thanks and made my way over to where my clothes and equipment lay on the table, as I dressed and readied myself, Twilight made her way up to the cabin to meet with Maverick. Once I was sorted, I made to follow her, hesitating a moment to dwell on what I had just seen. It had all happened so quickly, but they appeared so vivid, like I was actually experiencing those memories as my own, and if they were memories, whose were they? My first thought was Twilight, but considering I had wings in those memories and I was pretty sure I died in the final one, I ruled out Twilight.

So then whose memories were they, because they certainly weren’t my own? I tried to think back to the individuals I had seen in them, those five figures, that horrific demon or the statue, but try as I might, their faces eluded me, their details faded and blurred when I tried to focus on them. A strange experience that would itch away at my mind but I would never get to the bottom of. Ascending the ladder, I found Twilight and Maverick discussing their next move against the Solar Empire and the Liberators.

“I think it’s safe to say you won’t be negotiating with them for a while,” Twilight pointed out rather bluntly.

“And Stranglethorn told me Rarity had done so well before the spell kicked in,” Maverick muttered bitterly before noticing my arrival. “And speak of the devil, how are you feeling? My apologies for my attitude earlier, I’m sure you can appreciate I was annoyed at the negotiations failing, not at you.”

“I’m sure,” I replied, unconvinced. “And I’m fine now, although I’d like to get a hold of Blueblood even more after going through all that.”

“Well I’m afraid that is where your services end for a while,” Maverick informed me.

“Excuse me?!” I exclaimed. “You’re sending me away after something that wasn’t even my fault?!”

“Of course not, don’t be silly,” Maverick assured me quickly, although it was much too condescending to make me feel any better. “We just need you clear of the city for a while… again. We need to get straight to work weeding out the Solar Empire agents, but you can’t do anything here while Typhoon wants your head.”

“So I need to lay low again,” I finished, feeling particularly annoyed. “Fine, where’s the barge at now?”

“Still in Mule,” Maverick replied. “But don’t worry, Stranglethorn has arranged for a way to get you out of the city. He’s waiting outside for you, just keep your head down when you step outside, it may have been yesterday that you attacked Typhoon, but the guards are still on high alert. If they see you anywhere near this barge you’ll be putting us all at risk.”

With a reluctant nod and a warm farewell to Twilight, I exited the cabin and found Stranglethorn waiting for me on the deck, his eyes sweeping the harbour for any nearby guards.

“Hey Strangle,” I greeted wearily. “Maverick wants rid of me again, he said you could help.”

Stranglethorn gave me a sympathetic look and patted me on the back as he led me over to the gangplank where I saw something I wasn’t expecting to be sitting on the jetty.

“Howdy Rares,” Applejack greeted, leaning against her apple cart. “Heard you need a way out of the city.”

“I thought you were done helping the Rebellion,” I pointed out with a hint of amusement as I descended the gangplank to meet her.

“Ah ain’t helpin’ the Rebellion,” Applejack stated flatly. “Ah’m helpin’ mah friend.”

I gave her a quick hug before noticing the other mare standing behind Applejack, looking slightly uncomfortable at being there.

“Oh, Rarity, you remember Autumn, don’t you?” Applejack asked when she saw me looking at her.

I did actually remember her, I was just struggling with the name, she was the pregnant mare we rescued from Pivot.

“Of course,” I replied, giving her a friendly smile. “Glad to see you’re okay.”

She smiled back, but before I could ask Applejack what was going on Stranglethorn gave a loud stomp on the deck behind me.

“Oh shoot,” Applejack murmured as she saw a patrol walking down one of the other jetties. “Into the cart Rarity, quickly now.”

I obeyed without question, clambering up into the back and nestling myself in among the empty apple crates before Applejack draped a sheet of cloth over the whole cart. It would hide me from view, but anypony who saw it would presume it was just there to keep the produce dry from the light rain.

“Just stay put and keep quiet,” Applejack instructed. “We’re takin’ the east exit, once we’re clear of the city I’ll let you out and I’ll explain everything.”

Before I could answer, I felt the cart jitter about slightly as Applejack hooked herself up, before long I felt it trundle along as Applejack started walking. It didn’t take long for Applejack to get through the city, I occasionally heard her speaking to Autumn but I didn’t pay much attention. At one point I heard a voice ask her what was in the cart, the voice presented itself as a guard but it sounded very young, Applejack had no problem telling him to jog on and mind his own business.

As we carried on, I heard Autumn ask if that was a smart thing, Applejack just said that she could always tell a greenhorn just from looking. Always looking to go above and beyond, but very easy to intimidate, and he was never going to tell his superiors about it because it would be too embarrassing to admit that he ran away from a mare. I guessed when we reached the gate just from the chatter around us, but I couldn’t have been sure as the guards didn’t talk directly to Applejack. So much for the high alert Maverick spoke of, apparently they didn’t care what went out of the city, even if it was the mare they were being paid to search for.

Things got much quieter after that and it wasn’t long before the cart slowed down and I heard Applejack detaching herself from it. When the cloth sheet was pulled back I saw Applejack and Autumn both smiling down at me.

“You’re a free mare,” Applejack declared, offering a hoof to help me out.

Once I was back onto the ground I looked back and saw Port Mule back off in the distance, we had followed the coast after leaving by the east gate so we had stopped at roughly the most northern point of the bay.

“Thanks you two,” I said, turning back to them. “I must say, it’s not nice being chased out of my home town.”

“You’ll be able to go back and live properly someday,” Applejack assured me before looking to Autumn. “Do you want a boost up now?”

She nodded and with Applejack’s help she clambered into the cart I had just vacated.

“Sorry about this Applejack,” she said as she got comfortable.

“Nonsense, a pregnant mare shouldn’t be expected to walk such a distance,” Applejack told her before noticing the confused look on my face. “Oh yeah, Autumn here decided she wants to travel to the Bask to have her foal.”

“There’s just so many on the farm now that I don’t want to add any extra burden,” Autumn explained.

“And since ah had a delivery to make to Mule,” Applejack continued. “Ah offered to escort her there once ah was done. When your friend found me and asked if ah could help you out of the city, naturally ah said yes, and ah figured you wouldn’t mind taggin’ along, another sword in case we run into trouble.”

“Of course I’ll come along,” I agreed without a moment’s hesitation. “I haven’t much else to be doing for a while anyway.”

“Great, well let’s get movin’,” Applejack declared as she began hooking herself up to the cart once more. “Ah reckon we’ll be there by midday tomorrow.”

As we set off down the road in the direction of the Bask, I noticed that Autumn had new bandages around her head.

“So did Braeburn get a doctor then?” I asked.

“He sure did,” Applejack confirmed. “Things are much better now, the unicorns all needed their horns… uh, cauterised.”

I flinched at that, I wondered if they would be able to salvage something, but if that’s what they resorted to, then there was no hope of those unicorns ever using magic again.

“I’m sorry,” I said to Autumn, offering her a sympathetic look.

“It’s okay,” Autumn tried to say, but I could tell she was still upset about it. “It only hurt a bit, but now I feel fine, and the baby’s still kicking, that’s all I could ask for.”

“The doc was still workin’ on the pegasi when I left,” Applejack carried on. “They’re requiring a bit more work, but that little Scootaloo was the first to be operated on and she was already up on her hooves and lookin’ better before ah left.”

I smiled at that, although I wondered if that wasn’t due to the condition she told me about and if the other pegasi would have quite the same time about it. By the time we decided to stop for the night so Applejack could get some rest, the rain was coming down hard and the pair of us were soaked to our skin. Autumn managed to stay relatively dry by sheltering herself with the cloth sheet, which Applejack propped up on sticks to keep us all sheltered while we rested.

“So you’re like some… vigilante?” Autumn asked over the howling wind which the cart kept off us.

“I wouldn’t say vigilante,” I replied awkwardly as Applejack sniggered.

“Well I wouldn’t say Rebel either,” Autumn stated.

“Why’s that?” I asked curiously, even Applejack looked a little surprised by that.

“I didn’t see any Rebel soldiers coming to save us back at Pivot,” Autumn continued bitterly. “We weren’t saved by the soldiers who claimed to be fighting for us; we were saved by you two and your other friend. You didn’t have to help us, you could have turned and run from Pivot when you saw what those monsters were doing and nopony could have blamed you for it. But you didn’t run, you came for us, so I guess you aren’t vigilantes either, you’re more like… heroes.”

Applejack and I shared a grim look; I could tell she was thinking the same thing as me.

“I don’t think we are,” I admitted. “Think of how many ponies we left there, sure the Rebels might save a lot of them, but if we were heroes we should have done more.”

“Three ponies who saved ten…” Autumn began to argue before stopping mid-sentence, smiling as she rubbed her bump. “Sorry, eleven ponies from a small army, that is a huge feat. True, there are others, but you’ll never be able to save everyone, nopony expects that of you. And now you’re both here, helping me for nothing in return, you sure sound like heroes to me.”

Applejack and I shared another look, this time more speechless than disappointed in ourselves.

“You know what,” Applejack began, looking over at Autumn. “Thank you; ah think you just made our day.”

“It’s okay,” Autumn replied before wincing slightly as she shifted position. “You don’t mind if I try to get a quick sleep do you?”

“Of course not, you work away,” Applejack told her.

As she lay down on the bedroll Applejack kept in the cart for just such occasions, I looked over to her.

“You should get some sleep to,” I said quietly. “You’re the one doing all the heavy lifting, I can keep lookout.”

“Ah can’t even argue,” Applejack replied with a yawn before lying back on the wet grass.

I waited until they were both asleep before I pulled off my coat and draped it over Autumn like a blanket so I was just wearing my white ruffled shirt. While I stayed up, I looked at my compass and spyglass, thinking to myself. Just a few days before I had been in tears, convinced I was a monster and my parents would despise me for the things I’d done, but now I looked down at those treasured items and thought about Autumn’s words, I wondered if their pride would outweigh their shame. Would they hear about the things I’d done in my travels and remember me as a monster… or a hero?

As the sun rose, I gave Applejack a rough shake while I started packing up the shelter, the cloth sheets was soaked through, it certainly wouldn’t be keeping anypony dry for the foreseeable future. Once the others were both up and ready to get moving, I helped Autumn into the cart while Applejack got herself hitched up.

“Sorry we don’t have anything to eat,” Applejack said, mostly to Autumn. “But we’ll be at the Bask shortly if you can wait.”

She nodded and we set off once more. It only took a few hours before we came over another hill and saw our destination a short distance off. The Bask was a monastery, a beautiful building that I had never actually seen before, even in all my years living in Panchea. Of course I had heard of it, everypony knew of the Celestial Sisterhood and their home in the southeast of the country. The Sisterhood was a group dedicated to the worship of Princess Celestia as well as the other five alicorns that made up the Six, although they tended to focus on Celestia, no doubt because she was the only one they knew for a fact is real.

Their purpose is to uphold peace and offer sanctuary to any who require it, naturally they stayed clear of the war, and the fighting forces dared not attack them out of respect for their peaceful ways. But they sheltered the victims of the war, whether they be soldiers wounded in battle, or citizens who were injured or lost their homes or families as a result of the fighting. The members of the Sisterhood were either Crusaders, guardians sworn to protect the Bask as well as smite creatures they deemed… unholy, and the sisters themselves who acted as healers.

I wasn’t surprised that Autumn wished to come here as it was common for mares who were expecting to give birth to travel to the Bask, there they could do so under the protection of the sisters. Birth was considered to be a very sacred thing within the Celestial Sisterhood, as such, all sisters were expertly trained as midwives and had vast amounts of experience in looking after young foals. We would escort Autumn to the bridge that led directly to the gatehouse of the Bask, from there she would be taken in by the sisters to her new living quarters, where she would be able to live and have her child under their care.

We would probably have left then and there, gone back to Sweet Apple Acres and seen little more of the Bask or the Celestial Sisterhood… unfortunately things didn’t go quite as smoothly. We stood on top of the hill, looking out at the Bask, over its white brick walls and orange tiled roofs. It looked like a cross between a castle and a small town clustered into a tiny area, sitting neatly at the top of a small crag on the other side of the river. We were too busy looking ahead that we hadn’t seen the ponies approaching from behind, not until we heard a high pitched whistling punctuated by an arrow striking Applejack just behind her shoulder.

Applejack screamed out, dropping to her knees, her leather armour had protected her, stopping the arrow from penetrating too far and possibly saved her life. I spun around in time to see a gang of six ponies galloping towards us, all wearing a mismatch of clothing that hid their faces and cutie marks and gave them the whole ‘outlaw’ look they seemed to be going for. The one furthest back was a unicorn and he had the bow, he was already drawing back for another shot.

As he let the arrow loose, I pulled my sword out and, with either the best reflexes in the world or a huge amount of luck, managed to swat the arrow out of the air with a swing on my blade. Turning back to Applejack, I saw that she was already on her hooves and struggling to get out of the harness keeping her attacked to the cart. I saw that we didn’t have enough time to get it off properly before the bandits reached us, so I swung my sword straight down twice, severing the connection between Applejack and the cart.

While I helped Autumn off the cart and instructed her to duck down behind it, out of range of any more arrows, Applejack swapped out her Stetson for her sallet helmet, and drew the claymore she had stashed away in the cart. The attackers were almost upon us, the unicorn switching out his bow for a curved dagger, while the others wielded various swords and clubs.

“Autumn, run for it!” Applejack ordered. “Don’t argue, just run! We’ll hold them off.”

Autumn looked up at us in distress for a moment before getting to her hooves and running in the direction of the bridge. She would make it, it wasn’t too far away, but only if we stopped any of the bandits from chasing after her. I wasn’t even prepared for the first pony when they reached me, swinging their club wildly at my head. I hopped back out of range, while throwing one of my knives with magic at another pony who thought he could run around the cart and go after Autumn.

He dropped when the knife caught him in the leg, but it wasn’t long before he was getting up and coming after me instead. I blocked another swing from the club with my rapier, but the force just knocked me off balance. As I stumbled back, he took another swing and his club caught me straight in the side of the leg. I cried out in pain as I dropped down, unable to stand and hold my sword at the same time with one of my front legs out of commission. I resorted back to using magic to hold my knives, spinning them around me in a flurry that forced the bandit with the club back.

As I kept him at bay however, the attacker whose leg I cut, had reached me and swung his sword. It cut right through my coat and shirt, and I felt the blade slice through my flesh. It wasn’t too deep, but I still dropped all my knives out of shock as I clutched the wound, blood seeping out through my clothes and flowing over my hooves. I picked up my fallen sword with my magic and swung it, slicing into the bandit just as he had sliced into me. He fell, but as I swung the sword around to deal with the other pony, he had already taken his opportunity to get close to me and swing his club.

It struck me squarely in the side of my jaw, my entire body was tossed back like a rag doll by the impact. I lay in a crumpled, bloody heap, even as he came in and hit me a second time in the stomach. From where I lay, I could see the other four ponies ganging up on Applejack, she was giving them a good fight, and if she had been at the top of her game she would have destroyed them, but her injury had slowed her down and the bandits took advantage of that. I watched as Applejack fell, just like I did, and one of the ponies stepped over her, raising his sword high, getting ready to plunge it down into her head after they kicked her helmet off…

But then I heard the sound of galloping, and saw the bandits all look off at something, suddenly panicking. They quickly forgot about us, retreating the way they came as some new figures entered my line of sight. They were wielding long swords and dressed in white tunics, on the chest of which was emblazoned with a yellow sun at the centre of a golden cross. One of them leaned over me, like their comrades, this one wore a crusader great helm. They spoke to me, but I couldn’t hear what they were saying. Like the galloping, her voice sounded so far off, and even the sight of her leaning over me became blurry and undefined.

The last thing I remember before slipping into unconsciousness, like I was taking a much needed nap, was feeling of somepony taking hold of my body and carrying it away.

XXXIII - The Bask

“And how is the patient today?” an almost motherly voice asked, that was the first thing I heard as I began to come around. “Her little friend was asking after her again.”

“She seems to be doing well,” a soft voice replied, sounding hopeful. “Her injuries are healing and she’s recovering quickly, I expect she’ll wake very soon.”

“That’s wonderful!” the first voice declared. “Let me know if anything changes, and when she wakes up, be sure to give her anything she desires.”

I heard the sounds of fading hoofsteps and assumed the owner of the first voice had left, where she had left, and by extension where I still was, that was still a mystery to me. I wanted to open my eyes, but I felt so relaxed where I lay in what felt like a bed woven from clouds. I felt like opening my eyes would be an indication that I was no longer tired and I would be forced to leave the comfort of the cloud bed.

“Oh my,” the soft voice exclaimed. “Are you waking up?”

I winced, realising I’d been caught out.

“Oh! I’m sorry,” the voice said suddenly. “Please don’t be upset with me, you can go back to sleep, I’ll just pretend I didn’t see you waking up.”

This mare was starting to confuse me, and my curiosity at what was going on was starting to heavily outweigh my desire to rest. I opened my eyes, turning my head to look at the pony who was talking to me. She wore a stark white cassock, with tight fitting sleeves for her front legs and a high collar, she also wore a mantel that was short at the front but long over her back, emblazoned with the sun and cross of the Celestial Sisterhood. This pony was clearly a sister, which meant I was residing in the Bask, but I turned my attention to the pony herself.

She was a butter yellow pegasus, with a long, flowing mane and tail the colour of cherry blossoms. She appeared to be rather thin, very delicate and slight in her frame. Her blue eyes were wide and inquisitive, looking back at me with a mixture of concern and… admiration?

“Oh, you are awake,” she continued. “That’s good, I wanted to ask how you were feeling.”

“I’m…” I began, frowning as I remembered what happened.

We were attacked by those bandits, I was cut open and beaten, Applejack was struck down. I was sure we were going to die, but then…

“I’m… fine,” I replied honestly, despite what had happened to me I felt no pain as I lay there looking up at the sister. “But Applejack… Autumn… Are they alright?”

“Oh, they’re both fine,” the sister informed me. “Applejack woke up yesterday, she asked the exact same thing about you both.”

“Yesterday…” I repeated, that being the only part of what she said I could focus on. “How long have I been here?”

“Only two days,” the sister replied. “You’ve recovered very quickly, both of you, faster than most ponies that come in here with those kinds of injuries.”

“So Autumn got here alright?” I asked.

“Yes, she did,” the sister confirmed. “She’s over in a different building, don’t worry, she’s being looked after by the best we have to offer.”

“That’s good,” I said in a relieved tone. “After everything that’s happened to her, I’m glad she can finally get some peace.”

“Yes, she was telling us about what happened,” the sister stated in an odd tone as she pulled a chair up beside my bed and sat on it. “She told us about what happened in Pivot, it sounded… awful, those poor ponies. But she also told us what you did, how you and your friends saved her and a number of others. You looked after them and treated them at Applejack’s farm, and then you both brought her here, and even stayed to fight those terrible ponies so that she could reach here safely.”

“Oh, she told you all that,” I replied awkwardly, not meeting the sister’s intense gaze.

“She did,” the sister continued, sounding ecstatic. “She also said you sometimes fight with the Rebels, but that you only do missions that help other ponies.”

“I try to…” I said in an uncomfortable tone.

“That’s so… so…” the sister tried to say, searching for the best word. “Noble.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” I told her. “My hooves aren’t exactly clean; I’ve done things that you’d probably consider bad, perhaps downright evil.”

“But you don’t consider them to be bad,” the sister stated confidently.

“Excuse me?” I uttered, a little taken a back.

“Sorry,” she said quickly, shrinking back and hiding behind her mane. “I’m just saying because… the way you talk about it, it sounds… resigned, like you were only doing what you felt you had to.”

“That’s…” I began, unsure how to respond to that. “Really intuitive.”

“Thank you,” the sister replied before quickly adding. “I mean, sorry.”

“No, no, it’s absolutely fine,” I assured her. “I’ve been confused about it all for a while anyway.”

“That’s okay, it’s okay to feel confused sometimes,” the sister told me. “I should probably go and tell the High Priestess you’re awake, she wanted me to let her know as soon as you were. I can let Applejack know as well if you’d like.”

“That would be much appreciated,” I said, lying my head back down on the pillow. “Thank you sister.”

“Please, just call me Fluttershy,” she insisted.

“Oh, alright,” I replied, unsure whether I was even allowed to address a sister of the Celestial Sisterhood by her name. “Well Fluttershy, my name is Rarity; it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“Likewise,” Fluttershy said, giving a small bow of the head before leaving the room.

The room I was in was very neat, a square patterned rug in the centre of the floor, matching curtains. There was a bedside table with a lamp on it, and a desk against the wall opposite the window. Upon the desk, all my clothes were folded and my equipment was laid out, even my weapons, which they had managed to recover from the hill where they found us. That raised an important question in my head; lifting the bed covers I found that my entire midriff was bandaged up. My left foreleg that had taken the first hit was not covered in any way, but nor did it hurt to move it; I could feel a slight twinge, but nothing major.

However there was still one injury that I needed to see to, and it was probably the one I was most dreading. Forcing myself out of bed and once again being surprised by how little everything hurt, I made my way across the room to the opposite corner where a wash basin sat with a full length mirror. I knew exactly where I had been struck in the jaw, and yet as I looked at my reflection, I saw absolutely nothing that would suggest the attack had ever occurred. I shouldn’t have been surprised, as I did plenty of talking with Fluttershy and didn’t feel any pain in my jaw, but I still managed to be.

I recalled what Fluttershy had said about Applejack and I recovering unusually quickly, I chose to ignore it for the time being, it being much easier to believe that the Sisterhood just worked wonders. It was at that moment, while I stood admiring my still dazzling face in the mirror, that the door opened and Fluttershy returned, this time with another pony in tow. This new pony wore similar clothes to Fluttershy, but they were closer to robes as they were much more flowing and loose. She had a pink tone coat, and her mane was varying shades of purple and blue and was done up in a high pony tail with a flat fringe hanging down around her horn.

“Oh good, you’re up,” she greeted in the same motherly voice I heard when I first woke up. “But what’s this, you’re out of bed? Sister Fluttershy, why is our new friend out of bed?”

I quickly picked up on how stern her voice became when she began questioning Fluttershy, and I also saw how the pegasus shrank under her gaze.

“Oh, it’s not her fault,” I said quickly. “I got up after she left; I just wanted to look in the mirror.”

“If that’s all you required then you should have simply asked it of Sister Fluttershy,” the mare replied, addressing me with her original motherly tone. “She has been tasked to look after you, and she will do so without question or complaint.”

“It’s okay really,” I tried to say, feeling a bit put off by this new mares over cheeriness. “I’m feeling great; I don’t need anypony looking after me Sister…”

“Oh! Where are my manners?” the mare said suddenly as I drifted off. “I am High Priestess Starlight Glimmer, but you can just call me Starlight.”

“Uh, sure,” I replied, finding it even more bizarre to call the High Priestess by her name. “But the thing is, I feel great. Really, I owe you all so much, but I need to see my friend and we need to be on our way soon. She’s probably needed back on the farm and I’m… needed there too.”

“Well of course you can see your friend,” Starlight informed me, still sounding overly delighted. “But you must stay so that we can monitor your conditions, at least until tomorrow. You came to us in a very bad shape, you’ve improved greatly, but we would be remiss to let you leave without being absolutely sure that you’re fit to travel.”

“Well…” I began, thinking it was fair enough. “Sure, tomorrow sounds agreeable. So can I see Applejack now?”

“Certainly, if you would like to follow me this way,” Starlight invited, leading the way out of the room.

I followed Starlight from the room into a similarly decorated corridor with Fluttershy right behind me, we only travelled down a few doors before we stopped at one and Starlight walked straight in without knocking. Following her in, I found a room almost identical to my own, only the desk was cluttered with Applejack’s possessions and the bed looked like it had been hardly slept in. Applejack herself was standing by the window, looking agitated as she leant on the sill with her hooves, staring out at the beautiful countryside view.

“Applejack, you aren’t sleeping,” Starlight pointed out, a hint of annoyance in her voice.

Applejack turned to look at her, but immediately forgot she was there when she saw me.

“Rarity!” she exclaimed, rushing right past Starlight Glimmer to hug me. “You’re okay! They wouldn’t let me see you until you woke up.”

“It’s good to see you too Applejack,” I replied. “Did they hurt you badly?”

“Uh… they didn’t go easy on me that’s for sure,” she replied uncomfortably.

I looked her up and down, but she looked no worse for wear, much like myself. Starlight Glimmer coughed noticeably to draw our attention back to her; I noticed she was looking rather put off at being ignored.

“Well I’m glad you’re both happy,” she said, although she didn’t sound glad. “I will leave you be for now, I have other duties to attend to. Sister Fluttershy, take Miss Rarity back to her room when she has been sufficiently reunited with her friend.”

“Of course High Priestess,” Fluttershy replied, giving a much more pronounced bow as Starlight Glimmer left the room.

“You should go on now Sugarcube,” Applejack said in an annoyed tone. “She’ll get her nark on if you stay too long; she certainly did when I tried seeing Autumn for more than five minutes.”

“She said we could leave tomorrow,” I informed her.

“Thank goodness!” Applejack said sounding relieved. “This place is like paradise, but that High Priestess gives me the…”

She stopped suddenly when she remembered Fluttershy was still in the room, who quickly pretended not to be listening.

“Anyway, you go on and get some rest,” Applejack told me. “We’ll head home tomorrow.”

I said farewell and left Applejack’s room, Fluttershy still in tow. I walked down to my room door, but hesitated as I reached for the handle, Fluttershy looked at me with concern.

“Is something wrong?” she asked.

“It’s just…” I began. “Now that I’m up, I don’t fancy sitting in a room all day. I’d like to go for a walk, see more the Bask, if that’s alright.”

I looked over at Fluttershy hopefully, who bit her lip in response, clearly torn on what to do.

“I don’t know that the High Priestess would like that very much, but…” Fluttershy murmured in a quiet voice. “She did say to do whatever you desired.”

She quickly glanced around her, up and down the corridor to make sure there was nopony else around.

“I think we could go for a walk,” she agreed, giving a strained smile.

We left the building and entered a small courtyard, there were a few other sisters walking about, they all greeted us warmly, they probably assumed I had every right to walk around with Fluttershy. Fluttershy led the way, while she did, I followed and took in the sights. The Bask really was beautiful, even more so now that I was walking about it and seeing it all up close. Everything looked so clean and meticulously maintained, it had the most serene atmosphere of any place I had ever visited, I could easily see why so many mares chose to come here to give birth.

Fluttershy took me through a few small courtyards and walkways, finally arriving at a wall with an arch cut out of it, overlooking the lands outside the Bask. There was a walkway that ran parallel with the wall and the archway, and it allowed us to stand over a section of exposed rock with a stream and waterfall trickling out through the archway and down the crag into the river. Fluttershy stopped and waited for me to take it all in, it was only when I saw her trying to stifle her giggles, that I realised I was standing with my mouth hanging open in awe.

“Sorry,” I said quickly, embarrassed that I had been caught looking so undignified by my new friend.

“It’s quite alright,” Fluttershy assured me. “It really is something, it’s hard not be awestruck. I come here whenever I want to feel at peace… well, more so than usual. At least, I used to come here… I don’t so much anymore.”

“Why not?” I asked, unsure what reason anypony could have to not want to stand there for hours on end and simply take in the world.

“I stood here once…” Fluttershy began. “During the war… I saw a battle take place in those very fields. I saw… so many ponies lose their lives, and even more struck down and left to die slowly, and I was forbidden from going to help them.”

“That’s… awful,” I replied honestly, but also confused. “But why didn’t the Crusaders step in, like they did when they saved us?”

“Because you weren’t soldiers,” Fluttershy explained. “You were just normal ponies who were being unfairly ganged up on outside our front gates, the Crusaders wouldn’t tolerate that. Soldiers on the other hand… as far as the Crusaders are concerned, they accept their fate when they joined the fight, if they come to us we’ll help them, but we aren’t allowed to go to them.”

“I can’t understand that,” I said, shaking my head. “Your Sisterhood wants to help ponies, but they refuse to go to where those ponies are? What about those who can’t get here to receive help?”

“Yeah…” Fluttershy agreed with a sigh, looking away into the distance.

“I’m sorry,” I said earnestly. “I didn’t mean anything against you or your group.”

“No, it’s fine,” Fluttershy jumped in quickly. “I know we aren’t perfect… far from it.”

We stood in silence for a long time, the pair of us simply closing our eyes and breathing in and out. I was glad the rain held off that day, although the clouds were heavy in the sky. After a while, we heard someone calling over to Fluttershy, she noticeably flinched when she heard her name, but relaxed when she saw it was just a fellow sister.

“Sister Fluttershy,” the other mare began, standing several metres from us. “Will you be joining us for dinner tonight?”

“No, I’m looking after a patient,” Fluttershy replied, the other sister nodding understandably before leaving.

As Fluttershy turned back to the view, she let out a sigh of relief.

“Um, Fluttershy…” I began, aware what I was about to ask might be uncomfortable for her. “What exactly is the deal with Starlight Glimmer?”

Fluttershy froze at the mention of the name, panic in her eyes.

“Wrong?” she repeated hastily. “Nothing’s wrong with her, she’s a very lovely pony and she cares very deeply about everypony else.”

“But…” I invited, knowing there was more she wasn’t saying.

Fluttershy gave another sigh, slumping over the stone railing in resignation.

“But she treats us like foals,” Fluttershy continued. “You, me, Applejack, Everypony. It’s like she doesn’t trust us to look after ourselves.”

“I was wondering why she was so annoyed when me and Applejack weren’t in bed,” I muttered.

“Sometimes I think she would remake the world entirely out of bubble wrap,” Fluttershy mused with a smirk. “She didn’t take the war well; I think it just reinforced the idea that ponies can’t be trusted with their own safety in her mind. She used to be alright, but now she’s… she’s… oh I shouldn’t be talking about the High Priestess like this.”

“Fluttershy,” I cut in. “What were you going to call her?”

Fluttershy took a deep breath before finishing her sentence.

“Overbearing,” she stated. “Overbearing and controlling.”

“Well, if you don’t like being pushed around and treated like a child,” I began in a firm voice. “Why don’t you leave, there’s so much more to the world and ponies who could use your help.”

“I’ve often thought about it,” Fluttershy admitted. “But this is still my home, these ponies are my family. If I left I would be excommunicated and never allowed to return.”

“Oh…” I uttered, realising just how devastating that would be for her. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” she replied, obviously lying. “I meet so many nice ponies coming in and out of here, and I hear lots of stories about the world.”

“Do you want to hear some stories?” I asked, seeing Fluttershy’s eyes brighten up instantly. “Because the last month has given me plenty of stories to tell.”

XXXV - Interrogation

“It really is an impressive city,” Fluttershy said again as we looked out over Port Mule. “Remind me why we can’t just go in.”

“Because we have no way of sneaking in,” I explained, looking through my spyglass at the eastern entrance where the guards were still waiting. “And the moment those guards see me I can say goodbye to my head.”

“It’s so… wrong that you’re being punished for something that isn’t even your fault,” Fluttershy stated in a huffy voice.

“Tell me about it,” I murmured back, still not taking my eye off the gate.

We were some ways off from the city wall, lying on our stomachs so as not to be spotted by the guards. We had been waiting for about half an hour for the guards to leave their posts, the second they did we would make a dash for the gate.

“Now remember Sugarcube,” Applejack said to Fluttershy. “Once we get in here, you’re gonna half to resist the urge to go sight seein’. Once we’ve gotten Rarity safely to the barge, then I’ll show you about.”

“I know,” Fluttershy acknowledged. “Work, then play.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, I saw the guards all look back at something on the other side of the wall before charging after it.

“Stranglethorn’s got their attention,” I announced, standing up and putting my spyglass away. “Let’s go!”

We galloped straight for the gate, wary that Stranglethorn could only keep them busy for so long before he would have to make a run for it himself. As we reached the gates, we were glad to see that none of the guards had returned from their chase yet. Once we were through, we were able to mingle in with the crowds, so that even if they did come back it would be harder to spot me. To help matters, most ponies were so intrigued by the sight of Fluttershy that I pretty much became invisible standing right next to her.

“Um, girls…” Fluttershy whispered, standing in between us. “Everypony is staring at me.”

“You’re probably the first sister of the Celestial Sisterhood they’ve ever seen outside the Bask,” Applejack reminded her. “You might have to get used to these kinds of looks.”

“I don’t like the sound of that,” Fluttershy whimpered.

We were rather lucky not to run into many patrols on our way down to the harbour, and any we did run into, we were able to slip by unnoticed, or switch to a different route. The only thing that gave us trouble was Fluttershy occasionally stopping to stare at a building or a boat, despite what she had promised before we entered the city. It didn’t take much persuasion to get her moving again, and it didn’t take that long to reach the barge.

Rather than follow me up to barge itself, Applejack and Fluttershy split off before we even stepped onto the jetty, promising they’d be back in a couple hours once Fluttershy had had her fill of the city sights. Trotting down the wooden jetty and up the gangplank, I made straight for the cabin door without even thinking to knock. What I got as I walked through without announcing myself was pulled into a very familiar hold with a sword pressed up against my neck.

“Seriously?!” I gasped.

Sufferthorn released me, sheathing her sword and rolling her eyes at me.

“Sometimes it’s like you’re trying to get yourself killed,” she chastised me.

“Sometimes it’s like you’re looking for an excuse to kill me,” I retorted.

“I am,” Sufferthorn admitted simply, leaving me feeling a little crappy about my come back which seemed much weaker now. “He’s down stairs, the boss is out and so is your friend. Refrain from using names while he’s in earshot, the boss wants him cracked by the time he gets back.”

“Hang on a second,” I cut in as Sufferthorn made her way to the ladder. “I thought you were at Pivot, what about the Children of the Earth?!”

“Gone,” Sufferthorn revealed. “There wasn’t even a battle, they most likely heard we were coming and flew the coop back to Cragsburg.”

“And the ponies in Pivot?” I asked nervously.

“As fine as you would expect,” Sufferthorn replied. “I will tell you more later, but right now you need to get your head in the game.”

“Alright, alright,” I said quickly. “Lead the way and we’ll get started.”

As I made my way down the ladder after her, I found the room below the deck to be very dark, I could vaguely make out the shape of a pony tied to a chair in the centre of the room. He appeared to be slouching forward, breathing heavily; I wondered if Sufferthorn had already got started before I arrived, and if so, what approach she had taken with the prisoner.

“Alright scum,” Sufferthorn greeted harshly. “My friend has just arrived, so now you’re in twice the amount of trouble.”

I had to resist the urge to laugh at her use of the word ‘friend’.

“I should warn you however,” Sufferthorn continued as she fiddled with the lamp hanging over him. “This mare’s the only pony to tangle with Typhoon and walk away after.”

The pony in the chair began shaking slightly at that and I started wondering if I should appear more threatening than I actually was when questioning this guy, but then Sufferthorn got the light working and I lost my train of thought. Behind the dried blood and purple bruises I could still make out the pale grey coat and the darker mane and tail of the pegasus, and although his blue sailor jacket was gone, I still recognised him.

“Feather Duster?!” I exclaimed with a mixture of shock and anger.

“R… Rarity?!” he replied, his own shock mixed with fear.

“You know this guy?” Sufferthorn asked curiously. “Well at least we now have his name; the little shit wouldn’t even give me that he’s so tight lipped.”

“He was one of the crew members on the Siren,” I explained to her. “He was also the one I followed back to that safe house, I didn’t want to believe he was involved in this, but I guess I didn’t know him as well as I thought I did.”

“No Rarity, please!” Feather Duster begged. “I’m not involved in this, I swear. Whatever she’s telling you is a lie, she’s insane!”

“I’m actually not,” Sufferthorn informed us both in a casual voice.

“Well if you really are innocent, then you’d better start talking!” I shouted at him, reaching forward and grabbing his chin so he looked me in the eye. “You can start by telling us exactly why I saw you going to that safe house… twenty days ago… give or take or a couple days.”

“And you were doing so well,” Sufferthorn whispered to me when I stood back up, sounding amused.

“I don’t know anything about a safe house!” Feather Duster insisted. “I was just here… visiting… a friend.”

“You were ‘visiting a friend'?” I repeated sceptically. “Have you poked your head out the window recently? Does the name ‘Liberators’ mean anything to you?”

“T… they’re the guards, aren’t they?” Feather Duster replied in what he probably thought was a casual voice, but only came off as trembling and untrustworthy.

“Alright, I’ll humour you,” I stated, reeling back my anger. “What is the name of your friend?”

“Sundial!” Feather Duster replied quickly before blanching. “I mean… no, that’s right, Sundial.”

“Am I to take it this is a different Sundial from the captain of the Siren?” I asked venomously, to which he nodded rapidly. “Sure, plenty of ponies have same or similar names, now where does Sundial live?”

“He lives…” Feather Duster began; clearing his mind was hard at work trying to make up an address. “Hang on, I’m not from here remember, it’s hard to remember street names and stuff.”

“But you have been here for about three weeks at the very least,” I reminded him. “So are you telling me that you haven’t learned your friend's address after staying with him for three weeks?”

“No, I remember it now,” Feather Duster said, his voice sounding more determined now. “He lives in number six, second street, Home District.”

“You sound very sure,” I pointed out. “So if we send some ponies around there, you’re sure we’ll find a pony named Sundial living there who can confirm you are his friend?”

“Sure,” Feather Duster replied, his voice brimming with false confidence. “Just, don’t be surprised if he’s not at home. He said he was going to visit some family in Timber today, you might have already missed him.”

“I see…” I breathed, getting a little bit tired.

I walked over to where another chair sat, dragged it over so in front of him and sat down on it so I was only a foot from him.

“Feather Duster,” I began in a tense voice. “I do not believe you’re being entirely honest with me, that’s… disappointing. Now I can see my fri… associate has already made things difficult for you before I arrived, but if you don’t start telling the truth, I might just have to let her step back in. So why don’t we start with why you’re here in Port Mule… despite the fact that the Siren dropped us off at Daybreak Landing intentionally, because they knew the Liberators controlled Mule and would pose a risk to any Equestrians if they came anywhere near.”

“I… I…” Feather Duster stammered, breaking out into a nervous sweat. “Rarity, you have to believe me when I say I didn’t know what they were up to. I thought I was just being hired for a simple job, sail here and sail back; it wasn’t until I was on the boat that I found out the truth.”

“So you admit to being part of it now?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Part of it?!” Feather Duster repeated in shock. “No, I’m just an errand boy. They have me fetch food and deliver messages, I don’t know what they’re really up to, they don’t let me in on it.”

“Is that why you were making notes on the bank when we caught up to you?” Sufferthorn asked from behind me. “Did your employers ask for a sandwich, a cup of coffee and a plan for the largest bank in Port Mule? I’ll leave you to come up with an excuse for that, right now Rarity and I need to have a word.”

I stood up and followed her over to the ladder; she didn’t make to climb up it, instead waited at the bottom to whisper to me.

“You’re doing great, you’ve got way more out of him than I have all morning,” she complimented, which took me by surprise. “But the way he’s going, I’d say he’ll keep this lie up all day.”

“Are you sure he’s lying?” I asked. “I know this guy; I find it really hard to believe he’s any kind of agent. A low level errand boy might be exactly his speed.”

“Strangle was the one to bring him in,” Sufferthorn explained. “He believed this guy is way more involved than he’s letting on right now, and you should know my brother’s instincts are the only evidence you need in a situation like this.”

“So what do you suggest? Because beating him up didn’t get you anywhere the first time,” I reminded her.

“No, no, I’m leaving this to you,” Sufferthorn said calmly. “You know this guy; you might be able to get under his skin.”

“I don’t know him that well, but…” I drifted off as I remembered how I had once believed he was attracted to me. “I might be able to manage something, but I’ll need to be alone. Can you still listen in from upstairs?”

“There’s a vent I can use,” Sufferthorn replied, before turning and climbing the ladder without another word.

Taking a deep breath, I turned and made my slow way back to Feather Duster, retaking my seat opposite him. He looked up at me fearfully, but faltered when he saw the sad look in my eyes.

“We’re taking a break for a bit,” I lied, punctuating it with a long sigh. “Feather Duster… what are you doing?”

“Rarity… I…” Feather Duster tried to say, but couldn’t seem to find the words.

“I know three weeks isn’t exactly a long time,” I admitted. “But I really thought we’d become friends in that time, but knowing the things you’re involved in, and that you’d sit here and lie to my face about it…”

“No! I’m not,” Feather Duster insisted, but his voice was really cracking now.

“Feather, please,” I begged, clenching my eyes to hide imaginary tears. “I’m not stupid; don’t treat me like I am.”

“Rarity…” Feather Duster began before letting his head bow in resignation. “You don’t understand, the Solar Empire… they aren’t what you think. It was Captain Sundial who approached me, I’d worked under him for years, he’s a good pony, all the agents I’ve met are. This Rebellion… they can’t help Panchea, they can only drag it further into chaos, only the Princess can restore it to the way it once was.”

“And you speak for the Princess?” I demanded, frowning at him.

“Never!” he declared, sounding insulted that I would even suggest such a thing. “Princess Celestia cares about all ponies, sometimes to a fault. She would never seize control of Panchea against the will of the ponies living here, even though they’ll suffer without her leadership. That’s why it’s up to us to do what she cannot, to get our hooves dirty so she won’t have to.”

“Is that what the sleeper agent plan was?” I asked, glaring slightly at him. “The Solar Empire getting their hooves dirty?”

“You… you know about that?” Feather Duster replied in a weak voice. “Rarity I am truly sorry, I am. I believe in what the Solar Empire is trying to accomplish… even if its methods make me uncomfortable.”

“They make you uncomfortable?!” I shouted at him, causing him to flinch. “How do you think I felt when I had control of my body ripped away from me?! How do you think I felt when I woke up and discovered I was almost killed after being made to attack one of the most powerful ponies in this city?!”

“What?!” Feather Duster exclaimed, his eyes wide with shock. “They… they used the spell on you?! And they made you attack somepony?!”

“You mean to say you didn’t know?” I asked bitterly as some real tears started to fall. “When we parted ways at Daybreak Landing, you didn’t look back because you knew what they had done to us and wanted to warn me?”

“I did know,” Feather Duster admitted in a pained voice. “And I wanted to tell you… but they promised me those spells wouldn’t be used for a long time, and when they were you wouldn’t be put into any danger. Sundial promised me you wouldn’t be hurt.”

I frowned at him, he definitely sounded genuine, and his eyes shone with honesty.

“You really didn’t know that they made me attack Typhoon?” I asked once more.

“Typhoon?! The leader of the Liberators?!” Feather Duster exclaimed, looking as if he had taken a small heart attack. “Rarity I swear I had nothing to do with that, I never would have let them get away with it if I had known.”

I refrained from laughing at that, it was sweet, but the idea that Feather Duster of all ponies was going to tell his superiors what they could or couldn’t do was ridiculous.

“So what exactly do you do for them?” I asked curiously.

“Your friend already knows I was drawing up plans of the bank,” Feather Duster pointed out. “Me and several other agents, all crew members of the Siren, have been tasked with mapping out the entire city and its major locations. I think there are teams in all the major cities doing the same job, we pass our findings on to Sundial and he… well I don’t really know. I imagine there are other leaders of the Solar Empire who he’s in direct contact with, ponies working directly under the Princess, but I don’t know who they are.”

“And you never questioned what you were being asked to make those maps for?” I asked in disbelief. “What if your superiors were using those designs to launch attacks or planting bombs… or finding out where important figures are so they can send assassins after them?”

“I’m a fool, I know that I am,” Feather Duster whined. “But I really believed we were doing what was right, and I trusted Sundial when he said we would do it in the most peaceful way possible.”

“Feather Duster…” I began; he looked back up at me with a miserable expression. “I believe you.”

His eyes widened, shining with hope.

“Don’t get the wrong idea,” I warned him quickly. “You’re still in trouble, but I believe you didn’t mean any harm… or at least not too much.”

“Your friend has been listening in this whole time, hasn’t she?” Feather Duster stated in a voice heavy with resignation. “I don’t mind... I don’t know much, but I’ll tell you everything I know.”

“Thank you Feather,” I responded appreciatively.

I was going to leave then, but I stopped a moment and let him drink out of my water canteen, he looked like he needed it after the whole ordeal. When I did get back up into the cabin, I found Maverick sitting at the table and Sufferthorn standing waiting for me.

“Impressive,” she said, nodding in approval. “You got him singing like a song bird.”

“I knew he couldn’t be more than a low ranking agent,” I reported, taking my own seat while she pulled a third one up to the table. “He’s no harm to us, but nor will he be a lot of use. We should see about getting a hold of Sundial, Feather Duster might be able to help us with that much, but it could take a bit of convincing.”

“What should we do with him once he’s told us what we need to know?” Maverick asked Sufferthorn while reading over something.

“Well you know me, normally I kill off enemy agents,” Sufferthorn replied casually. “But like Rarity said, he barely even qualifies as an agent. Plus, since she got the info out of him, I figure she should decide.”

“Me?” I repeated, once again taken aback by Sufferthorn’s attitude towards me. “Well I don’t think he should be hurt anymore, he’s played ball, so we should treat him fairly. We can give him to Twilight Sparkle and she can take him back to Equestria to be charged. Where is Twilight by the way?”

“She went off, back to her ship and crew to check in,” Maverick explained. “She should be back this evening, she can collect the boy then.”

“Let’s go see about Sundial now,” Sufferthorn suggested. “Strangle should be back soon and I want to know if we’re setting out tonight or not.”

As we stood up and made our way back to the ladder, I caught a glimpse of what Maverick was reading, he appeared to be comparing two lists of names. It didn’t take as much persuasion as I had anticipated; it seemed any resolve Feather Duster possessed had been broken when he learned what happened to me. While I didn’t like the idea of abusing his obvious feelings for me, I couldn’t argue with the results. He explained that every week they meet Sundial at a different location to give him their compiled findings, that was what he had been going to do the day I first followed him to his safe house.

When presented with a map of Port Mule, he was able to identify the place where he was supposed to be meeting Sundial that very night. It certainly was a massive convenience, but I wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Once Stranglethorn returned, Maverick instructed him on where to find Sundial and he was back out the door in minutes of his arrival. Sufferthorn escorted Feather Duster away from the barge, blindfolding him before taking him away to one of the Rebels' own safe houses.

“Please don’t hurt Sundial,” he begged me before he was taken away. “I’ve known him my whole life, he’s an honourable pony. Anything he’s done, he’ll have done because he believes it’s right.”

“I’ll try my best,” I told him, it was the best I could offer.

I didn’t believe that Sundial, the middle man would be quite as naïve as Feather Duster. With nothing to do until Stranglethorn could get Sundial back to the barge, I made my way onto the deck where Applejack and Fluttershy were sitting chatting.

“How was your day?” I asked them, mainly Fluttershy though.

“It was wonderful!” Fluttershy replied delightedly. “I feel like I’ve done more in one day than in my entire life.”

“I wish I could have come with you,” I said a little forlornly.

“Did you get anywhere here?” Applejack asked.

“Yes actually,” I admitted. “The guy they captured turned out to be somepony I knew, it wasn’t too difficult to get him talking. He didn’t seem to know anything about what they were really up to or even what they had tried to make me do, but he helped us locate his boss, who Stranglethorn should be bringing in soon.”

“What will you do when he gets here?” Fluttershy asked.

“I’m not sure,” I answered, stroking my chin thoughtfully. “With Feather Duster it had been easy, Sufferthorn had already tried the hard way before I got here, which I think loosened his tongue more than she realised. After that I just had to break through his defences on a more… personal level, but I was able to do that because we had been friends… sort of. But this guy I barely knew, even when I was on his ship for three weeks.”

“Do you want some help with him?” Fluttershy asked, although she sounded like she was hoping I’d say no.

“It’s fine, I couldn’t ask you to do that,” I replied before looking over at Applejack. “I thought you’d be heading back to the farm.”

“Nah, ah figured ah’d stick about and wait for you,” Applejack replied, lying back on the deck. “Besides, who’s gonna keep Shy company while you’re off bein’ a part time spy?”

“Well I hope I won’t be too long,” I began. “Chances are Maverick will want to take some time to plan his next move after we crack this guy, so we’ll get some time off then.”

Captain Sundial it turned out, was a very tough nut to crack.

“You!” he exclaimed upon seeing me. “You’re supposed to be dead!”

I glanced over at Sufferthorn; she seemed to share my surprise. We had literally just descended the ladder below deck and approached him as Stranglethorn continued to tie him up, he looked straight up at me and that was the first thing he said.

“Well I suppose we should start by saying thank you,” I began.

“For what?!” he replied in a snide tone.

“Well you basically gave away that the Solar Empire is responsible for Rarity being turned into a sleeper agent,” Sufferthorn pointed out. “We had pretty much figured that out, but it’s always nice to have someone confirm your suspicions.”

Sundial swore and stomped his hoof, although his tight bonds prevented him from stomping it very hard.

“Well enjoy that little reveal,” he spat. “Because you won’t be getting anything more out of me.”

He hadn’t been lying, we tried every tactic we had and never got more than insults from him. We tried flattery, we tried bribery, we tried trickery, none of them got us anywhere. I even tried to use Feather Duster to break him, presuming that since Feather Duster respected him so much, that he would care about him in return… I was very wrong.

“Kill the lad, what do I care?!” he retorted to my empty threat. “He betrayed us when he dared to open his mouth to the likes of you; he’s already dead to me.”

After that, Stranglethorn and Sufferthorn moved onto more aggressive tactics, thankfully I was allowed to take a step back while they did their stuff. They tried threatening him, they tried hitting him, they tried cutting him, and still he did not break. After a while, Sufferthorn made her way over to me where I stood by the ladder, fuming with anger and exhaustion.

“Nopony has ever stayed silent this long,” she muttered darkly.

“You should sit down, both of you,” I told her. “You look exhausted.”

“If I’m exhausted, then imagine how he’s feeling,” she pointed out. “He’ll break soon enough.”

“He’ll die before that at this rate,” I said, looking over at the wreck of a stallion, Feather Duster would not be happy about it when he found out. “We need to try a different approach, perhaps if we act like we know more than we do.”

“No good,” Sufferthorn said flatly. “If that was to work, we would need to have done it from the start.”

“But we still haven’t mentioned Blueblood,” I reminded her.

“For very good reason,” Sufferthorn hissed back at me. “Right now Blueblood is just our best guess, but we don’t know for sure. If he’s not involved in this, and we plant the idea that we think it’s him in this guy’s head, he’ll play along with it to send us in the wrong direction.”

“But what if it’s not one of us who mentions him…” I began, Sufferthorn’s eyes widening as I explained my plan.

I sat in the cabin, waiting patiently by the vent Sufferthorn had used to listen in on me and Feather Duster. I could hear her still talking away, Sundial occasionally retorting with something, Stranglethorn occasionally punching him in the stomach when he did. Fluttershy and Applejack crouched behind me, listening closely while Maverick made do from where he sat at the table; none of us were making a sound. After the pretend interrogation dragged on long enough, I glanced over to the ladder and nodded to the pony waiting there.

She leapt straight down into the room below the deck and there was an explosion of sound as fighting broke out. Amidst the sounds of swords clashing and spells blasting, I heard two bodies hit the floor. When the battle was finished, the figure made their way over to where Sundial was tied up, every hoofstep slow and deliberate.

“T… T… Twilight Sparkle?!” Sundial stammered in a mixture of confusion and utter terror. “What are you doing here?!”

“I’m here to make sure you don’t talk,” Twilight replied in calm voice, brimming with hatred. “We don’t have use for weak ponies who get themselves caught.”

“Wait… you don’t mean that…” Sundial uttered, a hint of excitement in his voice. “Lady Sparkle I had no idea you were one of us, you must forgive me, and I assure you I have not revealed a thing to these pests.”

“And you expect me to take that risk?” Twilight asked in a dark tone. “Although… even if you had told them anything, they’re dead now, they won’t be reporting back to their masters. There were no others I take it?”

“None at all Lady Sparkle,” Sundial lied as Twilight cut him free.

“Very well then,” she said slowly as if contemplating the situation. “We must hurry and leave this place, hurry and hold on to me, I will teleport us to safety.”

A moment passed in which there was the sound of magic flaring, when it died down the voices started back up.

“Thank you for rescuing me Lady Sparkle,” Sundial simpered. “And for showing me mercy, I am forever in your debt.”

I had to hold my breath to stop myself from bursting into a fit of laughter, looking around I saw Applejack was in the same boat. While Sundial may have thought Twilight teleported him away from the barge, she simply created an illusion of her own safe house around them… I just realised there are a lot of safe houses in Port Mule, in fact, are there any normal houses at all anymore?

“Your debt is only to Princess Celestia, not to pawns such as ourselves,” Twilight chastised him. “Or… would Duke Blueblood have you think differently?”

“Of course not Lady Sparkle,” Sundial insisted. “The Duke is eternally loyal to the Princess, that is after all why he brought us together to carry out this task for her.”

“Indeed he has…” Twilight began, her voice brimming with joy, but not for the reasons Sundial would have thought.

“It’s lucky you rescued me when you did,” Sundial carried on before Twilight could reveal that he had been duped. “I am due to meet with him tomorrow night to discuss the completion of phase one.”

“You will be meeting with him?” Twilight repeated her, her authoritative tone slipping slightly. “You mean, face to face?”

“Yes, weren’t you aware?” Sundial asked. “I assumed you must have both travelled over together.”

“No, I have been here for a while now overseeing matters on his behalf,” Twilight improvised, now sounding a little weaker that she hadn’t rehearsed those particular lines. “But the Duke so often fails to keep me updated with these matters, where is this meeting taking place? It would be a convenient opportunity for me to report to him as well.”

“It’s on the beaches,” Sundial informed her, and us by extension. “Some miles east of the city, I am due to meet him at midnight and I would be more than glad to have you travel there with me.”

“Tomorrow, midnight, on the beaches east of the city,” Twilight repeated, loud and clear for us to make out. “You know what Sundial, I would be most glad to take you up on your offer.”

XXXVI - Battlemage

“So in conclusion…” Sufferthorn began only to be interrupted by muffled yelling coming from below the deck.

She fell silent for a second, waiting for Sundial to tire himself out. Once he eventually did, she carried on.

“We don’t know exactly how many citizens are unaccounted…” she continued only to be cut off once again, she sighed and rubbed her tired eyes. “Strangle, would you kindly put a stop to those interruptions.”

Her brother nodded once before standing up and walking over to the ladder, he disappeared from view and we all waited in silence. Sundial continued to rant and rave through his gag until a loud thump could be heard, after that there were no further interruptions.

“Thank you Strangle,” Sufferthorn said as her brother returned to the crowded cabin. “As I was saying, we don’t know how many citizens are dead or missing, but I expect that a census will be drawn up by the time any of us return to Pivot and we’ll know better just how bad the casualties are. It would appear the invaders have retreated to the safety of Cragsburg, it’s… odd to think that they grew so powerful beneath our muzzles.”

“A mistake we won’t make again,” Maverick assured all the ponies gathered around the table. “Our forces may not be what they once were, but we’re going to use every pony under our command to their fullest potential.”

“Well our entire armed force is in Pivot awaiting orders,” Sufferthorn explained.

“You gotta keep the bulk in Pivot in case they come back,” Applejack suggested, earning a small glare from Sufferthorn.

“But we still need to send some troops to Cragsburg’s neighbouring towns in case the Children try to push their influence again,” I pointed out.

“If we spread our troops that much, we’ll be defenceless should the other factions launch an assault,” Sufferthorn argued before looking over at Stranglethorn and having another muted conversation with him. “I know the Arcane Order and the Dragoons are content to stay in their own holds, but we thought the same thing about the Children of the Earth and look what happened.”

“And don’t forget the Liberators,” Twilight reminded the group, like we needed reminding. “Even after everything you’ve done to damage them, their forces would still overpower your own, whether they were clustered together or spread out.”

“And I even told Typhoon what happened during our negotiations,” I lamented. “He knows we’ve been weakened, if he was ever going to strike us where we live, he might do it soon.”

“We’re in a bad situation, no doubt about that,” Maverick agreed, holding up his hooves in an attempt to calm everypony down. “We made the mistake of littering our forces across the country where they were no use when we needed them, we can’t afford to spread them out again.”

“Um, excuse me…” Fluttershy said in a quiet voice, raising her hoof.

“Hmm? Did you want to say something Sister?” Sufferthorn asked in a surprisingly respectful tone.

“I was just thinking, about the Liberators that is,” she began in a voice that was almost a whisper. “Didn’t Rarity say her negotiations with their leader had gone quite well… right up until she was taken control of?”

“I believe so, would you agree Stranglethorn?” I asked, to which he nodded firmly. “Right before I was controlled, I started getting through to him, I really think he started to see how much his actions have damaged the lives of the ponies he claims to be fighting for.”

“Well, we know that this Duke is the one responsible for what Rarity did,” Fluttershy continued. “And we plan to put a stop to him and his group tonight, right?”

“Ideally Sister Fluttershy,” Twilight confirmed. “Assuming all goes according to plan.”

“Well once the Duke is in custody; couldn’t we have him brought before Typhoon to admit to what he did?” Fluttershy proposed. “Once Typhoon knows Rarity wasn’t responsible for attacking him, then you can reopen negotiations. Then if things go well, you won’t have to worry about an attack coming from the Liberators and you’ll have more soldiers to help deal with the Children of the Earth.”

“It’s a wonderful idea Sister Fluttershy,” Maverick said, although everyone could sense a ‘but’ coming. “But it has one major issue, namely that Typhoon hates Equestria and its leaders. If we presented Blueblood to him, I have no doubt Typhoon would have him executed, and since we have already promised Lady Sparkle that he and all the Solar Empire agents are to be transported safely back to Equestria to be charged, allowing Typhoon the opportunity to kill Blueblood would severely damage our blossoming relations.”

“I think it’s a really good idea,” I told Fluttershy before addressing the rest of the cabin. “And I don’t think we should discard it just yet, any plan that could put an end to the Liberator threat is one worth considering.”

“Agreed,” Sufferthorn stated. “We can return to this discussion once we have Blueblood in custody and the Solar Empire are no longer a threat.”

“Indeed, for now our forces shall remain in Pivot to garrison the city should any of our enemies attack,” Maverick decided. “I shall see if we can spare any agents to check on Breakwater, Brine and Anchorage. If there are no further questions, shall we review the mission details for tonight?”

“I still think it’s a bad idea,” Sufferthorn commented.

“Ah actually agree,” Applejack added which took me by surprise.

“The plan will work, I’m sure of it,” Twilight said, trying to inspire confidence in the others. “But if you don’t want to be on the front line, I don’t mind at all. I just thought you and Rarity would be best suited for the task.”

“Ah’m not saying it’s a bad idea because of that,” Applejack argued. “Ah’m more than glad to join you on that beach, ah just… ah just think there’s a better way to do this.”

Applejack glanced at Sufferthorn who glanced at Stranglethorn; they all seemed to be sharing the same thought. Twilight visibly bristled at what they were hinting at, Fluttershy shrank down slightly beside her.

“We have been through this,” Twilight said in a clear and unwavering voice. “I will not use mind control spells on anypony, no matter what they’ve done.”

“You tricked him last night with that illusion spell,” I reminded her. “Is mind control really so different?”

“It’s completely different, and you should know better than anypony!” Twilight snapped suddenly. “I will not seize another pony’s free will from them no matter the circumstances; if I do that, then I’m no better than Blueblood.”

“It’s alright Lady Sparkle,” Maverick said quickly before the situation could escalate. “We won’t use Sundial; your current plan will suffice.”

“Yeah, that possibility went right out the window when Rarity got a hold of that passenger manifest,” Sufferthorn added, to which I shot a glare her way.

It definitely hadn’t been my proudest moment, when I rushed below deck to confront Sundial with the two lists Maverick had been comparing. One was the passenger manifest for the Siren during my trip on it, while the other was a list of all the passengers who disembarked as recorded by a Rebel agent who had been in Daybreak Landing on that day. While the lists had seemed inconsequential, there was one small discrepancy that had terrible implications.

“Sundial, what is the meaning of this?!” I demanded as I stormed up to him. “Where did this pony go, this… Nurse Redheart?”

Sundial had just stared at me in horror, really, the fact that he wasn’t restrained in anyway should have tipped me off that he was still under Twilight’s illusion. Of course once he saw me and began to question what was going on, the illusion broke down around him and he realised the truth of how he had been tricked. I briefly saw Twilight standing behind him, planting her hoof into her face before Sundial got over his shock and tried to make a run for it.

We got him recaptured and questioned him on the missing pony, the one I had remembered being taken down into the hold by two crew members, but never seeing again after that. After much persuasion, he revealed that she had been used as a test subject to see how well the sleeper agent spell worked at a long range. But most of all, it was to test the limits of the spell, to see if the caster’s will could override the body’s normal defence mechanisms. In the case of Nurse Redheart, they proved it to be very possible by having her drown herself in a bucket of water.

At no point did her body try to react to save her from death, and when the experiment was finished, Sundial ordered her body be thrown overboard and she was never seen again. We tried to salvage our asset following my blunder, but Sundial refused to say anything more no matter what false circumstances we placed him under. As I said, it was not my proudest moment and it ruined any hope we had of using him to get close to Blueblood, resulting in Twilight coming up with a much riskier plan which she seemed certain would succeed.

“I already said I was sorry,” I reminded everypony sitting around the table. “And we’ll get Blueblood without Sundial; I’ll make sure of it.”

“Be sure that you do,” Maverick said in a warning tone. “We can’t afford failures at this point; even accidents will not be tolerated.”

With the meeting ended, we all began making our preparations. For myself and Applejack, we just needed to be armed and ready to fight when Twilight needed us to. Fluttershy however would be with Sufferthorn and Stranglethorn, that meant remaining unseen until the right time, as such her bright white cassock was a bit impractical. Since Stranglethorn and Sufferthorn would be wearing full black garbs, Fluttershy agreed to wear the same for the duration of the mission, taking only her mace and med kit in case things went south.

Stranglethorn went ahead as usual to clear the gate and secure our exit from the city, by that point, sneaking in and out of Mule was becoming so routine that I had to wonder why the Liberators were even a threat to us. Sufferthorn led the rest of us to the gates and along the coast to where the meeting with Blueblood was going to take place, Stranglethorn catching up some ways along. The dark of the night offered excellent cover once we suspected we were getting close to our destination.

It took a little time, but eventually we saw the pinpricks of light in the distance that indicated where the meeting would take place. At that point we shared a quick word, made sure both parties knew exactly what they were expected to do and at what times, before splitting up and carrying on. Twilight Sparkle, Applejack and myself walked directly for the small group of ponies that had gathered around the open fire, while the others broke off to take the long way round. While we kept the targets busy, they would sneak around behind to block off their escape route.

As we drew closer, I could make out the individual ponies, although most of them were unfamiliar to me, one however I recognised instantly despite having so little interaction with him. Duke Blueblood wore an exquisite tailored suit; his blonde locks hanging carelessly around his face, his eyes were heavily lidded, his mouth forming a tight smile. We all hesitated simultaneously a short ways off, preparing ourselves for what we were about to do, it not escaping our notice that all the ponies beside Blueblood carried some kind of weapon.

Twilight looked to us both and we gave her a short, single nod to confirm we were ready to go, and she led the way forward into the light of the fire. The ponies didn’t react badly at first, when they saw us approaching they didn’t seem surprised, no doubt under the impression it was Sundial finally arriving. Once we were clearly illuminated by the light of the fire and they were able to see that we were strangers, the atmosphere became a little more tense. Most of the ponies reached for their weapons, some stumbled back as if readying for a retreat, Blueblood however froze when he saw us.

“Twilight Sparkle?” he queried, his voice surprisingly calm. “Is that you?”

“Yes Blueblood, sorry I’m late to the meeting,” she replied in a casual voice. “But then it would have helped if you had invited me.”

“A little trip abroad is hardly anything to get concerned over Twilight,” Blueblood said with a small laugh. “You know as well as I do how stressful life in Canterlot can be, I used to come here every year for my vacation, and I’m not about to stop just because Panchea is its own country.”

“You can drop the act Blueblood,” Twilight cut in. “I know everything, about you and the Solar Empire.”

“I… see,” Blueblood replied slowly, giving a quick glance to the ponies around him.

“And honestly Blueblood… I’m surprised at you,” Twilight continued in a disbelieving tone. “The fact that you would hide this from me, although really it’s more foolish on your part. Had you chose to include me in your plans, I could have offered my assistance.”

Blueblood did a double take at that, clearly not expecting Twilight to say such a thing.

“Wait, you mean to say you do not disapprove?” Blueblood questioned suspiciously.

“Disapprove?” Twilight repeated. “I’m a little insulted Blueblood, you’ve known me for years and yet it never occurred to you when forming your club, that I would sympathise with your goals. I have been by Princess Celestia’s side almost every day since I was a filly, she practically raised me, you know this better than most ponies. So when you ask if I disapprove of retaking for the Princess what is rightfully hers, I really am disappointed in you.”

“But you supported the surrender, and you were against the war from the start,” Blueblood pointed out, still sounding suspicious.

“I loathe war,” Twilight replied. “There are always more… clever means of getting what you want, or in this case, what belongs to the Princess. We may have lost Panchea as a result of the war that was forced upon us, but I am not above taking it back in secret, as it turns out you were doing as well.”

“So you mean to say that you too have been working to make Panchea a part of the Equestrian Empire once more,” Blueblood recapped. “And how exactly have you gone about that?”

“With the help of my good friend here,” Twilight answered, gesturing to myself. “Blueblood, you remember Rarity don’t you?”

Blueblood stared at me for a moment, clearly not sure at first, but slowly it dawned on him.

“That’s right,” Twilight began when she saw that Blueblood had pieced it together. “Rarity is my spy, I sent her here to seek out ponies who are still loyal to the Princess, like Applejack here. Applejack served the Rebels during the war, but deserted when she saw the light, she offered her farm as our base of operations. Together with the ponies she found, Rarity has been sowing seeds of discontent among the ponies of Panchea, reminding them just how much better off they were under the Princesses rule. Things were going well, I had every confidence that we would be seeing another revolution in the coming months, but then we crossed paths with your own Solar Empire.

“Needless to say Rarity is feeling rather unfavourably towards you after you almost got her killed and nearly destroyed our entire operation,” Twilight continued coolly. “But she managed to survive and I pulled your spell from her head, I recognised your magical signature on it, it was foolish of you to cast the spells yourself. After that I came to realise that you too were seeking the same thing we were, so I sought you out, a task made far too easy by your woefully inept agents in Port Mule.”

“Ah yes, where is Sundial for that matter?” Blueblood asked, he had been listening very carefully up to that point, and now he sounded more favourable towards Twilight. “I was really hoping he, of all my agents, would be here tonight.”

“He’s dead I’m afraid,” Twilight admitted. “When I located him, it was after he had been captured by the Rebels, sold out by one of his underlings. He told me how to find you, but there was nothing I could do for him, the Rebels were rather brutal in their interrogation methods.”

“They’ll pay for that,” Blueblood muttered coldly. “Sundial was a good man, if not for him we would not be so far along in our operation.”

“Well, if you’ll have me, I would like to offer my services,” Twilight proposed. “By combining our efforts, we can accomplish our goals that much faster. Besides, you will need my help keeping word of your activities away from the Princess, she would never understand that this is all for her.”

“I know only too well,” Blueblood agreed. “And I would be honoured to have you join us Twilight Sparkle. You must forgive me for not including you, a delicate operation like this… you must be careful who you involve.”

“I understand fully,” Twilight replied. “And now that we’re on the same side once more, we can get down to business. I already know of your plan involving the sleeper agents.”

“Ah yes, my deepest apologies for that Miss Rarity,” Blueblood said to me, actually managing to sound sincere. “Had I known that we were fighting for the same goal, I would never have endangered you like that.”

I didn’t reply, I merely gave a polite bow and allowed Twilight to continue.

“Well I must say I’m not too impressed with your plan,” she admitted. “Using Rarity like that was completely reckless, I have no doubt it’s the reason the Rebels caught onto your existence. I can only hope that you use the rest of the sleeper agents more wisely, or at the very least have a good backup plan in place.”

“Twilight Sparkle you have it all wrong,” Blueblood said with a small chuckle. “The sleeper agents are the backup plan.”

“Oh?” Twilight uttered, now genuinely surprised.

“Of course, it would have taken much too long to fully enact,” Blueblood explained. “No, our true plan is why we have gathered here tonight, for we are preparing to witness the completion of the first phase.”

“Yes, Sundial mentioned something about phase one,” Twilight recalled. “Naturally he didn’t have the time to tell me what it was.”

“It is our true plan for retaking this country,” Blueblood carried on. “I’m sorry to say that it might interfere with your own plans somewhat, but with a little tweaking in future phases, we might be able to make our plans work neatly alongside one another. You see, while you’re trying to incite a second rebellion through discontent, our plan will greatly aid that by destroying those in power.”

“Destroy them? That sounds…” Twilight began, subtly glancing back at Applejack and I with a worried expression. “Very dramatic, how exactly do you plan to do this? Another assassination attempt?”

“No, no, I admit what we did with Rarity was impulsive and desperate,” Blueblood went on. “I saw an opportunity to speed things along and I took it, without stopping to realise that if we killed one pony, he would just be replaced and nothing would change. No, we needed to destroy them utterly, that’s why each of our syndicates stationed in the five major cities have been performing reconnaissance and gathering the necessary information so that when we strike, we know exactly where to strike to cause optimal damage. Each phase refers to one of the five cities, phase one being Port Mule.

“The target in this case was an easy one,” Blueblood stated. “These Liberators use the Fort as their base, so that is where we will strike. There was an incident a while back, and our agents discovered an entrance in the sewers to an underground facility beneath the Fort. We’re not sure what happened there, but it was mostly abandoned, the perfect location for the bombs to be placed.”

“Bombs?!” all three of us exclaimed in unison.

“That’s right,” Blueblood confirmed. “That is why we are gathered here, tonight of all nights. For the countdown has already begun, and as the sun rises, the town of Port Mule will watch as their Fort is blown to pieces, and the Liberator armies decimated.”

“But that’s insane!” Applejack exclaimed, unable to hold back. “Lots of ponies will die, and not just soldiers, but council workers too.”

“A necessary sacrifice,” Blueblood said solemnly. “I’m sure you can understand that Twilight Sparkle, you and I do see eye to eye after all.”

“Not Quite!” Twilight retorted, crouching low and readying herself for the attack.

Before Blueblood could fathom her change in demeanour, light blasted from her horn, hitting him squarely in the chest. He was knocked back with a grunt, and when he stood straight again, a translucent, purple ring was circling around his horn. With his magic successfully locked, Twilight charged forward, Applejack and I doing likewise, drawing our weapons as we went. Blueblood and his agents realised they had been tricked; most drew their own weapons to meet our challenge while a few tried to make a run for it.

All they succeeding in was being knocked out first by Sufferthorn and Stranglethorn, who charged in from behind, Fluttershy coming in just a little bit slower and considerably more frightened. Twilight took on Blueblood who, without his magic should have been defenceless, although it turned out he wasn’t as reluctant to get physical as his posh demeanour would have implied. The first thing he did was grab the front of Twilight’s cloak and throw a punch directly at her face, Twilight instantly teleported out of his reach, leaving only her old brown cloak in Blueblood’s grip.

Twilight reappeared behind Blueblood, hitting him in the back with a blast of light, sending him crashing into the sand. It was actually the first time I had seen her without that disguise on, and it was certainly a sight to behold. Twilight was wearing some very impressive battle mage robes, the back flowed out in layers while her front legs were wrapped tightly in dark cloth and leather straps beneath much wider sleeves. She wore a mantel with a lowered hood that lay open at the front like the body of her robes, revealing the light, black breastplate beneath.

The outer robes were crafted from what appeared to be purple leather that somehow managed to move freely; no doubt due to some magic the clothes were imbued with, it might be why they were embroidered with swirling lines and runes. Around her waist she wore two crossed belts, attached to which were various brightly coloured vials and bottles, but it was the weapon that she drew from her belt, that really caught my eye. It appeared to be some kind of sceptre or staff; it was roughly as tall as Twilight’s shoulder and resembled a long, sharp spike.

While the bottom of the sceptre was rather featureless, as my eyes travelled higher up, the metal work became more intricate in its design, until the very top where it appeared to splay out, forming a basin for the orb that sat within. The orb was absolutely mesmeric, the same shade of pink as Twilight’s own eyes, with many black lines crossing and intersecting over it to create a bizarre geometric pattern across the whole orb. Along the edges of the lines was minute writing in runic letters while the empty spaces created by the lines were where the majority of the light pulsated from.

Blueblood charged at Twilight and she swept the sceptre through the air in front of her, creating a shockwave that hurled Blueblood and a couple of his agents flying. Before they landed however, she raised the sceptre high and the orb shone bright, as it did, Blueblood and his two agents were stopped still in mid-air as if frozen in time. Twilight then aimed the sceptre at a point in the air between all three ponies and focused her magic through it, creating a dark singularity that dragged the three in in an instant where their bodies collided and began flailing about in the gravitational pull, rag dolled by the force of the singularity.

I watched this all while duelling a single agent of my own, I was awe struck by the magical prowess of Twilight Sparkle. Remembering all too well that she was the personal student of Princess Celestia herself, and was commonly revered as the greatest magic user in the world, it was easy to see why. My fascination with her abilities cost me dearly however, as I misjudged a swing and ended up getting my leg cut just above the knee, causing me to drop my sword and forced to dodge roll out of the way of having my head taken off my shoulders.

As I landed awkwardly, lost my balance and fell defenceless to the ground, the agent who I had been fighting with charged at me, his sword raised, ready to swing down upon me. I prepared myself to roll out of the way again, but I didn’t end up needing to, as just before he swung down, he was flung to the side after receiving a blow to the head with a mace. Fluttershy stood there, looking down at his unconscious body, horrified at what she had just done.

“Thanks Fluttershy,” I said appreciatively as I stood up and levitated my sword back to me from where it had fallen.

“I just killed a pony!” she cried out, tears welling in her eyes.

At that moment the pony she hit let out a pained groan and began writing on the ground, no longer paralysed by the shock of the hit.

“Oh, never mind,” Fluttershy said, calming down instantly.

I looked around at the others, Applejack, Sufferthorn and Stranglethorn were naturally making quick work of their opponents, making sure to only knock them unconscious as Twilight had specified. I looked over to the mare herself and saw that she was still handling herself expertly, Blueblood had gotten out of her singularity, most likely the work of one of his agents as Twilight was now fighting both of them. She tossed out a flurry of spells from both her horn and her sceptre, neither of her opponents could get a single hit in past her various defence spells, while her attacks kept them constantly on the guard.

When the two other agents who had got caught in her singularity recovered and ran to aid their leader, I briefly considered rushing to her aid, but it turned out I didn’t have to as Twilight appeared to have grown tired of fighting and decided to bring it to an end. Bringing her sceptre to float directly in front of her, spike directed towards the ground, she brought her front hooves together before waving them wide apart. The sceptre shimmered as it was split into six identical copies which all circled around Twilight, forming a wall where they began to spin slowly around her.

They picked up great speed very quickly, tilting until they came to float horizontally, with their spikes pointing directly outwards. She had essentially created a small tornado around her with the spinning sceptres, which were all bursting with magic, a tornado that none of her attackers could hope to escape from. When the fluctuating pillar of light that had formed around herself, Blueblood and the others, began to fade and her sceptres slowed down, the fight was ended.

Her sceptres came to a halt, and with a wave of her hoof they reformed into one which she fastened to her belt before walking over to where Blueblood lay in a bloody heap on the sand. The rest of us had finished fighting already and were simply standing back, watching as Twilight made short work of casting sleep spells on the last of the conscious agents, and now approached Blueblood. He was still half awake when she reached him, his head rolling over to look up at her, his breathing strained.

“Sorry for the deception,” Twilight told him, although her tone was not sorry in the slightest. “But I was honest about one thing… I am disappointed in you, and you can be damn sure Princess Celestia is as well.”

Blueblood's eyes lulled shut and the battle was ours, but there were no celebrations to be had. As I looked across at the others, the expressions on their faces told me they were thinking the same thing as myself. Our job was not yet finished, and we only had until sunrise to do so.

XXXVII - Countdown

As the gate came into view, I could make out four ponies standing guard, they didn’t seem too enthusiastic about keeping watch. One was leaning against the wall, looking as if he was about to doze off, two sat crossed legged on the ground, playing cards, only the fourth was actually doing his job and therefore saw us coming. Sufferthorn, Stranglethorn and I were charging straight for them, when the one alert guard saw us emerging from the shadows, he animatedly signalled to the others who all began scrambling to their hooves. All four started to draw their weapons as we drew closer, preparing themselves for a fight… only to have us run right past them, paying them no heed whatsoever.

The guards stood slightly dumbfounded at the audacity of our entrance before deciding to chase after us. I glanced back at them as we ran through the streets, but they had no hope of catching up with us, their armour made sure of that. Turning my eyes forward, I carried on running several feet behind the other two in the direction of the Fort. Back at the beach there had been very little discussion as to what our next move would be, we all seemed to agree that the bombs had to be stopped, or at the very least the Fort be evacuated. Even Sufferthorn, who I was sure would be content to let the Liberators be destroyed, was in full agreement.

Twilight took control of the situation, requesting Fluttershy and Applejack to stay behind and help her with the prisoners, while myself and the other two returned to the city to stop the impending disaster. As we reached a certain junction, my partners came skidding to a halt and I ran right past them for a few steps before backing up.

“The sewer entrance is down here,” Sufferthorn reminded me. “Strangle and I will go down there and find those bombs, you have to get to the Fort and get everypony clear, understand?”

“Perfectly,” I replied, at which they both charged off down the side street as I called after them. “Be careful.”

I felt a twinge as I saw them run away, at the thought that they would be down there and not make it out in time. The idea that I had just seen them for the last time was really rather depressing, even Sufferthorn, which surprised me. Without wasting any time, I carried on my way to the Fort, the meeting point on the beech hadn’t exactly been a five minute walk away, sunrise wasn’t far off. As I ran into the courtyard of the Defence District, I was surprised to see that there were only two guards standing at the front gates. Any other time I had been through that area, there had always been soldiers performing training exercises, so seeing it almost completely deserted was a bizarre sight.

I ran up to the gate where the two guards stood, they had been chatting away before I arrived, but now they were just staring at me curiously as I sprinted up. They didn’t even make to stop me or draw their weapons, although as I drew closer I began to notice something familiar about the two mares.

“Good day,” one of them greeted brightly to me.

“You don’t say good day, Green Bean,” the other pony chastised. “Does it look like daytime to you?”

“Well I’m not going to say goodnight Kiwi, that would imply we’re saying goodbye to her,” Green Bean argued, and I realised it was the two guards from the bridge the first time Applejack and I were travelling to Port Mule. “And besides, it’s the early hours of the morning, it’s a new day.”

“But it’s always a day, even when it’s not daytime,” Kiwi pointed out. “So by your logic you would have to say good day all day regardless of where the sun is.”

“Well what would you have me say?!” Green Bean demanded.

“How about ‘hello’?” Kiwi proposed with a deadpan expression.

“Oh yeah,” Green Bean said slowly before turning to try it out on me. “Hello there, how can we help you?”

I stared at them for a moment before shaking my head to clear it of the haze that had begun to descend during their mundane argument.

“I need into the Fort, now!” I barked.

“No can do I’m afraid,” Kiwi replied, shaking her head. “Only soldiers and officials are allowed beyond these doors after closing hours.”

“You don’t understand, there’s going to be an attack!” I declared. “There are bombs beneath the ground that will blow this place to high heavens at sunrise, so we need to evacuate everypony from it as soon as possible!”

Both mares stared at me, their faces remaining passive as if they were unable to register what I just told them.

“There’s… going to be an attack?” Green Bean repeated.

“Here?” Kiwi asked.

“At sunrise?” Green bean added.

“Bombs?” Kiwi questioned.

“Yes,” I replied in a frustrated voice.

They both looked at each other, still remaining very calm.

“I see,” Green Bean replied as she looked over at Kiwi.

They both nodded once in unison before turning to open the doors, Once they were wide enough that I could enter, the pair of them stepped back and began taking off their armour and discarding the pieces on the ground.

“What are you…” I began in bewilderment.

“Leaving,” Kiwi answered pre-emptively. “We are not paid nearly enough for this.”

“Nope,” Green Bean agreed.

“So much nope,” Kiwi added, throwing her helmet to the ground before turning and following Green Bean away from the Fort.

“Well that was…” I began aloud to myself. “That was certainly a thing that happened.”

Choosing to ignore that strange occurrence, I ran into the Fort where there were some other guards walking around and council ponies who were working very late. They had stopped to see who was coming through the door and were now watching me closely as they tried to figure out who I was. Before they could remember that I was wanted for two attempts on their leader’s life, I spoke up and got the attention of all the ponies in the entrance hall.

“Everypony listen!” I shouted. “You need to evacuate the Fort right now; there are bombs beneath the floor that are set to go off at sunrise. Everypony has to get out before that or they will be killed!”

“Excuse me Miss,” one of the guards said, marching over to me with a couple of comrades. “The Fort is closed to citizens, you should not be here, and we don’t need paranoid ponies creating disturbances over imaginary threats.”

“Imaginary?!” I repeated in disbelief. “I am telling you the truth, there is an underground complex beneath this Fort, the bombs have been placed there. If you don’t evacuate this building right now, hundreds of ponies could die.”

“Skillet, wait a second, I know this mare,” one of the other guards said suddenly, tapping the stallion who had been talking on the shoulder. “This is the one the Commander has had us searching for, the one who tried to kill him.”

“Seriously? Her?!” he questioned in disbelief, giving me a look that made it clear he didn’t think I was capable of doing the sort.

“I’m certain,” the other pony continued. “She matches the description perfectly.”

“Well then, you made a grave mistake coming here Missy,” Skillet said darkly.

“Fine, take me to Typhoon,” I replied in frustration. “I’ll tell him to evacuate the Fort and maybe he’ll be smart enough to listen.”

“You think we’re gonna give you another shot at killing him?” Skillet said with a laugh. “You’re going straight to jail.”

“You could have just cooperated,” I muttered before jabbing my hoof straight into Skillet’s face.

He collapsed to the ground, and before the other two could do anything about it, I grabbed hold of their helmets with magic while they were still wearing them, and slammed them together. They probably weren’t knocked out, but they were dazed enough that I could walk past them over to where some council pony was crouching, cowering in fear.

“Can you get them clear of the Fort?” I asked, pointing at the three guards. “And for the love of Celestia, evacuate this building!”

The pony nodded rapidly, dashing off to one of the side rooms. I made my way up to the stairs and began the familiar climb to Typhoon’s office, along the way I picked up a few tails, but I ignored them as I made a beeline for my destination. I only prayed he was still up, or he was up early, or he slept in his office like some weirdo. Whatever the case was, when I burst into his room followed by half a dozen angry guards, I found him sitting behind his desk, cradling a glass of something I suspected to be rather strong while staring back at us all in mild surprise.

“Sir, apologies sir,” one of the guards addressed him while trying to take hold of my shoulder which I pulled out of his grip.

“You again?!” Typhoon exclaimed, standing up and staring at me in fury. “I’m starting to think you’re not as brave as I first thought, rather you’re just plain stupid.”

“Maybe a bit of both,” I replied. “But this is no time for fighting; I came here to help you.”

“Help me?” Typhoon repeated with a bitter chuckle. “That is rich.”

“I’m telling the truth,” I stated firmly. “That underground facility you built, it’s filled with bombs, and they’re going to go off at sunrise if my friends don’t stop them.”

“Bombs?” Typhoon uttered, narrowing his eyes at me. “So is this your plan, blow us all up?”

“My plan?!” I repeated in disbelief. “Why on earth would I be here, warning you, if it was my plan?! This has nothing to do with the Rebellion; they were put there by the Sol… by another group. I’m trying to save you, but you have to start the evacuation now before it’s too late.”

“You think I’m going to trust you,” Typhoon snapped back, pulling a rapier from beneath his desk and pointing it directly at me. “After how you tried to kill me during our negotiations.”

“I know this is going to sound ridiculous,” I began, getting ready to draw my own sword as he began making his way around the desk. “But I wasn’t in control when I did that, somepony from that other group used a spell to force me to attack you.”

“You’re right,” Typhoon agreed, hesitating briefly. “That is completely ridiculous.”

Without any warning, he dived forward, swinging his sword at my neck. I leapt back and drew my own sword, blocking his second attack. The rest of the ponies in the doorway of the office stared on in confusion and horror, clearly unsure whether they should stay and help or run for their lives. While I was deadlocked with Typhoon, I took the opportunity to shout out to them.

“Get away from this Fort if you want to live!” I yelled before I was forced to drop to my knees and roll to the side.

Getting back up, I took a swing at Typhoon’s rear leg, but he spun around and deflected my blow, coming in strong while I was off balance. I managed to stop him by levitating one of my knives out of their sheath and sweeping it through the air between us, it had the desired effect of making him take a defensive step back, giving me enough time to regain my stature.

“I don’t want to fight you Typhoon,” I told him as I began edging towards the door. “I came here to stop hundreds of your soldiers from dying at their posts and in their beds, we are not enemies right now.”

“That’s where you are wrong,” Typhoon replied as he lunged forward, slashing upwards and forcing me away from the door. “You and I will always be enemies.”

“You are being unreasonable!” I shouted as he began swinging rapidly at me and I started blocking.

At one particular swing, I used my sword to push back against his and knocked him off balance, I quickly came in to uppercut with my hoof, but using his wings, he quickly regained balance and kicked me in the chest. I landed hard on the ground and rolled to the left as he flew into the air and dive bombed me, driving the point of his rapier into the floor where my head had just been. When I saw his sword stuck in the floorboards, I quickly charged him, foolishly thinking he was defenceless. Of course I was forgetting his powerful body, but I remembered when he swung his right foreleg around and smacked me in the side of the face, his hoof glancing off my horn as he did.

I was thrown to the floor a second time, and Typhoon pulled his sword from the floor with no bother whatsoever, I could feel my magic stunted after the hit. Having had quite enough, I scrambled to my legs and made a mad dash for the office door, he had made it quite clear he wasn’t going to heed my warnings, and I wasn’t about to stay there and die for his sake. As I neared the door however, I heard the rush of wind and had to leap to the side as Typhoon came hurtling through the air. He landed perfectly in front of the door, pointing his sword defiantly at me as I got to my hooves.

“You know, I can’t decide whether I like you or not,” he said as I readied my own sword. “You’ve done much that I can’t help but respect you for, and yet you infuriate me.”

“I don’t care what you think of me,” I spat. “Everything I’ve done, I’ve done to help ponies. I came here to help ponies, but because you and this stupid fight, I doubt I’ll have the time to get anypony out before those bombs go off!”

“Still prattling on about those damn bombs,” Typhoon muttered before charging forward.

He swung his sword at a rapid pace, I was barely able to keep up with it, and with every block I could feel my grip loosening on my weapon. He slashed again and again, never giving me an opening, all I could do was try desperately to parry his attacks and not get cut to ribbons. I fell to my knees, pressed low to the ground by Typhoon as he forced me down with his superior strength. My blade looked as if it might snap under the pressure of keeping his own from cutting my head in two, I could see the open door right behind him, and I knew in my gut that sunrise was mere minutes off.

I might only have saved a few ponies, but I still needed to get myself away from the Fort before I too was buried in it. Feeling pretty desperate without my magic or my weapon free, I resorted to the first tactic that came to mind, a tactic that completely lacked honour and respect, but above all was most unladylike… I spat in his face. Typhoon twisted his head to the side, screwing up his face in disgust; I took my brief window to push back against him, throwing him off me and freeing my sword to swing across his own hoof, disarming him.

Not waiting for him to recover and pick up his sword again, as I had no doubt Typhoon would have no trouble fighting either with an injured leg or his non-dominant hoof; I sprinted for the door, leaving the office and Typhoon behind me. I only made it to the first staircase that would lead me to the second floor corridors, when the first explosion went off and shook the entire Fort. The floor beneath me trembled violently and I fell down a few of the steps before I caught myself on the railing and steadied myself.

As I got back onto my hooves and continued running, I heard more explosions, some further off, some quite close which I had to brace myself for. Even mere seconds after the first bomb went off, I was already seeing the effects on the second floor as the walls began to split apart and the floor began to crack, the whole Fort was crumbling around me. Amidst the sounds of explosions and ruin, I heard the faint screams of ponies who were running for their lives… or perhaps they hadn’t been fast enough and their screams were the last noise they would make.

I reached the stairs leading down from the second floor to the entrance hall, but came skidding to a stop when the floor suddenly opened up before me. Taking a few steps back, I took a running start at it and leapt over the hole even as it began growing bigger, and I started descending the stairs. Towards the bottom of the staircase, some of the steps had been ripped away from the wall and swallowed up along with a large section of the floor, revealing a gaping pit into the underground complex below.

All I could make out of the factory was smoke, fire and rubble. I went about halfway down the staircase before vaulting over the banister and landing hard on the little floor that hadn’t yet collapsed. I surveyed the room quickly, which was becoming difficult as the smoke and dust from below was funnelling up into the entrance hall through a wide crevice that had formed across the length of the room, a crevice which I was at one side of, and the main doors were at the other. I could see ponies fighting to get through the doors to run to safety along with the group that was gathering at the far end of the Defence District courtyard.

Even as I watched I saw several unfortunate ponies fall through the ground, either slipping over the edge or being knocked aside by other panicking ponies, or the floor beneath their hooves simply giving out. Their screams faded quickly as they were swallowed up by the abyss below, then there were the especially unlucky ponies who were crushed by falling stone, I doubt they were even killed outright, just trapped and forced to watch everypony else escape and ignore them, while awaiting their own death to come in one of several forms.

I had no choice, the crevice continued to get wider the longer I surveyed the situation and very soon it would be too wide for me to jump. Taking considerably more steps back than I had when I jumped the hole on the second floor, I prepared myself for the leap, not that I was able to take any deep breaths with the choking air. Wasting no more time, I galloped forward as fast as I could, as soon as I reached the edge I sprung off and allowed my momentum to carry me across the gap. I only just reached the other side, all four of my hooves landing precariously on the floor, only for my hind legs to slip off and leave me dangling, clinging to the edge.

With all my might, I heaved myself up over the edge, dragging myself safely onto my underside, all four of my hooves safely away from the pit. I wasn’t out of danger yet though, I could already feel the ground beneath me trembling as the crevice threatened to grow even greater and swallow the rest of the Fortress whole. Stumbling to my hooves, I felt the flagstones beneath me shudder and begin to crumble away just as I began running forward. Every step I took, I could feel the floor giving way and I would quicken my pace that much more.

By the time I reached the door it was clear of ponies, that is to say, anypony who had any hope of escaping was already through. As I rushed beneath the threshold, I could see the ground continuing to break apart before me, the destruction was carrying on even into the courtyard. As I ran, I heard a deafening sound and glanced back in time to see the front wall of the Fort and the great double doors plunge into the earth, the ground ahead of me shattered and I could feel myself dropping even faster.

I leapt from one fragment of stone to the next, with every one I was sinking lower and lower, and still not close enough to the invisible line in the courtyard where the destruction ended and I would be safe. I was so close when the ground beneath my hooves gave out completely and I was standing on nothing but air, falling into the gaping crater left by the bombs, my forelegs scrabbling hopelessly for the solid ground that was mere feet beyond my reach and was already disappearing from view as I fell further and further down into the darkness of suffocating smoke and dust.

And then, as I pictured that section of solid ground in my mind with such ferocity and pumped every last ounce of energy I possessed into my horn in one last desperate attempt to survive, I was surrounded in a flash of blinding, blue light that swallowed my entire body. When it faded away, and I could feel myself once more, I was no longer falling into the abyss to my death; I was lying in a feeble heap in the courtyard. I coughed and gasped for air, nearly rolling over the edge and falling to my death a second time.

After quickly scuttling away from the precarious ledge, I could see the massive group of ponies that had gathered to witness the fall of Fort Mule, but I noticed many of them wore black Liberator armour. Perhaps my warnings hadn’t gone completely unheeded, and somepony had evacuated the Fort after all. One pony in particular pushed past the crowd and made their way over to where I lay, and I looked up weakly at Stranglethorn as he crouched down and scooped up my exhausted body. He carried me on his back away from the crater and through the crowds, all of whom were too distracted to pay us much heed.

Sufferthorn was waiting for us beyond the crowd, when she saw us approach and saw that I was still alive, she turned and led the way. I didn’t bother to question where we were going, I just closed my eyes and allowed the gentle rocking of Stranglethorn’s walking lull me to sleep.

Author's Note

End of Part 5

XXXVIII - The Job Never Ends

Author's Note

Part 6

XXXVIII - The Job Never Ends

Things were very different on the beach as the sun rose high in the sky and the three of us returned, we had made a brief stop at the barge but found it empty. Since Maverick had not yet heard about the Blueblood’s true plan, he would presumably come straight out instead to see if we were successful in our mission. Indeed as we arrived, I could see him dishing out orders to several ponies in steel armour who I presumed to be Rebel soldiers. Sufferthorn said she would take care of delivering the bad news while we saw to helping the others.

The beach looked very different from when we crashed Blueblood’s meeting, there were now several large tents pitched out of the way of possible tide flow, and there were roughly a dozen ponies in sailor jackets moving about. As I looked out over the ocean, I could see a large transport ship anchored some ways out with a couple of wooden lifeboats bobbing back and forth to the shore. I made a beeline for Applejack who sat on the sand, her helmet replaced by her Stetson and her claymore lying idly next to her.

“Hey Applejack,” I greeted wearily as I dropped down beside her, giving her a spook.

“Land's sake Rarity, don’t sneak up on me like that,” Applejack chided, before brightening up. “Glad to see you’re okay, but I knew you wouldn’t have any problem taking care of those bombs.”

I looked down at the sand, guilt burning inside me.

“We didn’t stop them,” I admitted dully.

“What?!” Applejack exclaimed in a horrified voice.

“We were too late,” I stated miserably. “The Fort was destroyed; a lot of ponies got out in time, but… it turns out a lot more were too late.”

“Ah… ah’m sorry Rarity,” Applejack replied awkwardly, clearly having a hard time digesting the new information. “But don’t you blame yourself, you hear? Ah’m sure you did everything you could.”

I decided not to get into how I spent more time fighting with Typhoon than trying to evacuate ponies, it still hurt to think about. I didn’t even know if he made it out in time, as a pegasus I doubt he would have had much trouble, especially with that pegasus door in his office, but a small part of me hoped he hadn’t made it after everything he had done.

“How’s everything here?” I asked, glancing about us. “Who are all these ponies?”

“It’s goin’ well,” Applejack answered. “And they’re Twilight’s crew, that’s her ship over there. She signalled it just after you left, they came ashore and we all started sorting out the prisoners. Most of them have been transported across to the ship already, but some needed treatment, Fluttershy’s helpin’ out in one of those tents.”

“Is Twilight on the ship?” I questioned, looking at the incoming lifeboat to see if she was on it.

“Yeah, she went over to personally check that Blueblood was secure,” Applejack replied. “Ah’m sure she’ll be back soon.”

“I suppose I’d better talk to Maverick,” I said with a sigh as I forced myself up.

“Forget him, debriefing and all that junk can wait,” Applejack replied with distaste.

“No, I’d rather just get it out of the way,” I told her before setting off to find where Sufferthorn had walked went.

I saw the pair quickly enough, but as I drew closer it became clear that something was wrong. Maverick was shouting, and to my amazement, Sufferthorn simply stood paralysed as he did, an odd look on her face.

“I don’t want to hear any arguing!” Maverick yelled, fuming with anger. “You do not undergo such a large operation without my approval, ever!”

Sufferthorn didn’t respond, she didn’t look like she was capable of responding.

“And to make matters worse, you failed!” Maverick continued, that caused Sufferthorn to flinch noticeably. “I expected better from you Sufferthorn, now stay out of my sight for a while.”

With that, Maverick turned and stormed off towards the tents, leaving Sufferthorn standing stock still. I walked over to her, I had never seen her so shaken or... vulnerable. As horrible as she could be, she always seemed in control of the situation, the fact that she was taking things this badly really worried me.

“Uh, Sufferthorn?” I began tentatively. “Will you be okay?”

She looked at me briefly, opening her mouth as if she wanted to say something before turning and walking off in the opposite direction of Maverick. I watched after her for a few moments until she came to a stop and sat down, staring out at the ocean. I hadn’t a clue what was going on or how I could fix it, but I had a good idea where I could start. Returning to the camp, I poked my head into each of the tents until I found Stranglethorn helping one of the sailors apply magic binds to some of the unicorns prisoners.

“Strangle, could I speak to you outside for a moment?” I asked.

He could probably tell from the sound of my voice that something was up, so he excused himself without speaking and followed me outside. Once outside I pointed over to where Sufferthorn sat in the distance, Stranglethorn frowned at the sight before looking to me for an explanation.

“Maverick was yelling at her,” I informed him. “He seemed really angry about what happened at the Fort, when he left she was really… I don’t know, but I’m a little worried about her. Do you think you should maybe talk to her?”

Stranglethorn nodded and went off to see what he could do, I wasn’t sure if it would amount to much, but I got the impression that he would be the only one who could get through to her. With that sorted for the time being, I turned my attention to finding Maverick. He ended up being inside the medical tent, using his magic to aid Fluttershy in bandaging up a mare’s leg, he didn’t look too pleased about it, which made me wonder why he was there at all when it was clearly not his scene.

“Ah, Rarity, good to see you,” Maverick greeted, drowning out Fluttershy’s own greeting. “I heard about what happened over at the Fort. Terrible shame, but still, try not to worry about it.”

“That’s not what you said to Sufferthorn,” I pointed out coldly. “In fact, you seemed pretty determined for her to worry about it.”

“Yes, but you must understand that Sufferthorn has had years of experience,” Maverick reasoned. “And she is my highest ranking officer; you on the other hand are relatively new to this line of work. If there’s a failure, then the blame lies in the one in charge.”

“Doesn’t that mean you’re to blame, not Sufferthorn?” I asked, obviously baiting him.

“Let’s not fight Rarity,” Maverick said calmly. “Especially not after your great success at this very place last night. Some of the ponies you captured have been practically clambering over one another to sell out the remaining agents’ names and whereabouts, it won’t be long before the Solar Empire is a distant memory. After your mission last night and the unfortunate incident involving the Liberators, I have every faith that our alliance with Equestria will be official very soon.”

“So what does that mean for us?” I asked curiously. “Do you not need my services anymore? Am I going to get paid for everything I’ve done?”

“Your payment is in the pipeline,” Maverick said hastily. “I’ll get back to you about that before you know it, as for your services, I believe there is still much you can do for the Rebellion.”

“Right, I’m listening,” I replied warily as I held up the injured mare’s leg while Fluttershy worked, Maverick clearly having forgotten what he was supposed to be doing there.

“With the Solar Empire pretty much dealt with,” Maverick began, ignoring the annoyed grumbling of the injured mare as he paced around the tent. “And the Liberators sufficiently damaged that they might no longer be a threat, I will be returing to Pivot to re-establish our base of operations there. Our next major goal is dealing with the Children of the Earth, and to do that, I need one of my most trusted agents to travel to Olympus.”

“Am I to assume that trusted agent is me?” I asked sarcastically. “And what is this trusted agent expected to do at Olympus?”

“What do you know of the Dragoons Rarity?” Maverick asked.

“Not much,” I admitted. “I’ve gathered they’re another faction that split off from the Rebellion, based in Olympus and led by your ex-marshal, Iron Sights.”

“That’s all accurate,” Maverick confirmed. “We already discussed how he tried to burn down your friend’s farm, among other incidents that resulted in me having him demoted. He didn’t actually leave the Rebellion for a while after that, no he stuck around as a low ranking officer, stirring discontent among many of the troops. He began to plant the idea in their minds that it was the soldiers’ right to reap the benefits of their own fighting, that nopony should gain from war if they did not personally fight in it.”

“So he was trying to get them to turn on you and the others?” I questioned.

“Indeed, he hated me for striping him of his rank,” Maverick continued. “It was obviously a ploy to regain a position of power, and unfortunately for us, it worked out in his favour. A huge fraction of our army began a strike; they refused to follow orders given by anyone other than fellow soldiers or officers who still fought on the front lines. Before long, Iron Sights convinced them to split off altogether, to claim Olympus as their own free city, it was lucky the surrender was already pending or the Equestrian army could have crushed our remaining forces after that.”

“I don’t get it then,” I muttered. “If Iron Sights made himself the leader of these Dragoons, why would his soldiers continue to follow him? Does he still fight or something? How does he earn their loyalty now that the war is over?”

“That’s actually the whole purpose of the Dragoons,” Maverick explained. “You could say they’re a system designed to keep Iron Sights in control. Basically they were created with one central tenant, strength is everything. If you prove yourself to be the strongest, you make the rules, and every member of the Dragoon army hold this single rule as the highest authority. If somepony wants a raise at work and their boss says no, they fight, and whoever proves themselves to be the stronger one gets what they want.

“If an old mare is sitting on a seat and a young stallion wants that seat,” Maverick continued. “He need only demand it, and if the mare refuses to meet his challenge she is proving herself to be the weak one and must give into the demand. If somepony disagrees with Iron Sights' method of leadership, they need only beat him in a fight and they would officially be the new leader of the dragoons, fit to make every decision for the great army at his command. That is life in Olympus now; needless to say it is absolute chaos. Everypony is at constant war with each other, the strong constantly oppressing the weak until someone stronger arrives to oppress them.”

“That’s terrible!” Fluttershy exclaimed, finished with her patient.

“And I thought the Liberators were crazy,” I added. “So how have they not pushed out from Olympus? A group like that, you’d think they would revel in the idea of taking over other cities.”

“We were concerned they would early on,” Maverick agreed. “But it would appear Iron Sights is content to remain in Olympus. Despite being challenged by somepony every other day, he has never been beaten and overthrown. He might be afraid that if he pushes his luck and goes to war with the rest of us, he’ll finally meet his match and lose everything he’s built. Their tenant harkens back to their attitude during the war, that all the hard work was done by soldiers on the front line, not generals and politicians sitting safely back at the headquarters. Iron Sights made them see that they could fight to gain power for themselves, not for anypony else, and that idea is what they all still live by now.”

“And you want me to do what exactly?” I asked in a bewildered tone. “Because if your plan involves bringing down the Dragoons by having somepony defeat Iron Sights and then remerge them with the Rebellion, then you’re talking to the wrong mare.”

“No, no Rarity, nothing like that,” Maverick assured me. “No, you shouldn’t have to do prove yourself stronger than anyone for this mission. Besides, if I wanted Iron Sights overthrown, I’d send Sufferthorn; if I wanted him eliminated, I would send Stranglethorn. No, I want you to play to your strengths and talk to him.”

“Sure, I’ll ask him how his day has been and offer him a good deal on his next suit commission,” I replied sarcastically, getting a giggle out of Fluttershy.

“You know I’m talking about negotiations Rarity,” Maverick specified with an amused smirk. “You did well with Typhoon; you might be even more successful with Iron Sights.”

“Same deal then, you want the Dragoons to ally themselves with the Rebellion to fight the Children of the Earth?” I questioned.

“Whatever you can get him to agree to,” Maverick replied, not sounding overly interested. “If you can ensure he won’t be attacking us anytime soon, great. If you can get him to dissolve the Dragoons and remerge with the Rebellion, incredible. Whatever you think you can get, take it, but there is one other, more important thing I need you to find out. You recall your mission in Arclight?”

“Oh,” I breathed, realising what he was getting at. “You want me to probe him and see if he knows who Arcana was communicating with?”

“Very astute Rarity,” Maverick complimented in a tone that made me want to take a bath. “Arcana ran his orders through Iron Sights, he might be involved in whatever Arcana was up to, or he might have been ignorant, it will be your job to find out.”

“Sure, I guess I can handle that,” I agreed.

“I hoped you’d agree,” Maverick said, pulling something out of his jacket pocket. “This is a cloud walker amulet, simply turned the stone to activate it, but use it sparingly as it only has limited duration.”

I took the amulet from him; it resembled a pebble set into a gold dish. The stone itself had an upside down feather carved into it, I tested it by turning the stone so the feather was the right way up and I felt the whole amulet heat up in my hoof. Turning the amulet back off, I draped it around my neck before looking back to Maverick.

“Um, excuse me, Mister Maverick,” Fluttershy jumped in in a quiet voice. “Would it be alright if I went with Rarity during this… mission? I can already walk on clouds so it’s no hassle, you don’t have to give me an amulet, and I already promised Rarity that I would stay with her.”

“Oh, uh…” Maverick began, hesitating slightly. “You know dear Sister; this isn’t really the kind of thing you need concern yourself with. It’s an awfully long trip and it might be dangerous, you could instead come to Pivot with me and wait for Rarity there, your company would be greatly appreciated.”

If I wanted to take a bath after receiving a small compliment, I could only imagine how Fluttershy was feeling after being addressed that way in that… voice. As the good friend I claimed to be, I leapt in to rescue her from the situation.

“It’s alright Fluttershy,” I told her quickly. “You can come with me; after all, the High Priestess might be annoyed if you changed company without her permission.”

“Oh, yes!” Fluttershy agreed, trying hard to hide her relief. “Sorry Mister Maverick, but I’m afraid the High Priestess would not allow it.”

“Oh, um, sure,” Maverick replied, clearly irritated, but like Fluttershy was trying to hide it. “That is, of course, perfectly fine Sister, I wouldn’t dream of telling you what you could or couldn’t do. Now if you’ll both excuse me, I have other business to attend to. When you are finished your mission Rarity, you should return to Pivot to report your results.”

With that, he left the tent leaving me and Fluttershy feeling very uncomfortable.

“Um, Rarity…” Fluttershy began in a worried voice. “Was he… I mean, did he just…”

“Uh, try not to dwell on it,” I suggested. “I know I’ll be trying very hard not to. So how are you? Is everything going alright here?”

“Oh yes, I’m fine,” Fluttershy said in a much more pleasant voice. “Nopony has been hurt too badly, what about you? What did he mean when he said ‘failure’ and ‘unfortunate incident’?”

“We… didn’t stop the bombs,” I admitted, glancing away. “We managed to evacuate some of the Fort, but lots of ponies… didn’t make it.”

“Oh, I see…” Fluttershy replied in a barely audible voice.

“I should go see if Twilight is back,” I said hurriedly. “Will you be okay here on your own?”

“Oh yes, I’ll be fine,” Fluttershy assured me.

I turned and left the tent, almost running straight into the very mare I was looking for as she made to walk in.

“Oh, Rarity!” Twilight exclaimed upon realising who I was. “I just ran into Maverick, he told me what happened at the Fort, I’m… sorry.”

“It’s okay,” I lied as I led her away from the medical tent. “We saved plenty of ponies, just…”

“Not enough?” Twilight finished. “I know it’s not easy to feel like you let anypony down, but you mustn’t blame yourself. The blame lies in Blueblood and his subordinates, you tried your best to save those ponies, nopony could have asked any more of you.”

I was briefly reminded of what Autumn had told Applejack and I on our way to the Bask, and I gave Twilight a weary smile.

“Thank you Twilight Sparkle,” I said appreciatively. “So how is everything going here? Maverick said some of the prisoners were agreeing to talk.”

“Yes actually,” Twilight confirmed. “As soon as they knew the Princess was aware of their actions, some of them couldn’t spill the beans fast enough. Most of their agents had been gathered last night, but there are still plenty of low level agents, much like Feather Duster who are still in the various cities. Rebel agents have set out already to bring them into custody, they will be transported back here, and once all the Solar Empire agents are loaded onto the ship… then we’ll be leaving.”

“You mean, you’ll be going back to Equestria?” I asked uncertainly. “I just got tasked with going to Olympus, there’s no way I’d get back before you left.”

“Then this might actually be goodbye,” Twilight murmured. “Maverick is pretty eager for me to talk to the Princess about the alliance, I had wanted to stay and help purge the rest of the sleeper agents, but he insisted he would take care of it.”

“Hey Twilight,” Applejack greeted as we neared where she was still sitting.

“Oh, hello Applejack,” Twilight replied warmly. “Will you be going to Olympus too?”

“Olympus?” Applejack repeated in confusion. “What are you…”

She drifted off when she realised what that meant and she looked straight at me, a disappointed look in her eyes.

“You’re goin’ on another mission?!” she asked in disbelief. “Rarity, you’ve done enough, it’s time to call it quits.”

“You know I can’t do that Applejack,” I stated as we both sat down beside her. “The Children of the Earth are still a threat; someone has to do something about them.”

“And why does that somepony always have to be you?” Applejack asked, to which I didn’t really have a good response. “You know what, never mind. Ah know there won’t be any talkin’ you out of this; just make sure you come back to the farm first chance you get.”

“I will,” I promised, mentally shifting my future meeting with Maverick back a few days.

Fluttershy joined us after a short while, and the four of us sat and chatted for the remainder of what might be our last day together. Although we tried to keep the conversation focused on brighter topics like our work and families, things eventually drifted towards the incident at the Fort and I was forced to tell them the full story.

“And the next thing I knew, I was just lying in the courtyard,” I finished.

“So you teleported then?” Twilight questioned with an approving nod.

“I’ve never teleported before in my life,” I pointed out.

“Ponies are capable of amazing things when faced with death,” Twilight explained. “Being able to cast powerful spells without any training is just one of the things ponies have been known to do in their last moments.”

“Afterwards I felt… awful,” I told her. “Like all the life had just been sucked from my body.”

“You overspent yourself,” Twilight continued. “Everypony is capable of utilizing magic, really, every living thing is. Most ponies believe only unicorns can use magic, but it only appears that way because they naturally possess much higher levels of it. I’m sure you must know this much Rarity, surely you’ve used so much magic before in one go that you’ve felt drained.”

“Yes, I did,” I confirmed. “The first time I was at Applejack’s farm, we were attacked by a group of deserters from the Rebel army. By the end of it all I could barely lift a pencil, but what’s weird is, nowadays I use that same amount of magic and it causes me no bother.”

“That’s because you’re using your magic more regularly,” Twilight explained. “The more you use magic, the higher your magic level grows, so the more you can use before you begin to feel drained. You once told me that you never studied magic very much, and I could believe that because your magic level, despite how rapidly it’s increasing, is still relatively low for a unicorn your age.”

I frowned at that and my shoulders slumped.

“It’s nothing to feel bad about!” Twilight rectified quickly in a panicked voice. “Really, it’s not a bad thing. The point I’m trying to get at is, there will always be a point when you feel drained, it’s your body's way of telling you that using any more magic could be harmful. Sometimes however, you can use so much magic in one go, that you reach the point of feeling drained and go straight past it, at that point you’re overspending, and the more magic you use… well, the more likely your body is to give out.”

“Can that be fatal?” Applejack asked in a concerned voice.

“In extreme cases it can be,” Fluttershy replied, no doubt having read about it in a book or seen it first hand when treating somepony.

“Teleporting actually costs a huge amount of magical power to do,” Twilight informed me. “Which is why it’s not more common. When you teleported to save your life, you overspent yourself and that’s why you felt so… lifeless. Interestingly, it’s not the first time you’ve done it, although you might not remember the other occasion.”

I frowned at Twilight, completely clueless as to what she was getting at.

“You remember what Maverick told you after you were made to attack Typhoon?” Twilight began. “He said you used powerful spells that he never knew you were capable of using. Blueblood may have had the knowledge to cast those spells, but it was still your body doing the casting. You’ll also recall what we learnt from Sundial when you questioned him about that pony they killed on the ship.”

“They were experimenting to see if the caster's will could override the body’s naturally defence mechanisms,” I recalled.

“Exactly, and their experiment was a success,” Twilight stated. “So when Blueblood was controlling you, he could cast all his most powerful spells, and your body couldn’t stop him even when he began overspending it. That was one of the reasons that when you woke up you were feeling so bad, that and the mind control spell in general.”

“That’s… very interesting,” I admitted, it was indeed interesting even if it was a little confusing. “Twilight… if you don’t mind me asking, what’s your magic level? I mean, you teleport without any trouble, and you were using some really powerful spells last night and yet you look fresh as a daisy.”

Twilight blushed slightly at that last part, the other two nodded in curious agreement however.

“I’m not actually sure what my magic level is,” Twilight replied, although I didn’t believe her for a second. “I admit it’s pretty high, but then I have been training under Princess Celestia since I was just a filly.”

There were plenty more questions I wanted to ask Twilight about herself and her position as Celestia’s student, especially if that would be the last time I saw her for a long time. However I couldn’t bring myself to, it all felt to personal and invasive, but I assured myself that there would be opportunities in the future. With a possible alliance between our countries, Twilight Sparkle might visit more often as an ambassador of some kind. As the day went on and Fluttershy and me prepared to leave, Twilight came over to us one last time to say farewell.

Once all was said and done and we had all hugged and said goodbye, Twilight gave me a curious look, as if she were trying to decide something. Eventually she just smiled and turned to leave, stopping briefly to look back over her shoulder and say one final thing to me.

“I knew I saw something in you.”

XXXIX - Monster Sightings

We had decided not to waste any more time than was necessary, so rather than remain at Port Mule or the camp on the beach for the night, Fluttershy and I set off as evening began to set in. Olympus was almost an entire country away, beyond the Neptune and nestled within the northern end of the Wyvern Heights. To reach there, we would have to pass through Timber, Glean, Breakwater and finally Brine, assuming neither of those last two towns had suffered the same fate as Pivot. I estimated at the time it would take us roughly a week and a half to reach our final destination, so after we were both well stocked up in food, we took off north.

Fluttershy proved to be a surprisingly dedicated travelling companion, I had expected a pony with so little experience in travelling to want to stop for rests every few hours and insist on stopping to set up camp before nightfall, habits which I myself had learned to drop during my travels in Panchea. Fluttershy it turned out, was more than eager to keep moving, stopping only briefly when she saw some interesting wildlife that she wanted to examine, a desire which I was happy to enable since I knew she was still so new to the world outside the Bask.

When we came to the river, the same river that I had to cross to reach Port Mule from Sweet Apple Acres, we were faced with a choice. Find a way to cross it and cut across the Grand Pastures to Timber where we could rest, or take the long way around by following the river, thus avoiding having to cross it at all and skipping our stop at Timber. The choice was fairly easy, what proved harder was actually getting across the river itself. The sun had set long before we reached the river, and with the clouds obscuring the moon and stars it was pitch black.

“Can’t you just fly me across?” I asked, giving her wing a little ruffle.

“But if I drop you, then you’ll get all wet and some of your stuff might be ruined,” Fluttershy pointed out.

“If you had dropped me when flying me up to see the stars, I would have died,” I pointed out. “Is getting wet really worse than becoming wet… that is to say, a wet stain on the ground… of blood? That sounded better in my head.”

“It’s also too dark,” Fluttershy added. “Don’t you know any spells for the situation?”

“Not unless you want me to weave a bridge,” I countered. “And you have a dozen metres of strong fabric.”

“Well what if we…” Fluttershy began, but then she cut off suddenly as her ears pricked up.

I listened hard, but couldn’t seem to hear whatever it was that got Fluttershy’s attention. Before I could question her however, she walked over to the river bank and leant down as a dark shape rose out of the water. I edged a little closer to the water, curious as to what the shape was, the leapt back with a loud yelp when I saw it was a massive frog poking his head out at us.

“Hello mister frog,” Fluttershy greeted. “It’s a bit late for a swim isn’t it? Now that I think about it, you don’t normally live in rivers like this one, do you?”

The frog ribbited loudly in response, and to my utter astonishment Fluttershy carried on talking as if she could actually interpret what the wild creature had said.

“Oh I see, well I hope your holiday goes well,” she said sweetly to the frog, who ribbited in thanks. “While you’re here, you wouldn’t be able to help us, would you? My friend and I need to cross the river; you don’t know a way, do you?”

The frog ribbited happily before diving under the water and vanishing from sight.

“Um, Fluttershy…” I began, my mind sufficiently blown. “Is there something you want to tell me?”

“Oh, uh, I…” Fluttershy started, remembering I was there and hiding behind her mane as if in shame. “You see the thing is, I can sort of… talk to animals.”

Her voice had quietened to almost a whisper at that last part, and I was left standing stock still her, her words echoing in my mind over and over again.

“You… can talk to animals?” I repeated in the same neutral tone.

“Please don’t hate me!” Fluttershy said quickly, crouching low to the ground and looking like she was about to cry. “I don’t know why I’m able to do it I just can!”

“You can talk to animals…” I repeated once more, my tone brightening up slightly. “Fluttershy, that is incredible!”

“I’m so sorry… wait, what?” Fluttershy’s head snapped up and she looked at me in confusion. “You mean… you don’t mind?”

“Mind? Why on earth would I mind?” I asked, completely bewildered by the notion.

“Because High Priestess Starlight Glimmer told me it was abnormal,” Fluttershy explained, really starting to cry now. “When I first learnt I could do it and got my cutie mark, I went straight to her to tell her and she… she shouted at me, said I was unnatural and she never wanted me to do it again.”

“That’s awful!” I exclaimed, horrified that anypony could believe such nonsense, much less tell it to a filly.

I pulled Fluttershy into a tight hug as she wept into my shoulder.

“What you can do… unbelievable as it is, is nothing to be ashamed of,” I told her in a firm voice.

“But it is unnatural, isn’t it?” Fluttershy argued miserably.

“Well… yes, technically,” I admitted in a strained voice. “But unnatural isn’t necessarily bad, look at the Princess. You wouldn’t call her natural, but nor would you say she’s bad for what she is.”

“I… I suppose,” Fluttershy agreed tentatively as she wiped her eyes.

“That’s the spirit,” I said encouragingly before noticing something bobbing in the water. “Oh, it looks like your friend has returned.”

Fluttershy turned to see the giant frog pop his head out of the river, an oddly shaped log held in its hind legs. Fluttershy leaned down and talked with him for a bit, when she stood back up to face me, the frog swam off to put the log in position.

“Okay, he’s offered to hold the log in place for you so it doesn’t wobble too much while you cross,” Fluttershy explained. “It seems to have come from the town, so one side of it is flat.”

Indeed as the frog moved the log into position and flipped it around, it revealed that the underside was sawn completely flat. The log must have been cut in two at one of the lumber mills in Timber, perhaps it was discarded because of poor quality or lost while transporting. Whatever the case was, it would be ideal for getting me across the river. Before I set off however, I gave Fluttershy my compass and spyglass to hang around her neck, just in case I slipped, they were the only things I would mind losing.

I set my right hoof on the log first, testing its stability before adding anymore weight. It wobbled about slightly, but the frog was doing a good job of keeping it steady, although it looked to be quite exhausting for him, so I decided not to drag it out any longer than necessary. Once I had all four hooves on the log and started edging down the length of it, Fluttershy hovering just overhead in case something went wrong, I realised just how slippery the log was. Rather than lift my hooves, I opted instead to drag them along the log, only ever moving two at a time while using the other two to brace myself.

Everything went perfectly well until I reached the very end, at which point the frog’s strength gave out. He ribbited loudly in warning and Fluttershy cried for me to jump, and I did just that, leaping off the log right before it got flipped by the current and dragged away. I landed on the opposite bank, feeling a little shaky on my legs while Fluttershy dropped down beside me. The frog came and poked his head up to us, ribbiting something to Fluttershy.

“It’s okay, you did you very best, and that’s all we could have asked for,” she assured him.

“Yeah, I’m fine, no harm done,” I told him, doing a quick three sixty to show how unhurt I was.

The frog ribbited happily, or at least what I interpreted to be happy, I don’t actually speak frog if that wasn’t clear.

“Yes, thank you ever so much,” Fluttershy replied brightly. “I hope you enjoy the rest of your holiday.”

He made to swim off, but at the last second I shouted my own thanks after him. He didn’t stop however, and I wondered if he knew what I meant.

“Don’t worry, I think he got the message,” Fluttershy told me, returning my possessions. “What exactly are these anyway?”

“Family heirlooms,” I told her, pulling out the compass to check which direction we had to travel. “My father gave them to me before I came here from Equestria. I never did write to them, they’re probably worried sick about me.”

“You’ll see them again,” Fluttershy said, rubbing me on the shoulder. “And when you do, you’ll have so many stories to tell them, I think they’ll be very impressed at how they raised such a wonderful mare.”

I could feel myself blushing slightly at that, and I was glad it was dark enough that Fluttershy probably couldn’t see.

“Alright, we need to head this way,” I informed her, pointing in the direction I knew would take us to the town. “We should reach Timber just before midday.”

So we returned to our journey, stopping only to eat a light breakfast around sunrise. When we finally arrived at Timber, I was glad to see it bustling with activity as opposed to Glean, and not the bad kind of activity of Pivot. I was pleasantly surprised as we entered the town and found it completely peaceful, just looking about, you could be fooled into believing that the war never happened, or at the very least it really had ended. Timber was so called due to its chief commodity being timber, the entire section to the east, between the town and where the river curved around was a heavily wooded area.

Since wood was the trade of most of the ponies who lived in Timber, it was unsurprising that pretty much every building was made of it. Most of their workplaces related to woodwork, there were many lumber mills and carpenters, as well as general stores that sold mostly wood related products, and a transport agency that dealt with the moving of wood materials all across Panchea. Needless to say, ponies in Timber liked their wood. The ponies themselves were quite pleasant we found, for the most part they just wanted to get on with their jobs and do their part to restore the country to what it was like before the war. But when they weren’t doing that, they were more than happy to greet travellers such as ourselves and point us in the direction of specific locations.

“It’s a nice change from Glean,” I told Fluttershy as we made our way over to one of the inns we had been directed towards. “During the war, they had their crops burnt and their sheep killed, so lots of ponies had to sell their houses and move just to make ends meet.”

“That’s terrible, was it the Equestrians?” Fluttershy asked in a shocked voice.

“No actually,” I replied. “An innkeeper told us it was the Rebels who did it; Maverick said it was Iron Sights who had been responsible. He did something similar at Sweet Apple Acres, which is why Applejack left the Rebellion.”

“Do you think he was telling the truth?” Fluttershy asked curiously. “Maverick I mean.”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “But I’m looking forward to meeting this Iron Sights and finding out for myself what the deal with him is.”

We found the inn easily enough and went straight on in; hearing plenty of noise to indicate it was open. As we entered the inn, we found that the first floor was a quaint little pub; it was already full of workers just starting their lunch break. Some ponies nodded politely and smiled at us as we made our way up to the bar to see about getting a room, others just kept to themselves. We were seriously lucky that Twilight had passed us a bag of bits when she learned that Maverick was holding out on me, it wasn’t much, but it would be enough to see us to Olympus if we used it sparingly, and I was thankful for it none the less.

As we chatted to the innkeeper and organised a room to stay in for the night, I got the faint feeling that we were being watched. I looked around the crowded pub; it was very possible that some of the ponies there were glancing over at the two new mares in town, especially when one seemed to be a sister of the Celestial Sisterhood. It didn’t feel like that was the case however, for whatever reason, I was sure whoever it was was specifically watching me. Try as I might however, I couldn’t pick out any familiar faces in the crowd, although I was convinced I saw a shadow flitting among them.

I turned back to the bar while the innkeeper left to fetch our room key, trying to shake the feeling. Fluttershy was fidgeting nervously with the bag of bits Twilight had given us and trying not to meet my eye.

“Is something wrong Fluttershy?” I asked, momentarily forgetting my own feelings.

“It’s just…” Fluttershy began, sounding guilty. “He… he… he gave me a discount.”

“Uh, what?” I queried, a bit confused why she was acting so odd over a discount.

“He said he wouldn’t charge full price to a sister like myself,” Fluttershy elaborated. “Is it wrong for me not to pay full price? Am I taking advantage of my position?!”

“Fluttershy, you can’t keep worrying about the smallest…” I began, stopping when the feeling returned in full force.

“Rarity?” Fluttershy uttered, looking at me with a mixture of confusion and worry.

I was definitely not imagining it this time; someone was watching me and slowly drawing closer. I didn’t take my eyes off Fluttershy, not wanting to give them any indication that I was onto them. I reached across as subtly as I could manage, and drew one of my knives, keeping it close to my chest. The feeling in my gut died down instantly, but only for a split second before the assailant struck. My knife was pulled from my grip, I felt my horn get flicked and before I could react in any way, a pair of powerful forelegs wrapped around me and began squeezing me until I could barely breathe.

“If hugging was lethal, you’d be dead by now!” an excited voice declared in a sing song way.

“P… Pinkie Pie?!” I exclaimed breathlessly as I twisted my head around to see the massive grin of my friend. “I can’t breathe!”

“Oops, sorry,” Pinkie said, releasing me so suddenly that I thought I was about to pass out when the air came rushing back into my lungs. “But I was just so happy to see you again! It’s been like, what? Twelve days?! That is too long to go without seeing a friend!”

“I’m happy to see you too Pinkie,” I told her as I leaned against the bar, then I saw the wide eyes of Fluttershy as she stared at us in bewilderment. “Fluttershy, meet Pinkie Pie. She’s the pony I was telling you about, the one who helped Applejack and I at Pivot.”

“Oh, um, hello,” Fluttershy greeted in a very small voice, sinking behind her mane as Pinkie turned her grin on her. “Nice to meet you.”

Pinkie gave a huge gasp, almost trembling with excitement before she bounded forward and pulled the terrified pegasus into another bone crushing hug.

“Oh my goodness, she is so cute! Can we keep her?!” Pinkie screamed in delight, the entire pub was staring at us now.

“I think she likes you Fluttershy,” I said, trying to suppress my own grin and maintain a dignified face.

Fluttershy just mumbled something incoherent, but it sounded like she had just been traumatised, so I took pity on her and pried Pinkie off of her. Pinkie pouted as I did, like I was taking away her new puppy.

“I really am happy to see you Pinkie,” I asserted. “How have you been since you left? Did you find anything interesting?”

“I did! I did!” Pinkie declared, bouncing up and down on the spot.

The ceiling was quite low so she ended up banging her head into it every time she hopped up, but it never seemed to affect her; it was like she couldn’t feel it, and that might have actually explained a lot.

“Well I’m looking forward to hearing all about it,” I told her as I accepted our room key off the stunned innkeeper, as well as tossing a few bits over for the cracked ceiling. “Why don’t we head over to a table where we aren’t disturbing anypony else?”

Once we were settled in a corner table and the rest of the room had resumed their own business, Pinkie dived into her tale of how she journeyed far and wide to find information on the mysterious robed ponies.

“And there I was!” Pinkie stated dramatically, standing on her chair for added effect. “Surrounded by no less than fifty pirates! They said to me that if I didn’t give them back their treasure, they would make me walk the plank. So you know what I did? I walked the plank… then I just swam to the shore, got the treasure from where I left it and went on my way.”

“That’s an impressive story…” I admitted while Fluttershy clapped politely. “But what does that have to do with Suri Polomare.”

“Nothing, I didn’t find her,” Pinkie stated cheerfully as I slammed my face into the table. “No, listen Rarity. I didn’t find her for a very good reason. She didn’t just leave, she disappeared!”

“What do you mean?” I asked, suddenly curious.

“I asked all around, and nopony who knew her knows where she went off to,” Pinkie continued. “I talked to ponies who were waiting for commissions, her friends in the industry, even her sister, none of them could tell me where she went to. One day she was there, the next she wasn’t, it was as if she just up and vanished into thin air.”

“She just vanished?” I repeated, stroking my chin thoughtfully. “That does raise more questions, I have little doubt that those robes were made by her.”

“So do you think these robed ponies kidnapped her?” Fluttershy asked in a concerned voice. “Maybe she’s being held captive somewhere.”

“And what? They’re forcing her to stitch their uniforms?” I asked half sarcastically. “Seems like an odd reason to kidnap somepony.”

“Well if she is their prisoner, then I don’t know where they’re keeping her,” Pinkie told us. “These robed guys are seriously good at covering their tracks if even I can’t locate them.”

“Well we don’t have to find them just yet,” I began. “We’re heading to Olympus now to question the ex-marshal of the Rebellion about his involvement in whatever Arcana was doing for them, if you come with us we might be able to get to the bottom of this.”

“Nice, the dynamic duo is back together!” Pinkie declared, thrusting her hoof into the air. “Now with adorable sidekick holding a scary mace.”

“Um… yay?” Fluttershy muttered hesitantly.

“Oh, but that reminds me,” Pinkie added suddenly. “And it’s pretty good that we’re going to Olympus, because I have business along the way that relates to that monster you saw in Pivot.”

“Really? What?!” I asked, suddenly very excited.

“Well, not about that monster specifically,” Pinkie clarified. “But while I was asking around for your fashion friend, I heard lots of rumours of strange creatures appearing all around the country. It’s all isolated incidents that most ponies disregard as ghost stories or the ramblings of mad ponies, but I know mad ponies, and the ones claiming to have seen these creatures are most certainly not that. It’s just hard to prove because nopony can seem to find these supposed monsters afterwards.”

“So you think they’re all connected,” I asked, leaning in conspiratorially. “These monster sightings and thing I saw in Pivot?”

“More than that,” Pinkie countered. “I think they’re connected to our robed ponies. I can’t explain why, but I’ve learned to trust my hunches on matters like this, you could say I have a special sense for this sort of thing.”

“Interesting…” I said, pondering the notion. “So what is it you want to look into on the way to Olympus?”

“The latest rumour,” Pinkie explained. “Most of the stories or rumours I’ve heard occurred any time from the start of the war to just a few months ago, but I met this one stallion a couple days ago, he insisted that there was a monster attack in his home town Brine very recently. He couldn’t tell me what kind of monster it was, whatever he saw seemed to scare him so badly he could barely form a sentence when I talked to him. So it looks like the most recent incident seems to have occurred there in Brine, the town closest to Olympus.

“I was about to head there myself and look into it when I saw you two come in here,” Pinkie continued. “And since you’re going to Olympus, we could check it out together on the way. Since it’s apparently such a recent occurrence, the monster might still be there, and finding it for ourselves might help us figure out what they are and where they’re coming from. What do you girls say, the tenacious trio hunt some monsters?!”

“I liked the other name better,” Fluttershy murmured.

“I guess we could do that,” I agreed. “We’ll be passing through Brine anyway, might as well stop for a bit and ask the locals if they know anything about this monster the stallion was talking about.”

“I agree,” Fluttershy added. “If there really is a scary monster terrorising ponies, somepony should put a stop to it.”

“That’s the spirit girls!” Pinkie encouraged, pulling out her grinning mask and holding it up over her face. “Now who wants to play ‘whoever has the smallest smile buys the drinks’?”

XL - Restoration

We left Timber early the next morning, rather than asking for a different room, Pinkie had opted to just sleep in the same bed as one of us and avoid paying any more money. While she was away at the toilet, Fluttershy and I flipped a coin on who would ‘volunteer’ when she got back, I was the unlucky one. Considering my last experience involving Pinkie Pie and a bed, involved me being tied up, I had every reason to think it was going to be an unpleasant experience. I’d like to say she surprised me, but she really didn’t, it turns out Pinkie is quite snuggly in her sleep, and her cuddles are just as life threatening as her hugs.

So my two companions woke up the next morning, feeling fresh and well rested, while I just grumbled and groaned having barely got a wink of sleep. I felt better once I was washed up, and while the other two had their own baths, I took the time to repair my outfit. It really had gotten quite banged up since my journey began, but by the time my friends were ready to go I had it looking good as new. It was nice to leave Timber and it still be as normal as it was when we entered, no fanatical cults or violent factions, no homeless ponies or boarded up shops, just a peaceful, everyday town… naturally it doesn’t remain that way, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

We set off north, a little ways down from where the Lonesome Lake bottlenecked into the river that meandered around the southern end of the Grand Pastures, past Port Mule and out into the Horseshoe Bay. This time we didn’t have to rely on giant frogs and displaced logs to get us from one bank to the other as there was a bridge, although it did give us an excuse to tell the story to Pinkie Pie who absolutely lapped it up. Fluttershy was a little concerned about telling another pony about her ability to converse with animals, but I knew if anypony could relate to doing abnormal things it would be Pinkie Pie.

Indeed, she didn’t even react to it like it was something unusual, which says a lot about Pinkie Pie. While we continued along the road that would take us to Glean, we filled Pinkie in on what had happened since she left Sweet Apple Acres, although I gave her the cut down version for expedience sake. That’s important to note, as I may have omitted certain details about our most recent missions, purely by accident mind you, that ended up being a bit of an issue later down the line. Glean was quite a walk from Timber though, so we ended up having to camp out one night, and then we didn’t arrive at Glean until very late in the evening of the next day.

The journey there was fairly uneventful; we chatted and joked to keep our spirits up despite the fairly persistent rain. There was one tiny little event worth mentioning, it was nothing too major, just that when we established our camp on that first night we decided to do so away from the road so that we wouldn’t be an obvious target for bandits roaming the Pastures... but instead we became a target for something worse. We went off the beaten track to find somewhere out of the way that would be suitable for sleeping, and might even provide a little shelter from the rain. We travelled east off the road, making for a clump of trees nestled close to the base of the Wyvern Heights.

By the time we reached there, the sun was long gone and the rain had reduced, a light fog sweeping in in its place. We were all pretty exhausted by the time we reached the cover of the ancient trees, even Pinkie, despite the boundless energy she always seemed to possess. Settling down on the forest floor, we all started to drift off, not even stopping to think about keeping watch. We should have known something was wrong, but we were just so tired and sleep sounded so appealing. I only knew something was wrong when I woke up and realised that I was no longer at the edge of the wood, and my friends were nowhere to be seen.

It was still the middle of the night, and I could barely see a few metres in front of me between the darkness overhead and the fog that had grown much thicker all around me. I tried to call for Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, but it was like the sound my voice made was simply absorbed by the fog. The panic at my situation managed to rid any feelings of exhaustion and thoughts of sleep from my mind, and I started to realise just how spooky the forest we had willingly entered truly was. The gnarled, twisted trees all seemed to stretch in, their branches resembling monstrous claws ready to grab hold of me as soon as I wasn’t looking.

The real threat wasn’t in the trees however, but in the fog. I could see it, darting around just out of my sight, melting away into the pearly whiteness any time I nearly got a good look at it. I drew my sword, not exactly confident it would help me any, and began making my slow way through the forest. I tried to light my horn, but it only glared off the fog and did nothing to improve visibility, although it might have made it easier for my pursuer to see me. Extinguishing my horn, I quickened my pace, if I could just reach the edge of the woods I could gather my wits and start thinking of a way to find my friends again.

After a few minutes which felt like hours, my brisk trot turned into a full gallop, but still I never reached the end of this blasted wood. More than that, it felt like I had never left the one spot where I had woken up. It was impossible to tell, all around me was fog, and above me the twisting trees looked the same. My head began to spin and I could feel myself growing weak as I fell to my knees, my sword fell from my grasp and rolled away. When I tried searching for it, it was nowhere to be seen, like it had simply sank into the ground.

I was beginning to panic at that point, more than that; I was starting to feel seriously scared. I had wandered into some kind of nightmarish trap, and I was all alone with no hope of escaping. I began to feel very cold as the weakness spread from my legs to my chest, it was getting difficult to breathe and I feared I had little time left. Using my last breaths I shouted desperately for my friends, all of them, just wishing that somepony would answer me in my last seconds, even if they couldn’t save me... but then, I heard somepony reply.

I heard a pony calling my name, it was faint. It sounded so far off, but I knew they were calling to me, calling me to them. Despite the weakness I felt, I forced myself to stand up, one leg at a time. Each of my legs trembled violently as I put weight onto them, but I refused to let myself collapse a second time. With all my remaining energy, I put one leg in front of the other and walked into the fog, making my painfully slow way to where the voice was still calling me from… and then I woke up, for real this time.

I gasped for air, as if I had just broken the surface of water after being trapped until my lungs were ready to burst. Pinkie Pie was leaning over me, holding me slightly off the ground, a terrified look on her face. I quickly realised that this place wasn’t where we had stopped to rest either, in fact, it was far from it considering it appeared to be underground. I tried to sit up, but all I could manage was tilting my head so I could just about see where we were. It turned out we were in a barrow, walls of dirt and roots poking through the ceiling. We shouldn’t have been able to see a thing, the only entrance being a small tunnel in the far wall, and it was still night outside.

We were able to see quite well due to the eerie, pale blue glow coming off of the creature that floated in the centre of the room. It was a pale, ghostly figure, comprised mostly of wispy, tattered sheets. Only its long skeletal hands were visible, extending from beneath the wraps, long dead flesh stretched over its twitching digits. The only other feature it possessed was a single round, dark hole in its head where the mouth would have been, I could hear it sucking in a deep rattling breath, as it did I could feel more of my strength get sapped away.

The creature was a Wight, an undead that fed off the life-force of its prey. When we had neared the wood where its barrow lay, we had been entranced by its bewitching fog. All that stood between it and us, was Fluttershy, who stood defiantly with her mace raised.

“Get away from her monster!” she barked at it in a ferocious tone I would never have associated with her.

The Wight gave a high pitched shriek and swooped forward, its claw like hands raking the air, ready to tear Fluttershy in two. I wanted to scream a warning, to tell her to run, but it turned out I didn’t need to. Without any hesitation, Fluttershy stood her ground and gave her mace a mighty swing upward, catching the Wight in the chest. As the mace head impacted, there was a great explosion of light and the Wight retreated, shrieking in agony. The mace had burned a shining hole in its chest which was expanding with every second, before long the Wight’s screams of anguish were eclipsed as the burning light devoured it whole.

When the Wight was gone, all that remained was a ball of swirling blue energy, the same blue of my magical aura. Fluttershy reached out for it tentatively, it seemed to connect to her hoof, to cling to it. Slowly she carried it over to where I lay, still cradled by Pinkie Pie. She brought it down to my mouth, and as I breathed in, it flooded into my lungs and system, refilling me with the life force that was taken. With the Wight gone and my life-force returned to me, the barrow become pitch black, however Fluttershy was still full of surprises. She held her mace up and whispered something to it, as soon as she did, the weapon began to glow with a powerful light.

“Oh Rarity, you had us so worried!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, pulling me into a hug I really hadn’t been ready for. “We woke up and you were gone, we looked everywhere in the woods for you. Then we found this mound with a spooky blue light coming out of it and we found you inside asleep, at least we hoped you were asleep.”

“We should be fine now,” Fluttershy said, prodding Pinkie to indicate that she should loosen her grip on me. “This was the only barrow we found.”

“That still doesn’t mean we’re sleeping in here,” I replied in a weary voice. “Let’s get out of these woods; I’ll take a little rain over this place any day.”

The pair of them helped me up, and together we climbed out of the barrow and made our way back out of the woods after consulting my compass. Once on the outside, we kept walking until it was sufficiently far behind that we could all relax. As we lay down to get a few hours of actual sleep, I thanked them both for rescuing me before immediately drifting into a deep slumber. As the sun rose and we got ready to leave, Pinkie gathered up some wood to create a makeshift sign while I used my magic to burn a message into it. It simply read ‘Don’t sleep in the woods’.

We got back on track and continued along the road to Glean, as stated, we didn’t arrive until late evening, by which point we were all thoroughly exhausted again. As we neared the town, I was surprised, but glad to see some ponies had made a brave attempt at re-establishing the farmland. There were still lots of houses with blacked out windows, but they were fewer than the last time I had been there, and there were even some sheep in the paddocks. We navigated to the inn I had stayed at before, hoping somepony else would have taken it over since I was last there.

All three of us froze when we saw two Rebel soldiers standing guard at the door of the inn. Curious as to what was going on, we made our way over and greeted them.

“Good evening fine sirs,” I began civilly. “Is there something going on in here?”

“Not at all miss,” one of the guards replied. “The inn is open and ready for business, we’re simply here as part of the restoration scheme of Glean.”

“Restoration scheme?” I repeated, looking back at the other two who looked equally confused.

Shrugging, I thanked the guards and led the way into the modestly occupied inn. While it wasn’t packed like the inn at Timber, nor was it deserted like it had been when I was there. We all made our way over to the bar where a young mare stood to greet us.

“Good evening ladies,” she said pleasantly. “Are you looking for a room or just something to eat?”

“Just a room please,” I told her before Fluttershy urgently whispered into my ear about our supplies. “And some food as well if it’s no trouble.”

“No trouble at all,” the mare assured me. “I’ll fetch you some menus and your room key.”

“Very efficient,” I murmured as she popped into the backroom.

Fluttershy had pointed out that we didn’t have much in the way of supplies since Pinkie Pie joined our party, it would be wiser to save what we have for on the road. When the mare returned, she passed us the menus which Fluttershy and Pinkie began looking over while I worked out the payment for the room, luckily Pinkie Pie had also brought some money to the group thanks to her pirate treasure.

“So what’s this thing about ‘restoration of Glean’?” I asked the mare while I was counting out bits. “The guard outside mentioned it.”

“It’s a very recent thing brought in by the new mayor of Pivot,” the mare explained. “After the recent tragedy, she’s focusing on trying to restore the city, but she needs Glean to recover as well to help with the food shortages.”

“A new mayor who’s actually doing something,” I repeated thoughtfully.

It made sense, Pen Pusher was a unicorn, he might not have survived the Children of the Earth’s attack. It was nice to think that this new mayor was trying to fix things and help ponies rather than just help herself.

“Who is the mayor?” I asked curiously.

“I think her name is Inkie, she used to be a secretary,” the mare explained. “Apparently she was inspired when she overheard some mare shouting at the last mayor and telling him what he needed to do to fix things.”

“Inkie…” I repeated, sure I had heard that name before.

At that moment a stallion emerged from the backroom, wheeling out a trolley with two crates on it. He stopped to call over to the mare who excused herself, while I was looking over the menu, I could overhear what they were saying.

“That’s the last of the junk cleared out of the basement,” the stallion informed her. “But check this out, I found it while I was shifting these boxes.”

“That’s pretty,” the mare commented, examining the gold pin he showed her.

“Not just pretty, this is a Wonderbolts pin,” the stallion explained. “You know, that elite Equestrian air force.”

“What on earth would that be doing down there?” the mare asked sceptically. “It’s probably a fake.”

“I don’t know…” the stallion argued, holding it up to the light. “Looks pretty real to me, might even fetch a decent price.”

We ordered our food, ate it too quickly, then retired to our room where we all felt bloated and sick. That did make it easy to fall asleep, and it was a much more comfortable sleep than then last two nights considering it was in warm beds and there were enough that nopony had to share. By morning all our spirits were high and we set off from Glean with a spring in our step. Our next stop was the ferry dock, a little ways north of Glean. It was roughly the same distance as the checkpoint where I had travelled to when I was on my way to Pivot with Lyra and the others, so it was late afternoon by the time we reached it, but the rain had lessened considerably, so we were still feeling good when we did.

The dock was a relatively uninteresting point at the edge of the Neptune, the vast lough in the centre of the country. It consisted of the ferry keeper’s house, a barn for storage and the jetty that led out to the large ferry. It was mainly used for transporting goods from places like Glean and Timber to Breakwater and vice versa, but ponies were allowed to ride on it so long as they didn’t disrupt the work of the ferry keeper. There was a little picket sign a few metres from the front of the house with the travel times written in peeling paint.

We were lucky, the ferry only set off from the dock twice a week as it took three days to travel over there, deliver its load and travel back, with Sundays off. We went up to the barn where we could see the rough stallion hauling out crates that were presumably to be loaded onto the ferry.

“Hello! We need to get a lift on your ferry, pretty please!” Pinkie begged, zooming over to him and leaning right into his face.

“Good timin’,” the stallion replied gruffly, scratching his beard as he squinted at the sun poking through the clouds. “I’ll be headin’ out pretty soon, you can ride if you’ve got the bits, but I give a discount to anypony who helps me load the ferry and get out of here early.”

“Say no more!” Pinkie declared.

Pinkie pressed both her hooves to the side of the particularly large and heavy looking crate the stallion had been struggling with when we arrived, and with surprising strength pushed it all the way over to the ferry in less than a minute without breaking a sweat. Fluttershy and I helped out with some of the smaller boxes, me using my magic and Fluttershy flying them directly to the ferry without having to walk around the house. It only took several minutes with our combined effort and the stallion’s directions to have the ferry fully loaded.

He gave a low whistle when the job was done, looking pleased with the results.

“You girls sure made me feel old,” he commented, although he sounded amused rather than annoyed at that. “We’ll make good time, and like I promised, you can ride for only five bits each.”

As we paid up and boarded the ferry, the stallion went into his house, coming back out with an old navy captain’s jacket and cap. Once he locked up his house and joined us over by the ferry, he introduced himself as Salty, we told him our own names and simply that we were on our way to Olympus, although we didn’t get into why.

“Olympus?” he repeated. “Good luck up there, from what I hear it’s madness.”

“I’m sure it’s nothing we can’t handle,” I commented wryly as I made eye contact with Pinkie Pie, who returned my confident smirk.

“Yeah, you’re talking to bona fide Wonderbolts!” Pinkie declared.

“Yeah, that’s… wait, what?!” I exclaimed as Pinkie pulled out a familiar gold pin.

“See, we’re totally Wonderbolts… Hey!” Pinkie exclaimed when I snatched the pin off her.

The pin was in the shape of a single bolt of lightning with two pegasus wings spreading out of either side, it was definitely the one I had seen that stallion at the inn holding up to the light when he was talking to the mare.

“You stole this from the stallion at the inn!” I hissed at Pinkie so Salty wouldn’t hear.

“Technically it was never his, so I didn’t steal it,” Pinkie argued calmly.

I thrust it back into her waiting hooves, and she grinned at it before hiding it within her mane.

“If it wasn’t for the fact that we don’t have time for backtracking,” I began in an irritated tone. “I’d make you return that. You said you didn’t kill ponies who didn’t deserve it, surely the same rules apply to stealing.”

“Implying he didn’t deserve it?” Pinkie questioned.

“You think he did?” I retorted as Salty finished the preparations for setting off from the dock.

“I told you Rarity,” Pinkie Pie said, giving me an enigmatic grin. “I have a sense for these things.”

XLI - The Ghost Town

The ferry travelled through the night, cutting smoothly across the water. Salty didn’t talk much, he seemed too focused on his job, so we made do with sitting in a single corner of the ferry and chatting among ourselves. It was amazing how Pinkie never seemed to run out of stories, one would think she had lived several lifetimes just to have experienced so much. As night settled in we decided to catch a few hours sleep, the ferry wouldn’t be arriving at Breakwater until early afternoon the next day, and we planned to set off as soon as possible for Brine.

It had taken me a while to drift off, sitting on a boat all day rather that traipsing across the country side for a change left me with quite a lot of energy. I eventually did, but found myself waking up not long after, suddenly feeling very cold. I tried to curl up tighter in the hopes of getting warm again and falling back to sleep, but the cold only seemed to increase with every minute. Finally I decided I’d had enough and sat up, intent on finding one of the others and risk snuggling up against them for some heat. As I opened my eyes however, I immediately knew something was wrong.

Fluttershy had been sleeping just a few feet from me before I finally drifted off, but now she was nowhere to be seen. I was too tired to think straight, so rather than immediately panic, I just felt slightly confused. Standing up I surveyed the ferry, hoping to see Fluttershy lying elsewhere, or at the very least see Pinkie Pie. I saw neither of them, more than that, Salty had disappeared too, and as I felt the fear begin to rise I saw that a thin mist had formed over the lough and had the ferry surrounded.

Everything was deathly silent, only the occasional lapping of water against the side of the ferry to assure me I hadn’t gone deaf. It was also getting colder, so I wrapped my jacket tightly around myself as my teeth began chattering. I walked around the ferry, hoping to find my friends obscured by the crates, but it was all to no avail, I was completely alone. I heard a loud creak behind me and swirled around, grasping for my sword. There was nothing there, nothing that could have made the sound, but nor was my sword in my belt.

I frowned, trying to remember the last time I had it. I had brought it out briefly and then subsequently dropped it when I was in the woods, but that had all been a dream, and I had my sword when I woke up in the burrow… hadn’t I? Had I really lost it? It was a sad thought to think after all I had been through with it, I had dropped it in the woods and not even bothered to go back and look for it. Feeling both fearful and now miserable, I drew one of my daggers and continued my search of the ferry.

I spun around again as I heard a loud splash come from the port side, it was loud and I even caught a glimpse of the water shooting up before raining back down. It sounded as if something heavy had just fallen in; I grimaced as my mind immediately thought of a body, perhaps a body I knew… I edged my way across the deck to where I had heard the splash, never letting my guard down and keeping my knife raised. Once I reached the side of the ferry, I took a deep breath and peeked out over. I surveyed the gently lapping water carefully, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. I was about to pull back when a hand broke through the surface, a horrible, skeletal hand grasping for my face, dragging a body wrapped in tattered cloth behind it.

I let out an almighty scream as I lurched back and simultaneously sat bolt upright. Fluttershy squealed in shock, leaping back from me while Pinkie Pie and Salty both stared at me with wide eyes. I glanced about me wildly, I was still on the barge, exactly where I had laid down to go to sleep. There was no mist, and the sun was just poking over the horizon, the rainclouds cleared considerably.

“S… Sorry,” I apologised breathlessly to everypony. “Just a… bad dream.”

Salt nodded understandably before carrying on with his own business, Pinkie Pie on the other hand still looked worried. She came over while Fluttershy calmed down and sat back down beside me.

“I heard you muttering in your sleep,” Fluttershy explained. “I had just leaned in to shake you awake when you… well, did that.”

“I’m sorry for scaring you,” I insisted. “I guess what happened in the woods shook me up more than I realised.”

“That’s completely normal,” Fluttershy assured me. “Certain undead can leave a lasting effect on ponies.”

“I was actually wondering…” I began thoughtfully, my eyes flicking up to Pinkie Pie. “Do you think that Wight was one of the monsters you’ve been hearing about?”

“I never heard anything that resembled that thing,” Pinkie said shaking her head.

“I really doubt it’s the same thing,” Fluttershy argued. “Wights are a commonly known form of undead, they’re rare, but they aren’t monsters.”

“Could have fooled me,” I muttered bitterly. “At least you made quick work of it, I never did say, but that mace is pretty impressive.”

“Well one of the Crusaders' main tasks is to protect the world from monsters and the undead,” Fluttershy explained. “Or at least, it used to be one of their main tasks. Both are so rare nowadays that they pretty much exclusively protect the Bask, but their weapons are still blessed to make short work of any such creatures should the need arise.”

“And for that I’m very grateful,” I reaffirmed.

“Monsters don’t seem to be as rare as you say,” Pinkie pointed out. “If the rumours I’m hearing are to be believed, but I don’t see your Crusaders doing anything about them.”

“You said it yourself,” Fluttershy countered. “Nopony believes the stories, the Crusaders aren’t going to leave the Bask just because a handful of ponies claim they saw monsters without any solid evidence.”

“Do you think if we provided that evidence, they would do something?” I asked.

“I wouldn’t get your hopes up,” Fluttershy muttered, her tone slightly dark. “The Crusaders still take orders from the High Priestess; it’s her you have to convince.”

“Ah well, we’ll make do with what we’ve got,” Pinkie said casually.

“What have we got?” Fluttershy asked, glancing up at Pinkie.

“You of course!” Pinkie answered, diving forward and grabbing Fluttershy’s cheeks. “Any monster that doesn’t drop dead from just how cute you are will drop dead when you beat them down with your awesome mace.”

“Oh dear…” Fluttershy mumbled through her puckered lips.

I sniggered behind my hoof at the sight, which earned me a pleading look from Fluttershy. After convincing Pinkie Pie to release her I stood up, making my way over to Salty to see if I could be of any use. As I walked, I suddenly remembered a particular aspect of my dream, and I quickly clutched at my sword, confirming that it was still there. I let out a sigh of relief when I felt the familiar sweepings beneath my hoof, I drew the rapier and twirled it in my hoof, smirking at how natural it felt. I heard a whistle behind me and turned to see Pinkie move into the emptiest area of the ferry, drawing her rondel daggers from her belt.

“I see you pulling that sword out,” she said in a teasing voice. “Come on, I want to see how much you’ve improved.”

It turned out I still had a long way to go before I could hold a candle to Pinkie Pie… without her cutting it in two with her lightning fast swings. Pinkie however, seemed impressed when we finished our little spar, insisting that I had improved greatly since we first trained together on Sweet Apple Acres. By the time we were returning our weapons to our respective belts, Breakwater had come into view and Salty asked us to help with the preparations for docking.

Breakwater was a quaint little village, both it and Anchorage specialised in fishing, although Breakwater was the minor of the two. There were plenty of buildings; all packed tightly together, timber framed with wattle and daub walls, although some had their first floor walls made of grey brickwork. They had steep pitched roofs of slate and tall, narrow doors and windows. The roads were unpaved, which meant that after the recent bout of rain, they were still quite muddy with many puddles and potholes.

I grimaced as I stepped off the wooden planks of the dock onto the road and felt my boots squelch into the wet muck. Fluttershy also wore a pained expression as flecks of dirt splattered up over her bright, white clothes. Pinkie Pie on the other hand was loving it, she even performed a cartwheel down the road just to show how much fun she was having playing in the mud, not caring when mud splashed up over her stripy harlequin outfit.

“Are you sure you don’t need any more assistance?” I called back to Salty who had started unloading the ferry.

“No, no, you girls be on your way,” he insisted. “Don’t you be worrying about ol’ Salty now, he can look after himself.

“Well, thank you,” Fluttershy called after him as he dragged one of the crates away to a warehouse on the edge of the dock.

We had no intentions of waiting around Breakwater; we were already making good time so we decided to just keep moving north and we’d reach Olympus in no time. However as we neared the opposite end of the town, we noticed that large crowd had gathered there. While we couldn’t see what they were all so interested in, we could hear from their tones that they were disgruntled and angry about something. Pinkie bounced up and down to try and see over the heads of the crowd while Fluttershy and I waited for her to report what was going on.

“Looks like two ponies,” Pinkie said when she landed and turned back to us. “The ponies here seem angry at them.”

Fluttershy and I exchanged a concerned glance, so I approached one of the local ponies at the back of the crowd and tapped them on the shoulder.

“Excuse me sir,” I began, getting him to turn around and face me. “But what appears to be the problem?”

“A couple of Rebel agents!” the pony said bitterly, spitting on the ground at his hooves. “Wanting to come in and snoop around the village, but we aren’t having any of it.”

I backed up from the pony, turning back to my friends who looked as worried as I felt.

“Sounds like this town doesn’t like the Rebellion very much,” Fluttershy whispered.

“We’ll need to keep our mission on the down low then,” I replied, mainly addressing Pinkie Pie. “Those two must be the agents Maverick sent to check on the towns near Cragsburg, to make sure the Children of the Earth hadn’t done anything.”

“I see a pegasus over there,” Pinkie said, pointing into the crowd. “Not many ponies who aren’t earth ponies, but they’re definitely there.”

“We should see about talking to those agents once the crowd disperses,” I suggested, the other two nodding in response.

We moved away from the crowd, taking a seat on a low brick wall that ran around the perimeter of Breakwater. From where we sat I could see the two agents and the mob, they tried a little longer to convince the town ponies to let them through, but the mob wasn’t budging an inch. After a while, the agents gave up and started walking away from the town, the mob quickly dispersing. Once we were sure nopony would notice us, we trotted off after the agents. They stopped when they heard us approaching and turned to see us, the stallion looking thoroughly fed up while the mare seemed more curious.

“Hello, we heard you were having some trouble,” I informed them. “A pony in the town mentioned you were Rebel agents.”

“You’re not here to spit on us too are you?” the stallion asked in an annoyed voice.

“No siree!” Pinkie replied rhythmically. “As a matter of fact, Rarity here is a Rebel agent just like you.”

“You are?” the mare asked, looking a little surprised as she looked me up and down and swept her gaze over my friends.

“Sort of,” I admitted “I know Maverick tasked you with coming here to make sure the Children of the Earth weren’t spreading their influence.”

“Yeah, we were,” the stallion confirmed, brightening up now that he knew we were on the same side. “But the damn townsfolk wouldn’t let us in; if we’d known they were going to be so hostile we wouldn’t have told them who we are.”

“Well they don’t know who we are,” I pointed out. “Why don’t we go back and find out what you needed to know?”

“Would you actually do that?” the mare asked hopefully. “That would be a great help, we can set up camp just out of sight of the town and wait for you there.”

“Alright then, we’ll ask about and be back here before you know it,” I promised them before turning around again and heading back into the town.

The ponies who had formed the mob had returned to work, so the streets were a little more packed with ponies wheeling trolleys and pulling carts. They were mostly filled with fish, but some were working with the materials that were transported on Salty’s ferry. It might seem odd, ponies fishing when we don’t eat them, but they served many purposes that made them a valuable commodity. Certain medicines and supplements could be derived from fish, and they fetched a high price when sold to foreign nations where carnivores like Griffons lived.

While Port Mule and Daybreak Landing focused on fishing in the open sea, Breakwater and Anchorage collected the freshwater specimens. If they were being collected for trading overseas, then it meant they would need to be kept in special, cold conditions to stop them from going off and losing all value. We decided to split up and ask around town individually about what the agents needed to know, agreeing to meet up in the centre of the village in an hour. During that hour I got shunned, shrugged off and ignored by dozens of ponies, anypony in the middle of work refused to stop for even a second to talk to me, those that weren’t busy didn’t know what I was talking about and weren’t interested either.

When I came back to the town centre, I wasn’t surprised to learn that Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie had just as little luck as I had.

“Well this is annoying,” I grumbled “The ponies here are very rude.”

“They are busy with their own work,” Fluttershy reasoned.

“Still, how are we going to get information?” I asked.

“How does anypony get information when arriving somewhere new?” Pinkie asked rhetorically. “They go to the local tavern and ask the barkeeper, barkeepers hear everything!”

“I suppose it’s a place to start,” I accepted. “And hopefully finish.”

We followed Pinkie to the Breakwater tavern which overlooked the dock, I wondered if Pinkie had spotted it on the way in or if her ‘sense’ always helped her find places that supplied alcohol. We entered to find the place mostly deserted, a couple of ponies already into their drinks at the bar, and a stallion who stood behind it lazily running a cloth back and forth to give the impression he was doing something. Pinkie strode confidently up and slammed several bits down in front of the stallion who barely blinked as he looked up her, a bored expression on his face.

“Three ciders please!” Pinkie requested cheerfully.

The stallion stared at her for a moment, his look full of distain before he finally slid the bits back across to her.

“You’ll need twice that much hon,” he told her in a voice that matched his expression spot on.

Pinkie’s jaw dropped open at that.

“For cider?!” She exclaimed in disbelief. “Is it made from Celestia’s pi…”

“It’s alright!” I jumped in quickly. “Just make it two ciders, I can go without.”

The barkeeper nodded once, dragging the bits back before grabbing a pair of pint glasses and filling them up at the tap. Fluttershy accepted her glass gratefully a gulped down a mouthful, as a member of the Sisterhood she wasn’t specifically banned from drinking, although most accepted it as one of their rules without needing to be told, Fluttershy however appeared quite happy to take liberties with the ambiguity. When the barkeeper walked off to refill one of the other pony’s glasses, Fluttershy grimaced and Pinkie gaged audibly.

“Ugh, I might have been right when I guessed what it was made from,” Pinkie groaned, pushing her glass away by a few inches.

“If you don’t like it, tough!” the barkeeper snapped as he walked back over. “No refunds.”

“Whatever,” Pinkie muttered. “The sooner we’re out of this town and on our way to Brine the better.”

“Brine?” the barkeeper repeated, his eyes widening slightly. “You’re going up there?”

“Yes, why? Is that a problem?” I asked coolly.

“No, no, it’s a free country,” he replied casually. “It’s just that we don’t hear much from Brine lately, that is to say, we don’t hear from Brine at all.”

“Why’s that?” I asked, briefly meeting Pinkie’s gaze.

“No idea,” the barkeeper admitted. “Some ponies have gone up that way, including some local to here, haven’t heard from any of them since. They go up that way and they don’t come back.”

I glanced at Pinkie and Fluttershy; they were both starting to look concerned now.

“We once heard that there was a monster sighted near Brine,” Fluttershy informed him. “Do you think it’s true? Do you think that could be why you don’t hear from there anymore?”

“I wouldn’t know anything about a monster,” the barkeeper insisted. “Like I said, nopony who went up that way has come back to say.”

“So, would you suggest we go around Brine?” I asked casually, hoping to broach the next subject. “Like, would we be able to circle around to get on the road to Olympus or Cragsburg?”

“I guess you could try,” the barkeeper replied with an uninterested shrug. “Don’t know why you’d want to go to either of those places though, anypony with sense left in them got out of those cities when the war ended. There was a while where lots of ponies came through here after leaving the cities, they all seemed intent on going south in the hopes of finding some peace.”

“Did they say why?” I asked, although I knew full well why normal ponies would want to stay clear of both cities.

“They did,” the barkeeper said nodding. “Ponies coming down from Olympus said it was madness, they said they couldn’t handle all the fighting. The ponies from Cragsburg though, they never really did say what the problem was, just said it wasn’t safe or welcoming anymore. That’s interesting; because we know there’s still plenty of ponies in Olympus, we still do trade with them… assuming any of our traders have made it beyond Brine recently, but Cragsburg… it’s quiet.”

“That is interesting,” I agreed, sharing a wary look with Pinkie Pie. “It sounds like life is pretty precarious up here in the Lesser Pastures; don’t you think you’d be safe with some Rebel soldiers on guard?”

“Absolutely not!” the barkeeper stated loudly, suddenly angry. “They dragged this country into a war we didn’t ask for, and then left us to fend for ourselves when the Equestrians came marching through. We were left to hold our own while they all fought over which of them got to own us, we can sure as hay hold our own now!”

“Okay, okay,” I said quickly, holding my hooves up defensively. “I didn’t know, I won’t mention it again. Although that reminds me, you haven’t seen any strange ponies around town wearing green robes and armour that looks like granite, have you?”

“You know something about them?” the barkeeper asked, the hostility that he had maintained during our entire conversation fading slightly. “We had a couple of ponies dressed just like that poking their noses around here a few weeks ago, we tried asking them what was up, but they just left without a word, haven’t seen head nor tail of them since.”

“Well that’s good... that you haven’t seen them since I mean,” I replied. “Trust us when we say those ponies are bad news, if you see them again you should be ready to defend yourself.”

“Yeah, we saw them do some pretty awful things at Pivot,” Pinkie added. “If you have any pegasi or unicorns in this town, then those ponies are not your friends.”

“I’ll get the word out,” the barkeeper promised. “Since you probably aren’t staying for another round, and it’s coming up to the post work rush, I’ll have to ask you three to make some room.”

I nodded and slid off my stool, leading the way out of the bar just as another couple of ponies made their way in. Once outside, we huddled up to discuss what we had learnt from the irritating, although surprisingly talkative barkeeper.

“It sounds like this rumour was right,” I commented, looking to Pinkie Pie. “Something might actually be up at Brine.”

“I hope the ponies there are okay,” Fluttershy stated.

“They’re probably exaggerating how bad it is,” Pinkie assured her in a cheery tone. “I bet once we get there it won’t be anything we can’t handle.”

“I hope so, we can ask the ag… the two outside if they heard anything on their way here,” I suggested. “Plus we can report what we learned about the Children of the Earth.”

Decided, we made our way back down the muddy streets as a light rain began to fall. We reached the outskirts of the city and kept walking over the grassy hills until we found the two agents sitting beside a small campfire.

“You’re back, take a seat,” the stallion offered, gesturing at the ground around the fire.

We gladly sat down and reached out to warm up our hooves, as we did, I quickly filled in the two agents about what we learned from the barkeeper.

“It sounds like they were scouting ahead,” the mare theorised. “But there hasn’t been any sort of attack yet, and that was… what? A few weeks ago?”

“That’s what he told us,” I confirmed. “Maybe they didn’t think the town was worth going to the effort of invading.”

“Perhaps, but that’s great work,” the mare complimented. “Tomorrow we can travel to Brine and meet up with the other agents, see what they found out and we’ll have something substantial to report.”

“The barkeep also mentioned something about Brine,” Fluttershy brought up. “He said that they recently stopped hearing from there, and that ponies who went there didn’t come back.”

“We had heard a rumour of a monster near Brine,” I explained. “We were going to investigate it on our way to Olympus.”

“Well we certainly didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary,” the stallion said thoughtfully. “But then we did come around it while our companions went into the town directly, to do the same thing we came here to do. I think a monster is a bit far-fetched though; it seems a bit likelier that the Children of the Earth hit Brine, which would explain the sudden cut in communication. Luckily both the other agents were earth ponies, so they’ll be able to look around safely if that is the case.”

I could tell from the looks on my companions' faces that they weren’t entirely convinced by this idea, or perhaps like me, they simply wanted to believe that a monster was responsible, rather than accept the Children of the Earth had done to another town what they did in Pivot. We all got some sleep, although I volunteered to do the night watch to give the two agents a chance to sleep, plus I was rather reluctant to sleep when I remembered my nightmare. As soon as morning came, we stamped out the remains of the campfire and set out, our walking plan mean that without interruption we would reach Brine around early evening time.

This journey however turned out to be one of the rare ones where we had no interruptions what so ever, and arrived pleasantly on time for a change and no worse for wear than when we started. By the time we reached Brine, the rain had started coming down heavier so that the road mud beneath our hooves became extra wet and slippery. Arriving at the town itself, our only indication that something was wrong was there was nopony out and about in the streets, but that wasn’t a huge surprise considering the weather.

Then again Brine, like Glean, was a farming town, and we couldn’t see anypony out in the fields surrounding the town either, I found it hard to believe work stopped just because of a little bad weather. Brine was almost identical to Breakwater with regards to architecture, the same timber framed houses with wattle and daub walls, packed tightly together. The same soaking wet, muddy roads that were an absolute pain for walking on. The only major difference between the two towns was that instead of a dock, Brine had a large church with a tall spire perched on a hill at the far side. The further into the town we got, the more things wrong we began to notice and the more worried we collectively became.

There were odd things like barrels and crates stacked up outside houses, as well as the odd wooden cart and even a stone well, but there were also front doors left slightly open, window shutters banging nosily in the wind, and an unusual number of crows perched on the roofs. The two agents stared in horror around us, clearly being quite new to unusual happenings, but for us this was practically routine.

“Doesn’t look like the Children of the Earth at least,” I commented, trying to find a silver lining in all this. “So for the moment let’s assume the monster rumour is true, the locals must be taking shelter somewhere, your other agents might be with them.”

“The church would be my first guess,” Fluttershy proposed, pointing up at the large structure overlooking the town.

“That sounds promising,” I agreed, looking to the two agents who were still in shock. “Why don’t you head there, see if you can find the villagers and your partners. We’ll look around the town first and see if we can’t figure out what we’re up against.”

The mare nodded, and both her and the stallion walked down the street in the direction of the church until they were out of sight. That left Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and I to search the ghost town for something that might give credence to the rumours Pinkie had heard. We travelled together, Fluttershy pointing out that it would be unwise to split up any further without knowing what we were dealing with. My own mind jumped back to the Wight and I was more than happy to agree with her.

We started our search in the streets, looking around corners, down alleyways and behind crates. We found absolutely nothing that seemed out of the ordinary, no destruction that would have pointed at this being the work any sort of monster; it really did just look like all the villagers had disappeared in a split second.

“Rarity! Fluttershy!” Pinkie shouted out, grabbing both our attentions. “Check this out.”

We walked over to where Pinkie was standing, but as we got close she held up her hoof to signal for us to stop. I looked around for whatever Pinkie might have found, but again everything looked perfectly normal.

“What is it?” Fluttershy asked, apparently not seeing it either.

“The hoof prints,” Pinkie replied, pointing at the ground.

I looked down at the ground, there were indeed lots of hoof prints in the wet mud, I figured they had been made by us while we were searching around.

“Yes, there’re hoof prints,” I acknowledged. “What about them?”

“They aren’t ours,” Pinkie stated with some assurance. “At least, not all of them. There’re plenty of hoof prints in places where none of us walked, and they look like they were made relatively recently, probably not long before we arrived.”

“So there were ponies out and about before we arrived,” Fluttershy summarised. “Maybe they went into the houses after all.”

“I guess we should check them now,” I agreed.

We picked a house at random, one where the front door was ajar, and knocked, waiting a few moments before deciding to enter. There was an awful stench as I stepped into the house, and it quickly became apparent that it was coming from the dinner table. Like the streets, the inside of the house gave the distinct impression of ponies living a perfectly normal life, before one day they simply ceased to be there. There were plates on the table with half eaten food that was now swarming with flies, I didn’t get too close, but I could tell that the food was several days old at least. The kitchen looked as if somepony had stopped in the middle of cooking, pots and pans still resting on the stove, greasy after having been used.

We searched the house high and low, but found nopony there. Once we all agreed it was a bust, we returned to the street and moved onto the next house along. I stepped on in, followed by Fluttershy, but at the time neither of us had noticed Pinkie freeze on the doorstep, distracted by something she had seen. I walked through the hall into the front room where a fire had long since burned out, which didn’t seem to bother the pony who was standing in front of the fire, gently swaying from side to side as he stared down at the ashes.

“Oh!” I exclaimed, slightly startled at finally seeing another pony in the town. “Sorry to barge in like this sir, but your front door was just lying open.”

The pony groaned slightly, his head tilting as I spoke.

“Tell me sir, did something happen here?” I asked as I approached the stallion. “You’re the only pony we’ve found so far and everything… well, it’s a mess frankly.”

The pony began to turn to face me, still making that low groaning noise. His movements were very stiff, and his overalls were tattered and covered in some dark substance that had dried a while ago. It was his face that really disturbed me, his eyes were pale, his jaw hung slack, and he looked incredibly gaunt and patchy in his fur.

“Sir, you look awfully sick!” I pointed out, my eyes widening at his condition. “Why don’t you sit down and let my friend take a look at…”

It was at that moment he stopped groaning and let out a strained, screeching noise as he threw himself forward at me, reaching out for me with his forelegs, his head swinging forward and his jaw snapping for my neck. I leapt back, giving a small squeal of surprise and disgust, Fluttershy too gave a small scream. The stallion fell forwards and landed loudly on the floor where he writhed pathetically, trying to pick himself back up. Instinctively I drew my sword and pointed the tip at him, hoping I wouldn’t have to use it, this pony clearly needed a doctor, not a killer.

“Sir, I’m warning you!” I tried to say, although my voice shook slightly. “We can try to help you, but we need you to calm down.”

He didn’t give my weapon any heed as he clambered back to his hooves, staring up at me before charging a second time. Biting my lip, I side stepped the stallion and swept my sword width wise across his whole body, watching it slice through his overalls and flesh… but he just stood there as if he hadn’t even felt it. He turned slowly to where I had moved to, still fully intent on catching me and doing… whatever he was so intent on doing. I didn’t know what was wrong with him, it was obvious he was very ill with something, perhaps something magical, all I knew for sure was that he was a threat and I was holding a sword.

Instinctively I stood my ground a swung my sword in a wide arc, the same way I had seen Applejack do a number of times, as the pony rushed me for a third time. My sword sliced right through his throat, coming very close to decapitating him altogether. The pony’s head swung limply off his neck stump, remaining attached only by the smallest amount of flesh and vertebrae. I lowered my sword as I waited for him to drop, to finally be dead and stop trying to do me harm… but he never did. He stayed standing, the eyes in his dangling head swirling about in their sockets to stare directly at me. Then he put one hoof in front of the other…

XLII - The Restless Dead

I lost all my nerve after that, my sword trembling as I stared in horror at the nearly headless pony slowly marching over to me. My mind screamed at me to run, but I stayed rooted to the spot, too terrified to move or even defend myself. The pony let out another horrendous screech, rearing up slightly to fling itself on my paralysed body, and still I didn’t move to save myself. It was at that moment that Fluttershy swung her mace, striking the pony’s dangling head like a cricket ball. As soon as the metal flanges connected with the skull, it shone bright like the sun, before the head exploded into flames, disintegrating instantly while the now fully headless body crumpled to the floor.

We both stood there, our breathing heavy and laboured as we stared in horror at the now lifeless body of the pony. I tried to open my mouth to say something, but no words came out, only a dry croaking noise. Fluttershy seemed to be suffering from the same problem, it turned out she had taken shelter when the pony first attacked, only deciding to step up after I stopped fighting back and she was left with no other choice. We were both snapped out of our thoughts as the front door slammed shut, our heads snapped up in panic, only to see Pinkie Pie pressed up against it, breathing just as heavily as we were with a mad grin plastered over her face.

“I… found the towns ponies,” she panted, giving a nervous giggle. “Kind of wish they didn’t find me though.”

It was only then she saw the looks on our faces and the body on the ground.

“Oh, so you’re up to speed then,” she said in an oddly calm voice despite the situation.

Breaking out of my stupor, I hurried to the window facing out into the street. Peeling back the curtain, I felt my heart stop dead in my chest as I saw what was waiting for us outside. The street was packed, there were dozens of ponies there where once there wasn’t a single one, it was as if they had all just climbed out of the ground. What really disturbed me was that they all resembled the pony who had just attacked us, they all had the same dead eyes and stiff movements. What was worse however, was that many of these ponies had a variety of injuries that just added to the gruesome image.

Some ponies had strips of flesh peeling off and hanging from their body, exposed muscle and sinew beneath. I saw one pony stumbling about despite one of his legs being violently broke, the shattered bone piercing right out, and yet he went on walking despite the incredible amount of pain it should have been causing him. One mare walked right past the window I was staring out of, giving me a small fright on account of her having only one eye, the empty socket writhing with maggots. All the ponies in the street were horribly mutilated, more than that; it looked like they were rotting.

I backed away from the window to look at the other two, but before I could get any words out, our ears flicked towards the front door Pinkie was still putting her weight behind. We could hear the banging of hooves and the scraping noise of them being dragged down the door, mixed with the low groaning noises that seemed to be the only sound the ponies were capable of making. My eyes darted about in a panic, coming to rest on a tall wooden cabinet. Using my magic I managed to shift it awkwardly through the front room and out into the hallway, Pinkie jumping out of the way as I dragged into her place against the door.

“That should hold them,” I whispered as we all huddled together in the front room. “We need to get out of here.”

“You think?!” Pinkie exclaimed before Fluttershy and I clamped her mouth shut with our hooves.

We listened carefully, the groaning outside quickly turned more desperate as the banging on the door increased.

“Woops,” Pinkie whispered guiltily. “Sorry, I’ll keep quiet now.”

“There might be a back door,” Fluttershy added.

We both nodded in response and Pinkie took the lead, creeping through the house into the kitchen where there was indeed a back door that lead out to a cramped backyard. Pinkie walked up the wooden fence that surrounded the tiny yard, and bounced up to look out over into the back street.

“There’s a few more,” Pinkie reported. “But we’ll have a much easier time escaping that way than the way we came in.”

“Where exactly are we escaping to?” Fluttershy asked in a frightened voice. “Those two agents went off to the church, they could be in trouble.”

“We can’t just leave them,” I agreed. “And there might still be survivors somewhere.”

“Sometimes…” Pinkie said with a small sigh. “Being the hero sucks.”

Pinkie boosted me over the fence first, where I dropped down as quietly as possible, hoping not to draw the attention of the few ponies dotted up and down the street who had yet to take notice of us. Fluttershy flew over next, although she wobbled about dangerously, no doubt terrified. Pinkie then bounced up over the fence herself, getting some decent air time before falling to the ground very slowly and then not making a sound as she touched down. Both Fluttershy and I were too distressed by our current situation to question Pinkie’s odd behaviour, so we didn’t hesitate to follow her down the street in the direction of the church.

As we got near to the first pony, we crouched down behind a stack of barrel, Pinkie peeking out over at it.

“It hasn’t seen us yet,” she whispered. “If we’re quick and quiet we can take it out without alerting the others.”

“It won’t work,” Fluttershy told her. “Rarity tried to kill the one in the house, but it just kept coming.”

“Only Fluttershy’s mace can hurt it,” I added.

“Alright then,” Pinkie said, reaching out and swiping the mace from Fluttershy’s grip. “How do you turn this thing on?”

Pinkie Pie shook the mace in the hopes of getting it to light up.

“It won’t work for you,” Fluttershy insisted, cringing as she watched Pinkie’s behaviour. “Only members of the Celestial Sisterhood have received the necessary blessings to use our tools.”

“Then it’s going to have to be you Fluttershy,” I informed her as I pulled the mace from Pinkie and floated it back to her.

“Me?!” Fluttershy squealed before clamping her mouth shut and glancing about in a panic.

“Pinkie Pie and I can distract them,” I continued once we knew we were still safe. “But you have to be the one to deliver the final blow.”

Fluttershy nodded, visibly swallowing as she mentally prepared herself. Pinkie and I exchanged a quick word before darting out from behind our cover and quickly closing the distance between us and the pony. It began to turn around at the last second, but its movements were too slow. Pinkie and I slashed at its legs from either side causing it to collapse momentarily, while it was down, we threw our weight down on it so it couldn’t get back up. Fluttershy had watched the whole thing, and when she saw that the hissing pony was restrained, she hurried forward and stood before it.

“Should… should I say some final words?” she asked us in an unsure voice.

“Please don’t, this thing is quite wriggly,” I grunted under the effort of keeping the pony down.

“Oh, okay,” Fluttershy murmured, taking a deep breath before raising her mace.

She brought it down, crushing the pony’s skull as its jaw snapped wildly, trying to twist its neck back far enough to reach us. The effect was identical to the one in the house, a flash of bright light and a burning crater left in the side of the pony’s head. Pinkie and I got off, glancing about to make sure our impromptu light show had gone unnoticed before looking back down at the pony.

“What do you think it is?” I asked. “Some kind of undead?”

“I have never heard of any undead like this before,” Fluttershy whispered in a disbelieving tone.

“But your mace hurts it,” I pointed out as we started walking away from the body and continuing towards the church. “Just like the Wight, and you can’t tell me those ponies are still alive.”

“It works on undead and monsters,” Pinkie Pie reminded me. “This must be what the stallion had meant, and it also explains why he was so shaken up by what he’d seen.”

“It also explains why nopony comes back from Brine,” Fluttershy added with a small gulp as we took shelter once again to avoid a roaming pony.

“Well whatever they are,” I began. “We can take them out easy enough if they’re on their own, but we can’t risk going up against groups, not when only one of us has a holy weapon.”

My companions nodded and carried on, constantly on the lookout for stray ponies. Brine proved to be much more complicated to navigate when we were constantly switching direction and jumping down side streets to avoid clumps of the walking dead. We occasionally stopped to take out the odd one, but for the most part there were too many nearby that we couldn’t risk attacking one in case we were spotted by the rest. After a while we came to halt, there was nothing to hide behind, but then the only pony in the narrow street was facing the opposite direction.

I looked over at Pinkie Pie and she nodded, without hesitating we moved forward like we had done several times already and tackled the pony. This time however, the pony stumbled forward and we went forward with it, ending up standing directly in view of an alleyway. It was the chorus of cries that made us look up to see seven or eight dead ponies clumped together at the bottom of the alleyway, now all making their way towards us. Swearing, we both leapt off the pony we tackled and charged back to where Fluttershy was waiting, she looked confused for a second before the small horde scrambled out of the alleyway into the street, then she just looked horrified.

We ran straight for the first door we could see that wasn’t closed, charging in without stopping to see if it was safe. What we got for our recklessness was three ponies gathered in the restaurant, all turning to face us even as our exit was blocked by the incoming ponies that we alerted outside. There was a brief moment of panic as our eyes darted back and forth between the ponies inside the building, and those we could hear in the street, we then looked at one another before giving a quick nod and diving straight to work.

I turned and slammed the front doors shut with my magic, using all my might to drag the front counter over to barricade it as the ponies outside began to get close, pre-emptively raising forelegs to bash the doors open. While I focused on that, Pinkie sped up to the nearest pony, whipping out her daggers as she went. She then began stabbing it repeatedly in the chest, even though her attacks were useless against them; they still kept it cushioned away from her. Fluttershy tried to swoop over to aid her, but another pony cut her off and she was forced to fend against it instead.

Every blow Fluttershy delivered to its body and flailing forelegs left great shimmering gashes, which caused the creature to shriek in agony before Fluttershy silenced it with a swing to the jaw. While Fluttershy moved on to help with the second, I started trying to block off the windows, there were two of them and they were both large enough that any number of the ponies could climb in it they smashed through, which they were trying their very best to do so. I used my magic to lift two separate tables up and press one against each window.

This proved to be more difficult than I imagined, especially once I heard the ponies break through the glass and begin throwing their weight against the table. Since the only thing keeping them pressed up against the windows was my magic, it was taking all my energy just to hold them in place. I glanced back to see that Fluttershy had finished off Pinkie’s target and they had moved on to take out the third. Once I was sure they could manage it, I used my dwindling energy to pull the tables back from the windows, turn them sideways and hurled them out the broken windows into the groups of ponies that had been fighting to get in.

Without waiting to see if any of them were struck down or were already clambering in, I turned and rushed towards the kitchen door, the other two following when they took care of the last pony. Once inside, Pinkie dragged one of the chest freezers across the door and we carried on to the back door. Once outside however, we didn’t find ourselves in a low fenced back yard like the last building we had run out the back door of. Instead we found ourselves in a high walled courtyard, the only exit from which was a wooden staircase that led to the upper floor of the neighbouring building.

Once we were inside the next building, which turned out to be a house over a shop of some kind, and we were sure that there weren’t any surprises waiting within, we stopped to catch our breath. I could just about hear the ponies tearing through the restaurant, trying to find us; it seemed all the noise we made attracted even more from the nearby buildings to spill out into the street. I walked over to where Fluttershy stood, looking out the back window of the bedroom into what looked like a small park.

I saw a murder of crows pecking through some long rotten bits that must have fallen off one of the walking corpses. One of the ponies was slowly stumbling over towards them, slipping slightly on the wet grass. The crows watched him with clear disinterest, continuing to scavenge through the remains for something edible. When the pony got close enough that he threw himself forward to catch one of them, they all simply flew away, leaving the pony to land with a face full of old meat, it might have been funny if it wasn’t so grim.

“Why don’t you just fly away?” I asked Fluttershy as I watched the crows land on a nearby roof and look down at the pony.

“And leave you two here?!” Fluttershy exclaimed with indignation. “No, we all get out of this town or none of us do! Unless… one of you two has a chance of getting out without me, in which case you should take it, I won’t mind.”

“Don’t be silly Fluttershy,” I chastised her. “We wouldn’t dream of leaving you either, right Pinkie Pie?”

I looked over only to find the room empty, curious, I walked to the staircase and peered down, making out Pinkie in the gloom of the hallway. She was crouching at the front door, her eyes looking through the letter box at the street outside.

“They aren’t clearing away,” Pinkie murmured as I approached her.

“Have you considered just… making a run for it?” I asked uncomfortably. “They don’t seem to be too fast, and we need to find those agents. The sooner we do, the sooner we can get out of this place.”

“I had actually been considering that,” Pinkie replied, sounding amused. “I just thought you wouldn’t go for it.”

“Well if you’d suggested it at the start of all this I probably wouldn’t have,” I admitted. “But it’s getting late and I really think we’re running out of options.”

“Well then get Fluttershy down here,” Pinkie instructed. “We might be about to get an opening, or at least, the best one we’re gonna get.”

Once we were gathered at the front door, there being no other exit to this house, Pinkie placed her hoof on the handle and started counting down from three. We all braced ourselves so when she said ‘one’ and flung the door open, we charged out one at a time, me taking up the rear. Once we rushed into the street, the ponies that had gathered all looked our way, most likely alerted by the sound of our hooves splashing in the muddy road and puddles. Without wanting to give them a head start, we turned and dashed towards the church, which by now was nothing more than a dark silhouette against the overcast sky that was getting darker with every passing minute.

We ran for a good several minutes, no longer caring whether we got spotted or heard. We stuck to the most direct route, only switching when the number of ponies in the street became too large for us to risk running through. Finally we came to the base of the hill where the church squatted upon, but we weren’t the only ones to arrive this far. We skidded to halt when we saw the courtyard at the base of the hill was infested with the dead ponies, but they weren’t interested in us, rather, in the familiar mare who was hammering against the portcullis gate that separated her from the steps leading up the hill to the church.

It was the female agent, she was alone and she was screaming and begging for somepony to hear her and let her in, even as the horde swarmed in around her. There was nothing we could have done besides take shelter behind a toppled cart, there were too many of them to fight, and they were already upon her before we could finish assessing the situation. Her strangled screams were cut off fairly quickly, and then soon after the mob dissipated, returning to their passive state of simply stumbling around the courtyard with blank expressions on their gaunt faces.

I could see her bloody body lying by the portcullis, she was quite clearly dead, her eyes wide and glassy, her throated ripped out, blood still pouring from the open wound into the wet mud where she lay. I looked around the courtyard at the ponies who ambled about, it didn’t matter where we planned to go next, we would have to get past them. Pinkie and I scanned over them, Fluttershy however refused to look out again, too horrified at what had happened to the agent. As my eyes swept over the ponies, they darted back to one in particular, an earth pony stallion wearing green robes with stone like armour on the outside.

I tapped Pinkie’s shoulder and pointed him out to her.

“So I guess the Children were here too,” Pinkie said before giggling slightly. “Serves them right.”

“I don’t know…” I muttered in a low voice as I watched the corpses walking around. “I don’t think anypony deserves this.”

I continued to look until another one of the dead ponies caught my gaze, a stallion who look rather familiar to me, just like the mare… As I realised it was the other agent we had travelled with, my eyes quickly navigated to where the mare’s body had been. It had bothered me when the ponies killed her and then simply walked away. After seeing the display in the park with the crows, I had thought maybe they wanted to eat other living creatures, but then they killed that agent and simply left her there. When I looked to the portcullis and saw that the mare’s body was no longer lying there, I knew they weren’t hunting us to eat us… they wanted us to join their ranks.

It was Fluttershy’s scream that snapped me out of my thoughts, both Pinkie and I spun around to see the very mare I was looking for baring down on Fluttershy. The mare threw herself at the pegasus, who hadn’t been able to react fast enough, her mace falling out of her hooves which she threw up to hold the dead agent off of her, even as her jaws snapped repeatedly and her still fresh wound oozed blood over Fluttershy’s clothes. I rushed forward, snatching up Fluttershy’s mace and swinging it into the mare’s head; of course in my grip it did nothing other than throw her back, but that was all I needed it to do.

Once Fluttershy was free, I dragged her back through the muck and away from the mare who was already recovering. Once I forced her to her hooves, I thrust the mace back into her grip before shouting for her to follow. Pinkie performed a rather smooth roundhouse kick to the mare, knocking her back a second time and giving Fluttershy enough time to calm down and follow me as I charged through the courtyard to the portcullis.

“Fluttershy, fly over and get this thing open!” I ordered her in a voice that was not to be questioned.

Still shaken, Fluttershy took to the air and disappeared over the stone wall that separated the village from the church. I turned to join Pinkie Pie who was standing ready to fight off the oncoming wave of corpses that were slowly encroaching upon us. I was more thankful than ever that they were so slow, as one started to get close on the left, I slashed out with my sword to stagger it before throwing an old wagon wheel at it with my magic to push it down.

As a pair of ponies neared from the right, Pinkie darted about, blinking in and out of sight as she kicked one into the other then vice versa before fly kicking them both back into the mud where they lay tangled up in each other’s limbs. We did this for a couple minutes until the green robed pony reached us, Pinkie slashed out at him with one of her daggers, but just like I discovered back at Pivot, her blade glanced right off his armour without leaving a scratch. Falling back to her more physical methods, Pinkie punched him in the face, his head snapping back briefly but his body remaining stalwart.

As his head fell back, his green hood descended to reveal that his whole face had been torn apart. Both eyes were reduced to mulch, his teeth constantly bared as his lips were ripped clean off, his powerful armour clearly didn’t do much to protect that part of his body it seemed. He launched himself forward, Pinkie tried to dive out of the way but slipped in the mud and ended up on her back as the huge body of the stallion came crashing down on top of her. Pinkie peeked out from behind the forelegs she had thrown up to shield herself, and saw that the stallion’s body armour was glowing with a blue aura.

I had managed to grab hold of it at the last second, but I was struggling to keep my hold as the weight off the stallion was far too much for me to handle. I tried to brace myself, but my hooves kept slipping and sliding in the mud just as Pinkie’s had. Finally we heard the sound of clanging metal and saw the portcullis slowly rising up, Pinkie scrabbled away from beneath the stallion and sprinted for the portcullis, dropping and rolling under the small gap. Once she was clear, I finally let go of the stallion before taking off after her, I mimicked her movements, dropping to the ground as I neared the iron gateway and rolled under it, for once really not giving a damn that my mane was covered in mud and my clothes were filthier than they ever had been.

Once we were both under safely, the portcullis slammed shut again as Fluttershy released the crack. As I got up and started to brush myself down, an effort in futility, I opened my mouth to ask Fluttershy what had taken so long, but stopped when I saw five ponies lying dead around her and the crank, all with burning holes in their skulls. Looking back I saw the ponies trying to claw at us through the portcullis, but there was no way they were getting through that, for the time being we were safe.

“There were more ponies here,” Fluttershy stated in a miserable tone. “There probably weren’t any survivors here to begin with.”

Pinkie pulled Fluttershy into a comforting hug… a very wet, very dirty comforting hug.

“It would seem not,” I admitted in a tired voice. “But we still need to find another way out, there’s no way we’re getting out that way.”

Fluttershy and Pinkie both glanced at the portcullis and the many ponies gathered just beyond it and nodded in agreement. Night was truly starting to set in as we ascended the stone steps, and yet the rain refused to reduce even in the slightest. We had to take it slow going up the stone steps, the last thing any of us needed was to slip and break our neck while falling back to the bottom, to survive hordes of violent undead only to die that way would just be embarrassing. At the top of the stairs, we passed under a tall archway that led us into a small cloister, the doors to the church directly ahead of us.

I made a beeline for the doors while the other two looked around to make sure we were really alone outside the church. As I neared the door, I noticed there was an odd stone disc planted in the centre of the double door. It had twelve little indents running around the perimeter of it, nine of which already had small oval shaped gems of deep, blood red implanted in them. There was also a horizontal groove cutting through the middle of the disc, my first instinct was to rotate the disc so the groove was in line with the point where the two doors met in the middle, but the disc refused to budge.

“It looks like some kind of puzzle locking mechanism!” Pinkie said, appearing over my shoulder and bouncing with excitement. “We must need to find the three missing gems to turn the disc and open the door.”

“First of all, that’s not a puzzle,” I retorted sullenly. “It’s more or a… a fetch quest.”

“Well it looks like there are courtyard areas to either side of this cloister,” Pinkie explained, indicating the two exits. “One of them leads to what looks like a mausoleum. I bet if we go exploring, we can find those missing gems and gain access to the church!”

“What? No… Just no!” I stated in disbelief that Pinkie was even considering that. “We have just fought our way here through hordes of walking corpses; we are not wasting time to perform some trivial task to open this door. On that note, who actually designed this lock and thought to themselves ‘yup, that won’t ever get tedious. Having to gather twelve gems anytime we want to open the front door won’t ever get boring’? A pony would have to have been completely mad to think this was in any way a good or practical idea.”

“But…” Pinkie began, looking like she wanted to cry. “But… exploration! Fun!”

“Pinkie Pie, after everything we’ve gone through just to get here,” I said, grinding my teeth slightly. “Fun is not very high on my list of priorities.”

“But how will we get in if we don’t find the gems?” Fluttershy asked.

“Simple,” I replied nonchalantly. “I’ll break that window with one of my knives, then we climb in.”

“Oh…” Fluttershy uttered, looking at the window I was indicating. “Yeah, I suppose that would be much simpler and just as effective.”

Pinkie muttered something under her breath, but followed us over to the window without any objections. Once the window was broken, Pinkie boosted me up in first, once I was up over the sill I jumped down, the broken glass crunching beneath my hooves. I collected my knife and sheathed it before clearing the area for Pinkie Pie to land; finally Fluttershy flew her own way in. We were in a small antechamber, a simple stone room with a marble font and box for collecting donations. Pinkie Pie, still a little huffy, went on through the next set of doors that led into the main room of the church, Fluttershy and I followed after shaking the donations box to confirm there was nothing inside.

As we entered the man body of the church, my eyes swept over the surprisingly large building. For a very simple town, Brine certainly took a lot of pride in their worship it seemed. I was still looking overhead when I arrived at Pinkie’s side; I looked down at her and saw that she was standing perfectly still, her eyes wider than I’d ever seen them before. For a brief second I wondered if she was still annoyed about how I cheated my way around the door lock, but then I followed her gaze to see what I hadn’t seen before, and my jaw dropped.

A single pony was in the church, standing in the very centre of the transept, staring up at the large marble statue of Celestia that overlooked the altar, swaying slightly as he did so. I didn’t know who this pony was, and I doubted Pinkie did either, but it wasn’t the pony himself that drew our attention, it was what he was wearing. He was dressed in long, sweeping black robes, embroidered in intricate curls and waves that appeared golden, but shone with all the colours of the rainbow when the light of the candles around the church reflected off them.

“No way…” Pinkie breathed, quietly so as not to let them know we were there.

Fluttershy stared at the pony in confusion, of course we had filled her in on who the robed ponies were, but she had never seen the scrap of material, so she probably hadn’t made the connection yet.

“Maybe we can capture him,” I whispered to Pinkie Pie. “It would answer a lot of our questions if we could get one of them to talk.”

Pinkie nodded, crouching low as she made her way forward. She was absolutely silent, her hooves making zero sound as they touched the stone floor. I simply held back with Flutterhsy and waited, both of us watching with baited breath as Pinkie neared her target, readying ourselves to jump in at a moment’s notice to help. Pinkie froze about a metre behind him, her daggers already drawn, I could see her tensing, preparing to make her move. When she finally acted, she did so in the blink of an eye, sweeping the pony’s legs out from under him before wrapping one foreleg around his neck and bringing the dagger held in the other pointing directly into his line of sight.

Then the pony let out a retching screech, his head twisting back, his jaw snapping at Pinkie Pie. Pinkie let him go almost instantly, leaping back and landing graceful between us and the robed pony who began stumbling to his hooves.

“Oh for the love of…” Pinkie began, throwing her hooves up in resignation. “He’s already dead!”

The robed pony stood up and began making his way down the aisle towards Pinkie Pie, his cold, dead gaze firmly locked on her.

“Sorry Pinkie,” I told her, although I too was annoyed. “We might as well just finish him off now.”

“Yeah,” Pinkie agreed in a forlorn voice as the pony got near and she plunged her daggers into his eyes.

He didn’t stop screeching or trying to move forward, but Pinkie held him in place once she had him skewered. She glanced back over her shoulder and called out to Fluttershy in the most casual way.

“Shy, be a dear would you and finish this guy off for me,” she requested. “Pretty please.”

Fluttershy nodded and walked up the aisle to where Pinkie stood waiting, the robed pony still locked in position. Fluttershy raised her mace high and nodded to Pinkie who pulled her daggers out and leapt clear of Fluttershy swing, good thing too as she took the head clean of with her shining mace and carried right through to where Pinkie had been standing moments before. I watched the whole thing feeling rather disappointed, but I felt a little cathartic pleasure seeing the head come off and I waited patiently for his body to crumple just like the rest.

The body did not collapse, even as the head thumped loudly on the floor, the body remained standing tall. It was as if time had frozen, I frowned at the oddly persistent body while Fluttershy stood to the side of it, her mace still swinging through the empty air, and Pinkie Pie was in the process of standing back up from when she jumped back into a crouching position. That was exactly what I saw before the pony’s neck stump exploded in a shower of blood and bile as something burst out, something long and twisted swiping through the air. Fluttershy was caught right in the body, and the force of the new appendage was enough to launch her into the air and land crashing into the pews. Pinkie took the full force of it to the face, getting her body chucked back down the aisle where she landed at my hooves, her nose streaming with blood.

The writhing appendage stopped swinging around and held itself upwards for me to see clearly. It looked like a thick tentacle sprouting from where the pony’s head used to be, although the tentacle greatly resembled a giant centipede with its dark bronze plating and the dozens of twitching spike like legs running up the length of it. The pony’s body began walking forward as if on autopilot, the creature growing out of its neck continuing to swing about in every direction as if it were trying to swat a fly.

Once I had gotten over the initial shock of seeing the creature, I leant down, grabbed hold of the dazed Pinkie Pie and dragged her away before the creature got too close. The pony was walking very slowly, its movements were no longer stiff like they were a few minutes ago when it still had a head, now everything was very smooth and deliberate. I stepped in front of Pinkie, gently prodding her with my hind leg in the hopes she would gather her wits and move on her own. The pony was drawing close to me and I didn’t feel particularly confident that I could do any harm to it without Fluttershy’s mace.

The tentacle like creature swished forward, I had to lean back slightly to avoid being struck by it, but it seemed to know I was there as it swung right back, the top coming face to face with me. It was featureless at that point, just looking like scrunched up flesh, but then it opened up wide to reveal a gaping maw filled with layers upon layers of shimmering, glistening with saliva, teeth. It was as if the creature was shrieking at me as the pony continued walking closer and it was becoming harder and harder to stay safely away from the repeatedly dilating and constricting throat.

As I stared into its giant, ravenous mouth, I was immediately reminded of the monster I saw back in Pivot, it just couldn’t be a coincidence how similar they were. Taking my chances, I slashed my sword upwards, cutting right into the waiting, drooling chasm. As my sword slashed through it, I was showered in a wave jet black blood as the tentacle thing recoiled, giving a high pitched screech as it twisted and writhed far out of my reach. As the pony ceased its relentless march I stared in confusion at it, my weapons had done nothing against the ponies outside, and yet the creature before me definitely sounded like it was in pain.

It appeared that we had been wrong in our assumption that the robed pony was just another one of the shambling corpses; the truth was he was something more… but that something was vulnerable to my weapons. Grinning, I pushed my advantage, storming in and swinging my sword back and forth in a flurry of swipes that repeatedly cut the tentacle in various places along the length of its body. What had looked like hardened, shell like plates, turned out only to be tough muscle, and my sword managed to wound it easily.

The pony was backing up now, the creatures screams even more frantic and pained. Fluttershy appeared in my peripheral vision, she was limping and looking quite badly banged up, but she held her mace firm as she approached the creature from behind. While the pony was still backing up and the creature spouting out it was still shrieking in agony, Fluttershy brought her mace down on the point where the tentacle connected to the neck of the pony. Her magic still proved to be the most effective weapon as the blinding light burned clean through the tentacle, separating it from the pony’s body, which at long last dropped limply to the ground.

The creature itself fell into the aisle where it writhed and flailed, swishing about madly before its movement began to slow. Eventually it stopped moving altogether, and simply lay there curled up, oozing puddles of black blood from its many wounds. Fluttershy limped around it to where I was and Pinkie still sat, now aware enough to clutch her own muzzle to try and stem the blood flow. While Fluttershy busied herself tending to Pinkie Pie, I approached the deceased creature and crouched down to examine it.

There wasn’t much for me to see, certainly nothing that I could deduce from looking it over. There was no doubt in my mind that this creature was a monster, and that it was somehow connected to the one I encountered in Pivot, but this one grew out of the body of the robed pony, the same robed ponies that we were trying to investigate, that meant…

“I was right,” Pinkie said in a muffled voice. “The monsters… those robed ponies… they’re connected somehow.”

“I think you might be right about that,” I agreed as my eyes shifted from the dead monster to the headless body of the robed pony.

While I moved onto the pony and began searching his robes, hoping for something in his pockets that might indicate who they were or what they were doing, Fluttershy spoke up from where she was tending to Pinkie.

“Do you think those robed ponies had something to do with what happened here?” she asked.

“Maybe,” I admitted. “You did say those ponies outside weren’t like any kind of undead you knew of; maybe they were some kind of monster too.”

“But none of them grew horrible head insects when we put them down,” Pinkie pointed out. “Which I’m glad about, those things look terrifying.”

“Whatever is going on…” I began, giving up on the pony when I found nothing on his person. “And whatever happened here, we can’t stay to find out. We need to get out of here as quickly as possible and get some help; it might take an army to clear this town out.”

Once we were all fit to travel, we searched around the church, quickly finding a side door that led to the other side of the hill, and subsequently a way out of the town. The only problem to this escape plan, was that the town graveyard was on this side of the hill, and you can be damn sure it was packed full of the walking dead.

“Fluttershy, fly away now,” I ordered. “You can’t run in your condition, and we’re going to have to if we want to get through this.”

“But…” Fluttershy began, looking desperately out across the graveyard in the hopes of finding another way.

“Don’t you argue now,” Pinkie interrupted, pulling Fluttershy’s head into her chest where she clung to it tightly. “Rarity and I are going to get out of here just fine, and then we’ll all go to Olympus together.”

“Well… if you’re sure,” Fluttershy said uncertainly.

Pinkie nodded enthusiastically, Fluttershy took a deep breath before flapping her wings hard and taking off. It wasn’t long before she was out of sight what with how dark it was at that point, as soon as she was, Pinkie’s smile vanished.

“Yeah, there’s no way we’re both getting out of here safely,” she said in an uncharacteristically morbid tone.

“Don’t be like that Pinkie,” I chastised. “You can’t lose hope now.”

“I’m not!” she argued, brightening up again. “I said there was no way we were both getting out, but both of us won’t.”

“Pinkie...” I said slowly, starting to get very worried where this was going. “What are you talking about?”

“It’s simple,” she replied. “I’ll get their attention and get them to chase me; while they are, you can escape safely.”

“Pinkie that is insane,” I retorted. “You are not staying behind just so I can escape.”

“But I am, I always intended to stay here,” Pinkie explained, at which point I had to shake my head to make sure I heard her correctly. “This is the first time we’ve seen one of those robed ponies since they tried to kill me, and it’s the first monster sighting we’ve been able to confirm, I need to stay here and figure out what happened before they can clean up any evidence like they did in the Tranquil Forest, back when we first met.”

“B… but all these ponies!” I stammered, waving my foreleg theatrically over the graveyard. “You could get hurt or… or…”

“Rarity, listen to me,” Pinkie cut in, looking me dead serious in the face. “Don’t be offended by this, but you and Fluttershy slow me down.”

“Excuse me?!” I demanded, suddenly very offended despite what she said.

“Literally!” Pinkie clarified. “I am a fast pony; you’ve seen me in action. I could run circles around these guys all week and they’d never catch a hair on my head, but I slowed myself down rather than leave you girls behind. If you go now, I’ll be able to work at my own pace, and I assure you I will not get hurt.”

“I really want to believe that…” I muttered in a dreary voice.

“Just believe in me!” Pinkie Pie insisted, grabbing my hooves and clasping them in her own. “Believe that I can keep my word, when I say we’ll see each other again someday.”

I hesitated for a long time, letting her words mull over and over in my head before finally I gave a little sigh, followed by a single nod. Pinkie pulled me into on final hug before charging off down the hill, shouting at the top of her lungs.

“Alright all you hungry ponies!” she yelled, all the ponies turning slowly to look at her. “I’m right here and I am delicious, trust me, I know. So if you want a piece of me, you gotta come catch me!”

Her baiting definitely did the trick, the ponies couldn’t resist the lure of a the brightly dressed pink pony, even if she was mostly obscured by mud, bouncing up and down and shouting at the top of her lungs. Once she had gathered quite a large following, she began to bounce away from where I still stood at the top of the hill, bursting into a loud musical number to keep them interested in her. I couldn’t help but smile despite how worried I was, still, I wasn’t about to let the opening she gave me go to waste.

Once both Pinkie and the horde chasing her were out of sight, I began my descent down the side of the hill, making for the iron gate that hung open at the end of the graveyard and the bottom of the hill. At the last few feet I came skidding to a stop, glancing behind me to make sure I hadn’t picked up any stragglers before stepping confidently through the gate… only to have a pony leap at me from the front. I let out a small scream as I sidestepped and allowed it to fall face first into the gate behind me.

Now that I was outside the graveyard, I could see that several ponies had drifted outside it and were now stumbling around the farmland outside the town. Still, it was considerably better than the horde that been in the graveyard before Pinkie intervened, so setting my sights dead ahead, I broke into a gallop. The ponies tried to stop me, some tried to follow me, but I was too fast for them now, and while the tall wheat proved slightly obtrusive for charging through, I was considerably less likely to slip.

I broke out the opposite end of the wheat field, finding myself back into the grassy hills of the Lesser Pastures. I didn’t slow down as there were a few more ponies this far out, however I probably should have as the change in terrain did not suit the speed I was going at and I very quickly founding myself slipping on the soaked grass. I toppled forward, landing painfully on my face before tumbling over my limbs which ended up hurting quite a lot as well. I tried to move but found my body wouldn’t obey, the shock of the fall and subsequent impact with the ground made it very difficult to elicit a response.

I could hear the groans of the ponies behind me, they were getting ever closer with every passing second and still I couldn’t bring myself to move. I wanted to scream and cry all at the same time, to have come so far and done so much just to die because I slipped on wet grass, it was the same fear I had about falling down the church steps, only this one was really happening. I clenched my eyes shut, willing my body to obey me while simultaneously preparing myself for the horrible death that was swiftly approaching.

Except that death never did come, no matter how long I lay there, the groans remained as far away as they always sounded. Curious, I twisted my head back, about the only movement I could manage, and saw the three ponies standing there, watching me intently but never taking the necessary couple of steps to reach me. It was as if something was stopping them, like an invisible wall of some kind. It wasn’t until what felt like much later when I finally found the strength to move again that I was able to light up my horn and examine the area around me.

What I discovered was a dark line scorched through the grass, into the earth itself. I followed it for a bit and found that it began to curve, I wondered if maybe it surrounded the entire town of Brine and the farmlands around it. Whatever it was, the dead ponies were incapable of crossing it, so when Fluttershy finally found me, she found me sticking my tongue out at the trio of ponies and making some rather immature faces at them to rub my successful get away in their peeling, rotting, deathly visages… I decided to leave out the part about me tripping when I filled her in on what she had missed.

Author's Note

If you're wondering what Pinkie muttered after Rarity decided to break the window instead of doing the fetch quest, it was: "Somewhere there's a game developer crying"
When writing this chapter I had recently done a playthrough of Resident Evil 4, hence there was a lot of inspiration taken from that.

XLIII - A Colourful Character

I was certainly coming to regret that I hadn’t invested in a new matchbox, Fluttershy and I sat in a tense silence as we shivered up against one another. The long bout of rain seemed to have come to an end while we travelled during the day, but only as the sun was already beginning to set, so we never got an opportunity to dry off. We had walked all day, barely talking as we did; it was obvious Fluttershy was still annoyed about Pinkie Pie’s white lie. There wasn’t much I could say to comfort her either, I may have trusted that Pinkie knew what she was doing, but I wasn’t exactly happy about it. We travelled north, reaching the junction that would take us to Cragsburg if we turned left, and Olympus if we turned right.

Naturally I had zero intention of going to Cragsburg until the Children of the Earth threat had been dealt with, or at the very least, I was doing something to that end. We reached the base of the Wyvern Heights and began the journey up the mountain trail that led directly to the city, but we didn’t make it far before the cold of the night made it too difficult keep putting one hoof in front of the other. We stripped out of our wet things and draped them over some dryish rocks while I worked my magic on them in an attempt to restore them to how they looked before we reached Brine. Once they were as clean as I could get them, it was rather hard to focus my magic when I was so cold, I left them be and went to huddle up next to Fluttershy.

“Are you alright?” I asked Fluttershy who was staring into space.

“I’m fine,” Fluttershy replied, glancing back down the mountain trail in the direction we had come from. “I’m just wondering if Pinkie Pie still is.”

“You really don’t give her enough credit,” I told her, hoping to lighten the mood. “Maybe Starlight Glimmer rubbed off on you a bit.”

“She did not!” Fluttershy snapped before noticing that I was smirking and trying to hold in my laughter.

She folded in her wings which had sprung out in anger and turned away to hide her embarrassed blush, although I did see the hint of a smile.

“Besides, there was nothing I could have done to convince her otherwise,” I carried on. “Once she has her mind set on something… remind me never to get on her bad side or she’ll hunt me to the ends of the earth.”

“Why is she so determined to find those robed ponies?” Fluttershy asked, directing her gaze to the night sky. “I know they tried to kill her, but lots of things have tried to kill us by now.”

“I think… she’s trying to make amends for straying from her beliefs,” I figured aloud. “She’s told me a few times that staying true to what you believe in is important to her, but when they hired her to kill Arcana… she slipped up.”

“I don’t think I could ever have that same level of conviction,” Fluttershy murmured. “There are so many rules we have to abide by in the Celestial Sisterhood, and I do try my best to follow them, but… the fact that I’m even here outside the Bask is proof enough that I don’t take them as seriously as I maybe should.”

“I think it’s different when they’re the beliefs you’ve built up yourself,” I began. “Than beliefs somepony else has forced upon you, I mean… you’ve been part of the Sisterhood your whole life, it wasn’t something you chose.”

“I… I suppose not,” Fluttershy admitted, quietly contemplating the idea. “I’ve been meaning to ask for a while, you did hear when I told the High Priestess that I had been left at the Bask as a foal, didn’t you?”

“I… did,” I replied, feeling a little guilty that I had eavesdropped on something so personal and acted like it had never happened for so long. “It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it; I know it’s a very personal subject.”

“No, it’s fine,” Fluttershy assured me in a neutral tone. “I never knew how to feel about it anyway, I always thought I should feel sad about being abandoned… but for some reason I never did, I just never could bring myself to feel anything towards the ponies I’d never even known. I couldn’t resent them when I didn’t know the circumstances behind leaving me there, but nor could I miss them when there was literally nothing to miss.”

“Did you ever try to find them?” I asked curiously. “Like, did you ever ask the sisters who took you in if they knew anything?”

“I did, but none of them knew a thing,” Fluttershy explained. “I was just found on the bridge one night, it was too dark for them to have seen who left me, they wouldn’t even have known I was there if I wasn’t crying. Even if I wanted to, I know there’s no way I could ever find them.”

“You mean to say, you don’t want to find them?” I asked tentatively.

“No,” Fluttershy replied in a calm and sure voice. “It might have interesting to know where I came from, to know what sort of life I could have had, perhaps even learn why I can communicate with animals… but none of that mattered enough to me, the Sisterhood became my family, I didn’t need anypony else.”

“I feel kind of bad for taking you away from them now,” I said with a nervous little laugh.

“Don’t be, it was my choice, remember?” Fluttershy stated. “My reasons for leaving haven’t changed, if anything they’ve been cemented from everything we’ve done together since I left.”

“Well I wouldn’t have made it nearly as far without you,” I admitted, giving her a friendly nuzzle. “So thank you for coming with me.”

“You’re welcome,” Fluttershy responded, returning the gesture.

After that we tried to get some sleep, we would need our energy to reach the top of the mountain trail and arrive at Olympus. When the morning came and we continued our trip up the mountain, we were constantly on the lookout out for whatever inconvenient distraction was about to occur, they were becoming quite predictable by that point. To its credit, it did wait until we were close enough to see Olympus before making its move, just long enough for us to think we were going to go unmolested for an entire day.

Olympus was a magnificent city, one I had never been to personally, but I had seen plenty of pictures and art of it. The city was split into two sections; the lower section was free to access by all, on account of it being made from solid materials. The buildings were mainly constructed from marble, lots of pillars, arches and aqueducts, that last aspect being necessary when the second half of the city was constructed almost exclusively from clouds. The entire city had a very opulent feel, with wide open plazas and giant statues that emanated wealth and power. It used to be that only the most upper-class ponies lived and worked in Olympus, the bankers, the jewellery makers, the armchair generals… emphasis on the term ‘used to be’, I had a funny feeling the Dragoons had changed things up a bit.

Fluttershy and I were just standing there, craning our necks to take in the whole sight of the city as it towered up into the clouds, when they made their appearance. They dived down all around us, six pegasus ponies all dressed in armour very reminiscent of the Rebel soldiers, only their armour was made of silver rather than steel, and they wore deep crimson tunics beneath, the sleeves of which fluttered loosely in the wind. All six ponies had weapons drawn, and all of them were pointed directly at us.

Without a moment's thought, I reached down and drew my own sword, I had no plan of getting into a fight with them, but I wasn’t about to let them think I was weak. I barely had my sword out of its sheath when a multi-coloured blur sped right past me, whipping the sword from my grip. I barely had a second to comprehend what just happened when it sped by a second time from the opposite side and knocked me squarely in the jaw, sending my sprawling to the rocky ground. Fluttershy screamed in horror, rushing to my aid only to stop when the thing zoomed back a third time and stopped over my body.

I looked up, my vision was extremely blotchy, but I was able to make out another armoured pegasus leaning down to examine me. This one had a cyan coat, an untidy, striped tail which was multi-coloured, and wore a silver trojan helmet with a rainbow plume sticking out the top, her rose coloured eyes narrowed as she looked me up and down. I reached up and began massaging my jaw, my own eyes flicking beyond her to see my sword lying discarded several metres away. The cyan pegasus followed my gaze before looking back to me, smirking before tut tutting.

“I wouldn’t advise it,” she mocked in a raspy tone. “But hay, if you think you’re fast enough…”

She stood up and began backing away from me, giving me space to breathe and pick myself up. The pegasus kept backing away until she was twice the distance from both me and the sword, as the sword was to me.

“Be my guest,” she finished, bowing slightly as she gestured her hoof towards my fallen weapon.

I swallowed hard, she had disarmed me and knocked me flat before I had time to think, she was obviously fast enough to beat me to it. Then I couldn’t refuse the challenge, that would be an admittance of defeat, that she was the stronger one. If I was going to make it anywhere in Olympus under the Dragoon rule, I needed to start asserting myself or I wouldn’t get anywhere. Once I was standing up straight, I began glancing between the pegasus and my sword, all eyes were fixed on me.

I burst forward, sprinting as fast as I could for my sword. Naturally I hadn’t covered half the distance before the rainbow blur came speeding in front of me. As she came skidding to a halt between me and my target, she reached back to her waist and drew what looked like a rather plain metal baton, but as she thrust it forward, the rod extended out from both the back and front to form a long spear, the head of which would have pierced right through my eye if I kept running.

“Now what did you really expe…” the pegasus began in a smug tone.

Only I hadn’t stopped running, while she was busy mocking me I sank down and allowed my moment to slide me right under her spear, carrying me right behind her. As she spun around, bringing her spear in to attack, I telekinetically pulled my rapier into reach and swung it around to meet her. Her spear and my sword clashed, and the two of us were locked in place, staring at each other eye to eye. The pegasus wasn’t smiling anymore, she didn’t look so cocky after that. While we held our position, I could see her eyes scoping me out a second time, assessing me.

“Enough games you two!” a voice called out.

The pegasus glanced over her shoulder before pulling away from me, her spear retracting as she placed it back in her belt. As I stood up straight, I noticed an eighth and final pegasus walking down towards us, this one wore no helmet, but instead had a flowing cape made from the same crimson silk as their tunics.

“You are supposed to be collecting the toll,” the new stallion reminded the team of armoured pegasi. “You over there, what does the yellow one have on her?”

My head snapped around to see that three of the six pegasi who first surrounded us were standing around Fluttershy, but they all had awkward expressions on their faces and weren’t making any move to search her.

“Um… sir,” one of them began uncomfortably. “She’s a… she’s a sister of the Celestial Sisterhood, I don’t really feel right ro… I mean, collecting a toll from her.”

“Don’t be daft girl!” the officer snapped at the mare, who flinch at the volume of his voice. “Everypony knows sisters aren’t allowed to leave the Bask, this one must be have deserted or, even worse, stole those clothes!”

“She is a sister,” I confirmed confidently, mainly addressing the trio of pegasi who were still not making a move on her. “She was given special permission to leave the Bask, and what is this toll for anyway? No other city requires a toll.”

“For the privilege of entering Olympus of course,” the officer retorted. “Now hurry and search those pair.”

The other three moved towards me, but like their comrades, they didn’t look to eager to search me. I wondered if it was because they thought I was associated with Fluttershy and therefore should be treated with the same respect, or maybe they didn’t want to pick a fight with me after seeing how I handled myself. That second possibility was really just wishful thinking on my part; I knew it was probably the former.

“Look, I’ll make this very simple for you,” I began in a weary tone. “I am carrying a sword, three knives and this cloud walker amulet. My friend is carrying a mace, medicine and food. We have a small sum of money between us, which we are not giving you; this toll is obviously just a shakedown.”

“And what about those pouches around your neck?” the officer asked, walking forward.

I still had my sword drawn and I didn’t hesitate in pointing it directly at him.

“If you try to touch them,” I began in a venomous tone, my eyes flashing with fury. “I will kill you.”

“Must be valuable,” the officer said, smirking. “Soldiers, seize the unicorn this instant for threatening me!”

The three pegasi looked conflicted for a moment before deciding to obey and moving in on me. I tried to resist, but they quickly overpowered and disarmed me. While they held me still, the officer marched the last few metres towards me and took the two pouches from around my neck, the whole time I thrashed about and screamed bloody murder. The officer gave me a swift punch to the stomach to silence me and I dropped to my knees, totally winded. I looked up as he pulled the spyglass from the pouch, looking it over with a frown on his face.

“Doesn’t look that pricey,” he muttered in a disappointed tone.

“It’s valuable to me!” I snapped, angry tears rising to my eyes. “My father gave me those!”

“Ugh, sentimental value,” the officer groaned, quickly taking out the compass to see it was the same. “Absolutely worthless.”

“Then give them back!” I demanded, snarling up at him while trying to hold my tears back.

“You know what?” the officer began, shooting me a sadistic smile. “I might have, but you just had to pull that sword on me.”

“Please!” I begged, still struggling against the pegasi restraining me as my tears started to flow freely down my face.

The officer kept grinning at me, he was loving it. I glanced back to see that while the other three pegasi weren’t holding Fluttershy down, they were making sure she didn’t run to my aid.

“Tell me, which is more valuable to you?” he asked, weighing both objects in his hooves. “Like, if I were to… drop them, which would you miss more?”

“Please…” I sobbed, unable to keep the anger in my voice.

“Well if you won’t answer,” the officer began in a dark tone. “I guess we can just find out…”

And then he launched them, both the spyglass and the compass as far into the air as he could, back down the mountain trail. I screamed with fury as I twisted against my captors, whose grip had weakened considerably. I wasn’t able to free myself, but I was able to see as my two precious items flew further and further before beginning their swift descend to the ground… then there was a flash of colour as both items were whipped out of the air by a speeding blur. My scream caught in my throat as I spun back around to see the cyan pegasus land behind the officer, both items held safely in her possession.

“Soldier! What is the meaning of this?!” the officer demanded, storming up to her.

“Can it!” the pegasus snapped back. “I’m sick of watching you bully these ponies. All you had to do was take their money and we could have gone home, no fuss, but you just had to been an asshole and act like you were bigger than them.”

“I am bigger than them!” the officer retorted, his face turning purple with anger. “I’m bigger than all of you! Or have you forgotten your place soldier?”

“I haven’t forgotten anything,” the pegasus replied calmly. “I just haven’t taken my place yet…”

And without a moment s warning, she pivoted one-eighty degrees on the spot before rearing up on only one leg, her other foreleg still clutching my items safely to her chest. Using her flapping wings to provide balance, she kicked out with both her hind legs, striking the officer directly in the face. His head snapped back and his body crumpled into an unconscious heap… at least, I hoped it was unconscious, I could still remember my first kill occurring slightly similarly.

The pegasus dropped back down to her hooves, stepping around the body without paying him a second glance on her way over to me.

“Let her go,” she instructed calmly.

The three pegasi obeyed without a moment’s hesitation, all stepping back from me, looking rather sheepish. The cyan pegasus walked right up to me and reached out, offering me back my items.

“Here,” she muttered dryly.

I saved any questions that were burning in my mind until after I had snatched them back and retrieved the fallen pouches. Only once I was sure they were safe and secure around my neck once more did I turn to face the pegasus.

“Why did you help me?” I asked, slightly suspicious.

“I hated that guy,” she replied simply, but I kept watching her until she elaborated. “And it wasn’t fair, you put up a good fight, you didn’t deserve that kind of treatment.”

“So do you still expect me to pay a toll?” I questioned.

“Nah,” she replied, waving it off. “Like you said, it was only ever a shakedown, and I’m no thief.”

“What about my friend?” I added, nodding over to Fluttershy. “You’re won’t take anything from her? Because you aren’t fighting her either.”

“Hey, I’m not about to risk getting sent to Tartarus or wherever it is you go for assaulting a sister,” the pegasus replied, raising her hooves defensively.

All the other pegasi nodded and muttered in agreement.

“So you won’t stop us from going into Olympus?” I asked finally.

“Of course not, come on in,” she invited, making her way up the final slope to the city gates. “Fall in soldiers; we aren’t robbing newcomers anymore, not while I’m in charge.”

The other pegasi followed without question, actually looking quite happy at the change of leadership. When the pegasus reached the officer’s body, she reached down and removed his cape. She didn’t wear it; she simply draped it over her shoulder like a trophy and carried on.

“Are you just leaving him?” I called out; indicating the officer who I confirmed was only unconscious.

“He can walk himself to the infirmary when he wakes up,” the pegasus called back.

“And if he doesn’t wake up?” I asked as Fluttershy and I trotted to catch up with her.

“Then he should never have become a Dragoon,” she replied in a cold voice.

We walked with her and the small team of pegasi who were chatting among themselves until we reached the gate. Olympus didn’t have much of a city wall since the mountain ranges served that purpose, although there was one small stretch of wall across the width of the mountain trail which bore the great gates that led into the city. The pegasus reached up and removed her helmet, revealing a shoulder length mane that was the same unkempt style as her tail, possessing the same six rainbow colours. She shook her head slightly to throw her mane from her eyes before tilting her head up and letting out a short, sharp whistle.

“Open the gate!” she shouted up.

“Fly up!” a voice shouted back down.

“Come down here and make me!” she retorted, although she was grinning as she did.

I could hear somepony chuckling from the top of the wall as they set about opening the gate. While we waited, the pegasus turned to look at Fluttershy and I again.

“You know, that really was a good fight you put up,” she complimented before donning a smug smirk. “Of course I was going easy on you, but still very impressive. What are your names again?”

“I’m Rarity,” I replied pleasantly enough. “And my friend is Fluttershy, or Sister Fluttershy if you don’t want to be sent to Tartarus.”

The pegasus laughed at that, giving me a knock in the ribs with her hoof.

“Good one,” she said as her laughter died down. “Well, I’m Rainbow Dash, pleased to meet you.”

XLIV - Strength Above All Else

“Welcome to Olympus,” Rainbow Dash announced as we stepped through the slowly opening gates. “Pretty sweet, huh?”

Fluttershy and I looked over the entrance plaza, it was a wide square with a raised dais occupying most of the floor space, a giant marble statue of a pegasus dominating the scene in the very centre of the area atop an ornate pedestal. Similar to Arclight, there were a number of steps that led to higher levels of the city; however there weren’t many that remained solid, as the majority of the higher levels were part of the cloud sector of the city. Fluttershy looked in awe at the pearly white structures, but my eyes focused on the ponies that were wandering about the place.

I could see dozens of ponies in this one plaza wearing silver Dragoon armour, and almost everypony carried some kind of weapon, whether they were soldiers or dressed like ordinary citizens. Once the gates were closed once more, a pegasus fluttered down from the top of the wall, landing in front of Rainbow Dash.

“Nice cape,” she pointed out first. “Finally kicked Garnet’s ass?”

“He didn’t even put up a fight,” Rainbow replied, before looking over at the soldiers that were now under her command. “You guys can hit the barracks early; I’ll have to report in anyway.”

The other Dragoon soldiers all dispersed, looking quite cheery at being relieved early.

“So why today?” the new mare asked. “I thought you were keeping your head down?”

“Some travellers,” Rainbow explained, nodding towards us. “Garnet was making a tool of himself…”

“As usual,” the mare cut in with a smirk.

“As usual,” Rainbow agreed, returning the grin. “But this time he went too far, so I stepped in.”

“He must have done something really rotten,” the mare commented. “So is he dead or what?”

“Unfortunately not,” Rainbow replied without a hint of remorse. “Just out cold, if he doesn’t come in before nightfall you should probably send somepony out to drag him in.”

“I’ll see if I can find somepony who cares enough to do it,” the mare offered. “Because I sure as hay don’t care about him, so what will you do now? You’ve kind of made yourself a target.”

“I’m aware,” Rainbow Dash grumbled. “Hopefully this will go by unnoticed…”

The mare let out a bark of laughter.

“And if it doesn’t…” Rainbow continued, ignoring the interruption. “Well then things are gonna get messy.”

“I look forward to it,” the mare replied with a gleeful smile. “Let me know in advance, I want a front row seat in the Coliseum when it kicks off.”

“Will do,” Rainbow replied half-heartedly. “Anyway, I have to go report in about what just happened. If I’m going to paint a target on my back, you can be damn sure I’m getting a pay rise for it.”

“Alright, I’ll see you later Dash,” the mare waved, already taking off to return to her post on the wall.

“Later Dew Drop,” Rainbow responded over her shoulder as she started walking towards us. “Well I’ve got places to be, but don’t let that stop you from lookin’ about the place. If you need a place to stay, I suggest checking that hotel over there out.”

I followed Rainbow’s gaze to see one of the large building that filled out most of the left side of the plaza.

“It’s not bad, and they’d probably appreciate the business,” Rainbow explained. “Celestia knows we don’t get enough travellers these days.”

“We’ll be sure to stop in and get a room,” I replied appreciatively.

“Alright, sweet,” Rainbow stated, glancing up at the sky to check the time. “Anyway, I need to rush here, but some advice for staying in Olympus; if anypony bothers you just kick his ass.”

“I’ll be sure to bare that in mind,” I responded with a nervous titter.

“Well, I might catch you later,” Rainbow said as she began walking away. “If I do, I know a pretty neat club we can hit.”

Without waiting for a response or offering a more substantial goodbye, she spread her wings and took off into the sky, quickly disappearing into the cloud level.

“What an odd mare,” Fluttershy murmured softly before turning to look at me. “Shall we go to that hotel now?”

“Might as well,” I replied. “We can also ask the owners for directions, two birds.”

“Where?” Fluttershy asked, her eyes darting about overhead.

I couldn’t help but laugh at that as I lead the way to the building Rainbow Dash had indicated. As we made our way across to the hotel, I made a quick detour up the steps of the dais to check out the statue up close. It was big enough that I could see it depicted some pegasus in full battle regalia as soon as we entered through the gates, but what I wanted to see was the name plaque on the pedestal. It read ‘Commander Hurricane, founder of Equestria’, I gave a little snort at the fat they accidently left out the words ‘one of the’.

Walking up to the hotel, I instantly felt my stomach churning as I thought about how much they would charge us to stay in a place as obviously upper-class as this ‘Stratus Hotel’. As we made our way through the door and across the wide lobby to the desk where a single receptionist sat with her head on the desk, snoring loudly, I became very grateful for the cut Pinkie gave us from her pirate booty. We stepped up to the desk and glanced at each other awkwardly, unsure how to go about waking the mare.

“Um, excuse me?” Fluttershy said in a voice that would have been difficult to hear if the mare was awake. “Um, Miss, if it’s not too much trouble…”

Fluttershy screamed loudly as I slammed my hoof down on the gold bell, if the bell itself didn’t wake the mare, then Fluttershy’s reaction most certainly did.

“Wha… huh…” the mare muttered, drool dripping down from her lips as she snapped her head up. “Y… yeah, can I help you?”

“Yes, we were hoping…” I began in a clear voice, only to be interrupted by the mare who suddenly started panicking.

“If you’re here to collect the money we owe you, then we just need a few more days!” she insisted, her eyes growing wide. “Give us one week and we can get it together.”

“Actually… we were hoping to get a room for a couple of nights,” I corrected her, sharing another awkward glance with Fluttershy.

“A room?” the mare repeated, as if she couldn’t quite believe what she just heard. “A room?! Of course! Most certainly! It would be our pleasure, how many nights? Only a thousand bits.”

Fluttershy and I backed up slightly, her sudden enthusiasm sending us reeling slightly.

“Um, but the sign says there are rooms for twenty bits per night,” Fluttershy informed her, pointing to the price chart behind her.

The mare looked back before slumping her shoulders and sighing.

“Yeah it does,” she admitted before adding in a low whisper that I just managed to catch. “I knew I should have taken that down.”

“Sorry, but we can’t help you with your debt problem,” I told her honestly as we pulled all the money we had out.

“It’s fine, I really should be more pleased that anypony showed up today,” the mare replied.

“Business is slow I take it?” I said sympathetically.

“Slow is an understatement,” the mare stated bitterly. “I’ve seen glaciers that were faster, we’ve only got three rooms occupied in this entire building at the moment. We’ve had to take out massive loans just to keep it open, although I don’t see the point anymore, those damn Dragoons have made this city toxic. Hardly anypony comes to visit anymore, and those that do just aren’t enough to keep us afloat.”

“I’m sorry,” Fluttershy told her, looking awfully guilty.

“It’s okay… uh, Sister?” the mare replied, looking a little confused before deciding to ignore it. “All we can hope to do now is get enough to pay off our debt so we can get out of Olympus and start anew somewhere else. So how many nights shall I put you down for? You’re sharing a room I presume?”

“Yes, we are,” I confirmed. “And we’ll pay for two nights, we’re not sure if we’ll need to stay longer.”

“Dare I even offer meals?” the mare asked, sounding slightly hopeful.

“I guess we could spare extra for that,” I replied, seeing her brighten up slightly. “I think we’re pretty much out of travel supplies anyway.”

“Alright, just give me a moment to get this written up,” the mare said as she tapped the details into the till while simultaneously writing them into a ledger with her magic. “Would you like your key now, or will you be going out?”

“We’ll get it when we come back,” I told her. “We were hoping you could give us directions somewhere.”

“Of course, I won’t even charge you for it,” she replied with a small laugh.

“We need to find Iron Sights,” I informed her, at which point her face paled. “Do you know where in the city he holds office?”

“You want to see… you know what, I’m not even going to ask questions,” the mare said firmly. “His office is in the Pantheon, but that’s in the cloud portion of the city, and the toll booths are closed.”

“All the cheaper then,” I responded, smirking at Fluttershy.

“No, you don’t understand,” the mare cut in quickly. “The toll booths are where non-pegasi buy cloud walker spells.”

“I’ll be fine,” I assured her, grabbing my amulet and waving it in her face. “So where exactly is the Pantheon?”

“It’s at the very highest point,” the mare explained. “It’s a huge building with a domed roof and lots of pillars at the front, you can’t miss it.”

“Alright, once we’re sorted here we’ll go straight over there,” I said to Fluttershy, pulling out our money bag. “Who knows, we might get lucky and this won’t take very long.”

With our room paid for, we left the hotel and followed the walkways and signs to the nearest toll booth. It was nothing more than a tiny hut with a door on one side and a pay window on the other, as the mare had said, there was nopony inside. We walked right past it to where the stone floor cut away, replaced instead by a cloud staircase that led to the next level up. Fluttershy walked straight on without any bother, I stayed back and fiddled with my amulet first, turning the stone so the amulet heated up in my hoof.

Taking a breath and praying that Maverick hadn’t botched the spell, I took my first step out on to the cloud platform. My hoof didn’t immediately sink through which was a positive sign; I tested the one hoof for a few more seconds before risking the rest of my body. Naturally I had never stepped on a cloud before, but I was surprised to find that felt rather spongy, like trying to walk over a soft mattress or a sturdy cake. The feeling was a little disorienting and it took me a while to stop stumbling over my hooves. Fluttershy just looked back at me while I imitated a baby deer, trying to hide her obvious amusement.

I tried to remain stoic and not let it get to me however, which wasn’t easy when my legs constantly felt like they were made of marshmallow. It was getting late into the afternoon, but there were still plenty of ponies out and about, up in the cloud sector it was pretty much the same story as when we first entered the city. Almost everypony was carrying some sort of weapon on them, and plenty wore full Dragoon armour. I imagined for the first time I didn’t stand out with a sword and three knives strapped to my belt, but still, something about the whole sight bothered me for all the wrong reasons.

“Fluttershy,” I began tentatively as we made our way further up the city. “Is it just me or… or is Olympus way more peaceful than everypony made it out to be?”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Fluttershy replied with a nod. “Maverick said that everypony was constantly fighting for power and oppressing the weak, even that stallion in Breakwater said it was madness here, yet I haven’t seen anything of the sort.”

I just frowned as I looked around at the ponies going about their daily business; they all either carried themselves with what appeared to be sense of superiority, or looked constantly suspicious of every other pony around them.

“Maybe things have settled,” I proposed. “Maybe the strongest have already proven themselves and the rest have accepted it.”

“That doesn’t sound like a very nice way to live,” Fluttershy commented with a sad look.

We reached the Pantheon without any trouble, the mare had been right when she said we couldn’t have missed it, it really was the peak of the towering city. We strode confidently up to the entrance, which was guarded by a dozen Dragoon soldiers, who each stood with their backs to one of the pillars that comprised the face of the building. I led the way to the space between the centre two pillars, I figured the guards wouldn’t cause a problem what with how many ponies I could see bustling about inside the building itself, but I was brought to a very sudden halt when two halberds were crossed before me, blocking my path.

“Business?” one of the guards asked in a bored tone.

“Um, we need to speak with Iron Sights,” I informed him, glancing back at Fluttershy who gave me a wary look.

“That’s Marshal Iron Sights,” the guard corrected, his eyes narrowing at me.

“Really?” I began before I could stop myself. “I heard he got demoted.”

I could almost hear Fluttershy cringing behind me, but I didn’t look around to see if she was or not, as I was too busy trying to keep the half dozen guards who’d heard my comment and were now staring at me with undisguised fury in my sights.

“What is your business with the Marshal?!” the guard snapped at me.

“We need to talk with him,” I repeated calmly.

“About what?!” the guard demanded. “And if you don’t answer we will have you arrested!”

“I am here representing Maverick,” I stated simply. “The leader of the Rebellion.”

That got a reaction out of them, the guard who had questioned me simply gawked in disbelief while the others glanced at each other, unsure what to do.

“I am here to negotiate,” I elaborated. “Would that be possible?”

“Not tonight,” the guard answered in a much more civil voice. “The Marshal is at the Coliseum, when he returns he will not be attending any meetings. We will tell him of your visit and you can return tomorrow, now if you have no further business, leave.”

I nodded and turned to walk away, the guards muttering among themselves as I did.

“At least I got their attention,” I whispered to Fluttershy as we made our exit.

“I’m not sure you’ll be happy that you did,” she replied in a worried tone.

“Now we have to find this Coliseum,” I continued.

“What? Why?” Fluttershy asked, looking confused. “They already said he wouldn’t be meeting with us tonight.”

“I’m not looking to meet with him,” I explained. “I just want to see him, see what kind of pony we’re dealing with.”

It wasn’t difficult to find the Coliseum either, if the Pantheon was the peak of the city, then the Coliseum was the heart, situated at the very centre on both the lowest level of the cloud sector, and the highest level of the solid sector. It was a monumental, cylindrical structure where the outer walls were comprised mainly of several stories of arcades, under many of which were statues of various famous warriors. I was pleased to learn from a considerably more helpful guard, that most public buildings like the Pantheon and the Coliseum were enchanted to not require cloud walking spells, despite still being in the cloud sector itself.

This allowed me to turn my amulet off once we were inside, to save some of its power. The inside of the Coliseum was dominated mainly by the arena floor, where several armoured combatants were already in the midst of fighting, with staggered seating ascending all around it. The stands were rather packed, but we managed to find some spare seats near a familiar pegasus.

“Oh, hey there,” Dew Drop greeted, shifting her helmet so I could sit down.

“Oh, hey, you’re Rainbow Dash’s friend, aren’t you?” I asked, vaguely remembering her. “It’s… Morning Dew?”

“Dew drop,” Fluttershy corrected.

“Yeah, that’s me,” she confirmed. “I see you decided to get a little entertainment in.”

“It wasn’t exactly why we came down here,” I replied in a stony voice as I looked down on the fighters who were really going hard at it.

“I know it’s weird to outsiders,” Dew Drop admitted. “But you get used to it.”

“So is this where all the fighting takes place?” Fluttershy asked, gesturing around at the stadium. “We heard it all happened in the streets.”

“It used to, back when the Dragoons were first establishing themselves,” Dew Drop explained. “It’s kind of a recent thing, if anypony issues a challenge, it should be met here in the Coliseum, that way nopony can cry about it being unfair.”

“How so?” Fluttershy questioned.

“Everypony gets standardised armour and weapons,” Dew Drop continued, gesturing to the black portcullis gates that were situated at intervals around the arena floor, just beneath the stands. “Those lead to the changing rooms and armouries, both challengers have to possess the same class of equipment. Keeps everything more ordered if the fights take place here under those conditions, makes it so there’s no doubt in anypony’s mind that victory is down to superior strength.”

“If all challenges are met here,” I began. “Then why does everypony carry weapons around the city and look on edge all the time.”

“Well…” Dew Drop said slowly, scratching her head in guilty fashion. “Just because matches are supposed to take place here, doesn’t mean they always do. There are way fewer fights in the streets than there used to be, but there’s still the occasional few… or dozen.”

Dew Drop suddenly cut away as a cheer erupted from the crowd, she stared down at two fighters in particular where one had his forelegs raised in victory while the other lay unmoving.

“Yes!” Dew Drop exclaimed, punching the air with her hoof. “That’s my rent sorted for the next week.”

“You bet on this?!” I uttered in shock.

“Oh yeah,” Dew Drop admitted, clearly not picking up on my disdain. “It’s pretty much encouraged.”

I rolled my eyes in mild disgust, but didn’t say anything, just watched as the loser's body was dragged unceremoniously to one of the gateways. There were still a few other ponies fighting, but as time went on, the arena slowly began to empty until there was only two fighters left.

“We heard Iron Sights was supposed to be here,” I informed Dew Drop over the crowds cheering. “Is he fighting?”

“Oh yeah, why do you think so many ponies are here today?” Dew Drop asked. “Every few days, some fool issues a challenge to the stallion himself, and every time it draws a huge crowd. We’re still waiting for the day when somepony beats him, but until then, it’s always guaranteed to be good entertainment. He’s probably coming on after these idiots finish up, which is why they aren’t sending out any more fighters, they always keep the arena clear for major fights.”

I watched the last fight closely, it was very one sided, one of the fighters spent most of the time trying desperately to dodge the attacks of his much bigger opponent. When he was finally struck down and his helmet rolled off, both Fluttershy and I gasped to see it was an elderly stallion.

“What was he doing out there?!” I exclaimed. “What reason could that young stallion have for challenging somepony as feeble as him?”

“Not a clue,” Dew Drop admitted with a disinterested shrug. “But if he didn’t want to fight, he should have just refused the challenge.”

“And given into whatever demands were being made of him?” I finished, giving the stallion who was currently flexing his muscles to the crowd a withering look.

“Look lady,” Dew Drop began, suddenly sounding quite irritated with me. “It may not be pretty, but this is our system, and it works just fine. The strong rule over the weak, if the weak have a problem with that, then they can either get stronger, leave or quit complaining. This system encourages ponies to become stronger, how is that a bad thing?”

“The fact that you even asked that question suggests you don’t get issued many challenges,” I replied in a condescending tone.

“You talk like strength is synonymous with being a good leader,” Fluttershy pointed out before Dew Drop could retort.

“Sister, I don’t know what that word means,” Dew Drop bit back, before calming down slightly. “Look, it doesn’t matter, the fight's about to start.”

I looked down to see two of the gates on opposite sides of the arena open slowly upwards as an armoured pony stepped out from each. Between the one who walked low to the ground, his axe shaking in his grip, and the one who marched out confidently, standing tall with his Warhammer still strapped to his back, it was obvious which one was Iron Sights. I locked my gaze on Iron Sights as he strode up to the very centre of the arena, reached back and pulled out his weapon before slamming it hard into the ground.

“Yield?” he asked in loud, bellowing voice that somehow managed to come off as perfectly calm.

There was a chorus of laughter throughout the crowd; the other pony shook even more as they began trying to circle around Iron Sights. He didn’t even attempt to rotate and follow her; he simply held his position, lazily holding his hammer with just one hoof. Once the other pony was directly behind him in his blind spot, they began weighing their double bladed axe, clearly trying to decide the best opportunity to strike, but still Iron Sight remained as still as a statue.

Finally the pony dashed forward, keeping low to the ground as they swung their axe back, looking as if they were preparing to cleave Iron Sights in two. They didn’t even get close, as Iron Sights turned and sprinted to meet them, covering the remaining distance in a few seconds. But he didn’t strike with his hammer, instead he simply reached out and smacked the other pony in the side of the head. His blow carried so much power behind it, that the other pony was flung the full radius of the arena and smashed into the wall between two of the gateways.

The wall shattered as they hit it, it was a miracle they weren’t killed outright. I gaped in horror at Iron Sights who was already walking slowly over to where the pony was desperately trying to get back onto their hooves.

“Yield?” Iron Sights asked again in the same loud, calm voice.

It didn’t get any laughter this time; the crowd was too focused on watching what would happen next. The pony managed to stand up, but only by using their axe as a crutch since it looked like both their right legs were broken from the impact with the wall. They shook uncontrollably where they stood; they didn’t even have a way to fight back any more even if they did want to.

“Yield?” Iron Sights asked once more, stopping a single metre from the injured opponent.

“I… I will n… never… surrender to you!” the pony cried out in a shuddering voice, revealing themselves to be a mare underneath all that armour.

Iron Sights nodded once, before swinging his Warhammer up through the air, catching the pony in the underside of her barrel and launching her into the sky. I tried to follow her, but she was tossed into the air with such force that she simply smashed through the floors of the buildings floating overhead and quickly disappeared from view.

“Well, she’s dead,” Dew Drop commented in a neutral tone. “Pity, she seemed pretty gutsy. Most ponies surrender after the first hit.”

“She… she…” Fluttershy stammered, looking horror at the spot where the mare had just been.

“He just killed her…” I breathed, mimicking Fluttershy.

“He gave her a chance to surrender,” Dew Drop reminded us, like that made it all okay. “Well, I need to go collect my winnings. Sorry about getting snappy with you, I know you’re new to this, I should have realised you’d have some reservations.”

Without waiting for a response, Dew Drop stood up, spread her wings and flew away, leaving me and Fluttershy sitting in the slowly emptying stadium. After a few minutes, the mare finally came plummeting back down, only to smash through the cloud floor of the arena and disappear a second time. Iron Sights had waited until this point, although after that happened he turned and made his way back to the gate he had entered from. I followed him as he did, and saw another pony come out of the open gateway to meet him, she wore Dragoon armour, but no helmet.

Her coat was an artic blue, while her snow white mane was swept back in a peculiar style; her eyes however were completely obscured by a pair of purple sunglasses. She wore a sly smile as Iron Sights walked up to her; she briefly said something to him before he walked passed her into the darkened tunnel. The other pegasus stopped briefly to look up over the crowds, for a split second I was sure her gaze lingered on Fluttershy and I, although it was impossible to tell due to her glasses. If she had been looking at us, then she didn’t do so for very long as she swiftly turned and followed Iron Sights beyond the gate which closed behind her.

I turned to Fluttershy who looked like she wanted to vomit; when she met my eye, she opened her mouth to say something but swiftly shut it again.

“I really hope he’s open to negotiations,” I said in a shaky voice. “Because I really don’t want to fight that guy.”

XLV - Iron Sights

We could already see the guards whispering among themselves as we approached the front entrance of the Pantheon. It might have been a bit self-assured to think that Iron Sights would have time to see us first thing in the morning, but at the very least I wasn’t going to leave without a more definite answer as to when we could speak to him. As we neared the two central pillars, I instinctively slowed down, and sure enough, the guards crossed their halberds a second time as we got near.

“State your business,” he spoke in a calm voice, although I got the distinct feeling he wasn’t happy about doing so.

“We wish to speak to Iro… Marshal Iron Sights,” I replied, quickly correcting my near mistake. “We were hoping to negotiate on behalf of the Rebellion.”

The two guards looked at each other for a brief second, exchanging a disgruntled look before uncrossing their halberds and planting them vertically once more.

“The Marshal is expecting you,” the other guard picked up. “Check in at the desk for an exact time, and don’t think about causing any trouble.”

We started to walk between them when I suddenly thought of something very stupid to say.

“What if somepony has something I want?” I asked, leaning back to look at the guards we had just passed. “Could I not beat them up for it? Would that not be causing trouble?”

Both guards glared at me, their faces going slightly red as they began huffing and puffing. I quickly continued on into the Pantheon, giggling audibly for them to hear, I do love diplomatic immunity. Fluttershy gave me an exasperated look as we entered the foyer of the building and made our way up to the desk.

“Sorry,” I said genuinely, my laughter cutting off abruptly.

“It’s okay, have your fun,” Fluttershy replied, although I could tell she didn’t mean it.

“No, no, I’ll be professional now,” I promised her. “Besides I just wanted to mess with them for their attitude yesterday, when we get to Iron Sights I’ll be a different pony.”

As we stepped up to the front desk, I quickly switched off my amulet while Fluttershy addressed the pony behind. We were invited to take a seat off to the side while we waited for our appointment, which turned out to be almost an hour of shifting uncomfortably and fidgeting in our seats before we were finally called for. The interior of the Pantheon reminded me of the Tower in Arclight, much smaller, but the staircases that led to the second floor were a similar style. Two separate staircases curving along the wall to meet in the centre, where a door stood rather than a teleporter.

When our time came, we were alerted by a clear voice calling down from the platform at the top of the stairs. Looking up we saw a pegasus in full dragoon armour, what little I could see of her coat was artic blue, while her tail was snow white, I didn’t even need to see her face to know that it was the same pegasus who had met Iron Sights as he left the arena the evening before. As it was however, her helmet was also a bit of a giveaway, it was similar in style to Rainbow Dash’s, except it had no plume of any kind, while the open section at the front was much narrower and filled in with a purple visor, the part that really gave away who was behind the mask like helmet.

We walked up the left staircase to where she stood waiting for us, once at the top, she turned and opened the doors, leading us down a short corridor to Iron Sights' office. Perhaps it was his display in the Coliseum, but I had walked into the office expecting something slightly more… barbaric. Like for his desk to be made from the bones of his enemies, or for their heads to be mounted on plaques around the wall. I was almost disappointed when the room turned out to be rather bland in appearance and décor, almost… but then I caught myself on. Iron Sights was sitting behind his desk, dressed in his own armour, his forelegs resting on the table as he sat up straight and waited for us to enter.

Although it was difficult to make out while he sat down, he also wore a red cape similar to the officer Rainbow Dash had knocked out when we first arrived. Only Iron Sights' was embroidered with gold, with two silver discs clasping it to the rest of his armour. As I noticed that, I also realised that the pegasus who led us into the office and now stood at Iron Sights side, wore a crimson cape of her own. Although hers looked torn and tattered, and she wore it draped around her neck like a scarf. Iron Sights' helmet was identical to that of the other pegasus, only without the purple visor, and it sat off to one side on his desk.

His face was rather plain; it was a motley grey colour, his dull red mane cut short and flat at the top. I half expected him to be plastered with battle scars, but his face looked as fresh as if he had spent his life in an office. What struck me as most odd about him, was that he didn’t even look that strong. He wasn’t even big for a stallion, yet his display in the arena was reminiscent of somepony twice the size of Big Mac. Fluttershy and I stood awkwardly at the door, waiting to be addressed, but for the longest time he simply stared at us. I could tell he was sizing us up, it was slightly unnerving, but it didn’t last too long before he finally raised one of his hooves and waved it through the air, gesturing to the two seats that had been set out from the desk.

“Sit,” he said simply, in the same calm, authoritative tone that he had used to demand his opponent's surrender.

We glanced at each other out of the corner of our eyes before obeying. Once we were seated, Iron Sights raised his foreleg to gesture to the mare who had led us in.

“As there are two of you,” he began, now that he was no longer speaking in single word sentences I realised just how slow he really was when talking. “My second, Air Chief Fleetfoot will sit in on these… negotiations.”

“That’s perfectly acceptable,” I replied, unsure whether that would be a problem or not.

“Where have you travelled from?” he asked. “Was it Pivot?”

“No, we received our orders near Port Mule,” I admitted, seeing no point in being anything other than honest.

“Then you have travelled a long way,” Iron Sights commented bluntly. “What you have to say must be very important.”

“We wished to discuss the situation regarding Cragsburg,” I informed him, only for him to raise a single curious eyebrow. “You know, the Children of the Earth?”

Iron Sights stared at me for a moment, before turning to Fleetfoot and giving her a questioning look, she simply responded with a shrug.

“You will need to explain this situation to us,” Iron Sights droned as he turned back to me. “Olympus takes no interest in the affairs of the rest of Panchea anymore.”

“Well I think you might need to start taking an interest,” I grumbled. “The Children of the Earth are a group based in Cragsburg, they started out as little more than religious sect that the Rebellion deemed… too minor a concern to deal with. Now they have built an army, and they have the entire city of Cragsburg under their control. A while back they even invaded Pivot where they… killed a number of citizens, and cut the wings and horns off every pegasus and unicorn.”

“Really?” Iron Sights uttered, sitting up slightly straighter while Fleetfoot shifted uncomfortably.

“We don’t know a lot about why they’re doing this,” I explained. “Although from what we have gathered, it sounds like they see unicorns and pegasi as being unnatural. They call us abominations, that we are in some way offensive to the natural order of the world.”

“While we travelled up here,” Fluttershy chipped in. “We passed through Breakwater and Brine, the Children of the Earth had sent scouts to both those towns, we fear they may be planning an attack.”

“Similarly, we think Olympus may be targeted,” I finished. “It does after all, have a pegasus majority population.”

“These Children of the Earth,” Iron Sights began. “Do their soldiers have a uniform? Something we can use to identify them by?”

“Yes,” I confirmed. “They wear dark green robes with hoods, and armour on the outside that resembles granite.”

Fleetfoot let out a bark of laughter, causing both myself and Fluttershy, as well as Iron Sights to look at her curiously.

“Those guys?” Fleetfoot asked in her hoarse voice. “Those guys are pushovers, we had a few of them marching up to the front gate a couple weeks ago, the vanguard took them down without breaking a sweat.”

“I… wasn’t made aware of this,” Iron Sights responded, his voice lowering while his eyes narrowed ever so slightly.

“Uh, my apologies Marshal,” Fleetfoot said hurriedly. “I didn’t think it was important enough to bother you with, and I assure you they were no threat whatsoever.”

“Don’t underestimate them,” I warned. “For starters, their armour is made of something we’ve never seen before; none of our weapons even scratched it. Also, when they attacked Pivot, they didn’t do it with a few… they had hundreds.”

“I can see why these Children of the Earth concern you,” Iron sights admitted. “But I fail to see why they should concern me. If my second believes they are no threat to us, then I trust her.”

“Maybe not,” I agreed. “You have one of the most easily fortifiable cities in Panchea, and you have one of the largest armies. I very much doubt you would be in danger if they came marching up the mountains, but that’s not what we’re here to talk about.”

“You want us to lend you our strength so that your cities will no longer be in danger?” Iron Sights questioned.

“Because the Rebellion army was too weak to protect Pivot,” Fleetfoot added. “Now you need someone stronger to scare off your enemies.”

“Well the Rebel army isn’t as strong as it used to be,” I pointed out. “Forgetting about all the soldiers that left with you, we also lost huge amounts when Arcana and Typhoon split off.”

Again, Iron Sights raised a single eyebrow to indicate he had no idea what I was talking about. I wanted to scream in frustration, to think this stallion controlled the second largest army in the country, assuming the Liberators still had the largest following the incident at the Fort, and all he seemed to want to do was bury his head in the sand and kill anyone that questioned him. Fluttershy could see the distress I was in, so she quickly stepped in and gave a quick explanation of why the Rebellion split around the end of the war, and how the Arcane Order and the Liberators were formed.

“So in conclusion,” Fluttershy finished. “The Liberators have the largest army in the land, but our attempts to reconcile with them have been… unsuccessful.”

“And now you’ve turned to us,” Iron Sights muttered. “Since we turned away from the Rebellion, we have confined ourselves to Olympus. We have not meddled in the affairs of your leaders, and in return we’ve been left in peace to live as we see fit. I fail to see why that should change now.”

“Well, think about it this way,” I began. “Olympus doesn’t exactly produce an awful lot; a good example would be food. You still rely on trading with other towns for the food you can’t grow here, but if the Children of the Earth took over Breakwater and Brine... although we’ll come back to Brine in a little bit, you would be cut off from the rest of the country. The Children of the Earth may not be able defeat you in combat, but they can wait you out simply by cutting you off from any towns or cities where you could trade food from.

“And that’s not to mention your local businesses,” I continued. “We’re staying at the Stratus Hotel, and it’s ready to go under, because they aren’t getting enough travellers from outside the city paying to stay with them. If they’re struggling now, imagine how long they’ll last when not a single pony can safely make it to Olympus; imagine how all your business will suffer.”

“At the very least you could send some of your troops to protect the towns in the Lesser Pastures,” Fluttershy proposed. “The Rebellion don’t have the numbers necessary, but you do, and you could even help restore Brine. If you did this, you could ensure the Children of the Earth are never able to move further than Cragsburg, and you’d keep your trade routes open.”

“What do you mean about restoring Brine?” Fleetfoot asked suspiciously. “What happened there? Did these Children of the Earth take it over too?”

“Worse,” I replied grimly. “Something… strange has happened in the town, every single pony who lived there is dead… and they continue to walk around as animated corpses.”

“Okay, this is starting to get ridiculous,” Fleetfoot groaned. “You were starting to talk sense, but now you’re talking about a town of the undead, and you expect us to take you seriously.”

“It’s true!” Fluttershy insisted. “We barely got out of their alive, we saw them kill another agent we were travelling with, and she turned into one of them.”

“I would be inclined to believe the word of a sister,” Iron Sights said in a contemplative tone before staring directly at me. “Tell me, who do you receive your orders from?”

“I received my orders from Maverick,” I replied simply.

“You believe he trusts you?” Iron Sights questioned.

“No, but I believe he trusts me to get the job done,” I admitted.

“I used to think the same thing,” Iron Sights stated, his voice now sounding slightly bitter. “Until I was replaced with that insufferable wench.”

“Iron Sights…” I began in a wary tone before noticing Fleetfoot’s helmet snap in my direction. “Marshal, don’t let bad blood dictate your decision here, you have to think about what’s…”

“Tell me Miss…” Iron Sight cut in before trailing off.

“Rarity,” I filled in.

“Miss Rarity,” Iron Sights continued. “What do you know of the reasons behind my… demotion?”

He said the final word with so much venom, it was the most emotive he had been since the start of our meeting.

“I… I was told that you tried to have some farms burned down when it looked like they were about to fall into the enemy’s possession,” I replied warily, deciding to leave out the troop movements for now.

“Yes, I did,” Iron Sights confirmed. “When Typhoon approached me and asked me to lead their growing army into war, I was being entrusted due to my skills and experience, that they trusted me to make the decisions that were necessary to see them victorious. It turned out I was mistaken, they didn’t trust me anymore than Maverick trusts the insufferable wench he replaced me with. All they wanted was a servant who would blindly carry out their every instruction, no matter how foolish they were. You think the war was won by a pair of politicians and their loyal goon? No!

“It was won by me!” Iron Sights snapped, his calm voice melting away to be replaced by a furious bellowing one. “It was won by my decisions and my soldiers, and what thanks did I receive? What did the trust that was placed in me really amount to? Absolutely nothing! I was stripped of my rank and title, and replaced like one would replace an unfaithful spouse. You might think me some kind of monster or war criminal, whatever it is your master calls me, but I guaranteed victory for the Rebellion long before Equestria was even considering surrendering.

“But I am not vengeful,” Iron Sights continued, his voice calming slightly as he sunk back into his chair. “I took those who were loyal to me and together we took Olympus for our own, the Rebels and their leaders could think of it as the minimum payment we were owed for our services. I swore I would never oppose those fools, but nor would we ride to their aid and fight their battles again, and I have no intention of doing so now.”

“Even if it ends in the destruction of your city?!” I exclaimed, outraged by his stubbornness.

“Olympus will never fall no matter what these cretins from Cragsburg do,” Iron Sights replied simply. “Our city runs on strength, not gold as you would believe. If these Children of the Earth do cut off our trade routes, so be it, the strong in our society will endure throughout any trial.”

“But what about Brine?” Fluttershy said hurriedly. “You said you believed me about what’s happened there.”

“I said I was inclined to believe a sister,” Iron Sights specified. “But sisters do not leave the Bask, therefore you cannot be one, and I would never trust somepony who attempts to deceive others in such a way.”

Fluttershy’s face burned with a furious blush.

“So that’s it?” I asked in a frustrated tone. “There’s no way you’ll ever consider helping us defeat the Children of the Earth? You won’t even send soldiers to protect your neighbouring towns?”

“So long as I am leader of the Dragoons, they will not ally themselves with the Rebellion,” Iron Sights replied flatly. “But take solace Miss Rarity, for so long as I am leader of the Dragoons, they will not be your enemies either.”

Fleetfoot walked around the desk to stand beside me, her helmet tilted down to look at me.

“I think it’s time you both left,” she stated, I could hear the glee in her voice.

“Just… one final thing,” I said quickly, looking back at Iron Sights. “I am… sorry to hear that is your decision, but I had one other thing to tell you while we were here.”

“And that is?” Iron Sights asked, his voice now completely returned to its original calm.

“Maverick told me to inform you that Arcana was assassinated,” I lied. “The Arcane Order appears to remain strong in his absence, but Arcana himself is dead.”

“Does Maverick think I had something to do with it?” Iron Sights asked curiously. “Surely you’ve picked up that we have no interest in their dealings, I wasn’t aware your leaders had even split, let alone whether they were alive or not.”

“Well no, we don’t believe you had anything to with it,” I assured him. “Maverick just thought you’d appreciate being told, he seemed to think the two of you were close.”

Iron Sights had an amazing poker face, even when he lost his temper he managed to keep his face under strict control, but when I uttered those words, I saw the flash of panic cross his visage. It was only for the shortest of seconds before he managed to recover, if I didn’t have such a keen eye for details like that, I would have missed it completely, as I’m sure Fluttershy would have.

“I don’t know where he got an idea like that,” Iron Sights replied, sounding genuinely confused. “Most of my orders came directly from Maverick or Typhoon, I never had a great deal of interaction with Arcana.”

“Well, I can’t begin to surmise why he thought that,” I stated casually as I stood up and Fluttershy followed suit. “I’m just following his orders by telling you, but if there’s nothing more to be said, then we shall take our leave.”

“You do that,” Iron Sights replied, giving a small bow of the head in farewell.

Fleetfoot led us from the office, back into the foyer of the Pantheon, leaving us at the top of the staircases before closing the door. I quickly made my way down the stairs and out the building; Fluttershy had to trot to keep up with my quick strides. Once outside I quickly switched on my amulet and made my way down the streets, making for the hotel. The whole way Fluttershy tried talking to me, asking me questions, but I was too enveloped in my own thoughts to reply immediately… besides, I didn’t want any Dragoon soldiers to overhear and report back to Iron Sights.

Once we were back in the lobby of the Stratus Hotel, we quickly greeting the receptionist mare and requested some food to be delivered to our room before hurrying up the stairs. Once we were safely in our room, I slammed the door and proceeded to pace about, muttering to myself while Fluttershy sat on the bed, tired out from walking here so quickly.

“Well that was disappointing,” she commented while giving me a concerned look.

“Yes it was,” I admitted. “You were right when you said strength isn’t synonymous with being a good leader, to think that stallion actually believes Olympus can survive without food just because its inhabitants are strong.”

“He definitely seems to have a warped view on the world,” Fluttershy stated. “But what’s gotten you so agitated? Are you upset we failed our mission?”

“Failed?” I repeated, beaming back at her. “Fluttershy we haven’t failed anything, our mission was not to successfully negotiate any kind of alliance with the Dragoons. Maverick even said that if we could ensure they wouldn’t be a threat to us, that would be fine, and Iron Sights has made it quite clear he doesn’t give a damn about anything beyond Olympus. No, our real mission was to find out if he knew anything about who Arcana was in contact with.”

“But when you mentioned Arcana to him, he didn’t care,” Fluttershy pointed out.

“Oh, he’s good at keeping a straight face,” I admitted. “But he’s not as good as he might think; he slipped up just a little when I said that Maverick thought they were close. It was just enough to tell me that he knows something about what Arcana was doing, and he’s afraid of Maverick finding out about it.”

“You figured that out from a look?” Fluttershy questioned, trying to hide her scepticism. “A look I didn’t even see.”

“I’m just that good Fluttershy,” I said jubilantly. “But that just confirms that he does know something, it doesn’t tell us what he knows though…”

I was interrupted by a knocking on the door that nearly gave me a heart attack. Naturally it turned out to be the mare delivering our lunch and I ended up feeling rather silly. While we sat and ate together, we began discussing plans for how we might find out what we needed to know. We were still discussing by the time we finished our meal, and even long after that. I lost track of how long we were talking and repeatedly coming up with nothing constructive, but by the time we decided to call it quits, I was already starting to feel hungry again.

“But you nearly got the information from Arcana…” Fluttershy began. “You know, before Pinkie killed him. Maybe you can use the same technique again on Iron Sights.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea…” I muttered, trying to imagine seducing that guy and shuddering at the thought. “Why don’t we take a break, go get some fresh air or something?”

“Yes, let’s,” Fluttershy agreed, sounding relieved.

We left the room, not bothering to put on our satchels or harness our weapons. We were, after all, just going for a walk around the plaza, it wasn’t like we would need them. I was still talking, half to myself, about what our next move should be as we started walking down the staircase to the lobby, when suddenly Fluttershy threw herself on top of me, clamping her hoof down over my mouth. For a second I tried to struggle against her, absolutely bewildered as to what had come over her, before I noticed the urgent look in her eye.

I followed her gaze down to the lobby which had just become visible, to where the receptionist mare lay curled up in the middle of the floor, clutching her abdomen in agony. All around her were seven Dragoon soldiers, forming a circle which enclosed her and her attacker, easily identifiable from the purple visor on her helmet and her tattered, crimson scarf.

“I will ask you again,” Fleetfoot said in her usual raspy voice. “And I really hope you refuse to answer again, because it brings me great pleasure to kick a pony while they’re down. So, which room is Rarity staying in?”

“I… I…” the mare gasped, clearly struggling to form the words from the pain she was in.

I could just imagine Fleetfoot grinning behind her helmet, right before she wound back and kicked the mare hard in the stomach. Fluttershy had to clamp her free hoof over her own mouth to stop herself crying out in shock.

“I can do this all day,” Fleetfoot taunted. “But somehow, I think you’ll die long before that, so tell me what I want to know, and I might lose interest in hurting you.”

I looked at Fluttershy who had a pained look on her face, but I could also see some anger there. When she caught my eye, I gave her a small nod and she let go of me. After taking a second to brace ourselves, we walked down the rest of the staircase to meet Fleetfoot and her thugs in the lobby.

“That’s enough!” Fluttershy called out, signalling our presence.

Fleetfoot’s head snapped around, instantly forgetting about the poor mare as her new prey came into focus.

“Oh good, I do prefer it when they come to me,” Fleetfoot drawled. “I enjoy the chase, but you end up losing so much time that could be better spent.”

“What do you want?” I demanded in a cold voice as we stopped at the bottom of the steps. “Why are you doing this?”

“I’m just following orders,” Fleetfoot replied simply. “You see, something you said upset the Marshal, and now he wants you taken care of, and I was more than happy to oblige.”

“Sounds like you didn’t need the orders then,” Fluttershy said in an uncharacteristically snide tone.

“I’m just one of those ponies that’s lucky enough to have a job that brings me great personal pleasure,” Fleetfoot replied in a sinister tone as she reached back to her waist, grabbing a metal baton similar to the one Rainbow Dash had wielded.

Before she could pull it free however, the doors to the hotel were kicked wide open, and all eyes in the room spun around to see an armoured figure standing in the threshold. It was clear she was going for a very dramatic look with the way her silver armour gleamed in the sunlight, and her prismatic mane flowed freely in the wind, which I later found out she intentionally rigged.

“Rarity, Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash announced. “I’m here to rescue you!”

XLVI - A Soldier's Philosophy

“Rainbow Dash?” Fleetfoot muttered, quickly forgetting about Fluttershy and I in favour of the new arrival. “What exactly do you think you’re doing here?”

“I told you,” Rainbow Dash said as she marched into the lobby. “I’m here to stage a daring rescue mission, so stand down Fleetfoot or I will be forced to do battle with you!”

“Do you read a lot of adventure stories by any chance?” Fleetfoot asked in an amused tone. “Actually, don’t answer that, I’ve stopped caring. Now leave, before I am forced to put you down.”

“That’s… not going to happen,” Rainbow replied slowly right before her hoof whipped back to her side and she drew the baton hanging at her waist.

She brought the baton out and extended her spear as quickly as one could blink, pointing the tip directly at Fleetfoot even as the rest of the Dragoon soldiers in the lobby drew their own weapons.

“Really?” Fleetfoot uttered in a dull tone. “You want to fight me? You beat that lug Garnet and now you think you can take on the world? I think you’ll find that I’m a fighter of a much higher calibre, you don’t stand a chance against me, let alone me plus another seven soldiers.”

“And I think you’ll find…” Rainbow began, flashing a devil may care smile at her opponents. “That underestimating me will cost you dearly.”

There was a long moment of silence as the two parties stood off against one another, Rainbow Dash looking as cocky as ever, and the seven soldiers waiting for Fleetfoot to give the command to attack. Then Fleetfoot burst into a fit of laughter, all her guards hesitating as they glanced over at her, looking slightly confused at her reaction to the situation.

“Go ahead Dash,” Fleetfoot invited, spreading her forelegs wide. “Come on, kill me, I won’t even try to stop you. I mean, sure you would prove yourself stronger than me, but then the decision to kill these mares is not mine. My orders come from Marshal Iron Sights himself, and if you do anything to impede those orders without first proving yourself stronger than the Marshal… well then, you’d be nothing more than a traitor.”

Rainbow Dash lowered her spear slightly as she realised Fleetfoot was telling the truth, a flash of worry crossing her face.

“That’s right, a traitor,” Fleetfoot mocked. “And once that happens, every Dragoon in Olympus will be given orders to hunt you down and… well; you know exactly what we do to traitors. There is always a choice though, yours would be to stay and die, or flee and lose everything for the sake of two mares you barely know. So what will it be Rainbow Dash? Will you bring your concerns with my task to the Marshal? I can hold off killing them until after he’s crushed you in the arena. Will you fight us now? If so, then what? Stay and face your punishment, or run and say goodbye to your home and loved ones? Or will you just turn around and walk away?”

Rainbow Dash didn’t say anything; she simply stared down at her spear whose point now dipped towards the ground. Fluttershy and I watched everything as it unfolded with baited breath, torn between the urge to turn and flee back up the stairs, or wait and see what would come of this showdown. Then the silence was broken… by Rainbow Dash giving a small laugh.

“Joke’s on you Fleetfoot, I don’t have any loved ones!” she exclaimed as she looked back up at her opponents with renewed vigour in her expression, gripping her spear tightly once more as she readied herself for a fight. “And my home is pretty cheap; I’ll make do without it.”

“Fool!” Fleetfoot snapped, clearly annoyed that she wasn’t able to demoralise Rainbow Dash. “You still you have to beat us! You may be the new Lieutenant of the Vanguard, but I am the Air Chief, and these stallions all serve in the Marshal’s personal guard, you cannot hope to overcome us all!”

“Foolish fool!” Rainbow Dash retorted. “I don’t have to beat any of you…”

And without warning she returned her spear to her waist before speeding off in a multi-coloured blur right through the soldiers and past Fleetfoot, stopping right next to Fluttershy and I.

“I just have to be faster than you!” she shouted down to them.

They were still turning to face up where she had called from, when Rainbow Dash grabbed both me and Fluttershy, spread her wings and shot off like a bullet up the stairs. It was an unpleasant ride; my left foreleg felt like it was being pulled out of its shoulder socket, on account of that being the part Rainbow was holding onto as she flew, while the rest of me trailed through the air, occasionally banging and bumping off the ground, walls and ceiling. Rainbow Dash didn’t stop flying until we were a couple floors up from the lobby, I could hear the distant sounds of Fleetfoot and the soldiers, but we had a little time before they caught up to us.

“What are you doing?” Fluttershy asked, wobbling around and looking dazed. “Why are you helping us?”

“No time for silly questions,” Rainbow chastised quickly. “You two had weapons when you entered the city, where are they now?”

“In our room with the rest of our things,” I hurriedly explained. “Room two B, twenty six.”

“Wait here,” Rainbow instructed before speeding off once more.

“How long do you think she’ll be?” Fluttershy asked in a panicky voice, most likely all too aware of the rapidly approaching soldiers.

“She can’t be that long,” I replied in a hopeful tone. “I mean, I’ve never seen anypony as fa…”

“Back!” Rainbow declared as she zoomed back into the hallway where she left us, all our possession heaped in her forelegs. “I don’t think I forgot anything; now get those on as fast as you can.”

After quickly throwing our satchels on and reattaching our weapons to our sides, I barely opened my mouth to ask where we were going next when I felt Rainbow Dash grip my foreleg a second time. This trip was considerably more painful than the first one since it was mostly up stairs; Rainbow didn’t stop dragging us along until we reached the roof of the hotel.

“Alright, here’s the deal,” Rainbow began. “I’ll take one of you on my back to a safe place, then I’ll come back for the other. Who’s going first?”

“Take Fluttershy,” I told her. “I can wait.”

“But Rarity,” Fluttershy began in a distressed tone. “You should…”

I didn’t hear what I should do, as Rainbow Dash had already flipped her up into the air and swooped up, catching Fluttershy on her back before speeding off into the city. I ran over to the stairwell door, quickly slamming the door shut and putting all my weight up against it, it wouldn’t do an awful lot if all seven of the soldiers did try to push through… or any one of them really. I pressed myself up against it, silently praying that they were still too busy searching the lower floors for us to check the roof. Of course when I was found, it wasn’t by any of the seven soldiers, and they didn’t come from the door I just shut.

Fleetfoot flew into me, sending me crashing across the flat, stone roof, landing in a wheezing heap. I looked up, but it was hard to see her as she slowly descended upon me, the sun glared brilliantly off her armour and the white of the city all around me. It really was an impractical design in that regard, but the fact that that’s what I was thinking about as my doom slowly approached, was clear evidence that somewhere along my travels I had gone insane.

“Well, that was an unexpected intrusion,” Fleetfoot commented lazily as she floated down and leaned over me. “But it looks like your knight in shining armour has abandoned you in favour of your friend. If it makes you feel any better, they’ll both receive the same fate as you.”

Fleetfoot brought out her baton a second time, this time however, as she held it before her, it actually sprang to life to reveal, not a spear, but a double ended sword. Both blades were long and slender, each one curving ever so slightly in the opposite direction of the other. She lowered one of the ends until it rested against my throat, reminding me of the time Sufferthorn did the same thing when Twilight and I went to investigate the Solar Empire safe house. Once she was satisfied with her position, she raised the blade high overhead, getting ready to swing it down and slice my throat open.

Then a multi coloured blur knocked into her, sending her flying just as she had done to me, moments before. Fast as lightning, Rainbow swooped back, scooped me up and threw me over her back, before taking off from the roof and flying me through the city.

“You’re getting slower,” I muttered as I felt myself drifting off.

“I could say the same about you!” Rainbow called back over the howling wind. “What happened to that mare I fought outside the city gates?”

“She got kicked when she wasn’t looking,” I replied weakly.

“Fleetfoot’s always been a dirty cheater,” Rainbow Dash spat. “To think somepony like her used to be a Wonderbolt.”

I tried to respond, but all that came out was an indistinguishable mumble. If Rainbow Dash looked like blur when she was flying; it was nothing compared to how warped the world around her looked when she was in the air. I knew pegasi needed to have good vision to make out details while in the air, but Rainbow’s had to have been incredible for her to make all the precise adjustments in her direction and speed and still have any idea where she was going. She finally slowed down when she swooped into a narrow residential street, when she touched down I managed to stand up on my own, although I felt like I was going to be sick.

She helped guide me inside an apartment block where she led the way up three flights of stairs before finally coming to a door. She just walked right on in, as I followed after her I saw Fluttershy sitting awkwardly on a sofa.

“Make yourself at home,” Rainbow invited. “There’s cider in the fridge, some left over pizza too, if you’re hungry.”

“This is… your house?” I asked, looking around the cosy, if slightly untidy apartment.

“Yeah, it’s not much, but it’s enough for me,” Rainbow explained, as she pulled out a bottle of cider from the fridge and took a swig from it while leaning against the kitchen counter.

“Won’t they be able to find us here?” I asked in a concerned voice. “Like, don’t they have your address on record or something?”

“They wanted to keep track of my address,” Rainbow said. “They even sent a guy around to me while I was working.”

“And?” Fluttershy asked.

“I beat him up,” Rainbow replied simply, taking another swig. “They didn’t ask again after that.”

I rolled my eyes at that as I walked over and sat down beside Fluttershy, still feeling like I was going to be sick.

“Now, I’ve just put my neck on the line for you two,” Rainbow began, her voice suddenly stern. “So I want some answers. Who are you two, and why did I go to the Pantheon today and overhear the Marshal ordering Fleetfoot to have you both killed?”

Fluttershy briefly glanced at me, and I gave her a small nod to permit her to continue.

“We’re actually here on a diplomatic mission on behalf of the Rebel leader,” Fluttershy explained.

“Oh, you’re Rebels,” Rainbow cut in, as if it all made sense at that point. “Well that explains where you got your training.”

I was about to correct her, but opening my mouth felt like a bad idea, so I just allowed Fluttershy to carry on.

“We had a meeting with him earlier today,” she continued. “We tried to explain the serious trouble Olympus could be in if he didn’t help us deal with a terrible threat, but… but he refused to listen.”

“Terrible threat?” Rainbow repeated, a hint of excitement in her voice. “What kind of threat?”

“There’s a group that have taken over Cragsburg, called the Children of the Earth,” Fluttershy informed her. “Some time ago they invaded Pivot, Rarity was there and she saw what they did. They… they killed many ponies, and those they didn’t kill, they cut the wings and horns off of.”

Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened in horror as her wings snapped tightly to her sides.

“They… cut off wings?!” she exclaimed in a disgusted tone.

“And horns,” I muttered.

“That’s insane!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

“Exactly, but the Rebellion isn’t strong enough to defeat them on their own,” Fluttershy went on. “We tried to explain this to the Marshal, we hoped he would use his soldiers to secure the towns in the Lesser Pastures in case they tried to invade them, but he wouldn’t budge an inch on the matter.”

“I can’t believe this,” Rainbow muttered angrily. “How he could not help, this is… this is… I don’t even know what it is. But it’s not right, that’s for sure.”

“Glad you agree,” I replied weakly. “But the country’s problems don’t even end with the Children of the Earth.”

“There’s more?” Rainbow asked, paling slightly at what we might be about to reveal.

“On our way here, we passed through Brine,” Fluttershy picked up. “The entire population is dead, but… they continue to walk around, killing anything that enters the town.”

“We hoped at the very least, Iron Sights would lend some troops to clear the town out,” I added. “As it is, anypony could wander into the town and be killed if something isn’t done.”

“But he wouldn’t help with that either,” Fluttershy finished.

“That stuck up…” Rainbow began, chewing her lip in frustration. “And there’s nothing I can do about it because of the stupid rule.”

“Rule?” Fluttershy repeated.

“The rule of the Dragoons,” Rainbow elaborated. “That the strongest make the decisions. It’s like Fleetfoot said at the hotel, I can’t disobey the Marshal unless I or somepony else proves ourselves to be stronger than him. But it’s impossible, nopony has ever beaten him in a fight.”

Rainbow Dash walked over and slumped into the other chair in the room, letting out a deep sigh.

“I hate this…” she muttered in a hollow voice. “I thought it made sense at the start, but now…”

“You hate what?” Fluttershy asked. “The Dragoons?”

“Yeah,” Rainbow said with small nod. “It just doesn’t work, and this is proof.”

“Back when we first met,” I began. “And you defeated that officer and took his place; your friend said you were supposed to be keeping your head down. What did she mean by that?”

“Dew Drop and me have been in the Vanguard since the Dragoons first took over Olympus,” Rainbow explained. “It’s our job to protect the front gates; basically we’re the first line of defence for the city. Like every unit, our leaders switched about a lot, a new one would come in for a week, only to get his ass kicked and be replaced. The power struggle is constant, I never wanted to become a part of it, Dew Drop knew that.”

“Why did you not want to?” Fluttershy asked. “Did you not think you were strong enough?”

“Not exactly,” Rainbow replied with smug little smirk. “I know I’m strong enough, I could probably kick ass all day and never get knocked down once. Come sunset, I would already be at the top of this city… in Fleetfoot’s position that is, not the Marshal, even I’m not that good.”

“Oh Rainbow Dash,” I muttered with a deadpan expression. “Don’t be so hard on yourself.”

“Yeah, yeah, you don’t have to tell me I’m big headed,” Rainbow said, laughing. “I get that from Dew Drop plenty. Although I like to think of it as knowing my own strengths and limitations, because I know I’m strong enough to rise through the ranks… but I am not a leader.”

Fluttershy and I both frowned, exchanging a brief glance before looking back at Rainbow Dash.

“And that’s the problem, isn’t it?” she continued. “The strong in this city become the leaders, but being strong doesn’t mean you’ll be a good leader. I’m strong, and I can only just manage the Vanguard. The Marshal’s strength is unparalleled, and yet he refuses to use his strength to help you. I was a soldier long before the war started, and I was one of the first to volunteer when the war was declared, because I believed in what we were doing. When the Marshal decided to split off and form the Dragoons, I went with him because I thought that under his rule, soldiers like us would be glorified and appreciated for the role we played in winning the war and earning freedom.

“I became a Dragoon because I thought we deserved to be rewarded for what we had done for the country,” Rainbow finished. “But this… this is nothing like I had in mind. I haven’t left Olympus since the war ended, we’re not even allowed to see the country we fought so hard for, and now you’re telling me that it’s falling to pieces while we sit up here, fighting over the leadership that none of us are fit for. I wanted to be rewarded, to have my deeds appreciated; instead all I got was the opportunity to become something I was never meant to be. I’m a soldier, it’s who I am. I serve this country and the ponies in it because I’m strong enough to… but that doesn’t give me the right to claim power over any of it.”

“Wow…” Fluttershy breathed while I stared at Rainbow Dash, slightly slack jawed at her sudden profoundness. “That was… really dramatic.”

“Thanks,” Rainbow replied, brightening up considerably. “I got most of it from Daring Do, but I gave it a personal spin.”

Fluttershy and I both plunged our faces into our hooves at the same time, but we couldn’t keep the exasperated look up for long, and very quickly starting laughing.

“Feels weird to talk about this…” Rainbow muttered once the three of us stopped laughing. “So what do we do now? I can’t stay in Olympus, you heard what Fleetfoot said, I’m a traitor now.”

“Well you’re welcome to come with us,” I told her. “We have to report back to Pivot, I’m sure Maverick wouldn’t mind having you return to the fold, you were after all a Rebel once.”

“Eh, I don’t much fancy that,” Rainbow admitted. “Maverick is a bit of a tool, is Typhoon still about? I kind of liked him, or respected him at least.”

“Sorry, he split off as well,” I informed her. “We’re hoping his faction will come back to us soon, but at the moment we aren’t on the best of terms.”

“Why don’t you stick with us?” Fluttershy offered. “We do have some crazy… and dangerous adventures; we could really use your help.”

“Crazy? Dangerous?” Rainbow repeated, her smile growing with each syllable. “Sounds like fun… yeah, sure, I’ll go with you guys, if you want me to.”

“We’ll need to leave Olympus as soon as possible,” I told her. “Will you be able to help us out of the city?”

“Oh, easily,” Rainbow replied confidently. “That’s the good thing about having wings, city walls mean nothing to you. I can fly you on my back if Fluttershy can fly on her own.”

“I can manage,” Fluttershy began. “But Rarity, aren’t you forgetting our other mission here?”

“Oh shoot!” I grumbled, suddenly remembering what we had been scheming before the incident with Fleetfoot. “Well if it was going to be hard before, it will be impossible now that he wants us killed. I hate to say it, but we might just have to let this one go.”

“Wait, hold on a sec,” Rainbow cut in. “What mission is this?”

“Negotiating was only our secondary objective,” I explained. “But our primary one was to find out about Iron Sights’ involvement in something.”

“On one of her previous missions, Rarity found out the old Rebel leader Arcana was secretly involved with some mysterious ponies during the war,” Fluttershy continued. “He was killed before Rarity could find out who they were, but we believe Iron Sights was somehow involved in it as well. Maverick wanted us to find out how he tied into it, but we don’t have a clue where to begin, especially if the entire city is on the lookout for us.”

“Iron Sights involved in some secret plot?” Rainbow repeated, stroking her chin. “Seems… unlikely, but if you think so, and this is what you’ve been tasked to do, then I’ll help you as best as I can.”

“I really don’t think we can pull it off now,” I insisted. “We saw him in the arena, there’s no way we can interrogate that monster, and since he wants us dead, then persuasion is off the table.”

“Have you considered breaking into his house and searching for evidence?” Rainbow asked simply.

“You know where he lives?” Fluttershy asked, a little surprised.

“Yeah, it’s not far from the Pantheon,” Rainbow confirmed. “He doesn’t even keep the place guarded or anything, if that’s what you’re worried about. He probably thinks he doesn’t have to, I mean, who would be stupid enough to break into the Marshal’s house?”

“Is the answer ‘us’?” I asked with a growing smirk.

“Yes,” Rainbow Dash said as she stood up. “Yes it is.”

We didn’t attempt to leave Rainbow Dash’s apartment until well after midnight. It was just her and myself going, Fluttershy gladly agreeing to stay behind. Once Rainbow Dash was stripped out of her rather obvious silver armour and dressed in a black stealth suit, similar to the one Fluttershy wore when we moved again Blueblood on the beach, we set off for Iron Sights’ house. I had to activate my cloud walker amulet once we entered the cloud sector, Rainbow warned me that I wouldn’t be able to turn it off even when we were in the house. I wasn’t sure how much charge it had left, but I was sure it would be enough.

The house turned out to be a rather unimpressive structure, and as Rainbow Dash had promised, it was completely unguarded. We snuck around to the back door, which we found to be locked, but a bathroom window was left open slightly, which we were able to open wide and squeeze through. Once we were both inside, we began skulking around as quietly as we could, we weren’t sure if he was home or not, but we weren’t taking any chances. The downstairs consisted only of a bathroom, kitchen, sitting room and dining room, nowhere where secret information was likely to be hidden.

After moving up the stairs, being made of compact clouds meant they wouldn’t creak which was good, we found a study and Iron Sight’s bedroom, both of which were completely deserted.

“Nopony’s home,” Rainbow muttered as she edged into the bedroom. “Alright, let’s get looking. Will you know what you’re looking for if you see it?”

“I think so,” I replied, searching through his wardrobe. “If you see anything with writing, let me know.”

Rainbow grunted in response before setting to work. I scoured the bedroom while she worked through the study, but returned quickly when she learned that the bookshelves were fake, clearly intended for show. While I continued to search his dresser, Rainbow Dash looked over the bedside table I had already examined.

“Rarity, do you hear this?” Rainbow asked as she pulled the drawer out repeatedly, a distinct scratching sound emanating each time she did.

“It’s just stiff,” I replied in a disinterested tone. “I noticed it when I was searching that drawer, there’s nothing in it.”

“Nothing in it…” Rainbow Dash repeated as she tugged the drawer hard, pulling it right out of the cabinet and spilling socks everywhere.

“Rainbow Dash, careful!” I hissed before realising what she was doing.

Rainbow flipped the drawer over in her hooves to reveal the underside, and the envelope that was taped to it. Rainbow tore the envelope from it, holding it up and turning it about to see that it was torn open and the letter was still inside.

“A hidden letter,” Rainbow commented. “I think this might be what you’re looking for.”

She passed it across to me and I slowly opened it, pulling the sheet of paper free. My eyes scanned over it, narrowing as I briefly gathered what it was about, before finally widening upon reading the signature.

“It’s from Arcana!” I declared, struggling to keep my voice down. “This… this is it! It says… wait… no… it can’t be!”

“What?” Rainbow asked impatiently. “Does it say what you needed to know?”

“No…” I admitted in a strained voice. “But it does say something very interesting, something I think you need to see.”

Rainbow Dash blinked in confusion, briefly pointing to herself before tentatively reaching out for the letter. I was just about to pass it to her when we heard the slamming of the front door, we both froze, while I personally had a mini heart attack. Rainbow Dash acted instantly, scooping up all the socks, shoving them back into the drawer before sliding the whole thing back into the cabinet, and finally grabbing me and speeding us both into the first hiding place she could reach, the wardrobe. We both stood inside, holding our breath as the bedroom door opened and Iron Sight’s slowly marched in, his armour clanking as he did.

I could see him through a crack in the wardrobe doors, Rainbow Dash had failed to shut it correctly, leaving the narrowest opening for me to peer into the room. I couldn’t risk shutting it in case he took notice; I just prayed he wouldn’t look too closely. Luckily there was a separate armour stand in the room, so I doubted he had any reason to use the wardrobe which was filled with mostly old garments that looked like they hadn’t been worn much. I was at the perfect angle that I could see Iron Sights the entire time he stripped off his armour and mounted it onto the stand.

He took his time with it, his movements reflecting his speech in how slow and deliberate it all was. When he was finally stripped bare, folding his crimson tunic up and placing it on the dresser, he made his way over the full length mirror that stood next to the armour stand. I watched as he walked right up in front of it, and I saw his reflection too, now free of the armour I, and presumably everypony else, had always seen him in. His face bore a tired, agitated expression; his body was relatively well built, but did not reflect the strength he had displayed in the arena. All this I took in, but only briefly, it was his chest that my eyes navigated towards.

My heart stopped briefly as my eyes fell upon it, the blood red orb embedded in the centre of his chest. It was pulsating with an intense glow, like it were a second heart, visible if not for his armour obscuring it all the time. I knew what it was I was looking at, I had read about it in the letter, seeing it for myself just confirmed the horrible truth I had learnt. I knew the orbs name, and I couldn’t stop myself from whispering it as my eyes were locked upon it.

“The Terrorstone.”

XLVII - Champion Of The Coliseum

The mood in the apartment when we returned was very tense, Fluttershy and I watched anxiously as Rainbow Dash paced back and forth, reading the letter for possibly the dozenth time since we returned. We had escaped from Iron Sights’ house easily enough, right after I foolishly uttered the word ‘Terrorstone’ and Rainbow Dash clamped her hoof over my mouth, there was a knock on the front door. While Iron Sights threw on a tunic and went to see who it was, Rainbow Dash and I sneaked out the window. We got to a safe distance and were able to see that it was Fleetfoot who had come to visit. She was most likely there to tell him we remained at large, because he was already shouting at her while we escaped into the night.

Once back at the apartment, Rainbow demanded to know what I meant when I said she should read the letter. I gave it over to her and she read it… she then reread it, over and over again, slowly getting angrier each time.

“I… don’t… believe this,” she began at last, seething with rage as she crumpled the letter in her hooves. “That liar! That cheater!”

“I don’t understand,” Fluttershy whispered to me, looking fearfully up at Rainbow Dash who seemed lost in her fury. “What did the letter say? Does it explain what Arcana was up to?”

“No,” I admitted sadly. “But it confirms that whatever it was, Iron Sights helped.”

“Oh, he helped alright,” Rainbow cut in, resuming her stomping around. “And in return, Arcana sent him a little present!”

“Present?” Fluttershy repeated, sinking into her seat.

“The Terrorstone,” I told her. “That’s what Arcana called it at least. It’s an orb, placed within Iron Sight’s chest; it’s the secret to his immense strength.”

“It’s how he tricked us!” Rainbow snapped, kicking her coffee table into the wall. “He used the Dragoon rule and that bloody stone to guarantee he would always rule over us.”

“Rainbow, I know you’re angry,” I began in a panicked voice. “But you need to calm down, if somepony hears the racket and calls the guards…”

“You’re damn right I’m angry!” Rainbow interrupted. “I thought the Dragoons were bad before, when I thought it was just an ineffective system, but now I know it’s corrupt as well. It’s only purpose was to brainwash us into believing that the strong should lead, so nopony could ever challenge his authority.”

“But I don’t understand,” Fluttershy said quickly. “What does the Terrorstone do?”

“It feeds off fear,” I explained. “Arcana’s letter detailed instruction for how to use it. It draws from a pony’s natural magic to turn the fear of your enemies into physical strength, it’s why Iron Sights is able to look so normal and still be able to pack such a strong punch.”

“So that’s how he did it,” Fluttershy murmured thoughtfully. “That mare he fought in the arena looked terrified as she walked out.”

“The stone can turn even the smallest amount of fear into great strength,” I continued. “The kind of fear a pony would feel going up against a pony as legendarily powerful as Iron Sights… the power it would give the user would be phenomenal.”

“He’s evil…” Rainbow muttered as she crouched down. “During his fights, everything he does is so… deliberate. His calm movements, never looking aggressive, getting the crowd to laugh and jeer at his opponent… it’s all intended to make him look superior and inspire as much fear in them as he can, it’s obvious now.”

Fluttershy stood up and tentatively walked over to Rainbow Dash where she draped wing over her back.

“Is there really nothing in the letter that tells us what he did for Arcana or why?” Fluttershy asked, looking back up at me.

“Nothing I’m afraid,” I replied, shaking my head. “Like I said, the letter confirms that Iron Sights was helping Arcana do whatever it was he was doing, but it never expressly says what that was. It says the Terrorstone was intended as payment for his services, as well as his silence, and how Arcana appreciated his lack of questions, which makes me think that he never confided in Iron Sights why he was moving troops or doing whatever. Most likely Arcana saw him as a tool, he was after all a pegasus, and I doubt Iron Sights cared what Arcana was up to if it meant getting the power he needed to carry out his own plans.”

“So Iron Sights can possibly tell us what all Arcana was doing behind the Rebellion’s back,” Fluttershy summarised. “But he can’t tell us why, or what the robed ponies have to do with it.”

“I doubt it,” I stated firmly. “But we aren’t going to be able to get any information out of Iron Sights. We need to get back to Maverick and tell him what we discovered, he can figure out a way to stop Iron Sights and learn his secrets.”

“No,” Rainbow Dash said in an unwavering voice as she stood up. “No, Iron Sights has to be stopped today… this must end today!”

“Rainbow Dash, we can’t…” I began to no avail.

“I’m not asking you to stay and help,” she said quickly. “I’ll take you both to the gate and help you get out of here, but I’m staying. I know I said I would go with you, and I’m sorry I have to retract my offer, but I can’t leave here until he’s made to pay for what he’s done.”

“Rainbow Dash, we understand that,” Fluttershy said sympathetically. “But what can you do? He’ll never let you live long enough to reveal the truth to anypony.”

“Not if I challenge him,” Rainbow argued, making us both gawk in disbelief. “If I can publically challenge him, he must accept. If he doesn’t and tries to have me killed, he’ll lose all credibility.”

“But you can’t beat him!” I exclaimed. “Nopony can, not so long as he has the Terrorstone.”

“I can try,” Rainbow replied stubbornly. “And I’ll reveal the truth to the entire Coliseum, even if I die in the process. Like I said, I’m not asking you to help me; you’ve done enough by helping me uncover this information.”

“Rainbow, we aren’t going to leave you here,” I told her. “If you’re so determined to bring Iron Sights down, we aren’t about to let you do it alone.”

“That’s right,” Fluttershy agreed. “We’ll figure out a way of putting a stop to him together.”

“You would really stay and help me?” Rainbow asked, trying to hide the hope building in her voice.

“Of course,” I confirmed as an idea sparked to life in my head. “And what’s more, I think I have an idea how we can accomplish it.”

We talked nonstop for a good hour, reading over the letter together and ironing out the plan I had begun to develop. Once it was finalised and we were all fully prepared to be slaughtered come morning, Rainbow Dash retired to her bedroom to get a few hours of sleep, for the energy she would desperately need. The sun had risen high in the sky by the time we left the house, Rainbow Dash was once again wearing her full Dragoon armour, her helmet with the rainbow plume sitting proudly atop her head.

We marched confidently through the streets, even Fluttershy managed to quell her fear and appear confident as we made our way up through the city, our minds focused on the Pantheon where our target waited for us. Needless to say we attracted a number of Dragoon soldiers, but unlike the guards in Port Mule who simply followed me curiously when I walked brazenly through the streets to the Fort, these ones dived upon us immediately, fully intend on either arresting or killing us. They never made it far however, as Rainbow Dash simply had to say one line for them to back off.

As we marched up to the front of the Pantheon, we had a whole battalion of Dragoon soldiers following us, all eager to see what came of our venture. As we neared the pillars, I recognised the same two guards posted in the centre, and they seemed to recognise us with the way they lowered their halberds to point at us. Before Rainbow Dash could speak however, a pair of figures stormed out of the Pantheon, pushing right past the guards and making their way straight towards us. Fleetfoot did most of the storming, while Iron Sights approached us as he always did, slow and deliberate, his every movement radiating power and authority.

“Come to die?” Fleetfoot asked as she whipped out her baton and her blades snapped out.

“Not quite,” Rainbow replied coolly.

“And what are you idiots doing?!” Fleetfoot snapped at all the soldiers following us. “You had explicit orders to kill these cretins on sight.”

“They can’t kill me,” Rainbow stated, her voice loud enough to carry across the entire are and be heard by every pony in sight.

“And why not?” Iron Sights asked in a dull tone as he stepped past his second to face us.

“Because Iron Sights…” Rainbow began in a dangerous tone, intentionally leaving out his title.

Rainbow too pulled out her baton and extended her spear to point at him from across the gulf between us.

“I’ve come to challenge you.”

It took a couple hours, but before long, the entire Coliseum was packed with ponies from all across Olympus. As I glanced out over the stadium, I wondered if the entire city was present, the news that the Marshal would be facing off against a traitor seemed to have sparked the interests of everypony. I stood at the entrance of the Coliseum, fiddling with my cloud walker amulet while I waited for my friends to arrive on the scene. While I waited, I noticed a familiar mare among the crowd funnelling into the stadium, I waved to get her attention and she squeezed her way over to me.

“How are you feeling?” I asked the hotel receptionist, casting a concerned look over her bruises.

“I’ll be okay,” she muttered in an unconvincing voice. “What about you? What did those soldiers want with you?”

“Just a misunderstanding,” I lied easily. “My friend is actually fighting the Marshal today.”

“You mean the one who came in to rescue you?” the mare recalled, raising an eyebrow in surprise. “My condolences.”

“Actually…” I began with an enigmatic smirk. “I think she has a better chance than you might think, or more accurately, than the banker you owe money to might think.”

“What do you mean?” the mare asked curiously.

“You said you wanted to clear up your debt and get out the city, didn’t you?” I asked. “Well I think I might have a way in which you can do that without paying a single bit.”

“You do?!” the mare responded eagerly.

“It’s simple, find whoever you owe money to and bet on the upcoming match,” I instructed her. “Double or nothing on Rainbow Dash winning.”

“But that’s insane!” the mare argued. “Nopony beats the Marshal.”

“Well today his winning streak is about to come to an end,” I told her confidently. “Look, I know it’s a big risk, but really, what have you got left to lose?”

“I guess…” the mare muttered in an uncertain voice. “I just hope you’re right about this.”

“I am, now you’d better hurry before the match starts,” I said hurriedly, only stopping her as she turned to leave. “Hang on; I never did get your name.”

“It’s Golden Belle,” she replied, looking back over her shoulder before slipping back into the crowd.

“Are we good to go?” Rainbow asked from behind me.

“Should be,” I replied before looking to Fluttershy who was at her side. “You know what to do right?”

“Keep him distracted,” Fluttershy stated with a nod.

“Twenty minutes should be enough time,” I told her before giving a little nod to the pair of them and turning to leave.

Rather than mingle with the crowd and enter the stands, I turned right through a narrow doorway that led into a long, darkened tunnel that curved around the entire circumference of the Coliseum. As I walked, I passed by a number of heavy dungeon like doors, each of which would lead me into an individual armoury and one of the numerous portcullis gates beyond. I counted my way along, remembering which gate Iron Sights had first walked out of and returned into when I saw him in the arena that first night. Of course, it was a bit of a gamble that he would be entering from the same one again, but it was my best bet and we didn’t have time to search them all.

I counted my way to the sixth door, if the Coliseum was a clock and the entrance was number six, that made this room number three. I took one breath before pushing it open, marching right on in, only to freeze when I came face to face with a pony I was hoping to avoid.

“Oh…” I uttered. “Hello Fleetfoot.”

Fleetfoot was staring at me, her helmet switched out for her purple sunglasses. When I walked in, she was looking over a set of armour that was mounted on a dummy in the centre of the room, but now she was turning away from it to face me instead.

“Rarity,” she muttered in a slightly amused voice. “You do realise Rainbow Dash’s room is on the other side of the Coliseum, right? Or maybe… you’re exactly where you intended to be.”

“Maybe I am,” I replied casually. “What about you? Preparing the Marshal’s armour are you?”

“I am indeed,” Fleetfoot replied. “I do so before every match, to make sure nopony… tampers with it.”

“Yes, that would be a real shame if somepony were to come here with the intention of doing that,” I agreed, nodding sagely. “On a slightly related note, would you mind stepping away for a few minutes while I tamper with that armour?”

“I would mind,” Fleetfoot stated as her grin grew. “You know, I just knew that you would try something sneaky. Even Rainbow Dash isn’t stupid enough to fight the Marshal without first getting her lackeys to help her cheat.”

“Funny, I was going to say the same thing about Iron Sights,” I responded in a cool tone.

“Excuse me?” Fleetfoot questioned, her grin vanishing as her eyebrows crinkled into a frown. “Are you accusing the Marshal of cheating?”

“Yes, I am,” I stated simply. “But what I don’t know, is whether you’re helping him do so, or if he’s been tricking you as well.”

“You know, I’m not allowed to hurt you until after Rainbow Dash is dead,” Fleetfoot spat at me. “But you’re really trying my patience with your baseless accusations.”

“There’s nothing baseless about a letter that explicitly reveals the true nature of Iron Sight’s strength,” I revealed in a triumphant voice.

Fleetfoot stared at me in silence, no longer smiling, but no longer frowning either. Finally she placed one hoof into her face and let out a loud groan.

“That moron,” she gave off in a frustrated tone, more talking to herself than to me. “I just knew this would happen someday. I told him to burn the letter, but like an idiot he refused to, said he might need it in case he forgot. Who forgets how to use an artefact like the Terrorstone?! It’s not a bloody combustion engine!”

“So you did know,” I muttered, slightly surprised after all.

“Of course I knew!” Fleetfoot spat. “You think that dim-witted fool could have pulled off any scheme that required a modicum of intelligence? He was nothing more than a figure head for the Dragoons; it was I who conceived them. I was the one who realised how the Terrorstone could be used to rule over others, I was the one who figured out how to turn his failures and demotion into the foundation for something much greater.”

“Should have realised somepony like him wasn’t capable of puling all this off,” I stated as I started edging around the room, trying to get a better angle at Fleetfoot. “He didn’t seem to be the brightest bulb.”

“You’re damn right he isn’t,” Fleetfoot agreed with a sour laugh. “But idiots are easily manipulated, which suited me just fine… or at least it would have, if he hadn’t been so stupid that he insisted on keeping solid evidence of his deceit underneath his bloody sock drawer!”

Fleetfoot snapped around to face me; clearly my creeping hadn’t gone unnoticed. I froze as she apparently glared at me from behind her sunglasses, readying herself for an attack.

“So you figured it out,” she continued. “Iron Sights is an idiot and a cheater, big whoop! What now, you sabotage his armour and that in some way gives Rainbow Dash an edge over him? Get real; she was dead the moment she issued that challenge.”

“Not necessarily,” I argued, conscious that Fluttershy’s distraction probably wouldn’t buy me much more time. “I have faith that our plan will succeed.”

“Well I’m afraid your plan stops now,” Fleetfoot hissed as she lowered herself, getting ready to leap at me. “I’ve worked too hard to build the Dragoons up, I’m not about to let you ruin things before I can put my final plans into action.”

With that she spread her wings and dived at me, spiralling through the air. I ducked down and rolled out from under her, but as I did, I felt a searing pain run across my back. Once I stopped rolling, I saw that Fleetfoot had brought out her double ended sword as she flew at me, and what I had felt was it raking across my back. Fleetfoot didn’t let up for a second, leaping forward a second time, swishing her blades all around her. To get caught in it would mean instant death, so I just stumbled back further and further until I hit up against the wall.

Fleetfoot was still coming, I began drawing my own sword, but I knew I would never get it out and ready in time to save me. As she neared, I did the one thing I could think of and lashed out with my magic, catching her in the face and sending her sunglasses flying off. To my utter amazement, Fleetfoot stopped her pursuit, stumbling and crying out as her eyes were exposed. It was only then I saw that her eyes were extremely bloodshot looking, the blood vessels in them dark and unhealthy looking. With no better tactics in mind, I clustered all my magic into my horn and released it as pure light, filling the small, enclosed armoury.

Fleetfoot screeched in agony as she dropped her sword and collapsed to her knees, clenching her eyes shut in agony. Seeing my opening, I rushed forward to take it, kicking her squarely in the jaw and cutting out her screaming and snivelling instantly. I stood for a moment, catching my breath and cringing as the pain from my back suddenly flooded through my body. I wanted desperately to lie down, but I knew I still had a job to do, and my encounter with Fleetfoot had taken up enough time as it was. As quick as I could, I levitated Fleetfoot’s body and weapon out of the armoury, hiding them in the next one along.

I then hurried back into the first room and set about modifying Iron Sight’s armour. I had intended taking the full twenty minutes to do this and make sure it was done right, but I estimated I had only five at the very most, and that was including the time it would take for Iron Sights to reach the armoury. However, I was sure I could pull it off; working with clothing was my special talent after all. Opening my satchels, I pulled out a sewing needle and thread that Dew Drop had been able to fetch for me before I went to the Coliseum, as well as the magic bindings that Twilight had used on me after I attacked Typhoon.

The Terrorstone drew its power from the natural magic of its host, so by stitching the straps to the inside of the armour where Iron Sights was unlikely to see them, they should drain his pegasus magic and make the Terrorstone completely useless. I was certainly able to pull off the task within the short time limit I had left, but I was cutting it fine as I slipped out of the armoury and heard the sound of heavy hoof steps approaching. I hid myself inside the same room I had stashed Fleetfoot’s still unconscious body until I heard the door to Iron Sight’s armour open and close, and the sound of his hoof steps quieten.

Leaving the armoury and Fleetfoot, I galloped down the curving corridor to find where Rainbow Dash was getting ready; I wanted to wish her luck before the match started. Luckily her door was lying open, which made it easy to identify, I cantered straight in to find Rainbow and Fluttershy waiting. They both looked up to see me, first in surprise, then in shock and panic when they saw my injury. Fluttershy rushed over to me, but I remained composed as best I could.

“I’ll be fine for a bit,” I assured her before looking to Rainbow Dash. “It’s done.”

“Forget that,” Rainbow cut in. “What happened to you?”

“Fleetfoot,” I replied in a disgruntled tone. “Turns out she knew about the Terrorstone all along, she was even manipulating Iron Sights as part of some plan.”

“What plan?” Fluttershy asked.

“Don’t know, but I took care of her,” I stated. “We can deal with her later; right now we have to focus on this stage of the plan. How are you feeling Rainbow Dash?”

“I’m good,” Rainbow replied casually. “I knew you’d come through, so what was there to worry about? I’m a little annoyed about the aftermath of all this…”

“Rainbow, I know you don’t want to lead the Dragoons,” I began as I walked over and placed a hoof on her shoulder. “But you know we can’t just dissolve them immediately, it has to be gradual or else ponies will get angry.”

“I know, I just wish there was somepony else who could do it,” Rainbow mumbled.

“There’s nopony else we can trust to do the right thing,” I reminded her. “Don’t worry, after this we’ll be going straight to Pivot to tell Maverick the good news. Then we can begin merging our forces together, and in the meantime, all you have to do it assign a few soldiers to the nearby towns.”

“Yeah, I suppose,” Rainbow agreed. “And don’t worry your pretty little heads, I’m not about to leave those towns hanging like Iron Sights would have. If I have to do one thing as a leader, I’m glad it will be that.”

I opened my mouth to reply, mostly just to thank her for what she was doing, but I was drowned out by the sound of clanging. We all looked to the end of the armoury, down the dark tunnel to the portcullis gate which was slowly rising up.

“You better get to the stands,” Rainbow instructed in a smooth voice as she stood up, putting on her helmet and picking up her baton as she did. “I want you two to have to best view in the house when I win!”

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at that, but Fluttershy and I obeyed, leaving the armoury and taking a shortcut up to the stands where Dew Drop was saving us a pair of seats on the front row.

“Looks like it’s about to kick off,” Dew Drop commented as we sat down, I could hear the nervousness in her voice.

“She’ll be fine,” I assured her. “Iron Sights is powerless.”

“If you say so,” Dew Drop replied, although she didn’t sound convinced.

Rainbow Dash had only been able to fill her in briefly on what was going on, the soldiers had been keeping a close eye on us even after the challenge was issued, that made revealing the whole truth of the matter to her difficult. Once we were settled, we fixed our gazes to the open gateway on the far side of the Coliseum where Iron Sights was just beginning to march out from. It was just like the match we had seen on our first night in Olympus, when we got our first glimpses of the Dragoon leader. He marched out into the arena slowly and confidently, his Warhammer harnessed on his back.

I smiled as I realised he was indeed wearing the armour Fleetfoot had been preparing for him when I encountered her. Just as Dew Drop had told us, both challengers had to wear the same class of equipment, and since Iron Sights generally wore the highest class of armour, we knew he would have to accept a downgrade if he was to meet Rainbow Dash in her regular soldier set. The crowd cheered for Iron Sights as he strode out to the very centre of the arena, but the cheers quickly died down when he stopped in the middle and Rainbow Dash still hadn’t appeared.

I could hear whispering all around us, ponies wondering if the challenger had scarpered rather than face the Marshal after all. I wasn’t worried however; I knew Rainbow Dash was just looking to make an entrance. Indeed, as soon as Iron Sights slammed his hammer into the ground, Rainbow shot out of her gateway, wings spread wide as she flew around the entire arena, a far sight from the mare who had walked out trembling. The crowd erupted into cheers once more when it was obvious that there would indeed be a fight.

Rainbow Dash did several laps of the arena, not hesitating to perform some aerial acrobatics and even flashing winning smiles and winks into the audience. The crowd were absolutely lapping it up, I imagined it had been sometime since they saw somepony go up against Iron Sights and display this level of confidence. Rainbow finally slowed and made her descent, landing perfectly before the Marshal, only a dozen metres separating them. The crowd quietened slightly as they waited to see how it would all begin, and it did with Rainbow Dash reaching up and removing her rainbow plumed helmet, shaking her mane out before casting it to the ground.

“You yield?” Iron Sights questions in his booming voice, although I could detect the hint of confusion behind it.

“No I do not,” Rainbow replied, her own voice equally loud and clear for everypony to hear. “I just figured we should fight without helmets… that way everypony in Olympus can see your face when I defeat you!”

The stands exploded with screams of jubilation, I couldn’t help but grin widely at Fluttershy who, despite the worry in her face, also looked pleased at how well Rainbow Dash was handling herself. Iron Sights hesitated for only a moment before giving a curt nod and reaching up to remove his helmet. I hadn’t bothered to put any of the binds inside the helmet, as it was always a possibility that it would get knocked off during the battle anyway. Once his helmet was off, revealing his motley face to the audience, he addressed Rainbow Dash once more.

“Yield?” he uttered.

His offer didn’t get nearly as many laughs as it had in his last match, I wondered if maybe the crowd were actually supporting Rainbow Dash slightly.

“Funny…” Rainbow replied as she whipped out her baton and extended her spear to point at her opponent. “I was going to ask you the same thing.”

Now that got considerably more laughs, I was particularly pleased when I saw Iron Sights’ eyes narrow ever so slightly. His hoof twitched around his hammer, but it remained planted firmly in the ground, he still believed he had the upper hand. Rainbow Dash began circling him, spinning her spear as she did, for no reason other than to show off I imagined. She walked all the way around until she was directly behind him, the crowd watched with baited breath to see what she would do.

“Nah!” she declared, continuing her walk until she was once again facing him head on.

I could see Iron Sights really assessing her now, he knew something was up, but he hadn’t lost his cool just yet, that wouldn’t come until after he discovered his secret weapon was no longer working. Rainbow Dash took a few strides back, widening the gap between them, she kicked her hooves off the ground, stretched her neck and shoulders. Once she was ready, she drove her spear into the ground, abandoning it as she bolted forwards.

She didn’t fly, simply ran at amazing speeds as she closed the gap, her head low, her teeth bared in a wide grin. Iron Sights simply pulled back with his hoof, ready to strike her as he had done to the mare, but as he swung forward, ready to catch her in the side of the head, Rainbow swept out and knocked his hoof away before retaliating instantly with an uppercut of her own. Iron Sights was sent flying… literally, Rainbow Dash knocked him so hard he was chucked into the air where he was forced to use his wings to catch himself.

The crowd was deathly silent as the unstoppable Iron Sights flapped desperately to right himself in the air. I looked around and saw hundreds of gaping faces, unable to comprehend what just happened before their eyes. Iron Sights was panting hard as he rubbed his chin, staring down at Rainbow Dash with barely disguised fury. Rainbow Dash just grinned back up before slowly walking back to where her spear was, pulling it out and spinning it as she waited for her opponent to come back down.

Iron Sights descended slowly, I could see his eyes moving rapidly, his mind was most likely hard at work, trying to deduce what went wrong. Once he was on his hooves again, he reached down and picked up his fallen hammer, I knew after that initial hit he wouldn’t be going easy. Iron Sights took the initiative this time, flying high in the air before swooping down, his hammer sweeping through where Rainbow Dash had been mere milliseconds ago, before she became a multi-coloured blur and sped around behind him, slashing out with her spear.

He jumped forward at the last moment, but the spear head still nicked him by cutting through the small gap between his body armour and his gauntlet. The crowd saw the speck of blood on the tip of Rainbow Dash’s spear and they were deafening in their cheers. Dew Drop was joining in next to me, and Fluttershy too was trying to shout something, but her light voice couldn’t hope to be heard over the tumultuous audience. Iron Sights quickly became savage after that, his attacks became relentless, no more waiting between each strike.

Rainbow Dash didn’t panic however, she dodged every attack he threw her way, deflected the few that she couldn’t. Her spear was not capable of blocking his hammer, but she could knock it away before responding with her own swift attacks. Iron Sights was less lucky with his dodging, his wings helped him for the most part, but he was clearly the slower of the two, and Rainbow Dash was exploiting that to the best of her abilities. At one point she slashed her spear through the air, searing right across the top of Iron Sights’ head and giving him a very asymmetrical mane cut.

The crowd burst into hysterics at that, and Iron Sighs was no longer able to hide his fury any longer. He was seething with rage, every step he took and every attack he made carried all his anger behind it. it was getting harder for Rainbow Dash to keep avoiding the attacks, and she had given up trying to knock them off course altogether, after trying to do so disarmed her and she was forced to act quickly before Iron Sights crushed her spear beneath his hammer. Rainbow Dash had clearly become the favourite to win however, her own successes earning cheers and applause, while booing could be heard any time Iron Sights made any good moves.

“Why isn’t this working?!” Iron Sights screamed after he successfully punched Rainbow in the stomach, but all it accomplished was knocking her off balance.

“Y… yield?” Rainbow asked, sounding slightly breathless after the blow she had just taken.

The crowd began laughing once more, but they were silenced by Iron Sights who screamed with incredible fury. The crowd began to die down, and my own smile faded as I saw the ominous red glow surrounding Iron Sights. Then my eyes widened in horror as Iron Sights reached up to his chest and began tearing his armour off. I don’t know if he figured out what we had done, or if he was simply doing it out of frustration, but soon he was ripping all his armour from his body, and with every piece that came off, the glow grew more intense.

Finally he shredded his crimson tunic as he tore that off too, then he was simply flapping in the air, naked and defenceless but for the Warhammer still clutched in her foreleg, the Terrorstone shining brightly in his chest.

“You… dare mock me!” Iron Sights bellowed, any semblance of calm having long gone. “I will destroy you Rainbow Dash! I will flay you alive and slaughter your pathetic friends! I will devour your fear!”

Iron Sights slammed down upon Rainbow Dash, his hammer held high above his head as he brought it crashing down onto her… but it was useless. Rainbow Dash raised her spear horizontally to block the blow, and despite how much her weapon warped and bent under the pressure of the hammer, it remained firm. But more importantly, Rainbow Dash remained standing. Iron Sights stared wide eyed down at Rainbow Dash, who looked back up at him, still as calm and confident as ever.

“I don’t… fear you,” Rainbow stated in a voice that echoed across the Coliseum.

She pushed back against Iron Sights; in his shock he was easily unbalanced, and toppled to the ground. His hammer fell from his grip, but he didn’t try to retrieve it, he simply stared up at Rainbow as she stood over him, his body paralysed by fear.

“I don’t fear anything!” Rainbow Declared as she raised her spear, bringing it down upon Iron Sights.

The crowd was silent as Rainbow pulled her spear out of Iron Sights' eye socket, it dripped with blood, but she wasn’t done yet. Rainbow turned her attention to Iron Sights’ chest, angling her deformed spear down; she jammed the spear head into the pit and wedged the orb out. Dropping her spear, she reached down and scooped up the orb, staring into it as she stood up. For a brief second I felt a pang of fear in my own chest, an image of Rainbow Dash taking that power for herself swimming to the surface of my mind.

Rainbow turned to look directly up at where Fluttershy and I sat in the stands, our eyes met and for a few seconds all was still… before Rainbow Dash dropped the orb onto the ground and brought her hoof crashing down upon it. The orb shattered and the crowd erupted into life once more, everypony was on their hooves, screaming and cheering, stomping their hooves in applause, Rainbow Dash’s name chanted loud enough to be heard across the entire city. Rainbow Dash shot one last grin towards Fluttershy and myself before shooting up into the air, flying circles around the stadium in victory.

I couldn’t help but stand up and join in the applause, even Fluttershy was jumping up and down beside me, her screams of delight drowning out those of everypony else. I stopped cheering briefly as I noticed a flash of purple, looking down, I saw a figure standing in the tunnel that led to Iron Sights’ armoury. Even from the huge distance, I could tell Fleetfoot was furious as she skulked in the shadows, slipping away before I could think to point her out to Fluttershy. Rainbow swooped into the centre of the stadium, touching down in the exact spot where Iron Sights had walked out to. An armoured Dragoon soldier flew out to meet her, presenting her with a crimson cape embroidered in gold.

Rainbow Dash took the cape, but rather than put it on, she simply bunched it up in her hoof and held it into the air. A trophy to her great success, for all of Olympus to see.

Author's Note

End of Part 6

XLVIII - Fearless

Author's Note

Part 7

XLVIII - Fearless

I was pretty much alone inside the Pantheon the next morning, there were a couple other ponies, but they were keeping to themselves. I leant up against the front desk; my head tilted back, breathing in and out slowly as I waited for Rainbow Dash to arrive. The previous day had certainly been eventful, even after the fight we were never off our hooves until late evening. There was quite a lot a details that needed ironed out regarding Rainbow’s new position, and while she hated every minute of being the top dog, she sucked it up and got it all sorted.

The whole city was in a celebrating mood, it wasn’t that they particularly disliked Iron Sights, they just found life in Olympus to be rather stagnant, and Rainbow Dash’s victory appeared to represent an opportunity for change. It wasn’t until very late that everything was finalised and made official, and Rainbow was allowed to take a well deserved break. Together with Fluttershy, Dew Drop and some of her other casual friends form the Vanguard, we headed to the club she had mentioned on our first meeting.

While there I ran into Golden Belle and her family who were out celebrating the end of their debts. I spoke briefly with her, and she revealed that they would be handing over the hotel to the Marshal, packing their things and leaving Olympus within the coming days. I suggested they head to Glean to get involved in the restoration programme, as well as warning them about travelling near Brine. Fluttershy and I were happy to leave Olympus the next day as well. Rainbow Dash would have to stay nearby for a short while, at least until I could report into Maverick and we could begin the negotiations that would see the Dragoons dissolved and brought back into the Rebellion.

“Morning Rarity,” Rainbow greeted as she made her way down the Pantheon staircase. “Not hung over I see.”

“Good morning Marshal,” I replied, sniggering at the withering look Rainbow shot me. “And no, I’m fine. I can’t say the same for Fluttershy though; poor dear has yet to learn how to pace herself.”

“Well at least everypony had fun,” Rainbow commented as she joined me next to the desk. “Celestia knows there won’t be much of that for the next few weeks. Did those soldiers I called for arrive yet?”

“Yes, they’re outside now,” I reported. “Fluttershy is inspecting them.”

We stepped out through the open doors and out past the pillars to where several dozen Dragoon soldiers stood in formation, waiting for their new Marshal to arrive.

“Alright soldiers!” Rainbow announced as they all snapped to attention. “As you’ve already been briefed, the towns in the Lesser Pastures are being threatened. It is our duty to provide military aid for those towns; you all know which squad you’re in, so I won’t waste time talking to you individually. All three squads will be travelling to Brine, once there, squad A will form a perimeter around the town while squad B will continue south to offer reinforcement to Breakwater. Squad C will travel with squad B to Breakwater, where it will get transport to Anchorage.

“I know there have been a lot of rumours since I proposed this mission,” Rainbow continued. “Rumours about dead ponies walking around Brine and killing travellers, well I am here to tell you now that those rumours are true. Squad A’s mission will be to eradicate this menace from the town so that we can begin the process of restoring it. If any of you think you don’t have the stomach for a job like this, leave now, because once we leave these gates you won’t be given an opportunity to turn back.”

Rainbow waited for a moment, but nopony moved. I nodded in approval of their dedication, or perhaps they just needed to see the town for themselves before they ran away.

“I will be travelling with you,” Rainbow carried on, pacing back and forth in front of her soldiers. “But when we reach Brine, I will be splitting off to take squad B and C to Breakwater. Once I have established our presence with the authorities in Breakwater, I will then travel with squad C to Anchorage to do the same. As such, I will not be in charge of the operation at Brine, that role will fall to Fluttershy here.”

Rainbow indicated Fluttershy, who shrank slightly as all eyes fell upon her.

“Fluttershy will be in charge of purging Brine of the monsters that infest it,” Rainbow explained. “You will treat her as your superior, if she instructs you to do anything as part of the mission, you do it without question. You do not have the option of fighting Fluttershy to prove you are stronger than her and usurping her position as leader of this mission, anypony who attempts to do so will be treated as a traitor for threatening our relationship with the Rebellion and Celestial Sisterhood. You will treat her with utmost respect, and you will address her as Sister Fluttershy at all times, have I made myself absolutely clear?”

“Sir, yes sir!” the soldiers chorused.

Rainbow turned form them and made her way back over to where Fluttershy and I were standing.

“Don’t worry Flutters,” Rainbow assured her. “They wouldn’t dare defy a sister even if I hadn’t told them not to.”

“Thank you none the less Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy replied gratefully.

“Most of these ponies are in squad A,” Rainbow informed her. “I figured the situation at Brine required more attention than Breakwater and Anchorage, which means most of these soldiers will be yours to command when we reach Brine.”

“I’ve never commanded anypony before,” Fluttershy whimpered.

“Welcome to my world,” Rainbow sympathised. “But you know it has to be you, if you’re really the only one who can kill these creatures.”

“I know, and I’ll do my best,” Fluttershy promised.

“I know you will,” Rainbow said, before turning back to her troops. “Alright, you’re all dismissed. I want you all ready at the city gates for travelling at three, not a single minute later.”

The soldiers all saluted before filing out.

“You know, you say you don’t like to lead,” I began thoughtfully. “That you don’t think you’re any good at it, but as far as I’ve seen, you fill the role of leader quite well.”

“I do what I have to,” Rainbow replied simply. “But mainly because I know it’s only temporary, if I thought I had to do this on a permanent basis, I think I’d top myself.”

“Don’t even say that,” Fluttershy scolded before looking to me. “I really don’t like the idea of leaving you on your own.”

“Well I’ll be with Rainbow until Breakwater,” I reminded her. “And then it’s only a short travel until Pivot. One of us has to report in about everything that’s happened, and you’re needed at Brine.”

“I know, I know,” Fluttershy responded with a small sigh. “Just promise me you’ll be okay.”

“I will,” I promised. “Now we should go get ourselves ready.”

“You two go on ahead,” Rainbow instructed. “I’ll catch up in a little bit, but first I have to leave instructions for while I’m away. Can’t have the city falling apart in the absence of its new leader, can we?”

Fluttershy and I bid her farewell as we returned through the streets and out of the cloud sector, not a moment too soon as my amulet was considerably colder than it should have been anytime I activated it. We returned to Rainbow Dash’s apartment and started packing our things; we were in the middle of eating lunch when she got back, apparently confident that her instructions would be carried out until she returned. We ate and chatted together for a couple hours before we gathered the last of our things and left the building, making for the plaza at the city gates.

Naturally the soldiers were gathered well ahead of time, I could never fault them for their efficiency, even if their leadership could be a bit loopy with all the swapping about. Rainbow Dash gave a quick speech to the gathered battalion before calling for the gates to be opened and leading the small army out of Olympus and down the mountain trail. Fluttershy and I took up the rear, deciding it would be better not to distract Rainbow while she was busy with leading her troops. We stopped for a break around the area where Fluttershy and I had set up camp on our way to Olympus, but we didn’t stay long before Rainbow had us walking again.

She probably would have had us travelling well into the night until we reached Brine, but Fluttershy advised her to wait until it was light before getting too close to the city. It wouldn’t do to accidently wander beyond the scorched line and get savaged by the walking dead. Rainbow agreed and the soldiers set up camp for the night at the junction where the road from Brine split off to go to Olympus or Cragsburg. We stayed up for a little bit, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and I sitting around our own little fire away from the rest of the soldiers, discussing our arrangements for the next day.

When the sun had risen and the soldiers had packed up their hastily thrown together tents, we were off once more, arriving outside Brine before midday. The closer we got to the town, the more I could hear the soldiers whisper among themselves about what they would be faced with then they got there. Of course, when we reached the farmlands surrounding the town, the whispers were all silenced as all eyes fell upon a single unicorn stumbling out of the wheat fields. The pony had its horn snapped clean off and its lower jaw dangling about, attached only by a shred of flesh.

“Alright soldiers!” Rainbow called out, raising her hoof to silence the whispers that had just started up again. “For those of you who doubted my sincerity, there is a pony who appears to have been dead for some time… walking around and looking at you like you’re its next meal. I’ll pass you over to Sister Fluttershy now, remember, absolute respect.”

“Thank you, uh, Marshal,” Fluttershy began before addressing squad A, who stepped forward slightly to make themselves known. “While we do not know precisely what caused these ponies to become like this, we do know that cannot be killed by any means other than my mace. This means that you will be using restraining tactics, removing limbs to stop them from chasing, and tying their mouths shut to prevent them from biting you. We want to avoid taking on large groups of them, so we’ll be taking it slowly, trying to bait them out a few at a time, slowly pushing our front line, taking the town back street by street.

“Remember, the creatures cannot cross this scorch line,” Fluttershy stated, indicating it with her hoof. “As long as you are on this side of it, you are completely safe. Nopony is to cross on their own, and if you do, always make sure you have a clear exit strategy. It’s not uncommon for them to cluster inside buildings or alleyways, so you must always be vigilant to avoid being taken by surprise. If you have any questions, I’ll be happy to answer them, but right now we will begin by establishing a perimeter around the town. Remember which side of the line to stay on, and turn away any travellers.”

“Sir, yes sir!” the soldiers chorused loudly, making Fluttershy blush intensely.

They immediately set about with their orders while Fluttershy let out a long, shuddering breath.

“How’d I do?” she asked in a shaky voice.

“You were marvellous dear,” I told her brightly.

“Really impressive,” Rainbow complimented. “I suddenly don’t feel as bad about leaving you on your own; I think you’ve got this well-handled.”

“Will you both be leaving now?” Fluttershy asked, looking slightly down at the thought.

“Shortly,” I admitted. “We’d like to reach Breakwater by nightfall.”

“Don’t worry,” Rainbow said in a relaxed voice. “As soon as squads B and C are in place, I’ll be coming straight back here to check up on you.”

“And I’ll hopefully be coming back this way after reporting to Maverick,” I added.

“I know,” Fluttershy replied, sounding a little more accepting of it. “Oh, if you see Applejack while you’re down that way, give her my regards.”

“Applejack…” Rainbow Dash muttered thoughtfully and she stared into space.

“I will indeed,” I promised. “And when you find Pinkie Pie, you do the same from me.”

We stayed true to my word and headed off shortly after that, Rainbow Dash leading her remaining few dozen soldiers around Brine with me trailing along behind. It was certainly nice to arrive in Breakwater and find that it was still as muddy and boring as ever. A few ponies made to stop us from entering, most likely unable to tell the difference between the steel armour of the Rebel soldiers and the silver armour of the Dragoons, but Rainbow Dash just stormed right past them, her soldiers following suit.

I led Rainbow to the same tavern where Pinkie, Fluttershy and I had gone to learn about the Children of the Earth and Brine. At the late hour, it was absolutely packed with ponies, all of whom fell completely silent upon seeing Rainbow Dash walk in. We both surveyed the crowd of suspicious faces for a few seconds before shrugging and making our way up to the bar. Before we could reach it however, one stallion stood up and placed himself between us and our goal.

“Hey, clear off!” he ordered in a gruff tone. “We don’t like your kind around here.”

“Buddy,” Rainbow began with a roll of her eyes. “Just don’t.”

Rainbow made to take another step forward, but the stallion just positioned himself more directly in front of her, spreading his forelegs wide.

“I said…” he began, but didn’t get much further than that.

Rainbow’s hood darted back to her waist and whipped out her new silver rod, extending it out to its full length before placing the head lazily on the stallion’s shoulder, the edge directed towards his neck.

“And I said…” Rainbow retorted. “Don’t.”

The stallion gulped and shifted awkwardly out of the way, the way he moved made it look like he was trying desperately to hold his bladder. Rainbow returned the spear to its baton state, but kept it in her hoof as she strode up to the bar.

“Who’s in charge of this town?” Rainbow asked the barkeeper, the same one I had spoken to before. “And where can I find them?”

“That would be Knots, the mayor,” the barkeeper answered suspiciously. “You can find her in the big building down the docks from here.”

“Thank you,” Rainbow said as she turned away, mumbling under her breath. “That wasn’t so hard, now was it?”

I made to follow her, but got stopped when the barkeeper shouted after me.

“Hey lady, don’t think I don’t remember you from the other week,” he called out. “We said we didn’t want Rebels, what’s the deal bringing them here?!”

“They aren’t Rebels,” I replied. “And I brought them here because you do not want this place to end up like Brine.”

“So you did go there,” the barkeeper commented, a number of his patrons also looked interested at the mention. “So what’s the deal up there anyway?”

“Everypony is dead,” I informed them simply. “Beyond that, you don’t want to know.”

With that said, I marched out of the tavern to where Rainbow was issuing some instructions to a few of her soldiers. Once they left, she turned back to me, an annoyed look on her face.

“You weren’t kidding when you said this town might be difficult,” she commented. “Anyway, I think I can take it from here. The troops are setting up camp outside the town, if you want to go back there now, I’ll catch up in a bit once I’ve sorted stuff out with the mayor.”

I nodded and made my way back through to where the tents were already being pitched, several soldiers were already sitting around a fire and they invited me to join them.

“So you’re a Rebel then?” one of them asked as I sat down. “Feels like ages since we could say the same.”

“So is it true what they’re saying?” another asked. “That the Marshal is planning to bring us back together?”

“I can’t say for certain,” I replied hesitantly. “I still need to report back to my own superiors about what’s happened, it will be some time before any decisions are made.”

“Honestly, after Iron Sights turned out to be a lying scumbag,” one of the soldiers began bitterly. “I think going back to the Rebellion is the best thing for us.”

“Are you kidding?!” another guard exclaimed.

Everypony immediately broke out into a full blown row over whether or not the Dragoons should remain, during which time I decided it would be best to slip away and find a quiet spot to think. I certainly hadn’t been wrong when I said the Dragoons would have to be disassembled gradually, if Rainbow Dash had gone ahead with her first instinct and declared them dissolved as soon as she defeated Iron Sights, I had no doubt she would have been met with a riot.

“You’re not still mad at me are you?” Rainbow asked, interrupting me from my thoughts.

“I told you,” I began as she sat down beside me. “I was never angry about it, Iron Sights was dangerous, especially after he removed the bindings, killing him was probably the safest thing.”

“But you weren’t able to ask him about his involvement with Arcana,” Rainbow reminded me.

“No, I suppose not,” I agreed in a moody tone. “And from my conversation with Fleetfoot, I don’t think she knew how Iron Sights got a hold of the Terrorstone to begin with.”

“Well we’ll know for sure once we capture her,” Rainbow promised. “I’m sure she’ll be apprehended by the time we get back to Olympus, then we can figure out what she meant about her ‘plans’ for the Dragoons.”

“It’s probably going to be really anticlimactic,” I said despondently. “I mean, she acts like she’s some brilliant mastermind, but if she was as smart as she likes to think she is, she wouldn’t have told me as much as she did.”

“That’s how you know she’s a villain,” Rainbow pointed out. “Because rather than do the smart thing and kill their enemies when they have the chance, they start monologuing and revealing their diabolical plans.”

“You really do read too much Daring Do,” I commented with a laugh. “Although… I never did ask, how were you not afraid of Iron Sights after he removed his armour? The Terrorstone should have picked up on even the smallest amount of fear, but he didn’t get a thing from you.”

“I’m a soldier,” Rainbow said with a small shrug. “It’s important to keep your fear in check. Is there anything you’re really afraid of?”

“Well… I did have a bad run in with a Wight,” I revealed. “Ever since, I’ve been having… nightmares about it. I guess you could say undead frighten me.”

It was true, while none of them had disturbed me as much as the one I had on the barge, the dreams were ever-present.

“I used to be afraid of animals,” Rainbow told me, at which point I burst out laughing despite how incredibly insensitive it was. “Yeah, I know, hilarious. This was when I was just a filly, I grew up in the clouds, the ground always seemed like such a hostile place.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be so…” I began, feeling guilty for laughing.

“Don’t be,” Rainbow interrupted quickly. “Looking back I know it was stupid, and pretty funny. It did make things difficult for a long time, right up until my accident…”

“Accident?” I repeated in a concerned voice.

“It wasn’t long after I got my cutie mark,” Rainbow explained, indicating the rainbow lightning bolt on her flank. “Getting it made me pretty reckless for a while, right up until I had a pretty bad crash, really mangled my face, did some serious damage to my head.”

“Oh my!” I exclaimed, looking her up and down curiously. “I wouldn’t have known that.”

“Nope,” Rainbow replied with a grin. “I’ll tell you; those sisters down in the Bask can work some real magic. My old man took me straight there from Olympus on his back, I don’t think he’d ever flown so fast in his life. I still remember seeing my face after it happened in a mirror…”

Rainbow shuddered slightly.

“Only for a second, but that image will never leave me,” she continued. “But the sisters there fixed me up so well that nopony could look at me and ever know just how much my face once resembled a…”

“Actually!” I cut in hurriedly. “I don’t really need to know, it’s fixed now and that’s what’s important.”

“Well after I left the Bask,” Rainbow carried on. “I was never afraid of anything, I always figured that being so close to death made me realise that there’s always something worse… or something. That there’s nothing worth being afraid of, because nothing is ever bad enough to warrant it… or that being afraid won’t change anything, so there’s just no point. I don’t think I’m making any sense…”

“No, no, I think I understand,” I assured her while my own thoughts drifted to the times when I had been close to death.

“Well, that’s the best reason I can give for why I wasn’t afraid,” Rainbow finished. “It probably sounds crazy, but with everything I’ve been through since that first accident, everything I’ve done as a soldier right up until that fight with Iron Sights, I just can’t find it in myself to be afraid anymore… or maybe I just have massive amounts of brain damage.”

We both starting laughing at that, it was a nice, light-hearted way to end a conversation that was becoming dangerously serious.

“Anyway, we should get some rest,” Rainbow suggested. “I convinced the mayor to let squad B set up here, and I’ve also arranged for a ship to take me and squad C to Anchorage tomorrow.”

“Already?” I asked, a little surprised. “The mayor must have been considerably more reasonable than the rest of the ponies here.”

“Thankfully, yeah,” Rainbow confirmed. “Will you be able to find some way back to Glean on your own?”

“Well the barge that got us here in the first place isn’t due back for another couple of days,” I informed her. “But I’m sure I can find somepony willing to make the trip for the right price.”

“Well I hope you won’t need any more than that,” Rainbow stated, referring to the bits she was able to gather up for me. “Because that was really all I had to offer.”

“It’ll be fine, I’m sure,” I replied, stifling a yawn. “And if it isn’t, I’ll wait the couple days for Salty to come by with his barge.”

The morning came, and before long I was sitting on the edge of the dock, watching as Rainbow Dash left along with her final squad on the ship that had been provided for them by the mayor of Breakwater. All around me the soldiers of squad B were familiarising themselves with the layout of the town so they could set up their posts and patrol routes, they didn’t bother me any more after their Marshal had left, and I was content to let them get on without my interference. The rest of my day was spent trying to find anypony with a boat who would be willing to make a quick trip south to Salty’s wharf; however I found the ponies of Breakwater to be just as difficult as they were during my last visit.

If anything, they seemed more bothersome, no doubt they resented me for bringing soldiers of any faction to their town. The mayor was apparently happy enough to have them there, but the same could definitely not be said for her citizens. While they didn’t form mobs to chase them from the town or try to spit at any of them, they made up for it by being as purposefully unhelpful to me as possible. That was how my saviour found me, storming up and down the dock, muttering angrily under my breath.

“Well, well, fancy seein’ you here young’un,” a voice said behind me.

I turned and immediately smiled as I saw a familiar stallion stepping off his ferry onto the dock a few metres from where I had been having my miniature tantrum.

“Salty, am I glad to see you,” I greeted. “Although I was under the impression you wouldn’t be due back here for a couple days.”

“My schedule got messed up,” Salty explained. “Nothin’ to concern yourself with, but I suppose it’s lucky for you. I take it you’re lookin’ a lift south?”

“I am, if it’s not too much trouble,” I replied.

“Not at all,” he assured me, waving it off. “I just need to unload the barge and see if there’s anything for me to transport back with me. As soon as that’s taken care of, I’ll be settin’ off.”

“I can help again if you want,” I offered as I trotted alongside him towards one of the warehouses.

“Hopin’ to get that discount again?” he asked with a knowing smirk. “The offer’s still on the table.”

With the aid of my magic, we were able to set off fairly quickly, it also helped that there ended up being very little for Salty to take back with him. Once we’d set off, it was the same drill as the last time, Salty travelled straight through the night and we arrived back at his dock and house early enough the following morning. I did my part to help him unload the barge once more, I didn’t ask for any extra discount, but he insisted that I at least stay for a bite to eat before making my way to Glean.

I ended up setting off shortly after midday, reaching the outskirts of Glean in good time. I was pleased to see that the restoration scheme appeared to be going well, there were still several armed guards patrolling the streets, but there were many more ponies working the fields and the number of sheep and cattle had increased dramatically. I made my way through the town to the usual inn, deciding I would take it easy for the rest of the day, perhaps I would find somepony who could transport me back to Pivot tomorrow without having to make any more stops.

I was just making my way up to the front door of the inn, giving a polite nod and smile to the guards flanking it, who both returned the gesture, when the door itself flew open and a pony came rushing out, stopping just short of cashing into me. The pony was instantly recognisable, and while I was surprised to see her there, I was also very happy.

“Twilight Sparkle?” I greeted, taken aback by her sudden appearance.

“Rarity?” Twilight replied, sounding equally surprised to see me.

“I was sure you’d be on your way back to Equestria by now,” I commented. “Not that I’m not happy to see you, on the contrary it really is wonderful to…”

“Rarity, we have a huge problem!” Twilight interrupted, grabbing me by the shoulders and staring intently at me.

It was only then I realised how distressed she was, her mane was unkempt with several strands sticking out at awkward angles, and eyes looked like they hadn’t seen sleep in some time.

“What’s the matter Twilight?” I asked, my mind immediately switching to serious mode.

“It’s Blueblood!” she exclaimed. “He’s escaped!”

XLIX - Dragonfire

“I don’t understand,” I began, grabbing hold of Twilight’s shoulders so she would stop pacing around the street in front of the inn. “We captured him two weeks ago, what exactly happened while I was gone?”

“Well I only expected to stick around for a week as you know,” Twilight began, rubbing her hooves together awkwardly. “A little longer at the most until we could get the last of the agents rounded up. It was just less than a week after you left; we were keeping him in an individual room on the boat, guarded day and night by two guards borrowed from Maverick. One of my crew was delivering food to him, when he found the guards murdered and the room completely empty. We searched everywhere, but he was nowhere on the ship, we could only assume he swam ashore or somepony had assisted him in escaping.

“We sent word to Maverick to put all his soldiers on high alert,” Twilight continued. “But after the first couple of days when nothing came up, we unloaded the prisoners and had them transferred to the prison in Pivot. We’ve been searching for him ever since, but leads have been scarce.”

“Do you know anypony that might have been able to help him?” I asked in a concerned voice. “Did any other Solar Empire agents escape with him?”

“None, all those who were captured are still in custody,” Twilight assured me. “And we’ve pretty much rounded up the rest from the various cities; all except one, who we believe could be responsible for Blueblood’s escape.”

“Who?” I asked urgently.

“Her name I Spitfire,” Twilight said with a grim expression. “She is… I mean, she was the captain of the Wonderbolts. Besides Blueblood, she’s easily the highest ranking pony from Equestria who joined the Solar Empire. I came here because your friend Stranglethorn once tracked her down here, apparently she was hiding in this very inn, being sheltered by the previous owner.”

“That makes sense,” I muttered. “As we came through here we overheard them mention a Wonderbolts pin they found in the basement.”

“Stranglethorn said she escaped him at the time,” Twilight went on. “And while I know that was quite some time ago, I figured this was the best place to start if I was going to track her down.”

“So Blueblood has escaped,” I began to summarise. “He’s been on the run for about a week now, most likely aided by this Spitfire. What does he even hope to do? The Solar Empire is finished and the… wait! What about the other sleeper agents?!”

I suddenly thought of Lyra back in Arclight, I hadn’t worried about her since I knew Blueblood was in no position to activate the spell he placed on her and the others, but now that he was no longer imprisoned…

“Rarity…” Twilight began, her voice sounding miserable. “I’m sorry but… but he must have activated the spells shortly after he escaped. Maverick managed to purge some of them before then, but those that he didn’t get to… they’re all gone, we don’t know where Blueblood has sent them.”

I didn’t respond, I was rendered speechless upon hearing the truth.

“We have to capture Blueblood soon,” I said in a worried tone. “Before he can do something awful with them.”

“We’re working on it,” Twilight promised in a confident tone. “Maverick has Stranglethorn searching the western side of Panchea, and I just picked up a lead right before you arrived.”

“Really? What is it?” I asked eagerly.

“The pony wasn’t certain,” Twilight started. “But she just travelled here form Timber, and she remembered seeing somepony who matched Spitfire’s description. No mention of Blueblood, but it’s a good start.”

“I’ll come with you,” I stated, not presenting it as a choice. “You might need help if you find Blueblood, especially if he’s not alone.”

“I was hoping you’d offer,” Twilight replied as she began walking away from the inn with me matching her strides. “Do you have anything you need to report to Maverick?”

“Quite a lot,” I admitted. “But it can wait until after we’ve checked this out.”

“I have an escort waiting just outside the town,” Twilight explained, gesturing to the cart that was just visible in the distance. “They should be able to get us south in no time.”

It was lucky that Maverick had leant Twilight the pair of pegasi to transport her, they wasted no time in carrying us down the road to Timber. They put a lot more emphasis in speed, so that by the time Twilight called for them to stop so that they could get some much needed rest; we were already at a easily recognisable area. Twilight hopped off the cart first, walking over to inspect a sign which she read allowed to us while the transporters prepared some bedrolls.

“Don’t sleep in the woods!” she called out. “What do you think it means?”

“It means there used to be a horrible Wight in those woods,” I informed her. “And while it may have been slain, there’s no guarantee there aren’t other threats lurking in those trees.”

“Are you just guessing?” Twilight asked curiously. “Or is that some local legend around these parts?”

“Neither,” I replied coolly. “We put the sign up the other week after I was nearly killed by the Wight.”

“Oh…” Twilight muttered awkwardly. “You never did tell me what all happened after we parted ways, did you have much trouble on your journey north?”

“I suppose I should fill you in,” I said as we made our way back to the cart to get some rest. “The short story is yes, we encountered quite a bit of trouble. The long story…”

For the second time I decided to tell the abridged version, simply because I didn’t want to be up half the night recounting the whole tale, and for the second time my omissions would prove to be slightly problematic very soon. I filled her in as quickly as I could on the state of Brine and the events that occurred in Olympus.

“Well I’m glad this Rainbow Dash is on your side,” Twilight said with a loud yawn. “No doubt you’re eager to get back to Maverick so you can tell him the good news.”

“I don’t really care about sharing good news with him,” I commented. “I just need him as the last leader of the Rebellion to help with the upcoming negotiations. I promised Rainbow I would help put an end to the Dragoons and that’s just what I’ll do, even if I need Maverick’s help to do so.”

Twilight wasn’t listening at that point, having drifted off to sleep while I was saying my piece. I decided to get some sleep in as well; I figured I would need my energy for when we reached Timber the next day, in case we did happen to run into Blueblood and his ally. What I didn’t know was that I would in fact need my energy for when we arrived at Timber, but for a reason I would never have predicted. We made idle chatter as we rode on the cart the next morning, the pegasi did their part and carried us the rest of the way to Timber in good time.

As we made our way over the bridge, Twilight stopped talking suddenly, her eyes squinting slightly as they looked at something in the distance. I followed her gaze and mimicked her frown as I saw what had caught her attention. We were travelling along the road that would curve right around the Timber woodlands and bring us in to the town itself that was nestled on the most western side of the wood, however as we looked, we saw that the sky over the wood was a most peculiar shade of green.

From the way the colour intensified, I figured the source of the illumination was directly over Timber. To make matters even stranger, there seemed to be a great deal of smoke rising over the trees. While that might have been cause for alarm, the odd shade in the sky made us hesitate.

“Is that anything you’re familiar with?” Twilight asked me, to which I shook my head. “I guess it could be magical. Gentlecolts, if it’s not too much trouble, could you quicken the pace?”

The pegasi obeyed and broke into a canter, covering the final stretch of road quickly and curving around the woodlands so Timber appeared in view. They both immediately skidded to a halt upon seeing what remained of the town; both Twilight and I gaped at what lay in the distance. The entire town had been set ablaze; even from the great distance we had left to travel we could make out the tiny ponies scurrying about desperately, trying to put out the flames, even as their entire town was enveloped.

The source of the smoke was obvious, I had guessed a fire when I first saw it. What I couldn’t have guessed, was that the source of the green glow in the sky was the very same fire. The flames that were sweeping all over the town were a vibrant, acidic green, and they were burning so brightly that we had seen their light all the way from the bridge.

“Timber will be burnt to a crisp!” I exclaimed. “Everything’s made of wood!”

“We have to help them!” Twilight declared.

The two pegasi snapped their heads around to look at her, the look in their eyes made it clear that they were not being paid enough to rush into a burning town.

“It’s alright,” Twilight assured them both as she hopped off the cart. “You’ve done enough, return to Glean and tell them what’s happened, Timber is going to need some assistance after this.”

I jumped down beside Twilight while the two pegasi nodded gratefully and hurried back the way they came.

“Come on!” Twilight called out as she started running toward the town. “The cause of that fire must be magical; they’ll need all the help they can get.”

I chased after Twilight, surprised at how fast she could run and for how long when the need arose. I myself ended up completely out of breath when we reached the outskirts of the town, where we found crowds of ponies gathered. Twilight on the other hand, appeared perfectly fine as she addressed a family who were huddled together in fear.

“What happened here?!” she demanded. “What caused the fire?”

The father tried to respond, but his voice stammered uselessly, whatever had happened he was clearly too distraught to even form a sentence. I looked around at all the ponies, some were injured, while others were tending to the wounded. Some darted about in a mad panic, while others stayed rooted to the spot, clutching their loved ones or whatever possessions they could retrieve in time. Beyond the roaring flames and the clouds of smoke, I could see some brave ponies still inside the town attempting to battle the fire with buckets of water.

“Sir, we can help you,” Twilight began urgently. “But in order to do so we need to know what happened. Did something magical cause this? Was somepony responsible?”

“N… n… not a pony!” the stallion finally managed.

“Then what?” I asked breathlessly.

I got my answer in the form of an ear-splitting roar that threatened to tear apart the sky itself. The entire town went into frenzy, some making a desperate run for it while others simply huddled closer together.

“It’s back!” a voice screamed from the edge of the woods.

Twilight and I looked up to see a single pony running in our direction from the woods where he was presumably hiding, not the cleverest move during a fire.

“Dragon!” he scratched at the top of his voice before it appeared.

A dark shape looming in the woods was the only warning we got, before the closest row of trees were smashed away by the great beast as burst forth from the woods, reaching out with its long neck and snapping its massive jaws down on the fleeing stallion. There was absolute hysteria all around, as ponies gave up trying to put out the fire or recover their belongings and simply made to run as far away from the creature as they could. The dragon let out another might roar before spreading its wings to their full span, more than a hundred ponies wide, before flapping them hard and rocketing into the air.

As the dragon circled around the town, occasionally spewing jets of bright green fire down into it, I simply stood and stared at it, paralysed in both fear and awe. The beast was colossal, bigger than I even knew a dragon could grow, its scales were a surprising shade of lilac, while its underbelly was a slightly green shade of grey. The spines that ran all the way from the top of its head, down its back and tail were the same vibrant shade of green as the fire it breathed, and the way they shimmered in the light cast by its flames, I just knew they would be sharp enough to cleave a pony in two.

It was the dragon’s eyes that really caught my attention, a beautiful emerald colour, with pitch black pupils, slits like those of a cat. Of course it took me a moment to realise why I was able to see its eyes so clearly from where we stood so far below. It was because as the creature was flying around, it had noticed me and Twilight standing in place staring at it, rather than running for our lives like everypony around us had. I would never have been able to run away fast enough, no matter how quickly I realised what it was going to do.

The dragon twisted in the air, diving straight for us, its mouth wide open as the fire began brimming inside its throat. When the spout of fire was ejected, all I could do was mutter a final swear word before we were both engulfed… at least we would have been, if Twilight was as slow on the uptake as I was. When the green flames writhed all around us, but never actually came into contact with us, I glanced over at Twilight who was holding her sceptre high in the air, focusing with all her might at maintaining her shield.

Finally the flames ceased, and the dragon flew right over our heads. I watched as it looked back at us, I noticed its eyes narrow when it saw us still alive and uncooked. It circled back around and came diving into the ground where we stood, both of us diving in opposite directions to avoid its mighty claws as they ripped up the earth beneath it. I rolled and quickly got back on all fours, facing the dragon just as it turned its eyes on me. The attack came from its tail, which came sweeping out, forcing me to duck down to avoid having every bone in my body shattered.

The tail thrashed back and hammered into the ground in the hopes of fattening me under the flat of its spear head tip. I ran to the left, each time I heard the tail smash down behind me, it sounded a few inches closer. I only stopped when a huge hand swung in to intercept me, at which point I dropped to my belly, pressing myself as flat to the ground as I could, feeling the rush of air as the claw passed harmlessly over me. Whatever attack came next would have killed me, it would have taken me too long to scramble to my hooves again, but luckily Twilight leapt in and began unleashing a barrage of spells at it.

The dragon backed away, shielding its face with its arms as Twilight’s attacks threatened to hit it in the eyes. I took that moment to hurry back to Twilight’s side, drawing my sword although I doubted it would be any use against those scales, the underbelly on the other hand... While Twilight kept the beast occupied, trying to swat away the various blasts and elements she was hurling at it, I moved my rapier from my foreleg to my telekinesis. I gripped on to it loosely, swinging it around a bit to get the hang of it, I held on to the pommel of the blade with what I could only describe as a magical tether, like I was swinging it from a lasso.

If doing such a thing was already a named technique, I was unfamiliar with it, and I certainly had no practice with it. As far as I was concerned, I just made it up on the spot to do what I need to at that particular moment. Moving my head in circular motions, I raised my sword higher and higher into the air and began swinging it wide circles. With every rotation I made, the circle became wider and the swing became faster. Soon the momentum had the blade swishing around at a speed I never would have been capable of were it still in my hooves, or even my regular telekinesis.

Twilight guessed what I was trying to do and moved to get the dragon into position for me. With a flash of her horn, her sceptre shattered into millions of smaller replicas comprised entirely of purple light. She then shot them all directly at the dragons face, the magical darts were spread wide to cover a large area, and they were relentless in their numbers. Her method reminded me of the rapid fire style of the first canon that had attacked me during my mission to destroy the Dreadnaught. The dragon roared in frustration as it reared back on its hind legs, twisting its face out of harm’s way and trying fruitlessly to swat the ethereal darts out the air.

With the dragon standing tall, and its underbelly perfectly exposed, I brought my spinning blade in closer. My blade lacerated right through the dragon’s flesh, making several rotations before the dragon could even react, each spin penetrating deeper than the last. The dragon howled in anguish as it launched itself into the sky, clutching the massive wound running diagonally across its chest, even as blood showered down over the town beneath it.

“Will it retreat?” I asked hopefully as the dragon continued to fly in circles, writhing in agony.

“Don’t count on it,” Twilight commented doubtfully. “We might have just made it more intent on killing us.”

Indeed the dragon immediately began shooting great balls of fire in our direction, although many of them went off wildly in other directions. Twilight reassembled her sceptre and focused her magic into it, the orb at the top unleashing bolts of lightning which struck the fireballs in mid-air and caused them to dissipate.

“I have a plan,” Twilight announced. “Dragons are very magic resistant, and they’re completely immune to fire, but they can be hurt by the fire of dragons.”

“But we don’t have another dragon,” I pointed out. “And I’m pretty sure that would only make matters worse.”

“I know, but I wonder if we could use its own fire against it,” Twilight pondered. “I might be able to do something, but I need you to keep it focused away from me for a bit while I set it up.”

“I’ll try,” I promised her in an uncertain voice before running towards the town. “Hey handsome, come get me!”

I rushed into the middle of the town, making sure the dragons attention was on me. I had to hold my breath as I stepped through the smoke screen, but I was able to reach a wide, open area where the smoke was less intense. The dragon landed on a nearby house, crushing the burning building beneath its feet as it lowered its head to face me. I backed up slightly from it as it hissed at me, opening its mouth to give me a close look at its single row of vicious looking teeth.

“Oh good,” I said to it in a shaky voice. “I’m glad you want to talk this out like civilised folk.”

The dragon’s head sprang forward, its jaws snapping at where I had been a few seconds before I dived to the side.

“Now, is that any way to behave?” I chastised, rolling out of the way of its claw as it swept through the clearing. “I only wanted to tell you how magnificent you looked.”

The dragon roared and belched more fire which I managed to avoid by sprinting under its own chin. It looked around for a bit, not realising where I went. I stepped out from under its head before I got trapped or hit during its flailing about.

“I guess you’re not one for flattery,” I stated as I backed up from it slightly, the dragon’s eyes snapping around to glare at me. “That’s alright; I have other ways of getting under your… scales…”

My voice slowed as I looked into the dragon’s eyes before sputtering to a stop altogether. Those giant emerald orbs had enchanted me from the short glimpse I had caught as it flew over the town, but now I was seeing them from mere metres away… and I saw something that made me hesitate.

“Rarity!” Twilight’s voice yelled. “Get away from it now!”

The dragon’s head shot upwards, seeking out the new voice while I too spun around to see Twilight suddenly in the area, her hoof raised as a swirling vortex gathered right over her head, at the centre of which was her sceptre. All around us I could see the black smoke fading away as the green flames were drawn in from all around the village. They were stripped away from all the burning buildings, leaving the charred remains behind, utterly destroyed but no longer fuelling the blaze. The fire itself was all sucked into the vortex which quickly began to fill and expand with the sheer amount of green fire it was absorbing.

Soon all the fire that had been devouring Timber was gathered into one great orb hovering feet above Twilight’s head. I realised what she was planning and galloped forwards, hoping to stop her before she could launch it at the dragon.

“Twilight, wait!” I bellowed. “It’s not what we think…”

But it was too late, the dragon, anticipating danger flapped into the air, but not fast enough to avoid the churning ball of flames that Twilight lobbed at it. The fireball caught the dragon squarely in the chest, exploding on impact and sending it crashing down into the town below. Any of the buildings that the dragon crashed into were instantly decimated, when it hit the ground it continued to travel some distance beyond, splitting a long scar right through the middle of the town.

I cringed as the dust cleared and I saw the dragon’s body no longer moving at the end of the trench it had dug. Looking back, I saw Twilight panting slightly as her sceptre descended back down before her. I hurried back over to her, both to make sure she was alright and to give her a stern telling off for not stopping when I told her to.

“I’m sorry Rarity,” Twilight gasped. “But it was too late, why did you want me to stop anyway?”

“Well… at least you stopped the town from burning down,” I pointed out, trying to find the silver lining. “But I wanted you to stop because I think there was something wrong with the dragon; I don’t think it was in control.”

“Oh, what do you mean?” Twilight asked, suddenly concerned as we began walking towards the massive body.

“When I looked into his eyes, I saw…” I began, struggling to find the words for what I had seen. “Pain.”

“Well, you did cut its chest open,” Twilight reminded me in a tentative voice.

“No, I mean… it’s hard to explain,” I moaned as we continued towards dragon. “It was as if the dragon was pleading with me, like it was trying to apologise for what it was doing. I think… I think something was controlling it.”

“Rarity…” Twilight began warily. “I know what you’re thinking, but that spell Blueblood used on you… I highly doubt it would work on a dragon.”

“Could you just look at it?” I asked as we reached the body and made our way around to its head. “I just need to know that we didn’t kill an innocent creature.”

“One, we didn’t kill it,” Twilight pointed out, just as the dragon decided to let out a loud grunt, causing me to nearly jump out of my skin. “And two… I’ll take a look.”

Twilight walked over to where the dragon lay, almost completely still with the amount of pain it must have been in. I waited a short distance away, noticing that while Twilight worked, a number of the local ponies began to filter back into the town, or what remained of it anyway. I said it was a silver lining that Twilight managed to remove all the fire, but really there was little left to save by the time she did. The dragon fire had eaten through everything, reducing the once pleasant village to ashes and ruins.

As the ponies gathered, slowly getting braver and closer, I noticed that the dragon’s eye had cracked open slightly. While I heard distant voices calling for the beast to be killed, I saw that same look in its shining emerald eye, and I knew I wasn’t mistaken in what I had seen. After several more minutes, the light around Twilight’s horn faded and she stumbled back form the dragon, the look on her face a mixture of confusion and shock.

“Well?” I asked in a concerned voice as Twilight turned to look at me with wide eyes.

“You… you were right,” she declared. “This dragon has been filled with huge amounts of magic that have been corrupting it from the inside out. I’m talking dark magic here, the kind of forbidden magic I’ve only ever read about in ancient texts.”

“Is there anything you can do for him?” I asked, really starting to worry for the dragon that had been trying so very hard to kill me.

“I don’t think so…” Twilight began before looking to her sceptre. “But I think this might be able to do something, it is pretty ancient itself after all.”

Twilight looked from me, to the gathered ponies, to the dragon who was still peering out at us both.

“I’ll try my best,” Twilight promised as she began walking away.

Twilight walked until she was standing several metres from the top of the dragon’s head, she turned so she was facing in its direction, clutching her sceptre tightly. After taking a few deep breaths she finally levitated the sceptre out before her, spreading her forelegs wide and donning a zen like expression on her face. Eyes still shut; she tipped the sceptre so it was hovering horizontally, the orb pointing directly towards the dragon. Twilight waited a few seconds, simply breathing in and out before finally her eyes snapped open.

Gone were her pink irises and pupils, instead, an intense white light shone from her eyes while the purple aura around her horn magnified tenfold. As her eyes opened, so too did the orb on the end of the sceptre. It began by moving a few millimetres from the sceptre itself, so it was hovering independently before it began to split along the black lines that crisscrossed and intersected all over it. Once all the shards were separated, they began floating apart to reveal a squirming ball of light, the same brilliant white as Twilight’s eyes. The shards of the orb continued to float lazily around the ball of light, like glass cherry blossoms, right down to their soft pink hue.

The next thing that happened was that the entire dragon’s body was enveloped in the blinding light, tendrils of dark energy writhing all around it from head to toe, before getting sucked inexorably towards the open orb. As the orb began to drink in the darkness which was now streaming from the dragon into the sceptre, the light that was the dragon’s body began to change shape, morphing and shrinking. It continued to do this until the once massive dragon shrank into a size that appeared smaller than myself, not much bigger than my sister.

Finally the dark energy ceased as the last ounce of it was drawn from the dragon; the final drops were absorbed into the orb where they were drowned out by the light that had only grown more intense with all it had taken in. The shards of the orb reassembled themselves, almost forcing the light to remain contained within them. The black lines resealed themselves and the orb planted itself firmly back into the top of the sceptre, as it did, the light within Twilight’s eyes and around the dragon melted away.

I looked first to Twilight, who didn’t at all look shaken up or weakened by what she had just done, but rather she looked at her sceptre curiously, marvelling at what it had just accomplished. I then turned my attention to the dragon who was indeed only half the size of an adult pony, his lilac scales and green spines remained the same, as did his greyish underbelly, although it was completely healed of the wound I had inflicted upon it. The small guy, now wingless, picked himself up slowly, turning to look at Twilight and I with those enchanting emerald eyes.

“He was just a baby dragon all along,” Twilight breathed in amazement.

“Um… hi,” the dragon greeted making both of us jump slightly in surprise. “I’m Spike.”

LI - ...Old Rivals

“Um…” was all I managed before I felt two forces thrusting me out of the way.

I was sent slowly drifting through the air, landing several metres out of harm’s way as both mares charged towards one another and clashed. Twilight swung her sceptre, releasing a wave of magical energy slicing vertically through the air towards Pinkie Pie, who simply deflected it with one dagger before rushing forward to slash at Twilight with the other. Twilight teleported in a flash of light, reappearing a short distance from myself, Pinkie Pie quickly locating her and speeding in for the offensive.

“Wait!” I began, only to have my voice silenced as a large bubble appeared around me and I was sent rolling away.

After spinning around a few times and feeling my most recent meal rising, I finally managed to pop the bubble with a sharp jab from my horn. I smacked into the ground, seeing stars for a brief second before my vision cleared and I saw my two friends still duelling furiously. Pinkie was darting all around Twilight, attempting to poke her at every opening. Sometimes she ran around, sometimes she rolled or flipped or cartwheeled, sometimes she simply blinked out of existence and appeared behind Twilight.

Twilight however was managing to keep up with her, keeping her constantly on the move by sending a multitude of spells in every direction as well as sweeping out with her sceptre any time Pinkie tried to take her by surprise. I pulled myself up just as Twilight went on the offensive, successfully knocking Pinkie off balance after one of her errant strikes hit a force field Twilight projected. As soon as she stumbled, Twilight pushed her advantage and began showering Pinkie with magic missiles, Pinkie began backing up to avoid them, her body twisting and contorting to dodge those that got to close.

While she was busy trying to avoid the missiles, Twilight pointed her sceptre at the air just behind Pinkie and opened a singularity like the one she had used against Blueblood. Unlike Blueblood however, as Pinkie got drawn into it, she simply drove one of her hooves into it like she was taking hold of something inside and using it to spin herself around in the air before releasing her grip and flying straight for Twilight. Before her kick could connect with Twilight’s face, there was a burst of smoke which momentarily obscured her.

When the smoke faded there were five identical copies of Twilight all standing in a row, Pinkie had already been speeding towards the middle one when Twilight cast the spell, so she was too late to stop her hoof kicking right through its head. The illusion burst into a cloud of smoke which seemed to latch on to Pinkie, swirling around her until she was completely obscured from my sight. While the smoke screen might have blinded a normal pony, Pinkie Pie was no such thing and she continued to fight the clones regardless. I could see her hooves stretching out of the cloud to grab the clones one at a time and drag them in with her.

There was a lot of kicking and yelling, flashes of limbs and faces momentarily appearing before getting pulled back into the fray. The fight was so cartoony I half expected large speech bubbles with the words ‘bam’ and ‘pow’ to appear. It was clear Pinkie was winning, because with each clone she defeated the smoke cloud only grew larger until she was lost somewhere inside a massive ball of churning grey smoke.

“Huh, not here!” Pinkie uttered from within the cloud after all the fighting ceased, her voice sounded miles off.

The real Twilight manifested outside the smoke cloud and lowered her horn to it and pouring magic into the cloud causing it to solidify. Twilight let out a long breath as she started to back up from the boulder she had encased Pinkie inside; I just looked on, utterly bewildered by what had just happened. I opened my mouth to demand to know what was going on, when a loud crack echoed across the hill. Twilight’s head snapped back to the boulder in time to see it explode into dust, Pinkie standing in the centre, brushing herself down and looking no worse for wear.

“Getting tired already Twilight?” she mocked at her retreating foe with a wide grin. “I was just getting warmed up.”

Spinning both her daggers in her hooves, Pinkie lowered herself to the ground and sprinted at Twilight. Twilight also lowered her head, but rather than move from her spot, she began charging up a spell in her horn. Pinkie was closing the gap extremely fast, but the light in Twilight’s horn was also building up to extreme levels in just as little time. Pinkie pounced once she was mere metres from Twilight, her daggers pulled far back, ready to slice clean through Twilight… that was when she let her spell go.

Twilight blasted a beam of concentrated energy that ripped right through the grasslands, it had to have been several metres in diameter, so there was no way Pinkie was anything but caught in the middle of it. I couldn’t see exactly how far it travelled, but I was immensely glad the fields we were in appeared deserted. I had shielded my own eyes from the intense light of the beam, but after it was cast it faded quickly and I was able to open my eyes and see Twilight standing on her on at the end of a long, narrow scorch in the earth.

Twilight’s eyes were darting around; clearly she didn’t think Pinkie’s complete absence was a sign of her victory. I too looked around, and ended up finding her first as she popped back into existence directly behind Twilight; lazily spinning her dagger around in her hooves, making no attempt to attack her while her back was turned.

“Now really Twilight,” she began in a condescending voice. “Haven’t you learned yet that magic isn’t very effective against me?”

Twilight hadn’t turned as soon as she heard Pinkie, she had begun to raise her sceptre, but now she lowering it again as she growled to herself. Then, out of nowhere, Twilight spun around and punched Pinkie squarely in the face, that actually managed to take her by surprise. She stumbled back, clutching her nose which I imagined might still be sore after the last injury it suffered back at Brine, and stared at Twilight with a mixture of shock and admiration.

“I normally hate to get my hooves dirty,” Twilight spat as she rubbed her now sore hoof. “But for you I make an exception.”

“Aw, I’m so glad you treat me like I’m special to you,” Pinkie cooed, sounding genuine. “I really should repay the gesture and stop holding back.”

Pinkie began giggling as Twilight lashed out at her, but as her hoof connected for a second time, it past right through Pinkie as if her body turned to liquid. Twilight’s hoof swept a hole right through Pinkie’s neck, after that her whole body began to evaporate around the ‘injury’. Even as she disappeared however, her laughter continued to echo around the hill where we stood. I had stood by and watched the whole thing, too confused and shocked to do anything, but after what happened next it became even harder to bring myself to do anything other than stare.

As I continued to watch, Twilight now looking around wildly, readying her sceptre as she tried to figure out where the next attack would come from, the air began rippling before me. As I watched, the entire sky began to darken, slowly large patches began turning inky purple which grew and grew, until the entire sky was a dizzying miasma of purple and blue blotches and waves. Next the earth began to split apart beneath my hooves; I stumbled as the patch of grass I was standing on ripped itself from the ground and began floating up.

All around me the hillside had split apart and been reduced to floating platforms that were now drifting lazily across the bizarre nebulae. I held on for dear life as my platform began to turn upside down, but for some reason I remained firmly affixed to it, even my mane continued to sit properly as if gravity was now exclusive to my one floating island. I looked all around me and saw that all the platforms were either sinking or rising, rotating or outright spinning. I also saw Twilight leaping from platform to platform as they began to break anyway beneath her.

“Come out Pinkie Pie!” Twilight ordered, firing spells of unknown properties into the abyss. “Stop hiding behind your illusions and face me!”

“Here I am!” Pinkie yelled as she flew through the air, her daggers now spinning around her without the aid of her hooves.

Twilight twisted back to avoid the giggling harlequin and her shield of blades, after leaping to another platform she looked around to see where Pinkie had flown off to.

“Now I’m here!” Pinkie exclaimed, appearing behind Twilight and shredding her current platform to lumps of dirt and grass cuttings.

Twilight plummeted through the void before flashing out of existence and appearing next to me on my own platform.

“You can’t keep using the same tricks on me Pinkie Pie!” she declared. “Aren’t you the one who abhors unoriginality?”

Pinkie appeared before us, hovering in the air, both her rondel dagger floating over her shoulder, their tips aimed at Twilight.

“Well jeez Twilight,” she gave off with a disappointed frown. “Way to kill the mood, here I am using a lot of power so we can have a fun fight together, and you throw that at me? Not cool Twilight, not cool at all.”

Twilight launched her sceptre like a javelin at Pinkie who simply burst into confetti when it pierced her. As soon as she was gone, both daggers fired at Twilight just as her sceptre had. She teleported away, leaving me jump to a different platform so I wasn’t caught in the crossfire. As I latched on with my hooves and began scrabbling to pull myself up, I saw Twilight reappear on a platform just in time to catch her flying sceptre which had swung around the air like a boomerang in her absence. Pinkie appeared on the platform I was trying to pull myself onto, and reached down to offer me a hoof up.

I gratefully accepted, and soon I was standing on that same platform as Pinkie Pie while Twilight watched us from a different one.

“Sorry you had to get dragged into all this,” Pinkie said to me, sounding sincere enough.

“Don’t listen to her Rarity!” Twilight called over to me. “You can’t trust a word she says!”

“Hey, I don’t say mean things about you to your friends!” Pinkie snapped back, suddenly serious for a brief moment.

Pinkie vanished quickly, and Twilight began charging up a spell in her horn. When she released it, a wave erupted from the tip of her horn, expanding and washing over the entire area. It passed over me and I shone with a blue aura the same colour as my own magic, when it passed over a seemingly empty patch of space, it revealed a pony shaped blob of frantic purple magic.

The blob looked itself up and down before Pinkie Pie manifested around it, giving a little pout.

“Well that’s no fun,” she moped. “I can’t even turn invisible around you without you spoiling my fun.”

Then there was a soft pop, and the migraine inducing sky was filled with thousands of Pinkie Pies, all pouting down at Twilight, but all glowing with the same purple energy.

“But wait!” all the Pinkie Pies chorused, the movements of their bodies and mouths perfectly synched. “There’s nothing to be upset about, after all, the best part about being me is there’s lots of me!”

With that, all the thousands of Pinkie Pies began giggling and wiggling their rumps as they all floated randomly around in the wide open space. I was suddenly starting to feel very sick, first the purple sky and now a horde of dancing Pinkie Pie copies, my mind felt like it was going to rip itself apart. While Twilight busied herself, hopping from platform to platform, zapping all the laughing harlequins out of existence, I allowed my trembling legs a break and lay down on the platform. I reached up rubbed my aching eyes, I wanted to cry, they were hurting so badly.

As I lay there, the noise just refused to cease, even for the shortest of moments. My head was filled with the sounds of Pinkie’s laughter and Twilight’s magic; I just wanted it to stop. I didn’t know I’d started screaming in agony and frustration until all the laughter died away and Twilight’s spells came to an abrupt halt.

“I can’t take it anymore!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.

My eyes snapped open just in time to see the chaotic world around me shatter like glass, the shards falling away to reveal the grassy plains and the dusk sky just as they had been before all the insanity started. Pinkie and Twilight both stood some ways off from me, Pinkie had been holding her dagger as if preparing to strike, but now they hung limply in her hooves. Twilight was pointing her sceptre at Pinkie, the orb had been glowing brightly with a spell she had been about to fire, but now the light was fading away.

“Just… stop!” I exclaimed, forcing myself to stand back up on my weak legs. “I don’t know what is going on here, or why you two are fighting, but no more! I’m putting an end to it right this second!”

With my declaration at an end, I wobbled before falling back to the ground. Twilight teleported in a flash and Pinkie simply blinked over, both caught me from either side before I hit the ground and gently lowered me.

“I’m so sorry Rarity,” Pinkie said, her eyes brimming with tears.

“I’m sorry too,” Twilight concurred. “I got carried away when I should have been helping you. But now you know what I mean, you cannot trust Pinkie Pie.”

“Hey!” Pinkie exclaimed, and I screwed up my face as I knew the fight was about to start all over again. “Don’t try to turn her against me!”

“You’re dangerous!” Twilight retorted. “Using that kind of magic on me is one thing, but if you really cared about her you wouldn’t have put her mind at risk like that!”

“I wasn’t thinking straight,” Pinkie admitted. “But I can’t believe you’re the friend she was talking about, I have no idea what she sees in a buzz kill like you!”

“Please, no more,” I moaned, at which point they both immediately shut up. “You are both my friends. I don’t know what you have against each other, but we have shared enemies, you shouldn’t be fighting each other.”

I waved them both off as I sat myself more comfortably on to the grass. As I looked back at them, they moved to stand in front of me while still leaving some distance between each other.

“Now, can somepony please explain what is going on here?” I requested in a tired voice.

“I think I shall,” Twilight said quickly. “If Pinkie tries to we’ll be here all night while she tells us about her last trip to the dentist.”

Pinkie opened her mouth as if to argue, but then shut it suddenly when she realised it was probably true.

“Okay Rarity, I don’t know how you know Pinkie Pie,” Twilight continued calmly. “But you say she’s your friend and I trust you, so I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt here. How much do you know about Pinkie exactly? More specifically, what do you know of her powers?”

“Well… I did try asking her about it once,” I admitted curiously as I noticed Pinkie shifting uncomfortably. “Maybe a few times, but she always avoided it.”

“Do you want to tell her or shall I?” Twilight asked Pinkie, her voice noticeably colder. “You say you’re her friend, yet you hid this from her.”

“Just get on with it,” Pinkie muttered. “We both know you like the sound of your own voice.”

“The reason Pinkie is able to do unusual things…” Twilight went on, ignoring the insult. “Such as the illusionary world you just saw, is because she can invoke the powers of chaos. Pinkie Pie is a follower of Discord, the spirit of chaos.”

“Ah…” I uttered weakly.

That made way too much sense; really I was shocked at how I hadn’t figured it out before. Her ability to appear in impossible places or seemingly teleporting, everything she did just screamed reality manipulation, and there was only one cause for that, chaos magic. Everypony had heard the stories of Discord, how he had used his incredible powers to torment the lives of all ponies and create suffering wherever he went. Some stories told of how Discord ruled over Equestria for many years before he was defeated by Princess Celestia, others said it was Celestia along with the other alicorns that made up the Six who defeated him. One thing all the stories had in common, was that they ended with Discord being locked away in Tartarus for his many crimes, and he remained there to this day.

“I see,” I finished pathetically, unable to quite comprehend the implications of this. “Is this true Pinkie?”

“I… I can’t argue with it,” she replied wearily before turning to Twilight. “There, you’ve just lost me a friend, are you happy?”

“Lost?” I repeated looking up in surprise. “What makes you think I’ll stop being your friend over this?”

“You… you won’t?” Pinkie asked, hope renewed in her voice.

“Pinkie Pie, I don’t care what you do or who you worship,” I told her. “I’m not going to stop being your friend over something like that.”

“Oh, thank you Rarity!” Pinkie exclaimed, rushing forward and pulling me into a bone crushing hug before turning and sticking her tongue out at Twilight. “I guess you couldn’t turn her away from me after all.”

“I’m not trying to turn Rarity away from anypony,” Twilight responded in an exasperated voice. “I just thought she deserved to know the truth if she was going to be your friend, I don’t mind if she chooses to remain as such.”

“Thank you,” I told Twilight while returning Pinkie’s hug. “So is that it? You don’t like each other because Pinkie chooses to worship Discord?”

“Well… we have a long history together,” Twilight admitted, biting her lip. “Believe me when I say we have plenty of reason not to get along.”

“Right, well I’m not going to pretend I understand your connection,” I began as I stood up once more. “But I meant what I said; we have common enemies, so you two need to put aside your differences for a while.”

“I’m more than happy to do that!” Pinkie declared, letting go of me and turning to Twilight. “What do you say my old frienemy? Shake hooves and join forces?”

Twilight hesitated as Pinkie raised her hoof.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Twilight warned, looking distrustfully at Pinkie Pie. “I trust Rarity, but I’d still like to know more about what she means by ‘common enemies’ before I go shaking your hoof… knowing you, I’d probably get an electric shock.”

“That was one time!” Pinkie stated with a roll of her eyes. “You gotta learn to let these things go Twilight. Besides, we’ve teamed up in the past when things were at their most dire. Like, do you remember that time we had to work together to escape that dragon?”

“Hmm, let me think,” Twilight began in a clearly sarcastic tone. “Would you be talking about Sunnulth by any chance? The most ancient of dragons who went to sleep over ten thousand years ago, and vowed only to wake when the end of all time came?”

“That’s the one!” Pinkie declared happily.

“The one you woke up, because you wanted to see the look on his face?!” Twilight finished angrily.

“We’ve had some good times together,” Pinkie said in a reminiscent tone.

“He set fire to my mane!” Twilight exclaimed. “Yours too if I recall.”

“Good times…” Pinkie repeated in a blissful tone, clearly ignoring Twilight’s remarks.

“Wow, you weren’t kidding,” I muttered as I watched the pair of them. “You two really do have a long history.”

“You know what? Fine!” Twilight declared, reaching out and shaking Pinkie’s hoof. “Let’s team up… not because I trust you, but because I know somepony will get hurt if I’m not there to clean up after you.”

“Admit it Twilight,” Pinkie replied with a knowing grin. “You just can’t stay mad at me, that’s the real reason.”

“Well if this isn’t the weirdest thing I’ve been a part of…” I mumbled under my breath before coughing to get their attention. “Alright, now that we’re all on the same team… it’s time to discuss what we know of our enemies.”

LII - Good News Everypony

It really was my own fault, if I had taken the time to tell Twilight and Pinkie in greater detail the things I had been doing in their absences, if I had just mentioned one of their names to the other I could have saved so much bother. However there was no point crying over spilled milk, I failed to inform them that I was involved with the both of them, they had their fight, but finally we were all sitting around a magically conjured campfire, talking like civilised ponies.

“And I think that’s that,” I finished, letting out a long breath. “Pinkie stayed behind in Brine while Fluttershy and I went onto Olympus, seeing the pony in the church was the last involvement I had with the robed ponies.”

“I see,” Twilight replied thoughtfully. “Well I can see why they’re a cause for concern, particularly after what Spike told us, but why did you never mention this to me before?”

“Because I knew you were only here for a short while, and you had to focus on taking down the Solar Empire,” I explained. “If I knew you’d be here as long as you have been, of course I would have filled you in on what was going on.”

“So these robed ponies were working alongside Arcana to… move troops,” Twilight summarised. “To what ends we don’t know yet. They hired Pinkie to kill Arcana before he could reveal their involvement to you, and now you think they’re involved with these monster sightings after what happened in Brine. Is there anything else we know?”

“Well before you got back from, uh, freshening up,” I began, glancing over at Pinkie. “Pinkie told me that she had learnt something after we parted ways.”

“Oh, I did, I did!” Pinkie declared, nodding her head rapidly. “It took a while, but I found a secret room in the church I believe the robed ponies were using as a base. It looked like it had been cleared out before I got there, perhaps even before we came to Brine, but I found evidence of alchemical procedures taking place there.”

“Alchemy?” Twilight repeated, sounding surprised. “What sort of evidence?”

“Spilled substances, specks of powder,” Pinkie listed. “A few discarded tools and vials that they left behind, not enough to indicate what all they were experimenting with, but I think it’s obvious whatever they were doing there was directly responsible for what happened to the ponies of Brine.”

“You said you found something that you needed to follow up on,” I reminded her.

“Yes, I found a note,” Pinkie replied searching around her pockets for it. “I might have lost it, but it was instructions for drawing that scorched ring around the town. It was definitely put there to keep the ponies from leaving after they… changed, the note clearly stated they wanted to avoid further incidents of test subjects escaping and running wild, that they were drawing unnecessary attention to their work.”

“Really, what do you think it meant?” I asked eagerly.

“I had a feeling when it said ‘test subjects’, it was referring to the monsters we’ve been hearing about,” Pinkie hypothesised. “So I searched around, trying to pick up the trial of another one so I could test my theory. I learned of one floating around the western side of the Lesser Pastures, I went there and found this really tall monster near an abandoned cabin. After killing it, I was able to examine it and yes, there was definite evidence to suggest that it had been restrained or shackled at one point or another.”

“Spike also mentioned the robed ponies,” Twilight pointed out. “And he said he remembered being restrained.”

I thought over the evidence for a moment before voicing my opinion.

“Pinkie believed these robed ponies were in some way related to the sudden monster appearances,” I began. “That was supported after what we saw in Brine. Spike said he was captured and ‘restrained’ by the same robed ponies before he was… altered, and now Pinkie believes these other monsters were contained at one point or another before escaping as well. It sounds to me like these robed ponies have been… creating monsters, and that something happened and a number of them have escaped.”

“But for what purposes?” Twilight added. “And if they’re really being created by ponies, they wouldn’t technically be monsters. Monsters may be unnatural beings, but not in the sense of being artificially created. They’re supposed to come from other planes of reality, what we’re talking about here sound more like abominations.”

“Pinkie, did the note say anything else?” I asked hopefully. “Anything at all?”

“Nope,” Pinkie replied simply, only continuing after both Twilight and I sagged in disappointment. “Except a signature.”

We both snapped to attention at that, Pinkie giggled slightly at getting such a reaction from us.

“It’s not that big a deal,” she assured us. “It was just the letter C, no name.”

“C…” I repeated. “No, that’s not a lot to go on, but it’s something at least.”

“Well Rarity… Pinkie,” Twilight began. “You have me convinced, clearly these robed ponies are up to something, and since I’m here looking for Blueblood, I’d be more than happy to help in your investigation any way I can.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” I said, a little relieved. “But first things first, we need to get some rest and then go to Pivot tomorrow. We can report in to Maverick and see how Applejack is doing; no doubt she’s worried sick about us… and with good reason to be.”

Standing up, Twilight traced her horn over the grass, drawing out three rectangles. When I approached and tested it with a hoof, I found the grass to be warm and springy, like a mattress.

“I can do something like that,” Pinkie commented as she began bouncing up and down on her own makeshift bed.

“Yes, but you probably shouldn’t,” Twilight retorted. “If the laws of reality are to be maintained.”

“Now how is my magic any different from yours?” Pinkie asked in an exasperated voice.

“In many ways!” Twilight insisted. “For starters, unicorn manipulation of magic is something that’s developed through millennia of adaptation and…”

Pinkie let out a huge, exaggerated yawn, cutting Twilight off as she made herself comfy on the bed.

“Thanks Twilight,” Pinkie muttered in a sleepy voice as she curled up. “I can always count on you to help me get to sleep; you’re a good friend like that.”

I saw that Twilight was blushing angrily as she glared at Pinkie Pie; she then looked up at me as if expecting me to do something about it. I simply shrugged and made myself comfortable, not for too long however, as after several minutes Pinkie decided to stop pretending to be asleep.

“Psst… psst… Twilight,” she whispered, even though her voice was high pitched enough that I was guaranteed to hear it too. “Hey Twilight… hey Twilight, guess what…”

“Go to sleep Pinkie Pie,” Twilight groaned, smothering her own face into the grass.

“No, you have to guess what,” Pinkie insisted. “I won’t be able to sleep otherwise.”

“Fine, what?” Twilight bit.

“That’s not a guess silly,” Pinkie pointed out, giggling to herself.

“Pinkie…” Twilight growled.

“Fine, fine, I’ll just tell you…” Pinkie relented as she shifted herself and the rectangle Twilight had drawn with magic, as if it were a tangible object, across so she was closer to Twilight. “But you have to promise not to tell anypony…”

“Pinkie, I swear to Celestia I will strangle you in your sleep,” Twilight began, her tired voice still managing to sound furious. “If you don’t get to the point now, then go to sleep.”

“You’re kind of cute when you’re angry,” Pinkie said at last.

There was a brief moment of silence before I heard the hum of Twilight gathering magic in her horn. I then heard a zap of electricity, followed by a short, sharp screech and then finally the sound of sizzling. Rolling over slightly, I saw Twilight lying on her front, trying to get to sleep while Pinkie lay on her back, her limbs were twisted awkwardly, twitching occasionally as her coat and outfit smouldered slightly.

“Twilight,” I mumbled in an exhausted voice as I rolled away from them. “Play nice.”

“She started it!” Twilight exclaimed indignantly.

“I don’t care who started it,” I mumbled back, glad she couldn’t see my grin while I teased her. “I’m finishing it, now everypony go to sleep.”

Even Pinkie obeyed me after that, or maybe she had been stunned by Twilight’s shocking spell and physically couldn’t carry on acting up. I doubted that however, she had already proven herself pretty resistant to magic during her fight with Twilight, and when I woke up in the morning she looked just as healthy and unburnt as she always did while she snoozed. Once we were all up and getting ready to set out, there was one small argument between my two friends over the weather of all things, but once we got moving they managed to keep their bickering to a minimum, if only because I walked between them both the whole time.

We continued around the Lonesome Lake until we reached the bridge north of Sweet Apple Acres, from there we slipped onto the road that would take us directly to Pivot. It wouldn’t be until late afternoon that we arrived in the city, and I was glad to see that in the twenty odd days since I had last been there, an attempt was finally being made at reconstructing the city. As we walked up the main street, there were a great deal of buildings with scaffolding up around them, and others that had the boards removed from their front windows to show ponies busy inside renovating.

Glancing down side streets revealed that most of the work seemed to be focusing on the main street of Pivot, which was fair enough as a place to start, I guessed all this work was the doing of the new mayor who had organised the restoration of Glean. The streets were certainly a lot busier that when I was last here, and not with homeless ponies, although the majority of the ponies than were walking about were Rebel soldiers. As we reached the square in front of the town hall, we found that it was most lively here, with a couple dozen ponies making a brave attempt at setting up market stalls, and some of the shops turned into clinics and shelters.

I wondered if those clinics and shelters were temporary, after all, even the Trapper tavern seemed to have been converted, all its chairs and tables shifted outside, while the inside had been packed full of mattresses. I noticed Pinkie looking forlornly at the bell tower of the town hall, no doubt remembering our last visit here and how harrowing it had been.

“This was where you saw them?” Twilight asked in a wary tone. “When they were… you know.”

I nodded, as did Pinkie Pie, for once not coming out with a smart remark to try and get a rise out of the unicorn.

“Well it looks like things a doing a little better,” Twilight said optimistically as she looked around. “Oh, hey, there’s Applejack.”

Pinkie and I both spun around to see Applejack stepping out of one of the clinics, dressed in sanitary scrubs and fanning herself off. We all hurried over to her, making sure not to knock into any of the ponies bustling about with building materials or supplies. Applejack saw us and smiled as we got near.

“Boy am ah glad to see you girls,” Applejack greeted, sounding exhausted. “It’s mighty stuffy in there, so many ponies to look after. Ah’m no doctor, but they need all the help they can get.”

“I’m glad to see you too Applejack,” I replied. “So how are things here since… well, since the attack? The town itself is looking better, but what about the ponies?”

“Difficult to say,” Applejack admitted with a sigh. “Very few unicorns and pegasi managed to hide from them, that means there’s a lot of ponies who got ‘castrated’, a lot of which became sick from the conditions they were bein’ kept in. Plenty of ponies were killed outright; all we could do for them was finish crematin’ what was left behind when the scoundrels fled the city.”

“So what all is being done now that the Rebels are back?” I asked.

“Well, as you can see we have clinics set up to try and treat the injured,” Applejack explained, gesturing to the shop behind her as well as a few others around the square. “There’s more shelters opened up around the city to help with the homeless problem, you can thank the new mayor for that, she’s doin’ wonders for this place.”

“Yes, we heard about the restoration programme in Glean,” I commented. “Although it looks like their efforts will have to stretch to Timber now as well.”

“Ah shucks, what happened there?” Applejack questioned, a distressed look on her face.

“Dragon attack,” Twilight informed her. “But don’t worry; we’ve taken care of it.”

“It’s like every time somethin’ goes right, somethin’ else has to go wrong,” Applejack muttered to herself. “This country just can’t catch a break. So Rarity, is that you back for good now?”

“We’ll see,” I replied doubtfully. “I have to report back into Maverick, tell him how Olympus went. Oh, that reminds me, Fluttershy sends her regards, she had to stay up that way and take care of some other business for a while.”

“And that reminds me,” Applejack began looking over at Pinkie Pie. “Howdy Pinkie, ah see you there gettin’ all worked up. But don’t worry, ah hadn’t forgot about you.”

“Oh you can read me like a book,” Pinkie responded with a coy look.

“You know, I’m just about done here for the day,” Applejack told us. “If you give me a minute to get changed, I can come with you.”

We agreed and lingered outside the clinic for a few minutes until Applejack re-emerged, scrubs swapped out for her leather armour and sallet helmet, her claymore slung across her back. We all made our way back across the square and up the steps of the town hall, once inside we found it stuffed full of ponies. Craning my neck to see over the crowd, I managed to make out a familiar face near the end of the far corridor, just outside the mayor’s office. As we weaved through the busy ponies and neared Sufferthorn, she was just finishing up issuing instructions to one of her soldiers who saluted and marched away.

“Hey Sufferthorn,” I said announcing our presence, a lot more casually than I once would have done.

“Ah Rarity, glad to see you’ve returned,” she greeted formally before glancing to Twilight. “And Lady Sparkle, did you have any luck?”

“None I’m afraid,” Twilight replied. “Glean is the last place we can place Spitfire.”

“Well Strangle still hasn’t returned from Arclight,” Sufferthorn said, looking put down. “But maybe Rarity has some good news for us?”

“I do actually,” I replied eagerly which got a look of surprise out of her.

“I’m glad to hear it,” she stated as she turned to the door behind her. “Come on, you can tell Maverick all about it.”

As she knocked twice before walking straight in, I got a slight shiver up my spine as I realised we were in the exact spot we first met. I wondered if she remembered and felt awkward about it, still, she seemed to have warmed up to me since then… or maybe Strangle had just given her a stern telling off after the sword to the neck incident. My friends filed in behind Sufferthorn and I took up the rear, as I entered I saw Maverick standing by the desk, talking to a pony I presumed was the new mayor.

“I’m sorry to cut this short,” I heard him say to her in his usual voice that felt like he was drooling in your ear. “But I’m afraid a very important meeting suddenly came up.”

“Not at all,” the mayor replied in a light, friendly voice. “Use the office; I need to go check on the work outside anyway.”

As she made her way out past me, she flashed me a warm smile, and I suddenly realised that she was the same secretary who had served me really poor tea during my talk with the Pen Pusher. I then remembered what the innkeeper at Glean had said about how the new mayor was inspired when she overheard somepony shouting at the last mayor about what needed fixed in Pivot. I blushed heavily when I realised I had most likely had an indirect hand in helping Pivot recover after all.

“Rarity, good to see you back,” Maverick said as he levitated several chairs around the desk for us all. “So, tell us how your mission in Olympus went. Has Iron Sights agreed to keep to himself?”

“Even better, depending on how you look at it,” I replied as I took my own seat. “Iron Sights is dead.”

There was a stunned silence following my declaration, of course Twilight knew this, but I hadn’t told her all the details.

“We were right to believe he was involved with whatever Arcana was doing,” I continued. “But it turns out he didn’t know why, it would appear that Arcana simply used him, and paid him off with a magic artefact called the Terrorstone.”

“Never heard of it,” Maverick commented. “I assume it was something they had lying about in the Tower or the Arclight University, you can’t walk ten feet in those places without tripping over some magical artefact.”

“The stone allowed Iron Sights to turn the fear of his enemies into his own physical strength,” I explained, Sufferthorn ‘ohh’d’ as she realised where I was going, but the others continued to stare blankly at me. “He was using the power of the stone to make it so he could never be overthrown in the Dragoons.”

“So he was cheating,” Sufferthorn murmured. “I wondered how that guy had stayed top dog for so long in a faction based around strength.”

“Iron Sights wasn’t going to help us against the Children of the Earth,” I went on. “He was quite stubborn about that, but after discovering his secret, a friend of mine was able to defeat him in the Olympus Coliseum and become the new Marshal of the Dragoons. Now here’s the really good part, not only does she want to help the Rebellion in fighting against the Children of the Earth, she also wants to see the Dragoons dissolved and all their forces return to you.”

Maverick’s eyes went wide; even Sufferthorn gave a rare smile as she surveyed me with an impressed look.

“So that’s the short version of the story,” I finished. “Rainbow Dash has taken units to Anchorage, Breakwater and Brine to help defend them if the Children attempt another attack, and she’s more than happy to meet with you for negotiations to see the reunion of your two forces.”

“Rarity, I must say I’m very impressed,” Maverick told me with an approving nod. “After our recent trouble involving Blueblood, we really needed some good news like this.”

“Well, every piece of good news must come bundled with a few pieces of bad,” I jumped in quickly. “And while the news regarding Olympus and the Dragoons is good, there are some things you should be aware of. For starters, Brine is infested with the undead… or monsters… or abominations, we’re not exactly sure what they are.”

“Undead?” Sufferthorn repeated in a concerned voice.

“Something like that, the entire population is dead, and yet they continue to walk around and attempt to kill anypony who enters the town,” I explained. “I was first there with Pinkie and Fluttershy, Pinkie’s looking into what caused it while Fluttershy is helping the squad of Dragoons Rainbow Dash left there to eradicate them from the town.”

“That sounds…” Maverick began in an odd tone; it was almost like he doubted the sincerity of what I was telling him. “So what have you found out then? What has caused this… outbreak?”

“I will get back to you on that one,” Pinkie replied in a cheery tone.

“So nothing,” Maverick stated, making Pinkie and, oddly enough, Twilight frown at him. “What else has happened? We might as well get it all on the table now while we’re here.”

“There was a dragon attack in Timber,” I informed him, which caused a bit more of a reaction. “Twilight and I went there while searching for Blueblood. We took care of the dragon, but the town was been destroyed, we think it’s of the utmost importance that you include in this restoration scheme.”

“You’ll have to speak to the mayor about that,” Maverick told me. “But don’t be surprised if you get a negative response, her efforts are spread very thin at the moment, as are our troops.”

“So besides Blueblood escaping, was there anything I missed while I was gone?” I asked.

“Not much,” Sufferthorn told me. “We received word that Typhoon survived the destruction of the Fort, and while the Liberators took a massive hit, they’re somehow holding together. We’ve been too busy with our search for Blueblood and the efforts to restore the city to consider them at the moment, it’s possible after everything they’ve lost, they’ll finally listen to reason and…”

“Typhoon will have to wait,” Maverick cut in. “We must focus on consolidating this relationship with the Dragoons, before some other megalomaniac can take them over.”

“Rainbow Dash can handle herself, but I think you’re right,” I told him, before murmuring under my breath so only Applejack and Pinkie Pie could hear me. “Unbelievably.”

“I’m glad you do,” Maverick said, clearly not picking up why my friends were sniggering to themselves. “I’ll begin making arrangements immediately, but right now I need you all to focus your efforts of finding Blueblood. Just under forty sleeper agents have vanished from the face of the earth, we need to capture him soon if we’re to find out what he’s planning on using them for and put a stop to it.”

“We’re still waiting on Strangle coming back from Arclight,” Sufferthorn reminded us. “But until then you could go to Anchorage and ask around. We have plenty of able bodies working around here, but we don’t have enough eyes and ears further north.”

“I suppose I could go to Anchorage,” I said, mulling the idea over in my mind. “I do have to get back to Fluttershy soon…”

“Oh, you’re going to see Fluttershy!” Pinkie exclaimed, jumping up on her seat. “Count me in!”

“Well obviously I’ll be going since I need to find Blueblood,” Twilight commented, a little bitterly after Pinkie had already said she would be going.

“And ah can come too,” Applejack added. “You’re gettin’ awfully close to enemy territory goin’ up that way, you might need the extra set of eyes… and blade.”

“Excellent, Sufferthorn could you show them out?” Maverick asked as he began pulling out some sheets onto the table so he looked busy. “Find them some suitable accommodation and arrange for transport in the morning to take them to the dock.”

Sufferthorn’s face scrunched up at being addressed like a secretary, but she obeyed and walked over to the door, holding it open for us. Once outside, my three companions began walking down the corridor to the entrance hall while Sufferthorn and I lingered back.

“It’s weird to think…” Sufferthorn began in a low voice, drifting off before she could finish her thought.

“To think what?” I asked, noticing the distant look on her face.

“Nothing,” she said after a moment of silence on her part. “Let’s just get going.”

“Sir, yes sir,” I replied as she began to walk away.

Sufferthorn snapped around, glaring at me, but then she saw how I was struggling to hold in my laughter. She quickly turned away, but not before I saw a smile creeping on to her face. She started marching after the others, making sure to keep her face turned away from me as I trailed behind.

LIII - Town Defence

Sufferthorn had found us an empty house near the town square; no doubt in case we were required urgently, she wanted us as close as possible. She didn’t mention who the house belonged to, but the pictures that had been left up suggested it had been somepony who had either left Pivot before the attack, or hadn’t complied with the Children of the Earth and ended up fuelling their fires. Pinkie found a board game in one of the bedrooms and insisted we all play it together, I agreed just to try and take my mind off the idea that it was a foal’s bedroom she had found it in.

Applejack seemed more than glad to engage in something light-hearted, the work around the town apparently being very draining. But Twilight outright refused to join us, instead pulling out a book from the shelves and reading it in the corner with a soundproof bubble around her.

“Is somethin’ upsettin’ Twilight?” Applejack asked as we played.

“She doesn’t like Pinkie Pie,” I informed her.

“Is that it?” Applejack asked, a little surprised. “How come?”

“Oh Twilight and I go way back,” Pinkie said happily. “Oh, she’s always been pushing me and I’ve always been pushing her… then occasionally push turns to shove and shove turns into all out magical warfare. It’s pretty fun, you should try it sometime.”

“Sounds like that would be pretty one sided,” Applejack commented. “What with you not bein’ a unicorn and all.”

“You just keep thinking that,” Pinkie said slyly before passing Applejack a box of chocolates that hadn’t been there a second ago. “Chocolate?”

“Thank you,” Applejack replied happily as she popped one in her mouth. “So, any fun stories you two have together?”

“Oh, loads!” Pinkie declared. “Anytime we get together, you just know something hilarious and fun is bound to happen. I still remember our first meeting, this was way back when she was still Celestia’s student. Oh she was so cute, and so eager to impress Celestia. Well one day I’m breaking into the Canterlot archives, I had some late books and I wanted to return them without having to pay the fee… and if I happened to stumble into the forbidden section and pick up some light reading material while I was there, that was fine too.”

“Yeah, that sounds completely legal,” I mumbled. “Can’t see why Twilight would ever get annoyed about that.”

“Yeah, well I ran into her while I was perusing my choices,” Pinkie continued. “Turns out she had full access, being Celestia’s protégé. She was making full use of her privileges by staying up one night, practicing a spell that would allow her to stay up at night without falling asleep.”

“Why is it when you say stuff, mah head hurts?” Applejack muttered dully as she moved her piece across the board.

“Well she started giving me this big lecture about obeying rules, and it was so boring!” Pinkie went on, giving exaggerated gestures as she spoke. “So just to lighten the mood, I opened a doorway to Void of Endless Torment. She didn’t seem to appreciate the effort I was putting in to making our conversation more fun… particularly when the pain elemental crawled out.”

“Void of Endless Torment?” Applejack repeated. “Why do ah feel like ah missed a step?”

“Pinkie worships Discord,” I explained casually.

“Oh yeah, ah had a cousin who was into that stuff,” Applejack muttered, not appearing disturbed in the slightest. “Ah’m pretty sure she invented the fruit-bat… sorry Pinkie, go on.”

“Well, I quickly learnt that Twilight has a bit of a temper when books get destroyed,” Pinkie told us. “And when she gets mad… you’d better be sure you packed your everything-proof shield. By that point I decided it would be for the best to skedaddle out of there, so I grabbed the book I was looking for, hopped on the Pinkie-copter and flew the coop.”

“Did Twilight ever get the book back?” Applejack asked, sounding genuinely entertained by the story.

“She did…” Pinkie began before grinning mischievously. “But not before I rearranged all the pages and removed the numbers.”

The conversation kept up like that until the game was over, Pinkie Pie having won of course, and we all decided to go to bed. Twilight did not, she was too enamoured with whatever she was reading that she didn’t see us waving frantically outside her bubble to get her attention. We quickly gave up, just hoping that she had indeed mastered that no sleep spell since the time of Pinkie’s story. In retrospect, we should have gone to bed even sooner than that, as Sufferthorn had the drill sergeant thing going where she came hammering on our door before the sun had even risen.

She had us packed up and loaded onto a new cart and ready to hit the road before we had even finished rubbing the sleep from our eyes. There was a private dock directly north of Pivot, not unlike the one north of Glean where Salty had lived; only this one was designed to manage a few more vessels than just one barge. Sufferthorn hadn’t left the city with us, but she sent word ahead and arranged for a small fishing boat to carry us over the Neptune to Anchorage.

While we waited for the owners of the boat to finish readying it, after offering our assistance and having it turned down, I thought of Rainbow Dash and whether she would still be in Anchorage by the time we arrived. It had been a few days since she set off for Anchorage herself, and considering how quickly she was able to smooth things out with the mayor of Breakwater, it was very possible that she had arrived and moved on already. I was feeling hopeful however, as was Pinkie Pie, who claimed I still owed her a new friend after the last one turned out to ‘only’ be Twilight.

Things definitely seemed to move faster when Maverick was dishing out the orders, we were on board the boat and setting off before midday, and the ponies who owned it promised to have us in Anchorage around early evening. While we travelled, Applejack got the lend of some fishing rods, not that we’d be able to catch much since the boat was continuously moving, but it gave us something to talk about as together we demonstrated to Twilight and Pinkie some techniques.

Just like my knowledge on boats and sailing, I only knew so much about fishing from what my father had taught me growing up, never having taken as much of an interest as I probably should have. As we talked however, and I began to remember little bits of information and learnt new things from Applejack, I found myself more fond of it than I ever remembered being. No doubt it was due to growing older and having a change in perspectives, whatever the case may be, I was even considering taking it up when all the craziness was over, it might even give something for my father and I to bond over.

While Applejack was guiding Pinkie through the motions of casting, I was called up to the bow by one of the ponies we were travelling with. He had a grim expression on his face, and as I joined him at the bow I quickly saw why. Anchorage was just visible on the horizon, a much larger town than Breakwater being the primary fishing village, but relatively similar in style. The sun was sinking low in the sky, but even with the still strong light, I could make out the soft orange hue hovering over Anchorage. My memories immediately leapt to Timber, there was no doubt in mind that something was on fire, I wasn’t sure whether it was better or worse that it wasn’t green.

“You weren’t coming this way to fight in some battle, were you?” the pony asked in a worried tone.

“That wasn’t the intention, no,” I replied, never taking my eyes off the town. “Give me a second.”

I levitated out my spyglass, extended it and peered through. None of the buildings around the dock seemed damaged in any way, and they certainly weren’t on fire, the source must have been the far end of the town. I could see ponies scurrying about on the docks, after watching for a moment, I caught a flash of silver. It was one of the Dragoon soldiers, he seemed to be directing citizens, I sighed with relief as I returned the spyglass.

“It looks like our allies are holding this part of the town,” I informed him. “You can take us straight in. Unless they need ponies evacuated, you should be able to leave as soon as you are able.”

The pony nodded, walking off to inform his two friends while I did the same. When I returned to the other end of the ship, I found Applejack guffawing with laughter as Pinkie dangled Twilight from the end of her fishing rod, the unicorn’s horn glowing dangerously as she growled.

“Enough playing about!” I ordered in an oddly authoritative voice. “There seems to be trouble in Anchorage, I can see the Dragoons are still about, so we need to get in there and help them.”

Twilight teleported out of the fishing line and went about getting ready, I wasn’t sure why she hadn’t just done that to begin with. Pinkie dropped the fishing rod overboard as she hurried to get ready herself; Applejack simply stared after it, unable to do anything as it splashed into the water. She paled when she realised she was probably going to have to pay for it, so I hurried over to the edge of the boat and pulled it back up with magic before I lost sight of it.

Applejack took it back appreciatively and went to return it while I walked over to where my satchels were lying. It didn’t take long before the boat arrived at the pier, Applejack, Twilight, Pinkie and myself were already standing at the edge of the deck, ready to jump off as soon as we were close enough. Landing on the wooden pier one after the other, we quickly galloped towards the town, making for a Dragoon solider who was shouting instructions to the locals.

“Soldier!” Applejack called out to get his attention. “What’s the trouble?”

He turned and I saw a look of relief on his face, I wasn’t sure whether he remembered me from Olympus, or if he just thought that four heavily armed mares couldn’t be a bad thing at this point.

“A hostile force is attempting to breach the northern gate,” he explained. “Marshal Rainbow Dash is leading the defence at the wall.”

“Has an evacuation been ordered yet?” Twilight asked, casting a quick glance back at our own boat.

“Not yet Miss,” the soldier replied. “So far we’ve just been ordered to get everypony indoors.”

“Thanks,” Applejack said with a tip of her helmet before charging off towards the town.

We all followed, Twilight and I running behind Applejack, while Pinkie bounced behind us.

“Let’s find Rainbow Dash!” I called to the others. “Hopefully this isn’t what I think it is.”

The town was bigger than Breakwater, but when running through it at top speeds, it didn’t feel like it. Anchorage was one of the rare towns with a wall around its perimeter, although it was only a wooden structure, no taller than three ponies. We reached the gate and found it bustling with activity, both silver armoured Dragoons and local ponies in mismatched leather armour were running about. The source of the fire was obvious; the entire middle section of the wall was engulfed in flames, including the gate.

Dozens of ponies were running up and throwing buckets of water over it, while in the sky, rainclouds were pushed into place by pegasi. But none of it was tackling the fire fast enough, and it was already spreading further and further in each direction. Thankfully there was a stretch of empty land between the wall and the outer most buildings of the town, so there was little risk of the fire spreading to the houses. It was there in that space, right in front of the burning gate that Rainbow Dash stood, bellowing orders over the roaring flames at her soldiers.

“Rainbow Dash!” I called out; she turned around and was immediately relived to see me.

“Rarity, thank Celestia,” Rainbow muttered in an exhausted voice. “I told you I wasn’t cut out for this, you have to help me put this fire out or we’ll be wide open to attack!”

I looked over at the ponies feeble attempts to extinguish the fire and frowned uncomfortably.

“Clearly this will require some magic,” I pointed out, turning to face my companions.

“I can take care of this!” announced both Twilight and Pinkie at the same time, before they both snapped around to glare at one another.

“You?!” Twilight exclaimed. “What could you possibly do that would put out a fire? Smother it in confetti?”

“I was actually going to remove all the oxygen from around the wall,” Pinkie stated.

“But that could have terrible side effects!” Twilight exclaimed. “Have you even done that before?”

“No, but it should be pretty simple,” Pinkie admitted. “But more importantly, it will get rid of the fire quickly. Let me guess, you were going to use water magic, boring!”

“It’s the safest and most rational solution!” Twilight snapped back.

“Look, I don’t care which of you does whatever!” Rainbow shouted over them in a panicked voice. “But would one of you do something?!”

“Water!” Twilight declared, bringing forth her sceptre and conjuring a liquid tornado to sweep over the wall.

“You’re just damaging the wall more!” Pinkie exclaimed.

Indeed the force of the water was causing the already terribly damaged wood to peel and chip off in certain areas, although it was hardly a great deal worse than what it would have been if the fire had remained.

“Maybe if I could focus without you yammering on, that wouldn’t happen,” Twilight hissed back.

After a couple minutes, the fire was completely extinguished, and the pegasi were left to flap away both the smoke and the steam that was rising from the charred and now soaking wet wall. Rainbow took to the air, swooping over the wall left to right to make sure it was all okay before returning to hover over the gate.

“Take that you assholes!” she shouted out beyond the wall at whoever was attacking. “You’re not getting past this wall so long as we’re alive!”

As she flew back towards us, she began shouting out orders for to her soldiers to mount the wall or take to the skies and shoot arrows into anypony they saw approaching the wall. When she dropped back down in front of me, she let out a heavy sigh of relief.

“Thanks a lot,” she said to me, brushing her sweaty mane out of her face. “Don’t know how long we could have kept that up; it takes time to make rainclouds after all.”

“Rainbow Dash, what happened?” I asked her in a wary tone. “Who’s attacking?”

“Those guys you warned me about,” Rainbow replied, kicking the ground in agitation. “Those crazy ponies from Cragsburg, the ones in the green robes.”

“The Children of the Earth,” I muttered angrily, looking back to see that Pinkie and Applejack had also scowled at the mention of their name.

“Yeah, they arrived shortly after we did,” Rainbow explained, leading us left from the gate towards one of the ramps that would take us to the top of the wall. “They tried at first to launch a full assault at the gate, but when they saw we were home, they pulled back. They launched the fire attack not long ago, clearly trying to burn right through our defences so they could just walk right into the town.”

“Cowards,” Applejack muttered. “Cunning, but cowardly.”

“Who’re these guys?” Rainbow asked me, looking over my shoulder at Twilight, Pinkie and Applejack. “Not that I’m complaining, the more able soldiers we have, the better. Luckily this town has its own militia, but… they’re not well equipped… or well trained.”

“These are some of my friends,” I informed her. “Pinkie Pie was at Brine with us, Twilight Sparkle is representing Equestria, and Applejack…”

“Applejack?!” Rainbow exclaimed, doing a double take at her. “I knew I recognised your name, you’re with the Rebellion, aren’t you?”

“Well, ah guess ah am again,” Applejack muttered, a little annoyed at having to admit that.

“I mean, you were at Olympus, during the war,” Rainbow elaborated. “I remember seeing you, you totally kicked ass.”

“Oh, uh, thanks… ah guess,” Applejack replied. “It’s Rainbow Dash, right? Sorry, I don’t really remember you.”

“Well I was in the air most of the time,” Rainbow justified. “Although I find it incredible that anypony could forget me.”

“Ah’m sure it’ll come back to me,” Applejack assured her, rolling her eyes slightly. “But if you’re the Marshal now, ah figure you kick a lot of ass too.”

Rainbow smirked at that, it was nice that those two were able to hit things off so well, I only wished my other two companions could do the same.

“Come on, let’s take a look,” Rainbow suggested, taking the lead up the ramp and onto the wall.

I followed up behind her, with my friends following in single file behind me, the wall wasn’t exactly the safest structure to be standing on any more. It felt a little bit rickety, and more than a few times my hooves skidded slightly on the wet wood. Once we were standing at the top, we could see the Children of the Earth army hunkered down some distance away in the Pastures, they had cleverly put themselves just out of range of Rainbow Dash’s archers.

The archers were however shooting at the half dozen or so ponies who were zigzagging across the plains, carrying burning torches, it was clear they weren’t about to give up on their fire attack. Most arrows would bounce off their armour, but it only took one well aimed arrow to burrow into their skulls and nullify the threat, not a single one of the torch bearers made it to the wall.

“So what’s the plan?” I asked Rainbow.

“Well we aren’t meeting them head on,” Rainbow began. “It’s hard to tell from this distance, but they outnumber us four to one, and that’s including the town militia.”

“Most of your soldiers are pegasi,” Twilight pointed out. “Could you not simply fly over them and shoot them from right over their heads.”

“We thought of that,” Rainbow admitted. “But they’re armed with slings and crossbows, and they’re pretty good at aiming. We already lost two guys trying to do that, and we only had twenty four to begin with.”

“Are they likely to retreat?” Twilight asked. “Sufferthorn said they fled Pivot when they moved to take it back, maybe they won’t risk meeting you head on if you present yourself as a bigger threat than you actually are.”

“They probably think you’ve got a whole army behind this wall,” Applejack added. “That’s probably why they pulled back in the first place, and why they aren’t throwing everything they have at the wall now.”

“I have an idea,” Pinkie announced randomly.

“Sweet,” Rainbow replied. “Tell me what you’re thinking?”

“We surrender,” Pinkie stated calmly, Rainbow’s face dropped slightly at that.

“Oh… I was hoping for something a bit more positive,” Rainbow muttered.

“Wait, I haven’t finished,” Pinkie said quickly. “We make them think we’re surrendering to lure them close, and then we spring the trap!”

“What’s the trap?” Applejack asked curiously.

“I haven’t gotten that far yet,” Pinkie admitted. “But I just know it will save the day.”

“Oh for the love of… don’t listen to her, she’s just wasting time,” Twilight snapped. “What we need to do is have your ranged troops maintain their positions and wait until they make the first move, we can’t meet them out there, but nor can we plan when we don’t know what they’re going to throw at us.”

“Hey, I happen to be an expert when it comes to traps,” Pinkie retorted. “They rely on the element of surprise, which is my speciality. I can think of something, I just need to know what all we have available to us.”

“Ah think,” Applejack cut in, literally stepping between the pair of them. “We should let Rainbow Dash decide, she is the boss here.”

Rainbow grimaced slightly at that, but didn’t remark upon it.

“I’ll go with what… Twilight, isn’t it? I’ll go with what Twilight says for now,” she stated, Twilight shooting Pinkie a smug smile as she did. “But if Pinkie can come up with a good idea, I’ll hear her out.”

“Well whatever you do, just be careful,” I warned her. “These ponies are complete zealots; they’ll fight and die if they think it will end in our defeat.”

Indeed, the few Children that had charged the wall with torches, did so with such fanatical abandon for their own wellbeing that they might as well have been running at us with bombs strapped to their chest. Once that was decided, we made our way down from the wall, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle all started off towards the town at Rainbow’s suggestion, the latter two pointedly ignoring one another.

“Those two seem… tense,” Rainbow pointed out awkwardly.

“Yeah,” I replied with a little sigh. “But I can deal with that, how are you?”

“I’m alright,” Rainbow replied with a non-committal shrug. “I hate being a leader, but what else is new?”

“Well don’t worry,” I assured her. “I’ve spoken with Maverick, and he’s already making arrangements to come meet with you and get this all sorted out.”

“I’m glad,” Rainbow responded, sounding genuinely relieved. “Hopefully this won’t take too long, then I can get on my way back to Brine and see how Fluttershy is doing.”

“Well you can count me in on that journey,” I told her. “I hated leaving her behind, but I’m sure she’s handling things marvellously.”

“Hopefully, anyway, you should go get some rest,” Rainbow suggested. “If things do kick off here, I’ll need you all at top performance.”

“Alright, but be sure to take your own advice at some point,” I said as I started after my other friends.

I caught up to them outside a café that was open late, I had wanted to follow Rainbow’s advice and go get some rest, but I figured we could stop for a bit and get a cup of tea.

“At some point I’m going to have to ask around about Blueblood,” Twilight reminded me. “I should be fine on my own, I’m sure you want to help Rainbow Dash… and you all want to get back at those Children of the Earth for what they did at Pivot.”

“You’re darn right about that,” Applejack declared, slamming her cup on the table.

“But I’m sure we’ll find time to help you as well,” I added.

“Yeah,” Pinkie agreed, her mouth stuffed full of muffins. “We’ll cover more ground if we all help search.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow at Pinkie, I too was feeling rather bewildered at her sudden shift in attitude. I didn’t have time to ponder it however, as a Dragoon soldier flew right past us, stopping, and finally backtracking until he was next to us.

“Miss Rarity, the Marshal requires the presence of you and your allies,” the soldier explained. “The Children are making a full assault on the wall and she wants all hooves on deck.”

“Tell her we’re on our way,” I instructed, standing up immediately and throwing some bits onto the table. “Come on girls, let’s…”

“Help!” a voice screamed form the direction of the dock. “There’s a monster in the water! Somepony help us!”

I looked between the screaming mare near the docks and the soldier who was flying off towards the gate. I then looked down at my friends who shared my worried expression, and then I gulped as I tried to decide what to do.

LIV - Teamwork

We galloped through the streets, eyes fixed on our goal. Splitting up really seemed like our best bet, Applejack had easily the most experience in battle out of any of us. With her and Rainbow Dash securing the town gate, there was no way the Children of the Earth were getting through, at least until the rest of us dealt with the monster and went to join them. We came skidding to a halt as we passed beyond the last of the buildings and entered into the harbour section of Anchorage. It became instantly clear that something was wrong, as the moment we stopped we saw a familiar looking fishing vessel hurtling through the air towards us.

I dived to the side while Twilight teleported and Pinkie cartwheeled to safety. The boat we had travelled to Anchorage on exploded in the street we had just run down, the wreck effectively blocking our exit for the time being. There were dozens of ponies running around the docks, screaming in terror. I tried shouting for them to get to safety, but they were too hysterical to listen. As I tried shouting, I noticed another small boat soaring through the air, flying straight for a pair of ponies who sat huddled together, refusing to move.

I panicked and end up freezing on the spot, I couldn’t bring myself to move, even to rescue them. Luckily a wave of purple magic swept over them like a powerful wind and sent them both toppling across the dock. They both smacked painfully into a building, but it would have been considerably more painful if they had stayed where they were and been crushed by the boat that collided with the ground. Twilight ran up beside me, Pinkie running towards us from the opposite direction.

“We need to get a look at what we’re fighting,” Twilight stated.

“It must be in the water,” Pinkie added.

Nodding, we turned and rushed down one of the long wooden piers to get a better look at this monster the ponies were yelling about. We could only go so far, as the walkway had been ripped apart from about halfway down, but we got far enough that we were able to see what was causing all the trouble. The creature appeared mostly submerged; all we were able to make out was the six great tentacles rising up from the water surface, and the bulbous mantle just about poking out between them all.

The tentacles were easily the width of a couple ponies at their thickest visible point, while the small part of the mantle we were able to see, was still big enough for us all to stand on if we kept close to one another. The flesh of the creature was varying shades of deep ocean blue and dark purple, not that it was easy to see, the tentacles thrashed about so wildly, causing the water to churn about as if it were caught in a violent storm. As we took in the sight of the creature, we noticed that it was slowly encroaching on the dock.

“It’s some kind of tentacle monster!” Pinkie shouted as we shielded ourselves from the water shooting off the waves.

“Actually, those aren’t tentacles,” Twilight pointed out. “Technically they’re arms in the same way an octopus has arms, you can see the suction cups.”

“Technically it’s way easier to just be wrong and call them tentacles,” Pinkie retorted.

“Look, it doesn’t matter!” I shouted over them right before jumping back to avoid a huge wave smashing over the broken end of the walkway. “That thing is getting closer, what do we do to stop it?”

“We take it out of course!” Pinkie said, pulling up her hood and putting on her mask.

“That doesn’t actually answer my…” I began, stopping the moment Pinkie dived into the churning water and disappearing from sight. “Pinkie Pie!”

“Seriously?!” Twilight exclaimed, glaring angrily at the spot where Pinkie disappeared. “Fine, if she wants to get herself killed, I’m not about to stop her. Rarity, I can levitate you close to it and you can do that flail technique you used on Spike.”

“Um, sure…” I replied uncertainly, the idea of hovering over that creature while its tentacles were whipping around with such ferocity wasn’t exactly appealing.

“Don’t worry, I have a very steady horn,” Twilight promised me.

After getting back to a safe distance so Twilight wouldn’t be thrown off by cascades of water, I drew my sword and allowed it to flop, my magic holding onto the pommel and nothing more, just as I had done at Timber. I started giving my rapier a few test swings to try and get the rhythm going, before nodding to Twilight. While I continued to swing my blade around, slowly letting my leash on it get longer, I felt my whole body wrapped in Twilight’s aura. It felt like I had been wrapped in a slightly itchy blanket as my body was picked up and steadily moved out over the water.

It was rather disorienting, feeling so weightless all of a sudden, but I tried not to let it affect me as I started swinging my sword in wider circles. I glanced back briefly to see that Twilight looked perfectly calm, that encouraged me a little as I looked back over the creature that I was now almost over the top of. Twilight finally stopped moving me forward, and instead started bringing me lower so the creature was in range of my swings. I looked over the creature as best as I could while constantly rotating my head at a slight angle, I wondered if it would be more viable to aim for one of the tentacles or the mantle further below.

I settled on the closest tentacle, as I feared while trying to strike the mantle, my sword would get batted away by the tentacle anyway. I had now picked up a good speed in my swing and I was ready to start extending it far enough that it would begin slicing through the tentacle. I slowing drew out the length of my tether, letting the radius of my circle increase a few inches at a time. Finally it was long enough so that when the tentacle came swinging back around in my direction…

I felt my neck snap as my head was tugged forward, there was a blinding pain in my horn and I severed the tether with my sword. The tentacle had come in range, and my sword had connected with it, but rather than slice cleaning through and keep on rotating, it merely glanced off the apparently hard as rock flesh of the creature. Since my head had been tracing the movements of the sword, it got pulled away as my blade was thrown out of motion. As soon as I had let go of the connection, I saw my sword fall and land in the water, disappearing instantly in the convulsing waves.

If I thought at that moment, things couldn’t get worse, I was sorely mistaken. Despite not leaving a mark, the monster still felt my sword, and as a result its tentacles began flailing about even more wildly in an attempt to strike its unknown attacker. The tentacle I had tried to cut hit its mark, catching me right across the midriff, even Twilight had been taken by surprise so her magic hold broke instantly as I was chucked like a ragdoll towards Anchorage. I was high enough that I was flying straight for the roofs of the buildings closest to the water’s edge, but I could feel Twilight desperately trying to get another hold on me and slow me down.

If she hadn’t, I would have been liquefied as soon as I made contact with the roof, but she got me just slow enough that it only hurt… an incredible amount. I felt the slate shatter beneath me as I tore across the roof, my body only stopping when it crashed hard against a brick chimney. I lay there for a moment, my whole body in shock, my eyes wide as I tried to breathe, but found my lungs unresponsive. There was a flash of light as Twilight teleported onto the roof, rushing towards me, her eyes horrified at what she had let happen.

“Oh sweet Celestia!” she exclaimed as she dropped to her knees beside me. “Rarity I’m so sorry, it came out of nowhere and I couldn’t…”

I tried to speak, to tell her it was alright, but my words came out sounding more like dry heaves. Twilight wrapped me in her magic once more, lifting me into the air and stretching my body out, I could feel the rush of air filling my lungs as she cleared my airways. While she held me, giving me time to recover and start breathing on my own, Pinkie Pie leapt up onto the roof behind her.

“Hey Rarity,” she said, not immediately noticing my condition as she held out something. “Look what I found!”

I slowly tilted my head to see that she was holding my rapier; I even forced myself to smile at the sight of it.

“So what happened here?” Pinkie asked as she saw the shattered roof tiles and the cracked chimney before finally looking at the way Twilight was holding me.

“Rarity is injured; you could try to show some concern!” Twilight answered in a furious tone.

“She’s alive, and you’re looking after her,” Pinkie pointed out. “I figured that meant she was in good hooves, but if you don’t have that much faith in your own abilities…”

“Oh shut up!” Twilight snapped. “I’m not in the mood, that thing's body is practically impenetrable by the looks of it.”

“Well if it helps, I found out there’s a whole other part to it hiding below the surface,” Pinkie informed us. “It could be its weak point.”

“How did you find that out?” Twilight asked sceptically.

“This mask lets me breathe under water,” Pinkie explained. “Anyway, if we want to hurt it, that would be our best bet.”

“Alright,” Twilight began as she placed me down on the edge of the roof, giving me a perfect view of the dock and the monster that was now close enough to wrap its front two tentacles around another ship. “I’m going down there; I’ll see what magic it’s vulnerable to.”

“I’ll come with!” Pinkie declared, hopping off the building right after Twilight teleported back down to the pier.

That left me on the side-lines, but with an admittedly great view of the fight. The monster tore the boat apart, most debris disappearing into the water, but two relatively intact halves were clutched in each tentacle. Twilight caught the first half as the creature launched it towards the dock, but as she tried to set it back down safely, Pinkie came diving into it, causing it to explode into a shower of wooden debris.

“Pinkie!” Twilight shouted. “What was that for?!”

“It was already broken,” Pinkie justified with a shrug. “And now I can do this…”

It was only then that Twilight and I noticed the large remains of the boat were still floating in the air, gravity apparently having forgotten all about them. Pinkie leapt up and began kicking them all out towards the monster, so they created about dozen floating platforms of driftwoods and ship remains, leading from the dock all the way out over the water. Pinkie jumped up and began hopping form one to the other, getting close to the monster before leaping in between its thrashing tentacles and landing on its mantle, driving both her daggers down as she did. Just like my sword however, they merely glanced off, leaving Pinkie frozen momentarily in surprise.

“I told you that wouldn’t work!” Twilight shouted as Pinkie blinked off the mantle, just as all six tentacles converged on her position. “Now leave this to me.”

Twilight teleported, appearing on the platform Pinkie had put closest to the monster. Twilight drew her sceptre and began swirling it overhead, dark clouds forming in the sky directly above the monster like a miniature hurricane brimming with electricity. Once the clouds were large enough, Twilight began to focus her magic, drawing all the sparks and trials of lighting to the very centre, where they amalgamated together before finally blasting down in a single pillar of such intense light, that it made the setting sun appear dull in comparison.

The lightning streamed into the monsters back, and an unearthly screech emanated from the depths below it. It definitely seemed to have hurt it, but more than that, it just seemed to have made it even more angry and savage. The tentacles began whipping around faster than ever, leaving no space within their reach untouched. As they flapped about, they managed to shatter most of Pinkie’s platforms into splinters, including the one Twilight had been on, right after she teleported way.

“Well that was great,” Pinkie declared as Twilight appeared next to her. “Now there’s no way we can reach its back.”

“Well at least my attack actually hurt it,” Twilight retorted. “If you had listened to what we told you, then you might have done something more constructive.”

“I gave you those platform, didn’t I?” Pinkie pointed out. “You didn’t make those last very long.”

Twilight opened her mouth to bite back with something, but I had just noticed the second half of the ship rolling through the air towards them.

“Run!” I screamed.

They both glanced up in time to see their doom mere inches from their face. Twilight’s horn flashed, but rather than teleport away, she brought up a pink force field to shield both her and Pinkie form the attack. The ship smashed into the magical wall she had conjured, and while she was clearly thrown off balance by the unexpected force of it, her force field held and the second half of the ship fell apart out of harm's way. I leaned over the edge of the roof as Twilight let her shield spell dissipate, I had had quite enough of their constant fighting and it was time to put an end to it.

“Alright you two, I’ve put up with this long enough!” I shouted down at them. “There’s a time for arguing and fighting among ourselves, but that time is not when a monster is threatening the lives of everypony in this town. You two have got to put aside your differences and work together to beat this thing, you’re both incredibly skilled, and if you combine those skills you could be unstoppable. So please, fight alongside one another, if not for me or for yourselves, then for the ponies in Anchorage, the ones whose lives are depending on us wining this fight.”

There was a moment of awkward silence between the two as my words sank in; they both glanced up at each other apologetically before nodding simultaneously.

“Alright Pinkie,” Twilight began in a much more calm and civil voice. “You think its weak point is beneath the surface, that means we need to find some way of drawing it up.”

“I think I have a plan,” Pinkie replied. “How good are you with ice magic?”

Pinkie quickly explained what she had in mind, I couldn’t quite make it out since I was still so high above and they were no longer shouting at each other. The monster was still approaching the dock, I was starting to panic, but then I looked down and saw Twilight nodding in confirmation before the two ran towards the pier once again.

“Hey Slimy!” Pinkie bellowed as they ran down the walkway. “Over here, I’ve got two friends which a very sharp and I know you’re just dying to meet them!”

The monster seemed to shift slightly as if facing the source of the noise. Once they reached the end of the walkway, or as far as they could get before it was shattered and broken, Pinkie Pie somersaulted off the edge. Before she could land however, Twilight thrust her sceptre out, pointing at the water’s surface directly where Pinkie would land. A jet of fluffy white magic poured out of the orb, as it struck the water it began to freeze instantly, creating a small platform of solid, if rather spikey ice.

Pinkie landed right on the platform and started running towards the monster, Twilight followed along with her sceptre, constantly freezing the water just before Pinkie stepped off the edge of the pathway she had made for her. What resulted was Pinkie running across a narrow bridge of ice that Twilight was constantly forging, from the pier to where the monster was. As Pinkie drew close to the monster she readied her daggers, Twilight meanwhile gave her sceptre a wide sweep, completing the ice bridge all the way up to the monster, but also encasing one of its tentacles within the path itself.

The upper half of the tentacle was still free to writhe about, and the ice encasing the lower half was already cracking against the pressure of it trying to escape, but Pinkie was on it before it could do free itself. She dived forward, pulling back with both daggers before slicing forward in an X motion, shattering both the ice and the frozen limb within. The monster shrieked a second time as the upper half of the tentacle was severed clean off from the rest of the body. The other five immediately retaliated by smashing down on Twilight’s ice path and trying to hit Pinkie.

Pinkie however, after diving through the now destroyed limb and landing on the mantle, quickly hopped to the side, onto a bubble that Twilight had conjured for her. She bounced off it, straight onto another and then another, repeatedly until she was safely back on the pier with Twilight.

“Alright!” Pinkie declared, punching the air with her hoof as she saw the result of their teamwork. “What's next partner?”

I could swear I saw Twilight attempt to subdue a grin as she touched her horn to the orb on her sceptre. As she pulled her head away, a long strand of purple magic hung between them, it reminded me of a string of saliva.

“Take the sceptre,” Twilight instructed, which genuinely took me by surprise.

“I thought only you could use it?” Pinkie pointed out in confusion.

“You don’t have to use it,” Twilight explained. “I’ve already activated the spell, now I need you to carry it for me. If you use your powers to make platforms for us, we can both go out there and…”

“Oh, I get it!” Pinkie declared, bouncing up and down excitedly. “Give me one moment!”

Pinkie rushed off, still holding the sceptre so the magic saliva trail stretched out between them. She hurried over to where the second half of the ship fell, pulling out the largest pieces and throwing them into the air where they hung lazily. After kicking them off into position, she quickly ran back just as Twilight teleported onto the nearest one. The sudden jolt on the sceptre tugged Pinkie through the air where she smoothly glided before landing on a separate platform, the connection maintained. Twilight and Pinkie gave each other a quick nod before they began jumping off in opposite directions around the monster.

“Over here!” Twilight shouted, one of the tentacles crashing down on the platform she had just been standing on.

“Nope, over here!” Pinkie said quickly, getting two tentacles to dive into where she had just been.

They kept this up for a few quick minutes, hopping to one platform, taunting the creature to attract its ire before leaping away at the last second of its retaliation. As they worked, I began to see what Twilight’s plan had been, with each time the tentacles lashed out, they got tangled up one way or another in the connection that Twilight and Pinkie were still trailing between them. Before long, they had created a purple spider web criss-crossing between the remaining five tentacles, it remained loose for the time being.

As the final two platforms were destroyed, both Twilight and Pinkie leapt inwards, landing on the mantle, side by side. With a quick nod from Twilight, Pinkie tugged hard on the sceptre while Twilight pulled back with her horn, this resulted in the magic web drawing tight, and all five tentacles getting tugged inwards over the top of the mantle. They struggled against their bonds, but they quite thoroughly tied together, I could see Twilight and Pinkie flashing a quick smile at one another before a loud, frustrated moan echoed from beneath the water.

As the entire creature began to shake violently beneath them, Pinkie quickly gave Twilight back the sceptre and she tied off the two ends before teleporting them back to the safety of the land. They got away just in time, as the monster chose that moment to begin rising up from the depths, its mantle rearing back to reveal the rest of its body tucked safely underneath. The monster’s body turned out to be quite scrawny, it was still the same blue and purple colours, but its flesh looked considerably spongier.

Its head was right below the hood of its mantle, two glowing yellow eyes peering out from beneath it. It had another two arms attached to the main body, long and spindly, which both split apart near the ends into about a dozen thin tentacles, actual tentacles by the looks of the slightly bulbous tips. The waist of its skinny torso was where it connected with the rear end of the mantle, but that part was still submerged beneath the crashing waves. The five arms Twilight and Pinkie had tied up, as well as the still frozen stump of the sixth one, were all attached to the sides of the mantle, which appeared to be much bigger now that it wasn’t mostly hidden from view.

Now that it was standing tall, it wasted no time in pushing forward to the shore, making much quicker progress now.

“We need to strike now,” Twilight said. “That magic rope won’t hold forever.”

“If you can get me close enough to it I can tear it apart,” Pinkie said as she spun her daggered around her hooves. “Of course, even I might not be fast enough to get out of the way if it retaliates with something unexpected.”

Twilight thought for a moment, I saw her head briefly snap up to me before turning back to Pinkie, smiling as she rubbed her hooves together in glee.

“I have a plan!” she declared. “This is actually something I learned from Rarity.”

I frowned, but just waited for Twilight to demonstrate. Twilight quickly gave Pinkie the run down, and after she nodded excitedly, Twilight wrapped her in a purple aura as she lifted Pinkie off the ground. Once she was high enough in the air, Twilight took a deep breath before switching her hold to Pinkie’s hind legs and nothing else. Pinkie dangled about as the aura surrounded her rear hooves and nothing more, it was then I realised what she was planning, and I wanted to shut my eyes for fear of it going wrong.

Twilight began rotating her head; this caused Pinkie to swing around in a circle by her back legs. It started off slow, but quickly picked up speed as Pinkie began swinging in a wider arc with each new rotation. Pinkie readied her daggers, but I wasn’t able to see much more of what she did, as she quickly became a pink blur with some red and blue thrown in from her outfit. Twilight started making her way closer to the pier, still keeping Pinkie swinging; I blinked in surprise at that. Whenever I did that with my sword, I had remained firmly planted in one position, and yet Twilight was already improving on what I had ‘taught’ her on her first attempt.

Twilight was making her way out along the pier, but the monster had already reached the end of it and was smashing it even more with its arm tentacles. Twilight shouted a word of warning to Pinkie Pie right before she moved her in for the kill. The monster began to raise its arms defensively as it saw the spinning pony coming closer, but as she brushed past it and her daggers slashed into its tentacles, it screeched and pulled back. It was too late for it to retreat however, as Pinkie was moving far too fast and her spin radius was only getting wider. She sliced into the monster's chest over and over again, even as it tried to back up.

I knew something was going to go wrong, but I noticed too late to shout any kind of warning. The monster sucked in through its thin mouth before spewing a powerful jet of water out, catching Pinkie mid swing and flinging her back just as my sword had been. Twilight was quicker at cutting the connection between her and Pinkie than I had been however, so she managed to avoid having her neck broken, particularly as Pinkie was considerably heavier than my sword. As Pinkie was hurled back towards Twilight, she didn’t look distressed in any way; on the contrary, she returned her daggers to their sheath and reached out her hooves towards Twilight.

I never actually found out whether the next part was planned, or if they had made it up on the fly. But as Pinkie reached Twilight, seconds before she would have barrelled into her and done them both some serious damage, she slowed herself down until she was merely drifting through the air at a sloth pace. Twilight reached out and grabbed hold of Pinkie’s hooves with one of her own, while clutching the sceptre with the other. As soon as she did, it was as if all the momentum Pinkie had stored, was suddenly transferred into Twilight.

Pinkie spun Twilight around and she was fired like a bullet towards the monster. It only took Twilight a few seconds to reach the creature, but in that short space of time, its five tentacles had snapped free of their bindings and were rushing in to shield its exposed body. As well as this, Twilight had raised her sceptre high over her head, it was brimming with electricity so that when Twilight reached the monster, rather than crash into it, she swung her sceptre downwards, sending out a literal shockwave.

I was forced to shield my eyes from the blinding light of the attack, but when it was safe to look, I saw that the monster had been cleaved cleanly in two. Each half of the monster dropped slowly in either direction, like a tree that had just been chopped down; none of its limbs were moving as it did. Twilight would have went straight into the water on the other side of the monster, but at the last second she had been caught by a fishing line, cast by Pinkie Pie from a floating palate. I imagined Twilight rolling her eyes before teleporting away, and for second Pinkie was left fishing with nothing before she chucked the rod into the water below and blinked away.

Twilight collected me and brought me down to ground level, where I felt myself able to stand once again. Ponies were already emerging from the safety of their homes and the nearby shops to see if the danger really was over, but I just looked at Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie, beaming at them both.

“Nicely done with the whole spinning me around thing!” Pinkie complimented. “It was so much fun; we need to do it again some time!”

“Don’t tempt me,” Twilight muttered, but she couldn’t keep her smile at bay. “You were pretty good yourself, I hate to admit it, but we really did make a good team.”

“Aw, are you starting to like me?” Pinkie asked, edging up inappropriately close to Twilight.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Twilight said sternly as she pushed Pinkie away from her, but I could see the smile in her eyes even if her mouth managed to hide it. “We still have to help the others.”

My heart skipped a beat at that, I had completely forgotten about the Children of the Earth, I only prayed that we weren’t too late.

“Yeah, let’s go!” Pinkie declared. “Besides, you gave me a great idea for a trap.”

“I… I did?” Twilight stammered, looking confused.

“Yes indeedy!” Pinkie replied as she began bouncing back into the town. “Come on, I’ll explain on the way!”

LV - Fighting The Good Fight

When we arrived upon the wall, we saw Applejack and Rainbow Dash out beyond, in the thick of the fight. A good chunk of the enemy forces were still holding back, but there was enough making up the vanguard that they posed a threat to my friends, and the few Dragoons who had joined them on the battlefield and were still standing. I counted seven dead, and the rest were steadily getting beaten back. Looking over at Pinkie, I gave her a quick nod before grabbing onto Twilight, who teleported us both out to where Rainbow Dash was.

It seemed the pair had also learned the power of combining their strengths and fighting alongside one another, making them a deadly combo for the enemies who they made slick work of. Seeing us appear behind them, Rainbow Dash shouted to Applejack to hold the line a moment before backing up to where we stood.

“What’s the news?!” she asked, having to raise her voice over all the fighting. “I heard there was a monster!”

“We took care of it!” I called out. “Rainbow, you have to retreat behind the wall!”

“What?!” Rainbow shouted back before turning to throw her spear like a javelin through the head of one of the Children trying to flank Applejack. “Why would we retreat?! We’re kicking ass out here!”

“You’ve lost almost half your men!” I pointed out. “And we have a plan, but we need them to think we’re throwing in the towel!”

Rainbow considered it for a brief second before nodding and turning to Applejack and her remaining forces. Rainbow Dash held out one of her hooves, her silver gauntlet glowing bright, in response her spear which was still impaled in the pony’s head, retracted into itself before flying over to her as if magnetised.

“Retreat!” she shouted as she tucked the silver rod into her belt. “Everypony behind the wall!”

Her soldiers looked confused for a brief moment, but obeyed none the less. Turning, we all galloped towards the wall where the gate was opening up to let us in. Once the Dragoon soldiers and my friends were safely inside, they started to close the gates.

“Stop!” Pinkie ordered. “Leave them open.”

The militia ponies who had been about to close them looked at Rainbow Dash in confusion.

“Do as she says,” Rainbow instructed.

“And everypony needs to get off the walls!” Twilight added to the few Dragoon soldiers and militia ponies who were armed with short bows.

Once everypony was off the walls and away from the battlefield, I ran up to the open gates and poked my head around the edge. I smiled when I saw that the rest of the enemy force was charging forwards, seeing their opening to take the town while the defenders attempted to flee.

“They’ve taken the bait,” I informed Pinkie, who appeared out of thin air next to me. “It looks like they’re all coming.”

“Good stuff!” Pinkie declared before turning to Rainbow Dash’s troops. “Alright, we need at least three ponies on each gate, ready to close them as soon as the enemy get close. Twilight, are you ready?”

Twilight nodded as she teleported to the walkway over the gate, ducking down behind the short wall so she wouldn’t be seen by the Children of the Earth as they got close to the wall.

“What exactly are we doing?” Applejack asked, stretching her legs and neck.

“We’re going to trap them all in an enclosed space,” I informed her. “Then Pinkie’s going to slip into their ranks and start cutting throats. Once they’re panicked, we jump down and finish them off.”

Rainbow positioned her own troops and the town’s militia under the wall, instructing them to mount it and take up arms the moment she gave the signal. I poked my head out around the gate again, seeing that the enemy were close enough that we could spring the trap. I could hear them unleashing battle cries, and calling for death to be brought to the abominations.

“Now!” I shouted to the ponies manning the gate.

They quickly shoved it shut with all their might, before another several ponies began barricading it with crates and wagons and just about anything heavy they could lay their hooves on. Pinkie whistled up to Twilight who stood up straight, her horn glowing bright as she erected a force field similar to the one she had used to protect her and Pinkie from the wrecked ship, only this time she placed it around the Children of the Earth, effectively trapping them between it and the town wall. Pinkie ran up our side of the wall, literally running up it as if it were the floor, before leaping over it and landing on the other side amidst the enemy units.

I could hear the shouts of distress and panic, calls from commanding officers to remain calm and kill the attacker, and cries of terror and agony as Pinkie began claiming victims.

“Alright everypony!” Rainbow shouted as her and Applejack led the charge up the wall. “Let’s give them everything we’ve got!”

I ran up after them, reaching the top of the wall just in time to see them both land in the middle of the enemy and began tearing into them. Some Dragoon soldiers followed them to fight melee, although most remained on the walls where they took back up their bows and began taking easy shots at the enemy as they scurried about in their enclosed pen. I myself stayed on top of the wall, levitating my three knives and throwing them into the crowd and summoning them back repeatedly. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were absolutely decimating their ranks, while Pinkie appeared all over the show, stabbing and slashing before vanishing in the blink of an eye.

Before long the battle was won, as Twilight brought down her forcefield, the defenders all cheered. I let out a relieved breath, returning my now blood soaked knives to their sheaths, with the mental promise that I would clean them later after I’d rested. Really it was only the adrenaline still flowing through my body that stopped me from feeling the pain of what happened during our fight with the sea monster. I walked over to where Twilight was leaning on the wall, she looked equally exhausted before I put my hoof on her shoulder and she smiled wearily up at me.

“It was a good plan,” she admitted with a little yawn.

“Do you really mean that?” Pinkie asked as she appeared behind us, throwing her hooves over our shoulders and poking her head between our; I noticed she looked just as energetic as always.

“Yes… I suppose I do Pinkie Pie,” Twilight said as she shrugged Pinkie off and turned to face her, her hoof outstretched for a half reluctant shake.

“Aw, come here you!” Pinkie exclaimed as she batted Twilight’s hoof away and dragged her into one of her infamous bone crushing hugs.

I raised a hoof to try and hide my laughter when I saw how Twilight’s eyes almost bulged out of her skull. I looked back down to where Applejack and Rainbow Dash were laughing about something; they gave each other a quick hoof bump before making their way back towards the gate.

“Okay everypony!” Rainbow began, addressing all the gathered ponies who were either chatting merrily or sitting down and getting their breath back. “Great work today. We lost some good ponies today, but thanks to everypony here, they can be returned to their homes and remembered as the heroes they were. Now first order of business is getting some rest, we’ll all have to take it in shifts to keep watch, but I promise everypony will get the break they deserve.”

There was appreciative murmuring from among the soldiers and militia as Rainbow Dash and Applejack made their way up to where we three stood over the gate.

“I should stay here for a bit,” Rainbow told me. “Just in case there's any more hidden, waiting to take us by surprise. You’re still going to Brine, right?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “I can leave tomorrow.”

“That would be great,” Rainbow said. “We’re gonna need more troops down here, so if the mission there is going well or nearly finished, round up a bunch of guys and bring them back this way, would you?”

“Sure, I can do that,” I assured her.

“Ah’ll stay,” Applejack said. “At least until you get back with more swords.”

“So will I,” Twilight added. “I can ask around for Blueblood on my own while you go see Fluttershy, and if there is another attack I can do my part.”

“Well in that case, Pinkie, do you want to come with me to Brine?” I asked. “It will just be a quick trip there and back again to see how Fluttershy is doing, and if we can’t bring some more soldiers back with us.”

“Of course I’ll come!” Pinkie agreed. “I need my daily dose of Fluttershy.”

“Alright, thanks for that,” Rainbow said. “I’d like to make sure Anchorage is in good hooves before I go back to Olympus, and you know how much I want to get back to Olympus and get this bloody cape off my back… uh, metaphorically.”

“Of course Rainbow Dash,” I replied with a little roll of the eyes. “We’ll have it all sorted in no time and you can go back to being a soldier again.”

“Sweet, anyway, you girls should go get some rest,” Rainbow went on. “We should have enough ponies here to keep watch, and you’re not even my soldiers, I couldn’t order you to stay anyway… actually, I’m pretty sure you’ve all ordered me about more than I have today.”

After sharing a brief laugh, we departed from the wall and made our way into the town, finding a small inn quickly enough. We were barely in the door before we were being offered a free room and dinner, it seemed word of how we helped with the monster and the invasion spread quickly. As we settled down to a large thank you platter we didn’t even realise how much we needed, we filled Applejack in on what happened at the harbour.

“So do you girls think this was another one of the monsters you’ve been hearing about?” Twilight asked at the end of it all.

“Could very well be,” I muttered. “It’s not like we’ll be able to drag it up from the lough to get a closer look at it.”

“I think it was,” Pinkie said confidently. “Just a vibe it gave me.”

“Is that your Pinkie sense telling you that?” I asked with a wry smile to which she nodded eagerly.

“And you girls think these robed ponies are somehow responsible for the monsters?” Applejack asked.

“It’s a possibility, we won’t know for sure until we find out more about who they really are,” I stated. “But… priorities, we can’t go chasing phantoms so long as the very real threat of the Children of the Earth remain.”

“Agreed,” Applejack responded, nodding sagely. “While we were fightin’, one of them grabbed Dash and tried to tear her wing off with their bare hooves. Another called me a ‘traitor to all things natural’, and called my ‘love for abominations’ ‘perverse’.”

“They’re mad,” Twilight said, shaking her head despondently. “And I’ve known Pinkie for years, so I know what I’m talking about.”

“Damn straight!” Pinkie agreed, thumping her hoof hard on the table. “Wait…”

“I’m a bit confused by their motivation though,” Twilight went on. “And their constant use of the word ‘abominations’, I mean… we’ve literally fought abominations, if we’re correct in believing the robed ponies are making these monsters.”

“Well earth ponies have a connection with nature,” Applejack muttered thoughtfully. “But really, so do unicorns and pegasi when you think about it.”

“Earth ponies were the first ponies, right?” I pointed out uncertainly. “I think I heard that once, that before unicorns and pegasi evolved, there were only earth ponies.”

“Well yeah, but that was millions of years ago,” Pinkie reminded me. “There’s plenty of less stupid things to build a cult around… like chaos.”

“And I think it’s time for bed,” Twilight stated firmly as she stood up from the table. “Whatever the Children of the Earth might think, we’ll not let them do to anypony what they did to the citizens of Pivot.”

“Here here!” Applejack cheered, raising her glass and downing it before standing up herself. “And you’re also right about hittin’ the hay, I’m all tuckered out.”

I nodded and followed them away from the table, turning around to ask Pinkie if she was coming, and catching her shovelling all our leftovers into her mouth. I stared for a moment before shutting my mouth and walking away, she would go to bed when she was ready. The innkeepers showed us to our rooms, I ended up sharing with Twilight while Applejack got Pinkie Pie as a roommate. Once we were both cleaned up and in bed, I could hear Pinkie Pie giving off on the other side of the wall.

“Racially segregated rooms!” she exclaimed. “And I thought we lived in a progressive society.”

I went to sleep with a smile on my face, and slept soundly until well after the sun had risen, no nightmares of Wights to speak of which was a nice change of pace. When I finally did come around, I cracked my eyes opened slightly to see if Twilight was still asleep in her own bed or not. What I saw instead was a stallion standing between our beds, staring down at me. I sprung out from under my covers, giving a high pitched scream of terror.

“Damn it Stranglethorn!” I bellowed at his once I realised who it was. “Why are you watching me sleep?!”

I would have kept my voice down for Twilight’s sake, but my scream had already woken her up, and I could hear my other friends hopping out of bed and hurrying to my rescue. Indeed it was only a few more seconds before Applejack bucked the bedroom door clean off its hinges and stormed in with her claymore drawn, a threatening, if not slightly ridiculous sight considering there was hardly any room to swing the great sword in the tiny rooms.

After everypony managed to calm down and the innkeepers were placated with some bits for the door and a few extra for the stress, we all headed out to the café we had stopped in at the night before. Once we were sat down, Stranglethorn began writing out a lengthy note to explain what was going on; while he did, Rainbow Dash came by and stopped to join us. Stranglethorn passed me the finished note and I read over it, my eyes growing wide before passing it to Twilight.

“What’s it say?” Applejack asked in a worried tone after seeing the look on my face.

“There’s a good possibility Blueblood was at Arclight very recently,” Twilight informed her and the others. “This… this seems promising; I need to follow up on this.”

She looked up, biting her lip as she looked over us all.

“Oh… I guess this’ll be goodbye for a while,” Applejack muttered, understanding the implications.

“I can’t ask any of you to come with me,” Twilight said with a slow nod. “Not when the Children of the Earth might show up again.”

“Don’t worry Twilight, I’ll stay with you!” Pinkie declared.

“No Pinkie,” Twilight said firmly, although she didn’t sound spiteful. “You already said you’d go with Rarity to Brine, getting soldiers for Anchorage is just as important.”

“Oh yeah,” Pinkie said in a sad voice before brightening up. “In that case, I’m with you to the end Rarity!”

“No Pinkie,” I said, not even intending to repeat Twilight’s words. “If Twilight is leaving, then you should stay here in her place.”

“Alright then!” Pinkie said with a heavy sigh. “Rainbow Dash and Applejack, I won’t let you down!”

“No Pinkie,” Rainbow said calmly, shaking her head.

“Oh come on!” Pinkie exclaimed in frustration. “What now?!”

“Nah, I’m just messing with you,” Rainbow said with a chuckle. “Of course you can stay here.”

“Will you be going with Twilight to Arclight Sufferthorn?” I asked, to which he nodded. “That’s good; I hate the idea of her going up against Blueblood without any backup.”

“When do you want to head?” Twilight asked him.

Sufferthorn glanced silently up at the sky, gauging the time before glancing down at me and conveying his response through a look.

“He’s suggesting midday,” I informed Twilight, the others at the table sharing a confused look.

“Well if that’s everything decided,” Rainbow began. “I’ve arranged a boat for you Rarity; it’ll get you right up beside Brine, just a short walk to its western side.”

“When is it leaving?” I asked as I sipped my tea.

“About twenty minutes I think,” Rainbow replied casually.

I choked on my mouthful of tea; after forcing myself to swallow it rather than spit it out, I looked up at her with an incredulous expression.

“Twenty minutes?!” I repeated in disbelief. “When were you going to tell me?”

“In about ten minutes,” Rainbow replied, clearly not seeing the problem. “I don’t see what the big deal is; I can fly from one end of this town to the other in ten seconds flat.”

“I can’t fly!” I growled before calming down and looking over everypony. “Alright, Pinkie and Applejack, I’ll be back soon, but good luck if anything happens. Twilight and Sufferthorn, I hope you catch that weasel. Rainbow Dash, I’ll have your troops in no time.”

With that I stood up, turned and sprinted for the docks, hearing Pinkie shout after me.

“Tell Fluttershy I miss her!”

I reached the docks with time to spare, but because I had rushed off so quickly, I hadn’t stopped to ask Rainbow which boat I was to be boarding or who I should be on the lookout for. I spent all my remaining time asking everypony in sight if they knew anything about a boat to Brine commissioned by the Dragoon Marshal. After cutting it very close, I finally found the pony.

“Yeah that’s me,” a mare told me, gesturing to her tiny fishing vessel. “You got here just in time, I was literally about to set off.”

“My apologies,” I said breathlessly as we both hopped on board. “The Marshal didn’t inform me of our departure until twenty minutes ago.”

“No worries,” the mare assured me as she set about shipping out. “I suppose if you hadn’t showed up I could have waited, I’m not in any real rush, but I was told there would be two of you.”

“Yeah, my friend had to stay,” I informed her.

“Well, make yourself comfy,” the mare offered. “We won’t reach the shore until after night fall.”

Brine was well inland, but because of the shape of the Neptune we would be able to sail adjacent to it, from where we landed it would only be a short walk to the outskirts of the town. The trip was… particularly uncomfortable, since waking up that morning I could feel every bone in my body aching. Twilight had prevented any lasting damage by slowing me down before I hit the roof, but now that my body had plenty of time for the adrenaline to flood out of my system, I was finally starting to feel the still devastating effects.

I practiced my fighting on the boat while we sailed, I discovered that I was slower, stiffer, and couldn’t keep up a decent pace before my joints began to seize up too much and I had to stop. My magic was still reliably functioning, but I would much rather avoid any conflicts until I had time to recover properly. I took solace in the fact that there probably wouldn’t be any more issues at Brine, that Fluttershy and the Dragoons had taken care of everything since I left them about a week earlier… don’t look at me like that, I always tried to keep an optimistic outlook, despite how often things went wrong.

True to her word, the mare managed to deliver me to the coast west of Brine shortly after nightfall. We said a quick farewell and I was on my way, I wandered through the night and didn’t catch sight of the tell-tale crop fields until a couple hours past midnight. As I slowed my pace, keeping my eyes locked on the ground so I didn’t accidentally wander beyond the scorch line, I heard the distant sound of hooves shuffling through the grass. Glancing up and peering into the dark of the night, I just about made out a patrol of two Dragoon soldiers.

“Halt stranger!” one of the soldiers called out as I began approaching them. “Access to Brine is off limits, you should turn back the way you came.”

“It’s alright, I’m here at Marshal Rainbow Dash’s request,” I informed them; they immediately lowered their weapons and brightened up slightly.

“Word from the Marshal?” the second soldier said. “No doubt you’ll wish to speak with Sister Fluttershy.”

“Yes I would,” I agreed, following after them as they took the lead around the town outskirts to the most southern end. “So how has the operation been proceeding?”

“Very good, the Marshal will be most pleased with the progress we’ve made in retaking the town,” the first soldier reported.

We arrived at the main campsite and my escort led me over to one of the larger tents, just as the front flaps opened and Fluttershy walked out, mid conversation with an officer.

“Fluttershy!” I called out to her.

She glanced up, surprised at first, but smiling when she saw it was me. After quickly relaying some information to the officer who saluted and marched away, she made her way over to us.

“Rarity, it’s good to see you,” she greeted. “I’m glad to see that you’re alive and… oh, Rarity, you’re in pain!”

“How could you tell?” I asked in amazement.

“I’ve learned to see the signs,” Fluttershy replied as she closed the gap between us and began feeling me all over. “What happened?”

“Long story involving sea monsters,” I replied as she poked and prodded at me.

“You’ll have to fill me in on what all’s happened,” she said with a disapproving look as she squeezed aching shoulder muscles and received a hiss of pain. “The soldiers have finished rounding up the remaining stragglers in the northwest portion of the town; I was on my way to take care of them. You can stay here and rest, we can talk about what’s happened when I get back.”

“It’s alright, I can come with you,” I assured her, pulling out of her groping hooves. “Besides, I need to talk about how your mission has been going. Rainbow needs extra troops in Anchorage, so I need to know if you can spare any.”

“Extra troops, oh my, this is sounding worse by the minute,” Fluttershy murmured. “But of course she can have more soldiers… they are hers after all. I’ll see if I can’t find Squadron Leader Gale and have her round up some.”

“Are you sure you don’t mind?” I asked as I followed her through the camp.

“Of course I don’t mind,” Fluttershy replied confidently. “We’re making excellent progress here, it won’t be long until we’re completely finished. As such, we can afford some loss in numbers.”

We found the Squadron Leader looking over maps in another large tent; it was the same officer I had seen Fluttershy talking to when I arrived.

“Sister, is something the matter?” she asked in formal tone.

“We’ve received orders from the Marshal,” she explained. “She needs more soldiers at Anchorage.”

“How many would you like me to dispatch?” Gale asked without even blinking at the news.

“I need to go take care of some walkers further north,” Fluttershy explained. “Can you review our current numbers against the progress we’ve made and figure out how many we can spare? I’ll review it when I return.”

“Right away Sister,” Gale said with a curt nod.

With that, Fluttershy and I left the tent, making our way out of the camp.

“Um, walkers?” I repeated.

“It’s just what the soldiers nicknamed the monsters,” Fluttershy explained. “Like, because they are the walking dead, you know? Anyway, tell me everything that’s happened since I saw you last.”

“Well I made it to Glean without any trouble,” I began. “But that’s when things got complicated, I’m sure I don’t need to remind you who Blueblood is…”

Naturally Fluttershy was very alarmed at the news of Blueblood’s escape, but she stayed quiet until I was finished telling her about the encounter with Spike, the fight between Twilight and Pinkie, returning to Pivot and finally everything that went down at Anchorage.

“So I’m fine really,” I said again. “Just a bump compared to what would have happened if Twilight hadn’t slowed me down.”

“Just because it could be worse, doesn’t mean it’s not still bad,” Fluttershy argued. “Hold on, we’ll discuss this later, we’re here now.”

Fluttershy had been leading us through the now actually deserted streets of Brine using the light of her mace. Without it, I wouldn’t have been able to see more than a few inches in front of my face, cloud cover was completely blotting out the light of the moon and stars. But as Fluttershy said that, I noticed the flickering lights of burning torches in the distance. It was at the very edge of the town, constructed between two buildings at the end of a street which led out to more farmland; it was a large metal cage, within which were just under a dozen of the walkers.

Five Dragoon soldiers were standing guard, seeing Fluttershy approach, they all snapped to attention and saluted her; it was a rather surreal sight.

“So this is all of them?” Fluttershy asked as she peered into the cage even as the dead ponies snapped viciously at her.

“It should be,” one of the guards said confidently.

“Alright, let’s get started,” Fluttershy commanded in a tone of weary resignation.

I stepped back and watched as the guards began corralling the walkers out of the cage, one at a time, into a small pen where they looped a noose around their necks. The nooses were attached to the end of long poles so the guards could restrain them without having to get close. Once the first walker was held in place, Fluttershy entered the pen, drawing her mace. She muttered something under her breath that I couldn’t make out, it might have been a quick prayer or words of apology. With that, she quickly put the creature down with a single decisive blow to the skull.

“So did you ever find out more about what’s causing this?” I asked as the soldiers dragged the now still corpse away. “Before Pinkie left, she found out alchemy might have been involved.”

“I still can’t believe she ran off again,” Fluttershy muttered while waiting for the next walker to be brought out. “I’ve been searching all over Brine for her, to think she wasn’t even here and I was panicking for nothing… but no, we haven’t discovered anything. We haven’t even set hoof inside the church, it will be the last area we tackle.”

“Pinkie didn’t mention where the secret room was,” I replied. “But there’ll be plenty of time to investigate once these creatures are all dealt with.”

“Actually, the town will still be off limits,” Fluttershy pointed out while the next pony was led out. “There was… an incident a couple days ago, two soldiers got into a fight while in the outskirts of the town, things got violet and… one of them was killed. The walkers weren’t even involved, and yet the soldier who died came back as one of them anyway. It looks like whatever is causing ponies to turn, is linked to the town itself, and that scorch line that’s keeping both them at bay, and the cause contained.”

“Well that’s certainly an interesting thought,” I mused as Fluttershy caved in the skull of the second walker.

“Indeed,” Fluttershy agreed before turning back to her soldiers. “Alright, ready the next one.”

It was then that I heard a soft clunk mixed with fizzling, and we all followed it to see a small clay orb with a burning fuse had just bounced and rolled up next to the cage. I recognised it instantly for what it was, and quickly threw myself on top of Fluttershy as the bomb exploded and fragments of the metal cage shot outwards. We barely had time to think before we heard loud battle cries, we glanced up to see several ponies in dark green robes and stone like armour charge in, swinging their weapons and screaming for blood.

Fluttershy and I scrambled to our hooves, she picking up her fallen mace and I drawing my sword, trying my best to ignore the pain in my foreleg as I did. The Dragoons all snapped into battle formation in an instant and turned to defend against the surprise attack, but even as they fought valiantly against the Children of the Earth, they failed to notice the walkers leaving the confines of their cage and approaching them from behind. Fluttershy gasped as one of them attempted to tear into a Dragoon soldier, it couldn’t hope to bite through his armour, but the enemy the soldier was duelling with, pressed his advantage and drove his axe into the stallion’s face while he was distracted trying to throw the walker off.

It was a complete bloodbath, and we were on the losing side. The Children of the Earth attempted to kill the walkers as well as our allies, and even though they couldn’t be killed, they were beaten down with such ferocity that they couldn’t have picked themselves up even if they had the mental capacity to want to. Fluttershy stood, frozen in fear; I ended up having to drag her away back the way we came.

“We can’t do anything for them now!” I told her as we ran. “We need to rally our forces and form a proper defence.”

Fluttershy looked up at me with a pained expression, but then her eyes went wide with horror and she cried out in warning. I spun around in time to raise my sword in defence against another Children of the Earth soldier who had followed us. I was knocked off balance by the strike, and he immediately moved in for a second while my guard was down, but Fluttershy struck him in the side of the head with her mace, quickly grabbing me and pulling me after her before he could retaliate.

We were only able to make it a few dozen metres before we rounded a corner and came face to face with another half dozen enemy soldiers running our way. Instinctively I threw Fluttershy out of sight behind a stack of crates before they noticed us.

“Brothers! Sister! Behold this abomination!” one of them cried out as he saw me. “Capture it at once!”

They all charged, I tried to raise my sword in a feeble attempt at fighting back, but it was no use. I blocked a few hits, but I paid the price for my reduced mobility as I felt a blade cut past my foreleg. It was only a graze, but it was enough to draw some blood and cause me to drop my sword, which was immediately kicked aside by my attackers. I started backing up, drawing all my knives with magic and swiping them through the air. I managed to get one in the eye and another in the neck, but the stallion who had shouted for my capture rushed forward and head-butted me hard with no regard how much my horn would hurt him.

He definitely injured himself in the process, but he achieved his goal by stunting my magic and forcing me to drop all my knives. Before I could move out of the way, I was punched hard in the stomach, dropping to my knees as I wheezed in anguish. Just to add a cherry on top, the massive stallion reached down and scooped me up, holding my body high over his head before throwing me at the wall of a, thankfully, wooden house. I felt my body crash into it before falling to land hard on the ground, I may have been able to shrug off my previous injuries before that, but after that I don’t think I would have been able to lie about it anymore, even to spare Fluttershy the worry.

“Stop you fool!” the stallion cried out.

The next thing I knew, a second bomb landed several inched from my face, its fuse fizzling shorter and shorter. With all the strength I could muster, I rolled as far away as I could in the opposite direction. And while I just about got out of the blast radius, the house I had been thrown against and was still lying next to, wasn’t so lucky. I shielded my head as the building collapsed down upon me, although nothing particularly heavy landed on me, when I opened my eyes, I found myself in pitch darkness, completely trapped underneath the rubble.

“You imbecile!” the stallion chastised one of the others, although his voice was muffled to me both from the rubble between us and the ringing in my ears. “We’re supposed to be capturing them, not blowing them to pieces! Now get over there are dig it ou… Hey!”

I heard a muffled scuffle and feared that Fluttershy had revealed herself, unfortunately my fears were confirmed when I heard her calling out my name in terror, as well as her cries as she apparently struggled against the ponies I had been fighting.

“Hold on a moment,” the muffled voice of the stallion cut across. “Look at this swine’s clothes… why she’s a member of the Celestial Sisterhood!”

There were hushed murmuring among the group, I struggled to shift the debris from off me, but my energy was completely sapped and I could feel myself going faint.

“We need to take her back to Cragsburg at once!” the stallion declared. “A prize like this, we must present it to Gaia immediately!”

“What of the fight brother?” another one of the ponies asked.

“Forget this town, our brethren will take it without us,” the stallion assured them. “Now we must hurry, tie that creature up and let us be on the move.”

I heard more struggles and Fluttershy calling my name before I heard her voice cut out. I tried to scream in fury, as once again I failed to free myself from the prison. I heard their hoofsteps retreating, growing fainter and fainter until all was silent. If I listened closely, I could hear the distant sounds of a battle raging, but it only got quieter as my body grew limper. I had to save Fluttershy, I wanted so badly to escape and to rescue her… but I simply wasn’t able, my body had reached its limit and my magic was unresponsive. As I slipped out of consciousness, I did so to the memory of Fluttershy screaming my name as I let her down, over and over again until there was nothing.

LVI - Belly Of The Beast

Coming around beneath all that rubble was a painful experience, my body ached even as I lay perfectly still, but that was nothing compared to how it felt with the slightest movements. Despite the anguish I was in, I was able to take solace in the fact that my injuries were mostly superficial. There were no large open wounds that I could have bled out from, and while I was sure some damage had been done to my bones, I doubted anything was completely broken. Most of all however, while I was passed out, my mind had been able to recover, and I could feel myself once more in control of my magic.

The wooden debris that pinned me down was never going to be shifted if I tried pushing it off, but now that I had magic, that wouldn’t be an issue. I began drawing energy into my horn, I thought back to how Fluttershy had screamed after me as she was dragged away. As I did, I could feel my power growing in direct proportion to my rising anger. When I finally did release my built up magic, it was as if I had turned into a small bomb myself, every bit of rubble flying off me as my power exploded outwards.

Now that I was free, I slowly picked myself up, a tricky task, but once again my anger fuelled me to push through the pain. I must have been out for some time, the sun was well risen, which meant Fluttershy and her captors would have got a daunting head start. I searched the area, lightly kicking and levitating bits of wood and stone until I recovered all three of my knives, my sword, and finally Fluttershy’s mace. The Children of the Earth hadn’t thought to take it with them, perhaps not realising the power it held in the right hooves.

I returned all my weapons to their sheaths and loosely tied the mace alongside them, it worried me how none of the Dragoon patrols had come by this way and found it or myself. Looking up and down the street, I saw nopony around, and listening carefully I heard nothing in the distance. I had no idea how the battle had turned out last night, if the Dragoon’s had been able to defend themselves, or if the surprise attack had paid off for the Children of the Earth. More than that however, I wondered how many more walkers there were.

Fluttershy said herself that anypony who died within the town limits turned into one, and since nopony had the ability to put them down for good besides her, any and every casualty from the night’s battle would have added to their ranks. I only waited there for a short few minutes, debating what would be the best course of action. The wisest thing seemed to be returning to the camp south of Brine and seeing if the Dragoons were still alive. If so, I could tell Gale what happened and get their assistance in both going after Fluttershy, and getting word to Rainbow Dash and the others.

However that plan was incredibly risky, the obvious problem lying in whether the Dragoons even were still alive. If they weren’t, and the Children of the Earth had won the battle, I could be walking to my death by returning to the camp, not to mention the walkers that were now roaming free in the streets. My main problem with this plan wasn’t that however, but simply that turning south would waste precious time that could be spent pursuing Fluttershy, it was the same problem that lay in returning to Anchorage myself to get help.

In the end I didn’t make my decision due to any kind of logical reasoning, but instead followed my guilt burdened heart, and left Brine to the north, intent of catching up to Fluttershy and her captors on my own and saving her. I encountered no others on my way out of the town and through the farmlands until I was safely past the scorch line, and from there I made my slow, painful journey north. The way from Brine to Cragsburg was a fairly simple one; the Lesser Pastures had very little woodland, but on the flipside was incredibly hilly.

The road from Brine travelled north until it reached a junction, anytime we had come to this junction, we would turn right to go to Olympus. However turning left would take a pony on a mainly horizontal route west, straight to Cragsburg. The road would eventually come to a river, once beyond that, it was only a short journey through the Lesser Pastures until you were officially in the Ash Lands. The Ash Lands were the most northern area in Panchea, they were an incredibly inhospitable place where plants could not grow, and as a result very few animals could be found there.

It was so named because of the copious amounts of ash covering the earth there; it was basically a grey desert. How the Ash Lands came about is unknown, although it is generally believed that it was the result of some natural disaster many thousands of years ago, nothing particularly special or mysterious, not like the Nether Vale which lay just passed the western border of the Ash Lands. It may seem like an odd choice to build a city in such a place, but the Ash Lands were incredibly rich in minerals and gemstones, the mining and quarrying of which is what Cragsburg specialised in.

Now Cragsburg was home to the Children of the Earth, and while I had no idea what would await me inside, I very much doubted it would be a very welcoming environment for a unicorn such as myself. No, I needed to catch up with Fluttershy before they reached Cragsburg; if I didn’t, and they got her inside the city, then all hope for her rescue could be lost. In order to achieve this while also making up for the head start my enemies got, I had to travel constantly without rest, a feat made incredibly difficult both by the length of the journey, and how weak my body was.

Rather than follow the road, I knocked as much time off my journey as I could by cutting across the hills of Lesser Pastures, hugging close to the water’s edge until I reached the bridge. Even with my shortcut and refusal to stop and rest, the sun was still dipping low in the sky by the time the bridge came into view. This one wasn’t some neat wooden structure like the one between Pivot and Sweet Apple Acres, but rather it was a great stone piece that stretched over a deep ravine, with the river some ways below.

I dropped onto my stomach and drew my spyglass; I was finally at a decent point where I had a wide view of both the bridge in the near distance, and the surrounding landscape. I could see the scurrying of figures on the bridge, and for a moment my heart leapt at the possibility that I had caught up with my targets. But as I peered through the spyglass, my heart sank even further than before when I saw that not only was it not Fluttershy and her captors, but that it was a checkpoint swarming with Children of the Earth soldiers.

Cursing under my breath, I scoped out my side of the river, silently praying that I would now see them approaching the bridge. But the longer I looked, the harder it became to believe they hadn’t already passed beyond the bridge. I put my spyglass away again, the way my luck had been going, one of the guards on the bridge would see the sun reflecting off my lens and they’d all be upon me before I could say ‘oh bugger’. I clearly wasn’t walking across the bridge, so instead when I stood up, I turned hard left and started down the ravine.

Fighting was suicidal, attempting to sneak past in my condition would be next to impossible, but swimming the river and then climbing back up the ravine on the opposite bank… would be very difficult, but I was becoming increasingly desperate as I felt my time ticking away… or more accurately, Fluttershy’s time. Getting down to the river was easy enough, but I hesitated at the edge, seeing just how powerful the current was, and how wide a length I had to swim. It felt like everything was just pressing down on me, that the more I tried, the more hopeless everything became. I wanted to sit down and cry, and while I got as far as the sitting down part, the crying didn’t follow.

“Well don’t you look so sad?” a condescending voice asked.

My head snapped up and my jaw dropped as I saw who was standing over me, leering down at me with a self-satisfied smirk.

“You’ve really proven my point splendidly Rarity,” Starlight Glimmer mocked as she started circling around me. “Little Fluttershy was so intent on following you, she fled from my protective embrace, and look where she ended up.”

I growled at her, not really stopping to question how she could be there.

“The poor dear,” Starlight Glimmer went on. “She really thought she was going to help you change the world, if she didn’t realise her… belief was nonsense when you abandoned her at Brine, she certainly will now. Or perhaps she’s clinging to hope, maybe she thinks you’ll still rescue her. Of course she can’t see you now, she can’t see how pathetic you look, and how far behind you still are. Maybe she’ll keep on hoping until they cut her wings off, perhaps it will only be then when she realises how you let her down, and that leaving home was a mistake!”

“Shut up!” I screamed, jumping to my hooves and swiping out at her with a foreleg.

My hoof passed right through her, and in the blink of an eye the hallucination had vanished, but the feeling inside my heart remained. I was angry… angry at Starlight Glimmer, even though I knew she had just been a reflection of my own unvoiced thoughts. I was angry at the Children of the Earth for what they had done, and what they were going to do, but most of all I was angry at myself. Fluttershy was in danger, and here I was about ready to give up because of some piddly little stream, well no more. I ran and dived into the water, pushing the pain in my limbs to the furthest depths of my mind as I kicked against the current.

Anytime I felt myself beginning to slow down or weaken, I remembered back to how Fluttershy had looked in wonder over the sea that first day we left the Bask, and I threw even more might and fury behind my kicks. Once I was at the other end, I hauled myself out with less difficulty than I had anticipated. I was now soaked to my skin and freezing on top of being in general agony, but I forced myself onwards, climbing back up the ravine with renewed vigour as I swore to myself that Fluttershy wasn’t about to lose her chance to see the world because I had let her down.

Once out of the ravine, I was back on my way, running constantly despite my weakened and trembling legs regularly giving out and tripping me up. I passed quickly through a sparse wood before returning to the usual hilly terrain of the Lesser Pastures. After that, it wasn’t long before the sun was touching the horizon and the prickly grass beneath my boots began to thin out, and the ground was flecked in ash. I kept my eyes peeled once the sun was set and the dark of the night rolled in, I could see the city of Cragsburg looming in the distance, illuminated by the burning fire pits that ran along the top of the great stone wall that towered over the surrounding barren landscape.

My breathing was becoming laboured and panicked as I continued to get closer, and still I could not see my objective. I started to slow down, wary that I was starting to get close enough to the city that I might start encountering patrols or miners out late. I was grinding my teeth, torn between continuing to push forward or turning back to make sure I hadn’t missed them in the low light. Before I could make a decision however, I saw them. While the captors themselves were mere silhouettes in the darkness, Fluttershy’s white cassock was like a beacon in the night.

My joy was only brief however, they might not have been in the city yet, but they were easily close enough that if I attempted anything, I would be spotted or heard by the guards around the front gates. I kept moving forward, keeping low to the ground as I moved, never letting Fluttershy out of my sight. I managed to get a little ahead and quickly lay flat on a rocky crag that overlooked the front of the city wall. The wall itself was easily taller than Fort Mule, in many ways it reminded me of the wall around Arclight, except instead of a tall archway, there were massive doors barring the way into the city.

There was no way now I could save Fluttershy before she got into the city, that meant I too would need to find a way in. I quickly thought over my previous missions in the hopes there would be something that I could apply to this scenario. When I first infiltrated the Fort at Mule, I simply walked in by pretending I belonged there. That wouldn’t work this time as a unicorn would probably be arrested or killed on sight; similarly I couldn’t disguise myself in their armour, as my horn would protrude through the hood.

When going after the Dreadnaught, Sufferthorn and I went in via the sewers, perhaps there would be some kind of access point around the perimeter of the wall for things like water and sewage. While that might have worked, I didn’t have the time to go searching, as it would take forever to walk around the outside of the city, Cragsburg being as large as it was. Finally, I remembered how Applejack had helped me escape from Port Mule in the back of her apple cart. That was very possible, as I could already see some teams of workers pulling their loads in through the city gates.

It looked like it was my best shot, especially since Fluttershy’s captors were now at the gate and explaining the situation to the guards. I darted away from the crag, looking all around for some workers who might be finishing up for the night. It was a long shot since I didn’t know anything about how mining or quarrying worked, and had no evidence to suggest that they even worked this close to the city limits. Luck seemed to be on my side for the first that day however, as I caught sight of a team of four ponies, packing their tools away into a wooden cart while a guard oversaw them.

I snuck down and tried to stay out of the light of their torches, as I made my way over to the carts that were filled with lumps of rock and ore. After glancing around, I found one that was only half full, I was about to climb into it, wondering how I would ever go unnoticed without some kind of cover, when I heard the crunching of hoofsteps on gravel and had to duck down. One of the workers passed right by me, making for one of the fuller carts, which he began covering with a layer of tarpaulin. I grinned before realising that another pony was standing uncomfortably close to me, turning my head slowly, I looked up to see one of the workers staring right at me.

My heart immediately stopped dead in my chest as my eyes met her blank gaze, I thought for sure she was going to call for the guard and my whole plan would be ruined before I could even begin to enact it. The mare didn’t call me out however, she simply stared at me, unblinking, before sniffing slightly, glancing from me to the half empty cart and then the distant walls of the city. Finally she raised a hoof to her mouth, still looking faintly bored, and made a shushing motion before gesturing for me to hop inside the cart.

I hesitated only for a moment, totally dumbfounded before deciding not to look a gift horse in the mouth, and obeyed. Once I was inside and folding all my screaming limbs into a more compact shape, the pony threw a sheet of tarp over me, and I could hear her tying it in place.

“Alright workers, let’s get moving!” the guard called out. “The gate will be closing up soon”

I could feel somepony hitching themselves to the cart I was hidden inside, I wondered if it was the same one who had stayed silent for me. After that, I felt it begin to move as the pony started walking, it took all my concentration to avoid crying out in pain as I was banged about inside the cart. If Fluttershy and I both got out of this mess in one piece, I was not going to be shy about letting her treat my injuries. I certainly hadn’t been kind to my body in recent days, I could practically hear it screaming out for me to just stop and rest so it could begin to recover from all the beating it had endured.

The cart trundled along for a short while before coming to a shuddering stop, at the same time, the distant voices of the city guards had become louder and clearer as we drew closer. There was a brief exchange between them and the workers' guard before we were cleared to carry on, and I felt myself moving once more. Once again we walked for a few minutes, until I felt the cart I was in start to slow. The pony who was pulling me spoke to the others in a dull, monotone voice, explaining that she had to make a quick stop and would catch up with them.

She was excused, and I felt the cart turn as the pony pulled me away to the side. It wasn’t long before we came to a complete stop, and I heard the pony removing themselves from the cart and beginning to untie the rope that secured the tarpaulin. As it was thrown back, I cricked my neck to look up at her, she didn’t say anything or move to help me out, she just continued to stare blankly at me. Realising I was on my own, I began twisting my legs out of the cramped prison before dragging my body roughly out and dropping down painfully onto the cobblestone ground of the alleyway she had taken me to.

“Thanks,” I wheezed, wincing as I stretched myself up straight.

She gave the curtest of nods, really only tilting her head an inch before throwing the cover back over the cart and reattaching herself to it. I figured she would explain why she helped me, or ask me what I was doing, but to my dismay and complete confusion, she simply turned and pulled her cart back the way she had come without uttering a single word to me. I was left alone, feeling utterly bewildered as to what just happened. Deciding not to question my good fortune at being discovered by the one pony in Cragsburg who wouldn’t turn me over, but also aided me in infiltrating the city for no apparent reason, I began creeping my own way out the alleyway.

Cragsburg was a very cold city, not just temperature wise, although something about the Ash Lands always felt more chilly than the rest of the country, but something about the city always seemed uninviting to me. In the same way Timber was made almost exclusively of the wood they chopped, it was rare to find anything in Cragsburg that wasn’t carved from stone. The buildings were all big and blocky, most of the streets outside the main one were all very narrow and twisting as a result, it gave the whole place a very claustrophobic feel as I crept about.

I was very thankful for it being so late, there weren’t many ponies out and about with the exception of Children of the Earth soldiers on guard duty, and the numerous fire pits dotted around the streets made it difficult to find shadows to cling to. The ground was rather inconsistent, in some parts it was neatly done in cobblestones with only a light dusting of ash. Whereas in others, it looked like they hadn’t bothered, opting just to leaving the hard earth as it was. As I travelled through the city, the few ponies I noticed all looked very glum. I imagined Cragsburg was never the most charming place to live, but it did make me wonder if maybe some of the earth ponies who lived there didn’t resent the Children of the Earth.

It was a nice thought to believe that not everypony in this unpleasant city was a fanatical psychopath, but more than that, it might be useful one day if we were ever moving to take back the city. I stopped behind a heavily eroded statue of some pony in what looked like a small market area; the stalls all deserted what with it being so late. While I hid there and caught my breath, I tried to think where I would find Fluttershy. The ponies who had taken her said that they would present her to ‘Gaia’ immediately, I had heard the Children of the Earth use that name once before, back when we encountered them at Pivot, and they said that Gaia showed mercy to earth ponies who refused to help capture ‘abominations’.

Gaia could be the leader of their insipid cult, and since they controlled the city, logic would dictate that Gaia would be found in the keep. After quickly orienting myself with my compass, I made to set off, but quickly doubled back to my hiding spot when a pony entered the market area, dragging a cart and glancing about himself with a panicked expression. He appeared to be going out the other end, and I breathed a sigh of relief when I knew he wasn’t going to be around long and I could get moving. However, as he was about to enter another side street, he was stopped by a passing guard.

“You there!” the guard called out. “What is that you’re carrying?”

The stallion tried to think of a response, but I could see he was too stressed to come up with something on the spot. Before he could react, the guard reached out and pulled away the cover before leaping back in horror.

“I… I can explain!” the stallion stammered in a terrified voice.

“What is the meaning of this?!” the guard bellowed. “These…these… abomination parts are supposed to be burnt following the castration ceremony! What in the name of Gaia are you doing with a cart full of them?!”

“Please, just listen,” the stallion begged. “I have a source who’s paying big money for these horns and wings, if you don’t turn me over I can cut you in.”

The guard hesitated as he considered the offer, clearly interested in the idea of making some extra bits on the side. While they were both distracted with one another, I slipped out of the market area and got back on my way, their words ringing in my head and filling me with concern as to what anypony could want with disembodied horns and wings. I came before the front of the Cragsburg Keep, stopping just short of the courtyard in front of it, which I saw to be swarming with soldiers. It reminded me of the Fort at Mule, and I got in there a few times, so I wasn’t about to be stopped here. The keep was far bigger than the Fort had been, but it had considerably more windows.

I waited for an opening before crouching low and creeping along the outskirts of the courtyard, quickly ducking down behind a fire pit before I was spotted. Glancing out, I scanned the surrounding area, looking for something that might be able to provide a distraction. My eyes fell on the fire pit at the opposite end of the courtyard, reaching out with my magic I gave it a short, sharp jab, causing it to tip over, and its coals to spill out over the ground. Most of the guards hurried over to investigate the disturbance; a few slightly more intelligent ones stayed put and simply increased their vigilance.

That was no good, but it gave me another idea. I lifted one of the hot coals from my own hiding spot in magic, glancing out and choosing a target before throwing the lump of burning coal at them. The piece landed snuggly in their belt, resting there for only a second before it shifted and fell out while they were running around looking for whoever knocked over the fire pit. They hadn’t even known it was there, not until they heard the fizzling noise coming from their belt and glanced down to see the bomb hooked onto their side was very quickly approaching detonation.

Of course he tried to throw it away, and of course he didn’t manage it in time. I looked away at the last second before it blew up in his hooves, but I heard the scream. Now all the guards in the courtyard were running around frantically on the opposite end, looking for the perpetrator. With them distracted, I carried on towards the keep wall, where I leapt up, gripping tightly to the rough texture of it. It wasn’t easy, and my body objected the whole time, but I was able to haul myself up one foot at a time, using the indents and jutting stonework as hoof grips.

Finally I made it high enough to one of the windows where I held on for dear life, while also pressing myself as close to the wall as I could to reduce the chances of being seen. I levitated out one of my knives and jammed it into the lock of the window, twisting it around a bit in order to break it and allow the window to swing open. Returning my knife to its place, I clambered through the small opening and perched on the window sill, looking around the entrance chamber of the keep. Thankfully there was a narrow walkway that ran around the upper level that I was able to lower myself on to.

I was most surprised to find this area completely deserted and unguarded, perhaps they were confident in their poor excuse for a guard that they felt nopony would make it this far. The entrance hall was a wide but fairly bare room, two great doors leading out to the courtyard, while only a regular sized archway led to the next chamber, where I could hear faint voices emanating. I crept along the walkway to the en,d where a closed door also led to the adjoining chamber, but on the higher level where I was at.

Opening it slightly, I peaked in to find a much more opulently decorated room, with flowing banners of forest green, golden candle brackets, and a massive chandelier that hung over it all. I slipped into the room, silently closing the door behind me as I continued along the walkway. The chamber was a throne room or an audience chamber, the throne itself being a hulking piece, crafted from dark stone that sat upon a raised dais, overlooking the rest of the audience chamber. Sitting upon the throne was a young mare, perhaps even younger than myself, she wore the same forest green robes as the rest of the Children of the Earth, although she lacked the stone like armour.

Upon her head she wore what appeared to be a crown of thorns, similar to the pony who was standing at her right hand side, a stallion wearing a crown of laurels. My eyes narrowed as I recognised the stallion who had led the invasion on Pivot. Both of them were looking down at a figure who knelt in the centre of the room, cowering in fear. My heart leapt as I saw it was Fluttershy, but more than that, I saw that she looked completely unharmed, just very frightened it seemed. The group of ponies who had attacked us and taken her away, stood slightly behind her, standing to attention in a row, blocking the exit.

There were several other guards dotted around the room, standing with their backs to the stone columns that lined both sides of the chamber. As I started looking around for a way to save Fluttershy, my ears perked up as the mare on the throne spoke up.

“I asked you a question,” she said in what sounded like a calm, polite voice, although there was a definite edge to it. “Are you aware that your existence is an affront to all things natural? Or that in your existence you have chosen to dedicate yourself to the worship of a false god, the greatest abomination that walks this earth?”

Fluttershy whimpered in terror, but didn’t answer as she kept her head bowed low.

“The Lady Gaia asked you a question!” the stallion standing next to the throne snapped. “You will answer her, or you will have your tongue cut out, so that you might never speak again!”

“Calm yourself Lord Terra,” Gaia instructed him, glancing up at him with a loving expression. “She will talk in due time, besides, it is rare treat to have a sister in our midst. We should savour this moment, for today we will be marking another major step in our quest to purge the world of all the abominations that infest it.”

She gave a little nod to Terra, who turned and marched away, disappearing into another room while Gaia turned back to Fluttershy and the others.

“I thank you for bringing her straight to me,” Gaia told the ponies lined up behind Fluttershy. “Do not worry; you were right to put aside your orders to take Brine in favour of capturing this one. I trust she was unharmed while in your possession.”

“We left her entirely untouched Lady Gaia,” the stallion who had beaten me up informed her. “We knew you would want her as she was.”

“You were very right,” Gaia agreed. “However, we cannot risk losing a prey as fine as this one, the castration must proceed immediately. Will two of you volunteer to hold her in place while Lord Terra performs the ceremony?”

While the ponies began having a hushed argument among themselves as to who would get the privilege, Terra returned, carrying a saw that was eerily familiar in its design. Fluttershy bucked like mad as she saw it and she realised what was going to happen, the ponies behind her stopped their hushed argument and two of them darted forward, grabbing her even as she kicked and screamed and begged them to stop. Terra made his slow way down to where Fluttershy was thrashing about, he gave a glare at the two ponies trying desperately to hold onto her and they immediately added more pressure, I could hear Fluttershy scream out as they grabbed her more forcefully.

Terra was now standing directly in front of her, looking over the saw while one of the ponies pulled out Fluttershy’s wing. As Terra brought the saw in, that was when I made my move, leaping off the walkway and landing hard on the chandelier which swung dramatically. Once I was on top of it, I used my magic to pull the chain that was holding it in place loose, grabbing on tight as I rode it from the ceiling all the way down to the floor. Terra leap out of harm’s way, dropping the saw as he did. The two ponies who had been holding onto Fluttershy scrambled away for dear life, only Fluttershy was left in place.

Using my magic, I threw her aside out of harm’s way of the falling chandelier, and as it was about to smash onto the floor, I leapt clear of it in the direction I had thrown her, rolling as I hit the ground to reduce the subsequent pain by a little amount. Before anypony could recover from the shock of what was happening, I pulled out Fluttershy’s mace and forced it into her hooves.

“Fly, now!” I ordered in voice that left no doubt in Fluttershy’s mind that it was not up for debate.

I spun around and threw all three of my knives at the first three ponies I gauged to be dangerously close and in a state of alert. All three met their targets while I was already drawing out my sword, Fluttershy finally reigned her fear in and unclamped her wings in time to burst into the air, flying straight for the exit as I galloped behind her. Then I felt something pierce into the heel of my rear left hoof, sending an agonising pain shooting right up through my entire body and causing me to drop like a sack of bricks.

My head snapped back to see a crossbow bolt sticking into my rear hoof, the bloody tip jutting right out the other end. Behind me I could see Terra already reloading his crossbow, while the guards around the room charged in. I looked back at Fluttershy who had only just seen what happened, and was making to turn back for me.

“No!” I snapped at her, causing her to freeze in mid-air. “Just get out of here!”

There was a brief moment where I didn’t think she was going to, where she just stared at me with a horrible pained expression, before finally she clenched her eyes shut, turned and swooped away. The guards were upon me, dragging me back down the audience chamber and throwing me before Gaia’s throne at Terra’s hooves, who placed his now reloaded crossbow directly against my head.

“Don’t even think about using any of your vile witchcraft” he hissed. “Or you’ll be dead before you know it.”

My eyes flickered up to see Gaia, who was staring down at me with a loathing expression, hate etched into ever feature of her face. I lay there for some time, until finally I heard a voice call from the back of the chamber.

“My Lady…” it began in a tentative tone. “My apologies but… but the pegasus escaped, she flew away.”

I could see Gaia seething with rage as she focused her gaze on me, as if trying to burn a hole through my skull just with her piercing gaze alone.

“Congratulations abomination,” she began in a low voice. “You successfully infiltrated my city and my castle, and managed to rescue your wretched little friend, do you feel good now? Do you feel like you’ve accomplished something? Tell me, how did you get this far?”

“Come down into spitting range and I’ll tell you!” I retorted, sounding tough even though I was terrified.

“Well, we’ll make you talk in due time,” Gaia threatened. “But right now, I can’t have you casting any nasty spells. Terra, if you would do the honours.”

“Gladly my Lady,” Terra replied in a deadly tone.

My heart began racing as I felt a pair of guards grab hold of me and drag me to my knees before taking hold of my head so I couldn’t twist away, although it didn’t stop me from trying. Before I could use any kind of magic, Terra struck my horn hard with the butt of his cross bow before setting it aside. Dazed and powerless, I continued to try and fight against the ponies restraining me, but I had already pushed my body far beyond its limits. I was tired, hungry, beaten and broken, and now I was helpless to stop what was coming.

Terra picked up the saw he had dropped and was making his slow, deliberate way over to me, clearly enjoying the deed and taking his time over it. Behind him I could see Gaia, a thin smile on her face as she watched the display with a twisted fervour. I never stopped struggling, but the more I tried, the more hopeless it all became, and the more the reality of my situation settled in. I wasn’t going to escape, after everything I had been through, all the narrow misses and near brushes with death… I was not going to escape from this one.

I thought of Fluttershy, happy that she had escaped, but a tiny part of me resenting her for it now, even after everything I had put myself through to ensure it. I thought of my other friends, of Pinkie Pie and whether she would figure out what the robed ponies were up to, of Twilight Sparkle and whether she would capture Blueblood again. I thought of Rainbow Dash and whether she would finish what we started and bring an end to the Dragoons, and I thought of Applejack and all the ponies I said I would return to at Sweet Apple Acres.

Most of all however, I thought of my family, who I never wrote to, who I would now never see again, and might never know how I went out. I started to cry, but that only made Terra’s smile broaden as he brought the saw in closer. I felt the serrated blade press against the base of my horn; breathing became very difficult at that point. I kept my tear filled eyes fixed on Terra’s, keeping my mouth clamped shut, refusing to give into the urge to beg for mercy. Then I saw his hoof start to move back and forth, and felt the blade begin cutting into my horn.

LVII - Hell

My time in Cragsburg was… unpleasant to say the least… the most hellish, traumatic experience of my entire life to say the most. The idea that my suffering ended with my horn getting sawn off is laughable in retrospect. When the initial deed was done, and my screams of agony still echoed throughout the audience chamber, Terra shoved my severed horn into my face, forced me to look at it before casting into a fire before my very eyes. Only after I had been made to watch it turn to ash, did Gaia finally have me removed from her presence. I was stripped of my clothes and possessions, I could only watch helplessly as they took my spyglass and compass and threw them into a chest with the rest of my belongings.

The two guards who had held me in place during the act, dragged me through the keep to an underground dungeon. When it came to the stairs, they simply pushed me down them, and only continued hauling me away when I was a twitching heap at the bottom. I was thrown into a cell on my own, where the only light was that which spilled through the narrow gaps between the bars of the door. My first move was to inch myself to the corner where I curled up and tried to cry myself to sleep, this time I only got as far as the crying before Terra returned.

I tried to be defiant at first; I knew my situation wasn’t going to get any better, so I thought I could at least ruin their satisfaction somewhat. I mocked Terra, told him his Lady Gaia was probably upstairs letting every guard in the keep screw her rigid while he was distracted there with me. That certainly got him angry, but unfortunately I got too into it, enjoying what little payback I could deliver that I accidentally let slip something I shouldn’t have. I laughed at him in a hoarse voice, and told him how we slaughtered their army at Anchorage and how their soldiers at Brine were almost certainly dead as well.

I knew as soon as the words left my lips, that I had made a terrible mistake. After that, the real torture began. They shaved my mane and tail until they were both cropped short, once upon a time I would have considered that to be the worst torture that could be inflicted upon anypony; they quickly showed me how naïve I had been. They were very creative in their methods, mainly they would use various blades to inflict cuts onto my body, but they also used hot irons to burn and different mechanisms to break.

On my left flank, they branded over my cutie mark with a large ugly X, but because I bucked about so much against it, the brand didn’t stay in one spot and ended up scorching through most of my hindquarter. On the opposite flank, they simply cut around the cutie mark and peeled the square of flesh away. They twisted screws into my hooves and knees, before feeding my left hind leg, the one that Terra had shot with his crossbow, into a crushing device that thoroughly destroyed it beyond repair. They were kind enough to leave me with the useless appendage, dangling limply behind me if ever I walked.

They would sometimes hold me down on a bench and stretch a cloth over my face, before pouring water onto the cloth. Sometimes they would just cut to the chase and shove my face into a bucket of water. They kept at me almost constantly, whenever they finally left me alone in my cell, I was shackled to the wall and a plate of bread and bowl of water were placed in the centre of the room, literally two inches out of my reach. After a while I accepted I was never going to reach the dishes no matter how much I squirmed and stretched my limbs, so I started trying to use that time to sleep… or just allow my body to pass out.

Whenever they saw me attempting that, they would kick me awake again. They also experimented with some… internal torture that I don’t like to think about, I’ll just say that they castrated me in more than one way and leave it at that. I was actually worried with the lengths they were going to make me suffer, that some of the stallions who were either guarding me or performing the torture wouldn’t… force themselves on me. It seemed however that that was the one depth they wouldn’t sink, not that they didn’t want to.

I overheard my guards discussing it while I was looking miserably at my out of reach food, but Terra chose that moment to appear and shout his head off at them, telling them how disgusting they were to even consider doing such a thing with an ‘abomination such as myself’. The reason for all this torture was, although I’m sure they would have done it regardless, finding out exactly how I was involved in what happened at Anchorage and by extension, the rest of the country and operating factions.

I tried to so hard not to talk, it took all my willpower not to answer their questions and to face the next wave of pain… but they broke my willpower just as easily as they broke everything else about me. I told them exactly what happened in Anchorage, what the situation with the Dragoons was and where their troops were, same with the Rebellion, Liberators and Arcane Order, although I didn’t know an awful lot about the latter. I told them every little detail I knew about who was involved in doing what and where they could be found, even my friends, though it broke my heart to do so.

They figured out that I had entered the keep by causing the disturbance in the courtyard and entering by the window, particularly since Fluttershy had escaped that way before flying out of the city, but they wanted to know how I got past the city wall to begin with. By that point I was beyond trying to resist, and told them of the pony who helped me. A while later, Terra returned and accused me of lying, claiming that no such pony lived in Cragsburg. I insisted I was telling the truth, and while he didn’t believe me, he gave up as he assumed my mind had broken during the interrogation.

When Terra was satisfied that I had revealed as much as I knew about my allies and his enemies, he took great pleasure in telling me how he was going to use the information to destroy them and make sure my friends suffered the same torment I had. After that, he cut out my tongue with what looked like a pair of screw adjusted scissors, before ordering his men to carry on torturing me as they saw fit. On one occasion after that, Terra came down and brought a stop to my anguish, and ordered me be transported upstairs.

They placed me in shackles, not like I could have escaped anyway. Even if I had been given a clear path to the front door, I doubt I would have had the heart left to try and leave. They brought me to the audience chamber where the room was packed full of ponies dressed in in green robes and armour, all kneeling down and facing towards the throne where Gaia stood to address them. I was placed next to the throne in plain view of everypony, I could see them sniggering as they looked up at me. I wanted nothing more than to go back to my cell and curl up where nopony would see me.

What followed was that Gaia delivered some kind of sermon to her flock, preaching about how the world was a beautiful thing, tainted by the unnatural scum that plagued it and sought to destroy that beauty by propagating the world with their own foul races. I listened to her spout madness, and watched as her masses ate it all up. They looked up at her with dim, shallow expressions, smiling and nodding like good little sheep. It really was an incredible display of brainwashing, harrowing to think that normal ponies in this day and age could be convinced to believe such rubbish and carry out atrocities in its name.

I think it was half way through my third day, so hard to tell, all time seemed to blur into one big mess in my mind. I was lying in a heap in my cell, staring into space somewhere in the opposite corner while Terra stood over me. He wore a sadistic smile, the same one I had come to associate with imminent pain during my time there. I wondered if he really believed the nonsense Gaia was preaching, or if he was just going along with it in order to live out his own twisted fantasies.

“I hope you enjoyed the Lady’s sermon,” he was saying, I wasn’t sure how long he had been there talking at me. “She was certainly happy to have you there witnessing it.”

Naturally I didn’t reply, I wondered if this was how Stranglethorn had felt when he lost his tongue. I was snapped out of my thoughts when Terra’s hoof connected sharply with my jaw.

“You will look up at me when I speak to you, insolent sow!” he bellowed in a furious tone.

I obeyed and titled my head so I was staring back up at him, while he fixed that same smile back onto his face.

“That’s much better,” he went on, quickly calming down. “The time has come for you to start learning humility, and to obey your betters when they give you a command, so that is a good start.”

I gave a weary nod, not really registering a word he was saying.

“That is why the Lady had you attend earlier,” he explained. “If you are to serve in her new world, in your rightful place, then you must come to recognise her as the ultimate authority on all things…”

His words stopped instantly as something spiked out through his neck, emerging just below his chin. Terra’s eyes went wide, and even I was a little surprised by it. I could hear the gurgling coming from his throat as he attempted to speak, even with the blade piercing it. Just as suddenly as it appeared, it was retracted, and Terra slowly fell to his knees, blood trickling form the wound while he wore an expression of mild confusion, like he couldn’t understand what was happening. As he landed on his knees, he turned his head slowly to look at the figure who emerged from the shadows behind him, a figure dressed in a red and blue striped harlequin outfit, complete with grinning mask and a pair of rondel daggers, one in each hoof.

Pinkie Pie circled around until she was facing Terra, lifting up her grinning mask to reveal that for once, she was not smiling beneath it. Pinkie wore a look of such undiluted hatred, that even I felt a twinge of fear looking up at her. Terra opened his mouth to speak but Pinkie brought both daggers down, plunging the blades into his eyeballs. When she pulled them back out this time, the eyes were gouged out with them, and she swiftly kicked Terra’s body off to one side. Pinkie quickly pulled the eyes off her daggers before sheathing them and turning to me. As soon as she saw me, her anger began to fade away, replaced with a look of such unending misery.

“Oh Rarity…” she breathed in a voice that barely resembled the one I remembered so well.

She knelt down in front of me, reaching around the back of my neck where I heard some clicking before the shackle chaining me to the wall opened and I was free. I didn’t move however, I simply lay there staring up at Pinkie, feeling nothing as I did.

“Rarity… you’re free,” Pinkie told me in a slightly desperate tone. “We can escape now.”

I turned my face away from her, it was the only movement I could muster. I didn’t want to look at her, knowing how I had sold her and the others out.

“Rarity, please…” Pinkie begged, lightly taking hold of my head and turning it to face her. “Applejack and Rainbow Dash are here, we’re going to get you to safety. Rarity… why won’t you talk to me?”

Pinkie looked miserable as she looked me up and down in the low light, she looked like she was about ready to cry when realised just how much my body had been through.

“What did those monsters do to you?” Pinkie asked, her voice quavering as her anger began bubbling back up. “Can you even talk anymore?”

I gently shook my head, I would have opened my mouth to show her, but I couldn’t bring myself to do that much. Pinkie started to look very distressed, clearly unsure how to convince me to leave with her, but completely unwilling to leave me there.

“It’s okay Rarity,” she began to say. “I can carry you, you don’t have to do anything until we… oh, wait!”

She suddenly remembered something, reaching into her pocket with her hoof she began searching about for something.

“Applejack has the rest of your stuff,” she explained. “But I brought this for you…”

As she spoke, she held out something in her hoof, I saw a flash of gold and my jaw dropped slightly. It was my father’s compass, resting on her hoof.

“Remember what you told me when we first met?” Pinkie said hopefully as she held the compass up to my face. “This was your fathers, he gave it to you the last time you saw him. You can see them again Rarity, I promise you will, just let us help you.”

I reached up with a shaking hoof and tried to take the compass, my grip was weak, but Pinkie helped me get a hold of it. As I held it in my trembling hoof ad looked down at it, I began to cry. I thought I had already shed every tear I had left while they tortured me, but just seeing the compass and remembering my family brought a fresh wave. Suddenly I wanted nothing more than to leave, to stop playing hero and find them, to cling to my mother and father like I was still a foal and never leave the comfort of their sides ever again.

Pinkie held me in a surprisingly gentle hug while I wept, I could tell she was eager to get moving, but at the same time didn’t want to rush me. I sniffed back my tears and tried to give the compass back to Pinkie for safe keeping, but she simply put it back in its pouch and draped it around my neck. After that, she helped me stand up and together we began shuffling out into the dungeon corridor, right outside my cell door were a pair of guards with their throats slashed open. Pinkie helped me most of the way, but I tried my best to stumble forward on my own three legs, trying my best to ignore the pain that I had started to become numb to.

We arrived upstairs in time to see Applejack locked in combat with a soldier; they had both dropped their weapons and were brawling it out. Just as we arrived in the room, Applejack managed to grab the mare’s head in her forelegs and began twisting. Pinkie called out to her, and Applejack looked up in surprise. The moment she saw the state I was in, her jaw dropped and I heard a loud snap from the mare’s neck before she went limp. Applejack quickly tossed her aside and hurried over to us, I noticed she had a bag swung over her back, I guessed it contained my recovered items.

“Holy Celestia, Rarity!” she exclaimed as she rushed up, hesitating as she wasn’t sure whether she should hug me or not in my condition. “How could they do this to you?!”

“Applejack, find Rainbow and get her out of here,” Pinkie ordered as she began walking towards another door.

“Where the heck are you goin’?!” Applejack demanded in a panicked voice.

Pinkie looked back over her shoulder, the same look of unrivalled fury on her face as when she killed Terra.

“To find this Gaia,” she began in a dark tone, pulling her mask back over her face which now looked more sinister than ever. “And kill the bitch!”

Before Applejack could object, Pinkie was gone in the blink of an eye, leaving just the pair of us.

“Don’t you worry Sugarcube” Applejack said in a shaky voice. “We’ll get you out of here… and Fluttershy will patch you up.”

I nodded, although I doubted there was very much left for Fluttershy to save. Without another word, Applejack scooped me up and threw me over her back, and began running towards the next door. Even with me and my possessions weighing her down, Applejack still made a formidable fighter, and made quick work of the few soldiers who tried to get in our way. It was only when we reached the audience chamber and found Rainbow Dash fighting against more than half a dozen ponies, that Applejack set me down.

“Get to the exit,” she commanded in an urgent whisper. “Stick to the edge of the room and keep goin’, ah’ll help Rainbow.”

With that, she charged off with her claymore swinging, while I started limping in the direction of the archway at the end of the room that would lead to the entrance hall. While walking, I lost my balance and had to catch onto one of the columns for support. While I was immobilised, I scanned over the room, together Rainbow and Applejack were making easy work of their opponents, just like they had done at Anchorage. However my eyes were drawn to the end of the chamber I had just come from, where a pony had just emerged beside the throne.

Gaia stood there, staring down at the fight and looking livid, in her hooves she cradled a crossbow. It was the same one Terra had used on me; I wondered if maybe she had found out he was dead. She raised it up, her hooves shaking with anger as she tried to take aim, struggling to decide between her two targets. In the end she settled on Rainbow Dash, probably because she was a pegasus, and she steadied her aim for the shot. I wanted to cry out, to shout a warning, but I was completely mute. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were both so focused with their current opponents that they hadn’t even noticed Gaia’s appearance.

In an instant I knew exactly what I had to do, and it was as if the rest of the world had melted away around us, until only Gaia, Rainbow Dash and I all stood in an endless abyss. I charged forward, running in the most inelegant fashion I could have managed with my dead leg dragging clumsily behind me, while the other three pulled double duty despite being in incredible amounts of pain too. I drowned out the pain though, pushed it all into the back of my mind so that the only thing to focus on was getting to Rainbow Dash before Gaia’s bolt did.

A feat made considerably harder as I saw her pull the trigger and watched as the bolt was fired, almost in slow motion. I was amazed by how much I was still able to give, no matter what punishment my body endured. When one of my friends was in danger, it rose to the challenge every time, no matter how much it hurt. With one final burst of energy, I leapt forward off my front legs, throwing my whole body against Rainbow Dash and feeling her tumble under my weight. As soon as we connected, reality spiralled back in and we both toppled to the floor.

Rainbow Dash quickly recovered, confused at first by what happened, but I continued to lie there on my back, suddenly aware of a numb sensation washing over me. I glanced down and saw the bolt jutting out of my chest, reminding me of when I was shot in the leg, only… getting shot in the leg didn’t make me feel so tired. My eyes found Rainbow Dash who was staring in undisguised horror at me, her silver spear shaking in her grip. I then saw her gaze snap up to the dais where the throne was, and anger flash across her face as she launched her spear like a javelin before speeding after it.

Applejack dropped to her knees beside me, she was muttering in a panicked voice as she looked over me, her voice stammering as she tried to tell me it would be okay. I knew it wasn’t going to be okay, I could feel the pain now, it was rolling in in waves. My head was feeling heavy, like a thick fog had descended around me, it might have explained while my vision was getting so blurry and all sound was slowly getting replaced by a dull ringing noise. It was an odd sensation overall, after all the torture I had endured up to that point, I’d say that felt rather tame in comparison.

Maybe it was because I knew it was an end to all my pain, that my mind accepted it more readily. Whatever the case, there wasn’t much time left to think or feel anything before my eyelids drooped shut and my body fell limp. And with that, my brain shut down, my lungs stopped breathing, my heart stopped pumping… and I stopped living.

Author's Note

End of Part 7

LVIII - Rebirth

Author's Note

Part 8

LVIII - Rebirth

I suppose I should clarify, that the story does not in fact end with my own death, and believe me I did truly die at that moment. No, it turned out fate had another thing in store for me… well, perhaps fate isn’t who I should give thanks to, but we’ll get to who was responsible for my second chance in a little while. When I woke up, my initial thoughts had nothing to do with living or dying, but rather, discomfort at finding myself on a very flat, very hard surface with something very cold pressed against my chest.

I lay there for some time, as my brain kicked back into gear and my memories slowly filtered back in. It was a bizarre experience, lying there and having my whole life flash behind my eyelids without feeling the slightest distress or confusion as to why. It was only when the memories of my days at Cragsburg, ending with my own death returned to me, that my eyes snapped open and the panic began to set in. I sat bolt upright on the stone table, looking myself up and down frantically, not noticing at first as the cold object rolled off my chest.

I stared in awe and mild horror at my pristine body, at my unmarred flesh and restored limbs. My cutie marks were both present and clear as day once more; even my mane and tail had grown back to their full length. Finally I reached up and felt about my forehead, breathing a huge sigh of relief as I felt the familiar feel of my horn. It appeared that my body had been completely restored to the way it was before I had attempted to rescue Fluttershy… no, even further back than that.

While there was no damage from my time at Cragsburg, right down to where the first crossbow bolt had punctured through my leg, I also felt none of the pain I had endured from my fight at Anchorage. I could move my limbs without feeling any remnants of pain whatsoever; it really was as if my body had been restored to peak physical condition. Of course I immediately jumped to the conclusion that I was now in the afterlife, not that I had ever believed in such a thing before, but it seemed like the most logical reason as to why I’d suddenly be in my current state after everything I had been through, culminating in my death.

I bit down on my leg hard, testing to see if I could still feel pain. Since I could, I ruled out dream or delusion brought on by whatever trauma my body had been put through. For a while I was genuinely convinced I was in the afterlife, so I turned my attention to my surroundings to discover what awaited us after death. What I found was that I lay on some kind of ancient, stone altar, sitting at the top a small pyramid structure, situated within a large chamber. All the stone was a faded sand colour, with tinges of green from what appeared to be moss growing between the bricks and slabs.

While there were no light sources to speak of, I could still see everything clearly. It was as if the air all around me was made of living lights and shadows, flowing and flitting about one another to create the eerie feeling that I was submerged in water. The chamber certainly felt unnatural enough to be otherworldly; I could even swear there was a faint murmuring all around me, which would fade away instantly whenever I tried to focus on it. While I stared around myself in confusion, I vaguely remembered the cold feeling on my chest when I first woke up.

I looked down and saw there was nothing there, including the draw string pouch that contained my compass. That didn’t bother me as much as I expected it would, probably because I was still convinced I was in the afterlife, and that obviously physical objects wouldn’t follow me through. I set about looking for what had been the source of the intense cold; I quickly found it at the base of the altar, having dropped down when it rolled off me. I picked it up and held it up to the light, a difficult act when the light was always moving.

The object was a tiny stone, roughly the size and the shape of a raisin; I knew immediately what it was. My eyes grew wide as I remembered the package that Sweetie Belle had delivered to me, remembered the mysterious stone that I had kept hidden away inside my compass and thought so little of. While I didn’t have the note that came with it, I remembered it still, ‘I have seen something in you; I feel you may have need of this one day. Keep it close, it only works once, and yet I pray you will not require it’.

I was beginning to doubt my afterlife theory in favour of one relating to this stone. Could it be that it somehow held the power to bring me back to life? The sender seemed to hope I wouldn’t have need of it, so it would stand to reason that the stone in some way related to death. It also said that it only worked once, which made sense as before it pulsated with a bright light and held some warmth to it, now it was cold as death and completely devoid of any light. The final part of the note I thought on, was the part that warned me to keep it close. I felt my stomach lurch at the idea of what would have happened if Pinkie hadn’t brought me back the compass.

That still left the question of who sent me the stone, somepony who saw something in me, who knew Fancy Pants and was able to pass it along to him before I left for Panchea. I decided to ignore that bit for the time being, I needed to leave the room, because if I wasn’t in the afterlife, then the stone had also transported me somewhere and I needed to figure out where that was if I was to get back and find my friends. I fiddled with the stone for a moment, unsure how to keep it safe while I travelled.

I had no pockets or bags, and I didn’t want to drain my magic by carrying it around everywhere I walked. While I pondered the situation, I remembered back to a moment when I was with Stranglethorn in Dolor, how he kept a small key hidden behind his ear. I wondered how he had managed it then, but since the stone was probably the same size as his key had been, I decided to float it up behind my ear and poke about to see what would happen. To my utter astonishment, the stone fitted snugly in the nook right behind my ear, and as long as I didn’t swivel my ear too far forward, it would stay in place.

With that minor issue taken care of, I began to make my way down the pyramid steps, slowly as they were quite steep and I didn’t want to bring a swift end to my second life by tripping and falling. This place I found myself in was certainly peculiar, as I exited the chamber through a stone archway, into a corridor that seemed to stretch on forever on both sides; I noticed the room behind me beginning to grow dark as I stepped out of it. It was as if the flowing light followed me, while the shadows clustered tightly together in their absence to form an impenetrable wall of darkness behind me.

I hesitated a moment just beyond the archway, wondering whether I should turn left or right, my decision was made for me when a gust of warm air came flooding down the tunnel from my right, pushing me slightly towards the left. I frowned before carrying on, that air had felt so humid and sticky, and the noise that accompanied it gave me the disturbing sensation that I was standing in some stone throat and had just been breathed upon. While I contemplated that idea, the murmuring began to grow louder around me, until I became consciously aware of it, at which point it was instantly muted and I was left in silence once more.

I decided to trust the strange wind and follow the corridor to the left. As I began to walk, the flickering lights danced all around me, lighting the way ahead while the shadows consumed the way back. I wasn’t sure, but the way the lights constantly shifted about, it gave the strange impression that the stone walls were shifting ever so slightly, like the whole tunnel was stretching and twisting around to such a small degree that it was barely noticeable. I chose to ignore it, perhaps I was just dehydrated, I was certainly feeling the pangs of hunger coming on.

As I walked, I passed by several junctions in the corridor and archways that led into other chambers. As I passed them by, I caught quick glimpses of their interiors before the shadows obscured them from view, I saw chambers as large as the one I had woken up in, while others looked so small that I would have to crouch to avoid scraping my head off the ceiling. In these rooms, I caught sight of strange shapes and structures that served mysterious purposes; I saw pillars and altars, statues and alcoves. Before I could begin to wonder what those rooms might contain or what might lie down those other corridors, the gust of warm air returned to hurry me on my way, always sending me of down a specific direction.

There was a moment when I came to a sudden halt, when I heard the sound of hurrying hoofsteps other than my own. I glanced about, suddenly panicking for some reason before darting through the nearest archway and pressing myself up against the wall. The hoofsteps were getting closer, and they were approaching fast. I risked a glance out, only to snap my head in as four figure sprinted into the light. I had to contain my gasp of shock when I saw who they were; there was two stallions and two mares, one of which led the others with a lantern held in her magic.

They all looked deeply shaken and exhausted; coming to a stop just outside where I was hidden, but it was what they wore that really drew my attention. Each of the four ponies wore flowing robes of black silk, embroidered with a rainbow coloured thread.

“We have to go back!” the mare who was not carrying the lantern exclaimed in a terrified voice. “We can’t just leave him!”

“We have our orders,” the other mare replied in an unconvincingly calm voice. “He knew the risks we faced.”

“Forget our orders!” one of the stallions exclaimed. “And forget him, he’s lost already. What we need to do now is get out of here before they get us too!”

“Don’t say that!” the mare hissed at him. “The Father gave us this task directly, it could be the most important thing we have done for the Covenant. To defy those orders and run away with your tail between your legs would be the height of heresy!”

“But it’s hopeless!” the stallion insisted desperately. “We’re going around in circles, I’m sure of it! Oh lord… I can’t get the voices to stop! It feels like my mind is ripping in half!”

The mare with the lantern stormed over to the weeping stallion ad smacked him hard across the face.

“Get a hold of yourself brother!” she commanded. “We will find the tomb, or we will all die trying! This mission is of the utmost importance; it could make or break everything we have been working for all these years. There’s all this light around here, we must be getting close, I can feel it.”

The mare started walking around, holding her lantern out to the walls for some reason, even though the area was fairly well lit from the lights that had been following me around. I held my breath as she began walking over to the archway I hid behind, for a moment I was sure she was going to glance around it and see me crouched there.

“It’s not here,” the second stallion announced, looking over sheets of parchment. “We’re still some ways off.”

“Fine, then let’s get moving,” the mare replied bitterly before turning her gaze to the stallion she had been telling off. “I should kill you for your cowardice, but it would be just as easy to leave you here to be taken by whatever demons haunt this place. So what will it be? You can come with us and fulfil your duty to the Father and the Covenant, or you can stay here and meet the same fate our brother did… keeping in mind that I carry the Father’s lantern.”

“I… I’ll come,” the stallion stammered, wiping his eyes.

With that, the mare marched off into the shadows, her lantern lighting the way while her companions followed closely behind. Once the ball of light from her lantern vanished from sight, I stepped out from my hiding place and stared after it, my breathing was very rapid now. The robed ponies were there, with me, and the things they said.

“Covenant… tomb…” I repeated in a low voice.

What could it all mean? What exactly were these ponies up to? I decided to ignore it for the time being and carry on my way; another gust of air appeared to be trying to rush me along anyway. While I wasn’t sure what horrors they seemed to have encountered in this place, when my own time had been relatively peaceful, I wasn’t eager to stay and find out. I continued to follow the direction of the air for some time, until at last I reached a spacious chamber with a tall winding staircase that led high up to a speck of light that I hoped indicated daylight.

I galloped up the stairs, faintly aware of the incessant whispering following me the whole time, but paying it no heed as my eyes were glued on the door that I was now sure led outside. As I burst out through the open doorway and the lights that had been following me since I woke up, flew out into the open air and dissipated, I was forced to shut my eyes from the sudden intensity of natural light, while I breathed in the unusually stale air. Glancing back while I waited for my eyes to adjust to the light, I saw the shadows move in, hiding the staircase and the entrance chamber completely from view, just as they had done with every other room and stretch of tunnel I passed.

Once my eyes were a little better adjusted, I turned my attention back to the outside world, my eyes switching from partially shut to wide open as I surveyed my new surroundings. I was standing on a stone walkway, overlooking a colossal pit that appeared to travel straight down for miles before fading into darkness. The best way I can describe it is like a tube carved into the earth, roughly the length of a couple barns placed end to end in diameter. I myself was inside this tube, some ways down from the top, standing outside one of the thousands of stone archways that were scattered across the entire tube, from the very top, down to the very lowest point I could see.

Connecting all these darkened doorways, were a series of walkways and steps that all looked to be carved right of the earth with no real pattern or consistency in their dimensions, it all worked to give the tube a very haphazard and untidy look. I stared in awe around me, to think that that one door I had just stepped out of, led to such a massive sprawling complex of tunnels and chambers. There were countless doors just like it all around me that could lead to similar areas, that could all come together to create the most vast place I could possibly comprehend.

It made my head swim just thinking about how long it would take one pony to explore a place like this, it would easily drive them mad. Particularly considering how easy it would be to get lost if I hadn’t been led along the right path by that odd air… and then it hit me. As I began to recall ancient stories and whispered tales, I began to realise where I was. But I didn’t want to jump to any conclusions just yet, if I was right, then I needed to climb to the top of this shaft and return to the surface, only then would I know for sure.

Before I left however, I remembered the robed ponies I had encountered. The odds of seeing them in that exact area of that exact tunnel complex amidst the thousands that were out there, at the exact time I was passing through seemed phenomenal. Not for the first time I wondered if perhaps fate had arranged it as such, so before I left, I turned back once more to the archway. Grabbing a small rock with my magic, I began carving the letter R into the stone frame. I wasn’t sure if I would ever come back here to find out what they were up to, especially since I now knew where here was and wanted nothing more than to get as far away from it as possible, but if I did return… the mark would be there to help.

With that taken care of, I started my assent up the shaft to the surface. A tricky task considering some of the ledges were so worn down and narrow, and the steps steep and teetering, I had to take my time and climb slowly to avoid falling off and plummeting into the endless abyss below. When I first emerged blinking form the doorway, the sun had been almost directly over the circular opening at the top of the shaft, its light just about piercing through the morbid grey cloud cover. By the time I was nearing the top however, I could see that it was sinking rather low in the sky, judging by where the rays of light penetrated from.

When I reached the top, I had to pull myself up the last few sections, a task made considerably easier with my renewed body. As I pulled myself over the final ledge and stood up, brushing my coat down of the dust that clung to it, I looked around me and confirmed my suspicions… and fears. I stood on the edge of the great hole in the ground, travelling down for what seemed like forever before fading into blackness. The hole itself had a neat, circular frame carved from the same sandy coloured rock as the shaft itself, it created a slight mound, appearing inconsequential enough from the outset.

It was the landscape that surrounded me that gave it away, a cold, harsh looking wasteland of grey rock and dirt that stretched out for miles in all directions. It was bare and featureless, littered with rocky crags and hilly mounds, but no living creatures or plants to speak of. It was a land that was completely stripped of life, much like the Ash Lands, but somehow managing to be even more inhospitable and morbid looking, the perpetually grey skies not helping matters. Looking around me, I could see mountain ranges surrounding it on three sides, and to the south, a hint of green that signified the end of this desolate wilderness and the beginning of the Tranquil Forest.

Together the mountains and the forest created a natural border for the section of land in Panchea where nopony dared tread… the Nether Vale. I mentioned it couple times before, the mysterious valley that lay to the north of the Tranquil Forest and west of the Ash Lands, the place where few had ever gone, and even fewer had made it out alive. Those that did, either forgot their experiences there… or were driven completely insane by the things that they saw.

Few ponies had ever gotten far enough into the Nether Vale and made it out to report anything regarding it. But those that had, spoke of a place at the very heart, a terrible pit that travelled forever into the earth, they called it the Demon Shaft. There were many legends and theories pertaining to the origins and purpose of the Demon Shaft, and by extension the Nether Vale as a whole. Some believed that it was linked to the ancient race that lived in Panchea before ponies first inhabited it, the same race that built Arclight, other believed that it existed even longer than that, and that the shaft led to another plane of existence.

Whatever the tales said and however they differed or agreed, one thing was made clear to everypony who lived in Panchea, you never travelled to the Nether Vale if you valued your life and your sanity. The fact that I had woken up there after dying, not only in the Nether Vale, but inside the Demon Shaft itself, raised hundreds more questions in my mind. I pushed them all to the side however, as I began walking swiftly south in the direction of the Tranquil Forest, wanting nothing more than to leave this horrific place behind before I learned why it carried so much stigma.

Now that I was free of the claustrophobic environment of the Demon Shaft and out in the open, I began to feel a prickling sensation, like I was being watched. As I travelled through the wasteland, I could still hear that faint murmuring, and like before, if I tried to pay it any heed, it would fade away and leave me in an eerie silence. Now however, it felt like I could see movements just out the corner of my eye, like there were creatures lurking just beyond my vision. Perhaps it had been the same inside the Demon Shaft, but because of the constantly shifting light, I hadn’t picked up on it.

Whatever the case may be, I had a sickening feeling that if I delayed, I would find out why it earned the name ‘Demon’ Shaft. I journeyed through the night, as tired as I was, I had no desire to stop in this place and get a closer look at the shadows that seemed to be creeping after me. I lit the way with the light of my horn, not particularly effective in revealing my surroundings, but it provided me with a little comfort. By the time I arrived at the edge of the forest, the sun had begun to rise and I was able to look back over the grey landscape and see it clearly.

If I stood at the top of a hill and squinted, I could just about make out the faint discolouration of the mound that indicated where the Demon Shaft was. It certainly was a long way away, and I was amazed at how far I travelled in what felt like such a short time. Really, the more I tried to think back to my time travelling through the corridors of the Demon Shaft and across the plains of the Nether Vale, the harder it became to remember it clearly. It was like my time there had passed by in a blur, with only the occasional moment sticking in my mind.

As I looked back over it from the relative safety of the forest, I wondered if maybe the dark forces that worked there had allowed me to leave, encouraged it to be more specific. I had after all arrived there under no will of my own, perhaps it was only the fact that it had not been my choice to be there, that allowed me to leave unscathed. It would explain that strange air that led me in the right direction of the exit and pushed me whenever I hesitated or became too curious about another path or room. The same might also be said for those things that watched me after I left the Shaft, never removing their unnerving gaze from me until I was far away from their territory.

I really had no desire to test their good will and return under my own fruition, but then I remembered those robed ponies. Whatever they had been talking about sounded extremely important, going back and finding out what they were up to might be exactly what we needed to finally get to the bottom of this mystery. I shook my head though, going with my better judgement and leaving it be… for the time being. I needed to find my friends and make sure they had all escaped Cragsburg okay; no doubt they would be shocked to see me back in one piece.

I pressed forward, delving into the forest, stopping after a short while to fill up on some berries I remembered Stranglethorn identifying as being edible the last time we were in the forest together. I travelled for some time, using the sun to head in a south-eastern direction, in the hopes of exiting the Tranquil Forest somewhere around the Lesser Pastures. After a while I began to wonder if I was going in the right direction, the canopy was mostly blocking out the sun, making it hard to tell. So after picking a tree that looked tall enough, I began to climb in the hopes of getting a clear view of my destination.

Once at the top, I felt my heart swell at the view I was given. To the southwest I could see the city of Arclight towering over the forest, to the southeast I could see the Neptune stretching out beyond the woodlands. If I looked back I could even see the grey lands of the Nether Vale, sending a little shudder up my spine to think how fortunate I was to have been able to walk out of there in one piece. While I was contemplating my luck, there was a flash of light in the corner of my eye, my head quickly snapped around to see what the source was.

As I looked to the southeast, there was a point just beyond the edge of the forest, where a narrow shaft of purple light had burst forth from the ground and was rising into the heavens. I stared at it for a moment, totally bewildered by what it could be for a moment, but then as I stared at it, I began to feel a warmth rising in my chest. Could it be that it was some kind of magical beacon… signalling me? Then it dawned on me that the pillar of light was the exact same colour as Twilight Sparkle’s aura.

In the space of a minute, I had scurried back down the tree and was charging through the forest. My lungs ached as I struggled to take in enough air to keep up my pace, but I didn’t slow down. My friend was out there, and she was calling out to me, I just knew it. Maybe that was a naïve outlook to have; maybe after everything I was still too optimistic, but then… I was only reborn yesterday.

LIX - The New Six

Even with my renewed body and desire to be reunited with my friends, my energy was not boundless and I had to slow down eventually. I even stopped to rest for the night, finding the forest to be a much more welcoming environment for a few hours’ sleep. Once I woke up, I took things a little slower, keeping my eyes peeled for more of those berries I had found the day before. Of course I was eager to put the forest behind me and find my friends, but there seemed no harm in pacing myself, I had after all been stone cold dead up until quite recently.

As I travelled, I noticed many varieties of plants I had never encountered before. I had rarely been in the Tranquil Forest during my time, but I had never been this far north in it. There were flowers as tall as the Princess, and trees that sagged with the weight of great big purple fruits. Upon poking one, it instantly deflated, all its juices cascading out like a waterfall into a puddle at my hooves. I opted not to taste it, purple being commonly associated with poisonous things in nature. There were also a great many animals, mainly birds with bright plumage, I was sure Fluttershy would have loved it, and made a mental note to take her sometime when all the madness was behind us.

When I finally stepped out of the forest into the open plains of the Lesser Pastures, I quickly discovered where the pillar of light was coming from. I had caught occasional glimpses of it while I travelled to ensure me I was still on the right path, it only appeared intermittently for short bursts at a time. It was faint, what with the sun shining so brightly, but I managed to just about see it coming out the roof of a small cabin in the distance. Twilight had been travelling to Arclight the last time I saw her, while I wasn’t sure why she was here and not there, it was certainly believable that she could have come back this way. I began making my way down the slope towards the cabin, stopping briefly to chew some grass before immediately spitting it out again.

The Lesser Pastures were well known for its poor quality of grass, not that ponies often ate grass anymore, it was so lacking in nutrition that we would have to eat it pretty much constantly, leaving little time in the day to do anything else. It was early afternoon by the time I left the forest, so it was a very pleasant stroll, crossing the final stretch of grasslands to the stout little cabin. As I drew closer, I noticed a figure was pacing back and forth outside the front door, a figure in silver armour that gleamed in the sunlight, and a mane of many colours that clearly defined her even from a distance.

I broke out into a wide grin as I burst into a sprint, filled with joy to see Rainbow Dash there and know she was alive and well. As I started to close the remaining distance, I saw her ears prick up, clearly hearing the sound of somepony approaching. She looked around and her jaw dropped, I could see the shock and disbelief in her eyes even from the few dozen metres between us. Rainbow quickly pulled it together, and before I could call out to her, she was nothing more than a rainbow coloured blur speeding towards me.

I was strongly reminded of Pinkie Pie as she hurtled into me, knocking the wind from me as she pulled me into a tight embrace.

“You’re okay!” she explained in a voice cracking with barely contained emotion. “I… I can’t believe it, we really thought you were… that you had really…”

“I’m alright now Rainbow,” I assured her, returning the hug. “But you’re being a little rough.”

“Oh, sorry,” Rainbow said quickly, letting me go and backing up slightly while scratching her mane awkwardly. “So yeah, you’re not dead… that’s cool.”

I had to raise my hoof to stifle my giggle at that, Rainbow screwed up her face as she tried not to blush and failed miserably. She then sagged suddenly, a look of intense guilt washing over her.

“It… it all happened so quickly back there,” she murmured. “I was fighting those guys with AJ; I didn’t even see you… or her, not until it was too late.”

“What happened with Gaia?” I asked, aware of the hopeful note in my voice.

“She got away,” Rainbow growled. “I could have gone after her but… but I came back to you. I came back and you were already…”

She drifted off, scrunching up her face as she recalled the details.

“I… I don’t understand,” she said at last, looking at me with a downtrodden expression. “You were gone, I know you were. Then you just disappeared… like your body literally vanished in a bright light, leaving your compass behind. We left and didn’t know what to do… then Twilight Sparkle shows up out of nowhere and tells us it’s going to be okay. What happened Rarity?”

“I’m… not entirely sure,” I admitted. “But I think it has something to do with this stone…”

I reached behind my ear and produced the stone, holding it out to her.

“I’ll try and explain inside,” I offered. “Everypony should hear it, they are here aren’t they?”

“Yeah, they’re inside,” Rainbow said with a nod before holding out her hoof to stop me. “But just before we go in… you saved my life back there.”

“We don’t know that,” I tried to argue. “The bolt might have just hit your armour.”

“Or it might have gone through my skull,” Rainbow insisted. “As far as I’m concerned, I’m only standing because of what you did, and I hold that kind of debt really seriously. So if there’s ever a time when your life is in danger, I promise I will do everything in my power to save you.”

“Rainbow, there are no debts between friends,” I began.

“Nope, I’m not hearing a word against it,” She interrupted quickly. “Now let’s go see the others, seeing you again will really cheer them up.”

Together we made our way over to the front door of the cabin, I saw all the drapes were shut, so I doubted any of them would have seen me approaching or interacting with Rainbow Dash. Rainbow led the way in, holding the door open for me as I walked into the single room house. They were all sitting there, not a single one of them talking. Fluttershy lay curled up in the corner, her face buried in her hooves, Applejack stood by the stove, half-heartedly stirring a pot of something without noticing that the heat was turned off, Pinkie Pie sat on the single bed, all my possessions strewn about on the sheets while she stared mournfully down at my compass.

Only Twilight didn’t appear to be miserable looking, sitting at the desk with a book open, although I could tell that she did look agitated and a little bit worried, even though she was trying hard to suppress it. None of them looked up to see who had entered, all of them apparently just assuming it was Rainbow on her own. I glanced at her and she gave me a look as if to say ‘What did you expect?’, so I turned to the room and gave a gentle cough to announce my presence. Applejack, Pinkie and Twilight all looked up, the former two reacting similarly to how Rainbow Dash had while Twilight just seemed to relax, smiling as if she knew I would show up eventually.

“Rarity!” the two earth ponies declared, abandoning what they were doing in order to rush over and give me yet more horrific hugs.

I was immediately bombarded with questions while Twilight slowly closed her book and got up from the desk. I could see her walking over to me, but stopping short and looking down at something; following her gaze I saw Fluttershy hadn’t budged an inch. Applejack and Pinkie Pie both let go of me and hushed when they saw what we were looking at. I left them a moment to walk over and kneel down beside Fluttershy, reach out gently to touch her shoulder.

“Fluttershy…” I whispered. “It’s me… I’m alright, I’m back.”

“I know…” she murmured back, taking me by surprise. “Twilight said you would come back, I had no reason to doubt her.”

“I don’t understand,” I muttered in confusion. “Aren’t you happy to see me? We’re all safe now, isn’t that good?”

“You wouldn’t have… they wouldn’t have…” Fluttershy tried to say, snapping her head up to look at me with heavily bloodshot eyes. “None of it would have happened if it wasn’t for me!”

“Fluttershy, I…” I began in a worried tone, glancing back to see the others sharing my expression.

“No!” Fluttershy screamed suddenly, slapping my hoof away from her shoulder as she leapt to her hooves. “Pinkie told me what they did to you! I know how you suffered! I know how you died! And it was all my fault!”

Fluttershy bolted past me, charging right through the others as she sprinted out of the cabin. We all quickly took after her, rushing outside in time to see her take off into the sky. I shouted after her, but she didn’t seem to want to listen, but Rainbow Dash was already in the air. Fluttershy hadn’t a hope of escaping her, and before long they were both back on the ground, Fluttershy squirming uselessly against Rainbow Dash and Applejack who went over to help, all the while sobbing loudly.

“Fluttershy, listen to me!” I snapped at her. “Yes, I suffered… yes, I died… and you know what?!”

Fluttershy stopped bucking a moment to look me in the eye.

“I would go through it all again,” I told her. “If it meant you wouldn’t have to, because you’re my friend, and I would do anything to protect you. What happened to me was not your fault, it was my choice to rescue you, and I don’t regret it one bit.”

“This is Gaia’s fault,” Applejack added, loosening her grip on Fluttershy as her struggling reduced. “Not yours Sugarcube.”

“Yeah, and we need you Fluttershy,” Pinkie went on earnestly. “Your cuteness is the glue that holds this band of ragtag rogues and hooligans together.”

Fluttershy’s eyes welled up once more as she lashed out against Rainbow Dash and Applejack, but this time when she freed herself, she didn’t try to fly away, but rather threw herself around me, weeping into my shoulder. We all moved steadily back into the cabin, where Applejack made some tea for everypony while I collected my equipment. As I did, I thought briefly how this was the first time all six of us had been present in the one location at the same time. As I pondered that, I began to detect a powerful connection, one that I remembered feeling once before… or maybe it was the memory of a memory.

“We found it in a chest while we were lookin’ for you,” Rainbow explained, snapping me out of my thoughts. “It should all be there, even the compass, it was just left there after you disappeared.”

“I meant to say Pinkie,” I began, glancing up at her. “Thank you for giving me that, you don’t realise it, but doing so is the reason I’m alive at all.”

“Really?” Pinkie asked in amazement. “Sweet! I’m good without even realising it!”

I saw Twilight smirk in the corner of my vision, gently shaking her head in amusement.

“So are you going to explain what that stone is?” Rainbow asked as I confirmed that everything was there. “And how you’re here looking… pretty damn healthy?”

“Well…” I began, taking a seat on the bed while everypony turned to look at me. “When I first set off for Panchea from Equestria… my goodness, how long ago that seems. Anyway, when I first set off, my sister Sweetie Belle delivered a package to me. She said it had been given to her by our good friend Fancy Pants, and that he was given it by… somepony. The package contained a note and this stone…”

Once again I held it out for everypony to see.

“Now the stone used to carry some kind of light within it,” I explained. “The note warned me to keep it close, that it only worked once. While I didn’t know what it meant, I kept it inside a secret compartment in the back of my father’s compass. When I died, I think this is what brought me back.”

“Sounds like you have friends in high places,” Applejack said with a low whistle. “A stone that brings you back from the dead… who do you think gave it to you?”

“I did.”

We all glanced around in surprise, staring at Twilight Sparkle who just looked back at me with a calm expression on her face.

“I knew I saw something in you the day we met,” Twilight started in an even tone. “I had the most peculiar feeling, that one day I would be glad I gave it to you.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked; remembering Twilight’s parting words to me when Fluttershy and I first set off to Olympus. “Or write it down in the note?”

“I was worried if you knew what the stone did…” Twilight began uncomfortably. “You would take unnecessary risks.”

“I suppose,” I muttered, a little put off that she considered me to be so reckless. “But how did you end up with this?”

Twilight opened her mouth but then closed it again, pondering her response.

“That’s… a long story,” she admitted. “But I guess the easiest way to explain, is to ask… why are we here at this cabin? How did I know you would appear close by and arrive around this time?”

I frowned as her words sank in, Twilight had come into possession of a stone that could bring somepony back from the dead, and when it activated, it brought me back inside the…

“Wait a second…” I began as my eyes widened, connecting the dots. “You don’t mean that…”

Twilight nodded solemnly.

“That’s right,” she confirmed. “I took that stone from the Demon Shaft, that’s how I knew you’d be there.”

There was a whole flood of questions after that, mainly from my other four friends who all looked horrified at the mention of the place. Twilight outright refused to answer anything, saying it could wait, but encouraged me to tell them all what happened from the moment I woke up. I tried my best to recount the tale, not easy considering what I said about my memory of the experience being so blurry. When I reached the part about the robed ponies, there was a mixture of reactions, from shocked and angry on Twilight and Pinkie’s end, to confusion from the others who weren’t up to speed with everything we knew about them.

My own story came to a short stop while everypony was briefed on what all we knew so far regarding the robed ponies, as well as the new information I had provided, including tomb they were looking for, the Father they mentioned, and the name Covenant. Once that was out of the way, I quickly finished my story about how I left the Demon Shaft and made my way out the Nether vale to where I saw Twilight’s signal, before travelling straight there. Once I was done I was very grateful for the cup of tea Applejack offered me, as my throat was starting to feel rather parched.

“Well this lines up precisely with what I predicted would happen,” Twilight announced at the end of it all. “I’ve been studying that stone for years, and I came to the conclusion that its magic took three days to fully restore the body. Three days plus the couple you spent travelling here, that’s how long it’s been since the incident at Cragsburg… according to the others that is.”

“You weren’t there, were you?” I asked, receiving a small shake of her head. “Then how did you find out what happened? I thought you were going after Blueblood.”

“I… was,” Twilight replied, biting her lip. “But when the stone activated, I detected the pulse it sent out. I knew something big must have happened, so I… I left Blueblood to Stranglethorn and came back.”

“You didn’t need to do that,” I murmured, although I was grateful she did. “Your job was to catch Blueblood, not foalsit me.”

“I did have to,” Twilight argued. “You said it yourself Rarity, we’re friends. Besides, it’s a good thing I did… the others weren’t taking your death well… not that there’s anything wrong with that! I’m just glad I was there to tell them it was going to be okay.”

“And boy am ah glad you were right,” Applejack stated. “Not that ah believed you for a second, ah thought for sure it was too good to be true.”

“So what do we do now?” Fluttershy asked in a small voice that drew everypony’s attention. “We’re all glad Rarity’s back, but the Children of the Earth are still active, and now these… Covenant ponies are doing stuff as well, and that’s not to mention the Duke who’s still on the loose.”

“We do seem to have our hooves full,” Twilight agreed. “I’m sure if we put our heads together we can…”

“Nope!” Pinkie declared, cutting Twilight off mid-sentence.

“What? Pinkie I was speak…” Twilight began, slightly annoyed.

“Nope!” Pinkie interrupted again. “Sorry Twi, but Rarity just got back; she deserves a break before we go off to save the day again.”

“But Pinkie,” Rainbow tried to say. “Those mules in Cragsburg…”

“Can wait,” Pinkie finished firmly. “We’ve all pushed ourselves enough for a while, it’s time to take it slow for a bit before rushing into more danger.”

Twilight stared at Pinkie, gaping in surprise at her surprisingly reasonable proposal.

“Ah… think Pinkie might have a point,” Applejack commented. “A sane, completely rational point, and isn’t that just the scariest thing.”

There was a small chuckle shared across the cabin, it certainly felt nice to be able to laugh about things after everything we’d been through.

“Come on Rarity,” Pinkie said, grabbing hold of me. “There’s something outside I want to show you!”

There was a chorus of groans from the other four.

“Oh Pinkie, don’t,” Fluttershy mewed, looking slightly sick.

“Yeah Pinkie,” Rainbow Dash added. “Applejack was just about to make dinner; you don’t want Rarity losing her appetite.”

“Ah’m doin’ what now?” Applejack asked in confusion.

“Well you've piqued my interest,” I said with a small sigh and a roll of the eyes. “You might as well show me now.”

Pinkie grinned as she pulled me out of the cabin; together we walked some distance from it, making our way towards a sunken patch of earth that appeared to be a bog. I rolled my nose up as a truly awful stench hit me, it couldn’t just be the bog itself, so I set about looking for the source and quickly found it. Half buried in the swamp muck, was a creature of such bizarre proportions. It was tall and gangly, with a wiry frame, two long spindly arms ending in spider like hands. It had an unusually small head with no features whatsoever; it just looked like a raw, fleshy bag had been wrapped around a skull.

The creature, whatever it was, was heavily decayed, bits of flesh eaten away to reveal rotting muscle and mouldy bones. Clouds of flies swarmed around the corpse, feasting upon it and laying their eggs in the carcass. It was a truly revolting sight, and I had to wonder what Pinkie could possibly have wanted me to see it for.

“I see that look you’re giving me,” Pinkie said quickly, as if reading my mind. “But look at the shackles around its neck and wrists.”

I did as I was told, and yes, there were indeed rusted, iron shackles clamped tightly around the monster’s limbs. I wasn’t sure what this was supposed to tell me, so I gave Pinkie another look in the hopes she would elaborate.

“This is the monster I told you about,” Pinkie explained with a small groan. “When I ran into you and Twilight down by the lake, I told you I found a monster near an abandoned cabin. This is the monster, the one that supported my idea that the Covenant’s ‘test subjects’ referred to these monsters.”

“Oh I see,” I said as I recalled her story. “So this is how you killed it, led it into the swamp?”

“Yeah, I had to,” Pinkie replied. “That thing was damn fast, even for somepony like me. If I took my eyes off it for even a second, it would be right behind me before I could say ‘oh bugger’.”

“You know Twilight’s right,” I muttered. “We can’t sit about here for long, we have work to do. Ponies need us to finish what we’ve started.”

“I know,” Pinkie responded calmly. “And we will, but for a little while I just want to stop and celebrate the fact that after everything that’s happened, we’re all still here, alive and well.”

“I suppose that does sound fair,” I admitted, a little touched by her admirable statement.

“Yes…” Pinkie began, her serious expression cracking. “Now let’s get back there and raise the roof off that cabin!”

“Why did I expect anything else?” I muttered, Pinkie’s infectious smile spreading to me.

It was a time to celebrate, not only was I alive and reunited with my friends, but all six of us were together at last. And while we didn’t know it at the time, we had just begun into the final stages of our journey… together.

LX - Order And Chaos

Pinkie Pie stayed true to her threat, forcing us all to party well into the night, even Twilight couldn’t resist the urge to join in for long. We were all a bit confused as to how Pinkie planned to have any kind of party when we were confined to a fairly destitute cabin, far from any kind of civilisation. Needless to say she managed to find a way, pulling a gramophone, balloons and ingredients for a cake out of nowhere. It was a rather surreal experience for all of us, to dance and joke and laugh together like we lived perfectly normal lives in a time of absolute peace.

It wasn’t until the earliest hours of the morning, when the rest of us were clearly exhausted that Pinkie finally agreed it was time to call it a night and allowed us all to go to bed. Fluttershy and I squeezed up on the bed upon the insistence of the others, while Applejack and Rainbow Dash took the floor, both assuring us that they were used to sleeping rough. I don’t think Twilight ever went to sleep, most likely staying up all night to continue her reading, as for Pinkie, I have no idea where she spent the night.

When the following morning came, Applejack prepared a quick bite to eat before we all sat down to discuss our next moves. There was quite a lot of planning and scraping of plans, arguing and agreeing, we probably spent a good hour planning before we finally came to an agreement on what we should do.

“So that’s it then?” Twilight asked in a hopeful tone, looking around at everypony. “We’re all agreed?”

Nopony looked particularly happy about it, but nor did they raise an objections.

“Ah still think this is stupid,” Applejack stated, voicing everypony’s thoughts. “We shouldn’t be splittin’ up.”

“I agree, we shouldn’t,” I replied. “But unfortunately we have to, and it’s only temporary.”

“It’s always ‘only temporary’,” Fluttershy muttered. “What if you don’t make it back? How will we ever know? What are we supposed to do?”

“Oh, don’t you worry your little head Fluttershy!” Pinkie told her as she wrapped her forelegs around Fluttershy’s neck and pulled her face into her own breast. “We’ll be fine, all of three of us have been there before, and with Twilight’s magic, nothing stands a chance against us.”

“Well thank you for the vote of confidence Pinkie,” Twilight said with a small smile. “But yes Fluttershy, we all know what we’re going to be faced with, and I think that with our abilities combined, we’ll be well prepared for anything that the Nether Vale throws our way.”

“We’ll find the Covenant and put a stop to whatever they’re up to,” I added. “Meanwhile you three will…”

“Yeah, yeah,” Rainbow interrupted. “We go to Pivot and tell your friends about Cragsburg.”

“It’s for your benefit most of all Rainbow Dash,” I reminded her sternly. “You still have to meet with Maverick regarding the Dragoons; you might as well kill two birds with one stone.”

“Why would anypony do that?” Fluttershy asked, her eyes immediately welling with tears.

“I really need to sit down and explain that one to you sometime,” I mumbled before quickly changing the topic. “Besides, it’s incredibly important that Maverick knows what’s going on, particularly since… well, you know.”

There was an uncomfortable silence following my statement, I had of course admitted to telling Terra everything during my interrogation while we made our plans.

“Now Sugarcube,” Applejack began. “None of us are judgin’ you; ah reckon we all would have broken under those circumstances.”

“Yeah, and besides,” Pinkie added. “After the ruckus we caused, it’ll be a while before they’re ready to act on that information.”

“So we are all agreed then?” Twilight asked once more, bringing the conversation back on track. “Rarity, Pinkie Pie and I will travel to the Nether Vale and find the Covenant ponies Rarity encountered, while Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Applejack travel south to Pivot to warn Maverick about the Children of the Earth.”

There was a series of responses, some confident and some reluctant, but all affirmative. With our plan decided, we all set about getting ready. I went to where I had left my clothes folded at the foot of the bed, and set about cleaning them and trying my best to repair them of all the damage they had suffered. I only had magic at my disposal, rather than the materials and thread I desperately needed, so I knew it would only be a temporary fix, and that if I didn’t sit down and do it properly, they wouldn’t last much longer.

Applejack had kindly tended to my weapons after they escaped Cragsburg, cleaning them down and sharpening them, I hadn’t even realised how dull they had become through all my use. Once I was set up and ready to go, Applejack offered to spar with me a little, while we waited for Twilight to finish preparing. While my last training session with Pinkie had seen me improving somewhat, I ended up doing incredibly poorly against Applejack, she assured me I was just lacking confidence in myself after everything that had happened.

Both her and Rainbow Dash took me through some of the most basic techniques, slowly so I could get back to grips with it, but for the most part I was content to take to the side-lines and observe as they duelled against one another, a considerably less gentle fight. I expected Rainbow Dash to have the clear advantage, while not possessing the same physical strength as Applejack, she was exceptionally quick, and her technique was more precise. But Applejack proved herself to be more capable than I predicted, while she was indeed slower, she definitely retained a lot of her training from her own brief time in the army.

“So something’s been bugging me,” Pinkie said from behind us, signalling for them to stop fighting and for us all to look around. “Rarity was… well, dead, but now she’s alive. Does that make her undead?”

“I don’t think so,” Fluttershy murmured beside her as the trio came to a stop beside me. “Undead have very specific traits, Rarity doesn’t share any of them… much like the creatures in Brine, only less… dead looking.”

“Do you think what happened in Brine could be similar to what happened to me?” I asked curiously. “We know the Covenant were involved at Brine, if not outright responsible, and I did see them snooping around the Demon Shaft.”

“I… hadn’t considered that possibility,” Fluttershy admitted. “Oh, I do hope everything is alright at Brine, and Squadron Leader Gale was able to keep the Dragoons safe.”

“I’m sure they’re okay,” Pinkie said, sounding only half interested before switching the conversation back. “But what does this mean for Rarity? Will she have super powers now that she’s come back from the dead?!”

“No, she shouldn’t,” Twilight replied with a deadpan look. “I spent years studying that stone before I finally passed it on to Rarity, she should be exactly as she once was… uh, although just to be absolutely safe, she should stay clear of Fluttershy’s mace from now on. The resurrection process might have had one little side effect… that is to say; she might have a slight vulnerability to holy magic.”

“Great,” I muttered, glancing warily at Fluttershy’s mace at her side. “I’ll have to make doubly sure not to annoy Fluttershy.”

“Well if that’s all, we need to get moving,” Twilight announced. “Rainbow Dash, can we leave you in charge…”

Twilight drifted off as Rainbow shot her a glare.

“I mean…” Twilight quickly rectified with a nervous laugh. “Applejack, you’ll take the lead, won’t you?”

“Ah sure can Sugarcube,” Applejack replied with a single nod. “Now you three be careful, you hear?”

“We will,” I promised her before giving her a quick hug. “Who knows, maybe this will all be over soon, and we can head back to Sweet Apple Acres and live like normal ponies.”

“Now you’re speakin’ mah language,” Applejack responded with a smirk.

With our farewells said, we all split off and began on our separate ways. Applejack leading Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash back towards Anchorage, where they would get a boat to Pivot, while Twilight led Pinkie Pie and myself back the way I had travelled to the Nether Vale. We journeyed through the forest in relative silence; we used my map and Pinkie’s knowledge of the area to take a quick detour to a clearing. It was nightfall before we reached it, so we decided to set up camp for the night, particularly since Twilight would need a few hours to work.

The clearing Pinkie had directed us to had an elder tree growing in the centre of it, it had a very thick, bulbous trunk, and twisting branches that bore no leaves, although the bark of the tree resonated with a pale green light. While Pinkie and I established our campsite, Twilight set about harvesting the elder tree for wood, a very delicate task that needed to be done with extreme care to avoid upsetting the tree and summoning angry dryads. As such, it was my job to keep Pinkie entertained so she wouldn’t disturb Twilight, which was apparently a big risk, as she had done it once before during one of their previous experiences together.

Once Twilight had all the necessary bits of wood, she joined us around our fire away from the tree and began crafting the charms. This is what Fluttershy, Pinkie and her had been discussing while I was outside with Applejack and Rainbow Dash, they were specially enchanted charms that all three of us would wear around our necks, to help ward off some of the threats we would otherwise encounter in the Nether Vale. As Twilight said, it was impossible to be completely prepared for a place like the Nether Vale, but we would do our best.

“So you’ve both been to the Nether vale before then,” I began, while Twilight busied herself with the charms and Pinkie and I made chords for hanging them around our neck. “Do either of you know what the deal is then? Like, what is the purpose of it and where did it all come from?”

“I’m afraid nopony knows that,” Twilight admitted without looking up. “Certainly not myself, and I believe Pinkie is no different.”

“You’ve got that right,” Pinkie agreed. “I couldn’t begin to wrap my head around what the point of it all is.”

“There are plenty of theories,” Twilight went on. “Either derived from legend, or from the scattered accounts of those who made it out alive. Some say a great war was once fought there, and it’s the spirits of those who died during that continue to haunt it. A popular theory is that the shaft itself is backdoor to Tartarus…”

“It’s not,” Pinkie cut in quickly. “I checked, and it’s not.”

“Is that why you came here?!” Twilight demanded angrily, suddenly looking up from her work to glare at Pinkie Pie. “You were looking for another way to break Discord out?!”

“Maybe,” Pinkie replied coolly.

Twilight and Pinkie stared at one another for a tense moment.

“You know,” Twilight began, her voice still cold. “You and I may be on the same side at the moment, but when this is all over, we’re enemies again. I might give you a head start as a thank you for helping us out, but believe me, if I catch you after all this, I will see you locked away where you can’t do anymore harm.”

Twilight returned to her work while Pinkie did the same, looking rather put off by Twilight’s sudden harshness. I was just left in the middle, feeling very uncomfortable at the sudden chilliness of the atmosphere. It didn’t surprise me that Pinkie would have come here looking for a way to break Discord out of Tartarus, if she really did worship him, it made perfect sense. Tartarus is another plane of existence, a truly nightmarish dimension, if the stories are to be believed. It serves as a prison for the most terrible threats this world has faced, Discord being only one of them. There were many stories of powerful ponies who tried to conquer the world and were sent to Tartarus for their crimes, there was even one obscure story that said one of the Six had been sent there.

Tartarus served as an ideal prison, as gates between there and here could only be opened by divine magic and artefacts, of which there are very few in existence. Even if one of the prisoners could escape, they would have to get past the demons that infested Tartarus. Demon was a special name given to monsters that were native to Tartarus, for they were leagues more terrifying and horrific than any other monster known to exist, even the abominations that we had been dealing with. Whatever called the Nether Vale their home, were bad enough to have them labelled as demons, hence the name ‘Demon Shaft’, that was most likely where the theory about it being a backdoor to Tartarus developed.

When Twilight finished the charms in sullen silence and passed them out to us, she muttered something about getting some sleep and we did just that, Pinkie didn’t utter a word to either of us. The next day we got back on track and made our way to the Nether Vale, stepping out of the safety of the forest around early afternoon. The vast grey plains were just as I remembered them; there was even the same sheet of cloud stretched across the sky, allowing only the smallest amounts of sunlight to shine through.

“Are you both ready?” Twilight asked in a low voice as we all stood at the edge, staring out over the desolate landscape. “There’s no saying what we might encounter once we move forward, we’ll need to have our guard up constantly.”

“And we’ll all need to work together as a team,” I added sternly, both Twilight and Pinkie looking down at their hooves awkwardly. “I’m ready if you are.”

They both nodded and I took the lead, stepping across the imaginary threshold from the safety of the Tranquil Forest into the dangers of the Nether Vale. The moment I did, I felt a prickling sensation on the back of my neck; it was if a thousand invisible eyes had just swivelled straight at me. Looking back, I saw the other two had felt it as well as they joined me. Twilight gave a firm nod and we started walking forward, our eyes set on the pale mound in the far distance. For a while we walked in silence, constantly aware that we weren’t alone, and waiting for the moment when whatever it was struck, but for the longest time nothing did.

After a while, Pinkie seemed to relax, a spring in her step as she talked about her own experiences in the Nether Vale.

“And it felt just like I was drowning,” she finished. “So keep your eyes peeled for those things, because it is not fun. Also, you know what I found was interesting? Directly beneath our hooves this very second, are thousands of different tunnel networks. They were even beneath us the moment we entered the Vale, they stretch out all the way from the Shaft to the furthest edges of the Vale, so really we could dig down right now and we’d eventually end up inside one of them.”

“I’d rather not get lost by going into the wrong tunnel,” I muttered. “I’m really glad I marked the one we have to go through.”

“What about you Twi?” Pinkie asked eagerly. “You know exactly why I came here, but you still haven’t told us what you were doing here, or how you ended up with that stone.”

I glanced over at Twilight, equally curious to hear this story. Twilight didn’t look eager to share though, glancing away initially and not meeting our gazes, but after a moment she gave a little sigh and decided to tell the tale.

“It was shortly after I became Princess Celestia’s student,” she began. “I heard the stories of the Nether Vale and the Demon Shaft, perhaps one of the greatest untapped wells of knowledge. I heard the terrible stories, but instead of being scared, I was… intrigued. I didn’t believe for a second it was as bad as everypony made it out to be, all I could think about, was how much there was to learn about it… and how much the Princess would be proud of me if I was the first one to do it.”

Twilight bowed her head, looking deeply ashamed, I started to feel bad for her even though I didn’t yet know why, even Pinkie had ceased her bouncing and was now watching Twilight with a concerned expression.

“I told the Princess how much I wanted to see the city of Arclight,” she continued as we walked on. “I told her all this nonsense about how it would be an excellent way of experiencing other cultures and getting a taste of different kinds of magic. She loved the idea, and arranged for me to travel over their immediately. I wasn’t really lying, I did want to see Arclight, but I wanted to come here even more. Once I arrived at the city, I created an illusionary clone of myself to keep my escort fooled while I sneaked out of Arclight and headed north.

“I don’t really want to go into all the details,” Twilight went on miserably. “I reached the Demon Shaft and started exploring… needless to say, I quickly learnt just how accurate the horror stories of this place were. Looking back, I know I only just made it out in one piece, the stone was the only thing I had managed to recover, the only thing I had to show for my efforts. By the time I had made it back to Arclight, I was exhausted and weak and… wounded, I tried to come up with a convincing excuse, but the moment I entered the city, I knew it was no use.

“Sometime while I was gone, my illusion had failed and my escort alerted the Princess to my disappearance,” Twilight continued, a pained expression on her face now. “She had just arrived before I did, I was brought straight to her and… and I couldn't lie, I told her the whole truth about what I had done, only just leaving out the part about the stone. I knew she would be disappointed in me for lying and running away… but I wasn't expecting her to be so angry. It was the only time in all our years together that she ever shouted at me… she was absolutely furious, and she made it perfectly clear.”

Twilight looked devastated just remembering it, I thought about the dull stone that had returned to its place in the back of my compass.

“She took me back to Equestria, and it was years before I was permitted to travel to Panchea without her supervision,” Twilight finished. “I would never have done it again; I never forgot her fury when I told her I had been here.”

“But you’re coming back now,” Pinkie pointed out warily. “Won’t she be angry with you again?”

Twilight swallowed noticeably.

“She will be,” Twilight admitted in a quiet voice. “But… but I have to do this, I hope she’ll understand that things are different this time.”

I frowned; something about Twilight’s story didn’t make an awful lot of sense. Why would Celestia get angry about her student travelling here? Was there something she knew about the Demon Shaft that she didn’t want Twilight knowing? And why for that matter, did Celestia’s anger affect Twilight so badly, even years later when she was simply recounting the story?

“Twilight…” I began, as a peculiar thought sprung to mind.

I didn’t get any further before an ear-splitting shriek filled my head and I was forced to clamp my hooves over my ears, collapsing to the ground in agony. All around me, my vision of the world began trembling violently and I felt as if my whole brain was threatening to explode. After what felt like hours of writhing on the ground, I felt something strike me squarely in the face. It felt like a small zap of lightning, and while it hurt briefly, the screaming stopped instantly and the world stopped shaking.

Pinkie helped me up quickly, and I saw the glow in Twilight’s horn fading. They both stared at me in shock, and I quickly noticed there was blood trickling down my cheeks from my eyes, which still felt like they might burst.

“What… what happened?” I asked in a weary voice.

“Some shadowy thing flew inside your ear while you were talking,” Pinkie explained, pointing to a scorch mark on the ground. “Twilight shocked it out of you and zapped it before it could escape.”

“It felt like it was eating my brain,” I mumbled as I rubbed my temples.

“We should keep moving,” Twilight declared, glancing around nervously. “We let our guard down too long, and it looks like they’re done watching us.”

We quickly continued forward, our journey no longer quite as peaceful. Very rarely were we attacked by anything real, while we always thought there was something there, more often than not, it would turn out that just one of us had been imagining it. I myself felt the ground open up beneath me and swallow me whole, it felt like I was being slowly buried alive beneath sand and gravel until Twilight and Pinkie managed to wake me up. However, occasionally they were made the victims of the Nether Vale’s illusions, where one of them would begin screaming or flailing about, and I would have to help snap them out of it.

Sometimes these effects were brought on by strange creatures made of living shadows, much like those I had seen inside the Demon Shaft that filled the rooms and corridors as I left them behind me. Other times we were attacked directly by the creatures themselves, they came in many shapes and sizes, all of them terrifying and deadly in their own way. Some darted about, staying out of sight as they slowly got closer and closer, we managed to deal with them by watching each other’s blind spots.

Some sank into the ground like they were liquid, and moved along beneath us, reaching out again with claws and tentacles that tried to drag us down into the inky black depths. While we couldn’t physically harm them in the ground, they were still vulnerable to some of Twilight’s spells. On one occasion they appeared as a swarm of crows that blotted out the sky as they descended upon us, pecking and scratching at our flesh, I made quick work of them by using my swinging sword technique, while Pinkie’s idle spinning of daggers around her hooves also proved useful in clearing them out.

All the while, the Nether Vale itself seemed out to get us, the whole environment changing and altering itself. Bolts of black lightning cut the sky in two, they turned rocks they struck to dust, and it was only Pinkie’s own lightning reflexes that managed to keep us out of harm’s way. The earth shifted and rolled beneath us, occasionally forming into some great hand that swept down upon us. Twilight used her sceptre to tame the ground, and force it to turn flat and peaceful no matter what it tossed our way. When the sun had set, the darkness rolled in all around us, even the light from Twilight’s or my own horn wouldn’t penetrate it.

As the darkness began closing in on us however, the small circle of light that kept us safe getting smaller and smaller, Pinkie and Twilight were quickly able to scribble a ring of protective runes around us, which kept the darkness at bay. After that, Twilight was able to conjure a fire and we were pretty much forced to stay put until the sun rose and the darkness receded. We knew there wouldn’t be any sleep that night, but we chatted casually to keep our spirits up, all the while shooing away long, shadowy hands with spider like digits, that crept along the ground towards the fire to the eerie sound of a phantom music box.

“Well this was considerably worse than I was expecting,” I muttered as I scraped the dried blood from my cheeks. “And to think these charms are actually protecting us, I’d hate to think how bad it would be if we didn’t have them.”

“It’s much worse,” Twilight replied. “It seems this place always throws something new at you, I didn’t recognise half the threats we encountered.”

“Same here,” Pinkie agreed. “Although I’m actually finding this time to be worse than the last time I was here… but then, I guess I wasn’t holding back as much.”

“Holding back?!” I repeated in disbelief. “What in Equestria are you holding back for?!”

“Hey now, chaos magic isn’t easy to use,” Pinkie informed me defensively. “It’s especially draining on a pony body; I always save my best tricks for when things are at their absolute worst.”

“Is that what you call our fight by the lake?” Twilight asked in a dull tone. “You weren’t holding back then?”

“True, but that’s just because I was so happy to see you again!” Pinkie declared. “And also because I wasn’t expecting things to get as serious as they did.”

I frowned, I was full of questions, and now that we had a moment to stop and talk, I wasn’t sure where to begin.

“Um… Twilight,” I decided to begin. “I was meaning to ask earlier, you said you became Princess Celestia’s student when you were just a filly, and… when we first captured Blueblood, you said that she practically raised you.”

Twilight’s mouth opened slightly as she seemed to realise where I was going.

“And earlier…” I continued carefully. “You seemed so… ashamed at having disappointed her, that the idea of her shouting at you, even once was such a terrible thing for you.”

Pinkie was now staring at Twilight as well, a curious expression on her face as she waited for Twilight to answer.

“Well… yes, I suppose you’ve guessed now,” Twilight mumbled quietly. “Before I came under Celestia’s wing… I was an orphan. I was found in the… um, I was found somewhere when I was just a foal, and delivered to an orphanage in Ponyville. I was quickly transferred to a different orphanage in Canterlot when my original one closed down, it was there I spent my childhood. My name used to be just Twilight, Twily for short, it wasn’t until the Princess took me as her student that I got my full name… um, she called me Sparkle herself.”

“I didn’t know that,” Pinkie muttered in an odd tone while she continued to stare at Twilight. “How come you never told me that?”

“Well we weren’t exactly friends all these years,” Twilight reminded her sternly before lightning up. “I wasn’t completely alone; there was a colt who looked out for me while I grew up. We pretty much became brother and sister in everything but blood, his name’s Shining Armour, he was the one who called me Twily. When I became the Princess’s student, he joined the Royal Guard and trained every day and rose up through the ranks until he became captain, all so he could continue looking out for me when I moved into the castle.”

“And how did you become her student?” I asked, oddly content learning so much about my friend.

“Discord,” Twilight stated simply, glancing at Pinkie briefly. “When I was living in Canterlot, a group of fanatic cultists tried to open a gate to Tartarus in the middle of the city, intent of releasing Discord. It was apparently the closest they came to succeeding in all the years since he had been first locked away; they even managed to subdue the Princess. He was almost out of the portal; everypony saw him in the flesh… until I stopped him. I didn’t know what I was doing at the time, I just panicked really, but I poured all my magic into shutting the portal and forcing Discord back in.

“I didn’t really think I could do it,” Twilight went on. “But somehow I did, Discord was stopped, his followers were arrested, and I got my cutie mark. Not long after, the Princess insisted that I become her personal student, she insisted that I possessed incredible power, that few ponies could have stopped him, even fully grown ponies who had spent years practising. Of course I never believed I was as good as she always made out… not until the day she gave me the sceptre. So to answer your question, I said she raised me, because she did. The Princess became like a mother to me, besides Shinning, she was the only family I ever knew.”

“I see,” I replied lamely, unsure how to respond to that kind of story.

I noticed Pinkie was still staring at Twilight, although she was too tied up in her own thoughts and memories to notice, but Pinkie’s look had grown increasingly odd.

“Pinkie,” I started once more, getting her attention. “I wanted to ask you something as well, something about what you just said regarding chaos magic.”

“Oh, go for it,” Pinkie welcomed, giving me a strained smile.

“Well, it’s just that you said…” I began slowly. “Chaos magic was especially draining on a ‘pony body’.”

I got a weird feeling of déjà vu as Pinkie opened her mouth just as Twilight had, her eyes betraying the fact she knew where I was going with this.

“You make it sound like you had experience as something other than a pony,” I said warily. “So I guess what I’m asking is… how did you get involved in chaos magic?”

Pinkie simply froze, glancing uncomfortably between myself and Twilight, who was now also looking at her with an interested expression. Finally Pinkie let out a long sigh as she closed her eyes, almost as if she was accepting her fate.

“I suppose I can’t keep it to myself forever…” she began in a light voice that sounded so different from her usual tone. “You’re my friend… and Twilight… you deserve to know now as well.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow as Pinkie began mumbling to herself, as if looking for the best way to begin explaining.

“Let me tell you a story!” she announced randomly, her voice returning briefly to its usual jubilance. “This is a story about a young filly called… Pinkamena.”

I couldn’t help but snort at that, Pinkie just shot me a cocky grim before going on.

“Pinkamena lived a simple life,” Pinkie went on. “She lived on a rock farm in Equestria, with her parents and her three sisters. Life was very boring for the longest time there; nothing interesting ever happened, little Pinkamena hated it. It was just so boring! She longed for something different to happen, to break up the monotony of her daily existence… unfortunately for her, that’s exactly what happened. One day, Pinkamena decided to play in the furthest fields while waiting for her dinner to be ready, her sisters were all still busy with their chores, so she went alone.

“While she was out playing,” Pinkie continued, her voicing lowering slightly. “A trio of stallions came wandering by, on a journey to find a new pub, after they had just been kicked out of the previous one for their disorderly behaviour. These three stallions came across Pinkamena, and poor little Pinkamena had so little experience with strangers, she didn’t know the first thing about how to stay safe around them or what dangers they posed.”

I could feel my mouth going dry as I listened; I was suddenly starting to regret asking my questions.

“Well these stallions were just so kind,” Pinkie went on, her voice now high pitched with exaggerated joy. “They decided to do the kind thing and teach little Pinkamena exactly why she should be wary around strangers.”

I glanced over at Twilight who was looking a little pale as she stared at Pinkie with an unreadable expression.

“Now Pinkamena had a sister,” Pinkie carried on quickly. “Her name was Maud, as the eldest sister, she took it upon herself to look out for her younger siblings. So when their mother said that dinner was ready and Pinkamena was nowhere to be seen, Maud volunteered to go look for her. Maud found her sister… Maud saw what the stallions had done… Maud saw how they had left her for dead!”

Pinkie’s voice had gone slightly hysterical for a moment, and I was started to feel just a little bit scared of her.

“Well Maud was devastated,” Pinkie said, calming down slightly. “And she was confused and conflicted. Her little sister needed help urgently, but they were too far from the house. If Maud left to get help, Pinkamena might not be alive when she got back. If she tried to move her, it only hurt her more, so carrying her back was not an option. If she stayed with her sister, help was not likely to come and Maud would be powerless to save her on her own. Well Maud stayed, unsure what to do, she cried and screamed for help, but nopony could hear her, they were so far from the house or any of their neighbours.”

I could feel my own eyes watering as I saw Pinkie began grinding her hooves into the ground in front of her, an angry expression on her face as she seemed to slip away from the present, back into her own memories.

“Nopony heard her…” Pinkie said darkly. “But someone did… a certain spirit of chaos, who just earlier that day had been thwarted in his attempt to escape his prison by a certain magical prodigy.”

Twilight’s eyes widened as Pinkie looked up at her and gave her an odd expression.

“This spirit failed to escape in his entirety,” Pinkie continued. “But before the prodigy had sealed him away, he was able to separate a part of himself, fleeing his prison while leaving his physical form trapped along with the majority of his power. Now this spirit was passing by, and he heard the cries for help and went to investigate. Normally Maud would have been shocked and perhaps a little scared to hear the spirit’s voice, but she was too scared for her sister to pass up his offer for help.

“And he did want to help!” Pinkie announced in a high pitched voice. “Because despite what everypony thought of him, he did not approve of three fully grown stallions doing awful things to a lone filly before leaving her for dead! He felt Maud’s pain, and he felt little Pinkamena’s pain, and so he told the older sister that he could save her. Of course Maud agreed instantly, but the spirit stopped her, she needed to know that there was a price to pay. Again she agreed, she offered the spirit anything, her life, her body, her soul, whatever he desired, but it was not something of hers that the spirit needed in order to save little Pinkamena.

“When the spirit explained exactly what it was he needed, Maud was hesitant,” Pinkie’s voice had grown incredibly low now; it almost sounded like a male speaking through her mouth. “Maud did agree however, anything to save her sister… even if the result would not completely be her sister. You see, the spirit had lost a great deal when he split himself, at his full power he could have had that filly up and about with her memory scrubbed clean with a snap of his claws, but he was severely weakened. However, while he lost his powers, he retained the majority of his soul, the very thing that made the spirit who he was.

“In order to save little Pinkamena,” Pinkie went on; it sounded like she was reaching the climax of her story. “The spirit had to bind himself with her.”

“What…” Twilight breathed, her face aghast as understanding dawned on her. “You mean…”

“The spirit merged with Pinkamena,” Pinkie cut in loudly. “As he did, the filly’s body was restored, and Maud’s dear sister was returned to her… mostly.”

There was a long silence, I could sort of understand what Pinkie was getting at, but it still came as a shock when Twilight announced it.

“All these years…” she muttered. “It was you all along… you’re Discord!”

Pinkie looked up at Twilight with a calm expression.

“Yes,” she said simply in her old voice. “And no.”

“Well you’d better start explaining!” Twilight snapped as she got to her hooves, her horn glowing slightly.

“I am Discord!” Pinkie declared flatly. “And I am not Discord, just like I am Pinkamena, and I am not Pinkamena. I have both their memories, their personalities… their souls. Granted, Discord’s is considerably bigger due to his age and his nature, but so much of what made up the original Discord, the true Discord, remains sealed away in Tartarus, including the bulk of his power and many of his memories. When Discord bonded with Pinkamena, he didn’t possess her; they became one and the same being. I was made, I am both Discord and Pinkamena, and yet I am neither of them, I’m something entirely new.”

Twilight’s stance became less aggressive as the glow around her horn dissipated; she was still breathing heavily and looking deeply torn.

“Then what are you?” she asked finally, in an almost desperate tone.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Pinkie asked as she stood up to eye level with Twilight, her voice returning to its usual cheeriness. “I’m Pinkie Pie!”

LXI - Into The Depths

Things had been rather awkward after the previous night’s stories and reveals. Pinkie and Twilight didn’t speak much following it, both clearly still disturbed by what they learnt about the other one. Twilight's story seemed fairly clear cut, completely understandable really, and only served to make me respect her more now that I understood where she had come from, but then there was Pinkie's story... At first I was very confused on how to feel about it, I could understand why Pinkie's revelation had been so world disrupting for Twilight, she had after all spent years believing that she had succeeded in sealing Discord away in Tartarus. Not only had she not succeeded as thoroughly as she thought, but she had also spent those years unknowingly interacting with him, even treating him as an equal, if not a friend in recent days.

But for me, all I had was the old stories to know that Discord was supposed to be bad news, about how he brought about a hundred years of chaos and misery. Until he was stopped by the Princess, and possibly the other members of the Six, before being locked away in Tartarus. It was hard to believe that I should treat Pinkie Pie any differently knowing Discord was a part of who she was, I failed to see how that knowledge changed anything about her, she was still the same pony I called a friend all this time. Besides, it was difficult to see her as any kind of threat, when the only evil thing Discord had supposedly done was hundreds of years ago, and only affected ponies I would never have known.

So as surreal and mind boggling as it all was, I came to the conclusion that nothing had changed, Pinkie Pie was still Pinkie Pie, she was still my friend and I shouldn’t treat her any differently. When the morning came and the darkness retreated, allowing us a suspiciously clear path to the Demon Shaft, we carried on and I took the time to ask Pinkie some more questions, now that things made a bit more sense. For example, I had often been confused how Pinkie Pie could have had so many incredible stories to tell, when surely she was the same age as me. However now I knew many of her stories were probably from centuries ago, when she was just Discord.

“So what all can you do?” I asked, a little eagerly. “I remember you put us in that weird chaos world when you and Twilight fought.”

“That wasn’t real,” Pinkie admitted. “It was just an illusion made to look like the world of chaos. If I were to open a door to the real place, it would require a massive amount of power that I didn’t carry over from Tartarus.”

“And you remember everything from the dawn of time?” I asked, sounding like a filly.

“Oh not at all!” Pinkie announced, looking a little blown away by the idea. “Like I said last night, there are some memories I’m missing, just strange blank patches where everything is all fuzzy, but even if I did have all my memories, I wasn’t even around that long.”

“But I thought Discord was chaos itself,” I countered. “And hasn’t chaos existed since the beginning of all things?”

“Both true,” Pinkie admitted. “Chaos has always existed, and Discord is the manifestation of pure chaos, but chaos didn’t manifest itself until several hundred thousand years ago. I have memories back that far, but like I said, it’s kind of patchy.”

“But you also remember your life on the rock farm?” I questioned. “Of your normal life before… the incident?”

“Yes, I do,” Pinkie responded, nodding happily. “Oh, sometimes I do miss the old place and my family. When all this is over, I’ll have to pay them a visit, it feels like eons.”

“What I don’t understand…” Twilight began sharply from where she walked several metres ahead of us. “Is why you’ve always been so obsessed with breaking open Tartarus if you’re already free?”

“Because there’s still a lot of myself left there that I want back,” Pinkie replied simply.

“You mean your power,” Twilight muttered coldly. “Not on my watch.”

“Actually the power is secondary,” Pinkie admitted. “What I really want is the rest of Discord’s memories; you see, I actually have quite a few questions that I think my memories can answer. For example, I don’t know the exact details surrounding my initial imprisonment… heck, I don’t even remember why I brought about one hundred years of chaos! I must have thought it would be funny at the time or something.”

Twilight didn’t respond, just kept walking at a slightly faster pace than the pair of us.

“I don’t see the issue Twilight,” Pinkie called after her. “I’m still me; I’ve never been anyone else to you. I know we’ve always had our differences and our disagreements, but I like to believe we’ve been able to put that aside for the greater good recently.”

“My stance hasn’t changed since yesterday,” Twilight replied. “Although I’m seriously reconsidering giving you that head start.”

Pinkie sighed, clearly disappointed at Twilight’s stubbornness.

“She’ll come around,” I whispered to her. “Just give her time to get over the shock.”

“For some reason it bothers me more when it’s her who judges me,” Pinkie muttered. “I’ve had ponies who hated me for who I am, plenty who wanted me locked away where I could never ‘do anymore harm’, but I always just shrugged it off.”

“Maybe it’s because Twilight was the one who stopped Discord from returning,” I suggested. “Maybe you respect her for it.”

“Maybe…” Pinkie said slowly. “Truth be told, I never knew who it was who stopped me from returning fully, not until Twilight told the story last night. It was just another one of the places where my memory is lacking… just another question I had been asking myself all these years.”

“I meant to ask,” I began. “Those stallions, the ones in your story… were they ever caught?”

“Yes,” Pinkie replied darkly. “By me.”

“What did you do to them?” I asked, suppressing a gulp.

“Let’s just say, that was the day I realised some ponies didn’t deserve to live,” she stated menacingly. “I don’t regret it; I never regretted taking any of the lives I did. Like I always say, I only kill those I believe in my heart deserve it, and I always stay true to my…”

Pinkie was cut off by a fork of lightning passing between us, catching a hulking shadow creature in the chest. Glancing to the source, we saw Twilight pointing her sceptre out, staring evenly at us.

“Do try to focus,” she chastised. “They may not be as aggressive today, but they’re waiting for the moment when your guard is down most.”

After that, we kept the talking to a minimum as we progressed to the sandy coloured mound of the Demon Shaft. Indeed, the Nether Vale had been quieter that whole day. Still several shadow creatures of various types, but there were very few environmental attacks of any sort, and none of us suffered a single hallucination. It somehow made me more uneasy than if the attacks had been as relentless as the previous day, we were not about to complain, but nor would we get led into a false sense of security. As we ascended the gentle slope of the Demon Shaft, Pinkie bounced ahead and peered over the edge when she reached the centre hole.

“That’s a long fall!” she called back. “We’re gonna have to be extra careful.”

“I wasn’t planning on being anything less,” Twilight replied as she joined Pinkie at peering over the edge. “So Rarity, where roughly is the door you came out of.”

I looked over the edge and scanned about, placing the door was not an easy task, but I guessed it was roughly half way down the part we could actually see, before the light failed to illuminate any further. After quickly reminding them to be on the lookout for a letter R inscribed on the right side of the doorframe, Pinkie took the lead, hopping down onto the first step. Twilight and I followed, a little slower, taking our time with each step while Pinkie bounced without a care in the world from platform to ledge to step.

“Slow down Pinkie!” I called down to her; she was already a few indistinct levels below us. “We should keep together.”

Pinkie looked up to respond, but as she did, I saw a cluster of shadows darting upwards from the dark abyss below, making a beeline straight for her.

“Pinkie, lookout!” Twilight shouted.

Pinkie glanced around, just in time to see the flitting shadows and leap to the next ledge before they smashed right through the one she had just been standing on, decimating it to dust and pebbles. As soon as the first cluster struck, they all appeared, groups of shadows flying all around the shaft, speeding straight for us. Twilight grabbed hold of me and teleported us away to a safe distance, before a pair of clusters converged on our own rough-hewn staircase. In her panic, Twilight didn’t judge her landing correctly, taking us to a much narrower ledge. While she was safely on the rocky outcrop, I appeared right on the edge and felt it crumble away beneath my hooves.

I fell straight down, but felt Twilight slow me with her magic, so I landed gently on a different platform lower down. She called down a quick apology, but had to move when another cluster soared through the air for where she stood. I myself couldn’t stay in one spot for too long before the shadows converged on where I was, intent on destroying my platform in order to send me plummeting down into the void beneath. Pinkie was able to leap, and somersault, and roll out of the way of any clusters that tried to take her out, and Twilight managed to keep ahead of them with her teleportation. I on the other hand had no choice but to take it slow and stay barely ahead of the clusters that sought me out.

Taking a leap of faith, I was able to latch onto a platform that had already been decimated when Pinkie had jumped on it previously, leaving only a thin strip of rock for me to cling onto with my forehooves. I shimmied along as quickly as I dared before another group of shadows could come and finish the job. Once at the end, I swung myself onto a steep staircase that hugged the wall of the shaft tightly. I practically toppled down them as I heard the shadows smashing into the uppermost steps behind me, and felt the rubble raining down on my back.

At the bottom, I leapt to the next walkway which was mercifully wide and long, allowing me to run at full speed across it. As I went, I scanned around for nearby archways, and if they bore the carving that would indicate the correct one. As I looked around, I could see dozens of the shadow clusters swimming throughout the air, leaving trails of black smoke behind them as they traced their way around the shaft, occasionally doubling in speed as they made a sharp turn mid-air and hurtled for one of us.

I passed by several doorways, pulling my gaze from the oppressive darkness within to the perfectly carved frames to see if my mark was on any of them. It really was such an odd contrast, the rough, natural look of the shaft and all the different platforms that almost looked like they were made through natural means, compared to the stone archways, which couldn’t appear more deliberate in their structure. I was a little lost in admiring the strange charm to it all, that I ran right past the correct doorway, having to come to a skidding halt before turning and running back the way I came.

As I stopped to look at the mark to confirm that it was indeed the one I had made, a group of shadows came flying past, breaking off bits of the platform I stood on. I was left with just enough to stand on, but only if I pressed up close to the doorways itself. Once I was satisfied I was at the correct one, I looked back to find the others, who were busy examining the other doors while trying not to get cast down into the depths.

“I found it!” I called out. “It’s this door here!”

Twilight glanced down at me, making a note of my position before disappearing in a flash of light. I felt her materialise right next to me, the platform suddenly felt a lot narrower. Pinkie also saw me, and in the blink of an eye she vanished and reappeared between us, suddenly we were all fighting for space while simultaneously holding onto each other for support. The shadows took that moment to congregate together, high in the air, forming into a great swirling mass that orbited lazily in the air for a moment, before crashing down in our direction like a meteor.

“Inside!” Twilight cried as we saw the shadow approaching.

We all squeezed through the frame, stepping into the pitch black. I could feel the steps beneath my hooves, but we had all rushed in so quickly, that we immediately lost our balance and began toppling forward. While I could no longer see my friends, I could feel their bodies pressed up against my own as we started to fall. I did however, see the faint spark of light from Twilight horn, followed by all three of us being pushed apart from one another as we were each encased in a faint purple bubble. Our descent down the winding staircase slowed considerably, and while the bubbles bounced erratically off every solid surface, I felt no pain as I was bundled about within, only a mild churning in my stomach.

I bounced about for some time, feeling myself sink gradually deeper into the entrance chamber. Eventually I reached the ground, where my bubble bounced hard once before popping on its second impact, allowing me to sprawl out on the cold stone slabs, my head spinning and my stomach threatening to empty itself of the little rations we had been eating. I heard another pop, followed by groaning, which indicated Twilight was somewhere to my left in the darkness. Then a third pop, followed by whooping and eager requests to ‘do it again’, which indicated Pinkie Pie was somewhere on my right.

Once my head had settled down, I became faintly aware of the distant whispering. Just like last time however, if ever I tried to concentrate on it, it would fade out until there was only silence. There were no calming lights this time, swimming about me and cavorting with the shadows, instead there was only the latter; I could feel them infesting the air like I was submerged in a sea of living, writhing beings. I knew the Demon Shaft would give me no light this time, or helpful gusts of warm, sticky air to guide me, which left me at a loss for what to do.

Somewhere in the darkness, a tiny speck of purple light flickered into existence, I could just about make out Twilight beneath it. I did the same, lighting up my horn for the little good it did, as I walked closer to her. Pinkie joined us, although she was even harder to see, I had a funny feeling Fluttershy’s mace would have been invaluable on this journey, but it was too late to turn back.

“This won’t do us much good,” Twilight muttered hopelessly. “I can feel this darkness sapping my magic.”

“Is that what that is?” I murmured, contemplating the feeling of the darkness in the air.

“I don’t think it’s affecting me,” Pinkie revealed. “Here let me try something…”

I heard Pinkie take a deep breath and vaguely saw her screw up her face, clenching her eyes shut. Then, out of nowhere, her whole body began blinking like she was some kind of living light bulb, before it settled and she radiated a bright light. Like our own lights, it struggled to penetrate the darkness, but it gave a considerably wider scope of view than we had before, just enough to see a few metres in any direction.

“That’s better,” Twilight said, allowing the light in her horn to go out. “How long can you keep that up?”

“Dunno,” Pinkie admitted with a small shrug. "Chaos magic is weird."

“Well it’s something at least,” I said, before Twilight could kick up a fuss. “Let’s get moving, there’s only one door out of this room, hopefully I’ll know the way to go once we get on the move.”

It turned out however, that the fogginess of my memory had most likely been intended so I wouldn’t remember the way to go. Before long, we were hopelessly lost within the maze. The further we delved into the tunnels, the more sounds we heard, and the more things we caught glimpses of. Sometimes I would hear the sound of distant hoofsteps and panicked breathing, however I quickly learned to double check what I heard with the others, it almost always turned out that only one of us had heard it, and therefore it was probably in our heads.

On the rare occasion when we all heard it and chose to investigate, it would always lead to some kind of trap. Either the floor would open up beneath us or the walls would begin closing it, nothing that Twilight couldn’t pull us out of with her magic, or Pinkie with her reflexes. As for things we saw, usually it would be lights down certain pathways, or the silhouette of a pony, quickly running away from Pinkie’s light as we approached, we learned not to trust these either. It wasn’t long before things started getting to me, and I was also feeling frustrated at my inability to keep us on track. Thankfully both my friends managed to keep level heads, and were very understanding regarding my difficulty in remembering.

After an indistinct length of time however, we finally found something of interest. It was as we took a left turn, I noticed a rippling light coming from the distance, and immediately recognised it as the same kind of lights that guided me when I was last there. I hurried forward, forgetting about safety and ran straight for them, arriving outside a chamber which was fully lit up by them. The other two quickly caught up and chastised me for rushing off on my own, but they fell silent when they saw what awaited us in the room.

The lit up chamber was a towering room, travelling up higher than the swimming lights would go. From wherever the ceiling was however, hung dozens of thick iron chains, which dangled all around the room. They all travelled down different lengths, some ending in large, sinister meat hooks, while others held cages big enough to hold an adult pony. Indeed, three of them did contain ponies. We walked into the room, making for the closest cage, which also happened to be the one nearest the floor. As we neared it, we saw a stallion inside, curled up tightly with his head buried between his forelegs, dressed in black robes with rainbow embroidering.

All three ponies wore the same robes, and all three were quite clearly dead. As I got close, I could see flesh had been ripped away the pony, like he had been devoured by crows while he was trapped. There was still some bits of meat left, but as I watched, I saw the flickering lights drift over to the corpse, enter the cage and tear off small strips at a time and begin carrying them away. I suddenly felt very sick, to think I felt safe when those lights had followed me around, now it looked like they had just been waiting for me to kick the bucket so they could dig in to me.

“Rarity, Twilight, check this out,” Pinkie said from the centre of the room.

I looked over to see she was standing beside an altar, not dissimilar to the one I had woken up on. As I made my way over, I noticed the flickering lights that were carrying the tiny bits of pony were drifting this way, approaching the altar where they placed the flesh down, before swimming away again, either to retrieve more or just float about aimlessly, lighting up the chamber. The altar was covered in a mass of torn up flesh, blood oozing across the surface to the edges, where it dripped sporadically onto the floor.

As we watched, we could see the mass writhing, the little bits and pieces moving as if given life of their own. They all clumped together on the altar, where the collection of meat lay and pulsated slowly. I really wanted to be sick after seeing that, even Pinkie didn’t stay and look for too long, Twilight on the other hand, stared at it in fascination.

“So these are the ponies you saw,” Pinkie announced as she examined one of the other cages.

“Some of them,” I admitted. “But I saw four, there’s only three here, and not even accounting for the ones they had already lost.”

“So there’s still more out there,” Pinkie muttered, her eyes drifting around the chamber before lighting up as she spotted something. “Oh, a shiny thing!”

I looked over as she bounced over beneath the third cage, scooping up something and holding it for us both to see. She was holding a lantern, the very same lantern that I had seen the mare leading the group holding. I mentioned this to Pinkie as she began fiddling with it, trying to get it to light up. It appeared to be a fairly simple oil lantern, I wondered if maybe I was out of fuel. I didn't wonder this for too long before Pinkie threw it straight at my face, I reacted instinctively by catching it in my magic, glaring briefly at Pinkie, even as she grinned back at me.

“Was that necessary?” I asked, a little disgruntled.

“Yes it was!” she said happily as she pointed at the lantern, looking down at it, I saw that it was now lit up with warm yellow glow. “It reacts to unicorn magic.”

I looked the lantern up and down curiously at that. Indeed, whenever I set it on the ground, the light went out automatically, reigniting whenever I picked it up with my magic. While I held it out, I reached out and touched it gently with my hoof. As my boot touched against it however, I could feel my hoof heating up quickly inside and retracted my leg, feeling a little confused.

“Holy magic by the looks of it,” Twilight pointed out from behind me. “Remember your body can’t get too close to it, but holding it in your magic should be safe.”

“Well that means I can clock out for a while,” Pinkie said as she returned to her normal level of luminescence. “I was starting to get a bit sweaty keeping that up anyway.”

“Well this is a start,” Twilight said, ignoring Pinkie. “Perhaps the others are nearby; at the very least, we might be on the right path.”

“Then let’s keep going,” I agreed. “This room is making me want to vomit.”

The three of us left and immediately found ourselves standing at a T junction that hadn’t been there before. After a brief moment of swearing and grumbling, we decided to turn left, as it was the closest to the original route. Along the way, we encountered some more shadow creatures. Like the ones that sunk into the ground up on the surface, these one swam through the walls, swiping out with great slicing claws and groping hands. The absolute trough of our journey came when one of the wall shadows reverted back to the good old floor techniques, and successfully grabbed onto Pinkie Pie and dragged her half way into the ground.

Of course I rushed forward and tried to pull her out with one hoof, while jabbing into the black pool with a single knife with the other. Twilight was busy holding off the other shadows while we did this, and while I don’t believe she was intentionally ignoring Pinkie’s struggle, Pinkie certainly seemed to think so once I had freed her and the creatures were taken care of. Naturally this escalated into another shouting match between them, which I was forced to break up. We walked in sullen silence for a little longer before stopping to investigate another chamber, after I noticed a scrap of robe from one of the Covenant members discarded near the entrance to the room.

“Can’t you two just stop?” I asked Twilight in a miserable voice, while Pinkie took the lead into the room and we remained outside in the corridor. “I know it’s hard for you, but whatever she used to be, she’s good now. Surely you can see that, you work so well when you’re not at each other’s throats.”

I expected Twilight to snap something, but instead she just let out a long sigh, looking down at her own hooves.

“I want to, but…” she began in an uncomfortable voice. “But I can’t, Discord is, and always has been an enemy to the Princess and the ponies of Equestria. She’s always taught me that, she’s always considered Discord worship to one of the greatest crimes, she will never accept that Discord has changed.”

“But you see that he… that she has,” I pushed. “You know that Pinkie Pie is on our side, no matter what Discord might have been or done in the past.”

Twilight looked up into the chamber, I followed her gaze and saw that Pinkie was nowhere to be seen inside; I knew Twilight was wondering if she was listening in.

“I want to believe that…” she said at last in a low voice, so that only I could hear if Pinkie was eavesdropping. “But if I don’t act in accordance with the Princess’s laws and condemn Discord, I’ll be betraying her and everything she’s done for me, and I can’t do that Rarity. You are my friend… but she is my enemy.”

“The Princess is important to you, I know,” I replied with a sigh. “But at least meet Pinkie half way until the mission is done, for me.”

“I’ll try,” Twilight said with a small nod. “I’m sorry Rarity; I don’t want to make things difficult for you.”

Before I could reply, Pinkie remerged from the darkened room. Her face was completely passive, it was impossible to tell if she had heard us, and what she was thinking even if she had.

“There’s nopony in here,” she announced. “Alive or dead.”

“Well at least we know they came this way,” Twilight said, indicating the scrap of material that Pinkie was holding. “Shall we keep moving?”

We both nodded and I took the lead, the lantern was proving to be very effective in lighting the way, even more than Pinkie’s light had been. It wasn’t until we were approaching the next junction that we learned just how valuable the lantern was. As we walked, the light inside the lantern intensified, bringing us to a stop as we all looked at it curiously. As we stared, another flash of light appeared to our right, glancing over at it, we saw a yellow light appear on the apparently smooth brick wall, tracing out an ornate doorway.

Twilight scanned her horn over the door, humming to herself as her horn flashed and glowed and dimmed with various detection spells. When she stepped away, her final spell caused the brickwork to melt away to reveal a set of double door made from what looked like solid gold, engraved with an incredible design of a pegasus with its wings spread out wide over each door. It was the first chamber that had any kind of door within its stone frame, and the fact that it was so well hidden gave us great hope for what lay inside.

“That latern must reveal hidden things!” Pinkie declared excitedly. “Where do you think it leads?”

“A tomb perhaps?” I mused, raising an eyebrow at the other two who shared my hopeful expression.

“It’s locked with a great deal of enchantments,” Twilight explained. “It could take a while to get through them all, unless…”

She glanced down at her sceptre, pulling it out and considering for a brief moment, before she pointed it directly at the centre of the door. Pinkie and I watched eagerly as nothing happened for a brief moment, then out of nowhere, the orb on Twilight’s sceptre burst into life. Just like that time at Timber with Spike, Twilight’s eyes shone with an intense white light as the orb detached itself from the end of the sceptre, floating out slighting where the glass petals began to split off, revealing the ball of magic within.

As the sceptre opened up, the same white light flooded through the door, seeping along the engraving lines, so the design shone out brightly. Pinkie and I had to shield our eyes for a moment when the light began to grow to intense, but as we did, I heard the distinct sound of something unlocking. As the light began to dim and we were able to open our eyes again, I saw the orb reconstruct itself while the double doors began to open slowing, revealing a dark passage beyond.

“Nice!” Pinkie exclaimed, nudging Twilight in the ribs with her elbow.

“You made that look easy,” I informed Twilight, giving her a wide grin.

“I don’t understand,” Twilight said, not looking as pleased with herself as I would have imagined. “It was as if the door responded to the sceptre, like it was a key.”

“You said it yourself,” I reminded her. “You don’t know all its powers, perhaps unlocking enchanted doors is one of them.”

“Maybe…” Twilight mumbled, still looking unsure.

“Who cares why it worked?!” Pinkie interrupted happily. “We’re making progress, isn’t that the important thing?”

“I suppose,” Twilight admitted before looking to me. “After you.”

As I approached the door, I held the lantern out, casting its light into the new room which turned out to be a wide staircase that travelled some way down. Glancing back, I received nods of encouragement from the other two. Gulping slightly, I begun the descent with them a few steps behind me. One thing I noticed, which was ironic in its own sense, was the distinct lack of whispers as we made our way down. I asked the other two, and they were both surprised to admit that the whispers had stopped without them even noticing; whatever was down those steps must have been really important.

When we reached the final step, we were faced with a wide archway, leading into a room filled with a darkness so thick, that even the lantern would not illuminate. We hesitated briefly, unsure of what to do, but when Pinkie bit the bullet and took the first step in, the chamber burst into life, flitting lights swimming in from every nook and cranny to push away the shadows and cast their light across the entirety of the massive, domed chamber. We were all awestruck as we stared around at the immaculate room, at the thick columns that circled around the perimeter of the room, at the mosaic tiled floor, but most of all, at the centrepiece of the chamber.

It was a statue, carved from the same sandy coloured rock as everything else, almost filling the chamber with its sheer size and unquestionable glory. The statue depicted a pony, tall and slender, wearing billowing mage robes, the hood was carved down so I could see her sweeping, curly mane, as well as the matching tail poking out the back of her robes. But what struck us most about the statue, was that the figure had two wings spread wide, which is what constituted for most of the size, but not only that… she had a horn that pierced into the sky, almost touching the highest point of the domed ceiling.

“It’s an alicorn,” I muttered in awe as we all looked up at it. “But the pony on the door was a pegasus.”

“No, it only looked like a pegasus,” Twilight corrected me. “The horn was probably obscured by the divide in the middle, but… who is this supposed to be? It’s definitely not Princess Celestia.”

Our eyes all simultaneously navigated to the base of the statue, where a stone dais was. Upon the platform was what appeared to be an altar at a glance, but as we drew closer, we realised that it was a sarcophagus. We approached at a snail’s pace, unsure whether we should be there or not, although it was almost certain this was the tomb the Covenant had been speaking of, that much was clear when we saw the body of another one of their members lying half off the dais. It was the stallion who had wanted to turn back, he bore no obvious marks, but just like the others, he was clearly dead.

This only raised more questions for us, as we tentatively mounted the dais and approached the imposing stone coffin. Could an alicorn really be buried here? If so, who were they? And what in the name of Celestia were the Covenant up to?! As we neared the lid of the sarcophagus, we saw that there was writing inscribed upon it, as well as a picture of a clover. Twilight was the first to step close enough to read it, doing so out loud.

“Here rests…” she began before her eyes widened with a mixture of shock and horror. “Clover the Clever!”

She snapped around to look at us, Pinkie seemed taken aback by this, and I too was a little confused. I knew who Clover the Clever was from my early school years, she had been one of the six ponies involved in the events that became the first Hearths Warming, and would lead to the formation of Equestria. But she had been a unicorn… hadn’t she? Twilight turned back and continued reading, in the hopes the final few lines of the epitaph would shine some light on what was going on.

“Beloved friend… Bearer of Honesty…” Twilight gasped as she came to the final accolade. “Princess of Equestria!”

LXII - Tomb Raiders

We were left in a slightly stunned silence following Twilight’s declaration, unsure what to make of this sudden revelation. Details on how exactly Celestia had come to rule Equestria were sketchy, just like ponies weren’t certain on the existence of the other alicorns that made up the Six, nopony knew for sure if there had ever been any other rulers of Equestria before or alongside Celestia… until now it seemed.

“A Princess,” I breathed in amazement. “Could it be true?”

I looked between the pair of them, both of my friends being more qualified to talk on the subject.

“I don’t actually know,” Pinkie admitted. “Yet more questions I’ve always asked myself.”

“I’m afraid I don’t know either,” Twilight seconded. “Princess Celestia has always refused to discuss the legends with anypony, including myself. I’ve tried asking her before if they were true, if there really were other alicorns, but she would always give me some enigmatic response and changd the topic.”

“But if this tomb really is for an alicorn,” I began in a voice brimming with childlike wonderment. “And she was a Princess; does that not mean that the stories are true after all? That the Six were real?!”

“We… we shouldn’t jump to conclusions,” Twilight said, although I could see she too was getting excited at the thought.

“Twilight’s right, we can’t jump to conclusions…” Pinkie repeated in a tone that worried me. “Not until we crack this open and see it for ourselves.”

“Pinkie!” Twilight yelled in indignation. “We cannot just open up her sarcophagus and look at her body, that is the height of disrespect!”

“Actually Twilight…” I began a concerned voice. “I think we might have to.”

“What?!” Twilight exclaimed, looking at me as if I had gone mad. “Pinkie saying something like that, I can sort of understand, but you?!”

“I know what you’re thinking Twilight, and I agree it’s an awful thing to even consider,” I said hurriedly. “But we don’t know why the Covenant were so fixated on finding this place, for all we know, there’s nothing left inside that coffin.”

Twilight paled as she realised what I was getting at.

“You don’t mean…” she began in a horrified voice. “No, they wouldn’t do something that low.”

“I don’t see why not,” Pinkie argued. “After everything they’ve done, I think grave robbing is pretty low key for them. Look, I’m not saying we do anything more than peek. If the body is in there, then we close it and search elsewhere, if not…”

“Alright, but… I don’t want to do it,” Twilight said, looking torn. “In fact, I don’t even want to look, please just get it over with quickly.”

Pinkie nodded and moved past Twilight to the sarcophagus, I did likewise, while I didn’t want to see either, I thought Pinkie might need the help. I did of course forget that Pinkie was an earth pony, and while she didn’t show it much, she was still unusually strong. She lifted the stone lid up and slid it off with ease, the first warning came when no cloud of dust was released, indicating that it had been opened recently. The second warning was when we both looked inside and found the sarcophagus completely devoid of all unlife... yes, that one was a dead giveaway.

“Ah…” Pinkie uttered in an awkward tone.

“Ah?” Twilight repeated in a panicked voice, spinning around to see what was wrong. “Don’t say 'ah', that makes it sound like… oh no.”

Twilight stumbled over to the bare sarcophagus and knelt down beside it, her eyes wide and her hooves trembling.

“This is bad,” she said in a shaky voice. “This is really bad.”

“Not to perpetuate the panic, but I agree,” I concurred with a tense nod. “If it wasn’t obvious before that the Covenant are up to something downright evil, I think it’s safe to say so now.”

“But where did they go?” Pinkie asked, looking around the chamber as if expecting them to magically appear on command. “Did they just run back the way they came? And if they got out of the Demon Shaft, where did they take the body?”

“They must have some kind of base,” I proposed. “Perhaps the place Spike escaped from… a castle by the sea.”

“We need to start a search,” Twilight stated, sounding a little more confident after she was over the initial shock. “We’ll go back to Pivot, explain what’s happened to Maverick. Hopefully somepony will know where this castle is, and if not, he can send his agents out to find it.”

“Agreed,” I responded. “Now we just have to get…”

I stopped talking at once, when I felt something slam into my back, sending me flying through the air and sprawling on the ground at the statue's hooves. I heard Twilight and Pinkie call out as they too were sent flying by whatever hit me, it hadn’t been physical, it reminded me more of a magical shockwave. Looking around, I saw the pony we had thought was dead, his body was now shifting slightly, as if he was trying to stand up. I didn’t stop to think why a pegasus had been able to use what appeared to be magic on us, but quickly stood up, drew my sword and charged at him.

As I got close, I saw his body rise up and realised that he was in fact dead, or at least, the pony he once was had died. There was a massive gash running from his neck all the way down the front of his torso. His whole body looked to be cut open, and from the open wound, six spindly legs stretched out. I came to a halt when I saw what he really was, it was like a giant hermit crab using a pony as its shell. The stallion’s head twisted about in violent jerking motions, his jaw dislocating so his mouth opened up wide to reveal a chasm of a throat.

A low bellow emanated from deep within the pony’s body, like a fog horn, sending out a second shockwave from its deformed mouth. I was prepared this time, and hunkered low to avoid being thrown off my hooves. When the sound wave stopped, I stood up and charged the monster, readying myself to strike out with my sword, the creature also rushed forward on its six scuttling legs. As I drew close, it snapped out at me with its gaping maw, I ducked under it and ran my sword along its undercarriage, hoping to do some internal damage. Unfortunately while I drew a considerable amount of black bile from cutting into pony’s body, my sword simply glanced off the crab legs.

I rolled to the side as it began stabbing down at me with its legs, which could easily have impaled me. As I got out of the way, Pinkie appeared over the creature and landed on its back, repeatedly stabbing into it with her daggers.

“Pinkie, get off it!” Twilight called out as she aimed her sceptre at the monster, channelling her magic through it.

Pinkie flipped off the creature’s back, just as Twilight released a series of fireballs which homed in on the monster’s face. It was sent crashing to the ground from the impact, from there it writhed in pain as it flailed its head about, trying desperately to rid itself of the spreading flames. It wasn’t long before the crab legs stopped squirming and the whole monster was still. Twilight walked over to where we were, putting her sceptre away while I examined the corpse.

“That’s the second time one of those guys turned into a monster around us!” Pinkie exclaimed as she sheathed her daggers. “They must be seriously loyal if they allow themselves to be experimented on like this.”

“We’ll put a stop to it,” Twilight assured her. “But right now, we have to get out of here.”

I nodded and led the way across the tomb to where the archway and the staircase awaited. I was the first at the foot of the steps, and the first to see the darkness flooding down.

“Get back!” I screamed, turning and rushing away from the archway as the shadows burst into the chamber.

The other two only had to jump back slightly as they hadn’t been that close. Luckily the shadows didn’t come very far into the room, they convulsed together in the archway, reaching and snapping out at us to keep us back, but the flickering lights kept them at bay where they were. I was about to suggest finding another way out, when we heard a low groaning noise coming from behind us. We all spun around to see the monster standing back up, its whole body shaking as it wrenched itself apart, right down the middle until both halves stood independently of one another.

We watched in horror as both halves sprouted additional limbs, until they were both whole… and charging directly for us. Twilight grabbed us both and teleported us across the room, behind the statue. We ducked down behind it, while the two monsters collided and began snapping at one another, looking around for where we had disappeared to.

“Now what?” I hissed, looking from the monsters to the archway that was still brimming with aggressive darkness.

“Now we hope there’s another way out,” Twilight whispered back. “Pinkie and I will try to keep them busy; you use the lantern and see what you can find.”

I nodded and darted away from the statue, making for the back wall while my friends charged off to fight the monsters. I could hear the engagement taking place on the other side of the room as I approached the wall and began shinning the light of the lantern over, hoping it would reveal some secret door like it did upstairs. I began making my way around the room, meticulously examining every inch of wall in case anything was revealed and I just failed to see it because of the increased light in this chamber.

As I began to near the archway and still hadn’t found anything, I saw Pinkie Pie bringing her opponent to the ground, only to have it split into another pair of identical monsters. I started on the other side of the room to the sound of Twilight and Pinkie arguing while still trying to hold off the monsters, I decided to let it slide this time since I was in enough of a panic myself, and their arguing wasn’t actually affecting their ability to work as a team for a change. By the time I reached the blank stretch of wall where I had begun, I was starting to get seriously worked up, dreading the idea that we might be trapped, doomed to be overwhelmed by a flood of monsters.

Then a thought occurred to me, a door didn’t have to be on a wall, and I had kept the lantern unlit while we examined the sarcophagus... It was a long shot, but it seemed like our last hope. Rushing over to the chamber’s centrepiece, lantern still lit, I mounted the rectangular dais and shone my revealing light over the coffin. The entire stone container lit up as I did, eliciting a relived grin from me as I set about trying to figure out how to open the passage. I heard a yell and looked back to see the number of monsters had somehow increased to six, Twilight was staring at Pinkie with a look that just screamed ‘what the buck’.

“Okay…” Pinkie said slowly as she looked at the oncoming wave of monsters. “I’ll admit, that time it really was my fault.”

“Rarity!” Twilight called out as she erected a shield between us and the enemies. “Please tell me you found something!”

“Yes, there’s a staircase beneath this sarcophagus!” I announced, seeing the ghostly structure shining through the solid stone. “But I don’t know how to open it!”

“Have you tried turning it off and on again?!” Pinkie asked, stifling a giggle.

“What does that even mean?!” I shouted back in desperation.

“Forget that!” Twilight interrupted as the monsters threw themselves repeatedly at her shield. “Have you tried using brute force to move it?!”

I gave it a go, pushing the sarcophagus with my hooves before trying again with my magic. The second time I could feel it shifting ever so slightly, but I wasn’t strong enough.

“I need help!” I called back.

Twilight urgently gestured to Pinkie Pie, who hurried my way and immediately started pushing while I applied magic. We were definitely getting somewhere, but it still wasn’t enough.

“Twilight, we need you too!” Pinkie shouted over. “It’s gonna take all of us to push this thing!”

Twilight bit her lip as she looked at the monsters still trying to break down her barrier. Making a snap decision, she lowered her shield before jabbing out with her sceptre, sending out a tidal wave of water to sweep all the monsters back into the clawing darkness. As soon as the water was released, she turned and made her way over to us. Once she was ready, we all began pushing, Pinkie with her hooves, while Twilight and I used our magic. The task proved much easier when all three of us were putting our backs into it, and soon the sarcophagus was out of the way, revealing a narrow staircase leading down into another chamber which emanated a faint blue glow.

Glancing back, we saw that the monsters had disentangled themselves from the clinging shadows and were charging our way. Without any further encouragement, Twilight bustled me down first, then Pinkie before following herself. All three of us descended into the new chamber, just in time as the monsters began smashing against the gap that was too small for them. The room we found ourselves in was very small, a simple square room with a strange machine built inside that was the source of the blue light.

The main feature was a smooth stone platform, circular in shape with a slight dip in the middle. This platform was placed just before the centre of the far wall, resting within it was a large stone ring that hovered slightly above it, within which was a translucent sheet of rippling blue light. The platform had what appeared to be pipes trailing away from it, around the room to four stone pedestals that were dotted, seemingly at random, about the place. Hovering over each of these pedestals were blue crystals, roughly the size of a ponies head, each one humming slightly.

“Most peculiar,” Twilight murmured, barely audible over the crashing sounds from the tomb we just vacated. “It seems to be some kind of portal, powered by these crystals.”

“If that’s a portal, then let’s go on and get out of here,” Pinkie declared, making a run for it, but being held in place as Twilight grabbed onto her tail with magic.

“We can’t just go running through a portal when we don’t know where it leads!” Twilight exclaimed. “That could be extremely dangerous.”

“Twilight,” I began with a roll of my eyes. “Staying here is ‘extremely dangerous’, you wanted a way out, and I think this is going to be the best we’ll get.”

Twilight opened her mouth to retort, but then her ears swivelled to the sound of the monsters trying to make the narrow opening wider.

“I suppose,” she relented. “But let me take the lead, if I don’t come back in a few minutes, assume it’s not safe.”

“Way ahead of you Twi!” Pinkie announced from beside the portal.

Before either of us could stop her, she leaned in and stretched her neck through the portal. Her head disappeared momentarily before she pulled it back out, looking a little disorientated, but smiling.

“It’s all fine!” she declared. “Not sure where it is, but it looks much safer than here.”

I glanced over at Twilight, who was trying to hide the fact that she was breathing rather heavily for some reason, but she nodded calmly and started making her way forward, with me just a few steps behind. We reached the portal and once again Pinkie took the lead, disappearing entirely this time as she stepped through the ring. Twilight mumbled something before stepping after her, and finally I moved forward and stepped up over the edge of the floating ring, and plunged through the portal.

LXIII - Waking The Nautilus

As I emerged on the other side of the portal, I found myself in a very peculiar location. Twilight and Pinkie were already walking about, examining our new surroundings. As I stepped away from the portal, I did the same. The room we were in was large and rectangular, both the walls and floor made from dark grey stone. The two longer walls of the room were lined with alcoves; within each was a stone basin that held a pale blue flame. The collective effect of all these gave this room a soft blue glow, just like the secret room we had discovered in the Demon Shaft.

The floor was fairly featureless, comprised of simple square slabs, but a large section was cut out of the middle of the room to reveal what looked like a pool of dark water. Within the pool, there was a strange object, shaped like a broad fish and crafted from some kind of deep blue metal. It was very large, but mostly submerged, with only the curved top poking out of the water. The whole thing was held in place by four long, metal arms that hung down from the corners of the ceiling. At the front of the room was a simple stone door, flanked on either side by two more stone basins with blue flames, and beside each of them were two pillars engraved with strange waving patterns.

There seemed to be other levels to the room, one small balcony right above the corner where the portal was, this was connected by a staircase to a much higher balcony at the adjacent corner. The whole room had a very damp feeling to it, despite the only water apparently being in the pool at the centre, both the walls and floor were slightly wet to the touch. On top of this, despite the high number of blue torches, the room still felt very dark and oppressive, it was a complete mystery as to whether we were still in the Demon Shaft or not.

“Well this is certainly not what I was expecting,” Twilight stated, breaking the eerie silence of the room. “Where do you think we are? The air feels so… thin.”

“And moist,” Pinkie added as she examined the strange metal fish in the water. “What about this thing, anypony recognise it?”

“I can’t say that I do,” I admitted. “But Pinkie, doesn’t your mask let you breathe under water? Why don’t you go down there and take a look?”

“Sure, and you can Twilight can search through that door,” Pinkie suggested. “Try and figure out where we are.”

“Alright, we’ll meet you back here in a little bit,” Twilight told her, as we began making our way across the room to the stone door.

Pinkie slipped on her mask and pulled up her hood, before diving into the water and out of sight. As we neared the door, Twilight felt about it before trying her magic on it. Instead of swinging like a normal door, it slid upwards from the floor until the doorframe was open. I stepped in first while Twilight followed, as soon as her magic left the door, it slowly slid down again, closing us in the new room. This room was more circular, with three more doors leading off from it, one to each side, and the third at the opposite side form where we entered.

Interestingly, while there were still stone basins with blue fire in this room, one stationed halfway between each of the doors, the three doors also had two flaming torches mounted on either side of their frame, but none of them were the same colour. The door to the right was flanked by two turquoise flames, while the door to the left were flanked by two purple flames, finally the door directly ahead was flanked by two golden flames. In the centre of the room was a raised platform, with steps leading up to it from each of the four doors.

Sitting in the centre of this platform was a great statue, crafted from the same dark blue metal as the strange fish thing in the previous room, just looking at the metal sent chills up my spine for some reason. Unlike the last statue we had seen in the tomb, this one depicted three figures. At first they seemed equine in their facial features and their forehooves, but instead of manes, they had oddly shaped fins, and their entire lower halves were that of fishes. Looking above the statue, I saw that the domed ceiling of the room was made entirely of glass with metal framing, beyond which was only darkness that occasionally rippled.

“Those statues...” I began, addressing Twilight.

“Sirens,” she replied simply. “I learned about them years ago, never seen one for myself, but the red gemstones in their breasts are a dead giveaway.”

I followed her gaze and saw that there were indeed hexagonal rubies implanted into the chests of all three stone figures.

“I think it’s safe to say we’re no longer in the Demon Shaft,” Twilight went on. “Or the Nether Vale for that matter, it looks like we’re under water.”

I considered that for a moment, but as I thought back to the wet environment we found ourselves in, it made a lot of sense. In this room alone there was a thin layer of water covering the lower section of floor that circled around the raised platform, and what I was seeing outside the glass dome was merely the water at night time, with no light shining through it.

“So we’re under the sea,” I stated. “Is that not a bad thing?”

“Not necessarily,” Twilight argued. “Let’s keep looking, see if we can’t find something that will help us get back.”

Our hooves splashed through the shallow water as we made our way to the door on our left, Twilight once again opening it up for me with her magic. As I stepped through it, I found myself in a room of similar style to the others, although like the first one, this room did not have a glass ceiling. The room was much smaller than either of the previous two, a short staircase to the left led up to a balcony and a set of double doors that looked relatively normal compared to the ones that slid upwards, while directly ahead of us was another door of the same type on the same level we had entered from.

While I walked across the room to the door opposite us, Twilight went to the right to examine a strange cylindrical capsule that stood against the wall, once again made from that same blue metal. Similarly there were two pillars on either side of the door I was approaching, made from the same metal, but unlike the ones in the first room we arrived in, these didn’t seem to be for decorative or support purposes. I walked up to the door and frowned when I saw it had no handles, I then tried my magic on it and found that it wouldn’t budge in the slightest, not because it was locked but… there was something else, like an immense pressure on the other side.

“We’re not getting through this door,” I announced in a wary tone before turning to Twilight.

“I’m not sure what this is,” she began, grabbing the front of it with her magic and tugging at it. “But I think there’s something inside.”

After a little heaving, she managed to pull the front panel aside to reveal the capsule was hollow inside, the same soft blue glow emanating from within it, as we had seen in the portal. Twilight poked her head inside and hummed curiously as she examined it, while I looked to the outside of the capsule once more. On either side there were tubes, not dissimilar to the ones connected to the portal, they ran up the length of either side before disappearing into the ceiling.

“There’s a lever inside here,” Twilight informed me, pulling her head back out. “Although I think we should keep looking around before we go playing with things.”

I nodded, and together we left the open capsule behind for a moment, to ascend the short staircase to the second set of doors. These ones responded much more positively to magic, swinging open easily and allowing us to walk straight through. We found ourselves back in the first chamber, only this time we were standing on the small balcony situated above the portal. As we stepped out, we heard a loud splashing noise, as Pinkie’s head emerged from the pool.

“Hey girls!” she called up through her mask as she clambered back onto the solid floor. “Good timing, I think this place is underwater!”

“Yeah,” Twilight replied awkwardly. “We kind of figured that out… did you at least figure out what that metal thing is?”

“Well it has doors,” Pinkie informed us. “And a large window at the front of it, it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before.”

While Twilight contemplated that, I walked over to the edge of the balcony, examining a large flat tablet angled on it. I was immediately reminded of the screen I had seen at Arclight, the one that controlled the teleporter in the Tower. Now that I thought about it, the number of strange contraptions we’d seen since discovering the teleporter room beneath the tomb, they did seem very reminiscent of the sort of things I’d seen at Arclight. As I tapped the screen, hoping it would come to life, I wondered if the two things were connected.

The screen remained stubbornly blank, no digital display appear in response to me tapping like it had done back at the Tower. Twilight appeared beside me in a flash of purple light, I hadn’t even noticed her disappearing to begin with. She told me that there was an identical screen like the one I was abusing on the higher platform, but it too was failing to respond.

“Twilight…” I began in a curious voice. “Have you noticed any similarities between this place and… Arclight?”

Twilight frowned at me, clearly not having considered that.

“I don’t mean aesthetically,” I added quickly. “But these weird contraptions, the teleporters, they’re the sort of thing I wouldn’t be surprised to see at the Tower or the Arclight University.”

“That’s a good point Rarity,” Twilight admitted as she considered it. “You know, nopony really knows if the natives who built Arclight ever lived elsewhere, perhaps this place is somehow related to them.”

“And we found a teleporter in the Demon Shaft,” I reminded her. “Does that mean it too is connected to Arclight, and whoever used to live there?”

“It’s very possible,” Twilight said with a contemplative nod. “Oh, if only we weren’t so busy, this is all so fascinating!”

“So what’s our next move?” Pinkie asked, bouncing up from the ground floor to join us on the balcony.

“Well there’s a room through that door,” Twilight indicated the first door we had went through. “From there we have two doors left to explore; you could try searching one of them.”

“Won’t she need magic to open the door?” I asked.

“I’ll find a way,” Pinkie assured me as she pulled a crowbar from her mane. “What about you two?”

“There’s a weird thing back in this room,” Twilight said, gesturing to the door we just came from. “We’ll check it out.”

“Aw, I love weird things,” Pinkie huffed.

I opened my mouth, intending to tell her she could check it out if she really wanted, and I would check the other rooms instead. Before I could however, she immediately brightened up, gave a small shrug, before hopping off the balcony and bouncing towards the far door. As we returned to the previous room, we both made our way over to the capsule,.Twilight glanced at me awkwardly for a moment, before pulling the lever with her magic. The glowing platform immediately began to descend at a fairly quick pace, revealing the capsule to be a tube that travelled down some distance.

We both peered down over the edge, watching as the platform grew smaller and smaller until it finally came to a stop some ways down. Giving a little nod of approval to Twilight, she flipped the switch once more, this time we watched as the platform began to rise back up to meet us.

“So this will take us to some lower floor or room,” Twilight commented thoughtfully. “It’s a very ingenious device, it conserves so much space.”

“Shall we get in?” I asked, still unsure whether it was safe.

“Yeah, don’t worry though,” she assured me. “If something goes wrong I’ll teleport us right back here.”

I nodded in response and together we stepped into the capsule, a task that proved considerably more difficult that we had imagined, we ended up having to balance on our hind legs just to fit inside. Once we were steady, Twilight flipped the switch again with her magic and we felt ourselves begin to drop. As we were lowered down, the front section of the tube changed from the blue metal to glass, allowing us to stare out at the vast nothing. Perhaps during daytime, enough light penetrated the sea to make this journey down a little more scenic, but right now there was only smooth darkness.

When the platform began to slow, the glass became metal once more and before long we arrived inside a second capsule, this one already open at the front to reveal a new room. This new room was very small and cluttered, there were stacks of odd metal crates and heaps of metal scrap that made it look like a giant clock had exploded at some point. There was another set of double doors to the right, but these refused to open just like the ones upstairs. The only thing that remained was a large panel on the far wall, resembling a magnified version of the tablets we had seen in the first room.

It too was blacked out, but another lever was placed on the left hand side of it, on metal box mounted on the wall. Twilight walked up to this, and after testing to make sure the screen was as unresponsive as the others, she turned her attention to the lever. She was hesitant this time, but after receiving an encouraging nod from me, she stood well back and flipped it with her magic. There was a shower of electrical sparks from the metal box which caused Twilight to leap back in surprise, but then the large screen blinked into life, a blue digital display appearing over it. That pretty much proved to me that it was the same kind of thing I had seen in Arclight.

“Right…” Twilight said slowly as she approached the display. “This is… confusing.”

“Can you not make sense of it?” I asked as I looked it over.

It looked like a map of some kind, I wondered if maybe it would line up with where we were and we could use it to find our way around. As I looked it over, there did seem to be rooms that could match to those we’d been in already, but there were a great many rooms where the outline was blinking from blue to red repeatedly. As well as this, there were a number of rooms with a flashing red lightning bolt in the centre of them.

“A little bit…” Twilight replied uncertainly. “Like I said, I was rarely allowed to travel to Panchea or Arclight after my… uh, disobedience the first time. The few times I came over during my studies, I was more interested in magic rather than technology, and later I would have been too busy with work and politics to take the time to look into it properly. I did however once meet a nice stallion at the Arclight University, he gave me a crash course in it and I still remember some of it.”

Twilight hummed and mumbled to herself as she looked over the screen, her eyes narrowing as she did.

“I believe it’s some kind of map of the whole building,” she announced finally, confirming what I had already guessed. “If you look here, you can see the room we entered, followed by the circle room which seems to be the centre point of the whole complex, and finally these rooms.”

The first room she indicated had a small blue circle in the corner, which made me think it was indicating the teleporter we came through; however it was also one of the rooms with a blinking lightning bolt.

“There seems to be a lot of areas shut off,” Twilight mumbled. “You see these red blinking rooms, there’s always one through the doors we couldn’t open, and I’m guessing these numbers relate to pressure…”

“You’re going to have to dumb this down for me,” I muttered as I looked at the considerably higher numbers beside those rooms compared to the ones with solid blue lines.

“I believe they’re closed off because the rooms have flooded,” Twilight explained. “It’s certainly going to make getting around difficult, but hopefully we’ll find everything we need in the rooms we can go to.”

“And these bolts?” I asked, indicating the one in the first room.

“At a guess, I’d say they have something to do with power,” Twilight proposed as she began tentatively tapping certain parts of the screen. “I think… I think this screen, perhaps this room, is used for supplying power to the others. Watch, if I tap this room here you can see the bar fill up, then the bolt disappears.”

“So if you send the power from here to the first room,” I began as I tried to wrap my head around it. “We can work those other screens?”

“I think so,” Twilight agreed. “Why don’t you head on up there and see if anything’s changed? I’ll catch up a little bit.”

I gave a small nod and moved back to the rising platform while Twilight continued to fiddle with her new toy. After flipping the switch and ascending to the room high above, I stepped out and immediately noticed a difference. The two metal pillars on either side of the sealed door that I had taken note of, were now pumping up and down in a rapid piston motion, making a great deal of noise as they did. While I was staring at them, wondering what that meant in the grand scheme of things, Pinkie walked in through the side door, looking freshly soaked.

“Did you go for another swim?” I asked jokingly, but stopped smiling when she gave me a worried look.

“I went through that door to the right like you suggested,” she began in a low voice. “There was an office or something, lots of notes and files. Anyway, there was a glass wall, and while I was searching… something swam up and smashed into it.”

“What?” I uttered, suddenly taken aback. “Did you see what it was?”

“No,” she replied shaking her head. “But it hit the wall a second time and broke the glass; I only just got out and closed the door before the whole place flooded.”

“We’ll have to be careful of… whatever that was,” I muttered. “Did you find out anything before you were attacked?”

“Yeah actually,” she said, producing a file that flopped about in her grip, it was so wet. “This is what I was reading before it hit, it’s about that metal fish thing in the first room.”

She passed it to me and I opened up the front cover, glancing over the text and design.

“Nautilus,” I read aloud. “Is that what it’s supposed to be called?”

“Looks like it,” Pinkie replied with a shrug. “It sounds like it’s supposed to be some kind of boat that swims under the water.”

“Sounds crazy, but then I’ve seen plenty of crazy things,” I mumbled as I confirmed what she had said.

“Me too, centuries worth of crazy,” Pinkie added. “So do you think that could be our ticket out of here?”

“We’ll see, let’s get back into that room,” I suggested. “Twilight thinks she might have got power working there.”

We climbed the steps to the balcony door and returned to the room where the Nautilus was docked; both screens were now alive with digital text and diagrams. After several minutes of examining the screens, we finally came to the conclusion that we could make… something happen, if we each activated one of the consoles at the same time. After quickly coordinating ourselves, we tapped in some quick commands and watched as the metal arms began pulling the Nautilus up out of the water. Once it was almost fully emerged, a hatch on the side opened automatically, giving us access to the interior.

“Neat!” Pinkie exclaimed as she descended the staircase to where I was on the lower balcony.

“Looks like we’ll be out of here in no time,” I said confidently. “Let’s go take a look inside; I’m sure Twilight will be…”

I was cut off as the whole building shook, the screens flickered and died, while the sound of the pistons in the other room were blotted out by a terrible wrenching noise that sounded like metal being ripped apart. We both stumbled, but managed to stay upright, Pinkie shooting a concerned look at the room we had just come through. Without a word, we opened the door and charged in. Not much had changed as we had assumed, the pistons had ceased their movement, but it was the capsule that drew my attention.

The platform was nowhere to be seen, Twilight must have pulled the lever and called it down, but now the interior of the capsule was flashing from blue to red. We both darted over to it and stuck our heads through the open panel at the front. Staring down, I felt my stomach lurch upon seeing the tube rapidly filling with water from the bottom up, I guessed something had broken the glass and it was pouring in from there.

“Twilight’s still down there!” I exclaimed in a terrified voice.

My mind quickly leapt into gear as I began assessing the situation as best as I could, trying to devise a novel solution that would rescue Twilight before the water rose as high as this room and we would be forced to evacuate. Before I could think of anything however, Pinkie pushed past me, diving down into the tube, her mask drawn over her face.

“Dammit Pinkie, this is no time for heroics!” I yelled after her, although there was no way she would have heard me as she splashed into the churning water down below.

With no choice other than to trust that Pinkie would be able to save Twilight, I stepped back from the capsule. I paced the room to try and take my mind off the rising water level, and the fact that if they didn’t make it back in time, I would have to seal the doors lest I get trapped as well. Minutes ticked away, and I was really starting to panic as I saw the water bubbling up over the edge of the capsule and begin seeping out over the floor. My mind began screaming at me to run for it, but my body refused to move, my eyes glued on the hole where the platform should have been.

As the water began lapping around my knees and I was sure my friends weren’t going to make it, there was an explosion from within the tube, as two heads broke the surface. I waded over to them as quickly as I could, ready to help carry the unconscious Twilight back to the door, but I froze when I saw it was Pinkie who was unconscious, and Twilight was the one wearing the mask. I didn’t think too long about it before I continued rushing forward and helped the pair of them out of the capsule and out of the room.

Once I had slammed the double doors behind me, Twilight lay Pinkie’s body down on the balcony, her horn lighting up as she began drawing the water out of Pinkie’s lungs, although I noticed the light about her horn did flicker and die out occasionally. I waited until she was done, and Pinkie began coughing and spluttering before I dared speak.

“What happened down there?!” I demanded in a stressed voice. “Why didn’t you teleport?!”

“I …couldn’t,” Twilight replied in a muffled voice, I wasn’t sure if it was because of the mask or… something else. “I tried… but I couldn’t. There was something down there… it broke the tube and stunned me.”

“I’m sorry,” I mumbled, realising I shouldn’t have snapped.

I wanted to ask what happened after that, why Pinkie ended up being half drowned while Twilight had the mask, but for some reason I decided not to probe into that. Instead I glanced down at the Nautilus, which was still pulled out of the water despite the power shutting off again.

“Look, we found a way out of here,” I informed her. “That metal fish thing is some kind of underwater boat, let’s get Pinkie on board and get out of here.”

Twilight nodded, and together we levitated Pinkie’s still dazed body down to the ground level, before hopping down after her. We carried her into the Nautilus and found it to be incredibly cramped, lots of panels and consoles with lights and dials, which indicated a great many things I couldn’t begin to fathom. While Twilight took Pinkie to the back and got her comfy, I went to the front where the window was, and began examining the controls. I was reminded slightly of the glider I used to destroy the Dreadnaught, the controls all seemed very basic, as if they had been dumbed down for anypony to use.

I saw a switch which was kindly labelled to indicate activating it would cause the metal arms to release the Nautilus; there were also the main steering controls, which again reminded me of the glider. The only problem was that none of the controls did anything, no matter how much I fiddled with them. Something seemed to be lacking, and it quickly became apparent that ‘something’ was a power source. In the centre of the steering wheel was a hexagonal indent, I immediately remembered the gem set into the breast of the Siren statues, as well as the crystals that powered the teleporter back below the tomb.

“We need some kind of gem to start this up,” I told Twilight as she walked up behind me.

“Well where are we supposed to find that?” she asked in an agitated voice.

“There’s still one door we haven’t checked,” I pointed out, remembered the door marked by yellow torches in the central room. “It’s also the only way that isn’t flooded; if the power source isn’t there then… then I don’t know what we’ll do.”

“Can you stay and look after Pinkie while I…” Twilight began, but she was cut off when I stood up and shook my head.

“No, you stay and keep an eye on her,” I said as I made my way towards the still open hatch. “I’ll go look, you need to let your magic recover in case that thing is still out there.”

“Fine, but take this,” Twilight said, pulling off the mask and passing it to me.

She didn’t look at me as I took it, instead averting her gaze to the front window.

“Hurry back, and be careful,” she instructed in a quiet voice.

I didn’t dally, jumping out of the Nautilus and trotting across the room to the door. After raising it with magic and entering the central room, I made my way up to the statues. I very much doubted it would be as easy as that, but I plucked the centre Siren’s jewel using my knife none the less. Anypony could guess from my cutie mark that I knew a thing or two about gems, and they would not be wrong. I knew instantly that while these stones would be incredibly valuable, they didn’t have a trace of magic about them, they were merely replicas.

After pulling the other two free and depositing all three in my satchel, I made my way over to the third and final door. It might have been disrespectful, but I couldn’t help but think about how much easier our travels would be if we had some extra coin among us, and those rubies would certainly fetch a fair price, even in the current economy. Entering through the door, I gulped upon finding myself a short corridor where only the floor was made of stone. Instead of walls and a ceiling, there was only an arched walkway made from glass and metal frame.

I started walking down it, very aware that I probably looked like a tasty treat for whatever it was that kept trying to break in. Quickening my pace, I made it to the other end of the hall and quickly opened the double doors, entering into another circular room. This one had two more doors leading away, placed at equal intervals around the room, while the walls between here were also made from glass. In the centre of the room was a narrow pedestal, it looked relatively featureless until I began to draw closer, and saw that there was a mesh grate on the top surface of it, sealing off a shallow basin.

As I neared it, I noticed the faint red glow coming from within the basin, and knew I had found my objective. Grinning, I began feeling about the pedestal with my hooves, looking for some switch or opening. Before I found anything however, I briefly caught a glimpse of something dark moving towards the window in front of me, a difficult feat considering everything beyond the glass was dark. I glanced up just in time to see whatever it was collide with the glass, causing the whole room to tremble, and a spider web of cracks to appear on the pane. Panic fuelling my power, I reached out with my magic and wrenched the mesh grate off the pedestal, reaching in and scooping out the gem, just as I saw the thing approaching a second time.

I ducked down as it collided and the sent shards of glass flying outwards, cascades of water flooding into the room. I quickly donned the grinning mask, finding it surprisingly easy to see out of, as I stood up and turned to face whatever was trying desperately to squeeze through the opening. My jaw dropped as much as the mask would allow, as I looked at the creature, took in its deep blue and purple scales, its mantle and six octopus arms, and the flailing tentacles beneath. My first thought was that it was the same monster we had fought at Anchorage, but then I reminded myself how thoroughly Twilight had killed it.

As well as that, this one was considerably smaller, but no less savage as it thrashed out desperately at me, the broken glass doing nothing to its toughened flesh. Storing the gem in alongside my spyglass, I turned and bolted out the double door, not bothering the close them behind me as the area began swiftly filling up with water. I could still hear the monster stuck in the hole it had created, so imagine my shock when something else crashed into the glass walkway above me, taking me completely by surprise and causing me to fall flat on the floor.

All around me I could hear the sound of smashing glass; I was only able to briefly glance up at the several points along the walkway where cracks were appearing simultaneously before having to shelter my head from the shower of shards. There was pretty much no time between the shattering of the glass and the entire corridor being filled with water. Before I knew it, I was caught up in the churning water and felt myself being dragged off. My immediate instinct was to hold my breath, it taking a few seconds to reach my brain that the mask would allow me to breathe safely… somehow.

I floated about in the darkness for a moment, my hooves swishing about to make sure all my items remained fastened to me. It turned out I wasn’t very good at breathing through the mask, for some reason trying to rely upon it made me feel very anxious and I would immediately attempt to clamp my mouth shut and simply refuse to breathe. While I tried to calm myself down, I was sure I felt something large ripple through the water to my right, and I remembered that I was currently floating around underwater, amongst an unknown number of monsters.

In the distance, I could still see the blue flames burning brightly in the ruined walkway at the room where I found the gem, the water having done nothing to extinguish them. I started paddling my way towards them, silently wishing I could see the monsters as well as I could see the flames. Then, as if the mask was responding to my thoughts, more colours began to illuminate within the darkness all around me. I could see the first monster still trapped in the broken glass, now represented by a cloud of deep purple aura. As well as that, I could see dozens of other clouds, some small and faraway, while others appeared dangerously close.

It was obvious the mask had a life detect enchantment for this very scenario, I wandered what else it could do, and if it could all be activated simply through thoughts. Once I got that idea in my head, it was difficult to shake, but none of the fantastic things I imagined occurred, so I decided that even Pinkie had limits. Now that I knew how far or close the monsters were, I was able to speed up as I returned to the flooded corridor. Along the way, I had to splash my hooves rapidly to slow myself down in time to avoid colliding with one of the monsters.

As it floated past me, the purple cloud began to take on a more distinct shape, essentially showing me an outline of the creature in detail. It was identical to the other one, pretty much just a smaller version of the monster from Anchorage. It was bad enough to think that the Covenant were creating these abominations, but the idea they might be able to reproduce after that was downright scary. I wasn’t sure why they were unable to detect me, perhaps their sight wasn’t intended for hunting this deep in the water. Whatever the case was, I wasn’t about to complain, as I finished my swim to the corridor and made my to the door that would take me back into the central room.

I quickly learned however, that the pressure of the water on my side, would not allow the door to be opened. Cursing to myself I began to turn around, wondering where else I might be able to enter from, only to widen my eyes and have to kick myself out of the path of one of the monsters. It shot down the remains of the corridor, breaking off more glass as it went; I managed to sink low in time to avoid it as it crashed into the wall behind me. I tried to swim out beneath it while it thrashed about trying to find me, but as I did, one of its lower body arms swept out beneath it, a few of the tentacles on it raking across my face.

The hit itself didn’t hurt, the tentacles floated about too listlessly for them to carry any impact. But as I felt them sweep across my head, the mask protecting most of my face, I felt dozens of hard flicking sensations as they began shocking me. It reminded me of a jelly fish sting, and even as I flailed to get away from it, I felt one of the tentacles zap my horn and felt my whole head go cloudy. I did wonder how a unicorn as powerful as Twilight Sparkle had managed to get stunned by one of these, but it seemed their tentacles were specifically designed for nullifying magic.

I did manage to get free of the monster and the corridor, my head spinning as I tried to put enough distance between myself and it, that the light of the blue fires wouldn’t reach me and reveal me to them a second time. Unfortunately that one hadn’t been the only monster to have seen me. Looking around, I saw I had two more converging on my position, so I quickly began kicking myself over the top of the building, making for the glass dome over the central room. They were much faster swimmers than I, there wasn’t a hope of me being able to escape them without first losing them in the darkness. I seriously doubted I would even make it that far before they caught up to me, and in the open sea, there would be nothing stopping them from tearing me apart.

As I swam over the top of the domed roof, I glanced back to see one of the monsters right on my tail. Thinking quickly, I pressed my body close to the glass, preparing myself to kick off at the last second. My plan worked well enough, although I did feel several shocks in my hind legs from where the monsters tentacles brushed into me. Looking back I was pleased to see the monster flailing about; its body trapped half way through the glass, water rushing in through the gaps around it. Before my window closed, I turned and began to push myself back down, my eyes scanning over the dome for the weakest point in the glass since the monster was blocking the only entrance big enough for me.

Once I was close enough, I risked drawing one of my knives which I plunged down into the cracks, constantly aware of the second monster closing in on my position. The glass shattered beneath me and I felt myself get drawn down with the torrent of water, I landed hard on the floor below, while the monster that had been stuck fell right onto the blue metal statue, warping and twisting it out shape as it flailed about, trying to catch hold of me. The second monster joined it, two of its massive tentacle arms diving in through the large opening in the ceiling and thrashing around, trying to strike me.

I began sidestepping, drawing its attacks closer to the door that would take me back into the room with the Nautilus. I was faintly aware of the water quickly rising up past my knees and knew it wouldn’t be long before the pressure made it impossible to open this door too, but any worries were quickly assuaged as one of the arms punched forward, smashing right through the stone door while I ducked beneath it. With the way to the Nautilus clear, I turned and sprinted from the room, quickly crossing the chamber, even as the water began to flood in from the central room that the two monsters were still ripping apart.

Twilight was there to meet me at the hatch, looking terrified as she reached out with a hoof to help me on board. Once inside, she asked what was going on, but I chose to ignore her for the moment. Instead I pulled off Pinkie’s mask and chucked it to the floor, sheathing my still drawn knife as I ran over to the front window. I hastily jammed the red gem into the slot, breathing a sigh of relief when I heard the Nautilus hum into life, lights blinking on all around me. I quickly familiarised myself with the controls, flipping the switches to shut the hatch and detach the Nautilus from the metal arms.

The whole ship shook as it hit the water surface, and Twilight and I watched as the water level began rising up past the front window, the Nautilus slowly sinking down and out of the undersea temple. With the immediate panic over, I slowed down and took my time over deciding what to do next.

“Will you be able to sail this thing?” Twilight asked uncertainly.

“Uh… sure,” I said with false confidence. “Sailing is in my blood, I’m sure I can’t go too far wrong.”

I grinned as I saw a button that looked promising, reached out and pressed it. From the front window, we both saw the Nautilus’s front lights switch on, casting a pair of bright cones out, illuminating the sea in front of us. As well as the eight or so monsters that were floating just ahead of us… all of which spun around to face the source of the light.

“Uh…” Twilight began.

“Not… a… word,” I growled as I pushed a lever forward, hearing the rear propellers kick into life and pick up speed.

LXIV - Summons

What with how easily the monsters had been able to rip through the blue metal that formed the capsule tube and the Siren statue, I was very glad the Nautilus had the capacity to dish out as good as they gave. The initial acceleration of the ship had been surprisingly powerful, enough to allow the Nautilus to shoot right through their ranks and arrive safely at the other side. Twilight took the seat next to mine, examining another screen, this one circular with a green radial wedge that spun around, revealing the monsters as flashing green dots relative to the distance of the ship.

Using this information, I was able to manoeuvre around them and stay just out of range of their grasping arms. I still remember how that one larger creature tore the ships apart at Anchorage, and I was determined not to let them touch us. While we focused on trying to lose them, not wishing to lead them to the surface and back to civilisation, Pinkie came around and joined us at the front. Despite my insistence for her not to touch anything, she still played about with the buttons whose functions I couldn’t identify.

At one point, one of the monsters swam right up into the front window and Pinkie slammed a big red button, releasing a cluster of what looked like bombs directly in front of us, exploding upon impact with the monster. I let out a low, reverberating moan as it fled deeper into the water to get away from us. With our positions established, Twilight keeping track of the monsters on the radar, Pinkie shooting them if they got too close, and me steering the Nautilus, it wasn’t long before the number of blinking green dots grew smaller and smaller until we were well clear of any danger, and could begin ascending to the surface.

We weren’t sure what to expect when we broke the surface, after all, we didn’t even know where the undersea temple had been in relation to the Demon Shaft. Although we could all agree that it had been fresh water as opposed to salt water, all three of us having taken a swim at some point, intended or otherwise. The water began to grow clearer, with shafts of sunlight permeating through, and soon the head of the Nautilus was breaching the surface and we were all shielding our eyes form the intense glare of the early morning sunlight, while the ship settled and the water ran in rivulets down the front window.

“Are we in the Neptune?” Twilight asked, peering out through the window at the mountain range in the distance.

I consulted my compass and confirmed that we were facing east.

“Yeah, those are the Wyvern Heights,” I replied. “Weird to think a place like that has been sitting right beneath our noses this whole time.”

“Well it’s not like we’ve had any way of getting that far down before,” Twilight reasoned before turning to Pinkie Pie. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m good,” she replied, kicking her hind legs up on the console while stifling a yawn. “I’m guessing I missed something fun while I was out.”

“Only if you count nearly being savaged by a horde of monsters fun,” I responded bitterly.

“It has its appeals,” Pinkie said, to which I rolled my eyes. “Weird to think there’s more of those things.”

“Well let’s hope they stay down there,” Twilight muttered darkly, before her expression softened somewhat. “Also… thank you for giving me the mask.”

“Aw, don’t mention it,” Pinkie assured her, pretending to be embarrassed. “Besides… that’s what friends do.”

“Yeah…” Twilight murmured quietly as she looked away from Pinkie again. “I suppose it is.”

“Right, we should probably head towards Pivot,” I said, trying to get the conversation back on track. “I’m sure the others are already there, they’ll probably be really surprised to see us again so soon.”

“Well we weren’t exactly expecting to travel by teleportation express,” Pinkie reasoned, as I began turning the Nautilus about with the aid of my compass. “Wait until you tell your dad about this.”

I smirked at that, remembering my previous idea of going fishing with him sometime. It was starting to sound even more appealing as I commandeered the Nautilus… assuming we were fishing far away from those tentacle monsters. It was early morning when we first rose to the surface, but the Nautilus got us all the way back to the docks north of Pivot, shortly before midday. It was certainly shown to be speedy, now that we had a way of gauging the distance travelled. As we drew close, I could see the dock workers and the sailors, all stopping what they were doing to stare in confusion at the strange object approaching.

Their confusion only increased when Pinkie Pie thought it would be funny to open up the hatch, and lean out to shout ‘ahoy’ as we sailed by, looking for a clear place to stop where we wouldn’t be in the way of the other boats. Once I felt the Nautilus begin to mount the shore, I slowed it down and finished by pulling out the power gem, if only to stop somepony coming by and sailing off with it. Once done, I followed Pinkie and Twilight out of the hatch and onto the shore, where a small crowd had gathered to see what was going on.

“We come in peace!” Pinkie declared in a nasally voice.

Twilight gave her a small push in the back to keep her moving, I walked up to the nearest pony, nobody I recognised.

“Could we just leave this here?” I asked, to which he just stared blankly in response. “It’s a… special kind of boat, but I’d suggest you stay clear of it, as it can be dangerous if you don’t know how to work it.”

“I suppose it wouldn’t be much trouble,” he muttered back in a wary tone. “You’ll be comin’ back for her, right?”

“We’ll come back as soon as we can,” I assured him. “But if we don’t, somepony from the Rebellion will come and take care of it.”

The ponies all nodded knowingly upon the mention of the Rebellion, it seemed to be a good enough reason for them to not ask any more questions and just mind their own business. The crowd dispersed, I could hear them chatting among themselves about what they had just witnessed, some sounding amazed while others seemed nervous. My friends and I set off right away, making for the north of Pivot. It wasn’t long before we arrived and were wandering through the streets, blown away by how well the restoration was coming.

The last time we had been there, most of the work had been confined to the main street, but it definitely seemed to have spread out a lot more since then. The streets were incredibly lively, mainly workers and soldiers, but we saw plenty of ponies who were starting to inhabit the city’s houses in the sections we passed through, on our way to the town hall. Everything seemed to be looking up as we made our way through Pivot, we were quite pleased to see that things continued to be on the rise; it was only when we reached the town square that things began to take a turn.

We came around the town hall, intent on heading up the steps to the entrance, but we didn’t need to go that far, as the ponies we were looking for were all gathered part way up the steps. Stranglethorn was the first to see us approach, tapping Rainbow Dash on the shoulder and pointing in our direction. Rainbow excitedly nudged Applejack and Fluttershy who both turned around and smiled brightly at us. Just past the four of them was Sufferthorn, who hadn’t yet taken notice of us, as she was locked in conversation with the mayor.

As we drew close, none of our friends spoke, I guessed they didn’t want to interrupt what was going on, but I noticed they all wore distinctly stressed out looks.

“I’m sorry Marshal,” the mayor was saying in a cold voice. “I know full well how your relationship with my predecessor worked, and I can assure you I will not be bullied into selling out Pivot to the Rebellion a second time.”

“I am not trying to bully you,” Sufferthorn insisted in a voice edging on anger. “Can’t you see that what we’re trying to do is of the utmost importance to Panchea as a whole?!”

“No,” she replied coolly, ascending the steps by one so she was standing slightly over Sufferthorn. “I do not see how more fighting will help anything, so I will continue to use the city's money as I see fit. If Maverick has a problem with the way I am running things… well, he’s more than welcome to stop sitting in my office all day.”

The mayor glanced over at us, gave a polite nod in my direction before turning and heading back into the town hall. Sufferthorn was still grinding her teeth when she turned around and saw us for the first time.

“What’s happening?” Twilight asked in a concerned voice.

“The mayor is refusing to help fund the Rebel army,” Sufferthorn explained darkly. “Maverick wants to launch an attack on Cragsburg, but the soldiers refuse to do anything without pay.”

“I know how much it sucks being asked to fight for no money,” Rainbow began, kicking her hooves off the stone steps. “But these guys need to realise that this fight is way too important, they shouldn’t be thinking about themselves when the Children of the Earth are torturing and killing ponies.”

“I know this is an important matter,” Fluttershy began nervously. “But they do have their livelihoods to think about, and the lives of their families, especially if… they don’t come back.”

“Exactly Dash,” Applejack agreed before glaring at Sufferthorn. “Besides, Maverick has no right to demand money from this city; it’s only just gettin’ back on its feet.”

“Back on its feet after what the Children of the Earth did to it,” Sufferthorn reminded her sternly.

“Pivot was fallin’ apart long before those cultists showed up,” Applejack replied firmly. “And we all know why that was; we all know who was taken the money that should have been goin’ to restoring this place months ago.”

“Don’t speak to me like I’m the bad guy in all this!” Sufferthorn snapped at Applejack, moving forward dangerously, only to be gently stopped by her brother. “You think I want to take their money? No, but the Children of the Earth have become too big a threat to ignore any longer! You think I wanted to take their money before? Of course not, but it was the only way to stop the Liberators from tearing the Rebellion apart. If they had succeeded then, we wouldn’t be here now trying to save this country from that ticking time bomb in Cragsburg!”

“Okay! Okay!” I exclaimed, jumping in and raising my hooves. “You all make valid points, but this isn’t a time for fighting among ourselves. Sufferthorn, is there no way the Rebels will fight without being paid?”

“Not a chance,” Sufferthorn muttered, her fury draining away. “Their loyalty to Maverick is starting to run dry, while they stay here and help with the restoration scheme, they get all the food and sheltering they need. Plenty of them have moved their families back into Pivot and they look ready to settle down for good, as nothing more than guards and labourers.”

“So money is a must then,” I finished a little despondently, before looking to Rainbow Dash. “What about the Dragoons, surely you’ve discussed it all with Maverick now.”

“I have… although that geezer’s a right bore to talk to,” Rainbow gave off, not noticing the glare Sufferthorn shot her. “A bit creepy too, he kept asking Fluttershy if she wanted to talk in private, and I would always catch him staring at my bu…”

“What she means to say!” Sufferthorn interrupted loudly. “Is the reintegrating of the Dragoons with the Rebellion would take far too long for us to use them in taking Cragsburg. We had discussed the possibility of your friend leading them into battle herself, but she wouldn’t play ball.”

“Hey, I thought it was an alright idea… if you had somepony more experienced in charge,” Rainbow insisted. “I only just managed Anchorage, there’s no way I’d be able to direct a full scale invasion. You could always have me replaced, but then you’d need to find somepony who could best me in a fight, there’s no way I’d be able to throw a challenge and get away with it among those guys.”

“Right, so the Dragoons are a possibility,” I summed up. “We just need to iron out a few details, what about the Liberators? Surely now would be an ideal time to think about reopening negotiations with Typhoon.”

“We… considered it,” Sufferthorn began, chewing on her lip. “But Typhoon sent a fairly definite message that he was not willing to negotiate.”

“Still?!” I uttered in disbelief. “What is he playing at?!”

“He feels his power is waning,” Sufferthorn explained. “And it really is, so he’s responding by holding onto what he has left with dear life.”

“He’s not the only one,” Applejack murmured quietly so Sufferthorn wouldn’t hear her.

“Well what about the Arcane Order?” I went on, before looking hopefully to Stranglethorn. “And Blueblood, did you have any luck finding him?”

Stranglethorn shook his head, looking solemn.

“I’m sorry I left you,” Twilight told him, looking guilty. “That’s… that’s not why you weren’t able to catch him, right?”

“It’s alright Lady Sparkle,” Sufferthorn stepped in. “Arclight was a bust, if Blueblood was ever really there, then he’s long gone now. As for the Arcane Oder, it would seem that they’ve formed a council to replace Arcana, made up of all the most high ranking and intelligent unicorns in the city. They seem intent to carry on with Arcana’s policies of unicorn superiority, but thankfully they spend most of their time arguing over which of them is most important, to actually do anything about pushing beyond Arclight. They could have made things difficult for us if they had decided to try and extend their influence, their battlemage squads are not something to trifle with.”

“Is there no hope of getting them back on our side?” I asked without much enthusiasm.

“They’re still hostile to any messengers we send who aren’t unicorns,” Sufferthorn responded. “Those that are, have reported that they’re pretty firm on their position. Maverick has considered the possibility of an espionage assault, take out the heads and then hurry in to sweep up the pieces. However, that would only be seriously considered if none of our other options yielded any positive results.”

“Right,” I began, considering the options at hand. “Well I agree that we need to do something soon, before the Children can muster another attack. But I don’t want to jeopardise things with the Dragoons by rushing any sort of merger, and I absolutely would not condone taking money from Pivot in order to mobilise the Rebels.”

“So what would you suggest?” Sufferthorn asked, she sounded a little testy, but I could tell she was genuinely interested to hear my opinion.

“I think we should buy ourselves some time,” I began. “If Rainbow Dash can get even more soldiers from Olympus to bolster the defences of Anchorage and Breakwater, as well as finish the operation at Brine, then we should be able to keep the Children of the Earth at bay long enough to get some encouragement for the Rebels to fight again.”

“Sounds like a safe plan,” Sufferthorn replied, sounding almost relieved. “I’ll see if Maverick isn’t busy, I’ll give him the run down, but we’ll all need to have a proper meeting soon. Your friends told us briefly about what happened up north, but they’ve been… a little sketchy on the details.”

“Oh, well what exactly have they been saying?” I asked warily, glancing over at Fluttershy who remained calm, which gave me hope.

“Just how you went to rescue Shy from Cragsburg,” Applejack jumped in. “And how we managed to get in there and get both of you out before anything bad happened.”

“Yes, well as the only agent we’ve had inside Cragsburg for a while,” Sufferthorn began. “We’ll need you to tell us everything that you saw, it could be vital in helping us prepare for future encounters with the Children.”

“Sure,” I said. “Go see Maverick; we’ll be there in a bit.”

With a curt nod, Sufferthorn turned and made her way up the steps to the town hall, Stranglethorn didn’t follow her however. Instead he glanced at me and indicated he wanted to speak in private, I nodded and excused myself from the others. We didn’t go far before Stranglethorn pulled out a crumpled note that he had written in preparation for seeing me, I accepted it with a curious expression, which turned to dread as I read the words. Stranglethorn had been kind enough to look into Lyra while he was in Arclight, but the note confirmed that she was one of the sleeper agents who had disappeared when Blueblood did.

“I… see,” I muttered lamely, unsure what else to say.

Stranglethorn gave me an apologetic look; I pulled him into a gentle hug and felt his whole body stiffen in surprise. I had expected Lyra would be one of the sleeper agents who hadn’t been purged before Blueblood’s escape, her living in Arclight would obviously have made it difficult for the Rebel agents to bring her in. But still, to see it confirmed in Stranglethorn’s writing was… harrowing. Not for the first time, I wondered where Blueblood was and what he was planning. Whatever it was would no doubt be desperate and dangerous, he had pretty much lost everything on the beach that night we captured him.

“Where will you go now?” I asked, as I released him and saw him instantly relax. “Will you keep looking for Blueblood or…”

Stranglethorn just shrugged, wearing a sad expression; clearly the search for Blueblood had hit a dead-end. I wanted to do more to help, and I know Twilight definitely wanted to get back to it, but we both knew that the Covenant and the Children of the Earth were both more pressing matters at the moment.

“Look… I’m sure things will work out,” I tried to say. “Blueblood can’t keep running forever, he doesn’t have enough allies to protect him. Even with the sleeper agents, he isn’t as much of a threat as he once was.”

Stranglethorn still didn’t look convinced, I could tell something was bothering him about the whole thing, and I could take a pretty good guess as to what it was.

“Is this about that Wonderbolt?” I asked, noticing him flinch as I did. “You feel guilty because she got away from you when you tried to capture her, right?”

Stranglethorn nodded reluctantly, not meeting my gaze.

“We all make mistakes Strangle,” I pointed out, before giggling slightly. “Even incredible ponies like yourself, failure is just something we all have to deal with from time to time. But you can’t let them burden you, or else you’ll never overcome them.”

Stranglethorn nodded, but his face had a glazed quality, like he had stopped listening after a certain point.

“Yes Strangle,” I replied with a roll of my eyes, although I was still smirking. “After the times I’ve seen you in action, I’d say you’re pretty incredible. Seriously, I think only Pinkie Pie could stand toe to toe with you.”

Stranglethorn returned my smile before nodding towards the town hall, I bid him farewell and made my way over to where the other five were sat on the stone steps. As I drew closer, I could hear Pinkie Pie telling the epic tale of our adventures that took us from the Nether Vale to the undersea temple. However, as I approached the group she was just reaching the part about the tomb, the others became too shocked by her revelation to pay any more heed to her narration.

“They stole her body?” Fluttershy repeated, looking horrified. “But that’s… that’s awful!”

“I know Fluttershy, it really is,” Pinkie replied, rubbing her back in a soothing motion. “And we can all talk in great length about how awful it is, once I’ve finished my story.”

“And the inscription really said ‘princess’?” Rainbow Dash asked, her head darting between Twilight and Pinkie. “Like, she was an actual Princess?!”

“Indeed it did Rainbow Dash,” Pinkie said solemnly. “Now as I was saying…”

“But hang on,” Applejack interrupted. “Just because the statue was of an alicorn, doesn’t mean this ‘Princess’ was definitely one, right?”

“Well there was unicorn royalty before the unification of the three pony tribes,” Twilight admitted. “But that would have been long before Panchea was even discovered; it would make no sense for one of their bodies to be moved all the way over here.”

“And then the robed pony turned into a horrible monster!” Pinkie declared loudly. “And we started having an awesome fight with it, which you’re all really missing out on!”

“But are you actually suggestin’…” Applejack began once more. “That if this pony really was an alicorn and a princess… that all those stories about the Six… are true?”

“Well let’s not jump to any conclusions,” I cut in, noticing Pinkie throw her hooves up in frustration as she flopped back on the steps. “It’s possible, but then determining whether or not legends are true, is not what’s important here.”

“Yeah, it’s finding those Covenant mules and kicking their asses!” Rainbow finished, punching her hooves together.

“Indeed,” I agreed. “While searching for Blueblood and stopping the Children of the Earth are both incredibly important, I believe this must take precedent over them. Right now, all of our priorities should be focused on finding where this Covenant is hiding and putting a stop to whatever they are up to.”

“Right, so… where do we start?” Applejack asked.

At once we all fell silent, realising that despite how far we’d come we were still no closer to answering that question.

“Does your story have any more information that might help us, Pinkie?” Fluttershy asked hopefully.

“No,” Pinkie muttered simply. “Too late anyway, I’ve lost my momentum.”

“Why don’t we all go for a walk?” Twilight suggested. “See how the town is coming along, clear our heads, maybe come up with something after the shock has died down.”

“Sounds good to me,” Applejack replied, standing up and stretching.

“Yeah,” Rainbow concurred. “I’m pretty sure there’s a coffee place down near the south entrance that just opened up.”

With that settled, we all stood up and starting making our slow way through the town square in the direction of the main street. Before we exited out onto it however, I heard a familiar voice from behind, given away by the odd accent.

“Rarity!” the stallion called out. “Rarity, do you have a moment?”

I glanced around, completely shocked to see the olive stallion with his spectacles and receding mane.

“Cogs?” I said, happy to see him but too confused to express it. “What are you doing here? I thought you were heading back to Equestria.”

My friends all glanced at me, looking confused as to who this new stallion was and how I knew him. I quickly muttered to them to head on and I would catch up.

“I was supposed to be,” Cogs replied, sounding a little disgruntled. “Maverick told me zere was an important diplomat from Equestria who would be sailing back, zat I could travel with her. Zis was some time ago however, apparently there was some kind of delay. I was staying in Glean nearby, but I came here recently when more adequate housing became available.”

“Well I’m glad to see you’re looking well,” I told him genuinely. “And I hope you get back to your sons soon.”

“As do I, as do I,” he agreed. “But my dear, how are you? It has been so long since we first met; no doubt Maverick has kept you busy.”

“I’ve certainly been busy, yes,” I confirmed. “If Maverick isn’t giving me missions, then I usually have something to be working on. Actually, It’s a good thing I ran into you, I came across something recently that you might be interested in.”

“Oh, do tell,” Cogs invited, sounding intrigued.

“On my last mission,” I began. “A couple of my friends and I found a teleporter to a strange undersea temple. This temple was filled with all manner of technology that we’d never seen before, it sort of reminded me of the kind of thing you’d find in Arclight.”

“Interesting…” Cogs replied, stroking his chin thoughtfully. “Where is zis temple? Is zere any way of going zere?”

“I’m afraid it’s not safe,” I replied solemnly. “Most of it was destroyed or flooded by monsters while we there, what’s left is too dangerous to go back to.”

“Ah, a real shame,” Cogs muttered, sorely disappointed.

“Well actually,” I went on. “We were able to escape inside a special kind of boat called the Nautilus; it’s a boat that can swim underwater.”

“An underwater boat?!” Cogs repeated in amazement. “Incredible, even I had never considered such a sing.”

“It reminded me a little of your inventions,” I told him. “I don’t really have much use for it now, but you can take a look at it, see what you can learn from it.”

I passed him the power crystal from my satchel, which he took with trembling hooves.

“You are just giving zis to me?!” he asked in disbelief. “Oh Rarity, you are too kind.”

“Well you’re better with this sort of stuff than I am,” I admitted. “But if you learn anything about it, like who might have built it, then I would really like to know. It might help us in piecing certain things together relating to our current mission.”

“Of course, I will get right on it,” he promised. “It will be nice to have somesing to work on again, I will be sure to pass on anysing I learn directly to you Rarity.”

“Thank you,” I replied with a polite nod and a smile. “It’s at the dock just north of Pivot, impossible to miss. It was nice seeing you again, hopefully our next meeting won’t be so far from now.”

“Indeed, it has been a pleasure as always,” he replied warmly before taking his leave.

With that sorted out, I hurried down the main street to where my friends were already gathering outside the coffee shop. It was already packed with workers, being one of the few places of its kind to be running.

“Hey Rarity,” Rainbow greeted. “Who was that bloke?”

“Just an old acquaintance,” I replied. “I met him through one of my first missions for Maverick. I gave him the crystal for the Nautilus, he knows a thing or two about technology and might be able to tell us more about it.”

“Good idea,” Twilight replied.

“What’s a Nautilus?” Applejack asked.

“Maybe if you had let me finish my story, you’d know,” Pinkie told her in a slightly sinister voice, while wearing a wide grin. “But alas, now we may never know what a Nautilus is.”

“It’s an underwater boat,” Twilight stated simply.

“Twilight?!” Pinkie exclaimed, her shoulders slumping.

I chuckled at the back and forth while Twilight, as uncharacteristic as it was of her, playfully stuck her tongue out at Pinkie Pie. Pinkie couldn’t stay serious for long and quickly shrugged it off, joining in the laughter. We were chatting and joking amiably when a large shadow swooped overhead, accompanied by the beating of great wings. We all silenced and looked up to see a massive black bird flying past us, heading just out of the city limits. I glanced about, while all my friends had stopped to look at it, nopony else waiting in line outside the shop seemed to have taken notice.

The bird circled for a bit before descending to the ground, where it perched onto an errant section of picket fence, staring directly towards us. Fluttershy took the lead, stepping out of the line as if in a trance and heading towards the bird. I followed, feeling a strange sense of familiarity as I squinted at the bird, the others all fell into step behind me. As we got close, I realised that this bird was a crow, a massive one at that. Its jet black feathers, steely grey legs with those claws and talons that looked as sharp as knives, and those eyes that felt like it was staring straight into my soul, this bird could not be mistaken for any other.

It was the same crow I had seen on the Siren all those weeks ago, the one that Feather Duster had been unable to see, the same one form the story Granny Willow had told me.

“King Crow…” I breathed, a strange feeling of certainty in my heart.

The crow cawed at us, we all stepped back slightly at how sudden it was, but Fluttershy remained steadfast, never taking her eyes off it.

“Fluttershy…” I began hesitantly. “Can you understand it?”

Fluttershy nodded absent mindedly as the crow continued to caw; now appearing more focused on her than any of the rest of us.

“He’s telling us… that it’s time,” Fluttershy translated in a slow voice. “Time for us to be tested… tested on the Isle of…”

Fluttershy suddenly fell silent as her eyes widened, she spun around to face us, her whole body was trembling as she tried to speak.

“T… the Isle… of Serenity!” she stammered.

Five jaws dropped simultaneously as we took in what Fluttershy was telling us. I hadn’t been exaggerating earlier when I said that everypony knew of the mysterious Isle of Serenity, located off the southeast corner of Panchea. Forbidden to all but the most righteous, invited personally by the island's inhabitants to take their pilgrimage. I was glad to see that I wasn’t the only one who was taking this news with a huge amount of shock.

“The Isle of Serenity?” Applejack repeated in disbelief.

“As in, the Isle of Serenity?” Rainbow Dash added.

Fluttershy nodded, although it might have just been her head shaking with the same force the rest of her body was.

“And they want… us?” Twilight asked, looking most excited out of all of us.

“As in, all of us?” Pinkie added.

Again Fluttershy nodded, this time more determined.

“When?” I asked, feeling my own excitement building up.

Fluttershy took a deep breath as she prepared to answer.

“Right now.”

Author's Note

End of Part 8

LXV - Agnostic

Author's Note

Part 9

LXV - Agnostic

There was a long, drawn out silence following Fluttershy’s declaration. I opened my mouth before closing it again, humming as I tried to wrap my head around what I just heard.

“When you say right now…” Rainbow began, now sounding doubtful.

“I… I’m not sure either,” Fluttershy admitted, glancing nervously back at King Crow, who remained perched on the picket fence. “That’s what he said.”

There was another series of cawing and Fluttershy turned, listening intently while the rest of us exchanged bewildered and tense glances. Finally King Crow stopped making noise and unfolded one of his wings, reaching in with his head and plucking out a large feather with his beak. He made a short squawking noise and Fluttershy stepped forward uneasily, accepting the feather. After a few more caws the crow beat its wings hard and lifted off, flapping away into the sunset.

“So what did he say?” Twilight asked eagerly, stepping over to where Fluttershy stood.

“He said that the boat will be leaving at sunrise tomorrow,” she replied, still staring down at the feather in her hoof. “If we’re not on it, then we will fail the first trial.”

“Sunrise?!” Applejack exclaimed. “How in the hay are we supposed to get all the way south in one night?”

“Even I can’t fly that fast,” Rainbow added. “Well… I can, but that’s no help because I’m not about to carry you all on my back.”

“Well…” Fluttershy began awkwardly, looking directly at Twilight. “He wanted you to have this feather.”

Twilight took a step back, gawking at Fluttershy.

“Me?” she uttered. “Like, he wanted me specifically to have it?”

“Yes,” Fluttershy confirmed, holding it out for her. “He said that if you truly possess superior knowledge, then you will know how to use it.”

Twilight glanced between me and the others, looking unsure, but at the same time excited by what she was hearing. She finally took the feather in her magic and examined it closely, bringing it close to her face as she stared intently at it.

“Well…” she began slowly. “If knowledge is the key, perhaps he was expecting me to use this as part of some magic. I can think of a number of spells and rituals where a feather like this would make a suitable reagent… perhaps even a mass teleport.”

“That must be what he was talking about,” Pinkie said. “Or cawing about.”

“So it’s possible?” I asked tentatively.

“I think so,” Twilight replied. “I’ll need a couple hours and some other ingredients. Pinkie Pie, would you be able to lend me a hoof?”

“Me?” Pinkie questioned, sounding genuinely surprised.

“These are some very… specialist ingredients,” Twilight stated.

“Sure, you can count on me!” Pinkie declared, saluting Twilight even as she was turning to look at me.

“You might want to go explain the situation to Maverick,” Twilight suggested. “Or come up with a convincing lie, whichever you think is better.”

“Hang on!” Rainbow cut in. “I thought we said our priority was these Covenant guys, how come we’re suddenly running off after this crow?”

“She’s got a point,” Applejack agreed. “As much as ah’d hate to pass up an opportunity like this, we do have important business to be gettin’ on with.”

“I guess that’s true…” I admitted, feeling a little disheartened at the thought of not seeing the Isle first hand.

“Actually girls,” Fluttershy jumped in. “I think this might actually help us with what we’re trying to do.”

“How do you figure?” Rainbow asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I… I’m not entirely sure,” Fluttershy admitted. “But something about the timing of this doesn’t feel like a coincidence, I think it might be linked to the pony missing from that tomb. And since we don’t have any leads on where to search for the Covenant… maybe this is our best chance.”

“That… sounds like a fair assumption,” Applejack replied after a moment of contemplation.

“I’m not about to argue with it,” Rainbow agreed, sounding satisfied. “But if we’re leaving, I’m gonna have to send word to Gale, make sure the troops don’t lose the Lesser Pastures while we’re gone.”

“Sure, let’s go to the town hall,” I proposed. “You can write your letter there and have a Rebel agent deliver it.”

With our plan made, we returned back the way we came, making for the town hall while Twilight and Pinkie Pie stayed where we had met with King Crow, to begin preparations for the mass teleportation. Once in the entrance hall, we were immediately greeted by Sufferthorn once more, who started talking to us about meeting with Maverick before I interrupted her and explained the situation. She was initially annoyed at the idea of us leaving at a time like this, but I think she realised how important it must be and finally decided she wasn’t one to argue with the inhabitants of the Isle.

“I’ll let Maverick know,” she said at last. “He won’t be happy about it, but I’m sure he knows the stories too, he won’t try to stand in your way.”

“Well thank you for understanding,” I told her. “Needless to say we don’t know how long we’ll be away, but we’ll come right back here as soon as we can.”

“What about the Dragoons?” Sufferthorn asked, looking over my shoulder at Rainbow Dash who was hunched over the secretary’s desk writing out her letter.

“Rainbow is making some arrangements,” I explained. “Could you arrange for a carrier to take her orders to her Squadron Leader?”

“Sure, where at?” she replied.

“She was at Brine before it was attacked,” I informed her. “We’re hoping she’s still there… or at the very least she’s alive somewhere.”

Sufferthorn left to find a pony for the job, while I went over and helped Rainbow finish up her letter, it turned out she wasn’t too eloquent when it came to wording her requests. When it was done, the plan would be for Gale to call in more troops to Anchorage and Brine, forming a blockade around the latter to stop any Children from heading towards Brine, Breakwater or Olympus, while staying clear of the town itself.

“Let’s just hope I wasn’t overthrown while I was away,” Rainbow muttered as she passed her letter onto the messenger Sufferthorn had called for.

I was about to open my mouth to reply, when I saw a fuming Maverick storming towards us from the mayor’s office, Sufferthorn trotting after him, talking rapidly.

“Rarity!” he exclaimed, storming right up to me. “What is the meaning of this?! You can’t go gallivanting off at a time like this; we need you here ready for duty.”

“Maverick, we received a summons from the Isle of Serenity,” I explained calmly. “There’s no ignoring that kind of summons.”

“Well you’re going to have to!” he retorted, his once sickly sweet voice now brimming with anger. “You’ve been getting side-tracked far too often this last while. For a while I was convinced you might be one of the best agents the Rebellion had, but it seems like the rest of those soldiers out there, you’ve forgotten where your loyalties lie.”

“Excuse me,” I snapped back, standing up straight. “I hope I haven’t misled you this whole time, but I accepted your missions, not because I was your agent, but because I believed we were both working towards a greater goal. My friends and I continue to do so, whether it’s by taking on your jobs or by doing our own thing, in this case it’s the latter.”

“Sir, this isn’t worth getting worked up over,” Sufferthorn tried to tell Maverick. “Rarity has always been clear on where she stands with the Rebellion, and she’s done more than enough for us to trust her in making her own decisions.”

I was rather touched by her words, but it didn’t seem to have the desired effect on Maverick.

“Have you forgotten your place Marshal?!” he demanded, spinning to face her. “I have, for a long time, counted you among my most trusted, but recently you have been disappointing me.”

Sufferthorn took a step back, looking pained by his sudden outburst. I saw something out of the corner of my eye, and looked over in time to see Stranglethorn had swooped in behind Maverick, and was now looking down at him with an intense glare. Sufferthorn saw him and urgently shook her head; he backed off immediately before Maverick could turn around and see how close he had come to being brutally murdered.

“Ah, Stranglethorn, good timing,” he said in a choppy voice. “Rarity is refusing to see reason here, be sure that she does not leave the city unless under express orders from me.”

Stranglethorn glanced at Sufferthorn, who gave a silent sigh before shaking her head again, this time in a much gentler motion. Stranglethorn looked back down at Maverick and glared, making his answer abundantly clear. Maverick gaped back at him, his eyes darting back and forth between the siblings and myself.

“So is this it?!” he exclaimed in a hysterical voice, backing up from us all. “After everything I’ve done for you all, for Panchea, you would defy me?!”

“Sir, we are not trying to defy you,” Sufferthorn insisted in a worn out voice. “We are still on the same side, but… but you are being completely unreasonable.”

“I’m being unreasonable?!” he repeated in a strained voice, almost screeching.

I stared in shock at him, such a dramatic change in persona, what could have come over him?

“No…” he murmured, seeming to calm down somewhat. “No, I see how it is. You’re right… I am being unreasonable.”

I shared a confused look with Sufferthorn as Maverick straightened himself up.

“You’re right, of course,” he continued in an unconvincing attempt at his old sweet voice. “Rarity can go after this crow, and we will await her return. Then we can work together to plan our next move against the Children of the Earth.”

With that said, he turned and hurriedly made his exit, leaving the four of us staring dumbfounded after him.

“What the absolute hay!” Rainbow finally exclaimed. “What is up his butt?!”

“Did something happen?” I asked Sufferthorn, who just shook her head, looking as lost as I felt.

“I have no idea what’s wrong with him,” she replied. “Maybe… maybe it’s just the stress of his office. Yes, I’m sure it’s just that. You girls should head on now; we’ll make sure everything is okay here while you’re gone.”

I nodded firmly to the pair of them, before Rainbow Dash and I turned to take our leave. Once outside we found Applejack and Fluttershy, Rainbow quickly told them what happened, Fluttershy was concerned while Applejack was downright fuming after.

“This is exactly what I talked about Rarity,” she told me. “I warned you that if you ever tried to back out, they wouldn’t like it.”

“But I’m not even backing out,” I insisted. “It’s not like I’m cutting ties with them completely, we’re literally just going south to do our own thing for a short while, it’s not even the first time we have. Besides, it’s only Maverick who has the problem, Stranglethorn and Sufferthorn have my back.”

“Funny, you once told me she definitely hated you,” Applejack reminded me. “Still, ah don’t like this one bit. As far as ah’m concerned, this is Maverick showin’ his true colours. He might talk big about wanting the best for this country and the ponies who live in it, but scratch that surface and he’s just another tyrant who wants to rule over everypony else.”

“Just another Iron Sights,” Rainbow muttered darkly.

I bit my lip, these were all thoughts I’d had before, but hearing my friends state them so clearly, right after seeing how Maverick acted in there was something else entirely. It worried me to think that no matter how far we came, there appeared to be no end to number of threats and enemies we would face. I was pulled out of my thoughts by Fluttershy who placed a comforting hoof on my shoulder.

“Why don’t we head back to Twilight and Pinkie?” she suggested, to which I nodded. “And look on the bright side; if Sufferthorn really did hate you before, I doubt she does anymore.”

“Yeah…” I murmured, glancing back at the Town Hall as we walked.

When we reached the outskirts, we found Pinkie bouncing in circles around Twilight, who was mashing her ingredients into a metal dish. She sat in the centre of a white ring that looked big enough for all six of us to stand inside, while she worked on the ingredients, she was also holding her sceptre separately in her magic and using it to inscribe white runes around the circle.

“So let me get this straight,” Rainbow began as she scratched her head in confusion, while staring at the runes as they were written out. “This spell is going to teleport us straight to the Isle of Serenity?”

“Actually,” Twilight began without looking up from her work. “From what Fluttershy said about a boat, I believe it will teleport us to the pier on the mainland.”

“And it will just do it like ‘that’?” she questioned, punctuating her statement with a single stomp of the hoof. “Then why isn’t this kind of magic used more often for travelling?”

“Because it requires some very… rare components,” Twilight explained. “This feather we were given in particular. You see, there must also be a receptacle at the destination we wish to travel to, and in order to traverse from one location to the next, there must be someone waiting on the other side with the same type of feather in order to let us through.”

“Sounds… simple enough,” Rainbow replied slowly.

“It’s okay Rainbow,” I told her. “I don’t get it either. For example, what’s to say this is what King Crow had in mind? If it’s not, then how do we even know there’s another receptacle at the end, or that he will be there with his… well, his feathers?”

“That’s the thing,” Twilight began awkwardly. “We don’t know for certain, and if I’m wrong, then the feather will still be destroyed in the process and we’ll never be able to get down there in time.”

“That sounds like a big gamble,” Applejack pointed out.

“It should be okay,” Fluttershy argued. “I mean, no offence to everypony, but I think Twilight is probably the smartest among us. If this is what she thinks will work, then I trust her… again, no offence, I don’t think any of you are not smart.”

“I agree!” Pinkie declared. “This kind of thing must be like magic kindergarten to Twilight!”

“That crow wanted you to have the feather,” Applejack said to Twilight. “If he trusts you to know what to do with it, then who am ah to argue?”

“Yeah, so let’s get that portal opened!” Rainbow exclaimed, sounding pumped.

“Thank you girls,” Twilight replied as she stood up, her preparations complete. “I’ll be honest… I was a little doubtful, but your faith means a lot.”

“Are we ready to go now?” I asked her, to which she nodded.

“If everypony could stand in the circle,” Twilight instructed while she put her sceptre away. “You can lean out over the edge, just so long as all four hooves are touching the ground inside the circle.”

We all set about squeezing ourselves into the space, which now seemed much smaller that we were actually packed into it, not to mention the fact that we were all decked out in weapons, armour and baggage. Once we were all sorted however, Twilight levitated the metal dish above our heads, I don’t think it was necessary to have it that high up, but it was too cramped to work with it any lower. Once she was ready, she ignited it and a white flame burst into life in the dish, Twilight’s own eyes began to turn pale as she started chanting in a most peculiar language I had never heard before.

Rainbow began sniggering quietly next to me, and I had to elbow her in the ribs to silence her. Although as Twilight continued to chant, I was finding it harder to keep from laughing myself, the smug look Rainbow gave me, made it clear she knew. As Twilight’s chant came to an end, the white circle around us and all the runes flared to life, a wall of white fire circling around us, reaching as high as our shoulders. We all instinctively tried to step further back away from the fire, all except Pinkie, who giggled as she stuck her face into the wall and let it tickle her nose.

Twilight didn’t seem to notice any of this; her eyes were still dead looking as she ceased her chanting altogether and floated the feather up to the dish. It hovered inside the fire for a moment, nothing happening until Twilight’s horn began to glow violently. She unleashed a blast of magic into the dish, and all at once the fire turned from white to jet black, the feather disintegrating instantly. As it was destroyed, the fire around us turned from white to black, and shot up into the heavens until we were encased in a swirling, black inferno.

The entire spectacle, as awesome and terrifying as it was, only lasted a few second before the entire pillar of fire dissipated, and we were left standing, not outside Pivot in the dusk, but on the shore underneath a starry sky. We all looked about us at the misty coast, while Twilight’s eyes returned to normal and she swayed slightly on the spot. The metal dish was gone, and beneath our hooves, a plain circle had been scorched into the ground.

“Did it work?” Fluttershy asked as she wobbled about on her hooves.

“I h… hope so…” Rainbow replied looking slightly more green than blue. “I think I’m g… gonna hurl.”

I too felt my head spinning slightly as I stepped out of the circle and looked about, I would certainly not want that as a more common form of transport. I was distracted from my weariness by a loud cawing from behind us, turning in response, I saw King Crow perched on a short marble pillar, topped with a stone basic filled with ash. In the distance, down on the beach, I could see a short wooden pier, and beyond that I could see the faint silhouette of an island. We all made our way over to the pillar where the crow perched, like last time, Fluttershy was the first to reach him and he began communicating with her. This time it was much shorter, only a few noises before he took off, flying towards the Isle and disappearing into the darkness.

“What did he say this time?” Twilight asked as she walked up beside Fluttershy.

“Just reminding us that the boat would be here at sunrise,” she replied. “And that he would only see us again if we reached the temple at the centre of the Isle.”

“We should get some rest then,” Applejack proposed “Who knows what we’ll be expected to do over there, ah’d much rather have my energy.”

“I agree,” I concurred, only then realising how exhausted I was. “Twilight, could you…”

“Way ahead of you,” she replied, tracing out six rectangles on the grass.

“Are we… supposed to sleep here?” Rainbow Dash asked in confusion as she prodded the nearest patch of grass. “Well it’s no cloud, but it’s still pretty damn soft.”

I lay down on my own patch, feeling myself drifting off immediately. As I began to doze off, I could hear the others discussing in anxious voices what awaited us the next morning. I would have liked to stay up and join in, but my own excitement wasn’t enough to keep my eyes open. When I woke up, it was still dark, although a slight orange haze on the horizon told me that morning wouldn’t be far off. The others were all asleep, so I stood up quietly so as not to disturb them, and crept down to the shore.

I was feeling groggy, vague memories of foggy forests and running from Wights still sticking with me, even after I had awoken. I crouched on the sand, scraping out random lines and shapes with my hoof while I waited. Levitating out my compass and spyglass, I looked them over, checking there were still no scratches or blemishes. I turned my attention to the sea stretching out beyond me, somewhere across all that, my parents and sister were still waiting for me, waiting for some sign that I was still alive and well. Not for the first time, I stopped and wondered why I never sent that letter. If I thought about it for a minute, I could see how childish I was being… so I just stopped thinking about it.

“Morning Rarity,” a soft voice greeted from behind me.

I jumped slightly, as I turned and saw Fluttershy standing behind me. Either she was a lot sneakier than we realised, or I had been too wrapped up in my thoughts to hear her approach.

“Morning,” I replied, inviting her to sit down beside me.

She did without another word; she kept glancing between the Isle in the distance, which was slowly becoming clearer, and a seemingly random point behind us.

“Thinking about home?” I asked, knowing how close we were to the Bask.

“Yeah,” Fluttershy murmured back. “This all feels so surreal… coming here of all places. I heard the stories growing up; the Sisterhood believes the Isle of Serenity is in some way linked with the Six. There have been sisters in the past who have been invited, none in my time, I’m pretty sure the last one was over a hundred years ago. If they returned, which they didn’t always, they would never tell anypony what they saw or learnt on the Isle.”

“Must have been frustrating for the other sisters,” I commented. “To know somepony who might have all the answers you’ve been seeking, but that they won’t share them with you.”

“I imagine so, but the Sisterhood respects the Isle too much to dare force one of their sister to reveal its secrets,” Fluttershy went on. “Rarity, can I ask you something?”

“You already did dear,” I pointed out with a smirk. “But of course you may.”

“Do you believe in the Six?” Fluttershy asked in an oddly tense voice.

“Uh, excuse me?” I asked, but the look she gave me made it clear she wasn’t about to repeat herself. “I… I’m not actually sure to be honest, why are you asking this now?”

“Ever since I left the Bask,” Fluttershy began. “I’ve been encountering more and more ponies who treat them like they’re just myths, like they aren’t real.”

“Well… that’s because a lot of ponies believe that,” I explained slowly, worried this conversation was going to take a turn for the worse.

“Yeah, I got that,” Fluttershy replied in an uncharacteristically curt tone. “While you, Twilight and Pinkie were away, I was talking to Applejack and Rainbow Dash about it, they both seem fairly agnostic about it as well.”

“Does it really bother you?” I asked in a concerned voice.

“No,” she said quickly before biting her lip. “Well… I don’t know. It’s just… growing up in the Celestial Sisterhood, I was raised to believe that they were all real, and that while only Princess Celestia remained in this world, the others still watched over us from wherever they are now. I never even knew until I left the Bask, that they were seen as little more than stories by so many, I guess… the idea that what I’ve believed my whole life might be wrong is… depressing.”

“I suppose I can understand that,” I muttered, the thought never having occurred to me in all the time Fluttershy had travelled with us. “But you know… it really doesn’t matter whether they are real or not.”

Fluttershy frowned at me, giving me just enough time to quickly throw together something encouraging on the spot.

“Because we would still have real things to live for,” I continued. “We would still have friends and family who we care about, and know care for us in return. We would still uphold harmony through kindness and generosity and… uh, the other ones, not because we wanted to follow in the hoofsteps of another, but because we know as individuals, that it’s the right thing to do. So it wouldn’t matter if the Six were nothing more than superstitious stories, because we would still find things in life to make ourselves better for, to always be good ponies, and isn’t that what’s really important in life?”

“I…” Fluttershy began before hesitating, a distant look on her face. “I hadn’t thought about it that way… thank you Rarity, I… I feel much better.”

“It’s alright, we’re friends,” I reminded her.

“Thank you for that as well,” she added, smiling at me. “For being my friend.”

We sat in silence for a moment and watched the sun rise, averting our gaze when the light became too intense to stare any longer.

“It’ll be time soon,” I said quietly, feeling my heart start to race. “We should wake the others.”

“I’ll go,” Fluttershy offered as we both stood up, however she hesitated right before walking away. “You never did answer my question, do you believe in the Six?”

“I… I certainly learned of them growing up,” I began, pondering the question. “I would always have liked to believe in them, I always saw it as a comforting thought… but I was too logical to seriously see them as anything other than tall tales.”

“Alright then,” Fluttershy replied as she took her leave, she didn’t sound upset or even annoyed.

“Although,” I called after her, flashing her a grin. “Considering what we learned in the Demon Shaft, you shouldn’t lose your faith just yet, you might be on the winning side.”

LXVII - The Father And The Grandmaster

The land beyond the mountain was a vast, open expanse. Slightly hilly, but for the most part it was a relatively flat plain. The temple sat some distance away, a surprisingly small structure, wide and circular with a shallow domed roof. There were other smaller buildings dotted around it, with little cobbled paths connecting them; everything seemed to be constructed from neatly carved stone… but now the walls were crumbling, the roofs caved in, some buildings had been demolished almost entirely. I could see evidence that there were once great gardens surrounding the temple, but they too were torn up, the little life remaining now overgrown and unkempt.

Between us and the temple, was a sea of ponies, all of them wearing armour, all of them long dead. As I scanned my eyes over the plains, I could see bodies impaled by spears, some that had their heads separated from their torsos, and others who had their limbs twisted and broken. There were broken barricades and trampled tents, half dug trenches and stacks of charred corpses, which had long since been extinguished. There was no doubt in my mind that what we were looking out over, was the site of some horrific battle, the bodies simply left behind for the crows to peck through in the aftermath.

So many questions rung in my head, as we all stared in solemn silence at the scene before us. Was this for real or was it another trial? If it was real, then what happened here? Who was fighting who? How long ago was it? And who came out of this mass slaughter the victor? I gulped and turned my gaze to my friends, who all look as appalled as I felt. Nopony spoke, none of them could bring themselves too, I know I felt the same. Pinkie was the first to step forward, heading down the slope as if caught in a trance. Rainbow followed, then Applejack, and finally Twilight, all staring around themselves with miserable looks.

I was about to put one hoof in front of the other, when I heard a quiet sniffing behind me. Glancing back, I saw Fluttershy staring out, her eyes welling up with tears. I backtracked over to where she stood and reached out, taking her hoof in my own before she met my gaze and I offered her a sympathetic expression. She gulped before allowing herself to walk with me, together we followed after the others who had silently spread out and were now navigating the battlefield, occasionally stopping to look closer at something.

As we got close enough that we were walking in between the bodies, I was able to tell who the soldiers had been. The steel armour of the Rebellion I recognised easily, and the gold of the Equestrian soldiers I remembered from my time in Canterlot. This battle must have taken place during the war, perhaps quite early on, as the armour they wore and the weapons discarded were all weathered and rusted. Other things I picked up on, that suggested a long passage of time, was the how despite the trampling and tearing up of the ground beneath so many hooves, there were shoots of grass sprouting up once more, in some areas there were full tufts.

I finally stopped at a random pony, my morbid curiosity taking over as I let go of Fluttershy’s hoof and knelt down beside him. He was pretty much nothing but bone now, strips of dried, rotten flesh that had been missed by the flies and crows plastered over them. His skeleton was curled up slightly, his forelegs looked to be clutching his side, perhaps where he had been mortally wounded. I could almost imagine him falling to the ground, being left to die a slow and painful death, while all around him the battle raged on, everypony else too busy slaughtering or being slaughtered to spare him a glance.

Looking back up, I swept my gaze across the plains once more, taking in the sheer number of bodies. There had to have been hundreds scattered about, both sides seemed to have a fairly equal number of casualties. Once again I found myself wondering who had actually walked away from this fight.

Whoever they were, they didn’t seem to have much care for respecting the dead. True, some had been burned, but it was only a tiny minority, and really they had simply been lobbed onto the pile, no real respect appeared to be involved.

Looking back up, I could see Fluttershy was openly crying now. I wondered if it was for all the dead around her, or the fact that they had set hoof on such sacred land and desecrated it with battle, probably both knowing her. Looking to my other friends, I saw that they were keeping it together, but like myself, they looked empty, wearing lost looks as they drifted about almost aimlessly. Standing back up, I took Fluttershy’s hoof once more and led her in the direction of the temple, although it felt miles away, and the number of bodies we were forced to pass seemed endless.

As I gazed over body after body, left exactly as they were in their final moments, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for them. Of course a part of me felt angry that they could defy centuries of tradition and bring the war to this most precious of lands, but I found it hard to keep up that anger as I thought about how they had been simply left here to rot under the sun. Perhaps they had family, friends or loved ones, other ponies in their lives who had cared for them and were left lying awake at night, wondering where they had gone and why they never came back.

My first thought was of Applejack, what if she had been among these soldiers? What if she had defiled this place and died here along with all the others? How would her family feel back at Sweet Apple Acres? Always looking out the window in the hopes that they would one day see their beloved sister walking up the lane, always waiting, never knowing that it was an impossible dream. No, I couldn’t hate these soldiers; I didn’t know who they were or why they had come here. Perhaps the blame lay not in them at all, but in the ones who had sent them here, after all, hundreds of soldiers didn’t just travel to a forbidden island without somepony giving the order…

We eventually drew close to the temple, my friends all converging in our position until we were once again walking together in silence. Only when we reached the outskirts of the temple grounds, did we stop and I let go of Fluttershy’s hoof, who immediately let out a shuddering breath as she looked over the deserted place.

“Why did this happen?” she asked in a hopeless tone, breaking the silence.

“Is this even real?” Twilight questioned, a slight hint of desperation in her tone. “Is it not possible… that this is just another trial?”

Nopony answered, we all wanted to believe it but… something felt different this time. I couldn’t begin to explain it, but a part of me just knew without being told that this was no trial, and Twilight knew it too despite asking.

“If this is real,” Pinkie began after a moment of uncomfortable quiet. “Then what are these soldiers even doing here? The Isle of Serenity is supposed to be forbidden, coming here without permission is one thing, but coming here to fight…”

“Ah never once heard about a battle here,” Applejack announced.

“Me neither,” Rainbow concurred. “I heard about them all, battles in Arclight to skirmishes in Daybreak Landing, but not this, never this…”

“Maverick wouldn’t order his troops here,” Twilight stated, although it sounded like she was seeking confirmation on it. “Even he wouldn’t sink so low. I know for a fact that the Princess and I had nothing to do with this, we may have allowed a lot of bad things to happen during the war before we could put a stop to it, but we would never have allowed this.”

“I don’t think Maverick is nearly foolish enough to be behind this,” I replied without much confidence.

“He was pretty determined for you not to come here,” Rainbow reminded me. “Could he have been trying to hide something?”

“I… I don’t know,” I admitted. “Hundreds of soldiers don’t just end up on the Isle of Serenity by accident; somepony had to plan it, who besides Maverick could have done that? Typhoon maybe, or…”

Pinkie gasped, as realisation dawned on her.

“Or Arcana!” she finished urgently, looking me in the eye with an intense stare.

“The troops he moved…” I breathed, the same realisation hitting me. “The ones Maverick tasked me to find out about…”

“The same ones that Iron Sights helped with?” Rainbow asked tensely. “When Arcana gave him the Terrorstone to keep quiet about it?”

“Yeah,” I confirmed with a small nod. “Arcana moved them with Iron Sights’ help, without Maverick or Typhoon knowing. He moved them here, at the request of…”

I felt my heart stop dead in my chest as the last piece fell into place.

“The Covenant,” Pinkie finished in a dark tone.

“They’re behind this?!” Applejack exclaimed.

“They broke into the tomb of a Princess,” Fluttershy began in a voice which was equal parts horrified and furious. “And they now they’re responsible for this!”

“I think Pinkie might be right,” Twilight muttered. “The more we learn about the Covenant, the things they do, the things they’re capable of…”

“The more we have to stop them,” I stated firmly.

“Ah get that they used Arcana to shift the Rebels here,” Applejack started in a thoughtful tone. “But who did they use to get the Equestrians here?”

“I don’t know,” Twilight admitted. “Knowing this all happened right beneath my nose, and most likely by somepony I know and trust…”

“We’ll find out who’s responsible for this,” Pinkie assured her. “We’ll make sure everyone who had a hoof in this faces justice.”

We all nodded stoically, turning to face the temple once more, preparing ourselves for what we might find within. Twilight took the lead this time, walking slowly down the cobbled path towards the temple itself. We followed behind her, as we walked, I glanced around at the other buildings, peering through the busted doors and windows at the interiors. There was very modest furniture inside, usually toppled or broken, as if someone had ransacked the rooms. Everything about them suggested they were once homes to the ponies who lived on the Isle, however it was obvious that nopony had inhabited them for some time.

It was easier to see just how badly the area was devastated now that we were walking through it. There were statues, it was hard to tell since they were mostly blasted to pieces, but they didn’t appear to depict anypony important, they seemed to be more artistic and decorative. There were nice little features dotted around the gardens, little marble birdbaths, sundials sitting on pedestals and even the broken remains of a gazebo. I could see beyond the destruction and knew that once upon a time this would have been a beautiful place to live, incredibly serene, perfect for the monk like lifestyle the ponies living here undoubtedly led.

Twilight reached the front of the temple, a tall, but narrow set of double doors made from fairly simple, plain wood, led inside. They appeared to be slightly ajar, but that was mostly likely due to the way the lock was smashed, as if they had been forced open with a battering ram. When we reached Twilight’s side, she was busy scanning over the door with her horn, she also had her sceptre drawn.

“Are you looking for something in particular?” Fluttershy asked curiously.

“Not really,” Twilight admitted. “Just making sure it’s all safe before we go walking in.”

“That sounds smart,” Applejack commented as she crouched down.

We waited for a moment for Twilight to finish, however as she worked, she started to frown, moving away from the door around the left side of the temple before stepping further out.

“Something up?” Rainbow questioned.

“There is a huge amount of magic surrounding this place,” Twilight explained as her horn dimmed. “It’s as if thousands of spells have been woven into this area, spells even I don’t recognise.”

“I suppose that’s not so weird,” I replied casually. “Something had to create those trials, and if this place is empty, then perhaps it wasn’t a pony, but rather the temple itself.”

“That sounds like a good explanation,” Twilight said, giving me a nod. “But I think it might go even deeper than that.”

“Should we head in now?” Applejack asked, indicating the doors with her head.

Twilight nodded in response and Applejack stood up, heading towards the doors and gently pushing one open, sticking her head in and checking around before opening the door fully. We all entered in single file, I entered fourth, finding the single room of the temple to be rather dim in lighting. There was a hole in the centre of the domed roof, as well as about a dozen windows lining the wall, but they were so narrow, they were more like slits and they barely let any natural light in at all. Fluttershy entered last, opening both doors wide to let the light of the evening sun pour in, making things a bit better.

The inside of the temple was just as plain as everything else, a simple tile floor with a basic geometric pattern, what looked like stone bookshelves lining the walls between each of the windows, stretching from the floor to the ceiling. All the bookshelves' contents were stripped from them, most of which looked to be strewn across the floor. There were torn pages plastered all over the ground, even whole books thrown careless down, their spines split and their paper spilling out. I picked a sheet up at random and tried to read it, but it was written in gibberish, bizarre symbols and letters cobbled together with no distinct formatting.

As I stared at the page however, the ink began to flash and change, the letters never staying the same for very long. It looked to be the same with all the pages and books I picked up, not a single one of them contained anything useful or even legible. Twilight had noticed this too, I saw her pick one book us, look momentarily disappointed before setting it gently back down without giving them another thought.

“Uh, guys…” Rainbow began, flying a quick circle of the room. “I hate to break it to you, but unless there’s some kind of secret chamber hidden here, I think there’s nothing to find.”

Taking that as a suggestion, I pulled out my lantern and lit it up, walking around the temple and holding it close to the ground in the hopes it would reveal something. The others watched me with anticipation, until I had covered pretty much every inch and dug up nothing of use. I put my lantern away and gave them a miserable look, they all sighed in response.

“What’s up with these books?” Applejack asked, nudging one with her hoof. “It’s all gobble de gook.”

“What do you mean?” Pinkie asked, sounding genuinely confused as she sat cross legged, reading a book upside down like it was no problem.

“It’s a spell I learned when I was a teenager,” Twilight explained. “Basically it’s a security spell if you don’t want somepony reading your stuff. A deceptively simple spell for something actually quite powerful, it can only be undone by the caster.”

“So the ponies who lived here, made it so the invaders couldn’t read their books?” Fluttershy queried. “They must have had lots of secrets inside.”

“And even you can’t break it?” I asked.

“No,” Twilight admitted before something occurred to her. “Although…”

She held up her sceptre, filling it with magic.

“This thing has surprised me a few time recently,” she went on to say, levitating the nearest book over to her which she pointed her sceptre at.

We waited a moment to see if it would yield any results, but Twilight’s look of dismay told us everything we needed to know. Twilight lowered the book before casting a woeful look at her sceptre.

“It would be nice if Princess Celestia was straight with me about what this really was,” she muttered, giving it a weary wave like it was a magic wand.

The pink orb was still glowing as she swept the sceptre through the air, and as she did, the orb flashed brightly, seeming to sense something. We all blinked in confusion, while Twilight held the sceptre before her, looking equally nonplussed at what it had just done. She looked to us as if seeking an explanation, and received only shrugs in return. Narrowing her eyes, she seemed to be contemplating something, then she held the sceptre straight out before lowering the end with the orb towards the ground. She began walking around; scanning the room with her sceptre in the same way I had with my lantern.

We watched as she worked, although we weren’t overly eager that this was going to be the thing that achieved something, so imagine our surprise when she reached a point near the centre of the room and the orb flashed once more. This time the orb stayed shining brightly, and directly in front of it, hovering several inches off the ground, a second orb of ethereal, icy blue light began to materialise. We all moved in, crowding around it and staring at it curiously, intrigued by what Twilight had stumbled upon.

“What is it?” Fluttershy asked, the pale blue light reflected in her eyes. “It’s very pretty.”

“I think…” Twilight began, quirking an eyebrow as if she was trying to wrack her memory. “I think it’s a memory sphere, I’m not sure as I’ve only read about them before.”

“Oh, so that’s what it’s called,” Pinkie muttered. “I saw this kind of thing once before, didn’t have a clue what to do with it.”

“How does it work?” I asked, cocking my head to the side as I was sure I saw something darting about inside.

“Well, theoretically it allows you to make a recording of your memories,” Twilight explained. “Which can then be projected if the environmental conditions are right.”

“Environment what now?” Rainbow whispered to Pinkie, who just shrugged.

“Basically it won’t work unless it’s in the same place the memory depicts,” Twilight elaborated.

“So can you make this memory sphere show us what’s recorded?” Fluttershy asked.

“They’re supposed to be unlocked by specific magical frequencies,” Twilight went on to say. “My sceptre was able to detect it, so I might be able to fiddle about and get it to play.”

Twilight stood up and we all followed suit, only we all stepped well clear as Twilight pointed her sceptre at the orb once more, a look of concentration on her face as she began working with forces none of us could see. After a few minutes of various increases and decreases of light, and a great deal of mumbling and muttering from Twilight that we couldn’t make out, she finally came out with ‘aha’ and twisted her sceptre like a key in a lock. The blue orb split apart, turning from a solid shape to a liquid that spread out from the centre and washed over the entire room.

The wave of magic passed right over me and my friends, leaving us completely unchanged, but as it swept over the floor and walls, they had their colour sapped from them, the world instead appearing as a monotone hue of pale blue. As the room changed colour, I noticed several other small change as the wave spread, the door rippled from wide open to shut tight, all the paper and books vanished from the floor and reappeared on the shelves, which became packed full of neatly arranged tomes, and finally a pony had appeared in the very centre of the room.

Rainbow Dash jumped in surprise when she appeared directly next to her, instinctively she swung out a hoof to incapacitate the would-be attacker, but she passed right through the pony, like she wasn’t even there. Like everything else in the room, the only colours she was comprised of was a very light shade of blue, it was quite clear she was part of the memory projection Twilight had spoken of, it might even have been her memory we were watching. She was an earth pony with a long braided mane and tail; she wore a simple gown of plain cloth which covered most of her body, including her cutie mark.

We all spread out to the edges of the temple so we wouldn’t be standing in the way as the memory played out. The mare was pacing very slowly in a small circle around the very point where the memory sphere had been hovering. As well as the changes in what we saw, we could also hear the sound of distant fighting, the rumbling of hooves, the clashing of blades, the battle cries and the screams of pain. Presumably the mare could hear all this as well, but she did not react to any of it, she just kept pacing with a perfectly solemn expression on her face.

We watched her do this for a short while, occasionally glancing to each other to silently convey our confusion as to what we were seeing. This memory had to have been recorded during the battle, and perhaps this mare was one of the ponies who lived on the Isle, but why was she just waiting here and looking so calm, while outside the sound of fighting drew steadily closer? Finally a loud cawing broke through the cacophony outside, the mare froze, a look of hope crossing over her neutral face as she looked up to the ceiling.

We all followed her gaze and saw the great… blue crow swooping in through the hole in the domed roof. Even with the colours altered, King Crow was unmistakable as he circled down to the mare, before perching on her outstretched foreleg. She leant in and nuzzled him affectionately, and surprisingly he returned the gesture. When she pulled back, her face was now a mixture of joy and sorrow as she addressed him.

“I’m glad to see you’re alright,” she told him, to which he cawed once in response. “No, I suppose I wouldn’t expect any less from you.”

My eyes flickered over to Fluttershy as the mare communicated with the bird, I wondered if she was just talking to him like a pet, or if she too could understand and talk to him. King Crow began cawing again, sounding almost urgent as he did, whatever he was trying to say, the mare just shook her head sadly.

“No, it’s too late,” she said in a calm voice, the crow simply cocking its head as if it didn’t understand. “There is no escaping this fate. My end, and the end of my brothers and sister, has come.”

King Crow gave a weak croaking noise.

“Do not lose hope my friend,” the mare said, placing her forehead against his. “They can destroy this temple, they can capture us, they can even kill us… we will be gone from this world, but our mission will go on, through this holy place… through you.”

King Crow gave a little squawk, flapping its wings and ruffling its feathers slightly.

“You have served the order faithfully for many, many years,” the mare went on. “You have been a dear friend and companion to me, when I am gone do not mourn me, but carry on our mission. This day has shown me many things, I have seen a terrible future, of a world consumed by this conflict… but I have also seen hope.”

The mare began walking, King Crow flapping into the air and flying alongside her as she drifted towards the centre of the room.

“A long time ago, long before you or me walked this earth,” the mare continued, staring almost lovingly around the temple. “Our order was formed on this very soil, entrusted with a monumental task. For years we have worked, seeking out virtuous individuals all across the world, testing them and bringing them enlightenment… but we had yet to reach the end of our road, to find the true bearers and complete that ultimate task.”

The mare stopped in the centre of the room, glancing up briefly at the hole in the roof before looking back at King Crow who hovered in front of her.

“But what I have seen brings me great joy,” she told him. “For I have seen the end of our order, not with the death of me, but with the completion of our mission. When we are gone, it will be down to you to carry on our work, to find those six individuals and bring them here so that they might be tested before the eyes of this place… and believe me when I tell you they are coming. It might take months, it might take years, but you must never lose hope… the bearers are coming, and it will be you who must guide them.”

The bird gave one weak caw before it was cut off by the sound of an explosion outside, no doubt one of the buildings getting wrecked.

“They are coming,” the mare said, her voice now a little more urgent. “You must go now, our fate rests on your wings.”

The crow cawed with much more determination this time, as it beat its wings harder and rose higher towards the roof.

“Thank you,” the mare spoke after it in her original calm tone. “And goodbye, Harbinger.”

With that the King Crow, Harbinger, flew up through the space in the ceiling and vanished from sight, leaving the mare standing on her own, staring up at the place where he had disappeared. I turned to look at the others; they all seemed to be wearing looks that ranged from confused to shocked. The mare gave a little sigh, turning her gaze away from the roof before she spoke once more.

“It is done…” she whispered, only just loud enough for us to hear her. “And I guess the only thing left for me is silence.”

A loud banging noise echoed from the doors, which shook on their hinges. The mare looked around, taking a deep breath, but remaining calm in composure.

“Give me strength for what is to come Princess,” she requested to the empty room, louder this time. “I am proud to have lived my life in your memory; I will continue to do so until I am granted death… my only regret is that I wasn’t there to see the end for myself.”

The doors were smashed open, the force of whatever struck it too much for the lock, which broke clean off, leaving the doors to swing wide open. Smoke and dust from the battlefield curled in, momentarily obscuring the threshold, but then the invaders marched in. We all watched in anger and in shock as the ponies that entered were dressed in neither Rebel armour nor Equestrian armour, but in robes embroidered with patterned stitching. While it couldn’t be seen due to the blue hue of the memory, I knew instantly that under normal circumstances, the embroidering on those robes would shine with all the colours of the rainbow.

There was a grand total of ten Covenant members who sauntered in, two at a time, splitting off as they passed through the door and each heading down a separate direction until all ten were spread out around the temple, standing with their backs to the wall and facing the mare in the centre. Six of the robed ponies had walked in with other ponies held in their grasps, the prisoners all wore the same plain tunic as the mare in the centre of the room, and they marched along with their captors without presenting a struggle.

My friends and I shifted our positions so we weren’t standing inside anypony, as well as resisting the urge to punch the robed ponies, even though we knew it would do no good. None of them spoke however, and the mare paid them no heed, keeping her gaze focused on the open door as an eleventh and final pony walked in. It was an earth pony stallion; he had very narrow and sharp features, as well as an unusually long muzzle. He wore the same robes as the others, except with the addition of what I presumed was a black mantel around his shoulders.

The mare appeared calm and controlled as she met his gaze, but I could see the cold look in her eyes. He gave her a malicious grin, glancing behind himself briefly at the battle that still raged just beyond the temple grounds.

“Let’s not have any distractions,” he began in an incredibly nasally voice.

He nodded at the two closest ponies, who walked across to him and closed the doors as best as they could, leaving them slightly ajar. Giving a satisfied smile, the stallion started walking slowly forward.

“Greetings Grandmaster Fauna,” he addressed her in a voice brimming with excitement. “I’ve been looking forward to this day for a very long time, my name is…”

“We know who you are,” the mare, Fauna, said in a flat voice. “And we know why you’re here; I will tell you right now that you’re wasting your time.”

The stallion’s faced twitched with annoyance; clearly he didn’t like being interrupted when he felt so in control.

“None the less,” he grumbled before clearing his voice. “I think a formal introduction is only polite. My name is Father Crane, and I come here representing the Covenant.”

Fauna didn’t reply, her eyes flickered across the room at her fellows, who had all been forced to kneel in front of their individual captors and were now staring resolutely at the floor.

“The others are dead,” she stated simply. “You killed them.”

“An unfortunate incident,” Crane replied in a wounded voice. “One I had hoped to avoid, but some of your friends were a little less cooperative than these fine ponies.”

“They served the Princess well,” Fauna said, closing her eyes for a moment. “Once again Crane, I will tell you that you are wasting your time here. We have been watching you and your Covenant, we know what it is you seek, and I tell you now that it cannot be forced like you believe, it is something that must be earned.”

“Is that what your Princess told you?” Crane asked in a snide voice, before it suddenly rose in pitch. “Lies!”

“There are no lies when it comes to the Princess of Honesty,” Fauna retorted coolly. “You have gone to great lengths to come here this day. Tell me, how did you manage to convince so many poor ponies to damn their own souls by coming here and waging battle, all so you could break through our defences?”

“There are many who share our goals, who are loyal to the Covenant,” Crane answered. “And many more whose loyalty can be… persuaded when offered the right incentive. I’ve had contacts within both sides for some time now, they’ve proven useful on multiple occasions, today most of all.”

“Well, I must admit it is clever of you,” Fauna went on; although she didn’t sound like she thought so. “You tore through our protective spells with such force; we never anticipated anypony could carry such evil in their hearts to bring about this. However, it does not change a thing, there is nothing here for you.”

“I disagree,” Crane argued, spreading his hooves and gesturing all around the room.

Fauna quirked an eyebrow, before raising a foreleg of her own. As she did, I noticed a very faint glow around it, like the air was gently rippling. As she held out her hoof, one of the books on the shelves levitated across the room, encased in the same wavy aura. I glanced over at Applejack and saw that she looked dumbfounded, Twilight just looked impressed, earth ponies who could master magic like that were indeed rare. The book floated over to Crane and flipped open in front of him, he had done a poor job of hiding his envious look as Fauna had used magic, but he did an even worse job of hiding his annoyance upon seeing the jumbled up letters.

“Surely you knew that would be the first action I took upon your arrival,” Fauna said, almost mockingly as she placed the book back.

“It matters not,” Crane insisted, now smirking once more. “For I know the real secrets aren’t written down here… they’re traded through word, passed down from Grandmaster to Grandmaster, shared among your faithful brothers and sisters.”

Fauna narrowed her eyes ever so slightly.

“You really think you can make us talk?” she questioned sceptically. “You would be a fool to try.”

“Oh, I don’t believe you’re as tight lipped as they say,” Crane replied with a wicked grin. “We know many different ways of loosening a pony’s tongue. Tell me, have you heard of the Children of the Earth? Their methods could be seen as relaxation techniques compared to the things we can do.”

“If you’re trying to intimidate me Crane,” Fauna responded in an intentionally bored voice. “Then you might want to give up, your voice isn’t suited for such tactics.”

“Not intimidation,” Crane said quickly, another flash of annoyance. “But a warning of what to expect, of course you could make things easy for yourself. Truth be told, I don’t want to resort to violence, I actually see us as potential allies. There is so much we could do for each other, and with our combined efforts… we would achieve ascension that much quicker.”

“You still don’t get it,” Fauna muttered, shaking her head in mild frustration. “You can’t achieve ascension through magic or science or any combination of the two.”

“I can!” Crane insisted in a loud voice. “I have made leaps and bounds; I have made advancements that other ponies could only dream of! The things I’ve done, the things I’ve learnt… the things I’ve achieved!”

There was a monumental roar outside the temple, causing some of the robed ponies to jump in fright, even I nearly jumped out of my skin. Fauna’s eyes drifted past Crane to the nearly closed door, narrowing as they returned to him.

“All you’ve achieved is creating abominations,” she told him plainly. “And they will only get worse after what you’ve done here. You think you’ll achieve some secret knowledge through all this, but that information is saved for only the worthy… all you will leave here with is a curse.”

A second roar echoed outside, closer this time, followed by terrified screams of soldiers.

“Well don’t look at me like that,” Crane said to Fauna with another smirk. “I had to bring one of my new pets to make sure nopony walked away from that battle outside. I couldn’t very well have them blabbing about what we did here, now could I? You might call them abominations, but where others see failure, I see progress. My creations are each stepping stones in my path to achieving the ultimate transformation, and I cherish them all for that. I give them a purpose to be, so that they might one day witness my glorious new world, the world their sacrifices helped to create.”

“You will fail,” Fauna told him flatly. “You’ll bring suffering and destruction… but you’ll be stopped, I’ve seen it.”

Crane’s smile faded and he observed Fauna with a cold look, he was clearly growing bored of her defiance. Another roar broke the silence, this one sounded so close by, that it could have been right outside the door.

“Well, not that I’m not enjoying our little talk,” Crane began in a slightly nervous tone. “But I think it’s time we were heading, lots of work to be done; a new world doesn’t build itself. Don’t worry Grandmaster; I think you’ll be quite pleased with your new accommodations.”

“I’m sure they will serve as an adequate tomb,” Fauna replied calmly as she let her eyes shut with resignation.

LXVIII - Temple Vault

With Fauna’s final words, the world began pulling back, the memory fading as the liquid receded back through the room to where it first originated. There it amalgamated back together, returning to its sphere form. After the noise of the battle outside coming to an abrupt stop, the silence that reigned in the temple was almost deafening, as we all stared in shock at memory sphere. I felt myself wavering slightly on my hooves as I looked around the room at the others, Fluttershy appeared pale and shaky, Applejack just appeared slightly confused like she had forgotten what she walked in for, Rainbow was glancing rapidly between all of us as if looking for some guidance on how she should feel, Twilight looked completely blown away, while Pinkie just frowned with her eyes narrowed slightly.

“Well…” Applejack uttered in a plain voice.

“Yeah…” I responded, feeling light headed as I tried to make sense of everything we had just seen.

“Crane,” Pinkie muttered. “Could he really be the leader of the Covenant?”

“His name begins with C,” I pointed out. “Remember how that letter had been signed? And he referred to himself as father, just like the ponies I saw at the Demon Shaft had said.”

“But… what does it all mean?” Rainbow asked, sounding frustrated. “So they organised the attack on this island in order to abduct the ponies living here, to what end?!”

“Ascension…” Twilight whispered, drawing all our attention as she slowly began pacing the temple. “They’re experimenting on ponies… changing them. They came here looking for secrets; they spoke of a Princess…”

“That pony, Fau… I mean, Grandmaster Fauna called her the Princess of Honesty,” Fluttershy reminded her.

“The Bearer of Honesty,” Pinkie stated. “Just as it was written in the tomb.”

“Exactly,” Twilight agreed. “This Princess, Clover the Clever, is somehow connected to this temple and the ponies who lived here. Crane wanted their secrets, and now they’ve stolen her body… the body of an alicorn…”

“So when Crane said ascension…” Applejack began, looking worried.

“They’re trying to become alicorns!” I finished in a horrified voice.

“Alicorns like Celestia?” Rainbow questioned. “With the wings and the horn? Is that even possible?!”

“I… I don’t know,” Twilight admitted, clearly disturbed by the implications of what we had learnt. “Nopony really knows how Princess Celestia came to be.”

“Or any of the Six,” Fluttershy added, glancing over at me. “All we have are legends.”

“But that Fauna pony said that it couldn’t be forced,” Applejack brought up hopefully. “That what Crane was messin’ about with would only end in failure.”

“She said that ascension needed to be earned,” I stated thoughtfully. “She must know something, perhaps that’s the secret of this Isle, of this temple. The truth about the Six, who and what they really were… and the ponies who know the secrets are Crane’s prisoners!”

“They wouldn’t speak!” Fluttershy insisted, deep pain for the captured ponies evident in her tone. “You heard what the Grandmaster said; nothing they could do would have broken her.”

“But then how did they learn about the tomb?” Pinkie asked in an ominous voice.

There was a deathly silence following that, even Fluttershy couldn’t argue with her reasoning.

“So that’s it then?” Rainbow asked in a dry voice. “The Six are real? Are we just accepting that?”

“Ah think… ah think it looks that way,” Applejack admitted in a surprised tone.

“And that makes it all the more important that we find the Covenant and put a stop to their schemes once and for all!” I declared. “We’ve seen the things they created, if they could produce those kinds of horrors before… what will they be capable off with the secrets of this temple and the body of a Princess to work from?!”

“We’re with you Rarity,” Pinkie replied. “But we still don’t know where those damned ponies are. We came here, we beat the trials and saw the memory, but where do we go from here?”

“The Grandmaster believed in us,” Fluttershy said calmly. “She had faith that we would be the ones to stop this.”

“All she said was that the ones they were lookin’ for were coming,” Applejack argued in a resigned voice. “These… bearers they were tasked with finding. We don’t know what that means, we don’t even know if we really are the ones they were lookin’ for.”

“But we did pass the trials,” Rainbow reminded her. “And there are six of us… why is that number so significant anyway?”

“Well, the Six each represented a different aspect of harmony,” Fluttershy explained. “Kindness, Laughter, Honesty, Generosity, Loyalty and… the, um… the last one which nopony really knows. I’ve sometimes heard the Six referred to as the bearers of these elements, Princess Celestia would be considered the bearer of Kindness, while this Princess Clover would appear to be the bearer of Honesty from what you saw. Perhaps the mission she spoke of, was to seek six specifically to represent those same elements.”

“Do we fill those roles?” I asked a little doubtfully.

While I could easily see Fluttershy representing Kindness and Pinkie Pie representing Laughter, the other three seemed a bit more grey, while I couldn’t begin to imagine what I might represent, if anything. I glanced around at the others, but they all seemed to be focused on Twilight, who had a distant expression on her face, as if she was lost in thought.

“Um, Twilight,” I began, grabbing her attention. “Have you figured something out?”

“I was just thinking about some of the things Fauna said during the memory,” she replied. “She told Crane that knowledge was only given to the worthy, perhaps by worthy she was referring to the same ponies who would fill the role of these bearers she mentioned. If that were the case, then presumably these bearers would have access to this knowledge.”

“Oh, I get it!” Pinkie exclaimed excitedly. “If we can obtain this secret knowledge, it will prove we’re the bearers of… whatever that these ponies were looking for!”

“Slow down a minute,” Applejack jumped in. “That sounds great and all, but the only ponies who could have shared those secrets with us are now gone, and these books aren’t going to be much use to us in their current state.”

“True, but Fauna said some other stuff that got me thinking,” Twilight went on, drawing her sceptre again. “Remember what she said to the crow about bringing the six individuals here so that they could be ‘tested before the eyes of this place’, she also said that their mission would go on ‘through this holy place’.

“I certainly remember those things,” I told her. “But what did she mean by them? I figured she was just being…”

“Pretentious,” Pinkie finished in a flat tone, earning a small glare from Twilight and Fluttershy.

“I think that there’s more to this place than what we see,” Twilight explained. “Remember before we came inside, I noticed the vast quantities of magic surrounding this temple, and not just here; while it may be strongest in this temple, it stretches across the entire Isle. I believe that there’s something here, like a… a force, I believe it governs this land, protecting it as Fauna had said, and looking into our minds and pasts to create those trials. A magical force that powerful, imagine what else it could be used for, say… a magical archive of secret knowledge?”

“So the order that lived here,” Fluttershy began thoughtfully. “The one that Fauna was the Grandmaster of, they were placed here as the guardians of this force and keepers of its knowledge?”

“Tasked to find virtuous ponies who might be these bearers, and share the knowledge with them if they could pass the Isle’s tests?” I added curiously.

“So that knowledge is still here somewhere,” Rainbow muttered, looking around the small temple. “Even if the ponies who were watching over it are gone… it must be pretty well hidden.”

“That’s the thing,” Twilight started. “I don’t think it’s hidden at all, I think it’s all around us, just waiting to be unlocked… if we’re worthy.”

“We passed the trials,” Applejack said again, raising an eyebrow. “Does that make us worthy?”

“Let’s find out,” Twilight answered, raising her sceptre high.

She pointed it straight up, as if reaching out for something only she could sense, directing the orb to the ceiling before twisting it just as she had done when activating the memory sphere. The world was gone in an instant, the temple around us lighting up with a bright light, until it felt like we were trapped inside the sun. After a short moment it began to shatter apart into millions of tiny fragments, splitting apart and scattering themselves far and wide across a vast miasma of colours, before settling in place as tiny, twinkling stars.

The world in which we found ourselves in was mind-blowing, like we had been launched into space and found ourselves soaring in a nebula of every colour. I could see my friends still, they were each floating close by through the endless space, like myself, their bodies appeared weightless, as if gravity had ceased to exist. They were staring all around us in awe, their eyes had all turned glassy, no longer showing their actual eyeballs, but rather reflecting the colours and stars around us, like crystal pools. I focused my own gaze at my new surroundings, sweeping my eyes over the stars.

With every little light I looked at, my mind was filled with information, flashes of images and sound. Every single star contained a vast databank of knowledge; all I had to do to access it, was look directly at one. However, by scanning over so many at once, my mind was filled to bursting points with information that I couldn’t begin to comprehend. If I was to really and truly understand anything, I would have to pick a single star and focus on it until I knew everything that it had to offer, before I dared move on to another. With so many stars, such a process would take multiple life times before I ever learnt everything this vault of knowledge had to offer.

“It’s too much!” I called out to the others. “How can we ever find what we need?”

“The same way we do everything,” Twilight answered as she swam across between us all. “Together.”

She held out her hooves and invited us to join her. We all waded our way across to her, Pinkie and Fluttershy linking hooves with her. Applejack took Fluttershy’s free hoof, while Rainbow took Pinkie’s; finally I joined hooves with both Applejack and Rainbow Dash, so that all six of us were connected in a circle.

“Focus girls,” Twilight instructed. “Just close your eyes and concentrate; what do we need to know?”

“We need to know about the Princess,” Fluttershy replied as we all let our eyelids shut. “What does she have to do with the Isle of Serenity?”

“Alright everypony,” Twilight said. “Let’s start with that, don’t think about anything else but the question at hand.”

We all fell into a deep silence as we obeyed; I started thinking hard about what Fluttershy had asked. I thought about everything we had learnt so far about the Princess, the name Clover the Clever and her role in the unification of Equestria, the term Bearer of Honesty, and all the things Fauna had said about her order’s mission on the Isle. After an indistinct length of time, I felt the urge to open my eyes, and did so at the same time as the other five. As we all did, we could see the stars spinning around us, swirling in circles at incredible speeds, as they sorted through themselves to find the relevant information.

Finally the stars began to slow down, until only one was moving, and it was moving fast and getting incredibly close to us. The star collided with us, swallowing us in its light until I couldn’t see or feel my own body let alone my friends. When the light faded I appeared to be nothing more than a disembodied consciousness, images and sounds slowly forming around me. When the world formed, I found myself in the very same corridor of Canterlot Castle that Twilight Sparkle’s nightmare had taken place. Once again Princess Celestia was standing there, but the pony with her was not Twilight…

“You’re leaving?!” Celestia exclaimed to the other pony, as she closed the lid on a purple chest encrusted with gemstones.

“I’m sorry Celestia,” Clover replied in a calm voice. “There are things I need to do… but I need to be alone if I am to work.”

Clover looked just as she had in statue form, tall and slender, her mane long and curly, much like my own. What the statue could never have captured though, was her soft green coat, or the way her hair flowed like clusters of leaves in a cool breeze. It was ever shifting and changing, and yet somehow managing to maintain that same form, much like Celestia’s own. She was also wearing the same robes she had been depicted with in the statue, long and flowing, reminding me in many ways of the ones Twilight had worn the day I first met her in Canterlot, only Clover’s allowed for her wings to poke out the back.

“But we need you!” Celestia insisted, grabbing hold of Clover’s hoof as she made to turn away. “I need you!”

“Celestia…” Clover said in a slow, weary voice. “I know… things haven’t been the same since… since then, and after what happened last year…”

“Exactly,” Celestia pressed. “Where once we were six, now we are only four. Don’t make it three by leaving us now.”

“I’m not doing that and you know it,” Clover replied, slightly snappy. “I am only going away for a short period of time… a couple of centuries at the most.”

“Is that a lie?” Celestia asked in a mopey voice, as she let Clover’s hoof slide out of her own.

“Of course it’s not,” Clover told her firmly. “I didn’t become the Element of Honesty by lying… not that any of us are Elements anymore, but then that’s exactly why I must leave.”

Clover had been levitating the purple chest beside her, but now she turned to it and stroked it reverently.

“Our actions last year were necessary… although deeply painful,” she went on to say. “But now these Elements have become… corrupt, they will never work for us again. So I must take them somewhere secluded, somewhere I can study their power without endangering others, and hopefully someday restore them.”

“Will you even tell me where you’re going?” Celestia asked hopefully. “In case we really need your help here.”

“I suppose, but only contact me if it is of dire importance,” Clover agreed. “There is a land to the west, across the sea. I have visited it often in my free time, there are many things there that intrigue me and warrant study, but that will have to wait. I once built a small home on an island off the southeast coast, it is there I will be carrying out my work, and it is there you can find me if you really need me.”

“Only of dire importance,” Celestia repeated, smirking and shaking her head in exasperation. “You never did like being a Princess or a ruler.”

“No, but then that’s why I’m not on the flag,” Clover retorted, returning Celestia’s smile.

“I’m going to miss you,” Celestia said as she reached out and hugged Clover, her eyes shinny with unshed tears.

“I’ll miss you too,” Clover replied, returning the hug. “Until we see each other again, my friend.”

With that, I could feel my consciousness pulling out, the light of the star swallowing the scene until there was nothing left to see or hear. Soon the light began to fade, as the star ascended and returned to its place among the rest, leaving my friends and I still linked together.

“So the temple was once Clover’s home,” Pinkie summed up, narrowing her eyes slightly, as if something about what she had just seen rubbed her up the wrong way. “And she left Equestria to come here so she could… restore the Elements?”

“But what are the Elements?” Rainbow asked. “Fluttershy used that word, but she was referring to traits… wasn’t she? So what was Clover referring to? What was in the box?”

“I guess that’s our next question,” Twilight replied. “Everypony ready?”

We all nodded or voiced our confirmation before each of us shut our eyes and began thinking about the Elements Clover had mentioned. I thought about everything she had said in that vision, about the five traits Fluttershy had mentioned as well as the one mystery trait, and about what Fauna had said about finding new bearers and the trials we had faced on the Isle. Once again we opened our eyes to see the stars circling around us, when they began to slow, there was one left which descended upon us, overwhelming us in light.

This time however, when the light began to fade, I wasn’t dropped down in some period of history, but rather my consciousness emerged exactly where I had left. I was once again in the sea of colours, only this time there were no stars, and as I waited I could hear a voice echoing out.

“My efforts to restore the Elements…” the voice began, I recognised it as Clover’s, although it sounded to be coming from all around me. “Have been a failure.”

There was a flash of light, and before me something gold began to materialise within the void.

“I have attempted countless times,” Clover went on as more gold object began flashing into existence. “But I must now accept that by using the Elements against another bearer, we have corrupted them beyond repair.”

There were six objects, they were now fully formed and rotated around me. Five of them were necklaces, crafted from gold, broad and curvy in form, each with a hexagonal gem placed into the centre of it. The last object was a golden tiara, several blue cats eye gems set into it, with a large six pointed star mounted on the top. The gems were pink, purple, orange, red and blue, with the star being magenta.

“Even if I could restore them,” Clover continued in the background. “I very much doubt they would acknowledge us as their true bearers after what we did. I was… despondent at first, after all we had been through to get them, now we had lost them, but then I had an idea…”

As I watched, the purple gemmed necklace exploded in front of my very eyes.

“If I could not restore them…” Clover began, almost ominously. “Maybe I could break them down… and build something new.”

One after another, the necklaces exploded, the tiara doing the same at the end. They continued to rotate around me however, now reduced to a writhing golden liquid, trying desperately to take form, the gems swallowed within.

“I had much more success in this,” Clover declared, sounding pleased with herself. “The Elements did not reject the change as I had feared, but rather they embraced it!”

One by one, as the broken down Elements began to pass in front of me, they started to turn steadily from gold to silver.

“Honesty, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Loyalty,” Clover listed out. “Even Magic, they all changed, becoming something new… something different.”

The liquid Elements, now shimmering silver as opposed to gleaming gold, were starting to solidify, morphing into new forms, unique and individual to on another.

“The Elements of Harmony are gone,” Clover stated. “But the Elements of Unity are now born!”

Before I could see the final shapes they took, all six Elements vanished from view, leaving me with only the colourful space to look at.

“True, they still won’t respond to me, and I doubt the other three would have much better luck,” Clover went on, her voice starting to quieten, as if she was getting further away. “But perhaps this is for the best; perhaps what this world needs is new heroes to look up to. I shall begin preparations for finding the new bearers immediately, although I should be prepared for the possibility that they might not emerge for many years.”

The voice faded entirely after that, and once again the world was absorbed by light as the star took the information and returned to its place in the sky. I had no idea how long it was taking to get through each one, but considering we were only scratching the surface of the two stars we had glanced into I was starting to feel a bit exhausted at the thought of going on.

“The Elements of Harmony,” Twilight muttered to herself. “So they were magical artefacts, weapons perhaps, wielded by the Six.”

“But now they’re the Elements of Unity,” Applejack reminded her. “And we didn’t find out what their names are, how will we know if we represent them or not? And if we do, how do we get our hooves on ‘em?”

“It shouldn’t be hard to find out,” Twilight replied, I could hear the eagerness in her voice and it pained me to have to shoot her down.

“No, no more,” I cut in flatly, everypony staring in confusion at me. “I know it’s tempting to just sit here and have all our questions answered, but don’t forget that we’re against the clock. Crane and his Covenant are out there now trying to turn themselves into gods. We have to stop them, and save Fauna and the others if they’re still alive, who knows how many more ponies they’ve kidnapped to experiment on.”

“Rarity’s right,” Pinkie agreed. “We can come back here later and learn everything we need to know, but right now there’s only one question we should be asking.”

“Of course, I’m sorry, I just let my curiosity get the better of me,” Twilight apologised, looking slightly ashamed before bucking up and looking to us with more determination. “Alright then girls, let’s find out where the Covenant are!”

I shut my eyes almost instantly, eager to put an end to this once and for all. I thought about Crane and the other robed ponies of the Covenant we had seen, I remembered all we had seen from Brine to the Demon Shaft, and I remembered the words Spike had told us, ‘a massive building, like a castle… it was by the sea’. When we opened our eyes, it was easily the most tense moment as the stars sped around us, waiting for one to come and give us the answer to the ultimate question, the one that would finally lead to the end of our quest.

I held my breath as they slowed, looked about wildly until I saw the odd one out, my eyes locking on it as the others came to a stop and it just kept on flying. It came plummeting down, crashing into us, its light washing over us, fading away to reveal… my map? Yes, it was literally just a blown up version of the map in my bag, complete with the marker for Sweet Apple Acres and all. It filled my entire field of vision, and as I looked at it, I heard a voice speak up in the background.

“We know who you are,” Fauna’s voice echoed out, the same line she had used to first address Crane in the recorded memory.

The single line repeated itself, over and over again, while it was soon joined and overlayed with numerous other quotes exchanged during Fauna's memory. Amidst the storm of sound as the many Fauna repeatedly recycled their lines over the top of one another, my vision began to zoom into a certain point on the map. The map swelled up until I could no longer see the towns and cities, I could hardly see any of Panchea… only the Dusk Coast. As the numerous voices cobbled together, faster and more frequent, making it impossible to decipher any words from them, a single dot was filled in on the map, just like how the Isle itself did when we first arrived. The voices cut out instantly as the dot was drawn in, then I zoomed back out, looking at the map in its entirety with the new addition.

“I’m sure they will serve as an adequate tomb,” Fauna’s distant voice said, heavy with resignation.

Just as the memory had ended on that line, so too did this star, flaring and dimming one last time before leaving us hanging in our circle. I quickly let go of Applejack and Rainbow Dash, reaching into my satchel and pulling out my map, opening it with shaky hooves to see if the marker really was there. When I saw that it was, I looked up and gave a single nod to the others who had been watching me eagerly.

“Alright,” Twilight said, returning my nod. “It’s time to go.”

As if on command, the stars began moving once more. This time however, they all concentrated around us, joining together once more to create a sphere of light that surrounded us. When it faded, we were left standing back in the temple, the glare of the setting sun shining through the open door, into the much darker room. We all looked at each other without a word, nothing needed to be said, we had the information we needed, it was time to go and bring an end to the Covenant. Pinkie led the way out of the temple, clearly eager to get our long journey under way. Fluttershy followed, then Applejack and Rainbow Dash, leaving me and Twilight alone for a moment.

“Well done,” I told her, a little lamely. “Getting us in there.”

“It was nothing,” Twilight assured me, looking bashful.

“It really isn’t nothing,” I told her clearly. “If that mass teleport didn’t prove you had ‘superior knowledge’, then that certainly did.”

“Knowledge is something we share,” Twilight replied simply with a small shrug as she started walking, continuing only once she was passed me and heading for the door. “We learn from each other, always growing from each new experience.”

I smiled at that, before following after Twilight outside the temple doors to where the other were all congregated outside, waiting for us. We all stopped briefly on the cobblestone path, and as I looked between each of my friends and thought back on all the things we had done that day, all the trials we had beaten and the things we had learnt, I felt something swell up inside me… a powerful connection to each of them. It felt somehow familiar, like I had experienced the same feeling in a distant memory.

“You know girls,” I began, beaming at them all. “If today has proven anything to us… to me, it’s that our greatest advantage, isn’t our individual skills, talents or traits… it’s our friendship. When we’re together, we can overcome all odds and accomplish anything. That’s what makes us strong… that’s why we’ll win.”

The others smiled back at me, and I saw that same elation fill them too, felt that connection strengthen as they too sensed it and embraced it. I took the lead, walking down the path, back towards the battlefield, the others all followed after me without any hesitation. We didn’t make it far before something dark swooped overhead; we came to a stop, looking up and following it as it descended, landing on a heavily busted birdbath nearby. King Crow stared at us, not making a single noise as he surveyed us, while I couldn’t communicate with him, I could sense a forlorn aura about him. Fluttershy marched over to him, stopping just a few metres from him.

“Harbinger…” she murmured to him. “You’re the last one… you’re all alone now.”

Harbinger let out a low, sorrowful noise; clearly he couldn’t help but mourn the loss of Fauna and the others despite her request. I felt my heart break for him, and was glad when Fluttershy reached out to him to stroke his head.

“We saw the memory,” she told him. “We know what happened, she would be proud of you.”

Harbinger didn’t reply to that, but stared intently at Fluttershy, refusing to tear away from her gaze.

“We know where they are,” Fluttershy went on. “It’s far away, but we’re going there now. We’ll stop them… and we’ll save Fauna and the rest.”

Harbinger finally began crowing again, I didn’t know what he was saying, but I detected determination. Fluttershy glanced back at us briefly, she seemed surprised by whatever he was saying, but not in a bad way.

“If you can help us, we would be more than happy to accept,” Fluttershy replied to him.

We watched as Harbinger hopped off the birdbath, flapping up high into the air. When he reached a point high enough that he had plenty of open space, he tucked his head and legs up, before wrapping his wings around him and yet somehow managing to stay airborne. We continued to watch, even as the air around Harbinger began to shift and jitter violently, silent flashes of black lightning erupting in a great sphere of pitch black feathers around him, growing bigger and bigger before our very eyes. We were all starting to feel a bit creeped out when finally the sphere burst, two massive wings spreading out and breaking free from the dark cocoon.

Harbinger had grown monumental in size, dropping down and landing surprisingly gently on the path, and towering over us in his new form. His wing beats sent out gusts of air that pushed even Rainbow Dash off balance momentarily, his claws and talons were now big enough that he could have fought the monster at Anchorage and torn it to shreds in seconds, and finally his beak was now big enough to swallow any one of us whole. He turned his tail to us, crouching down and stretching his wings out like ramps up to his back. He gave a single loud, echoing caw to Fluttershy, who nodded happily while the rest of us just stared slack jawed at his transformation.

“Alright girls,” Fluttershy announced, taking the lead and fluttering up onto his back. “Up we get, we don’t have a moment to lose.”

“Isn’t that… dangerous?” Applejack asked with a noticeable gulp.

“Not at all,” Fluttershy replied from his back. “We can nestle ourselves into his feathers, so there’s no risk of us falling off.”

“I suppose it is much faster than walking,” I pointed out weakly to the others.

“That’s good enough reasoning to me!” Pinkie declared as she bounced up Harbinger’s wing and joined Fluttershy.

“Like I’m going to say no to that,” Rainbow concurred before flying up herself.

That left just Twilight, Applejack and me to climb up more nervously. I found his wing surprisingly firm for walking on, and Fluttershy was right when she said about nestling into his back, it was actually quite cosy. And because Applejack insisted on not being near the edge, I would have a great view as we flew. Fluttershy asked for my map, once I produced it, she instructed me to levitate it in front of Harbinger’s eye and explain where we were going. I did, and once he nodded in confirmation, I took it back, tucking it back into my satchel before securing myself by holding on tight to the neck feathers like the others were doing.

Without warning, Harbinger began flapping his great wings hard. He took a slight running start, crossing through most of the battlefield in just a few long strides before pushing hard off the ground. I felt my stomach lurching as he launched straight up and we were tilted dangerously far back. It only took a few seconds before Harbinger was high enough that he could level himself and fly straight on, but that was long enough for me to be hanging on for dear life. With the initial scare of the take-off out of the way, I was able to focus my thoughts on the matter at hand, and what lay ahead of us. It was finally time… time to take the fight to the Covenant and bring this story to the end.

LXIX - The Lion's Den

Needless to say, flying aboard Harbinger proved to be a much more efficient method of transport than walking. With his greater size came a massive increase in strength and speed, allowing him to travel miles in minutes without the need for rest. We flew straight through the night, crossing the entire length of Panchea, over the Wyvern Heights, across the Grand Pastures and the Neptune, above the Tranquil Forest and finally out through the Hallowed Woods, coming out over the Dusk Coast as the sun began to rise at our backs.

During the trip, we were able to see the city of Arclight fully lit up, which flying over turned out to be quite the sight. It was also something, gliding carelessly over the surface of the Neptune and seeing the night sky both above and reflected beneath us as we soared on. The start was very unpleasant for both Twilight and Applejack, not that I wasn’t feeling a bit sick looking over the edge at the massive drop below, but after a couple hours we all managed to loosen up and enjoy the ride and savour the sights.

When morning came however, and we were on the final leg… or wing, of our journey, all of us stopped relishing the flight and began focusing on what lay directly ahead of us. Harbinger flew low, keeping close to the ground and slowing his approach as we skimmed north, up along the coast, looking out for the Covenant hideout. The vision in the vault hadn’t shows us what to expect, only a location. I guessed since nopony living at the temple had seen it for themselves, they couldn’t record that information. As we flew through, we noticed a dramatic increase in the amount of fog surrounding the coast, and the glare of the rising sun off it was making navigation particularly difficult.

“This isn’t natural!” Rainbow shouted over to me. “Trust me, I know my clouds!”

“It must be a protective spell!” Twilight suggested. “Which means we’re getting close!”

“Um, Harbinger!” I called out in an unsure voice. “I’m not sure if you can understand me, but could you land?!”

Harbinger did seem to understand me, and obeyed immediately, decelerating rapidly as he dropped lower and lower, until his claws were skimming across the sand. Finally he slowed to a complete stop, and crouched low for us to hop safely off. Once we were all on the ground, my own legs feeling a little wobbly beneath me, similar to what I might have got after a period at sea, Fluttershy reached up and nuzzled his great beak. When she was done, Harbinger’s whole body radiated with darkness and sparked with black lightning as he shrunk back down to his original size.

“Thank you very much,” Fluttershy said to him as he perched on her outstretched leg.

“Indeed, thank you for all your help,” Twilight agreed.

We all gathered around and gave Harbinger a quick word of thanks, when we were done, he began cawing to Fluttershy.

“I’m not sure,” she admitted thoughtfully before turning to me. “He says he can follow us in, do you want him with us or…”

I thought about it for a moment, he could be a useful asset, the thought of him sized up and tearing through the enemy ranks brought a smile to my face. However that wasn’t the stealthiest approach, and without knowing what all we would be up against in there, it was the height of foolishness.

“Do you have some way of contacting him if we need help?” I asked.

Fluttershy asked Harbinger about this and he cawed in response.

“He says all we have to do is call his name and he’ll come straight to us,” she reported back.

“In that case, he should stay here or somewhere else safe for now,” I explained. “If things get sticky, we’ll call him in. But more than that, if we find Fauna and the others, he can help get them out safely.”

Fluttershy quickly asked if Harbinger understood all I had said, and he nodded in confirmation before flapping away, disappearing quickly into the suffocating mists. With him gone for the moment, we turned our attention ahead of us, using my compass and map to ensure we were pointing in the right direction, before heading off.

“This stuff is so thick,” Applejack muttered as we walked along the beach. “What if we miss the base?”

“Maybe it’s big enough that we won’t miss it,” Pinkie replied optimistically.

“How big can it be?” Rainbow questioned. “If it was really big, then surely somepony would have stumbled onto it before.”

“Who knows? If this fog really is some kind of magic protection,” Twilight began. “Perhaps there are other things in place to ward off wandering ponies.”

We kept on walking in silence, we had to be getting close now, I could see the others getting fidgety, their eyes darting about wildly so as not to miss anything out of the ordinary. Of course when we reached a certain point, and the fog rolled back like the curtain at a theatre, it was clear to all of us there was never any chance of missing this place. In a single instant the mist began pulling apart, it was still there, but much finer and looking more like you would expect it to, rather than an all obscuring screen. Revealed before us was our destination, and as we saw it, we all came to a halt and gawked in awe.

The Covenant’s base was… well, there’s no way to describe it other than incredible. It was the mother of all cathedrals, like somepony had taken dozens of churches and castles and smashed them together to create something monumental… and it was colossal. I felt like an ant looking up at it all, it could have been a small city, and may very well have dwarfed some, while looking to be on par with Canterlot itself. There was simply too much to describe, there were towers and spires, gables and tall arches, windows which looked like pinpricks compared to the rest of the structure. The whole place was only just perched on the edge of the coast, mainly built atop a crag that spilled out into the sea.

At the very lowest levels, there were docks and enough buildings to have made a reasonable base on their own, but the rest of the cathedral towered over them. I felt dizzy craning my neck to survey the whole thing, it truly was a beautiful place, the flocks of gulls and the flags fluttering atop the many spires only accentuated that fact. It managed to make other places like the Bask and Arclight look relatively plain in comparison, and I think the others thought so too.

“Wow…” Fluttershy breathed.

“Wow is right,” Pinkie agreed. “I’ve seen a lot of things in my time, but that… that’s something else.”

“It’s pretty and all,” Applejack began, a but imminent. “But how in the hay are we supposed to find anything in there?!”

“Applejack’s right,” Rainbow added. “It would take a week to search that place top to bottom.”

“Well if a week is what it will take,” I began in a loud clear voice. “Then a week is what we give. We did not come this far to get performance anxiety and leave to take a cold shower.”

“Excuse me?” Twilight queried with a raised eyebrow.

“Well where do we begin?” Fluttershy asked. “What if there are guards about?”

“Give me a second,” I replied, pulling out my spyglass.

After extending it and peering through the lens, I was able to make out a few indistinct shapes that could have been Covenant ponies walking about around the dock area. After surfing up the building, I also saw a couple shapes moving about in the three largest arches in the face of the cathedral, presumably there to keep watch.

“Well there are some ponies walking about,” I reported. “Hard to tell if they’re Covenant or not, probably are though.”

I scanned to the left, moving from the main part of the building to a tiny rock, separated and secluded in the sea, upon which was what appeared to be a lighthouse. I didn’t see any movement around it, as opposed to the obvious entrance at the docks. If we could get there, we would have a much closer view of the cathedral, and might be able to ascertain a different way in.

“Do you see that tower there girls?” I asked, indicating it with my hoof as I lowered my hoof. “It seems to be a lighthouse, more than that, it looks deserted. Is it too far to teleport for either of you?”

“I should be able to manage that,” Twilight reported. “And if I can, then Pinkie definitely can.”

“Alright then,” I continued. “If you two could get me and Applejack over there, then Rainbow and Fluttershy can fly out around. Use the fog as cover to get close, then move in quickly before anypony looks out a window and sees you.”

“Can do,” Pinkie replied, placing a hoof on my shoulder.

In the blink of an eye, we vanished from the beach and reappeared on the rocky path leading up to the lighthouse door. The sudden sound of waves crashing against rock filling my ears, while I was hit with a sudden blast of chilly sea air and the smell of salt hit my nostrils. A second later, Twilight and Applejack teleported next to us, while in the distance I could see two blurry shapes flying through the fog from the place where we had been standing.

“Alright, let’s check this place and make sure there’s no surprises waiting for us,” I instructed, making for the door.

“Ah don’t think it’ll be a problem Sugarcube,” Applejack replied, drawing her claymore just to be safe. “Ah don’t see any boats here, tied up around this rock.”

“We didn’t need a boat,” Pinkie pointed out as she drew her knives.

I gripped the door handle in my magic and swung it open, peering into the cold stone tower. I didn’t see anypony there, so I risked stepping inside, glancing around the fairly empty structure, up the wooden staircase that wound its way up to the very top. As my eyes were navigating upwards, taking in the cobwebs and the air heavy with dust, I failed to notice the door leading off to the side, nor did I hear it opening until the pony called out.

“Who are you?!” the mare exclaimed in a panicked voice. “How did you get here?!”

I spun around to see the pony dressed in her long black robes with the giveaway embroidering. She was staring at me in horror, paralysed for a moment before coming to her senses and moving to draw her short sword.

“Sound the alarm!” she cried out. “Light the signal fire!”

I looked up in time to see a face poking out over the stairs, looking inquisitively down at us before pulling back out of sight, no doubt hurrying to do as they had been commanded. I drew my own sword and blocked as the mare rushed at me, she clearly hadn’t been prepared for any sort of response and was easily knocked off balance, a quick uppercut to her jaw sent her packing to the floor. As I dealt with her, a stallion could be seen scurrying about in the room she had just come from, perhaps only just waking up as he scrabbled about for a weapon.

He came rushing out as I knocked the mare to the floor; he was carrying to two battle-axes in his magic, the first of which he hurled through the air at me. I never would have been able to dodge in time, but I felt myself get grabbed and hauled to the floor by Applejack, hearing the axe clang heavily of the stone wall behind us. Looking up, I saw the stallion drop his second axe to the floor, as Pinkie materialised right behind him and drove a dagger into his back. I was already getting to my hooves and rushing for the stairs as I heard his body hit the floor.

I would never catch up to the other pony at this rate; he had already been so high up when I first spotted him. Trying to pick up speed only resulted in my tripping, and falling face first into the wooden steps. Thankfully my face didn’t actually hit the steps, as while I was falling, I saw a flash of purple light in my peripheral vision and felt Twilight’s hooves reach out and grab hold of me. A quick teleport later and we were standing at the top of the tower interior, on a wooden platform with only a ladder between us and the roof, where the pony had rushed off to.

I didn’t stop to thank Twilight for her quick intervention, rather leapt to my hooves and clambered up the ladder, drawing my knives with my magic and readying them. As soon as I pulled myself up over the edge, I was immediately greeted with the unconscious body of the pony I had seen, and Rainbow Dash leaning against a signal pyre looking pleased with herself.

“Were you looking for this guy?” she asked smugly, giving him a rough kick. “Not so deserted after all.”

“Well…” I began breathlessly, crouching down for a quick rest. “If my spyglass could see through walls, then it would take all the surprise out of life.”

“That’s what I like to hear!” Pinkie declared, popping her head up the ladder. “Is he dead?”

“Just knocked out,” Rainbow replied. “I don’t like killing ponies if they’re not a threat.”

“No, me neither,” I agreed, pulling out my spyglass and passing it to Rainbow Dash. “Why don’t you stay up here and scope out the cathedral? Pinkie and I will take him downstairs and tie him up or something with the others, and whatever you do, do not lose that!”

“Don’t worry,” she assured me as she accepted the gift. “I haven’t forgotten our first meeting.”

While she got on her belly and began peering through the spyglass at the cathedral ahead of us, Pinkie and I hauled the unconscious body of the pony back down the lighthouse, to where Applejack was tying the mare I had knocked out up, and Fluttershy was hastily bandaging up the stallion Pinkie stabbed. Once all three were secured, we set about searching the lighthouse for anything of value. Not that there was much to search, Twilight was already looking about in the room the two ponies had come from, which turned out to be living quarters.

“Anything of interest?” I asked, noticing she was reading over something.

“Pretty bare bones mostly,” Twilight reported. “Little bit of food, but not much else, there was this letter pinned on the back of the door. It gives instructions to apprehend and deliver any lost travellers, but if there are too many or they appear hostile, then to light the signal fire and keep them at bay until help arrives.”

“Perhaps more ponies find this place than we realise,” I murmured to myself. “Is there nothing else?”

“Actually…” Twilight began, flipping the letter over to reveal an untidy scrawl on the back side. “There is this, it reads ‘pull down, turn one hundred and twenty degrees anticlockwise until soft click, then release’.”

“Any idea what it’s referring to?” I asked curiously.

“Perhaps a lever of some kind,” Twilight proposed. “Maybe you should shine your lantern about, see if you notice anything out of the ordinary.”

I nodded and returned to the other room, levitating my lantern just as Twilight had suggested. As I walked about with it, Pinkie and Applejack were busy stripping the three ponies of their robes.

“What do you think Rarity?” Pinkie asked, donning one set and giving a little twirl on the spot. “Do I make the evil cultist look work?”

“The blood is a nice touch,” I told her, nodding at where her dagger had cut through the material, and the blood that had subsequently soaked in.

“Anypony gets close enough to notice, we’ll be sure they can’t raise the alarm,” Applejack stated flatly.

It didn’t take long for the lantern to find the secret passage; it was right in the centre of the room. A shimmering square marking it out, with a golden trail leading along the floor and up one of the wooden struts holding up the stairs. The trail ended with an unlit torch, held in place with an iron bracket. Reaching out, I grabbed hold of it, pulling it out before rotating it to the left. I turned it at a right angle before I started taking it slower and listening carefully for the click. When I heard it, I let go of the torch and it started winding back to its original position. As it snapped back into place, there was a grinding sound as the square section of stone coughed up dusted along its edges, before slowly sinking into the floor.

We looked down over the edge and watched as it descended deeper and deeper, until shadows took it and it was out of sight. It didn’t take long after that for the grinding to stop, the others were already discussing where it might lead, as well as how we were supposed to get it back up, before the noise started up a second time. This time it wasn’t long before the platform appeared in view and rose back up to its original place, finally settling and fitting seamlessly with the surrounding floor. While Pinkie and Twilight rode the platform back down on its second run, each wearing the stolen Covenant robes, I went back up the stairs to find Rainbow Dash.

Once I was up the ladder, I lay down on my stomach and shuffled up beside her, while she continued to survey the cathedral through the spyglass.

“Anything to report?” I asked calmly, hoping I wouldn’t be disturbing her.

“How many ponies do you think is supposed to be in this group?” she asked, not lowering the spyglass.

“Oh, um, I don’t actually know,” I admitted. “That never really came up whenever we were talking about them.”

“Well just from looking through windows, I’ve seen quite a few walking back and forth,” she went on. “And that’s just in the areas I can see, on top of that, there’s at least two squads of pegasi patrolling the air. I’ve seen them in the distance, one of them came quite close here, but they didn’t spot me. I think it’s too risky flying in, far too many chances of being spotted.”

“Well teleporting isn’t an option if Twilight can’t visualise where she’ll end up,” I added. “We found a secret passage downstairs, we’re not sure where it leads, Twilight and Pinkie are checking it now.”

Rainbow nodded, and after returning my spyglass, we shuffled back to the ladder and made our way down the lighthouse. We still had to wait about for a little while for the other two to return, during which time we argued over who should be forced to wear the last Covenant robe. We decided it wouldn’t suit for either Rainbow or Applejack since they both wore helmets which the robes couldn’t cover, plus the robes would only make it difficult for them and myself to draw our weapons. That hadn’t been a problem for either Twilight or Pinkie since both were capable of fighting without their sceptre and daggers respectively, but since Fluttershy would be the least likely among us to be in the thick of the fight, it was settled that she would wear the last robes.

The sound of rumbling signalled the return of our friends, I guessed they had found a way of summoning the platform from the other end, as I had been under instruction to lower it myself if they didn’t find a way after a few more minutes. They returned and looked no worse for wear, although Pinkie immediately gravitated to Fluttershy, her eyes lighting up upon seeing her in the matching robes.

“Love the look Fluttershy!” she exclaimed, zooming up into her face. “It really brings out the maniacal megalomaniac in you.”

“Um… thank you?” Fluttershy replied uncertainly as she backed up from Pinkie’s overbearing grin.

“That looks like a fairly good route into the cathedral,” Twilight explained to the rest of us. “It looks like a mine shaft for a bit, but then it joins into the catacombs. There were a few guards wandering about, but we managed to avoid them.”

“Sounds like that’s our way in,” Rainbow replied, glancing at me. “If we can’t go over, under seems like our best choice.”

“Agreed, shall we go now?” I asked the others, receiving five nods in response. “And remember, you three are transporting prisoners.”

“Just be sure to sound like a tool,” Pinkie added to Fluttershy and Twilight. “If they ask too many questions, bop them on the head… hard.”

My friends all congregated on the platform while I fiddled about with the lever, hurrying to join them as it was winding back. We all descended from the dim light of the lighthouse, into the even dimmer light of the cavernous tunnel below. Twilight took the lead with her horn alight; naturally I couldn’t help if we were to keep up the prisoner façade. The tunnel looked like a mine, obviously dug out, with wooden struts and beams to reinforce it and prevent cave-ins. We tried to walk as quietly as possible, not easy with the gravel crunching under our hooves and boots, but we managed to come out the other end of the tunnel with no guards coming to look into the sounds we had made.

The catacombs were much better lit than the tunnel had been, with flickering torches every several metres. They were comprised of two brick pathways running parallel to one another down every corridor with a deep trench between them. Within these trenches were alcoves, each with an ancient statue or coffin, or an iron bar door leading off to some shadowy passage dotted randomly along. There was also the occasional bridge that joined the two pathways on our level together. As we walked, we noticed groups of patrolling guards and intentionally steered clear of them. At a distance, they didn’t seem to consider us suspicious due to our robed escort.

“The air current is coming from just ahead,” Rainbow whispered to Twilight, pointing straight on when we came to a junction.

Twilight nodded and continued forward, making for the point where the wall split away, presumably to accommodate the staircase that would take us up. Just as we began to near it however, we heard the sound of clopping as multiple ponies began descending the stairs. We quickly glanced about, but the only place to hide would have been in the trench, and that would have taken too long for us all to lower safely down. Rather than turn back, Twilight carried on confidently, clearly hoping to play it off, and that the approaching ponies wouldn’t pay us any heed.

“Halt sisters!” the lead pony called out upon seeing us, I mentally cursed. “Who are these ponies?”

“Invaders… uh, brother,” Twilight replied in a forced cam voice. “They attacked us at the lighthouse.”

“Attacked?” a second stallion repeated in disbelief. “However did they find us?”

“They refuse to say,” Twilight answered. “I was taking them upstairs for questioning.”

“No sister,” the first stallion cut in. “We’ll take them from here, you three shouldn’t have left your post.”

“It’s okay!” Pinkie leapt in quickly. “We ran into some others and they agreed to watch the lighthouse while we were away.”

“Ah, very well then,” the stallion replied in an apologetic tone. “Carry on then sisters, but do not linger, ponies attacking is a serious problem, Father Crane will want to hear of it personally.”

“We’ll be sure to inform him brother,” Twilight assured him, giving him a small bow of the head.

The stallion surveyed us for a brief moment, for a second I believed he had grown suspicious, perhaps something Twilight had said… but his face returned to its blank state quickly enough. He returned the gesture, and both he and his friend walked around us and carried on down the corridor. Without waiting to be caught again, we hurried up the stone steps; they obviously didn’t travel up far enough to take us to the surface, so we weren’t surprised when we found ourselves in another dungeon room.

This one had a little more charm about it, it was a small chapel with sleek, wooden pews and a marble altar at one end, draped in a sheet of cloth that was strikingly reminiscent of the robes the Covenant members wore. Clearly they liked their style and they were sticking to it, interior decorating sense be damned. Behind the altar was a stained glass window, it depicted an alicorn with its wings spread wide, and despite the room being underground, there was still light shining through it.

There were several more Covenant members here, all sitting in the pews with their heads bowed, paying no heed to us as they prayed on. An old stallion stood behind the altar, a large golden goblet resting before him, into which he was pouring a deep red liquid from a bottle. He glanced up and saw us standing at the opposite end of the room staring at him; he apparently made the connection in his head who we were supposed to be.

“Do you need the Father’s blessing?” the old pony asked in a croaky voice. “Finish your task first, then return here so that you might be seen to.”

Twilight nodded briefly, before ushering us onwards to where the next staircase was. This one wound its way around a square tower room, the light streaming through the door at the top was clearly that of daylight.

“What the heck was that stuff?” Applejack whispered as we climbed.

“And what did he mean by ‘the Father’s blessing’?” Fluttershy added in a nervous tone.

“I… I’m not sure,” Twilight replied with a concerned expression. “I tried to scan it before he noticed us; it didn’t feel like anything I recognised.”

We reached the top and emerged through the open archway into a huge hallway; the floors were made from travertine tiles, which shone with the light pouring through the tall floor to ceiling windows lining the left wall. The chamber was also lined with great, marble support columns, and high up above we could see bridge like balconies stretching between them. In the hall there were just over a dozen robed ponies walking about, looking over sheets of paper or pulling carts filled with random assortments of bottles and boxes. There were also a number of ponies standing guard around the chamber, some walking up and down along the left hand wall, looking out the open windows, while the others stood in place at either side of the doors leading out of the cathedral, including the one we had just walked out of.

“Hold it sisters,” one of the guards said, holding out her pike against Rainbow Dash’s throat. “Who are these ponies?”

“Invaders,” Twilight replied simply. “They attacked the lighthouse, we were told to take them to Father Crane.”

“Excuse me?” the mare questioned, narrowing her eyes at Twilight. “Who exactly told you to do that?”

“Uh…” Twilight began, either not expecting to be put on the spot or just panicking that she had been. “It was… oh, let me think now…”

“Brother Mildew,” Fluttershy jumped in. “He was in charge of the team at the lighthouse.”

“Oh, that makes sense,” the mare said, calming down immediately as understanding dawned on her. “Well don’t listen to that fool, no prisoner goes before Father Crane unless he requests it personally. Take these three to the west wing, then inform Father Crane yourself.”

“We shall,” Fluttershy responded, giving the same bow of the head Twilight had given earlier. “Thank you for the assistance sister.”

She returned the nod and lowered her pike, allowing us all to continue down the hall towards the large open doors at the end. It was only once we were out of earshot of the guards and was sure no other ponies were close enough to overhear us, that we confronted Fluttershy.

“What was that?!” I hissed, my voice a mixture of disbelief and amazement. “How did you know that name?”

“That was the name of the pony Pinkie… uh, took down,” Fluttershy replied with a barely noticeable shudder. “I asked him when I was treating him.”

“Well good thinking,” Applejack replied, reaching out to give her a pat on the back only to have her hoof slapped down by Pinkie.

“Keep walking criminal scum!” she snapped at her, giving an apologetic grin when Applejack glared at her.

At the great double doors, Twilight strode confidently through without stopping to look at the guards. Just like my first infiltration of Fort Mule, simply by looking like she had a right to be there, was enough to convince the guards that she really did. Once beyond the doors, we found ourselves in a towering chamber, filled with dozens of stone staircases leading off to different sections of the cathedral. After a little hushed discussion, we chose a staircase and starting ascending, we decided it would be best to look like we were heading towards the west wing, at least until we figured where to go in order to find Crane.

The cathedral was just as beautiful on the inside as it had appeared when first looking at it from the beach, more so in some regards, when we were able to take in the intricately carved stonework up close, and the many statues and paintings decorating the halls. I was torn out of my thoughts as a bloodcurdling shriek pierced my ears, and caused the entire corridor we were walking through to tremble slightly. I glanced around at the others who had all reacted similarly to myself, clamping their ears down and clenching their eyes shut. Unfortunately the sudden noise hadn’t come as a surprise to the guards up ahead, who were now walking towards us with suspicious looks on their faces.

“What’s going on here sisters?” the stallion questioned Pinkie Pie, narrowing his eyes while tightening his grip on his pike. “Who are these ponies, and where are you taking them?”

“Prisoners… brother,” Pinkie replied, quickly adding the last part. “We were told to bring them to the west wing.”

“And what was all that about?” the other mare asked. “You act like you haven’t heard the cries before.”

“Oh we haven’t,” Pinkie said without thinking. “It sounded awful.”

Both guards glanced at each other before stepping back slightly, lowering their pikes so the heads were directed at Pinkie Pie. I could hear another pair of guards approaching from behind, and readied myself for a possible fight.

“Why don’t you all come with us,” the stallion suggested in a tense voice. “We’ll make sure you reach the west wing.”

“That’s okay, we can find our own way,” Pinkie replied with a sly grin, before snapping into action.

The two guards didn’t know what hit them, as Pinkie ducked under their pikes and weaved her way around their legs as fast as I could blink. As she went, I saw a flash of silver, and when she stood back up directly behind them, she gave a hard tug on the wire she had just tangled around them, and caused it to tighten in, bringing them both to the ground. I spun around as the other two guards burst into a gallop, they were shouting for backup and I prayed there was nopony within earshot.

Twilight’s horn flashed, and in an instant the cloaking spell around our weapons vanished and we were free to draw them. I threw two knives out, both slicing past one of the guards forelegs and causing him to stumble. Rainbow Dash sped in and clocked him in the jaw, before grabbing hold of him and spinning him full circle, releasing him so he went crashing into the second guard. With both knocked flat on their faces, Applejack strode calmly up and bucked them each once, hard enough that they didn’t move after. I looked back to see Pinkie basically garrotting the stallion, while the mare lay motionless next to him.

“Okay, that’s enough Pinkie,” Twilight said, placing a hoof on Pinkie’s shoulder.

It was only then that I had noticed the look in Pinkie’s eyes, the smile remained, but there was no joy in those eyes, only white hot anger. I thought back to my first encounter with Pinkie, how the Covenant had tricked her and tried to kill her afterwards, had she really been carrying this anger around all this time and I hadn’t noticed? Before I could think about how to pursue that avenue of thought however, Pinkie obeyed Twilight, and the flash of rage was gone. The same old happy go lucky Pinkie Pie returned to us in time to help drag the bodies away into a side chamber.

We stored them inside a study, another robed pony was inside. They must have heard the commotion out in the hall, but when we entered, we found them cowering in the corner, making no attempt to call for help as they stared at us with terrified eyes.

“It’s okay,” Fluttershy told her. “We aren’t going to hurt you, just relax and everything will be okay.”

“W… who are you ponies?!” she stammered, her shaking reducing slightly at Fluttershy’s calming voice.

“We’re… the good guys,” Fluttershy replied after a moment’s thought. “Are you new here? You don’t seem like the rest.”

“Uh, yeah,” she replied with a shaky nod of the head. “I only joined a couple months ago.”

“Why don’t you take a seat?” Fluttershy offered, pulling the chair out from behind a desk and offering it to her. “We can talk for a bit.”

I saw the mare’s eyes flicker to the door behind us.

“Please,” Fluttershy insisted, this time there was an edge to her voice and the mare found herself unable to object.

She sat down in the seat Fluttershy offered her, while the others busied themselves with restraining the four guards. I leant against the desk and looked down at the mare, while Fluttershy crouched down next to her.

“How exactly did you come to join this group?” Fluttershy asked.

“T… they approached me in church,” the mare replied. “They said that’s how they found all their members.”

“Was this at Brine?” I asked suddenly, remembering the secret base Pinkie had found in the church there.

“Brine? No, I lived in Port Mule,” the mare replied in a confused tone. “I don’t understand what’s happening, what are you going to do to me?”

“Nothing,” Fluttershy assured her. “We just want to know some things, then we’ll leave you in peace.”

“Are you aware of what the Covenant is trying to do?” I asked.

“I… I am,” the mare replied uncertainly. “Well… I’ve been told bits and pieces, there are some things they only tell you after you’ve been a member for a certain length of time.”

“What about the abominations?” I questioned, earning a small glare from Fluttershy for breaching the subject so tactlessly. “Do you know about them?”

The mare refused to meet my eye as she answered.

“I know… that sacrifices need to be made for the greater good,” she muttered before raising her voice suddenly. “And what Father Crane is doing is good, and I’m helping him do it! I review these texts that my brothers and sisters retrieved, for information that might aid our studies; I’m doing a good job! I’ve done nothing wrong!”

With that she bolted from the chair, making for the door, but I held it firm with my magic even as she struggled with it. Fluttershy came up behind her and tried to rest a comforting hoof on her shoulder, but when it was batted away by the panicking mare, Fluttershy looked to Twilight for assistance. One sleep spell later and the mare was hidden beneath her desk, while we searched about the study for anything of use. The texts she had been reading over, underlining and jotting down notes in the margins of, were all relating to obscure alchemy and more advanced chemistry, mainly regarding the development and procedures involved.

One random page I picked up was detailing a rare type of root, next to it, the mare had written down ‘may act as a suitable substitute for Ent Bark, not as rare and less volatile when incinerated’. It seemed from what this mare was doing, and all the ponies we had seen walking about with similar papers, or carts of specimens and reagents, that everything the Covenant was doing here was related to their magical and scientific experiments that were intended to achieve ascension.

“Rarity,” Pinkie said in a muffled voice, bouncing over with a letter held between her teeth. “Check this out!”

I took it from her and began reading, but once her mouth was free she wasted no time in giving me the run down herself.

“It’s talking about the repairs to the east wing,” Pinkie explained. “Apparently something big happened there; it might have something to do with all the escaped monsters.”

“And how Spike got out,” Twilight added. “Does it say anything else?”

“It says that until repairs are completed,” I began, reading off the letter. “Most work will be carried out in the west wing.”

“That’s where we’re headed,” Applejack reminded us. “And if that’s where these experiments are goin’ down, then surely that’s where we’ll find that Crane.”

“Does that not also prove that they use prisoners as test subjects?” Fluttershy asked in a weak voice.

I shuddered at the thought; remembering Crane’s statement about their methods compared to the Children of the Earth.

“The coast is clear,” Rainbow reported from the door. “Although it won’t be long before somepony notices the guards are missing, we need to keep moving.”

We slipped out the study and hurried on our way, knowing it wouldn’t be much longer before the alarm was raised. There was an instant shift in tone as we passed from the main part of the cathedral, into what we guessed was the west wing. Where everything had been mostly bare and simple before, chambers suddenly became much more cramped, with fewer windows and a lot more ponies going about their business. There were mostly narrow hallways with many doors leading off to rooms, big and small, where ponies were working at tables with various heaters and flasks and other things I didn’t know the names of.

I heard snippets of conversation as we passed down the corridor, all of it went right over my head, but I could see Twilight listening in carefully, purposely slowing her pace as she tried to take as much in. There were other noises too, coming from the floors above and below, banging and crashing, moaning and screaming. None of the ponies working there seemed to notice the sounds however, and we made sure not to visibly react ourselves and give the game away a second time. As we walked straight on, we saw a mare step out of a side room; she appeared deep in discussion with a younger stallion.

“And when you’re finished with that,” she was saying, jotting down a quick note with her magic to hand to him. “I need you to run this brother Sirloin, subject six A is going through her current food supplies far too quickly.”

“Of course sister…” the stallion replied hesitantly. “I’m just… not sure why we bother to feed them at all. Why do we even keep them alive if all the real work has been moved to…”

“Enough!” the mare cut through. “We keep them alive because Father Crane has instructed them to be kept alive, and the work we do here is still important, or he would not divert resources to maintaining it.”

It was then that the mare noticed us approaching and turned to face us, looking Applejack, Rainbow Dash and myself up and down briefly before nodding to herself.

“More test subjects?” she asked without much interest. “Have them checked in upstairs and wait to escort them to their physicals.”

Twilight nodded at the instruction and pushed me roughly to keep up the act. We reached the end of the corridor and began ascending the stairs, one floor at a time. With each new floor, the ghastly sounds became louder and louder. We stopped at each floor, looking through the doors to see if we were in the right place, or at least somewhere deserted enough to talk among ourselves. The first floor we arrived on set the theme for most of them, it looked like a prison corridor, with barred walls marking out the cells. While we didn’t stop to take a closer look, I could see dark shapes moving about within, and the guards patrolling looked constantly on high alert.

Most floors had the same layout; however the fourth floor we arrived at, had only a single cell in the centre of it, circular and made of metal wire crisscrossing from the floor to the ceiling. Inside the cell were large silky sacks, and something bulbous was shifting about among them, just out of sight, a constant clicking noise emanating from within. The next floor up we saw a pair of robed ponies carrying a large hock of meat between them, I nearly gagged at how fresh it looked, and turned away when I saw them throw it into one of the cells and immediately heard something going to town on it.

It was the sixth floor where we finally stopped, while there was bound to be dozens more floors above, we wouldn’t be able to access any of them from this area. The stair case up to this floor had been much longer for reasons we didn’t yet know, and for some reason there were no guards posted outside the archway into the room, an unusually dark room. Wary, we decided to stop and gather our thoughts.

“Alright, what exactly are we doing here?” Rainbow asked. “Is any of this stuff making sense to you girls?”

“We’re just trying to get a feel for the place right now,” I replied. “We can’t go on a rampage without knowing what all we’re up against.”

“And do we know what we’re up against yet?” Fluttershy asked uncertainly, glancing into the dark room behind us.

“It’s clear that whatever the Covenant is doing,” Twilight began. “The majority of it happens here, in the west wing. While the rest of the cathedral is used for things like research, storage and… worship, so far this whole area has been labs and… specimen chambers. And by the sounds of it, there was another area like this on the east side, before the whatever led to the breakout.”

“And perhaps somewhere else as well,” Pinkie added. “That guy down stairs mentioned all the ‘real work’ had been moved, he was probably referring to the where Clover’s body and Fauna are, where they’re working on ascension.”

“That sounds reasonable,” Applejack voiced. “So we need to find out where that place is then, how do we go about it? Ah’m game for roughin’ some ponies up until they talk.”

“Hold on girls,” I said, raising my hooves in a slowdown motion. “If this area is where they’re keeping their monsters and abominations, and if they really are made from ponies… unwilling ponies I might remind you, then it’s up to us to find where they’re keeping them first, we might still be able to save some.”

“I hadn’t thought about that,” Applejack admitted. “Course you’re right Rare.”

“Should we look in here?” Twilight asked, nodding towards the dark room. “I don’t hear anything inside… maybe this one is empty.”

“We should still look,” I replied. “Just to be sure. Besides, we might find something that will tell us where they’re keeping prisoners.”

I led the way through the threshold into the spacious chamber, dropping any notion of pretending to be prisoners. The room was so dimly lit, that both Twilight and I had to light our horns, and Fluttershy produced her mace which she lit up after whispering something to it, just like she had in the barrow. The light of her mace was far greater than anything I could produce, although Twilight’s magical aptitude meant she could hold a candle to her. With the room revealed, we were able to see why the staircase to this floor needed to be so long, it was because the whole room was one big cell.

We were walking along a metallic walkway that went directly to the opposite end of the room where a single door waited, light bleeding out around the edges, to suggest that there was somepony on the other side. A second path crossed through the centre of the one we were on, the metal walkways essentially dividing the room into quarters. With each corner being nothing more than sturdy mesh, covering the deep dark pits beneath. No matter how bright Fluttershy and Twilight’s lights were, they still couldn’t reveal what lay within them, but we knew they were there, growling softly up at us.

There was one confined to each of the four corners, so while we couldn’t see, we guessed there was some kind of barrier or wall beneath the crossed walkways, to keep the pens separate. We were steadily creeping towards the opposite door, but we froze when a voice echoed out around us. It was a female voice, crackling as if being projected by some kind of machine.

“’I will be with you in a moment,” the voice said, every syllable over enunciated in typical upper class fashion. “Just stay put and I’ll be out in one minute, I just need to finish making some arrangements.”

I glanced around at the others, they all looked equally confused. Had the voice been addressing us? If not, then who? And if so, then what did she mean?

“Forget her,” Rainbow whispered, as if afraid she would overhear. “Let’s just go on through.”

I nodded, nothing good would arise from staying here and waiting for the source of that voice to come find us. I started walking confidently forward, my hooves clanging loudly on the metal walkway as I approached the door.

“Are you really so eager?” the voice asked, making me stop suddenly. “You’re wasting your time, the door is locked. Besides, I’m almost done, and then I will be coming out to meet you.”

“Rarity,” Fluttershy whispered, creeping softly up behind me. “I don’t like this; I think we should get out of here.”

I nodded warily, but just as I began to back up, we heard a loud grinding noise. We spun around to see a metal portcullis dropping down in the previously open archway, blocking our exit.

“Don’t leave now,” the voice said in a mock sad tone. “Just a few more seconds and I’ll be out to see you.”

“You know we can just teleport out, right?” Pinkie called out to the ceiling. “For that matter, we can just teleport in there and drag you out ourselves.”

“Very well,” the voice replied with a long drawn out sigh. “It is fine though, the arrangements are pretty much made, and that just leaves… what to do with you six.”

There was a loud clack as the door was unlocked, we all turned in time to see it open up and for a figure to step out, momentarily silhouetted. As she stepped forward however, and the door closed behind her, she was bathed in the light of Fluttershy’s mace, revealing her to be an earth pony mare with an orchid coat and curly violet mane, held back in a head band. She wore the usual Covenant robes with that distinctive rainbow silk embroidery, and for some reason that fact really struck me, because I was sure I recognised this mare.

“Hello Rarity,” Suri Polomare greeted with a sly grin. “Welcome to our humble abode, we’ve been expecting you for some time now.”

LXX - Remembrance

“Suri…” I uttered in confusion.

“Oh, so you do remember me,” Suri Polomare replied in a pleasantly surprised voice. “I’m glad you do.”

I just blinked a couple of times while staring at her, completely oblivious as to what was going on. She had disappeared, I don’t know what I had expected, maybe that she had been kidnapped or killed, certainly not what was clearly in front of me.

“I… I thought…” I murmured in a quiet voice.

“That I had been captured by the big bad ponies in robes?” Suri finished in a condescending tone, giving a little titter. “Oh Rarity, you always were very naïve, I see that remains despite all your little adventures.”

“What the heck is that supposed to mean?!” Rainbow demanded.

“Yeah, what do you know about our adventures?!” Pinkie added in an indignant tone.

“Oh, everything my dears,” Suri replied. “Surely you didn’t think you could do all the things you’ve done, and not catch our attention. We’ve been keeping an eye on you all for some time now, especially after you became so fixated on finding us. Really, I’m surprised it took you this long, but then this magnificent sanctuary can only be found by those who know of its existence… how did you find out in the end?”

“I thought you said you were keeping an eye on us,” Applejack snorted. “Can’t have been doin’ a good job.”

“Well, when I said we knew everything…” Suri began in a slightly awkward voice.

“That’s quite alright sister Suri,” a voice echoed out around us, in that same crackling way Suri’s had a moment ago. “I shall take it from here.”

That voice was chillingly familiar, even with the distortion, the nasally, weedy tone could not be mistaken for anypony else. My head snapped around to see that my friends all looked just as horrified as I was to hear the voice.

“Crane!” I spat, my confusion at seeing Suri there giving way to anger.

“You’ve heard of me,” Crane grumbled, clearly disappointed at being denied an introduction for the second time. “I’m guessing it was Fauna, that is how you found us, is it not? You went to the Isle of Serenity, am I to take it there was some secret hidden there, that only the worthy could find?”

“I guess you wouldn’t know,” Pinkie replied smugly. “Not being worthy and all that.”

Suri glared furiously at Pinkie, but clenched her mouth shut, clearly not wishing to interrupt Crane.

“Apparently I am not, Fauna has told me as much on many occasions,” Crane replied in a bitter tone. “But soon things will be different…”

“Where is she?!” Fluttershy cried out. “What have you done with them?!”

“Don’t you worry about them Sister Fluttershy,” Crane replied, I saw Fluttershy visibly flinch at how he addressed her. “They are no longer of any importance, for as you know, we have come into possession of something far greater than any knowledge they carried.”

“You won’t get away with this Crane!” Twilight shouted. “We’ll find you, and put a stop to what you’re doing. You’ll never achieve ascension so long as we live.”

“Oh my dear Twilight Sparkle,” Crane began in a low voice. “You don’t seem to understand…”

“Understand what?” I growled.

“I don’t believe your arrival here today was a coincidence,” Crane went on in an ominous tone. “I believe it was destiny that you should arrive to bear witness to such a momentous occasion.”

“What are you talking about you psycho?!” Rainbow demanded.

“After years of work,” Crane responded, his voice brimming with excitement. “Countless experiments and hours of continuous research… we have succeeded!”

“What?!” we all exclaimed in unison.

“The final formula is being synthesised as we speak,” Crane revealed, his voice practically trembling with glee. “Ascension is finally within my grasp, and soon… everything I’ve sought to achieve will be mine.”

Suri’s smile slipped slightly, and she gave a small cough to get Crane’s attention.

“Do not fear sister,” Crane assured her. “In my new world, your services will not go unrewarded. You have been with me from the very beginning, and as such, you will stay by my side for the rest of eternity.”

“I wouldn’t’ have it any other way,” Suri replied in the soppiest tone.

“Now, as for you all…” Crane began.

“You think locking us up in here will stop us from hunting you down and killing you?!” Pinkie interrupted, literally ripping her robes off and pulling out her daggers.

I saw Suri screw up her face at the sight of her precious garments lying in tatters at Pinkie’s hooves, and she only got angrier when Fluttershy and Twilight did the same.

“I have no doubt you can escape from that room easily,” Crane replied calmly. “And I’m sure if it came down to me versus all six of you… I wouldn’t stand much of a chance, but the thing is… I don’t want to fight you; I don’t want to be your enemy.”

I raised an eyebrow as I tried to wrap my head around that, before shaking it off as a mind trick and drawing my sword.

“I’m not lying Rarity,” Crane insisted. “You have all impressed me greatly, particularly with the way you dealt with my escaped pets. I would have preferred to have them recaptured, but knowing you took care of them for me is better than having them reveal us and our intentions to the world prematurely, so thank you for that. I would quite honestly be honoured to have such impressive individuals, such as yourselves, leading all of pony kind into the new world.”

“No deal,” I replied, readying myself for a fight as I turned my eyes to Suri.

“I hope you will come to see sense,” Crane said in a slightly disappointed voice. “We still have time for you to make the right choice. When you do, sister Suri will bring you to see me.”

With those final words, the iridescent crackling cut out and Crane was gone, leaving us alone with Suri once more, who was watching me without fear.

“Why are you fighting us Rarity?” Suri asked calmly. “Is what we’re trying to achieve really so wrong? It’s not like we plan on hoarding this miracle, we plan to share it with the world. We’re going to raise everypony up, make everypony perfect. A master race of alicorns, is such a thing not beautiful to imagine?”

“No, it’s not,” I replied simply. “You think you can create some utopia by giving everypony the power to hurl the earth into the sun, but all you’ll get is a world of chaos.”

“And not even the fun kind,” Pinkie added, as if it was the worst part of it all.

“Well… I would be lying if I said I hadn’t expected you to resist,” Suri muttered as she reached behind her back and produced a small metal object. “I knew I might have to use some more… persuasive methods.”

I saw what was in her hoof; it was a small metal box with various coloured buttons on it, and a long metal antenna poking out the top. Suri pressed one of the buttons, and I immediately jumped back to the centre of the room, off the mesh floor in the upper right corner as it began to retract into the walls. We were all too busy staring gormlessly at the mesh floor sliding out of sight, to think to stop Suri before she pressed a second button; the sound of grinding accompanied the rising of the cell floor.

I backed up to the arch blocked off by the portcullis with my friends, all of us readying our weapons for what came up on the rising cell. The creature was horrific, a true abomination and a simple insult to pony nature. Unlike the other monsters we had encountered, it was obvious that this one had once been a pony; its body was still relatively equine shaped, even if it was warped and disfigured. For starters it was huge and hulking, its veins bulging, and its muscles swelling to the point where they split through the skin in some areas. There were bones visibly protruding from the creature, such as its ribs and spinal column, and jutting from its back were two horribly malformed, fleshy wings, completely lacking any feathers and randomly flailing about as if the creature had no motor control over them.

The monsters jaw was practically hanging off, its mouth too small to accommodate the shark like set of teeth within, and on the top of its head was two horns, one that was no bigger than my own, which had been snapped to the side to make way for the second one, which protruded from its skull like a bloody lance made from bone. The monster hobbled around on four hooves which were all split apart from the ankles down, as if to form claws or digits. But while they might have torn through somepony in seconds, they were useless for walking on, and the poor creature let out agonising wails with every step it took.

Suri pressed another button, almost lazily, this time I saw a flash from the metal collar around the creatures neck and it screeched in anguish, almost buckling from the pain. Instead it reared up, right before charging straight for us. I rolled diagonally, making for Suri in the hopes of taking the remote control device from her. Glancing back, I saw that all my friends had gotten safely out of the way and were now engaging the beast. Looking forward, I saw Suri making for the door she had entered from. I began sprinting for her, but I wasn’t fast enough to catch her before she opened it up, stepped through, and looked back.

“When you’re ready to play ball,” she began. “Then I’ll come get you, in the meantime… have fun with your friend.”

With that, she slammed the door right in my face, just as I reached out to grab hold of her. I tried the handle, but found it locked, no surprise. Turning back, I saw Pinkie and Applejack both riding the monster around the chamber, like they were in the most grotesque rodeo ever. I darted across to where Twilight was crouched in the corner, trying to get a clear aim with her sceptre at the rampaging abomination.

“Suri’s locked herself in that room!” I told her urgently. “If we can get that remote off her…”

“I’m on it!” Twilight replied, sending out a stream of electricity which struck the monster in its eye, before she stood up and made for the door.

With all its flailing about, Pinkie and Applejack jumped off for safety. Rainbow Dash sped in and began flying circles around it, repeatedly slicing into it with her spear. When she stopped flying, the creature was now focused on her, chasing her to the corner where it had first risen up from. Once in the corner, Rainbow flew out of the way and allowed it to charge head first into the wall. The whole room shook, but to our dismay and no short amount of horror, the creature turned around like it hadn’t felt a thing.

That was when Fluttershy flew in, no fear in her eyes as she swooped right up in front of its face and struck it hard with her mace. With a flash of light, the creature collapsed, screeching in agony as holy fire burned through the right side of its face. The noises it made sent chills up my spine, but I pushed the doubt that was growing to the back of my mind, as I charged in to deliver the finishing blow. I cantered right up to where its head was twisting on the ground, and raised my sword high, ready to plunge the blade down into it good eye and end this battle… and then I froze.

The monster opened its uninjured eye wide, and stared at me with complete and utter fear… the gold of its iris causing my heart to stop beating inside my chest. It was almost an automatic reaction on the creature’s behalf when its mutilated leg swept out and caught me, tossing me across the room. Luckily Pinkie managed to blink in behind me and absorb my momentum, placing me gently on the ground, where I continued to stare at the creature in shock as it started to stand up. I couldn’t believe it, I refused to believe it! But now that I had seen that eye, the little details were appearing to me. The patches of turquoise fur, the very same shade that the smaller horn was, it just couldn’t be…

“Lyra…” I breathed, my voice filled with dread.

“What?” Pinkie questioned, staring at me with raised eyebrows.

Applejack and Rainbow charged in, showing the monster no remorse as it continued to try and fight… no, defend itself, constantly shrieking in pain and terror.

“No!” I screamed at them, but they couldn’t hear me over the noises the creature was making.

I fought off Pinkie’s grip and struggled to my hooves, ignoring the pain in my shoulder where it had struck me, as I rushed to place myself between Applejack and Rainbow Dash and it. With a sweep of my blade I was able to block and hold of Applejack’s claymore, which surprised me more than anypony else, and I sent out a wave of magic to knock Rainbow’s spear skywards. I tensed up slightly, afraid that the creature might strike me from behind, but the attack never came. The screams quietened and it started to back up slightly from us all, giving off low mewling noises, almost as if it was… crying.

“What are you doin’ Rare?!” Applejack exclaimed, looking from me to the retreating monster.

“We can’t hurt her!” I said loudly and clearly.

“Her?” Rainbow repeated, her stance slipping.

I felt Applejack reduce the pressure against me, and I lowered my weapon before turning to face the creature, which was now cowering in the corner it had risen up from.

“Lyra?” I began; it raised its head in response and stared at me. “Lyra, it’s me, Rarity.”

I started edging forward, but Lyra only tried to push further away. I felt my heart break for her as I imagined all the horrible things she had endured here, and how terrified she must be of us after what we had done. I kept moving forward though, keeping it slow as I held out one hoof in what I hoped she would interpret as a sign of goodwill.

“It is you, isn’t it Lyra?” I asked, tears welling up in my eyes. “I’m sorry Lyra! I’m sorry I lied… I’m sorry I ran away! You were my friend; I should have treated you better.”

I was so close now, my hoof only inches away from Lyra’s muzzle. She wasn’t moving anymore, no longer making any moves to escape from me, but as I held still and watched… I saw her one good eye become shiny with tears. Then the door Twilight had disappeared through at some point during the fight, burst open, and Suri Polomare was thrown into the chamber, sprawling on the floor. Twilight followed, aiming her sceptre directly at Suri, who began scrabbling about for the remote control. She picked it up and Twilight fired a bolt of lightning, disintegrating it, but not before she was able to hit one button.

The collar around Lyra’s neck flashed bright and she shrieked in pain once more, rearing up and thrashing the air with her forelegs. I was paralyzed with fear as she looked down at me with hatred, and suddenly those claw like appendages were looking very threatening… but then the anger faded, if only for a brief moment, to be replaced by recognition. The anger returned, but this time Lyra was not screaming, she came down onto all fours and leapt over me into the centre of the room, right onto the screaming Suri, who could only raise her forelegs in front of her face before Lyra tore into her.

The screams were very quickly cut out, but sometime during them I felt one of my friends grab hold of me and drag me away. They carried me through the open door, the others running ahead of us, they set me down on the floor before turning to slam the door shut and lock it again. My head was spinning, I tried to watch as my friends darted about the Suri’s office, looking through the contents of her desks and bookshelves, occasionally glancing to me with concerned expressions and muttering stuff to one another. But trying to watch only made me feel sick, so I resorted to staring at the ground in front of me.

“Rarity,” Fluttershy began, sitting down next to me. “Will… will you be alright?”

“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “That… that was Lyra, it really was.”

“Your friend who got the boat with you?” Fluttershy questioned. “But what would she have been doing here? How did the Covenant capture her?”

“I haven’t a clue,” I admitted, narrowing my eyes as I thought back. “The last I heard about her was…”

My voice failed me as I remembered the news Stranglethorn had delivered to me, suddenly my mind started making connections very quickly, and I did not like the implications of it all one bit. I sprung to my hooves, marching over to where Twilight and Pinkie were, looking over a letter together by the desk.

“What have you found?” I asked them calmly, my heart racing.

“This letter,” Twilight revealed. “Instructions for a new laboratory to be established in the central portion of the cathedral, for easy access from Crane’s private quarters.”

“All regular access to these sections will be sealed off,” Pinkie continued. “Access will be strictly limited to only the most high ranking members, who will have access to private routes, signed C.”

“So that’s where the ‘real work’ is taking place,” I muttered. “He must have the body up there, and that’s probably where they’re making up the formula he was talking about.”

“We need to get there now,” Rainbow said, approaching from the side. “We can look for other prisoners later, but we need to get up there before they finish this synthetics.”

“Synthesis,” Twilight corrected. “And I agree, I don’t know whether they really have perfected it, but I don’t want to wait and find out.”

I nodded and drew my lantern out, lighting it up as I began shining it around the room. It only made sense, if Suri had that letter, then she must be considered one of the high ranking members, and any secret access would presumably be found in her living quarters or her office. While I searched, the others continued looking through Suri’s things, loudly voicing their confusion regarding what she had meant by making ‘arrangements’. Before they could find anything that might answer that question however, I found the passage behind the bookcase; Twilight began scanning it for a way to open it up, which was brought to a rather sudden stop when Applejack simply kicked the entire unit into splinters with one mighty blow, revealing the passage behind.

I took the lead down the narrow passage, the others following in single file behind me. We didn’t travel far when I had to clamp my ears down against the wailing of a siren, flashing red lights running the length of the passage catching our attention, right before the floor opened up beneath us. We dropped down into a large metal funnel, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy flying out of harm’s way while the rest of us fell down the exit and were dropped rather unceremoniously onto a thick bed of sticky webbing.

We must have triggered some kind of trap, no doubt designed to detect ponies who were not Suri, and the trapdoor had deposited us inside the cell of the fourth floor we had come to, the one with the silky sacks. Remembering the other bulbous thing I had briefly caught sight of, I leapt to my hooves, drawing all three knives and readying myself for a fight… but there was nothing inside the cell with us. In fact, the large pen door was raised open, and upon stepping outside we saw that any guards or robed ponies that had been there before, were now mysteriously absent. After Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy descended down the ceiling shaft to join us, we left that chamber and quickly went through some of the other floors, confirming the odd trend.

The entire place was deserted, no guards at the doors, no ponies carrying out research, but more importantly, no monsters left inside their cells. We wondered briefly if maybe there was a second break out, but we quickly dismissed that idea. There appeared to be no damage to the pens, and there was certainly no evidence of any kind of struggle. It was as if everypony had simply stopped what they were in the middle of, got up and walked away… perhaps they had also taken the monsters on leads for walks.

We exited the main wing and found that the rest of the cathedral was just as lonely as the rooms we had left, only more pronounced now that we were in the larger chambers. While completely confusing, we were able to see the silver lining to all this, we no longer had to take it slow for fear of being caught. We rushed through the cathedral, galloping all the way from the west wing in an easterly direction, until we found ourselves at what appeared to be the main entrance to the building. This room was even vaster than the first surface room we arrived at, most of it was dominated by a great staircase that led up to doors reminiscent of the ones I’d seen on the Tower.

Here too there were large support columns filling up most of the empty space, and the entire south wall was just tall archways that gave a panoramic view of the little port town they had going out the front. The position of the sun suggested it was late afternoon; we had to keep moving, so we turned away from the brief glimpse of freedom and started making our way up the marble steps to the great doors.

“This place is too big,” Fluttershy murmured. “And too much of it is empty.”

“Ah agree,” Applejack replied. “You could convert a place like this into a right nice town, heck, maybe even a city considerin’ the size. That little dock bit would be perfect for trade, there’s plenty of space for housing and retail, but what do these nuts do with it? They make monsters here.”

“I wonder what it was used for before they took it over,” Twilight added. “Who could really need this much space for worship alone? And if that really was all it was used for, then who was worshipping who?”

“Nothing to say that worship had anything to do with it,” Pinkie pointed out. “Just because we associate a building like this with worship of the Six, doesn’t mean that’s what older civilisations used it for.”

“And you think some ancient race built this place?” Rainbow asked sceptically. “It doesn’t look that old.”

“True, but then look at Arclight,” I reminded her. “It was always said that when ponies first inhabited it, it looked like it had just been newly constructed. In fact, take away the strange magical technology; Arclight might actually be quite similar to this place.”

“Yet more questions,” Pinkie muttered, frowning as she became entangled in her own thoughts.

“Only this time,” Twilight jumped in, placing a hoof on her shoulder. “We might actually be able to find the answers. When this is all over, we can go back to the vault at the temple, we can finally have these questions answered.”

“If we get through all this,” Applejack corrected, looking up at the massive door just ahead of us. “How do you propose we get through this anyway? The letter said all regular entrances to the central areas would be sealed off.”

“Like that’s really going to stop us,” Rainbow replied confidently. “Crane might as well open this door right now, save him the trouble of having to replace it.”

“Must we?” Twilight asked, clearly pained at the idea of damaging such a potentially historical place. “Surely we could look for another passage; we have the lantern after all.”

“We don’t have time for to go shining it around every solid surface in this place,” I told her. “And even if we did, there might be more security like the last one. If anypony here can get through this door, it’s you Twilight.”

“Fine,” Twilight said with a small sigh as she drew her sceptre, the orb at the end glowing dangerously. “Here we come Crane, ready or not.”

LXXI - Crane

Twilight made it look almost effortless as she blasted through the ornate doors with a churning, raging beam of magical energy. Burning an almost perfect circle right through the base of them, and allowing us to walk straight through to the lab beyond. It was unlike anything we had encountered up to that point, a huge towering room, the entire area bathed in a venomous green glow. The equipment here was even more complicated and sophisticated than what we had seen in the west wing, lots of large machines chugging away, and consoles with various displays that went right over my head.

There were tables with bodies on them, half dissected corpses of both normal ponies and a random assortment of monsters. I saw jars with disembodied limbs, including severed horns and wings floating in a jelly like substance. There were stacks of notes, and countless vials of coloured liquids and powders arranged on shelves or fixed over heaters. In the centre of the room was a pillar like device, which towered from the floor to the ceiling. Arranged randomly around it, jutting outwards, were large glass canisters, some of which were empty, others holding ponies suspended in liquid with dozens of wires attached to them, and what looked like a metal spine driving into the backs of their skulls, it was impossible to tell if they were alive or dead.

There were dozens of floors and levels to the tower, only the ground floor we stood on was made from the same stone as the rest of the cathedral, the rest must have been installed by the Covenant themselves, as they were made from metal mesh grids, with railings around them and ladders connecting them to one another. There were even more work areas on the platforms, and doors leading off to other areas from the main tower room, the whole thing looked very haphazard. It was the very top of the lab which really drew our gaze, for it was there that was the source of the green glow.

The ceiling was made from the same mesh as the platforms, effectively separating the tower from the room above, but we were just about able to see a large spherical canister, situated on the very top of the mechanical column. It was mostly obscured from view by the distance and the metal grid, but we could just about make out a dark shape floating in the luminous green liquid. I heard Twilight make a small noise behind me, and looked around to see her eyes wide and shimmering as she stared up at it.

“It’s her…” she breathed in awe. “Princess Clover.”

“Ah, I see you finally made it,” Crane’s voice echoed out, snapping us all out of our daze. “I am disappointed you caused sister Suri to meet her end, but I know better than anypony that sacrifices must be made for the greater good, and her sacrifice will be remembered. Still, at least she was able to keep you all busy long enough for the rest of my children to begin making preparations.”

“What are you talking about Crane?!” I demanded. “Where in Tartarus is everypony?!”

“Now that we are so close to attaining our goal,” Crane began. “It is time that we began preparations for the next stage of our plan. This very night, after my loyal followers have witnessed the culmination of all our efforts, we will abandon this place and set forth to face the world. It is almost time, so there is still time for you to see the light and join me…”

“That’s not going to happen!” I shouted over him. “We’re coming up there right now, and we’re going take you down!”

“Everypony grab on,” Twilight instructed.

We all obeyed as Twilight began focusing her magic, we waited, readying ourselves for the moment when we teleported up to the room above… but that moment never came.

“What…” Twilight uttered in confusion when the light around her horn died out and we were still standing on the ground floor.

“My apologies Twilight Sparkle,” Crane said in an amused voice. “But surely one of your genius would realise that to conduct experiments such as these, you must have complete control over the environment, you can’t have ponies jumping across space and disrupting everything.”

“Then we’ll do this the old fashioned way!” Rainbow declared. “And we’ll start by trashing this place first!”

“No Rainbow, wait!” Twilight shouted just as Rainbow made to throw her spear at the column. “Without knowing how all this works, we can’t risk damaging it. We need to get up there so I can figure out a way to stop this without any risk of error.”

“Then what are we waiting for?!” Pinkie asked, running for the nearest ladder to begin the ascent.

We all followed, Rainbow and Fluttershy flying, but always staying close to the rest of us, while we started taking the ladders. Not usually the same ones, so we found ourselves progressing at different rates.

“Why do you insist on opposing me?” Crane asked, almost whining. “Can you not see that what I am doing will be for everypony’s benefits?”

We chose to ignore him this time, just focusing on climbing higher, but he wasn’t about to give up talking us over to his side.

“Applejack,” Crane began again, Applejack herself hesitating as her name was mentioned. “You’ve seen the injustices of this world, you’ve tried to remain good and honest, and yet what has this world given you in return? Your orchard was almost burnt to the ground by the ones you had fought for, your farm was raided and your family’s safety was threatened by the ones with fought with. In my world, there will be no strong to oppress the weak, for everypony will be brought up to the same level. You and your family can live in peace and safety, confident in the knowledge that nothing will endanger your loved ones and your livelihood again.”

“Yeah the world’s a messed up place,” Applejack admitted as she kept on climbing. “Ah’ve seen ponies do terrible things just because they could, but having power requires you also have the responsibility to know when to use, and more importantly when not to use it. You might be able to make gods and monsters with your fancy science, but you can’t make a pony good if they’re already rotten on the inside. All you’re doin’ is putting a weapon in the hooves of somepony willing to use it. You’re right that changin’ the world requires you to change the ponies livin’ in it, but it’s a change that takes time and patience, there is no miracle formula to inject and make everything instantly better.”

“Yeah, you tell him AJ!” Rainbow cheered from where she hovered.

“I’m surprised at you Rainbow Dash,” Crane went on, grabbing her attention. “Your whole life has been a quest to make yourself the very best you can be. Always training and practising, always pushing yourself to become stronger, faster… better. What I’m offering is for you to become the best anypony can possibly be, you would become a symbol of perfection in every way. With just one dose, you would reach a peak you could never achieve otherwise, no matter how long you lived and strived for it.”

“So what?” Rainbow uttered in a disinterested voice. “Even if you weren’t a crazy dude, I would still never let you stick a needle in me. What is there for you to be proud of when you change yourself? When you’re faster and stronger than anypony else, what of it will you have earned? It doesn’t make you special; it makes you ignorant to what’s really important. I practise and I train all the time, but not because I want to be the very best, but because I want to become the very best. It’s the process of doing, the journey to the final goal that really matters, because it’s that which builds you up and gives you something that you can reflect on and be really proud of. It’s no different if the thing you work on is making dresses or farming apples or studying magic, it’s not what we grow into, but the fact that we grew.”

“Let me guess,” I muttered to her, as I pulled myself up onto another platform. “Daring Do?”

“Nope, that one was all me,” Rainbow declared proudly.

“Well what about you sister Fluttershy?” Crane asked, sounding irritated, but trying to hide it. “You must be feeling ecstatic to know that the Six are real, after all, your entire life has been defined by your desire to follow their example. The Covenant and the Celestial Sisterhood really aren’t that different, it was after all in their shadow that we planted our roots, growing inside the churches scattered across the country and building our numbers from there. We have taken our beliefs to the next level, by following the Six in the path to ascension. This is the natural step forward for us, for you Fluttershy, to follow in their hoofsteps and join them as alicorns.”

“I don’t believe that,” Fluttershy replied in a calm voice. “We might not know a lot about the Six, but if there’s one thing I’m sure, is that they earned their wings and horns. They proved themselves worthy of them, just like we proved ourselves worthy on the Isle of Serenity, you have done nothing to make you deserving of either. Besides, while I once believed that I needed to mimic the examples of the Six perfectly, I now know that they wouldn’t have wanted that of us. They would have wanted all ponies to follow their own paths, to overcome their own obstacles and find their calling in life. Their example is just that, only an example to help us in building a more harmonious world, but it is ultimately down to each of us to find our path… one where there’s no hoofsteps to follow.”

“That is… most disappointing sister,” Crane muttered, his voice becoming more irritated. “But Twilight Sparkle, surely you can see the good in what I am doing. You have studied under Princess Celestia herself since you were only a filly, you have strived to learn as much as you can, all so you could better serve her and make her proud. What I am working on is without a doubt, the greatest quest for knowledge of all time. What would make your dear mentor… no, mother, more proud than for you to be a part of that quest and be able to join her by her side… as her equal?”

“Don’t even try to talk about the Princess like you know what she would want!” Twilight snapped back, before calming down and continuing in a more heartfelt tone. “She means the world to me, I used to think there was nothing I wouldn’t give up just to see her smile, and to believe for even a second that she might love me as much as I loved her… but I’m wiser now, my friends helped me with that. I know what I believe in this matter, as much as the idea might have tantalised me years ago, there is no knowledge worth endangering the world over. As for what would make her proud, if it was between becoming her equal or staying true to what I know is right; I know which one it would be.”

“You are all being foolish!” Crane exclaimed, losing his temper. “What right does Celestia have to horde such power for herself? She could have helped bring us to her level, but instead she chose to deny it to us. She forced us all to remain in the dirt, while she perched on the clouds, looking down upon us, but I refused to let her existence go unchallenged. If she can be an alicorn, then why not us?! Why not me?!”

"You’re insane,” I muttered, looking up to see that we were almost at the top.

“And what about you Pinkie Pie?” Crane asked, his voice suddenly calm again if not slightly sinister. “Or would you prefer to be called… Discord?”

Pinkie froze as she reached out for a ladder, spinning around and staring up at the ceiling, rage in her eyes.

“Celestia is your enemy as much as she is mine,” Crane tried to say. “Together we could…”

“Shut up!” Pinkie yelled, her voice filled with pure hatred. “You tried to have me killed! I helped you and you stabbed me in the back… almost literally. If you wanted my help, then I’m afraid to tell you that ship sailed.”

“I deeply regret the actions we took against you,” Crane apologised in an unconvincing tone. “But you have to understand that you carry a certain reputation, one of being… untrustworthy. Had I known at the time you were in actual fact, very strong when it came to what you believed in, I would never have had to take such measures against you… and besides, we still have what you want.”

Pinkie’s anger slipped, for a moment it was replaced by hope, but it didn’t last long when her eyes flickered across to where Twilight stood on a different platform, watching her curiously.

“I figured you were just lying when your goons first told me they had it,” Pinkie went on, her voice low. “Even now I doubt you’re telling me the truth, but even if you are… then I don’t want it!”

“Disc… uh, Pinkie Pie,” Crane began in a warning tone. “This is what you need, the key to opening the gates of Tartarus and unlocking your stolen powers and memories. All those burning questions that have weighed down upon you since you first bonded on that rock farm, they can all be answered, all you have to do is join me.”

“That’s what he offered you,” Twilight muttered. “The Star of Chaos.”

“What’s that?” Fluttershy asked me, but I just shrugged in response.

“It’s the artefact that the cultists tried to use all those years ago,” Twilight explained, not taking her eyes off Pinkie Pie. “To open the gate in Canterlot, and bring Discord back. We thought it had been lost, perhaps destroyed…”

“It might as well be,” Pinkie cut in, her voice firm. “Because I don’t want it, I don’t care if I never get my memories back; the only thing that matters is the here and now. I have my friends… and we’re going to stop you, that is what matters!”

There was a long silence as we waited to see if Crane would respond, but he never did. Pinkie nodded back at us all, and we hurried up the final couple of levels. Upon reaching the highest one, we started looking about for the next ladder, but saw no obvious entrance that would take us from the tower to the room above.

“Try that door,” I stated, indicating the only one on this level.

It caught my eye because there was a sing on it, saying ‘private’. Considering this entire lab was already exclusive to Crane and his highest ranking followers only, that sign suggested something very important lay behind it. Twilight knelt down and fiddled with the locks using her magic, it presented no challenge for her, and soon the door was open and we were greeted with a dark room. We walked in without much hesitation; similarly Fluttershy raised her mace and whispered to it without giving it much thought.

When the weapon shone and the room was illuminated, she immediately dropped it with a scream of horror upon seeing what lay inside. Indeed we all had mixed reactions; from uttering a horrified noise, to leaping instinctively back from the room’s horrific centrepiece. It was a medical chair, like one you might find in a dentist’s office, fully reclined back, a body lay on it… a body that was mid autopsy. I could see that the mare's coat was a pale shade of green, almost grey; at least I could see that in the parts that weren’t covered in dry, crusted blood.

Her whole chest was opened up, her ribcage pulled open and held in place by a clamp like device. I didn’t need to look too closely to see that all her internal organs had been removed, nor did I have to look far to see them all inside jars, floating in preservative liquid. The jars were on a counter at the side of the room, while next to the chair was a metal trolley, with lots of bloody tools that had presumably been used to dissect the mare. Applejack was the first to find her stomach again and risk circling around the mare, she didn’t walk far before she stopped and gasped at something.

Curiosity overpowering my urge to throw up, I followed Applejack and saw what had shocked her. The mare’s head was sawn open, the entire top half of the skull removed, along with her mane, but more than that, her head was completely empty. I glanced back at the jars, but saw no brain among them. I briefly wondered where it might be, before I noticed the rest of the mare’s head lying, practically discarded beneath the chair she was lying on. Levitating it out, all the while aware that I was being incredibly disrespectful, I saw that she had an auburn mane, tied in a long braid.

“Fauna,” I whispered, my eyes turning back to her.

The others glanced at me in confusion, before looking back to Fauna’s body with realisation dawning in their eyes.

“Oh my goodness…” Fluttershy uttered, stumbled forward and reaching out to the body with a shaky hoof. “We were too late.”

I could see tears springing to her eyes, so I set the body part down and walked over to her, pulling her into a hug before she could make physical contact with the body.

“We… we should call Harbinger in now,” I told her in a shaky voice. “He should know.”

Fluttershy sniffed loudly before nodding and pulling away from me.

“H… Harbinger,” Fluttershy called out to the ceiling. “Harbinger, if you can hear me… we need you to come here.”

There was a long silence while we waited for something to happen.

“Maybe… maybe he has to actually fly here,” Rainbow suggested. “But he’s pretty fast, so if we give him a minute…”

“He should be here by now…” Applejack said in a concerned voice, glancing out the open door and confirming that he wasn’t flying up to meet us.

While the rest of us waited with bated breath, Twilight walked over to the chair and began examining the body.

“This… this looks like it was done some time ago,” she reported. “Not sure how long exactly, but…”

She drifted off for a second before giving a little gasp of surprise. We all spun around from the door, which we were eagerly watching, and saw her standing with her sceptre drawn, the orb pointed directly over Fauna’s open chest where a pale blue sphere floated.

“Another memory sphere?” Pinkie said in surprise, as we all walked back over to the chair.

“Perhaps she left a final message for us,” I proposed. “A last attempt to help us.”

There was a moment of painful silence as we contemplated that, before Twilight raised her sceptre, glancing at us all with a tentative expression. Fluttershy gave her the nod to proceed, while we all backed up to the walls so as not to interfere with whatever the memory would display. Twilight pointed the sceptre at the memory sphere and began fiddling about, trying to get the right magical frequency to unlock it. The last time it had taken her a few minutes, this time she got it in a few seconds, no doubt it had been the same frequency. She twisted her sceptre like a key, and the room was washed with the blue light as the memory began to form before us.

Fauna’s body was made whole, although she was still dead, lying on the reclined chair while two ponies stood beside her. One was Crane, looking down at her and trembling with fury, while the second was just a random pony in covenant robes, who was also trembling, but more out of fear as he shrunk back from Crane.

“W… we tried to bring her back,” he stammered in a panicked voice. “B… but she just kept crashing; any attempt to resuscitate her was a complete failure.”

“Get out…” Crane whispered in barely audible, but deadly tone.

“I… I’m sorry?” the other pony uttered, apparently not hearing Crane.

“Get out!” Crane bellowed, swinging out at the other pony with his hoof.

The stallion, despite being bigger than Crane, flinched from his attack and collapsed to the ground before the hoof could connect with him. Within seconds, he scrambled to his hooves and rushed from the room, out the door we had entered from, leaving Crane alone with Fauna’s dead body, seething with rage.

“She never did talk, did she?” a new voice asked.

The voice was eerily familiar, I felt my heart racing as I turned to the second door in the room, the one that was closed in the present, but was now lying open in this memory. The figure emerged from the shadows, at once all my friends either gasped or exclaimed at the sight of him, I simply stared, my earlier fear confirmed by what I saw before me… Duke Blueblood standing in the doorway, still wearing the suit we had captured him in, although it looked like it had suffered some damage and been repaired since, he also wore a sour expression as he stared at Crane.

“No, she was very… difficult throughout all our meetings,” Crane admitted, his voice still shaking with anger.

Blueblood nodded slightly, a frown appearing on his face as he walked further into the room. I could see Crane tensing up as he did, and he was right to do so, as Blueblood’s horn lit up and he lashed out with a wave of magic. Crane was hurled into the wall where he was pinned, hanging by the throat which he instinctively started grasping at, as if he could somehow physically remove Blueblood’s magical grip on him.

“P… please…” he gasped.

“I have given you more than enough time!” Blueblood snapped at him. “I took great risks when I had those troops sent to the Isle of Serenity, if anypony had found out… or heavens forbid, Celestia had found out… I took risks to help you capture this whore and her friends. Yet you’ve squandered my help, you had all her allies killed or mutated beyond use, and now you’ve allowed her to die on your watch before she could serve her purpose!”

Blueblood dropped Crane when he saw that his face had begun to turn slightly purple. The decrepit stallion took a huge gulp of air when he landed on the floor, rubbing his neck and glaring daggers at the floor as he dared not antagonise Blueblood further.

“I… I helped you,” he muttered bitterly. “I freed you from Maverick after your blunder at Port Mule, and this is how you repay me? This is your idea of gratitude?”

“Don’t be a fool Crane,” Blueblood retorted. “You freed me because you needed my help, just like I helped attack the Isle all that time ago because I needed your help. Ponies like us don’t do ‘gratitude’; we do things because we expect things to be done in return. You broke me free and I provided you with a few dozen easy test subjects, which you’ve no doubt squandered as well. I sent Equestrian soldiers to their death on the Isle of Serenity, at great risk to my own wellbeing, despite you keeping me in the dark about what your intentions really were… and now I want in on this little scheme of yours. I want ascension, so explain to me why I don’t have it yet!”

“We have… hit a bit of a dead end with our research,” Crane admitted in a grumbling tone. “It should work in theory, we have done everything right, and yet nothing we’ve created is even close to an alicorn.”

“So now the truth comes out,” Blueblood replied, narrowing his eyes at Crane. “How many weeks has it been since your minions spirited me away from that ship? How long since you welcomed me into your… Covenant and told me the truth about what I unintentionally aided you in? And how long have you been lying to me, telling me that it was only a matter of days before a breakthrough was made?”

“We… had everything under control,” Crane tried to say, sounding like he was about to burst into angry tears as he glared at the body of Fauna. “She was supposed to be the key, and yet she endured months of… persuasive methods and never once told us a thing. With everything we attempt ending in failure, her talking was our last hope at finishing what we’ve started… this blunder could not have come at a worse time.”

Blueblood was breathing heavily, clearly frustrated with how unproductive Crane had proven himself to be.

“You’re pathetic,” Blueblood spat at him. “An earth pony who looks like a strong breeze could break him, all you have is your mind, and even that’s proved ineffective. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t just snap your neck right now? I don’t need to be an alicorn to get revenge, I guess your army of mindless drones and bloodthirsty abominations will do the job well enough… not to mention your other little project. So tell me, is this the end? Was the whore right all along? Is ascension really an impossible goal?”

Crane was trembling again, a mixture of panic and anger; I could see his mind racing behind his eyes, trying desperately to come up with something that would placate Blueblood.

“There is… one thing,” he said at last. “Something I’ve considered for a long time but… but it was never a feasible option. Although I’ve been thinking about it a lot more lately, when I saw we weren’t getting anywhere with our current methods.”

“What are you going on about?” Blueblood asked in an irritated voice. “Just cut to the chase already.”

“I think… I think that everything we’re doing right now is correct,” Crane said quickly. “But that we’re missing one thing, a catalyst if you will. To be more specific, if an alicorn is what we’re trying to create… then an alicorn is what we need, their genetics could hold the key to completing our work.”

“You need an actual alicorn?” Blueblood said in disbelief. “You really are a mad scientist. If you want to walk up to Celestia and try to get a sample of her blood, then be my guest, just don’t be surprised when you find yourself incinerated in the fires of the sun.”

“I’m no fool Blueblood,” Crane spat. “I know full well that getting close to Celestia just to touch her hoof would be impossible, let alone capturing and carrying out experiments on her. No matter how many children I have at my beck and call, I will never have the strength to take her on and come out the victor.”

Blueblood gave a small snort as he stared into space.

“There was once a time I would have killed you where you stood for even entertaining that idea,” he muttered in a low voice. “But now I know what that kind of undying loyalty gets you… absolutely nothing! A cold cell and the promise of never seeing another day as a free stallion. I’ll make them pay for how they treated me… no matter what the cost is. What about the other five alicorns that make up the Six, don’t tell me you of all ponies think they’re a myth.”

“Of course I know they’re real,” Crane replied with derision. “But considering centuries have passed since the six became one, and nopony has come close to discovering where they really are, I don’t really want to rely on that crutch to hold me up. All we have to go on are legends… legends which conflict with one another to be more precise. Some say one was sent to Tartarus for crimes worse than those of Discords, others say one watches over Tartarus as its warden. Some say one was lost with the fabled Crystal Empire, others say she was corrupted by dark magic and destroyed it herself. Nopony really knows where the missing alicorns are, except Celestia, and as much as I have dreamt of finding them myself, I cannot expend the resources and ponies necessary to chase that fantasy.”

Blueblood didn’t reply, but not because he was angry or about to lash out, but because his face has become slack, almost like something had occurred to him.

“Actually…” he began at last in an odd tone. “I might know where one of them is.”

“You do?” Crane questioned, torn between doubt and eagerness. “Well spit it out man!”

“Watch yourself Crane,” Blueblood growled before explaining himself. “Tell me, have you ever seen Celestia lose her temper with anypony? Because I have, but only on one occasion, many years ago. I was only starting my political career, I was training under my father, with the plan of taking his place. He had taken me with him on a trip to Arclight here in Panchea, to give me a taste of what lay outside Equestria’s mainland. Celestia however, arranged to have her apprentice travel with us, her precious little prodigy Twilight Sparkle.”

Blueblood said the name with such disdain that it was clear she was on his revenge list. We all looked around and saw her eyes widen in surprise at the mention of her name.

“She was supposed to be going there as part of her study,” Blueblood continued. “But she ran away, leaving an illusion to trick us. The mages at Arclight had detected it however and dispelled it, which left us to contact Celestia and tell her that her faithful student had run off somewhere. Of course Celestia rushed straight there and we began to organise a search party, only for the girl to return, looking like she had just crawled out of the Nether Vale… which turned out to be exactly what she had done.

“As I said, I have only seen Celestia lose her temper one time,” Blueblood went on. “This one time to be specific, and you have to understand what a significant event that was, as she never allows her negative emotions to show, no matter what she’s faced with. So to see her scream at this filly for making one stupid mistake, the kind you half expect every curious kid to do, it really got me thinking… something about the Nether Vale struck a nerve with Celestia, almost like she was afraid of her dear student finding something there that was supposed to remain hidden…”

Crane gaped at Blueblood as he realised where the story was going.

“You mean to say…” he began in an excited voice.

“I thought about it for a long time,” Blueblood stated. “And the explanation I kept coming back to, was there was something in the Demon Shaft, something Celestia knows about, but that she doesn’t want anypony else to know about. I think you and I both know what that something could be…”

“One of the Six is in the Demon Shaft,” Crane finished thoughtfully.

“That is my belief,” Blueblood said with a short nod. “Even if it is, I haven’t a clue where it might be exactly, or even if it’s alive or dead, but then again…”

Blueblood started walking towards the door he had appeared from.

“You have plenty of disposable minions you can send to find out,” he finished in a voice that left Crane with no doubt that he wasn’t being given an option in the matter. “Now I’ve helped you again, so help me in return by finding that alicorn and giving me what I want!”

With those final words, he stormed out of the room and slammed the door behind him, leaving Crane alone with the body of Fauna, staring at the now shut door with undisguised hatred.

“I should never have brought him into this fold,” he muttered angrily as he pulled something from his robe pockets.

The device looked similar to the remote control Suri had used, except it had only one button and a circular indent on it.

“Sister Suri,” Crane spoke into the device while holding the button in. “I need you to assemble a team for a class A expedition.”

He pulled his hoof away from the button before glancing at Fauna, narrowing his eyes as he pressed the button in once more.

“And see to it that I am not disturbed for a few hours,” he added. “I have some work to do here.”

With that, the memory began to dissolve, the sheet of blue flowing back to where it originated, and the memory sphere taking shape once more. Once again we were standing in the room, the only light coming from Fluttershy’s mace to show us the results of Crane’s final work on Fauna.

“She never told them anything,” Fluttershy murmured. “Even after all she’d been put through… she never gave up what she knew.”

I lowered my eyes to the ground; I suddenly felt very weak, thinking back to how quickly I had cracked.

“And it was Blueblood who told them where to find Princess Clover,” Twilight added, her face pale. “And he only knew… because of me!”

“Don’t say that Twilight!” Pinkie exclaimed.

“Yeah,” Rainbow agreed. “Blueblood’s the bad guy here, not you.”

“Him and Crane,” Applejack reminded her. “They’re both responsible for what happened on the Isle of Serenity.”

“And we’re going to make them pay for it,” I finished, using my magic to open the door Blueblood had come from in the memory.

“But… what about Harbinger?” Fluttershy asked in a terrified voice. “He never came.”

We all fell silent, it was clear he wasn’t coming, but none of us had the heart to say it out loud.

“Come on,” I said, taking her hoof just like I had done when we arrived at the scene of the battle on the Isle. “He’d want us to finish this.”

Fluttershy nodded sadly, before allowing me to lead her through the door and up the steps beyond. We all ascended and stood grouped together at the next door, the door that would lead us into the final room where Clover’s body would be. I took a deep breath, bracing myself for what was to come… before reaching out with my magic and casting the door wide open.

Princess Clover… Clover the clever… the Element of Honesty… now nothing more than a collection of bones, barely held together by scraps of mummified flesh, floating in a great vat of liquid, that shone green with the intense magic her remains were still giving off, centuries after her death. It was a strange sight, one that left me feeling very hollow inside.

“You can’t say it isn’t incredible,” an all too familiar nasally voice said from the left end of the room.

We all turned to see Crane standing on a raised dais, a set of double doors closing behind him. He was actually there, no longer was his body the pale product of a memory, or his voice crackling over his projecting device, he was really and truly there. The thin, scrawny frame, the narrow, sharp facial features, the thinning hair and the robes with the addition of the plain black mantel, they were all the same as they had been when he first walked through the temple doors in that vision. What was new, was a brown coat and black mane, streaked with grey.

“Crane…” I growled as I started towards him, only to feel a hoof grab my shoulder.

“Don’t rush into anything,” Applejack whispered to me as she held me at bay. “We don’t know what this guy is capable of.”

“Yes, please listen to your friend Rarity,” Crane requested, giving me a thin smile before gesturing to the skeleton. “You didn’t answer my question; I want to know what you think.”

“I think you’re sick,” I retorted.

“You know Rarity,” Crane began as he stepped down off the dais and began walking around the glass container. “I really am disappointed you can’t look past your… misguided sense of morality and join me. I really was telling you the truth earlier, I’m impressed by you all… you especially. I still remember when you were first reported to me, yours was just one name in a list of fifty that one of my children had seen arriving on a ship from Equestria. I never would have guessed that I would be reading your name considerably more often in later reports. It wasn’t long before I was actively seeking you out, eager to hear what you were up to without having to hope that one of my followers would catch wind of it.”

“You can’t win me over with flattery,” I told him in a stern voice.

“No, I suppose not,” Crane admitted. “That is after all, your preferred weapon, is it not? I am of course referring to your little meeting with Arcana, quite sorry that I had to pull the plug on it, especially when you were doing so well… but I couldn’t have him spilling the beans so soon. He had been very useful to me for a long time, and it pained me to have him killed. Really I would like to have had him inducted into the Covenant, like I had with Blueblood as a reward for his services, but his views on race made it… difficult to see that working out.”

“Funny you should mention Blueblood,” I replied. “Were you aware of the memory sphere? Is that how you knew we found out about him?”

“Memory sphere?” Crane repeated in mild confusion, still walking neat circles around the tank. “No, I knew that cretin had left something… but I guess I wasn’t worthy to see what it was. Not that it matters, it ended up serving as a useful distraction to keep you busy while I made the finishing touches.”

“And now we know that on top of everything else, you freed Blueblood and turned all those sleeper agents into monsters!” I yelled at him, raising my sword while trying very hard not to rush him.

“That was Blueblood’s idea, not mine,” Crane said, like that made everything better. “Not that I was about to refuse his generous offering, test subjects have gotten so hard to come by since the end of the war, not that we didn’t do our best to perpetuate it.”

“You did what?!” Applejack exclaimed, looking like she was about to ignore her own advice and attack him.

“You didn’t think I would use Arcana and Blueblood for just one thing, did you?” Crane asked in a slightly amazed tone. “Oh no, they’ve done so much more for our cause, mostly without even knowing it. When tensions began rising with the birth of the Rebellion, I saw a golden opportunity to carry out our riskier operations by using the war as cover. We stoked the fire on both sides, Blueblood bribed and blackmailed his fellow nobles to oppose the separation and support the war, while Arcana intercepted any and all calls for peace made by the Equestrians and sabotaged negotiations.”

“Why?!” Twilight demanded. “What ‘risky operations’ could possibly justify bringing this country to its knees and steeping it in the blood of thousands?!”

“Well, one example off the top of my head would be Brine,” Crane replied calmly, clearly enjoying the rise he was getting out of us. “After all, a key part of being an alicorn is… immortality. As such, we had to carry out extensive field studies into necromancy, an area of magic that has been long since untouched. Then there was the Children of the Earth, who grew up out of the ashes left in the wake of the surrender. They harvested wings and horns, which we were able to buy under the table to use in our experiments. It’s a pity that they insisted on burning yours Rarity, that would have made a nice souvenir.”

“I’m going to murder you,” I muttered in a dark tone.

“I have no doubt,” Crane responded without any fear. “You have quite a lot of blood on your hooves already; however I have no intentions of dying… not ever. So this is your final chance, join me and stand by my side when I build the new world… or perish with the old one.”

“I know where I stand,” I told him, taking up my offensive stance once again. “And since I have my friends at my side, this is your final chance… surrender or die.”

Crane’s smiled faded, I wonder if he really believed I’d say yes. Whatever the case, he knew there would be no convincing any of us after that. All six of us stood with our weapons at the ready, and all six of us were ready to use them with deadly force, even Fluttershy. Unfortunately Crane wasn’t as defenceless as he appeared, and carried a few tricks up his sleeve… literally. He flung his hoof outwards, a glass vial shooting out from the sleeve of his robes and flying our way. We all leapt, rolled and flew out of the way as the vial broke on the grid floor and exploded, ripping a hole into the metal where it had landed.

I looked up from where I had rolled to and saw that Crane was already on the move, making a sprint for the door he had come from. I got up and chased after him, I was much faster than him, but Rainbow Dash was even faster than me. She sped over my head in a blur of colours, spear at the ready; however Crane saw her approaching and whipped another remote from his pocket, hitting a button. Around the ceiling, at equal intervals, four circular panels slid out of the way and long, metallic masts shot down, bolts of electricity passing between them. They were too high up to bother any of us on the ground, but Rainbow was caught right in the middle of one of the streams and dropped straight to the ground.

I kept running forward, leaving Rainbow in favour of chasing after Crane when I saw her moving to stand up. Fluttershy, Applejack and I all reached Crane at the same time, but once again he spun around and threw half a dozen green vials to the ground at his hooves. These ones didn’t explode, but once the glass was broken, they each released a green jelly like blob which all began growing in size, bouncing off the ground, straight for us. Fluttershy managed to duck out of the way of hers, but Applejack and I each took one to the face and chest respectively.

The blobs felt… alive, writhing over us and refusing to come unstuck, continuing to grow until they began to smother us. After a brief moment of struggling, I felt the blob bubbling and dissolving. When it slid off me, I saw that Twilight had zapped each of them with a spell, and now Applejack and I were free. Looking around, I saw Crane mounting the dais, but Pinkie leapt onto it before he could pull himself up. She loomed over him with her mask drawn over her face, her foreleg shooting out and grabbing him by the scruff of his robes. As she picked him up with one hoof, drawing a dagger with the other, Crane hit another button on his remote.

A magic shield erected itself around the dais, forcing Pinkie to release Crane as the shield divided them. Crane fell roughly to the floor, while Pinkie placed her hooves against the shield and began applying pressure. It would have stopped a normal pony completely, but all it could do to Pinkie was slow her down as she pushed her way out. Crane managed to get back to his hooves and started limping across to the other side of the room, hitting more buttons on his remote while we all began to pursue him.

Applejack was forced to throw herself flat to the floor to avoid being cooked alive by a flamethrower that extended from the wall and began spraying the area. One of the four electrical masts launched a ball of fizzling energy at Twilight, which struck her in the head, causing her to drop to her knees, stunned as her sceptre dropped from her magical hold. A second mast retracted into the ceiling, and in its place, a long metal barrel extended out, rotating to face Rainbow and I, firing a cluster of bombs directly in front of us.

We both leapt back as they detonated and ripped another, even bigger hope in the mesh floor. This time however, the glass tank was caught in the blast, a large crack appearing on the side hit and liquid began spraying out. Further down the column, there were flashes of light as small blasts began going off, a couple of the glass canisters exploding and spilling their contents over the floor below. Only Fluttershy remained unimpeded by Crane’s traps, flapping her wings to give her the speed boost necessary to catch up to him.

He spun around, preparing to press more buttons, when Fluttershy smacked the remote right out of his hoof with her mace, smashing it beyond use instantly. Behind us, the force field fizzled and died, although Pinkie was already free of it and running to our aid. Crane reached beneath his mantle and produced another vial, this one dark purple, which he smashed right into Fluttershy’s face. She cried out as the glass cut her flesh, and began stumbling backwards, flailing wildly around as if trying to swat away a swarm of bats. I could see her eyes white and cloudy, blinded by whatever Crane had thrown in her face.

She backed up dangerously close to the first hole Crane had blown in the floor, but Pinkie managed to leap across from the other side and tackled her to safety. With the bombs cleared, I took a running start and leapt the hole in front of me, charging towards Crane with my sword ready to cut him in two. He quickly reached inside his robes and pulled out half a dozen differently coloured vials, but before he could launch them at me, I readied a knife with my magic and threw first. The blade embedded itself in his shoulder and he cried out in agony, immediately dropping all the vials at his own hooves where they shattered.

Whatever concoction had been spilled, it began eating through the metal mesh in seconds, burning a hole right beneath Crane’s hooves. I tried to run forward and catch him, not wanting him to meet his end simply by falling, but I was too late. Screaming, he plummeted down the towering chamber below, nothing but the ground floor to break his fall as the burning liquid had spilled straight down before him, creating holes in all platforms that might have caught him. I tried to grab him with my magic, but was only able to grip onto the handle of my knife and yank it free of him before he was lost, crashing into a canister containing another pony on the way down, where he finally fell onto a work bench covered in dozens of beakers and test tubes filled with various, unknown chemicals.

The resulting explosion was blinding, and the sound of Crane’s screams were drowned out by the rumbling of the entire mechanical column and the mesh floor beneath our hooves. I dropped to my knees as the room trembled violently, my knife levitating back up through the hole to me while I held on for dear life, afraid that whole room was going to come down upon us. The shaking didn’t last too long however, the column managed to remain stable enough and the floor steadied, allowing me to get back up and look around for my friends.

Fluttershy was being supported by Pinkie Pie, the colour in her eyes returning, Twilight was levitating her sceptre slowly as she regained focus over her magic after the stun, and Rainbow Dash and Applejack were just brushing themselves down. Pinkie looked straight at me, reaching up with her free hoof to pull her mask back from her face.

“Crane?” she queried.

I glanced back down the hole; while the light had faded, the entire ground floor was obscured by a churning cloud of smoke.

“Dead,” I replied in a cool tone. “There’s no way he survived that.”

“Is there not?” a voice called out from behind us, loud, clear and authoritative. “Such a shame, I was hoping to finish him myself.”

I spun around, drawing all three of my knives and readying my blade as my eyes swept across to the dais and the now open double doors. Blueblood stood in the threshold, just like he had done in the second memory we had viewed, staring down at us all with contempt.

“Blueblood,” Twilight muttered darkly as she steadied her hold on the sceptre. “Surrender… and you might still reach Equestria alive to face your charges.”

“I’m afraid not Twilight Sparkle,” Blueblood replied in an ominous tone. “I have every intention of returning to Equestria, but not to face your jumped up charges… rather, to deliver my own upon the ungrateful one who sent you here!”

“What makes you think you’re the one being wronged here Blueblood?” Twilight questioned in an incredulous tone. “Did you ever seriously believe that what you were doing was right? That Princess Celestia would ever see it as anything short of treachery? You helped lead two countries into war! Do you have any idea just how much suffering you’ve played a part in causing?!”

“No… I led one country into war,” Blueblood retorted. “Equestria has always been, and will always be the only true empire. I used to revere Celestia, I pledged my life to her, but if she thinks that allowing those peasants to break away from us was a good idea… well then, I guess she is no longer fit to rule our great nation.”

“And you are?!” Rainbow spat. “After all the lives you helped ruin, you think you would make a good ruler?!”

“A strong leader needs to be willing to make sacrifices,” Blueblood stated with a stomp of his hoof. “Crane saw that, but what he failed to understand is that the world needs a single figure to rule over it with an iron hoof, somepony stronger than all the rest, who isn’t afraid to do what it takes to keep everypony in their place. The new world doesn’t need some ‘master race’ of alicorns…”

Blueblood’s horn glowed, and before any of us knew what was coming or could move to prevent it, he produced a large syringe from his jacket pocket, filled with a golden substance that shone like liquid sunlight.

“It only needs one!” he bellowed before stabbing the needle into his own neck, and injecting himself with the completed formula.

LXXII - Ascension

The formula pumped into Blueblood’s system, the changing occurring within an instant, beginning with his magic that was still holding onto the syringe. His long, slender horn flared with an intense white light, his eyes burning with energy in the same way Twilight’s did on occasion. The aura around the syringe intensified and the glass tube was shattered, the broken pieces atomising in mere seconds after the last of the serum had entered his body. Twilight aimed her sceptre and fired a twister of fire and lightning straight at Blueblood, tearing the mesh floor between us and him apart as it decimated everything in its path to reach its target.

Right before the magic connected with Blueblood, his entire body exploded in that same blinding white light, his entire physical being enveloped in it as a shock wave burst forth from him. The magic bubble expanded throughout the entire room almost instantly, erasing Twilight’s attack from the air before it was able to connect with Blueblood. Before we could act to defend ourselves, we too were caught in the blast, sending us all hurtling across the room. The glass tank burst completely, causing the liquid to cascade down through the mesh, while Clover’s bones separated and were sent flying in all directions.

I was thrown as far as the back wall, my head hitting it hard as I collided, before sliding down into a heap. My vision swimming, I tried to lift my aching head, my eyes navigating towards the brilliant light that was Blueblood at the opposite end of the room. I felt somepony grabbing me and hauling me to my hooves, glancing about I saw Applejack, her helmet protecting her when she hit the wall next to me. I could see Rainbow and Fluttershy were trying to help Twilight, whose whole body was twitching and convulsing violently, her eyes rolled back in her skull, presumably some kind of bad reaction to her magic crossing with Blueblood’s.

Pinkie had been thrown down one of the holes made in the floor during all the fighting, but I could see her bouncing her way back up, mounting a higher level with every leap, rather than taking her time with the ladders. As my head began to clear, I looked back towards Blueblood, seeing his shinning body rising up off the dais by about a foot. It was difficult to tell with the light, but he appeared to be stretched out tall, his forelegs spread wide to either side. As I watched, my eyes stinging from the light, but completely powerless to look away or even blink, I could see his form become less distinctive, his outline become almost fluid as his body began to change shape.

There was a ringing in my head, it had begun when Blueblood’s magic had first grown exponentially, but now it was absolutely deafening. It felt like my whole skull was trembling, and that I was about to start bleeding from my eyes and ears. There was no other sound whatsoever… until Blueblood’s laughter cut through the noise, it was a horrible, twisted sound. The longer it went on, the less natural it sounded, like there were two voices laughing, one a split second behind the other… a voice that could only be described as demonic.

“Yes… yes!” Blueblood’s voices bellowed in between bouts of laughter. “This power… unlimited… infinite!”

I could only stare in absolute terror at what was unfolding before me, as Blueblood’s body began to grow in size, his shape still warping and morphing beneath the light screen. My friends too were all frozen in place, completely at a loss of what to do; even Twilight who had managed to recover ever so slightly, stared across at Blueblood with such hopelessness in her eyes.

“Now nothing can stand in my path!” Blueblood went on in a victorious tone. “I am a Go…”

I think he was about to say God, but he never finished, as something shining just as bright as he was, although more gold than white, came hurtling through the air, striking him in his chest. Blueblood smashed back down onto the dais, the metal platform caving in slightly beneath his increased weight. He let out an awful sounding, agonised screech as he began flailing around, trying to rid his body of the holy fire that was growing from the centre of his chest where the flying object had hit him.

Confused by the sudden shift in dynamics, my eyes scanned down from where Blueblood writhed, to where Fluttershy’s mace had fallen at the base of the dais, almost falling into the trench that Twilight’s magic had ripped open. We all turned to Fluttershy, my friends all wearing the same flabbergasted expression as myself. Fluttershy was still posed as she had been when she threw her weapon, her head moving from side to side as she met all our gazes.

“What?” she asked in a nonchalant tone, giving a small shrug. “I wasn’t just going to stand here and watch him transform.”

“Y… you… bitch!” Blueblood screeched, trying to get back up to his hooves, which proved difficult what with the now very erratic changes his body was undergoing. “You absolute whore! You’ll pay for that!”

We all tensed up, readying our weapons, no longer willing to simply stand and cower as Blueblood ascended before our very eyes… but rather than try to attack Fluttershy or the rest of us, Blueblood turned and fled through the double doors he had come through, still enveloped in white light and burning with golden flames. Rainbow immediately flew after him, but she was stopped when Applejack called out.

“Hold it Dash!” she ordered. “You can’t take him on yourself, not now that he’s… changin’.”

Rainbow dropped down on the dais, giving a slightly reluctant nod before scooping up Fluttershy’s mace and flapping back over with it. Applejack and I made our way across to where Fluttershy was with Twilight, while Pinkie pulled herself up through one of the holes and joined us.

“Girls, Crane’s not down there!” Pinkie exclaimed in a panicked voice.

“What?!” I demanded, sure there was no way he could have crawled away after that fall and explosion. “How do you know?”

“My mask,” Pinkie explained, pulling it down over her face. “There’s plenty of dead ponies down there from those canisters, but none of them are him, and there’s certainly nothing living done there either.”

“Are you sure Pinkie?” Twilight asked in weak voice as Fluttershy helped her up, to which Pinkie nodded frantically. “Well if he’s got away, then we can’t go looking for him. Blueblood’s the real threat right now, we have to go stop him first and foremost.”

“Are you okay too?” Pinkie asked in a concerned voice.

“I’ll be okay…” Twilight muttered unconvincingly as she shrugged Fluttershy off and started walking by herself. “Blueblood… he’s already so powerful, I felt it when our magic collided… we can’t let him grow anymore, he has to be stopped before he becomes unstoppable.”

We all started walking briskly towards the doors he had escaped through, making sure to avoid the gaping holes or the large shards of glass from Clover’s container. Right before we reached the dais, Fluttershy stopped, reaching down and picking something up. We all looked around and saw her holding an errant bone, staring down at it with a look of shame. I reached out to try and comfort her, but she raised her free hoof to indicate that she would be fine. After taking a deep breath, she set the bone down gently and continued walking, the rest of us following suit.

Once through the doorway, we found ourselves in another section of the lab, this one dominated by a huge machine in the centre. It was a complicated mess of vats, tubes, pumps and all sorts of displays and dials on every side, with pipes running into it from all angles, one visibly snaking up the wall and across the ceiling, connecting it with Clover’s glass tank in the other room. We knew exactly what this machine must be, the thing that had allowed them to produce the final formula, although there was nothing left within.

“Blueblood must have taken the lot,” Twilight muttered angrily as she raised her sceptre.

With a quick flash, a dark sphere shot out of it and smashed into the machine, stopping in the centre where it expanded into a miniature black hole. The machine broke down in seconds, getting sucked in and compressed into oblivion before Twilight tapped the spike end of her sceptre once on the stone floor and the black hole sealed itself. We could hear the distant sounds of Blueblood’s screams, as well as the speck of flickering light at the end of the corridor ahead. Wasting no more time we took off, all six of us sprinting after him, our weapons at the ready.

As we ran, I could see Blueblood’s blinding, contorting form slowing down. He had stopped in front of something; it was a small, box like room with a metal grate, which he slid open quite forcefully, literally ripping it off the box and tossing it to the side. He clambered inside the box, a slightly tricky feat considering his new, ever-expanding size. We had picked up our pace and Rainbow was now flying on ahead like a bullet, trying to reach him before he could escape, but we were two late. The box descended into the ground, taking Blueblood away with it.

We rushed into the room where the box had been, it wasn’t particularly spacious, just big enough to fit three of them alongside one another. The box Blueblood had escaped in was the centre one, and now that it had disappeared below the floor level, we were able to see that there were metal cables on a pulley system that were lowering it. Very different from the magical energy supply used to power the canister lift in the undersea temple, or the gear mechanism used for the moving platform at the lighthouse.

Judging by the rate at which the cable was spinning, the box must have descending at some incredible speeds. Indeed when I looked over the edge, the box Blueblood had ridden in was nothing more than a speck far, far below us.

“Where do these things go?” I questioned aloud, thinking about the catacombs.

“Does it matter?” Rainbow asked, sliding open the grate door on the box to the right. “Let’s just get in one and go.”

I glanced around at the others, they all nodded in agreement, and soon we were all bundled inside the box, Applejack sliding the grate closed while Pinkie pulled on a giant lever to start the descent. Our lift didn’t seem to sink nearly as fast as Blueblood’s had been going, even though there were six of us, and Pinkie Pie was frantically jumping up and down until Twilight asked her politely, yet firmly, to stop. I began to zone out while the others talked quietly among themselves, asking each other if they were okay and what the plan was for when we found Blueblood.

I wasn’t paying much attention however, an odd sense of dread was filling me, like the further we descended, the closer we were approaching something… devastating. I was snapped out of my thoughts when a crackling sound entered the box, my friends all fell into silence, looking around curiously until an awful voice echoed out and we froze.

“Enjoying your little ride on the elevator?” Blueblood asked in a sinister tone, the unnaturally quality to his voice clear even over the projection device. “I hope you are, because soon you’ll all be dead, crushed beneath the ruins of this cathedral like the tiny insects you are.”

“Blueblood, if you think…” I began in a stern voice, only to be cut off by Blueblood interrupting me.

“Silence!” he commanded, almost in a hiss. “You might have stunted my evolution with your blasted mace, it will take… time for my ascension to be fully realised now, but I am a patient individual. I have waited this long for my revenge, I can wait a little longer. Until then, I shall take my new army north where we will gather our strength. The power of the alicorn is mine and mine alone, but my new followers will need some… enhancements of their own if they are to be deserving of serving under me. Once my ascension is complete and my army is sufficient, we will march south and take back this land of filth before we set sail and conquer Equestria. The throne to the greatest empire the world has ever seen will be sat on by someone worthy of it, and any who oppose their new king and god will be eradicated!”

“You’re pretty daft when it comes to military strategy,” Rainbow retorted. “Moving an army of deluded cultist and savage monsters anywhere takes time and coordination, and you think you can just walk them up to the Ash Lands before declaring war without any bother?”

Blueblood didn’t respond angrily or yell at her; rather he started laughing darkly, which worried us more than if he had started promising to tear the flesh from our bones.

“You naïve fools…” he said in a low voice, the demonic half more pronounced than ever. “I never said… that we would be walking.”

The elevator, as Blueblood had called it, had been descending throughout his entire tirade, but with those words, it finally reached the bottom, the wall beyond the grate door sliding up and away to reveal something that made my all my insides freeze, and my heart stop dead in my chest. We had indeed descended into the catacombs, but this particular room was colossal, larger than Fort Mule with its extensions… both the ones above ground and below. We were able to survey the entire room as we descended the final several dozen metres to the steel mesh balcony that overlooked the room, and the massive vessel that occupied almost the entirety of it.

“It can’t be…” I uttered in horror, as I reached out and grabbed onto the grate in front of me, looking out over the thing I was sure I would never see again.

“Rarity…” Twilight began in a voice full of apprehension. “What is that thing?”

I gulped before replying.

“The Dreadnaught.”

The Dreadnaught, it was right there before my very eyes, as impossible as that might have seemed. Now we knew what Blueblood had meant in Fauna’s memory, when he referred to Crane’s ‘other little project’, as well as what Suri had been making arrangements for, and how Crane had planned on abandoning the cathedral to begin the next stage of their plan by facing the world. The Dreadnaught was almost exactly as I remembered it from both the designs I stole from Typhoon’s office, and the original one I had seen in the factory beneath the Fort.

It resembled a giant boat made from metal, with four stubby wings instead of masts and sails, two on each side with propellers embedded in them. From this height however I was able to see the large command bridge for myself, mounted high up on the furthest end of the deck. A glaring light was just about visible through the front windows of the bridge, which indicated Blueblood was already inside and that was where he had spoken to us from. There were some differences between this one and the first however, one was the hull, which had no gaping holes in the side and looked nigh impenetrable.

The second difference was that it was much bigger; perhaps over twice the volume of the original, everything just appeared to be magnified. The final, and perhaps most frightening difference, was the addition of the cannons. I still remembered the siege weapon that Cogs had built, the one with the six slender barrels which rotated and fired out projectiles at an incredible rate. Similar weapons, only much bigger were mounted in two rows, running the full length of the deck, as well as more placed along the side of the hull to shoot down while the Dreadnaught was in flight. All of them were attached to spherical structures that would allow them to rotate and fire over a huge range.

I could see the metal struts on the floor of the catacomb factory, holding it in place while several gangplanks were steeped to allow the tiny ponies in Covenant robes scurrying about to board. I could see them, pulling monsters along by chains or pushing them in cages, leading them up the gangplanks and to stow inside the Dreadnaught. There were no canons or siege towers like there had been below the Fort, what need was there for them when Crane… and now Blueblood, had an army of living siege weapons?

They were almost all on board, only the final few stragglers were mounting the gangplanks and making their way inside the Dreadnaught, unaware of what Blueblood had planned for them after they took off… they probably didn’t even know Crane had been usurped. The elevator reached the balcony, and I quickly forced the grate open with my magic as I rushed forward, but even as I reached the railing, I could see the gangplanks retracting back up inside the great metal monster.

“Arcana served the Covenant well,” Blueblood’s voice echoed across the entire chamber. “Not only did he provide Crane with the knowledge and tools from Arclight University and the Tower to build his labs here, he also managed to make copies of a certain scientist’s research material, which he was kind enough to donate in return for the Covenant’s help in bringing him to power in Arclight… research which has led to the grand structure before you, which will be a fitting weapon for me when I begin my conquest of the world.”

I felt light headed; this was all just too unreal… Blueblood had achieved ascension, he had an army of abominations, and now he had a Dreadnaught. Twilight had been wrong, he didn’t need to finish his transformation into an alicorn to become unstoppable… he already was.

“Ah, but of course you’ve seen this before Rarity,” Blueblood mocked, his voice sending chills up my spines. “Of course Crane managed to make some improvements upon Cogs' original designs, and unlike the last Dreadnaught you destroyed… this one is fully functional!”

And with those words, the four propellers began to rotate, slowly at first before, picking up speed rapidly until they were spinning so fast that they were nothing more than a blur. The droning noise of the whirring propellers and rushing air were absolutely deafening as the entire Dreadnaught began to rise up off the struts holding it upright. I craned my neck and watched as the Dreadnaught ascended, the cannons lining the deck firing upwards to help clear a path to the open skies for it. I was paralysed as I watched it climb higher, all hope I had felt when we left the temple at the Isle of Serenity now decimated as I witnessed the insurmountable force before us now.

“Rarity!” Rainbow Dash yelled. “Pull your shit together; we have to get out of here!”

Her words struck me like a slap to the face, in fact, she may have actually smacked me, but I was so overwhelmed that I hadn’t even noticed. Now that I was back in the present, I could see that the entire cathedral was going to come down on our heads as the Dreadnaught split it apart, and of course all would be hopeless… if I continued to stand there and wait for this place to become my tomb as Blueblood intended. I gave a firm nod to Rainbow Dash, sheathing all my weapons before turning from the railing and hurrying back to the elevator where the others were already waiting for me to join them.

As Rainbow and I began running however, I saw a huge section of rubble drop from the ceiling, snapping the elevator cable as it plummeted down onto the box.

“Get out!” was all I could scream to my friends before the stone crashed into the top of the elevator and smashed right through it.

For a brief second I was terrified that they hadn’t got out in time, but as the dust settled, I saw all four of them dog-piled on the platform right in front of us, all safe and sound. The elevator was quite clearly out of commission, and with all the stone raining down from the ceiling it wouldn’t be long before the balcony was taken too, and we would fall to our deaths on the floor far below. I scanned my eyes around the huge room, it was difficult to see what with all the falling stone and the rising clouds of dust, but I was able to make out other metal platforms fitted to the wall around the room, some with doors leading elsewhere from them.

“Alright girls!” I called out over the sound of destruction. “We need to get to that platform there; we'll take the door and pray to Celestia that it leads to the surface. Rainbow Dash, fly Applejack over there, you’re fast enough to avoid any hazards. Fluttershy, take Twilight, she can use her magic to protect you. Pinkie Pie, can you get me over there?”

“I might have a trick for this situation,” Pinkie replied, nodding her head as she pulled on her mask.

“Alright, let’s go!” I declared, running with Pinkie over to the left edge of the balcony while the others got ready to fly.

“We’ll have to be quick,” Pinkie told me as we stopped by the railing and placed her hoof on my shoulder. “Chaos magic is unpredictable; you never know when it might stop randomly.”

“Just do whatever you can and we’ll make it work,” I told her, returning the gesture and giving her a firm squeeze.

Whatever Pinkie did, not that I had the faintest understanding of how inducing the powers of chaos worked; she managed to mute the sound of the ruination taking place all around me. Next, it was as if she had slowed down time, I could still see the debris falling and my friends flying, but it was all happening at an incredibly slow rate while we moved in normal time. Looking down at my hooves, I saw that moving them left a trail of ghostly imprints behind which slowly faded. Following that, the world around us began to… dissolve, as if every solid object was turning translucent.

Steadily, the world took on a blotchy quality as waves of purple and blue began flowing all around us. I was reminded of Pinkie’s fight with Twilight, but this time the real world remained in conjunction with the bizarre world that Pinkie had beckoned. Pinkie raised a hoof and waved diagonally towards the ground, as she did, about a dozen large lumps of translucent rock floated off their intended course to come spinning into line in front of us, creating a stepping stone bridge between us and the platform I had instructed the others to go to.

“Move now!” Pinkie ordered, letting go of me and leaping onto the first rock.

I obeyed her command and climbed the railing, before throwing myself onto the rock that she was already bouncing away from. She made bouncing from platform to platform look so easy, but I didn’t have quite the same physical capacity as her and was forced to take it much slower. I could feel the rocks were still sinking even after being realigned, more so when I landed on them. This had the effect that the next stepping stone was always slightly higher, until I was forced to latch onto them with my forehooves and drag myself up.

As I proceeded further and further along the path Pinkie had created for me, I began to feel myself growing sick, blotches of light appearing in my eyes while my brain felt like it was pulsating with gallons of blood. Just like the last time, I was starting to feel the effects of direct exposure to chaos magic, something the average pony just wasn’t built to handle. Naturally this was Pinkie’s element, and Twilight clearly had a lot of resistance to it, but me… I was quickly remembering why Pinkie preferred not to use this kind of magic when other ponies were involved.

With the sickening feeling growing, and the increasingly difficult jumps, I wanted to call out to Pinkie for help, but I found that when I opened my mouth, no words came out. Speaking wasn’t a bother, I just produced no sound when I did. I was only a few rocks away from the end, but I couldn’t see Pinkie anywhere, I couldn’t even see the others flying anymore. I was close, but found I couldn’t go on, collapsing on the second last rock, I heaved up the contents of my stomach. When I opened my eyes and looked at what I produced, I saw that it was mainly blood.

I fell to my side, vaguely aware in the back of my mind that the rocks were picking up speed, and that whatever Pinkie had done was coming to an end, but that didn’t seem important to me as a dense fog began filling my mind. I tried calling out to Pinkie once more before my thoughts failed me, but this time I didn’t try to open my mouth, but instead called out to her from within. Almost instantly, I felt a pair of hooves wrap around me and lift me up. Pinkie Pie carried me the last of the way, jumping with me on her back. When she landed on the platform, everything returned to normal within an instant, the unnatural colours fading and the real world turning solid once more, while time and sound resumed.

I was shaky on my hooves as Pinkie set me down, before grabbing my hoof and leading me through the open door where Applejack and Rainbow Dash were already waiting for us; it wasn’t long before we were joined by Twilight and Fluttershy.

“Sorry about that,” Pinkie said to me in a guilty voice, as we wasted no time in rushing through the trenches of the catacombs. “Like I said, chaos magic is unpredictable. I didn’t even know you were there until you called out, you slipped further to the other side and disappeared even to me, I just had to hope you’d make it on your own.”

“I thought…” I began, before sliding to a halt as the tunnel ahead caved in we were forced to turn back and make a turn at the last junction we came to. “I thought you were the spirit of chaos, surely you can just make it do what you want.”

“Chaos can’t be controlled,” Pinkie explained. “Not even by me, it’s hard to explain, but it’s more like I… influence it, and I can’t even do that to the same degree in my current state.”

“Is your head aright Rarity?” Twilight asked, her horn glowing as she kept a bubble shield constantly erected around us while we ran. “You weren’t in there long, but even short exposures can have… adverse effects.”

“It’s fine now,” I told her, completely honestly. “The whole thing feels like a dream, like it didn’t really happen.”

“Maybe that’s for the best,” Fluttershy advised in a concerned voice.

I was strongly reminded of Blueblood’s attack on Fort Mule as we made our escape through the catacombs. The ground beneath us shook, the walls and floors split apart all around, and rubble cascaded down upon us. We would never have been able to find our way back to the lighthouse entrance, so we took the first staircase to the surface we found that wasn’t already sealed off; rushing up the steps we found that the demolition of the cathedral itself was even worse than the underground.

Whole pillars and columns toppled down, bringing large sections of ceiling with them. Entire floors and towers collapsed in, and all around, the floor was falling away section by section into the catacombs and dungeons below. We wasted no time in rushing towards the nearest exit of the hall we emerged into, it looked vaguely familiar, and I guessed it was somewhere between the west wing and the main entrance. Rainbow soared expertly through the collapsing rooms, spinning and dodging the stationary and falling obstacles with absolute precision. Applejack took the most direct path she could, smashing through anything that got in her way, and if that wasn’t an option, she leapt over and ducked under.

Pinkie darted around lightning fast; her body stretching and bending like she was made of elastic to allow her avoid everything in her path, even if doing so looked like it should have been impossible. Fluttershy moved with such grace, while not as fast as the others, she naturally gravitated towards the safest route, if ever there was a split second choice, she always managed to choose the right path that would have the least opposition. Twilight made up for her lack of speed in her sheer variety of defensive spells she had at her disposal, blasting falling rocks to dust before they got close, calling in gusts of wind to carry her along when she needed a speed boost, or simply summoning a shield if something happened that gave her very little time to react.

As for myself, after all my experiences I was well equipped to deal with anything that was thrown my way. My keen eyes were able to detect threats before I rushed recklessly into them, I forward rolled under falling pillars, leapt over crevices in the floor, used magic to shift light debris out of my path, or simply stopped when I needed to quickly assess the situation and plan the best route. We were making good progress through the cathedral, even as it all fell into ruins around us. Before long we were dashing through a tall archway right as it began to collapse in on itself, arriving in entrance hall with the great stair case and the path to freedom through the arches overlooking the dock.

We sprinted straight for the exit, all individual strategy coming down to 'run and don’t stop' as we bolted for the light of the evening sun, the pillars splitting and the floor caving in directly behind us with every new step we took. It was so close, survival was within our grasp, but it seemed too much damage had been sustained, there was simply nothing left to support the floor between us and the exit, and before we could do anything it began to open up right before our eyes. Fluttershy, Twilight and I tried to slow down before we rushed right over the edge, Rainbow, Applejack and Pinkie all sped up in the hopes of leaping across before it grew too big.

In the end, it was just too fast for any of us and we were all plummeting into the depths, as the last of the entrance hall came crashing down. I twisted in mid-air, spreading myself wide to slow my descent, not that it would save me when we hit the ground. Fluttershy was trying to flap, but she just wasn’t a strong enough flier to save herself. Twilight’s horn was flashing and dying repeatedly, but whatever it was that was stopping her from teleporting still seemed to be in effect. Pinkie Pie was falling very slowly, like she was just more buoyant than the rest of us, but still fast enough to do a severe amount of damage when we landed.

Applejack simply raised her forelegs over her head, like it would somehow protect her. Only Rainbow was in control during the fall, swooping straight towards us, reaching out to me with her hooves as she closed the distance between us… and then she was struck on the head by a slab of broken tile, knocking her out cold instantly and resulting in her plunging down with the rest of us. It hadn’t been too far to fall before rescue came, and it came in an unexpected but welcome form. A loud, ear-splitting caw was what first alerted us to Harbinger’s return, next was the flurry of feathers as the massive crow swooped down upon us, swiping in with its great claws and clutching us all together between them, before flapping hard upwards to the surface once more.

Nothing that fell could slow the bird down; most of it was simply decimated as Harbinger flew through them like a bullet. As we were all held together in the cage like claws, I was able to see shackles around Harbinger’s legs with broken chains trailing from them, and a very familiar collar clamped around his neck, cracked and sparking, making it clear that it was now broken. It was obvious what had happened to Harbinger after we left him, and why he hadn’t shown up when we called, but he managed to escape and come to our rescue when we needed him most.

As we flew out of the cathedral, into the open air, I made a mental note to ask Fluttershy later what we could do to reward him… but that notion was brought to a premature end with the distant sound of a cannon blast. I only caught a brief glimpse of the projectile hurtling through the sky before it struck Harbinger directly in the back, burying itself between his wings, a cloud a fine red mist erupting from the wound as his body jerked and his wings stopped beating. Things happened so fast after that, we were all bundled together in the now very tight grasp of his claws, as we felt ourselves spiralling to the ocean below.

Harbinger hit the water and sank like a stone, his claws slackened from the force of the impact, and we were able to struggle free and fight our way to the surface. Applejack and Twilight dragged the unconscious Rainbow Dash between them as they kicked their way to safety. He hadn’t sunk far; we were too close to the shore when Harbinger was hit for the water to be particularly deep, but I still sucked in a massive lung full of air when my head broke through the surface. One by one, I saw the heads of my friends bob the surface and heard them coughing and sputtering before joining me in wading back to the beach.

The fog was completely gone; whatever had been the cause of it was presumably destroyed along with the cathedral. I trudged through the waist high water, my breathing heavy and laboured as it the waves lapped against me. Soaking wet and completely exhausted, I walked the last few metres from the sea onto dry land, turning around to look at what remained of the cathedral. It was almost like a postcard, picture perfect, the dying light on the setting sun reflecting off the scattered clouds, casting a deep orange glow over the remains of the cathedral as the last steeples and towers collapsed in on themselves, leaving only ruins of the once awesome structure strewn amidst the rubble, while the vast form of the Dreadnaught was slowly swallowed up by the pink hue of the cloud cover.

I looked about and saw that all my friends were around me, still alive and kicking, even Rainbow Dash whose head was tilting about, her eyes half open. Giving a satisfied nod, my legs gave out beneath me. I fell onto my rear end before flopping onto the sand, not even caring that it was sticking to my drenched clothes. I shut my eyes and blocked out the last light of dusk, images of Blueblood changing, and the army of monsters and soon to be monsters boarding the Dreadnaught swimming into my mind. We had come all this way, but we were too late… it was over. Blueblood had an insurmountable army and the most devastating weapon of war ever built at his disposal, and soon he would have the power of a god, the truth was undeniable… we had lost.

Author's Note

End of Part 9

LXXIII - Inspiration

Author's Note

Part 10

LXXIII - Inspiration

The sound of surf filled my ears, and the clouds had just cleared enough that the moon and a great many stars were on display, but I couldn’t enjoy any of it, even Fluttershy was staring at the fire between us with a downtrodden look. Applejack was poking the fire with a stick, not really stoking it, more just giving herself something to do. Rainbow was lying on her back, her eyes shut as if she was trying to block the world out. Pinkie Pie was roasting a marshmallow in the flames, but even she wasn’t putting much enthusiasm into it, so when she remembered what she was even doing, the marshmallow was charcoal black and she just threw it to the side.

I just sat with my hind legs crossed, resting my chin on one of my forehooves, staring deep into the flickering flames, occasionally glancing up and looking off to where Twilight stood further down the beach. Fluttershy let out a little sigh and shivered slightly, the warmth of the fire did little for any of us against the cold sea air. Seeing this, Applejack added her stick the fire before reaching over and pulling Fluttershy close. After another several minutes passed with nopony saying anything, Rainbow broke the silence with a loud groan, sitting bolt upright out of nowhere, looking around at us with a frustrated expression.

“So that’s it?!” she demanded. “We’re just going to sit here and wait for Blueblood to come kill us personally?”

“What do you expect us to do?” Applejack retorted. “Because in case you haven’t noticed, ah’ve never tried to fight an alicorn, let alone one who rides around on a flyin’ warship with an army of monsters, none of us have.”

“But I hate just sitting here!” Rainbow growled.

“It’s going to be okay Dashie,” Pinkie tried to say, although even she couldn’t sell that lie. “Twilight will figure something out.”

“Don’t be so sure…” Fluttershy murmured, glancing fearfully across the beach.

We all followed her gaze to see Twilight throw her sceptre to the ground in frustration, turning and slouching back towards us without even picking it up.

“No luck then?” I muttered when she dropped down between me and Pinkie Pie, a cold look on her face.

“No,” she replied coolly. “I don’t know what’s going on, but nothing I do is working. I’ve tried everything I know, but I just can’t get in contact with the Princess, it’s like there’s something… blocking me at every turn. I hate to say girls, but… we’re not getting any help from Equestria, we’re on our own.”

I resisted the urge to sigh in frustration, Celestia had pretty much been our last hope of stopping Blueblood before he could make good on his promise of conquering Panchea. Who knew how long it would be before she caught wind of his actions now, and when she finally did, how much more powerful would Blueblood have grown? Would Celestia even be a match for him? It was true that Celestia had fought battles in the past, but now a days it was impossible to see her as anything other than a Princess, too regal to use her incredible powers for anything other than raising the sun.

“Is there nothing you can do Pinkie?” Fluttershy asked nervously, Pinkie frowning in response. “I mean… you did fight Celestia in the past, right?”

“Oh,” Pinkie uttered, looking a little annoyed when she realised what Fluttershy meant. “Presumably, but then I fought her and lost considering it ended in me getting locked up in Tartarus. Besides, I don’t have anywhere close to the amount of power I did back then.”

“And there isn’t… you know, a way we could get that power back?” Fluttershy asked tentatively, glancing between Pinkie and Twilight with growing apprehension.

Twilight raised a single eyebrow before looking to Pinkie Pie, clearly waiting to see how she would respond.

“Not unless you have any divine artefacts on you,” Pinkie replied in a nonchalant voice, turning slightly bitter as she went on. “And if Crane really did have the star, then it’s buried and out of our reach… assuming he didn’t just destroy it after I refused to join him.”

“Ah don’t get it,” Applejack began, scratching her head. “What’s this star exactly, and why can it help Pinkie get her powers back?”

“Well that’s not its specific purpose,” Twilight replied, she didn’t sound annoyed about the conversation topic. “It’s a relic from the time of Discord’s reign; it was supposedly created by himself, filled with the power of chaos to the point where it’s extraordinarily unstable and dangerous to anypony who tries to use it.”

“I remember making it,” Pinkie added. “But I don’t remember why.”

“I always figured you made it as a safety net,” Twilight replied with a small shrug. “In case you ever were sealed away, that someone could break you out using it, that is after all how it was used in the end.”

“Makes sense I guess,” Pinkie agreed. “But yeah, unless I could open a door to my old cell, I can’t get back the level of power I once had. So what you see is what you get I’m afraid, and what you get is nowhere near enough to take on an alicorn.”

“This sucks,” Rainbow muttered in a dejected tone, her shoulders sagging. “After everything we’ve done, all the good we’ve tried to do for this country and the ponies living here… we’re not going to do anything?”

“Like we said Sugarcube,” Applejack responded in a sympathetic tone. “What can we do?”

“I… I don’t know!” Rainbow exclaimed, frustrated at her own indecisiveness. “But I’ve never backed down from any challenge before, no matter how impossible it seemed. Heck, taking up an impossible challenge is how I got my cutie mark in the first place.”

“I don’t think you’ve ever mentioned how you go your cutie mark before,” I pointed out, suddenly feeling interested amidst my misery.

“Seriously?” Rainbow asked, blinking in surprise. “How did I manage that? My old friends back in Olympus used to complain about how often I told this story.”

“Maybe you’ve learned some humility since then,” Fluttershy suggested helpfully.

“Yeah, maybe,” Rainbow agreed thoughtfully. “Anyway, back when I was just a filly, I did the most incredible thing ever…”

“Spoke too soon there Shy,” Applejack said with a weak chuckle.

“As I was saying,” Rainbow went on, suppressing a smile. “I was in the Junior Speedsters Flight Camp one summer. It was pretty fun, made some friends, learned plenty of cool tricks, but the best day was when Firefly, Captain of the Wonderbolts came in to visit.”

“Oh yeah, I remember her,” Twilight murmured. “She was captain before Spitfire.”

“That’s the one,” Rainbow confirmed with an eager nod. “So she came in, talked a bit and gave us a demonstration. Anyway, afterwards I asked her if I could join the Wonderbolts, she said I was too young. Although then she laughed and said, completely as a joke, although I didn’t realise at the time, that if I did a sonic rainboom they’d pretty much have to let me join, despite my age. Naturally I took her seriously and started practicing for weeks to try and pull off this one trick. There were some guys at the flight camp who sort of had it out for me, when they heard what I was trying to do, they would follow me around and constantly tell me that it was impossible to do a sonic rainboom, and even if it wasn’t, I would never be good enough to pull one off.”

“That’s awful,” Fluttershy said aghast.

“Eh, I was used to it,” Rainbow replied without much care. “I guess they never liked constantly being bested by a girl. I never did stop though, because even my friends and my instructors told me that it was impossible, and that I should give up and focus on other things. In the end I forgot all about joining the Wonderbolts, I wanted more than anything to do the sonic rainboom… to prove to everypony who doubted me that I could. I worked my ass off, never gave up no matter how tired or discouraged I got, and in the end… I did it. I did the move that everypony thought was impossible, the sonic rainboom. I got my cutie mark, and needless to say nopony ever doubted me again after that.”

“Didn’t you have your accident shortly after you got your cutie mark?” I asked, remembering that particularly conversation with her.

“Uh, yeah,” Rainbow replied, giving a crooked smile. “Luckily it was only my dad who saw that one, but my point is… I’ve never backed down or given up before, just the idea that we are now is… is…”

“Depressing?” Pinkie suggested, to which Rainbow nodded. “I know that feeling, back on the Isle when the wither got to you all, it’s sad to see everypony fall apart around you and feel like you’ll join them soon too.”

“What about you Pinkie?” Twilight asked. “Is your cutie mark… real? Not to sound mean or anything, just… how did you even get yours?”

“What even is your cutie mark?” Applejack asked. “Ah don’t think ah’ve ever seen you out of that outfit.”

“Three balloons,” Pinkie reported. “Twilight’s seen it before, and no, it isn’t… real, per say. I chose it myself, mostly because I thought it looked neat, but also because I liked parties. I used to throw parties for every small or stupid thing, just because during them I was able to forget about how messed up everything was, that for a short while, ponies could just be happy together, without all their sadness and worry weighing them down. It feels so long since I threw one though, I guess it was daunting to think about how big a party I’d have to throw to make anypony happy these days.”

“We had that small party after Rarity came back,” Fluttershy reminded her. “I… I liked it… I was happy then.”

“Maybe one big party really is all we need,” I commented with a wry smile that hurt my cheeks to give.

“A party can’t stop a megalomaniac,” Pinkie replied forlornly, before brightening up slightly. “Except for that one time.”

“Do we even want to know?” Applejack asked sarcastically.

“Well I guess that story can wait for another time,” Pinkie relented. “But that means you have to pick up the slack. So go on, tell us how you got your cutie mark AJ.”

“Ah shucks, there was nothin’ special about it,” Applejack assured us, clearly trying to brush it off.

None of us replied, we just kept watching her, waiting for her to cave in to our demands. Applejack visibly deflated when she saw she wasn’t being given much choice, and let out a long sigh before beginning.

“It was right after mah folks passed,” she said in a dull tone, immediately bringing the collective mood down. “You see mah cousins didn’t always live with us on the farm, which meant that a lot of the work fell to Big Mac. He already had his cutie mark of course, and even back then he was pretty darn big for his age, but there was only so much even he could manage alone. It had been left to Granny to raise Applebloom, so that just left me to do all ah could to take the weight off his shoulders, except…”

Applejack drifted off for a moment, staring into space. This time it was Fluttershy’s turn to comfort her.

“Ah… ah ran away,” she said at last, taking us all by surprise. “Ah wasn’t strong enough or… good enough to help, what little ah could do wasn’t enough, and anything else ah messed up. Mac was worked to the bone, Granny was at her wits ends, and Bloom just never stopped cryin’, in the end it all got to be too much and… ah just ran.”

There was a long silence following that admission, I was left completely at a loss of what to do, especially when I saw Applejack’s eyes begin to shimmer as she recalled her childhood, the light of the fire dancing in them.

“Ah made it to Port Mule,” she went on, her voice slightly hoarse. “Ah had no idea what ah was doin’, ah didn’t have a bit to mah name and nopony to turn to for help. Heck, even if there was, ah probably would have been too ashamed to ask for it. One day ah was wanderin’ the streets; tryin’ to find mah next square meal. Ah spotted this one pony, looked kind’a shifty and thought maybe ah could… uh, sneak a few bits off them without them noticin’. Well I followed them for a bit, when ah got distracted by this family sitting outside a café having lunch together, the pony just disappeared, but ah hardly noticed. Ah watched them for a few minutes, they all looked so happy together, like they didn’t have a care in the world. First ah was angry, that they could be all fine and dandy while mah family fell apart… but then ah felt sad, remembering back when mah family was like that. Finally… ah was sure of what ah had to do.

“Ah rushed back home without stoppin’,” Applejack continued, her voice hard. “Ah swore to myself that ah would do whatever it took to make things right, even if Ma and Pa were never coming back, ah wouldn’t stop working until we could be happy like we used to. And that’s exactly what ah did, ah worked day and night until ah was strong enough that Mac was no longer carrying the whole farm on his back. Ah learned to cook and clean so Granny didn’t have to stress herself out over it, and when things started gettin’ better around the farm, we started gettin’ happier, and Applebloom wouldn’t cry as much.

“A day came when we all went down to Mule together,” she finished. “We sold a whole load of apples at the market and made our first real profit since the incident. After that, ah insisted that we go to that same café for something to eat before headin’ on home. They didn’t have a clue why ah was so eager to go there and sit at that one table outside specifically, but while we sat there, happy as can be… ah got mah cutie mark.”

There was a long silence following Applejack’s story where we just stared in amazement at her, clearly none of us had been expecting that.

“Wow,” Twilight uttered, her eyes wide. “I mean, just… wow.”

“Yeah AJ,” Rainbow agreed. “And I thought I had the best cutie mark story.”

“That was so nice,” Fluttershy said, giving Applejack a comforting squeeze. “The way you went back and worked hard to fix everything.”

“Well… truth be told,” Applejack replied a little awkwardly. “Ah didn’t have a lot of faith that ah would succeed, ah just knew that if ah was goin’ to fail… ah wanted to be with mah family when it happened. Ah wanted to know that we did all we could, and that we stuck by each other until the bitter end.”

I nodded slowly, her words echoing in my head.

“But what about you Sugarcube?” Applejack asked Fluttershy. “You got your cutie mark when you learned to talk to animals, right?”

“Oh goodness,” Fluttershy began in a timid voice. “My story isn’t very interesting at all, really, I just came across this bunny one day while I was in the Bask. She was just lying there in one of the courtyards, I have no idea how she came to be there, but she was due to give birth to a litter soon, only… she was having some trouble. Of course I was receiving training at the time on how to help and treat ponies, but I’d never learnt anything relating to animals… but I couldn’t just leave her. I took her into my home, built her a nest and starting doing everything I could to try and help her. I read so many books in the hopes that one of them would give me the answers I needed, but in the end… I found the answers in her.”

“The rabbit?” Pinkie questioned, cocking her head to the side while Fluttershy nodded.

“During the time we spent together,” she went on. “I slowly found myself understanding her, I guess I always had the ability, but without any or very much previous interaction with animals, it hadn’t been able to… uh, emerge. During the following weeks, I helped her give birth to her litter and helped them grow big and strong before I finally released them back into the wild. Throughout that time I was able to hone my ability to the point where I was having full conversations with them, I was even finding my talent applied to all manner of animals that I came across. When the time came to let them go and I watched them all set off to build their own homes and families, I reflected on the good I had been able to do simply by persisting and trying new things, and in the end I discovered a whole part of myself I never knew was there… and then my cutie mark appeared.

“After that…” Fluttershy began again, I could hear her voice dropping and I knew where this was going. “Well, I didn’t get to use my new special talent much after I revealed what I could do to the High Priestess. She told me it was unnatural… that I was unnatural. She made me feel so wrong… and conflicted, how could something be wrong when it did so much good for one family of bunnies? It wasn’t until Rarity found out what I could do, that I started accepting that part of me again, I never did thank you for that properly.”

“And you’ll never have to,” I promised her, giving her a warm smile.

“Well, I guess that just leaves one pony,” Rainbow jumped in, eying me obviously.

“Uh, wait, what about Twilight?” I pointed out, worried that nothing I could say would be as interesting as their stories.

“I already told you all my story,” Twilight reminded me.

“Yeah Rarity, now come on,” Pinkie egged on. “We want to know how you got diamonds on your flank.”

“I can’t even remember when you might have seen those,” I commented, noting how my long coat always covered my cutie marks. “But fine, I guess it all goes back to when I was in school. When I was more eager to run into clothes and fabric shops, than go sailing or fishing as my father would have liked, or even play with other fillies my age as my mother would have liked. I was always intrigued by clothes, they just seemed to call to me, anything from farmers dungarees to a ball gown fit for a princess, it was like they were the ultimate way to encapsulate a pony’s individuality. I took to tailoring like a fish to water, everypony told me what a natural I was, how I was born to it. The only problem was… I didn’t agree with them.

“I’m sure you’ve heard the saying that a creator’s biggest critic is themselves,” I carried on saying. “Well in my case it was especially true; nothing I produced could meet my ridiculous standards. I’d see magazines showcasing the most famous designers in Canterlot, and I’d look at their work and feel dismayed that my own pieces would never be of the same quality. Over time I found myself crafting less and less, my enthusiasm draining the more my confidence fell. Before long I was sitting in my room feeling miserable for myself, all my sewing equipment left to gather dust. My mother was always very supportive of my love for fashion, always believing I could go very far with it, she told me about a competition in Arclight for aspiring designers. She was clearly hoping it would reignite my passion, but I refused to sign up, sure it wasn’t worth my time.

“In an attempt to cheer me up,” I went on. “My father took us all on a camping trip to the Sanguine Grove. It was our first time since Sweetie Belle had been born, and seeing how much she enjoyed herself really improved my perception of it. However, on our first evening out, just after we set up camp for the night, something rather strange happened. To this day I’m not sure why exactly I did it, it was like something had drawn me away from my family, but I left the campsite and wandered off into the thicket alone. I found my way to a cave after discovering faintest of tracks, it wasn’t a large cave, I was able to see the back wall from the entrance.

“And it was in that cave,” I continued. “Embedded in the back wall… was a diamond, not very large, but unmistakably valuable. Naturally I was confused as to why it was there of all places, it was obvious that somepony had placed it there intentionally, but who or why was a completely mystery. However, the truly special moment occurred when I was standing there, wondering what to do. The sun was just setting, and for the briefest of moments, a single shaft of the dying light streamed directly through the forest, into the cave, reflecting off the diamond… it was a moment of pure magic, like the entire world had been lit up before me for a few brief seconds.

“I left the diamond where I found it,” I assured them quickly. “I wasn’t going to deprive any other lucky travellers of such a sight, but after seeing it myself I was filled with inspiration to create. I hurried back and tried to tell my parents what I found, and how I was going to enter the competition in Arclight and win it with the most incredible piece that was ever created. They were delighted for my sudden renewal of enthusiasm, even if they couldn’t follow much of what I was saying, I was talking so fast. When we got back home, I threw myself into my work, pouring all the passion I felt into that one dress, and when it was completed, I felt an overwhelming sense of pride in what I had accomplished.”

“And you won the competition,” Rainbow finished, grinning at me.

“No,” I responded in a deadpan voice. “I came second, to none other than our old friend Suri Polomare. No I didn’t win, but in the end… I didn’t care. I wouldn’t have cared if I had come last, because I realised that it didn’t matter if what I did was recognised or if I wasn’t as good as somepony else. What I made was different, unique, something that only I could have made after seeing what I saw, and that was the very thing that I adored about fashion from the beginning, the individuality, how everything is special in its own way. I got my cutie mark after that, which certainly wiped the smirk off Suri’s face when she was gloating afterwards, and after that I knew that turning my inspiration into a reality through fashion was what I wanted to do.

“I guess, in the end,” I finished in a thoughtful tone. “It doesn’t matter that I lost, just knowing I tried, and that along the way I made my mark… it just makes the journey feel worthwhile.”

There was a long silence following the end of my story, not because it had been particularly impressive or touching, just because we had all come to the same conclusion. Taking the lead, I opened my satchel with magic and pulled out my map, unsure why, I just knew it would be important somehow.

“Well, what do you want to do Rarity?” Twilight asked calmly, knowing what I was going to say.

“I want to try,” I replied in a firm voice. “I want to carry on until the very end, no matter how hopeless it might seem. We might fail, we might lose… we might die, but I just want to try. And If I go down… I’ll go down knowing I did everything I possibly could, and I won’t regret a thing.”

“Heck yeah!” Rainbow exclaimed, flapping up and punching the air. “Now that’s the kind of talk I want to be hearing.”

“I won’t lie,” Fluttershy began in a quiet but positive voice. “I’m really scared knowing what’s waiting for us… but when it comes, I won’t leave your side.”

“You can count on me to do mah part,” Applejack added. “If we’re gonna meet our ends, might as well see this world out doin’ something good.”

“Something great!” Pinkie corrected her excitedly.

“Thank you girls,” I said, smiling at them all. “I can’t tell you how much your support means to me, you’ve all inspired me so much.”

“You’ve been an inspiration to us too,” Twilight responded. “We haven’t forgotten what you said before we left the Isle of Serenity, we might have lost sight of it… but it never stopped being true. We’ll win…”

“So long as we’re together,” I finished, feeling that same connection to the five of them brimming within me.

“So,” Rainbow began in an eager voice as she settled back on the ground. “What’s the plan?”

“The plan…” I began hesitantly, before my eyes were drawn to the map and I grinned. “The plan is to use the time Fluttershy bought us to its fullest, and I know just how to do that.”

“Oh, tell us, tell us, tell us!” Pinkie chanted, bouncing up and down.

“Six ponies can’t take on an army and an alicorn,” I started to explain. “But we’re not alone in this country; we’ve met so many ponies, made lots of friends and allies.”

“We’ve also made our fair share of enemies,” Applejack pointed out.

“Precisely,” I agreed as I unfolded the map for them all to see. “Which is why it’s time we lowered our swords and held out our hooves in peace. When Blueblood comes, we will need everypony and every faction to stand together if we are to stand a real chance of coming out of this victorious.”

“That’s a lot of ground to cover,” Twilight commented. “And we don’t know how much time we have exactly before Blueblood’s transformation is complete.”

“I know, but I have an idea,” I told her. “There are five cities in Panchea, each home to one of the major factions that are at the source of all the conflict. If we split up, we can go around each of the cities and try to band everypony to our cause before Blueblood is able to make his move.”

“So who goes where?” Rainbow asked in a surprisingly formal tone, but then she was a professional soldier.

“First of all, Applejack,” I started, the source of the words looking up in mild surprise. “This one might sound weird… or absolutely insane, but bare with me. I need you to go to Cragsburg…”

I hesitated, waiting for the objection I was sure was going to come. However while the other four looked shocked, Applejack remained rather cool about it, just nodding for me to continue.

“If Blueblood is gathering his strength in the Ash Lands,” I went on. “Then that means Cragsburg will be the first in his line of fire once he begins his march south. That is where we will gather to meet him, to ensure he goes no further than the city, which is why it is of the utmost importance that we take back Cragsburg before then, and still have enough time to prepare ourselves.”

“What’re your thoughts?” she asked calmly.

“As an earth pony, you should be able to walk the streets without any bother,” I told her. “That means you can sniff out any discontent among the ponies still living there under Gaia’s rule. When the attack starts, having allies inside the walls will be invaluable for breaking through their defences. Just to be safe, you shouldn’t enter the city through the main gate though, how did you all get in when you came to rescue me?”

“Pinkie found an entrance through the waterways,” Applejack reported. “Ah can use it again, and ah’ll certainly do mah best. If there’s anypony in that city that don’t like those fanatics, you can be damn sure ah’ll have them rallied by the time you all get there.”

“Alright, good,” I said before turning to Twilight. “Twilight, will you be able to to go to Arclight and…”

“Actually,” Pinkie jumped in. “Could I take Arclight?”

“You?” I repeated in a bewildered voice. “I was kind of hoping Twilight would, since she’s a unicorn.”

“Rarity,” Twilight began, in a tone reminiscent of a school teacher. “You can’t expect the Arcane Order to change their ways if you play to their prejudices. They need to see that other pony races are just as capable as unicorns if they’re to get over Arcana’s brainwashing.”

“Yeah,” Pinkie agreed. “And think of it as my redemption for killing Arcana and screwing up your mission all those weeks ago.”

“Well, alright then,” I relented. “In that case, Pinkie Pie, I need you to head to Arclight and try to get this new council to join forces with us, and allow us to make use of their battlemages in the upcoming battle.”

“You can count on me!” Pinkie responded brightly, giving a stout salute.

“I guess that means you’re taking Pivot, Twilight,” I said, addressing her once again. “This one should be easy enough, after all, Maverick was already planning an attack on Cragsburg, the real challenge will be finding a way to get the Rebel troops to listen to his orders again.”

“We’ll find something,” Twilight assured me. “I don’t like the idea, but the mayor might be more willing to help fund them once she knows what’s coming her way. It’s not ideal, but we don’t have the liberty to always take the moral route.”

“I know,” I agreed, before looking to Fluttershy. “Fluttershy, I would like you to go to Port Mule and speak to Typhoon about bringing the Liberators and Rebellion back together, if only for the future battle.”

“Me?!” Fluttershy squeaked in panic. “Oh, I don’t think I could do that…”

“I know you can Fluttershy,” I said quickly, trying to encourage her. “I know there’s some small part of Typhoon that can be reasoned with, he might hate me after all I’ve done, but nopony could ever say no to you, and that’s not just because you’re part of the Celestial Sisterhood. Speaking of which, that is the other reason I’d like you down at Mule, I was hoping you could return home and see if your fellow sisters would consider supporting us.”

“Ah…” Fluttershy uttered, biting her lip. “I really don’t think they’ll support that, it is after all, completely against our rules to engage in war.”

“The sisters would only be there as medical aid,” I told her. “As for the crusaders, surely an army of abominations is exactly their modus operandi.”

“Well…” she began, still sounding unsure. “I’ll try my best, but I really don’t know.”

“That’s all I can ask,” I said appreciatively. “And that just leaves…”

“Don’t worry, I know,” Rainbow cut in. “You want me to go to Olympus and rally the Dragoons. You don’t have to say anymore, I’ll make sure they’re at Cragsburg.”

“Thank you Rainbow,” I replied, repressing the urge to sigh with relief. “I know how much you hate the idea of leading them.”

“It’s fine,” Rainbow said with a shrug. “We don’t have a lot of options right now, we’ve all gotta do what we gotta do.”

“So what will you do Rarity?” Applejack asked.

“Well, I’ll travel with Twilight first of all,” I explained. “I’ll help at Pivot, and once the Rebel army is setting off north, Twilight will travel with them while I go to Arclight to meet Pinkie Pie. Same deal, once we’re done, Pinkie will take the battlemages to Cragsburg while I move onto Port Mule, then Olympus and finally Cragsburg. Once we have Cragsburg taken and the Children of the Earth are dealt with once and for all, we’ll use it as our base for preparing for the final battle. Is everypony alright with that plan?”

There was a chorus of confirmations from around the fire; I gave a small nod and a smile to them all.

“Well then, we’d better get some rest,” I suggested, feeling that spark of inspiration. “Whatever happens, this is going to be the final stage of our adventures, so let’s try... and let's win.”

LXXIV - The Mind Of Knowledge

“Remind me why you think this will work,” I requested uncertainly, as I watched Twilight work. “I thought this spell required someone at the other end.”

“True, but there is a little loophole I discovered,” Twilight revealed, as she continued to mash up her ingredients. “Ordinarily you do, but really, the spell remains partially active for a few days after casting. So because we teleported from outside Pivot, we actually have a limited time in which we can freely go back and forth, so long as we have more key ingredients for each journey, until the link between the receptacles is broken and you have to set it up again at both locations.”

“Oh, so by key ingredients you mean…” I began, only to be cut off by a loud splashing noise coming from behind us.

Glancing around, I saw Pinkie Pie’s head bobbing up and down in the sea, her mask drawn as she paddled over to the shore.

“Thank you for that Pinkie,” Twilight said as she accepted the few drenched, black feathers from Pinkie’s outstretched hoof, recoiling slightly at the body clutched in her other. “I’m sure that wasn’t pleasant.”

“I’ve done more unpleasant things,” Pinkie replied with a shrug, as she pulled her mask back and held out Harbinger’s lifeless body. “It was just tricky since he shrank back down, and water messes up the detect death enchantment in this thing.”

I quickly dug a hole in the sand using magic, in the very spot where we had sat around the night before and discussed our plan. Then, after placing Harbinger inside and filling the grave in, we had a moment of silence for him.

“You should probably head on now Pinkie,” Twilight suggested after a couple of tense minutes. “We have everything we need now and you need to get to Arclight.”

“Yeah, I’ll go now,” she agreed. “I just wish you didn’t send Fluttershy off earlier, the trip’s gonna be so boring without company.”

The other three had all left as soon as the sun began to rise, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had the most ground to cover, but since Applejack was going in the same direction as Rainbow, for a while at least, the pair set off together. Of course Pinkie and Fluttershy could have done the same, since Arclight and Port Mule were relatively similar directions from the Cathedral, but we needed Pinkie’s help in gathering up all the ingredients again, which she could afford to do since Arclight was the closest city to where we were.

“Sorry about that,” I told her. “But you know how she would have reacted to us fishing Harbinger out of the sea so we could take his feathers.”

“Yeah, I know,” she admitted with a small sigh. “Anyway, good luck at Pivot. I’ll see you at Arclight when you’re done Rarity.”

She pulled me into a tight hug, not bone crushing, just comfortable.

“And I’ll see you at Cragsburg Twilight,” Pinkie finished after releasing me.

She stepped forward and gave Twilight a much more delicate hug, one which Twilight didn’t immediately reciprocate, which left them both looking very awkward as they tried not to make direct eye contact during the stiff, unnatural embrace. I wasn’t sure whether I should laugh or look away, embarrassed. I ended up settling on the latter as the first seemed incredibly offensive, and also because it felt like I had just walked in on something very inappropriate for some reason. It didn’t last long, and once it was over Pinkie Pie quickly made her exit, clearly impatient to get on the road to Arclight.

“So is it the same drill?” I asked Twilight, indicating the metal dish she had been working on.

“Huh?” Twilight uttered, as if snapping out of a trance. “Oh yeah, should be a little easier and less disorienting since there’s only two of us this time.”

I left her be for a short while, letting her put the finishing touches into the spell, while I surveyed the open sea and the ruins of the once mighty Covenant headquarters. The events of the day before felt like a lifetime ago, it was so bizarre to think that it had only just happened, more so to dwell on what lay ahead of us. Hearing my name, I returned to where Twilight had drawn the runic circle in the sand. She held the dish of ingredients to one side in her magic, while simultaneously waving the feather up and down as if it was a fan, in order to dry it out.

I tucked myself into the circle alongside Twilight, who proved my earlier theory that the dish didn’t need to be raised over our head, when she levitated it down low between us. Once again she set it alight, and once again her eyes paled as she began chanting and the white flames sprung to life. Luckily I was prepared for Twilight’s chanting this time, so I didn’t feel the urge to laugh, not that it would have mattered since it was only the two of us, and I doubted she could hear me while performing the spell.

I was also prepared for the ring of white fire to rise up around me, so I didn’t cow away from it, just as I was ready for when Twilight placed the feather in the dish and zapped it from white to black. Once again we were encased in a pitch black pillar of flame, but after a few seconds it was over, and we were left tripping over our hooves as we stepped out of the circle onto grass rather than sand. I looked about to check that we were in the right spot, as opposed to ending up near the Isle of Serenity, but we were in fact back outside Pivot, however something struck me as odd about it.

After the last couple of visits, in which we saw the streets bustling with activity and ponies hard at work, it was quite a jarring change to see things almost deserted. I glanced at Twilight, and she seemed to have picked up on this as well. With a tilt of the head, I indicated that we should move forward and she nodded in response. As we walked towards the main street, we saw several fully armoured Rebel soldiers standing guard or patrolling the main entrance to the city. While the number of normal ponies walking about was greatly reduced, I could still see the rare few scattered along the street.

My first thought was that it was just too early in the morning or that it was a slow work day, and that things would pick up as time went on, but something about the way those soldiers were looking at us rubbed me up the wrong way. They didn’t move to stop us as we approached, but they didn’t exactly appear to be welcoming either. Twilight took the lead, marching right up to the first guard and addressing him politely but firmly.

“Good morning,” she began. “Is something wrong here?”

“No Miss,” the guard replied curtly. “Everything’s fine. The city isn’t closed off or anything, you’re free to come inside.”

“It looks a bit…” I started, surveying the street behind the guards for the right word. “Empty.”

“I can’t really do anything about that,” the guard replied with a shrug. “I’m just paid to keep law and order; you’ll have to see the new mayor about whatever’s going on.”

“Sure, we can do that after we talk to Maverick,” I agreed, addressing Twilight.

“Uh, I don’t think you understand Miss,” one of the other guards jumped in. “Maverick is the new mayor.”

I blinked a few times before my jaw dropped open. Twilight too shook her head, as if she was sure she had misheard the guard.

“Excuse me?” Twilight questioned. “How is Maverick the mayor? And what happened to the last one?”

“Inkie was arrested for conspiring against the town,” the first guard explained. “Maverick took up the office until a vote could be called for.”

Twilight and I looked at each other; clearly she was just as at loss as I was. Thinking quickly, I decided who would be best to talk to on this matter.

“I think we should go see Sufferthorn,” I whispered to Twilight before addressing the guards again. “Where can we find Marshal Sufferthorn?”

The guard seemed to bristle slightly at that, before responding in a rather cool voice.

“The ex-Marshal has also been arrested,” they replied. “For attempted assassination of the new mayor.”

Now I was properly gawking at the guard, none of this made the slightest bit of sense, nothing we had heard lined up with what we knew about the ponies involved. Something strange was happening in this town, and we needed to get to the bottom of it. I gave a sideways glance at Twilight before turning back to the guards.

“Well that’s disappointing to hear,” I said in a nonchalant voice. “In that case we’ll just go and see Maverick, thank you for your help.”

The guards relaxed slightly, not completely, but enough that when they nodded in response, I was confident they wouldn't follow us once we entered the city. We started walking down the street, it was only once we were out of earshot of the guard that I spoke up again.

“Something’s going on,” I told Twilight.

“Clearly,” she retorted with a slight eye roll. “But what? Why on earth would Sufferthorn try to kill Maverick? And what did they even mean when they said the mayor had been ‘conspiring against the town’?”

“I’m not sure,” I admitted. “But did you pick up on something else they said?”

Twilight just looked at me expectantly.

“They said they were being paid to uphold law and order,” I reminded her, Twilight giving a small ‘oh’ as realisation hit her. “How are they being paid now, when the last time we were here, they weren’t?”

“I think we need to go see the old mayor for ourselves,” Twilight whispered, watching a patrol of four soldiers out of the corner of her eye. “Find out what’s really going on.”

“Those ponies said they were arrested,” I recalled. “I guess that means they’re in jail, I don’t even know where that is.”

“I do,” Twilight told me. “It’s where we placed the captured members of the Solar Empire after Blueblood’s escape.”

“Something makes me think they won’t just let us walk in,” I commented. “But if we had written permission from Maverick…”

“What do you suggest?” Twilight asked, as we continued on our way up the main street towards the town hall.

“I’ve never forged a letter,” I admitted. “But… I think I could if I had something to work off of, just a random piece of paper from his office, so I could copy his writing style and signature.”

“I could keep him busy outside,” Twilight offered. “Whatever’s going on here, you should probably keep your head down around him, especially after that last encounter you had. Me on the other hand, he wouldn’t dare risk doing anything to me for fear of antagonising the Princess and jeopardising any future relationship with Equestria.”

“Sounds good,” I replied.

As we neared the town square, we began to make out a small crowd gathered at the foot of the town hall steps. The mob appeared to be made of a few dozen, very upset ponies who presumably lived and worked in Pivot. As we got closer, I could hear them shouting about work and wages. There was a line of soldiers standing at the top of the steps, clearly not letting anypony past, but glancing worriedly between one another. Twilight and I stopped just before we reached the back of the crowd.

“You go on up,” I told her. “They should let you in. I’ll ask about here for a bit, then sneak in through the back entrance.”

Twilight nodded and began making her way around the crowd, mounting the steps without any hesitation, and after explaining herself to the guards, passing through without any bother. The mob got even louder upon seeing this, and I took my opportunity to squeeze into the back row.

“What’s happening?” I asked a random mare wearing an apron.

“These clowns stormed into my café this morning,” she told me, looking like she was about to explode. “They just started pulling bits right out of my till, saying I hadn’t paid my taxes in full. It’s absolute nonsense!”

“I was working on repairing the housing estate down that street over there,” another pony chipped in, pointing down one of the roads that split off from the square. “But this morning we were told to pack it in, that we wouldn’t be getting any more materials, so the project was being cancelled.”

“We came here to talk to the mayor about it all,” a stallion added. “But these soldiers won’t let us in, they say the town hall is ‘closed until further notice’.”

I nodded thoughtfully, this all sounded like what Maverick had wanted to do before we left, taking the city’s money in order to fund his army. I was starting to understand what was going on, but I never predicted he would go this far. After slipping away from the crowd, I started making my way around the back of the building, to the door I had entered with Pinkie Pie when the Children of the Earth had attacked and we needed to get up into the clock tower.

Naturally there were a pair of guards posted at that door, they chatted amiably with one another and I imagined they might be a little more complacent than the ones at the front. I really didn’t want to kill these ponies, whatever was going on around Pivot, I didn’t believe the soldiers really knew what Maverick was up to, not like the Children of the Earth followers who I’d murdered in cold blood in this very place. No, if it could be avoided, I wasn’t going to use violence against them. That left persuasion, so as I started making my way up to them, I quickly removed my weapons from my belt and stashed them behind a public bin.

“Excuse me, sirs!” I called out in a breathless voice, picking up the pace. “We need your help around here!”

The guards both glanced up in surprise as I came rushing over to them, pretending to double over in exhaustion.

“Slow down Miss,” the first guard began. “What’s the problem?”

“It’s that awful mob around the front!” I exclaimed hysterically. “They’re storming the front doors; I don’t think the other guards can keep them under control.”

Both guards snapped into action, drawing their weapons as they rushed away from the door to go investigate the supposed riot. Wasting no time, I tested the door and was pleased to find it still unlocked, before letting myself in. I vaguely remembered my way around the cramped storage space, but rather than take the ladder up to the tower, I tested one of the other doors I hoped would lead me out into the main part of the town hall. The room I ended up in turned out to be rather familiar, small, cramped and dimly lit, with filing cabinets lining the walls.

I was back in the records room, I never even knew there had been another door the last time I had been in here. That might have had something to do with how dark it was, but more to do with the fact that the filing cabinets were arranged in front of the door as much as the rest of the walls. Using my magic, I shifted the metal cabinet a few inches until I could squeeze out past it. Once inside the deserted records room, I went over to the main exit and peeked out the door. I heard the voices before I even caught a glimpse of Twilight and Maverick pacing the hallway together, Twilight ever so nicely drawing Maverick away from his office and keeping his back turned for me.

“Well quite,” Twilight was agreeing. “I mean that sort of attitude just encourages insubordination.”

“I’m glad you agree,” Maverick replied in his old sweet tone, reminding me very much of when I deceived Arcana. “We’ll see to her in the coming days, it just means I need to find a new Marshal before I can start planning our assault on Cragsburg, but most of my soldiers don’t have the same level of experience. Speaking of which, where is Rarity at the moment? I figured she would have come back with you, she’s not still running around after magic birds, is she?”

“Oh no, she’s just visiting her other friends back at Sweet Apple Acres,” Twilight lied. “I expect she’ll be back here soon.”

I took the opportunity to sneak back down the hall towards the mayor’s office, opening the door slowly from a distance as I moved, so that by the time I was close enough, I could slip right on in. It didn’t take long to find a letter that would be suitable for my purposes; the whole desk was strewn with Maverick’s writings. The sheet I ended up taking was one of the many alliance proposals with Equestria he had been drafting, you’d think that step would come after negotiations, rather than long before any arrangements had been made.

As I pocketed it however, I quickly glanced at another message that had been lying below it. I was only able to skim over it before leaving the office again, but it appeared to be a report from one of his agents who discovered the location of the Solar Empire agent and ex-captain of the Wonderbolts, Spitfire. Apparently she had been tracked down to a forsaken bandit camp in the pass between Glean and Daybreak Landing, but she evaded capture and escaped north into the Wyvern Heights. I pondered this briefly, we had presumed she was the one who helped break Blueblood out, but we now knew that was Crane’s doing, and yet we had heard nothing of Spitfire.

That still left a glaring question mark regarding her, but that would have to wait for another time, as my priority at that moment was to get well clear of Maverick’s office and the town hall before I could be discovered. I exited the room in time to see Twilight bidding farewell to the man himself, and only just made it back inside the safety of the records room before he turned around and caught sight of me. Returning the way I came, I was brought to a stop when I overheard the sounds of two guards searching in the back rooms. No doubt the two I had tricked, who were now looking for me.

The way to the door I had come through was blocked, but I was able to make my way safely up the ladder into the clock tower. Once at the top, I forced myself not to think about what had occurred the last time I was there, as I moved to the edge and started scanning about for Twilight. I spotted her standing at the edge of the square, where the main street spilled into it, glancing about nervously for me. It was around midday, so the sun was in perfect place that I could bring out my spyglass and use it to reflect the sunlight down at Twilight, grabbing her attention as it bounced off her eyes.

Without the need to convey my intentions through sign language, she disappeared in a flash of light and reappeared next to me. I quickly told her where my weapons were, indicating that we should teleport down for them, but instead Twilight simply glanced out over the edge of the tower and levitated them up to us. I was surprised, although pleased at the efficiency of it, and once I had them reattached to my belt, I placed my hoof on her shoulder and we teleported away together. We went to the café near the south exit of the city, the one we had been cueing for when we first saw Harbinger. It was closed, but we were able to grab seats outside it while I forged a letter that would allow us to get into the prison and see Sufferthorn and Inkie.

Once I was satisfied with my work, Twilight incinerated the stolen letter before leading the way to the prison. It was in the northeast portion of the city, an area I had rarely visited in the past, although I found that as we travelled, we were quite close to Suri’s old shop and the chapel where I had last seen Lock Pick. We even passed right by it, and I saw that it was completely boarded up. The graffiti on the door remained, although it was now faded and peeling. As we made our way through the streets, I filled Twilight in on my own part of the mission, not that it had been particularly eventful, but I figured she would be interested in what I learnt regarding Spitfire.

“I wonder…” Twilight muttered thoughtfully when I finished. “It came as such a shock to me when I found out that she was involved in the Solar Empire… but then again, there were so few ponies involved that I could ever have predicted, Blueblood included. I guess if she wasn’t involved with freeing Blueblood, and she’s made no attempt to rescue the other Solar Empire agents, then she’s most likely just on the run to avoid facing charges. We can ignore her for now, although don’t forget that she is still a threat that needs dealt with at some point.”

“I’m sure,” I acknowledged. “What did Maverick have to say about all this anyway?”

“He claimed that Inkie was the one stealing money from the city’s funds,” Twilight replied. “And he’s still going with the story that Sufferthorn tried to assassinate him after an apparent mental breakdown. Personally I don’t believe any of it… well maybe the bit about Sufferthorn.”

“She’s not as bad as you think,” I told her, fully realising how strange that sounded coming from me of all ponies. “I know she’s seemed hot headed and cold blooded in the past, but… I think there’s more to her than that.”

“Well I’m willing to give her a second chance at a good first impression,” Twilight said, only half reluctantly. “But I haven’t forgotten the way she held a sword to your throat.”

“I haven’t forgotten either,” I responded, instinctively raising a hoof to my neck where the cut had been. “But I remember other times as well…”

I just drifted off after that, thinking back to the aftermath of Fort Mule getting blown up, but Twilight didn’t press me for details on what I had meant. We reached the prison, a large block like structure, it appeared fairly undamaged, but at the same time there was nothing to suggest it had undergone any recent repairs. There were a number of soldiers congregated around the outside; Twilight had mentioned that the prison was also being used as a temporary barracks for all the Rebel soldiers that had been focused in Pivot, following the Children of the Earth’s attack. It was after all fairly empty, since it’s only other occupants were the Solar Empire Agents, and since Maverick was naturally keen on keeping any more of them from escaping, it made sense to pile his troops in alongside them.

“Hold it there,” one of the soldiers standing at the door said as we got near. “Restricted zone, if you don’t have any…”

“Oh, hey, I know you!” another soldier exclaimed, looking right at me and cutting off his friend. “You’re an agent; I’ve seen you meeting with Maverick before.”

“Why yes I am,” I confirmed, smiling at him.

“Well that’s all well and good,” the first soldier said in a professional tone. “But I still need to see written orders or a pass if I’m to let you in here.”

“It’s alright,” I assured him, producing the forged documents. “We have our orders here; we’re here to see Sufferthorn for some questioning.”

“Good luck with that,” the other soldier said with a slight eye roll while the first looked over the paper. “She’s not speaking to anypony; in fact, most of us aren’t even allowed to be in the same block as her. Maverick’s assigned only the ‘best’ guys to keep an eye on her so she doesn’t…”

“Shut it,” the first pony cut across in a frustrated tone before looking back at us. “This is all good, head on through and go to cell block B.”

“Thank you,” I replied, taking back my ‘orders’ and offering a sympathetic smile to the other soldier before we headed on in.

Once inside, we found several more soldiers bustling about, it reminded me of the first time I had infiltrated the Fort, only the atmosphere among the Rebel soldiers was considerably more relaxed than the Liberators. Nopony tried to stop or question us; they must have all assumed we were allowed to be there, otherwise we wouldn’t have gotten past the front doors. As we followed a sign towards block B, we walked behind a pair of mares in steel armour, chatting happily together.

“I rushed home first thing to tell the kids,” one of them said to the other. “Oh you should have seen the smiles.”

“Yeah, my family were literally in tears when I told them how much I was now earning,” the second replied in an equally joyful tone, although as she continued, her voice took on a more serious quality. “But where did they even get the money? I was already job hunting because I was sure I wasn’t getting another bit doing this.”

“Me too,” the first concurred. “Maybe Maverick was finally able to strike a deal with the mayor.”

“I thought the mayor was arrested,” the second said in a confused voice. “I could swear I heard somepony saying that this morning.”

“Inkie? Arrested?!” the first exclaimed in a sceptical voice. “No way, you need to stop believing every little thing you hear.”

The pair split off down a diverging corridor, leaving us to close the distance to the door leading to block B, flanked by four ponies standing guard, two on each side, and all heavily armed and looking vigilant. I presented the forged document before any of them could question our presence, the guard who took it from me read over it… and read over it again, with each read his face grew increasingly more creased, I saw him eyeing me suspiciously over the top of the letter. The letter was passed between each of the ponies, as each one read it, they too narrowed their eyes at us.

I wasn’t sure what had went wrong, but I knew something was up… I knew they knew something was up. I mentally prepared myself for a possible fight kicking off, my eyes flickering down to where my knives were sheathed, ready to be pulled out at a seconds notice if they tried to pull anything. There was a little murmuring between the four guards that I wasn’t able to make out, and just when I was sure something bad was going to happen… they passed my letter back and opened the door for us. I looked to Twilight and saw that she looked just as confused as I did, but she very quickly composed herself and led the way in.

I followed her, remaining tense until the door slammed shut behind me. Deciding not to say anything while so close to the door, where we might be overheard, we started walking down the cell block in silence. It was only then for the first time, I realised just how many Solar Empire agents had been active in Panchea before we stopped them. There were dozens packed into the cells on both levels, all staring out at us with a mixture of curiosity and resentment.

“I did not like that one bit,” Twilight muttered once we were half way down the hall, looking from side to side for Sufferthorn or Inkie.

“Me neither,” I replied with a curt nod. “They knew we were up to something, but how?”

“Let’s just finish up and get out of here quickly,” Twilight proposed.

It wasn’t until we reached the very end of the block that we found the both of them locked up in a grimy cell of their own. Inkie was on her hooves, trying to see what all the other prisoners were making such a loud commotion about, while Sufferthorn sat hunched over on her bunk, looking sullen. Indeed, the Solar Empire agents started hurling quite a lot of insults and threats our way, but that was quickly dealt with when Twilight cast a sound barrier between them and us.

“Rarity?” Inkie uttered in surprise when we stepped into view. “Twilight Sparkle?”

“Hello Inkie,” Twilight greeted sadly upon seeing their squalor living conditions. “Are you all right? Have they been treating you okay?”

“I wish I could say yes,” Inkie replied forlornly before brightening up. “Are you here to help us?”

“Uh… yes,” Twilight said slowly. “But we need to know what’s going on first. We know Maverick is now the mayor, and that he just happened to get a hold of enough money to fund the Rebels, all a coincidence I’m sure.”

“Not to mention all the local businesses collapsed overnight,” I added bitterly. “I’m sorry about all your hard work.”

“It’s fine,” Inkie assured me. “It’s not you who has to be sorry, but yes, you’re completely right. Maverick had me arrested under some ridiculous charges so he could take my place and do what I refused to.”

“What about you Sufferthorn?” I asked loudly, aware that she hadn’t reacted to our presence at all. “I don’t suppose you really tried to assassinate him.”

“Is that what he’s saying?” Sufferthorn asked in a dull tone, still not looking up. “Maybe I should have… maybe I should have let Strangle do it… maybe I should have done a lot of things.”

I opened my mouth, but couldn’t find the words. I remembered how she had reacted to Maverick’s shouting after failing to deactivate the bombs beneath the Fort, I had been just as lost then in how to deal with her.

“Well we can’t leave you in here,” Twilight commented, looking up and down the cell block. “Whatever is wrong with Maverick, we need to put a stop to it… together.”

“Stop him?” Sufferthorn repeated, her head suddenly snapping up as she surveyed us with a bewildered expression. “Why on earth would you stop him?”

“Sufferthorn, he locked you up!” I pointed out, amazed that I even needed to explain this to her. “Unjustly I might add, how is any of this not a good reason to put a stop to him?”

“It wasn’t unjustly…” Sufferthorn murmured to herself before looking up again. “And he’s doing all this to stop the Children of the Earth, to bring peace to this country, isn’t that what we’ve been fighting for this whole time? Isn’t that what you’ve been fighting for since the day you joined us?”

“Of course it is,” I replied. “But all this… it’s corrupt, and will get worse the longer it goes unchallenged. Why are you so intent on defending him Sufferthorn? Why do you show him so much loyalty, when he doesn’t show you any respect?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Sufferthorn muttered, clearly avoiding the question. “You’ll never get us out of here… you’ll never get out of here. Those ponies guarding the block, they helped Maverick throw us in here, he’s paying them each a small fortune.”

“That’s how they knew we were lying,” Twilight growled. “They know Sufferthorn and Inkie were wrongfully imprisoned, so they knew Maverick would never send anypony to question them.”

“Look, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” I said, brushing it aside for a moment. “But right now we need your help… both of you. We found Blueblood!”

That got Sufferthorn’s attention.

“You did?!” she exclaimed, her voice a mixture of excitement and panic. “Did you capture him?”

“No,” Twilight admitted. “And now things are much worse than any of us could have predicted.”

“What do you mean?” Sufferthorn asked slowly, standing up and making her way over to the bars alongside Inkie.

“Blueblood is… a lot more powerful,” I told her, deciding not to go into the unbelievable details. “He has an army and a… a… Sufferthorn, I’m not sure how to tell you this… but he has a Dreadnaught.”

There was a long silence as Sufferthorn absorbed this new information, her already pale green face turning even paler at the thought.

“Impossible,” she uttered simply. “How can he? You destroyed it.”

“The ponies who freed him,” I explained. “They built one of their own, and now Blueblood is in control of it. They’re gathering their strength in the Ash Lads, and he plans to launch an invasion on the entire world. That’s why it’s now more important than ever that we take back Cragsburg, that’s where he’ll go first, so that’s where we need to stop him.”

“Inkie,” Twilight began. “I know this is going to be difficult to hear, but we need the Rebellion to fight at any cost.”

“You want me to give into Maverick’s demands,” Inkie finished with a sigh.

“It’s different now,” I insisted. “With the Children of the Earth, we didn’t know when, if ever, they would attack us, so we wanted to make the first move. With Blueblood however… he is coming, and he will destroy everything in his path.”

Inkie screwed up her face, clearly unsure whether to trust the sincerity of our claims or not.

“Well… I definitely trust you both more than Maverick,” she admitted. “But I need some time to think about it, can you at least get us out for now?”

“We can,” Twilight replied, before looking to Sufferthorn.

“We need your help too,” I told her. “There’s a battle coming, and you have more experience in leading an army than most.”

“What about Maverick?” Sufferthorn asked suspiciously. “What’re your plans for him once we’re out of here?”

“We don’t want to make an enemy of Maverick,” I assured her. “We can all go to him together; we’ll explain the situation and make him see reason.”

Sufferthorn tapped the bars with her hooves for a moment, considering my words before finally she nodded.

“Alright, stand back,” Twilight instructed as she drew her sceptre.

The pair obeyed as Twilight pointed her rod in their direction and focused her magic, the orb glowing as it sent out an orange haze. The heat wave hit the metal bars, and within seconds they turned white hot and molten, melting and dripping onto the floor where they formed puddles. Twilight then gave her sceptre a wide sweep, sending out a chilling blast which cooled the liquid metal instantly so it solidified on the floor. Sufferthorn stepped out first, walking over the metal floor without any concern, even as Inkie tread over it with great trepidation.

“Okay, let’s get out of here,” Sufferthorn said in her old calm and controlled voice.

As we started walking, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye, a pony in one of the cells waving frantically at me. I quickly recognised Feather Duster, he looked as if he had been badly beaten not so long ago, probably why he had been transferred into a cell on his own. He was definitely trying to get my attention, but Twilight’s sound proof barrier was still up, so I couldn’t hear a word he was trying to say.

“Twilight,” I began, indicating Feather Duster. “Could you…”

Twilight’s horn flashed and the spell was cancelled, the noise of the prisoners hitting us all at once.

“What is it Feather Duster?” I asked him, feeling impatient, but still sympathetic when I remembered how he helped us.

“I heard what you said about Blueblood,” he began, his voice croaky. “I want to help you.”

“Help us?” Twilight repeated, clearly surprised. “You want to help fight Blueblood?”

“Yes,” he stated with a determined edge to his voice. “I know I’ve made mistakes, I’ve seen that, but I want a chance to make up for them. If you’re going to battle against him, you’re going to need as many ponies willing to fight as you can get, right? Well I volunteer, you can give me a sword and put me on the front lines, and I’ll fight for you.”

“Feather Duster,” I began hesitantly. “This is not going to be an easy fight… in fact, there’s a good chance we won’t make it out alive.”

“I… I know that,” he replied, trying to sound assured, but his voice still slipping slightly. “I’m ready for that, but if we win… and if I live, you can lock me up again. You can take me back to Equestria and charge me, I won’t object, I just want a chance to redeem myself for what Blueblood did to you all… what I helped him do to you all.”

I glanced back at Twilight and Sufferthorn.

“Don’t look at me,” Sufferthorn said, looking to Twilight. “He’s your prisoner, although personally I wouldn’t give him a butter knife.”

“Rarity, what do you think?” Twilight asked.

“I…” I began, thinking about it long and hard before finishing my thoughts. “I think we should give him a chance, I think we can trust him.”

Twilight nodded and released Feather Duster, just as she had done with the other two. When the metal was cooled again, he simply flew over it and landed beside me, offering me a weak smile which I forced myself to return. Throughout the entire interaction, the heckling from the other inmates had only increased, and when Feather Duster was released, it reached a new crescendo as they called him a traitor and other nasty insults I won’t repeat.

“Keep in mind Feather Duster,” Twilight said in a stern voice. “That you will still be put on trial when this is all over… although if you stay true to your word, I might put in a good word with the Princess for you.”

“Thank you,” he said, sounding genuine. “Really, thank you, I couldn’t ask for any more.”

“Heads up,” Sufferthorn cut in, her voice suddenly urgent. “We have company.”

I glanced up in time to see the four guards march into the cell block, closing and locking the door behind them. I drew my sword, as well as a single knife in my magic for good measure. Twilight too, readied her sceptre while Sufferthorn crouched low to the ground, like a cat getting ready to pounce. The four ponies also drew their weapons, two lances and two longswords, the looks on their faces made it clear they weren’t playing around.

“I’m afraid your sentence has to be carried out a little early Sufferthorn,” one of the soldiers began. “Maverick’s orders, seems you’re not his favourite pet anymore.”

I saw Sufferthorn flinch, but she didn’t break her stance.

“Stand down,” Twilight ordered, pointing the orb of her sceptre at them as it began to glow in a threatening manner.

“We’ve been told to pass a message on to you two,” the pony went on, looking between Twilight and myself. “Maverick says you two are still in his good books, but that only remains the case if you stand down now.”

“No deal,” I replied bluntly. “We’re going to see Maverick to talk this out like grown-ups. You can step aside and we’ll never have to speak of this again, or you can fight us… but we won’t be held accountable for what might happen to you.”

Sufferthorn gave a low bark of laughter at that, flashing me a genuine, if slightly malicious grin. None of the four responded, they simply began moving in, weapons at the ready. Before I could react, Sufferthorn broke ranks and sprinted forwards, the soldiers seemed just as surprised as we were by her rash move. They lowered their weapons to meet her, but she simply dodged and ducked beneath them until she was standing directly between all four of them. I remembered back to after I had destroyed the original Dreadnaught, when we were escaping and I saw all the bodies Sufferthorn had left around our exit.

I rarely saw her in action myself, one of the few occasions being on the beach when we captured Blueblood, but then I had been more focused on watching Twilight. Now as I watched her fight with the ferocity of a wild animal and the precision and technique of an expert martial artist, I was reminded why so many soldiers under her command revered and feared her. Sufferthorn had no weapons or armour, where as her opponents were all heavily armoured and armed, and yet she still dominated them. All her attacks were so fluid, flowing seamlessly from punch to counter to kicks that made me cringe just watching them.

It was one of those rare moments where I could definitely tell she was the sister of Stranglethorn, their skills were both remarkable and yet subtly different. While Stranglethorn’s style was more along the lines of Pinkie Pie, where attacks were fast, with a lot of emphasis on movement of the body that made it more suited to stealth, Sufferthorn still had speed, but her attacks also had considerable more weight behind them, the kind of display that just screamed years of perfected training that made her closer to Rainbow Dash and gave her the advantage in a fight where her opponents were in an equally capable position.

Twilight and I didn’t even have to do anything; Sufferthorn had all four ponies unconscious before I could even think of lending her some assistance, even though I would just have been getting in her way.

“Nicely done,” I complimented with a low whistle.

“We’re not out of the woods yet,” Sufferthorn replied. “The others might not know what’s going on, but they’ll still get the wrong impression when they see…”

She didn’t get any further than that, as an ear-piercing scream cut through the walls of the prison. We all froze, wondering what had just happened, but as we listened closer, we began to make out more sounds coming from outside, none of them good. We sprinted for the exit, Twilight blowing the door off its hinges with a single blast from her sceptre, allowing us to continue running right out the building, everypony too busy running around in a confused panic to try and stop us. We joined the throng of soldiers fighting to get out the front doors, and once outside, we all stopped dead in the street, looking up in horror at the sky.

It was like a dark cloud had grown over the city of Pivot in the short time we had been inside the prison, a single black cloud that seemed to fill the entire sky, a large hole in the centre, revealing what appeared to be a dark purple vortex. From the vortex there were dark specks plummeting down, like a sheet of rain. As they fell, they really did just look like large, scaly raindrops, but as they smashed into the roofs and streets, they seemed to crack open like a pistachio nuts, six long, spider like legs unfolding and a single purple eye glowing ominously from within the shell. Just from where we stood, I could see hundreds of them, easily the size of a young pony, and quite ravenous in their behaviour as they swarmed after the ponies running in terror from them.

“What in Tartarus is this?!” Sufferthorn demanded, looking back at us with wide eyes.

“That army I said Blueblood had,” I told her. “It’s an army of monsters, this must be his doing.”

“Right,” she growled before trotting off to stand before the crowd of gaping soldiers. “Liven up soldiers!”

They all snapped to attention, almost automatically, before they sagged slightly upon seeing who it was, exchanging confused glances.

“Pivot is under attack!” she bellowed. “It is our job as the defenders of this country to step up and face this challenge, so instead of standing there looking like you’re about to piss yourselves, grab a weapon and start fighting!”

“Sir, yes sir!” most of them replied before rushing off to do just that.

We stood back while Sufferthorn began issuing direct orders to some of the other officers to relay to the rest of the troops.

“Bravo, draw the creatures away from Deltoid while he rounds up the civilians!” she commanded. “Safari, take your best marksmen onto the rooftops and try to shoot those things down before they reach the ground! Kingsfoil, help Jet buffer the prison for when the civilians arrive, not a single one of those creatures gets past those doors on your watch! Private!”

A young stallion jumped at being addressed, looking quite terrified.

“Get me armour and a sword,” she ordered. “On the double.”

“B… but sir,” he tried to say. “I thought you were relieved of duty, surely you can’t order us around anymore.”

Sufferthorn just gave him the most deadpan look.

“Son,” she began in an exasperated voice. “Just… don’t.”

The poor boy really did look like he wet himself at that point, quickly scurrying off to do as he was told while Sufferthorn turned to us four.

“Inkie, get inside with the other civilians,” she instructed. “And you two, get to the town hall and find Maverick, I’ll stay and delegate until I’m ready to join you. As for you worm, if you really are on our side, now’s the time to prove it.”

Feather Duster nodded frantically as Sufferthorn thrust a short sword into his hooves, which he tried to get a firm grip of despite his shaking. I grabbed him roughly by the shoulder and pulled him in our direction as we started running down the street, back the way we came, to the town square. Soldiers were spreading out everywhere, trying to give the civilians a safe route back to the safety of the prison, but the monsters were even more numerous. They travelled in packs, picking out individual ponies from the crowds and assaulting them on mass. I caught sight of one very unfortunate soldier go down, his armour only drew out his death as the creatures clambered over him and began picking him clean.

Luckily they appeared quite fragile; their creeping legs splitting off easily as I cut through them, and their shells could be shattered with a hard kick or jab to expose their soft insides. We got stopped in front of the old church again, the numbers becoming far too great for us to fight them while on the move. All three of us were backing up the steps as they flooded towards us, waves of incessant chittering and bright eyes, they could almost have been cute if they weren’t so bloodthirsty. Feather Duster and I were at the front, keeping them at bay with our blades while Twilight ranged them.

“They just keep coming!” I shouted back to her, feeling exhaustion taking root.

“They aren’t normal abominations!” Twilight shouted back, spinning around as more began crawling over the roof of the church and sneaking down the walls to ambush us. “That cloud is spawning them, so we need to find what’s keeping the cloud open!”

“We’re getting overrun!” Feather Duster cried out, our backs now pressed together.

“I have an idea!” Twilight called out.

I glanced back in time to see her split her sceptre into six copies, in the same way she had done when fighting Blueblood. Only this time, rather than have them all spin around her, she controlled each of them independently. One flew right past my face, driving itself spike first into the eye of one of the monsters as it leapt for me. The light of its eye was immediately extinguished and it was dead, but the sceptre just forced its way through and out the other side, seeking out monster after monster to impale before searching for the next target.

All six sceptres were doing this, flying around in a chaotic blitz, leaving ethereal trails behind them, which ended up tangling wildly around the entire street as they sought out and exterminated all the pests. When the final creature was finished off, all six sceptres flew back in front of Twilight where they collided to form one again. Once she was back in possession of her sceptre, Twilight took the lead down the street again, I followed quickly, but Feather Duster took a few more seconds while he pulled his jaw form the floor.

“Nicely done Twilight,” I complimented, throwing one of my knives ahead of us to pierce a purple eye before retracting it back. “I’d say solid nines across the board; it would have been ten… if you had opened with that attack and saved us time.”

“Believe it or not Rarity,” Twilight began, not sounding at all annoyed as she sent out a horizontal wave of fire to catch an oncoming line of monsters before they could reach their target of a soldier carrying a small colt on his back. “I can get drained and overspent just like any other pony, it might take longer… quite a bit longer actually, but I always try to save the most costly spells in case I need them later on.”

“I suppose,” I grunted, before picking up the pace, leaping and coming down hard on one of the creatures with my blade.

It wasn’t much longer before we turned a corner and arrived in the courtyard facing the town hall, things were much worse here. The centre of the dark cloud’s vortex was directly above the town square, and it wasn’t hard to see why, considering what had planted itself directly between the town hall steps and the end of the main street. It looked like a tree at first, narrow limbs stripped of any kind of foliage, but more bulbous in some areas. However as we looked at it more closely, we saw that the tree was moving, and the reason why was quite horrific… it was made from bodies!

There must have been dozens compressed, twisted and moulded together, all hair had been stripped from them to reveal hardened, calloused flesh. All the bodies were twitching ever so slightly, and I could see their individual torsos still expanding and shrinking with the effort of breathing, making the tree look like some kind of nightmarish, pulsating organ. As we started making our way closer, I could even make out individual faces, their mouths hung open in perpetual, silent screams while they stared blankly out of wide, brain dead eyes.

The trees roots were well embedded into the ground, the stonework cracking and shattering as they pushed through to cling to the earth beneath. A vile, purple ooze like sap was running down the trunk, as well as pumping up from where the roots were entrenched to pool around the square. The whole monstrosity was emanating a deep purple glow as a result, the same shade of purple as the vortex above. It was likely the town square had been where the assault began, there were more half eaten bodies here than anywhere else, most likely because they had been taken by surprise.

The number of creatures was also greatly reduced here, I figured because they were seeking out live ponies, and there was presumably none left here since they had all began evacuating towards the prison. I exchanged a concerned glance with Twilight, she appeared to be regarding the tree with a great deal of thought, most likely trying to figure out how to destroy it and close the vortex at the same time. A loud crashing noise came from the inside of the town hall, which snapped her out of her focus and drew all our attention to the front doors.

“We’ll come back to this,” I told her, before quickly taking off up the steps.

Twilight and Feather Duster followed, once at the top of the steps we found the front doors thrown off their hinges, a couple dozen of the creatures infesting the inside of the town hall, feeding on the corpses of the soldiers who had no doubt been left to protect Maverick. They seemed pretty focused on their meal, so I quickly relayed a plan to the other two as quietly as possible, once we were all on the same page, Twilight teleported away. She reappeared at the opposite end of the room, right beside the door to the mayor’s office.

She quickly got the creatures’ attention by zapping one with a stream of lightning and frying it up, the rest went into a frenzy, beginning to funnel down the hallway towards Twilight. Feather Duster and I darted in as quickly and quietly as possible, while Twilight picked them off one at a time from the front, we came up behind and began shanking the furthest one back before moving up the line. It was a sound strategy, and it wasn’t long before together we had the town hall cleared out. Wasting no more time, I gave a nod to Twilight, who turned and opened the door directly behind her with magic, her sceptre at the ready as we all stepped inside.

The source of the crashing noise was obvious as soon as we entered the room, considering half the wall and ceiling was missing. The office was completely trashed, papers scattered everywhere, and pretty much all furniture either thrown to the side or broken down, and then thrown to the side. The perpetrator stood half inside, half hanging outside the office, a great green beast that filled the entire half of the room it had broken into. It stood on a bed of writhing, tentacle like vines, each of the base ones as thick as large stallion, and deep, forest green in colour. The main body resembled a huge, fat bulb, tightly sealed by its petals, fading from green to purple. There were also a couple dozen longer, narrower vines between the thicker base ones and the bulb, most of which had driven themselves into the ceiling to help support the weight of the creature, the rest simply flickered about in an agitated fashion.

However, it wasn’t the bizarre plant monster that drew our attention, but the body that hung before it… it was Maverick, hanging limply as one of the narrow vines twisted up and impaled itself right through his right eye. I knew he was dead, even before the vine performed a whipping motion and tossed him back to the ground, where he lay motionless with blood seeping from his pulverised eyeball.

“You just couldn’t stay dead,” a chillingly familiar voice echoed from within the bulb, the two tones unmistakable.

There was an almost wet noise as the front petals cracked open and began spreading out, revealing the figure within. It was Blueblood, or at least, it was a representation of him. He still resembled his old unicorn self, but his body was like that of the plant, leafy in tone and texture, while his eyes glowed bright purple like the creatures infesting the city. It really was like a plant version of Blueblood growing within the bulb, sprouting out of the body of the creature so that he was only visible from the waist up.

“Somehow,” he continued, his voice still baring that demonic undertone. “I just knew you had survived, even when I shot down your pet, I knew you would crawl back out of your watery graves and continue to be a thorn in my sides.”

“Blueblood!” Twilight and I exclaimed together.

“How are you here?!” Twilight demanded.

“You thought that just because I needed time to… bloom,” Blueblood began, smirking at his own joke. “I was going to do nothing, while you attempted to build an army to thwart me? I knew you would survive, you’re like cockroaches, but similarly I knew you would be foolish enough to think that you had a chance at stopping me. I never forgot who you were aligned with when we first crossed paths and you ruined my plans, so I knew you would turn to the Rebellion first. While my real body is undergoing its metamorphosis, I have plenty of soldiers to spare for skirmishes, and this avatar allows me to oversee them. So, are you ready to lie down and accept your fate, or will you continue to act in futile defiance by gathering your feeble…”

Blueblood was suddenly cut off, as he let out an agonised scream, one of the slim vines jerking back and allowing us to see that it had been cleanly severed. My head snapped around and I saw Feather Duster breathing heavily, his sword gripped tightly while the end of the vine wriggled violently on the ground where he had cut it off. I hadn’t even realised, but while Blueblood was distracting us, one of his tentacle like appendages had been sneaking up around behind me. If Feather Duster hadn’t noticed and reacted accordingly, I might have ended up like Maverick.

The bulb closed itself around Blueblood, as the avatar pulled itself from the office and fled outside. Twilight shouted after him and charged off in pursuit, jumping out the gaping hole in the wall with her sceptre at the ready. Feather Duster stopped briefly to ask if I was okay, when I assured him I was, he flew after Twilight. That left me to go examine Maverick, his suit was torn slightly and stained with his own blood, but his face was the real mess. As I looked at his expression of twisted agony, I wondered if he had put up a good fight, or if he had been hopelessly outmatched. The sound of hurrying hoofsteps caused me to raise my head and see Sufferthorn cantering into the office, now wearing a set of Rebel armour without the helmet, two short swords sheathed at her side.

She looked about wildly for a second before her eyes landed on us; I saw her entire face drop when she saw Maverick’s body. There was nothing I could have said as she pushed past me, looking him over, as if trying to convince herself he could still be saved. I wasn’t sure how she was going to react, I knew crying wasn’t her thing, but when she fell back on her haunches, staring into space as if her whole world had just crumbled around her, I found that I wasn’t overly surprised.

“H… how?” she stammered simply, not meeting my gaze.

“Blueblood,” I told her. “Twilight and Feather Duster have gone after him.”

Sufferthorn sat in silence for a long time, I felt myself getting impatient, I wanted to be able to give her a moment to grieve, but I knew we couldn’t afford to waste time.

“Sufferthorn, we have to go,” I began, reaching down to tug on her shoulder.

“Then go,” she replied in a cold voice. “Go be a hero; you don’t need a failure like me slowing you down.”

“You aren’t a…” I tried to say.

“I am!” she bellowed, springing to her hooves and turning to face me with rage in her eyes. “I gave everything to Maverick and the Rebellion! I sacrificed everything, I… I hurt the only one who ever mattered to me, because I believed what we were doing was right… and now it’s all over, it was all for nothing… I failed.”

“You think the Rebellion is over?!” I exclaimed, suddenly angry for reasons I couldn’t quite understand. “You think just because one pony has died, the Rebellion has died with him? Maverick may have started this all alongside Arcana and Typhoon, but the Rebellion itself was made up of the thousands of ponies who rallied around their cause, ponies like you who believed Panchea had what it took to stand on its own four hooves and wanted to prove it to the rest of the world. Maverick may be dead, and so many have drifted away from those original goals… but you’re still here.”

“I don’t know what I can do though,” Sufferthorn muttered pathetically, her fury drained. “Maverick… I knew he was corrupt, just like the others, but I did nothing to stop him… I even helped him. I was blind to his faults, because admitting they were real meant admitting what I was doing was wrong… how can I continue leading anypony knowing I’m just as bad as the rest?”

“You’re admitting it now,” I pointed out, giving her a friendly smile. “Which is a whole lot more than Maverick, Typhoon, Arcana or Iron Sights ever did. We’ve all made mistakes, but only once we’ve owned up to them can we start repairing the damage… but somepony has to be willing to take the first step, somepony who’s strong enough to admit their faults and be an example to everypony else. The war never did end, but it will soon, this upcoming battle is going to bring it to a close one way or another… the war began with the Rebellion, it must end with it too. This country needs the Rebellion now more than ever… and the Rebellion needs a leader.”

Sufferthorn stared down at Maverick’s body for a moment, standing perfectly silent while outside the fighting raged on. When she finally looked back up at me, there was an odd look of contemplation in her eyes as she surveyed me.

“I really was wrong about you,” she murmured. “I guess that’s the first fault I’ll admit to, you’re no coward Rarity, you never were. Maybe I was just… jealous of you.”

“Jealous?” I repeated in disbelief. “Of me? Whatever for?”

“Oh… plenty of reasons,” she replied with a weary smirk. “Truth be told, you’ve done nothing but impress me since the day we met, when you stood up to me where few others would have. You weren’t afraid of telling me I was wrong, something I could never have done to Maverick, even when I knew it in my heart.”

“I… I don’t know what to say,” I responded honestly. “Other than thank you, I guess. Really, a part of me always respected you, despite your attitude.”

“I think I’m ready,” Sufferthorn stated in a determined voice. “Let’s go stop Blueblood.”

I returned her affirmative nod, and together we hurried out of the office and through the town hall until we were back at the top of the steps, overlooking the town square. There were a large number of soldiers spread out, but similarly the tree was calling down even more of the shell creatures to the area to protect it. I didn’t see Blueblood or Twilight until we were at the foot of the steps and I looked back and up to see them on the roof of the town hall, Twilight firing spells from both her horn and sceptre, while Feather Duster flew all around Blueblood to keep his vines distracted.

Sufferthorn charged ahead to rally her troops while I shouted up to Twilight, she glanced down at me before quickly teleporting and scooping me up, taking us both up onto the roof. Unfortunately for us, the avatar was just as capable of casting Blueblood’s spells as it was of mimicking his voice and appearance. While his vines whipped around him, trying to flick Feather Duster out of the air while also absorbing a great number of Twilight’s own spells, Blueblood was firing out streams of magic which Twilight was having to divert a great deal of focus to warding off.

“Push forward!” I instructed. “Send him over the edge.”

Twilight did as I commanded and started moving forward, one step at a time, her dome shield moving along with her. In preparation for when we got close enough for his vines to be within range, I started swinging my rapier in wide circles while keeping hold of it with my telekinetic tether. Just as we intended, Blueblood was forced to back up as he couldn’t strike out with his vines for fear of having even more of them cut off by my sword, and his spells weren’t effective so long as Twilight kept her shield up.

He finally backed up as far as the ledge where he wavered slightly, trying to maintain his balance and not be forced over the final few inches down onto the square below. However Feather Duster spotted an opening and dived in, kicking Blueblood right in the face while he was distracted, and sending him crashing down off the roof. Twilight and I hurried over to the spot where he had fallen and looked down in time to see the avatar struggling to right itself, while Sufferthorn and a group of soldiers rushed in to finish him off.

I saw Blueblood’s eyes clench shut, and at the same time the bulb closed over. Just as Sufferthorn neared it, the avatar managed to pull itself upright and turn to face her, the petals pulling back once more, but this time it wasn’t Blueblood inside. Sufferthorn and all her troops came skidding to a halt, staring up in horror at the plant like imitation of Maverick that looked back at them with a cold sneer.

“You pathetic fools!” Blueblood’s voice echoed from Maverick’s mouth. “Are you really so stupid as to believe you can stop me?! I have accumulated more power than you can dream of in only a day, and I will only continue to get stronger.”

“Oh, would you shut up?!” Sufferthorn shouted, sounding bored and angry as she charged forward.

Blueblood… or Maverick, seemed taken by surprise as she closed the distance between them, leaping up while avoiding his flailing vines, until she stood inside the bulb itself, her face mere inches from his own. I saw his horn glowing as he began charging up a spell, but he couldn’t fire it off quick enough, as Sufferthorn swiped both her swords in opposing directions as if they were scissors, separating the Maverick part of the avatar from the rest of the creature. He screeched in anguish as the half body was thrown to the stone floor amidst all the avatar’s bucking and flailing about.

Sufferthorn wobbled a bit but was able to throw herself to safety, rolling as she hit the ground, before calling on her troops to charge in and finish it off. Clearly encouraged by her display, they didn’t hesitate in rushing in to hack the vine limbs off and pierce the avatar’s body with spears and halberds. The dismembered body of Maverick was still alive and kicking, despite large quantities of viscous purple blood oozing from his rent midriff, trying to drag himself away from the scene while the avatar was butchered.

He didn’t make it far as Sufferthorn placed a hoof on his skull and held him firmly in place, resting the blade of her sword teasingly against his neck. With that threat dealt with, Twilight and I turned our attention to the tree that was still standing, the vortex overhead still raining down more of the scally creatures. Twilight directed her sceptre into the air, summoning a small sphere of fire directly overhead, which grew bigger and bigger as she swirled the orb, until finally it was larger than the tree itself and she swung her sceptre down in a tall arc, throwing the fireball right down onto the abominable plant and engulfing it in flames.

The tree hissed and tensed, but before long it was reduced to nothing but ashes and cinders that were cast to the wind… but the dark cloud did not go away, and the vortex did not close. A high pitched, pained laughter sounded from below us, we looked down to see the Maverick lookalike laughing with its last breaths.

“Did you really think destroying the tree would stop the seedlings?” he mocked. “It’s already served its purpose, the vortex is open and there is nothing you can do to close it… it’s impossible!”

“On the contrary,” Twilight replied in a clear and calm voice, loud enough for everypony gathered in the square to hear. “Nothing is impossible. Every problem has a solution, it might not always be clear at first…”

Twilight drifted off a moment as she closed her eyes and raised her sceptre once more, directing the orb towards the vortex which was still releasing seedlings, as Maverick… or Blueblood had called them.

“But with knowledge, anything can be solved,” Twilight finished, opening her eyes as they shone with an intense white light.

Just like the few occasions before, her horn flared and the orb on her sceptre separated and began to split along the black lines to reveal the incredible power contained within, but this time, something different happened…

The white light in Twilight’s eyes did not remain there; it spread out, washing over her entire body, even drowning out her own purple magic around her horn. Twilight’s entire body began to rise up, for a moment I was strongly reminded of when Blueblood began to undergo his transformation, but this felt different. Twilight hovered in the air above me, her sceptre still levitating vertically in front of her, with the orb open and the pink shards circling around Twilight’s form like an asteroid belt. While I was transfixed with what was happening to my friend, I could see from the corner of my eye that the square was quickly filling up, both with soldiers and civilians who had been drawn to the beacon like light Twilight was giving off.

Suddenly the light seemed to burst out, revealing her body once more, but hanging around her so it looked as if she was surrounding by a halo of divine light. She looked just the same as she had always done, even her eyes were pink once more, but one thing stood out, and it was the edition of a shimmering, silver crown on top of her head. It resembled a tiara, circling around her whole head, with six prongs evenly spread out around it, three on either side of her head. The front of the crown was formed around her horn, encasing it in silver, there was presumably some extra room inside as the silver horn appeared slightly longer than her own. At the back of the crown was a large pink crystal in the shape of a six pointed star, curved slightly so it formed over the shape of her skull.

Twilight didn’t seem at all perturbed by what was going on, on the contrary, she seemed to take it in her stride as she focused her magic through her sceptre and launched a beam of blinding white light straight upwards, piercing the vortex and the dark cloud. As soon as the cloud was struck by the light it began churning and swirling, caving in on itself and smothering the vortex as it was all drawn into the light to be annihilated by the overwhelming power. We all watched in awe as Twilight’s magic cleared the sky, but not only that, all the remaining seedlings were drawn back up into where the vortex had been. Their legs scrabbled madly as they tried to break the hold on them, before they were pulled into the beam and disintegrated, like unwilling moths to a flame.

Before long it was over, and the white glow around Twilight faded along with her divine beam. She slowly descended back onto the roof alongside me, while her orb reconstructed itself, the fragments still circling around Twilight until they returned one at a time to where they belonged. Twilight looked calmly at me as she took her sceptre and returned it to her belts, I simply gaped at her, unable to find the words, however the crowd pretty much summarised my thoughts when they exploded into cheers.

“That was… it was…” I tried to say once I remembered how to speak. “What was that?”

Twilight giggled slightly, although to her credit, she tried to hide it behind her hoof.

“It’s the Crown of Knowledge,” she explained. “One of the Elements of Unity.”

“Knowledge…” I breathed before smiling. “So that’s it? We have one of the Elements!”

“It would appear that way,” Twilight confirmed, looking out over the ponies below us. “That just leaves five to go.”

“Hey, come down here you two!” Sufferthorn called up to us from where she stood at the top of the steps.

Twilight placed her hoof on my shoulder, and we both teleported down beside her. As we did, Inkie hurried up the steps to meet us.

“Twilight Sparkle, Rarity…” she began, still looking shaken. “And Sufferthorn, if that is what you’re fighting to protect us from… then the Rebellion will have the full support of Pivot. Whatever you need, money, food… we’ll make sure you have it, and I’ll see to it that Glean and Timber also help as much as they can.”

“Thank you,” Sufferthorn said, sounding genuinely happy, which was a nice change of tone.

Feather Duster landed beside us, offering me a smile, but he and Inkie quickly stepped to the side so it was just Twilight, Sufferthorn and I on full display to the ponies.

“Everypony!” Twilight called out, the crowd falling silent quickly enough. “This has been a great victory, but it has not been without cost.”

I looked over the torn up stone of the town square where the tree had been, remembering those horrible packed in bodies, before looking to where the dead were been laid out on the ground.

“And unfortunately it’s not yet over,” Twilight finished, which earned a lot of concerned mutterings among the crowd.

“This attack was only the first!” I went on, silencing the crowd once more. “Right now, an army of monsters like the ones we fought here today are gathering in the Ash Lands. Before long they will start marching south, they will destroy anything that stands in their way and kill anypony who opposes them.”

“The war was declared over months ago,” Sufferthorn picked up. “But the truth is it never ended… not for us. The Rebellion began with the intention of helping this country, of helping it grow on its own outside of Equestria’s shadow… but good intentions weren’t enough to save us from ourselves. We’ve been crippled by the war, and every day we hurt ourselves more by fighting among ourselves for dominance. It pains me to say that as Marshal, I helped perpetuate this, but now Maverick, the one who started it all, all the good… and all the bad, is dead.”

“We won’t lie to you,” Twilight continued. “Things appear worse than ever.”

“But when things are at their very worst,” I jumped in, trying to sound positive. “The only way is up!”

“You can stay here in Pivot if you wish,” Sufferthorn offered. “Stay with your loved ones and cherish what could be your final weeks or even days together, nopony will judge you if you do… but we’re not staying, the Rebellion is not staying. We’re going to go north and we're going to meet this threat head on; we’re going to finish what we started and bring an end to this war once and for all. Whenever that day comes, I might be the only one on the frontline, the only one who still calls herself a Rebel. And if that’s the case, then I accept it, I’ll die knowing I did it for the same reason I first joined the Rebellion… because I care about this country and all of you who call it their home.

“So I might be the only one,” she said again before looking to me and Twilight. “But I’m willing to bet I’m not.”

There was a moment of silence following Sufferthorn’s speech, I wondered briefly if anypony would even stick with us, not that I could blame them for wanting to hide in their basements after all that had happened that day. However, the silence was broken when a single stallion in the crowd wearing steel armour took a step forward.

“I’m with you!” he called out in a slightly shaky voice, clearly nervous about singling himself out.

The effect was instantaneous, like a row of dominos, after the first voice another one piped up, and then another. Before long the entire crowd was either declaring their loyalty or cheering in support, I could even hear ponies chanting ‘for Panchea’; I couldn’t help but beam over at the others.

“This will be the end of the war!” Sufferthorn called out, looking pleased with the amount of support she was receiving. “The Rebellion will end as it began, and finish what it started!”

“But this…” Twilight carried on, gesturing around the crowd and the city of Pivot beyond. “This will go on… Panchea will survive!”

LXXV - The Hooves Of Conviction

“And that’s where we’re at now,” I finished, glancing about the bustling town hall. “So is there anything you can do for us?”

“Zis… is definitely a problem,” Cogs said slowly, stroking his chin as he considered his response. “To sink zat fool Arcana shared my work wiz zees maniacs, and zat zey have weaponised it on top of everysing else.”

"But can you help us?” I pressed urgently.

“I will most certainly try,” he assured me. “I will talk to your friend Suffersorn regarding it. If I am going to build you somesing that can take on the Dreadnaught, I will need materials and workers.”

“Thank you,” I replied, with a sigh of relief. “She’ll give you whatever you need, I’m sure. Anyway, I have to rush here, but I’ll see you again…”

“At Cragsburg, yes,” Cogs finished. “But before you go, I sought you might be interested to hear what I discovered about your underwater boat.”

“Oh yes,” I remembered. “What can you tell me?”

“Well it is very old for a start,” he began. “Not as old Arclight itself, it was perhaps built around the time of the pony colonisation, but it most certainly uses the same technology as can be found in ze Tower there. If I could have seen zis undersea temple, I might be able to tell you more, but I’m afraid zat is all I could learn about its history.”

“That’s okay,” I told him. “If you want to keep hold of it, then be my guest, just don’t lose the keys.”

Cogs laughed along with me, before bidding farewell and leaving to find Sufferthorn. I made my way out of the town hall to look around the square, which was absolutely packed with ponies getting prepared for the march north to Cragsburg. I could see them loading carts with armour and weapons, while others were preparing tents and food for storage. A large number had already moved out that morning, Twilight Sparkle leaving with them, as no assault on Cragsburg could be made until she made contact with Applejack. Sufferthorn had stayed behind to manage the rest, considering they were still waiting on a large bulk of their army returning from Glean and Timber.

I was genuinely shocked at how many ponies had volunteered themselves, including some who had never fought in the war to begin with. Of course there were still plenty who wanted out, which we had expected. Sufferthorn was able to offer them a deal though, that they would no longer be classified as soldiers and didn’t have to go to battle, but they would stay in Pivot, Glean and Timber as guards, to help protect against bandits and marauders. Those who were staying behind were more than happy to put the restoration programme on hold and help provide support for the army; it definitely looked like the Rebellion could be ticked off our list of allies.

As such, I was pretty much ready to hit the road and go rendezvous with Pinkie Pie. So once I had my things gathered up, I made my way to the western exit, where the road that cut through the Tranquil Forest to Dolor began. Sufferthorn had arranged for transport, so I wouldn’t spend a week getting there. I didn’t expect her to show up again before I left, but I was pleasantly surprised to see her running down the street towards us as I was getting on board the cart.

“Oh, hey,” I greeted casually. “Cogs was looking for you.”

“Yeah I already spoke to him,” she replied as she stopped beside the cart. “He seems to know what he’s talking about, so I told him to go nuts, but I needed to speak to you before you left.”

“Is it about Stranglethorn?” I asked.

“Uh, yes,” she answered, sounding surprised. “How did you know?”

“Well it hasn’t escaped my notice that he wasn’t here all day yesterday,” I pointed out. “He would have been really helpful if he was.”

“Tell me about it,” Sufferthorn agreed. “But yes, I came to tell you that he’s in Arclight. Maverick had him sent away shortly after you all left to follow that crow, he ordered him to do what your friend Pinkie is supposed to be doing, but I bet he just wanted rid of him, because he knew Strangle wouldn’t allow him to imprison me.”

“Figures,” I muttered. “Well with him and Pinkie working together, they’ll probably have the Arcane Order taken care of by the time I get there.”

“Let’s hope so,” Sufferthorn agreed. “If you’re really going to try and gather everypony, you can’t afford to waste time.”

“A bit like what we’re doing right now?” I questioned with a smirk.

“Watch it,” she warned, suppressing her own smile. “I’m still your superior. Now hurry on, and I’ll meet you when you get to Cragsburg.”

I repressed the urge to chuckle at that, deciding it would be better not to push her buttons right before leaving. Saying goodbye, I told the pair of stallions latched to the cart that I was good to go, and they set off, Sufferthorn turning and marching back the way she came as they did. The stallions had been instructed to get me as far as Dolor; I would make my own way from there, and hopefully obtain transport to Mule once I was done. The trip itself was completely uneventful, but the pair of them were professionals when it came to transporting ponies and managed to complete what should have been a long trip in little under two days.

We had left early enough from Pivot, and they travelled at a pretty solid pace throughout the day, stopping only very occasionally for short periods of time to drink and snack. At night-time we slowed down a bit, as one hoped into the cart alongside me to catch a few hours’ sleep, while the other pulled the cart alone. They switched over sometime during the night, before they both took the cart again when morning came. It wasn’t until very late that evening, after the sun had set and the light was fading quickly, that we reached Dolor. Both of them appeared rather spooked by how desolate it was, neither having been there since before the war.

Once at the town, it was my turn to take the lead, instructing them to leave their cart behind as I led them through the abandoned village, coming to the same house Stranglethorn had taken me to when we came through there together. It was easy to find, being one of the more complete houses. I made sure to stop just short of pushing the door open, reaching up to close the almost hidden latch so I didn’t end up with a face full of metal when I entered. Indeed, as I walked through I saw that the pendulum remained, and quickly instructed the pair of stallions that under no circumstances should they open the door unless I say it’s safe to do so.

Once that grim business was out of the way, I welcomed them to get settled and rest, I knew they too would be setting off first thing in the morning, back to Pivot. While they chatted a little to one another and headed on upstairs to find the bed, I made my way over to the floorboard with Stranglethorn’s sigil carved in. After pulling it loose with my magic, I set it to the side and found my dress still inside. Although since I had left it there, somepony, I guessed Stranglethorn, had bagged it up so it wouldn’t get damaged. I frowned, remembering how I had only hired it for one night… around fifty-five days ago. While it wasn’t a pressing issue, I made a mental note to return it the next day if I found a free moment to go back to that shop.

After setting the dress over on the table, I came back for the lockbox, noticing the key was left inside for me. After taking it over to the table as well, I opened it up and found that there wasn’t much inside. Still the same maps that had been there before, but the photograph of Arcana was gone. There were a few additional documents, which I read over in case they contained anything of value, although for the most part they just told me stuff I already knew, like the formation of the council following Arcana’s death. One sheet of paper did catch my attention however; it was a letter sent to Arcana, pined to the front of it was a note with writing I recognised as Stranglethorn’s.

The note read ‘found in Arcana’s private chambers, it would seem he wasn’t responsible for what happened in Dolor after all’. Curious, I turned my attention to the letter and found that it was an apology, stating that the ‘experiments’ in Dolor had resulted in some permanent damage to the town. I remembered what Stranglethorn had told me, about how magic was responsible for the accelerated plant growth in the town. The letter went on to politely, but firmly, suggest that Arcana take the fall for it if he wished for their good relationship to continue. It was only when I reached the end, and saw it was signed with the letter C, that it all became clear.

The letter was sent by Crane during the war, the experiments it referenced must have been more of those ‘risky operations’ he had mentioned, but while Brine had been them looking into ways of conquering death, what did plants have to do with becoming an alicorn? Well I’m sure Crane had his reasons, but I knew exactly what the experiments at Dolor had resulted in, because I had seen them first hand at Pivot mere days before. I familiarised myself with the layout of the city and the Tower for good measure, I wasn’t sure what I was to expect going there the next morning, but I wanted to feel prepared.

After that, I found I still had too much energy considering I had done so little for two days while we travelled. Stepping outside, I began practicing the various techniques Applejack and Rainbow Dash had shown me with my rapier, as well as testing myself on how quickly I could turn, identify a target and throw a knife at it. By the time I decided to stop for the night, I was confident my friends would have been pleased with my progress. I also wondered if Twilight had seen any significant increase in my magic level since the last time we had discussed it.

Once I was finished, I returned to the house, checking the latch before letting myself in. Since I assumed the stallions had taken the bed, and rightly so since they had done all the hard work in getting me to Dolor, I just picked a relatively clean patch of wooden boards to lay down my coat and curl up on it for the rest of the night. Even after going to bed later, I still managed to get up earlier than my travelling companions and was forced to bustle them out the door along with me, refusing to leave them unattended, lest they end up the unfortunate victim of Stranglethorn’s booby trap.

They wished me luck with my mission, not that they had been told what I was doing and I hadn’t really filled them in, but before they left, they promised they would help in transporting goods from Pivot up north to help the Rebellion, even if they weren’t going to fight. Their words had put me in a good mood as I set off from Dolor, along the road that inclined gently up to Arclight. As was the case before, it didn’t take long to trek up the road to the city perched on the hill, overlooking the rest of the forest. I was able to walk at a brisk pace, breathing in the scented air of the woods flanking me on either side, while enjoying the sounds of chirping and rustling of leaves.

Since I was paying attention to it, I became very aware when the sounds stopped. Not immediately, but after a moment of walking in absolute silence, I began to slow my pace, a curious expression donning my face as I wondered where all the wildlife was suddenly hiding… or more accurately, what they were hiding from. It didn’t take long for the answer to become apparent, as I walked forward and heard a sudden, loud shifting of branches and brambles to my left. I gripped my sword and turned, expecting to see a timber wolf or some other predator getting ready to pounce.

What leapt from the undergrowth however, was far more horrific than I had been expecting, but that was probably because I was under the impression that giant spiders weren’t common… anywhere in Panchea let alone this particular section of the forest. It was lucky that I had been prepared for the attack, drawing my sword and swishing it through the air as the spider dove towards me. I took one of its thick, hairy legs off with a clean cut, before ducking to the side to avoid the rest of the body colliding with me. The leg itself dropped to the ground, where it continued to twitch in the most revolting fashion.

I quickly regained my balance and spun around to face my foe, almost dropping my guard as I saw it clearly for the first time. While the term ‘giant spider’ was accurate for the most part, what with it having the unmistakable eight long legs now reduced to seven, the large, bulbous abdomen with spinnerets, it was difficult to ignore the grotesque half pony growing out the front of it in place of its face. They looked awful, covered in thick black hair like the rest of the spider, while hanging limply like a ragdoll. Like it was barely aware of its own existence, while it stared slack jawed into space and the spider half acted as if it had a mind of its own.

My mind briefly flashed back to the Covenant cathedral, to the pen we had fallen into filled with large web sacs, the one that I had previously seen the large, twitching abdomen before they had presumably transported it to the Dreadnaught. My eyes flicked from the monster to the city of Arclight, nothing about it indicated it was under attack, but if this creature was here, then perhaps Blueblood had launched skirmishes on more than just Pivot. I quickly turned my attention back to the spider, it wouldn’t do to look away for too long and allow it to get the jump on me, but it appeared to be just standing there.

I stared in confusion at it, wondering if maybe I should move in to finish it off, and at the very least put the pony out of their misery, but then the pony’s dull eyes swivelled in their sockets to stare directly at me. The pony made a retching noise and opened their mouth, spiting a glob of some sticky substance right at me. I was completely taken by surprise by the creature’s sudden activity and was unable to dodge in time, ending up with the sickening stuff hitting me directly in the face and completely covering my eyes.

I stumbled back instinctively, my sword dropping to the ground as I reached up to try and peel the gunk off, only to end up with it sticking to my hooves as well, without actually getting rid of any of it. I heard the creature hiss before it scuttled forwards, I tossed myself to one side, hoping I could keep away from it long enough to regain visibility. I landed awkwardly and collapsed, quickly dragging myself along as I heard the spider approaching again. For a moment I thought I could feel the substance coming loose, but then I felt the weight of the spider land on top of me, knocking the breath out of me before it began lashing into me with its legs.

Since my forelegs were still stuck up near my face, they were able to protect it from the blows, but I still took quite a beating as I tried to wriggle free. Amidst the sounds of my struggle and the hissing of the monster, I heard rapidly approaching hoofsteps, and before I could think to cry out for help, I felt the weight lift off me as the spider shrieked in agony. The spider’s shrieks were quickly silenced, so suddenly that I could only assume my saviour had slain it. I continued to try and fight against the goo that refused to come unstuck, when I felt strong hooves pin me down.

“Who’s there?!” I demanded, receiving no reply. “I… if you’re an ally, then please help me, otherwise…”

I felt one of the hooves that had been pinning my struggling foreleg, lift up and place itself over my mouth, shutting me up. I had no idea who it was and if I could trust them, my heart was racing faster than it had been when the spider was attacking me, perhaps because of the unknown, but I forced myself to remain still, praying this pony was here to help me. I felt something cold press against my face, the blood draining from that very area when I recognised the feel as that of a knife. I lay very still, but I began to relax when I felt the knife peeling away the substance.

It wasn’t long before the thing I was most worried about, was if my coat would appear patchy after it had all been removed, but even that was forgotten when the last of the stuff was pulled off and allowed me to see my knight in shining armour.

“Stranglethorn!” I coughed, grinning stupidly up at him as he sheathed his hunting knife and reached out to help me up. “You came just in time.”

He nodded, glancing off to the side; I followed his gaze and saw the spider monster bisected up the middle, into two almost symmetrical parts.

“Please tell me this isn’t a common thing up in the city,” I said, not feeling very hopeful as I gestured up at Arclight.

The frown Stranglethorn gave me said it all, I just sighed in response before we both started walking along the road together.

“Have you seen Pinkie Pie yet?” I asked, Stranglethorn nodded, before reaching into his saddlebags and pulling out his notepad.

As we made our way up to the city wall, we were thankfully not assaulted by any more stray monsters, and Stranglethorn keyed me into the situation. Maverick had ordered him to gather intel on the council running the Arcane Order and report back, apparently he had been specifically looking for information regarding which members could be persuaded to abandon Arcana’s creed, and which members needed… disposed of and replaced in order to facilitate the dissolution of their faction. Blueblood’s forces didn’t attack until around midday of the previous day, although nopony knew what the deal was until Pinkie Pie arrived on scene last night.

The council were barricaded inside the Arcane University, along with a great number of citizens who had been in the area when the attack was launched. The rest of the city’s population had been instructed to remain indoors by the police force, who were working alongside the battlemages to try and clear out the invaders. The monsters did seem particularly focused on the University and the Tower, which meant the ponies living in the outer districts were relatively safe from attack. Finally, Pinkie Pie had explained to Stranglethorn that I should be on my way, so he moved to the city gates to wait for my arrival while Pinkie protected the council.

“If Blueblood’s minions are trying to get inside the University and the Tower,” I said thoughtfully as we closed the distance between us and the city walls. “Then I’d stake money on him being after some secret knowledge, and the last thing we need is him getting more power, so we need to stop him from entering either location at any cost.”

Stranglethorn nodded affirmatively as the we reached the great arches that led into the city. I noticed a group of police ponies gathered just beyond, they appeared to be forming a blockade.

“Uh, it might be a bit late to ask this…” I began awkwardly as we passed under the threshold. “But am I still a wanted fugitive.”

Stranglethorn didn’t have time to convey any sort of response before one of the masked police ponies turned their head and spotted us.

“There they are,” she announced to the others, and I immediately felt my stomach lurch.

“Now hold on a second!” I exclaimed, raising my hooves both as a gesture of goodwill and defensively. “I’m here to help; you don’t have to arrest me.”

“Arrest you?” another pony repeated in confusion. “Why would we arrest you?”

“Oh, uh, no reason,” I replied quickly, feeling my cheeks go red with embarrassment. “In all seriousness though, I am here to help.”

“Your friend told us he was going to get reinforcements,” the first pony informed me in a slightly irritated voice. “No offence, but we were expecting more than just one pony.”

“I understand, but I didn’t realise you were under attack until I was on the road here,” I replied apologetically. “My friend filled me in on the way here, but I need to know more specific details if I’m to help.”

“We’ve been ordered to hold this position in case the council calls for a city wide evacuation,” the mare explained. “If they do, we’ll hear about it through these gems in our masks, they allow the entire police force to remain connected and communicate through the Tower.”

I pondered that, it made perfect sense; it would certainly explain how the police ponies were able to coordinate their behaviour so succinctly, and how they all instantly recognised me during my escape following Arcana’s death.

“Although,” the mare went on. “If an evacuation is called for, we won’t be able to do an awful lot for the ponies trapped in the city centre. The monsters have completely blocked us off from the bulk of our forces, which are holding the two primary safe zones.”

“How many monsters are we talking about here?” I questioned. “I was attacked by one spider creature on my way up here.”

“Too many,” the mare replied. “There’s this huge… centipede thing, it flies over every few hours and drops down a fresh horde of the buggers. They usually hide in the sewer system and launch guerrilla assaults on our units; they’re surprisingly well coordinated for a bunch of bugs.”

“Do you think it would be possible to push through to the University?” I asked. “I need to see the council at once.”

“You can try,” the mare suggested. “Your friend managed to get here from there, so it’s certainly doable, but we can’t help you, we need to stay put.”

“I understand,” I told her. “We’ll carry on then.”

Stranglethorn led the way from the blockade, starting up the main street, but quickly turning off to the right and ascending a staircase to a higher level.

“Well at least they seem to have forgotten who I am,” I muttered to him, but he shook his head in response. “Wait, you mean they still remember me?”

Another nod, followed by a few seemingly random gestures that I was miraculously able to interpret.

“Pinkie Pie confessed?!” I exclaimed, quickening my pace, despite the fact that I didn’t know the route Stranglethorn was leading me along. “Is she alright? They haven’t hurt her have they?

Stranglethorn quickly assuaged any worries I had, assuring me she was fine, just that they were keeping a close eye on her.

“Let’s hurry,” I said. “Once I see this council for myself, we can decide what needs done.”

We traversed Arclight through the most circuitous route, in the distance I could hear the sounds of fighting, which I guessed Stranglethorn was intentionally steering us away from. It didn’t mean that we were able to avoid combat entirely, on two occasions during our brisk walk, manhole covers burst out of their places and a few monsters would crawl out and try to take us by surprise. While I was certainly startled the first time, less so the second time it happened, Stranglethorn kept his cool throughout both encounters.

Together we were able to quickly dispatch the first group of attackers, but the second time, despite there being twice as many, they chose to retreat after we had slain two of them. Not a single one of the monsters I had encountered in my adventures had ever made a strategic retreat like that, the police mare hadn’t been kidding when she said they were surprisingly well coordinated. She also hadn’t been wrong in calling them a bunch of bugs, as they all seemed to be based off some kind of insect or similar creature. One or two were like the spider in that they retained some of their original pony features, the rest however, I couldn’t imagine ever having been ponies. One particularly nasty creature resembled a large earwig, but had the addition of buzzing wings.

There was most certainly a theme developing, although I would have loved to know why Crane was experimenting with bugs as well as plants, neither seemed to carry any relevance to becoming an alicorn. We eventually arrived at the edge of a high level, overlooking a great plaza, where hordes of the insect monsters were charging forward in a full assault. Their objective was clear, as at the eastern end of the plaza was the entrance to the majestic Arcane University, currently encased in a magical dome of many different colours, while lines of battlemages were positioned around it, firing off multiple spells at the invaders before they got close.

I figured they were the battlemages I had heard about, their robes were similar in style to Twilights, only they were a uniform dark blue, rather than the various shades of purple Twilight wore. They even had the armour comprised of lames riveted together just visible beneath their robes as Twilight did, only they wore considerably less belts. It made sense to me, since the battlemage robes had probably been the same across the Equestrian Empire before the war. Either Twilight wore special ones, or the Arcane Order had a palette swap of their own mages' robes to better match the police force, perhaps both were true.

I was too busy watching the fight unfold, I didn’t notice Stranglethorn producing a rope and grappling hook, attaching it to the chest high, marble wall and allowing the rope to hang down. He gently tapped me on the shoulder to get my attention, offering me one of those metal gadgets for attaching to, and then sliding down the rope. It was a rather large drop, needless to say I wasn’t too eager to try this for the first time at such a height. Still, I knew time was of the essence, and I was sure Stranglethorn wouldn’t give me the option if he didn’t think I was capable.

He showed me how to attach it, then helped lower me over the wall, so I was hanging precariously with only the metal gadget to hang on to. I looked from the floor so dizzyingly far below to Stranglethorn, knowing I must have looked like a filly, but he gave me one of his awkward smirks and a wink, making a display out of holding onto the grapple hook to show he had my back. It wasn’t much, but it made me feel much better about it. So taking one deep breath, I released some of the pressure on the gadget and allowed myself to start sliding down.

It went a great deal smoother than I had expected, it was even a little fun as a zoomed down the line, so much that I even risked reducing the pressure even more so I went faster. As I neared the ground, I quickly reapplied the brakes, slowing myself down rapidly just before I reached the end and there was no more rope to hold on to, leaving me to drop the last couple of metres onto the plaza. Glancing up, I saw that Stranglethorn was already attaching his own gadget to the rope, before sliding down quickly and carelessly, managing to look much smoother at it than I had. Once at the bottom, he dropped down beside me, even managing to get his landing spot on, taking the gadget from me and stowing it away along with his own in his bags.

He left the rope where it was and led the way around the edge of the plaza towards the University, still avoiding the fighting that was going on. The police ponies standing guard just behind the battlemages’ line of defence, nodded at us to permit us entry. Together we walked through the barrier, feeling a slight tingly feeling as I pushed through the surprisingly thick aura. The Arcane University’s campus was quite spectacular, lush gardens of the most exotic varieties of plants, a large marble statue to commemorate Starswirl the Bearded, as well as several smaller ones dotted around the grounds.

The building itself resembled the rest of the city with regards to architecture, except with a little added flare from the stained glass windows, the spiral patterns atop the marble columns, and the decorative frieze running beneath the overhang of the brass roofs. It was all very beautiful, although I had to wonder if the ponies holding the shield were putting too much focus on preserving the beauty, considering their dome stretched right around the campus grounds, rather than just the buildings where the ponies were taking shelter in. As we trotted up the gradual steps, the large double doors opened automatically for us without the need for anypony to operate them.

As soon as the doors were cast open and we stepped through the threshold, the noise hit us like a set of drums. The foyer was absolutely packed with ponies, most of which were huddled together in fear and panic, occasionally I would see a blue robed police pony standing vigilant and watching over them. The sounds could be heard further than just the room we entered, the University must be thronged with citizens taking shelter. In the centre of the foyer, gathered directly beneath the chandelier, were a dozen ponies all sitting cross-legged in a circle, linked by their forehooves as they sat facing inwards, their eyes shut and their horns glowing.

I guessed these ponies were in charge of maintaining the shield spell, which would explain why it was made up of so many different colours. Stranglethorn gestured to the doors at the opposite end of the chamber, before leading the way through the thick crowd. Once at the other end, he went ahead and let himself on in, ignoring the pair of police ponies flanking the door who had just asked him for identification.

“Hold it right there!” one of them cried out, his horn lighting up.

“Pardon me,” I said casually as I pushed past the guard, knocking him into the wall where his horn struck off a marble bust of some famous pony.

The pony cried out as they were stunned, but I only quickened my pace as I followed Stranglethorn into the circular chamber. The room gave off the vibe of a courtroom, it was dominated by a ring table that had a large amount of floor space inside it. Within which stood a pony in a harlequin outfit, who was casually blowing a large pink bubble with her gum, two stern looking battlemages standing on either side of her, looking down on her from the corner of their eyes with clear disapproval.

“Pinkie Pie!” I exclaimed, delighted to see her looking well.

“Rarity!” Pinkie replied, sounding equally ecstatic.

She tried to run forward, but as she got further from the two battlemages, a yellow glow formed around her and she was pulled back as if on an elastic chord.

“Oh yeah, whoops,” she muttered, still sounding cheerful, even as she looked up at her captors from where she landed on her backside.

“So you’re Miss Rarity,” a wizened looking stallion addressed me, looking unimpressed over his spectacles.

It was only then that I realised most of the seats around the table were filled with a variety of unicorns, all wearing expensive looking robes, and the majority of them being quite well on in years.

“I take it you’re the new council of the Arcane Order,” I surmised.

“Indeed we are Miss Rarity,” a mare, much older than me replied. “Your friend has been telling us… some very tall tales.”

“I already filled them in on the situation,” Pinkie explained to me. “But some of them refuse to believe me, despite monsters being right outside their front door.”

“It is not the monsters we have difficulty believing in,” another stallion piped up. “But this idea that they’re being led by an alicorn obsessed with world domination.”

“Well I can assure you all, that it is true,” I said firmly. “The ex-Duke of Canterlot, Blueblood, aligned himself with a group called the Covenant. They were carrying out experiments on ponies to try and create a formula that would allow them all to become alicorns. We tried to stop them, but we were too late, they made the formula and Blueblood gave it to himself.”

“Absolute nonsense!” the first stallion gave off.

“How is it nonsense?” another mare asked. “We’ve now heard it from the mouth of a fellow unicorn, you continue to doubt it?”

“Now hold on there,” the first mare to speak cut in, narrowing her eyes at the younger mare. “Are you saying that just because this young lady is an earth pony, that we cannot trust a word she says, while anything a unicorn says, must be true? We should judge this on the merits of their argument, not on who or what these ponies are.”

“The Arcane Order must always place higher value on the words of our fellow unicorns,” the old stallion responded, bristling with indignation. “That is how Arcana ruled, and that is how we should…”

“Fiddlesticks!” the mare interrupted. “Arcana was a backwards loon and you all know it. For goodness sake, isn’t this why we placed such high restrictions on the police force’s use of mind reading?”

“We did that because our citizens were feeling uncomfortable with…” one of the other council ponies tried to say.

“Ponies!” a young stallion called out. “Ponies, please, we’re getting off topic. Although, for the record I am in agreement with Mistress Diaboli. After how this stallion risked his life to bring us here safely, I think it’s clear that this Order has been treating the other pony races unjustly.”

“Thank you Hex,” the mare, Diaboli replied warmly. “Now, you were saying my dear?”

“Yes, well,” I began, clearing my throat to supress my grin. “Now we were able to injure Blueblood before he escaped with his new army, so now he has retreated to the Ash Lands while he recovers and builds his strength. We realised that if we were to stand a chance of defeating him, we would need everypony to stand together when the time came, so my friends and I split up to try and convince each of the major factions to put aside their differences and band together for the good of the country.”

“If that is so,” one of the stallions began snidely. “Then why is Arclight under attack now? You can’t have injured this fellow too badly.”

“I agree,” the young mare added. “Also, while these opponents are certainly numerous, they hardly constitute the kind of threat you’re describing.”

“First of all,” I started, feeling a little peeved. “What you see outside is only a tiny fraction of what Blueblood has under his command; this is only a skirmish for him. As for why he’s attacking, well it’s likely he’s trying to cripple your force before you’re able to join up with us, he tried to do the same thing in Pivot but…”

“Wait, what?!” Pinkie interrupted in a horrified voice. “What happened?! Is Twilight okay?!”

“What?” I uttered, slightly confused, before I remembered that of course Pinkie hadn’t been aware of what happened. “Oh yeah, Twilight’s fine, don’t worry about her. As I was saying, he attacked Pivot in an attempt to break the Rebel army before we could rally them, but by working together we were able to overcome his attack. The Rebel army is already moving north to try and reclaim Cragsburg from the Children of the Earth, but we need your help. This city is home to some of the most powerful magic in Panchea, with your battlemages, we’ll stand an even greater chance of winning when Blueblood’s real army comes marching.”

“Of course you could say no,” Pinkie added coolly. “That way when we’re all killed; there will be nothing to stop Blueblood from coming down here with all his monsters, instead of just a handful, and wiping Arclight off the map.”

The council members were clearly left quite speechless after what we told them, I saw their eyes flickering between one another; clearly hoping somepony would take the lead so that they wouldn’t have to be the first to speak.

“Well don’t all speak up at once,” Diaboli said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. “If any of you can’t see how important it is that we offer our support to this, then clearly you aren’t fit to be in charge of this city.”

“Have you all gone mad?!” a new mare demanded. “Why are we even listening to these ponies? Why are they even being allowed to walk free after what they did?!”

“I’m not,” Pinkie reminded her.

“Exactly Oculus,” Hex agreed. “This mare has confessed to committing the crime and we now have her in binds, Miss Rarity was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“And yet the two of them are friends,” Oculus pointed out. “What kind of self-respecting unicorn becomes friends with the earth pony who framed her for a crime she didn’t commit? It is so obvious that the both of them were partners in the crime, and yet you’re so readily overlooking her involvement. She did run from the scene of the crime, or did you all forget that as well?”

“This is not a trial for who murdered Arcana,” Diaboli stated firmly. “Right now we are here to decide what is best for this city and the ponies who look to us for guidance. Personally I would be inclined to help the Rebels, after all, it wasn’t so long ago we called ourselves allies, before Arcana himself tore us apart. Needless to say, we cannot spare any of our battlemages so long as the city is under peril. If however, Rarity and her friends can help us in bringing an end to this crisis, we will know they are serious about this alliance they are suggesting.”

“If you want our help, we’d be more than happy to give it,” I assured her. “We’ve had plenty of experience in fighting monsters already.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” Diaboli replied, smiling at me. “If you travel to the Tower, you can find the Head Battlemage, Nefarious. He is leading the defence of the city; if you go to him, we will stay here and discuss your proposal in greater detail. Hopefully you will be able to help our city soon, and we will be able to give you a positive response.”

“Thank you Mistress,” I responded as respectfully as I could.

We were only held up for a little longer, as some ponies thought that allowing Pinkie to travel unescorted was crossing the line. Eventually they relented, and the three of us were allowed to walk freely from the University, stopping briefly outside the main doors to discuss what was going on.

“That went rather well,” I began. “We’re lucky to have that mare on our side.”

“Yeah, she was really sweet to me too,” Pinkie agreed. “So, to the Tower?”

“Yes, I want to meet this Nefarious,” I stated as we started forward. “I’ve had some thoughts on how we might be able to stop the monsters, but I also need to clarify some things with him.”

We left the protective dome around the campus and found, to our relief, the assault in the plaza had come to an end, grotesque, mutant bodies littering the area like… well, like flies.

“I hate this,” I heard one of the battlemages say as they surveyed the plaza. “It’s like they’re… testing the water, probing our defences.”

“Get it together,” another pony chastised him. “These things are monsters, they don’t think like us.”

“Excuse me,” I cut in, grabbing both their attentions and several other nearby ponies’. “We have to get to the Tower, how dangerous is the road there?”

“Reports came in not long ago,” the second battlemage replied. “All the monsters have retreated back into their holes, but you should keep your guard up none the less. Their attacks are sporadic and unpredictable, but they always come in harder, with greater numbers each time.”

“Thank you,” I told him, before setting off across the plaza with my friends in tow.

“If you hear a loud roar!” the first pony shouted after us. “Get inside a building immediately!”

I mentally stored that advice in the back of my mind, hoping whatever it was he was warning us against, wouldn’t be making any guest appearances. The route between the University and the Tower was relatively straightforward; being that they were the two most high profile buildings, and ponies who worked in one, often had dealings in the other. This time we were only ambushed once on the trip, but it consisted of two manhole covers on either side of our party bursting off, and over a dozen pony sized bluebottles to buzz out and begin swarming around us.

I began to draw my sword, but I quickly found that I didn’t need to. Together, Pinkie and Stranglethorn ripped through them in a flurry of blades, each moving so fast that my eyes were incapable of keeping track of them. On a few occasions they even helped each other, such as Stranglethorn giving Pinkie a boost into the air, or Pinkie spinning Strangle around before launching him at the enemies. It was all so expertly choreographed, that I was convinced they had rehearsed the routine in my absence.

Not a single one of the disgusting, fat flies survived the pair's synergy. The last two dropping and splatting on the ground while my friends returned to my sides, Pinkie nonchalantly spinning her daggers around her hoove,s while Stranglethorn sheathed his short swords without much care either. It was rather interesting to see for myself, I had always compared their fighting styles, but that had been the first time I’d seen it first-hand. It had definitely been spectacular, and more than a little frightening to see two such deadly ponies teaming up, and only appearing more competent than ever as a pair.

“Uh, Rarity?” Pinkie said curiously, waving her hoof before my dazed face. “Earth to Rarity, are you in there?”

“Huh, oh, yes,” I replied when I came back to the present. “Just… let’s all stay friends… please.”

Pinkie quirked an eyebrow at that rather benign statement, but shrugged and followed when I quickly moved on after Stranglethorn, who had already taken the lead. The Tower had been visible since the moment we entered the city, but now it was quite clear that we were drawing close, one more corner turned and we entered into the circular street that surrounded the base of it. The entire area was filled with platoons of Battlemages, what few police ponies there were, were secluded to the main entrance of the Tower just as they had been at the University.

We weren’t stopped by anypony as we ran up to the great doors, I wasn’t sure if it was because they had communicated ahead using their masks to say we were coming, or if anypony was welcome to take shelter in the Tower during the attack. Once at the doors, we only had to wait a brief moment while the unicorns opened them up for us and allowed us access. Like the foyer at the University, the entrance hall was filled with ponies taking refuge from the monsters, but there was also a large number of Battlemages standing next to the regulator device in the centre of the room.

As we approached them, I noticed how the marble pyramid and brass globe was acting up quite a lot, repeatedly spitting out flashes of electricity from the ground device to the identical one on the ceiling above. What struck me as particularly odd, was that the sparks were all travelling upwards, as opposed to any being sent down. The last time I had been in the Tower, there had been a fairly even mix. I made my way up to where they were all standing, one stallion in particular was talking, he was issuing orders to the rest.

“Nefarious, I presume?” I asked, announcing our presence.

The stallion stopped talking and looked over at us, unlike the rest, he had his hood drawn and peered out from under it with a look of bored indifference.

“You must be the Rebel agents we were told about,” he replied, levitating a police mask to indicate that they had indeed heard of our arrival over the communication system. “Well, I hope you’re not here to waste our time. You’ve fought these things before, what can you tell us about them?”

“Well they’re part of an army,” I began, trying to sound as professional and to the point as he did. “Under the command of…”

“This Blueblood fellow,” Nefarious cut in. “Yes, we’ve already been told, he’s attacking Arclight in an attempt to debilitate us so we can’t oppose him.”

“Well, yes, but I believe there’s more to it than that,” I began to explain. “I’ve heard the monsters are attacking both the University and the Tower, or to be more specific, that’s where they’re focusing their efforts. Now, the council is at the University, so it makes sense that Blueblood would want to eliminate them in order to disrupt the Arcane Order, but that doesn’t explain why he’s diverting his forces to attacking the Tower, unless there’s something else here that he wants. So please, put yourselves in the horseshoes of a megalomaniac with near unlimited power, what would you possibly want from the Tower that could help you in your conquest?”

Nefarious shared a worried look with his subordinates; I could tell my words had struck something with them.

“Well, there is something actually,” he replied after a moment. “Are you familiar with Starswirl the Bearded’s Magical Grimoire? Five tomes, within which Starswirl recorded every spell, ritual and charm created before and during his time. If it had magical applications, you could be sure Starswirl wrote about it in those books.”

“Oh yeah,” Pinkie uttered, recognition donning on her face. “I remember those, they’re locked away in Canterlot Castle. I tried to steal them as a dare, even I found it impossible.”

“Well I’d like to think so,” Nefarious responded, slightly snappy. “Those books can be incredibly dangerous in the wrong hooves, they contain spells that nopony should know of.”

“But if they’re in Canterlot,” I began, feeling like I missed a step. “Then what do they have to do with all this?”

“Because in the centuries since Starswirl’s death,” Nefarious explained. “There have only ever been one set of copies made, and they have been kept inside a vault high in the Tower for a long time.”

“That makes perfect sense!” Pinkie exclaimed triumphantly. “Blueblood might have the magical capacity of an alicorn, but he still needs to know spells if he wants to cast them. If he got those books, he’d be able to cast every single one of them, all at the same time if he wanted to!”

“Well he’s not going to get them,” I stated firmly. “What are the protections around the vault?”

“It’s funny you should ask that,” Nefarious muttered, glancing back briefly at the regulator, which was still firing off bolts of electricity towards the ceiling. “The vault is sealed by an incredibly complex code, but rather than requiring numbers or letters to be input, it requires specific behaviours to be exhibited by the Tower itself. These can be anything from one of the outer rings rotating a certain distance at a certain speed, or for a random device on a random floor to activate at a particular time; it’s all incredibly specific and far too complex for anypony to guess…”

“Except somepony has,” I finished. “They’re manipulating the conditions in the subsections of the city, in order to influence the behaviour of the upper floors via the regulator.”

“Exactly right,” Nefarious confirmed, sounding slightly impressed.

“And all the monsters are hiding in the sewers,” Pinkie reminded us. “Blueblood must be using them to do the thing to make the stuff happen through the thingamajig.”

“More or less,” I agreed. “Who would have had knowledge of the code for the vault? Would Arcana have known it?”

“Yes, he would have,” Nefarious confirmed. “But he’s been dead for ages, what does he have to do with this?”

“Because Arcana was secretly working with the same ponies who Blueblood got his army from,” I revealed. “He must have given Crane that information on top of everything else; he really was being strung along like a puppet.”

“So Blueblood wants these tomes,” Nefarious summarised. “And he’s using the monsters to break the lock on the vault, but how? They’re just monsters, how can they be so… coordinated?”

“I thought about that,” I began. “You see that mask you’re holding, the police force use it to keep in constant communication with each other, it allows them to see what others are seeing and behave as if they’re of one mind. They’re all linked to the Tower... almost like a hive mind, exactly like certain bugs use.”

“You mean…” Nefarious began as he joined the dots in his own head. “Do you think it’s in the sewers? The first monsters that landed were reported to have gone straight into the sewers, first thing.”

“I bet there’s some abominable creature down there that acts as a hive mind to all the creepy crawlies,” Pinkie said with a small shudder of disgust.

“If we can eliminate that,” I went on. “The monsters won’t be able to coordinate, they’ll be easy to defeat and Blueblood won’t be able to instruct them to break into the vault.”

“Sounds great, but it’s no use,” Nefarious stated bluntly. “We sent ponies down into the sewers to try and weed them out, but they were slaughtered. We even tried fumigating and burning them out, but those didn’t work either.”

“Don’t you worry about the hive mind,” Pinkie assured him. “We’ll go down there and sort this all out in a jiffy!”

“You should focus your efforts on protecting this place,” I told him. “I heard some other mages saying the monsters were probing your defences, and that they always came in greater numbers with every attack. They’re most likely winding up for one big assault, so I think it would be wise to get the citizens clear of this place before then. Either get them to the evacuation point or as far as the outer districts, Blueblood won’t care about who his soldiers eat so long as they get what he wants.”

“You’re sure you’ll be alright in the sewers on your own?” Nefarious asked in wary voice.

“Us three together? We’ll be A-Okay!” Pinkie declared, pulling Stranglethorn and I in with her forelegs.

“Alright then, I’m trusting you on this,” he said with a nod. “I’ll take my best ponies up to the vault itself, if the worst case scenario is made real and they get the vault open, we’ll lay down our lives to protect those books.”

After a quick farewell, we ran outside, while Nefarious started issuing new orders to the others to have the citizens escorted back to the city gates. Once outside, we saw several monsters attacking, nothing major, but it wouldn’t be long before they came in their hundreds. We navigated around the fighting to a side street, cantering down it until we arrived at a metal manhole cover. Even the Arclight sewers were spectacularly clean, it was like nopony in the city even went to the toilet, just from looking at the spacious arched tunnels of pale grey brick, lined with glass bulbs containing pale light, while a wide canal was constructed down the middle of the tunnel for water and waste to flow through.

Although it was clear that something had taken root within the sewers, the normally immaculate stonework was marred by scratch marks, and there was occasionally thick layers of phlegm like goo, not dissimilar to the stuff that the spider had spat in my face, plastered over the walls and ceiling, occasionally dripping down in large clumps to float lazily away in the water. We could hear the soft, but persistent chittering noise of the monsters, but I couldn’t place what direction they were coming from, it was like they were all around us. There weren’t even any in sight, although a few times I was convinced I saw shadows dancing briefly in the light of the bulbs, only to look again and see them vanish.

“Strangle,” I whispered. “Do you think you can track them, find out where they’re congregating?”

Stranglethorn gave a curt nod, stepping forward slowly, his ears pricked up. I followed a few paces behind him, while Pinkie took up the rear, her mask drawn. No doubt she was using her life detect enchantment to make sure nothing snuck up on us. For a while we managed to travel without any trouble, it wouldn’t be until later that we found out most of the monsters had vacated the sewers to begin their final assault on the Tower and the University, but as we drew nearer to their nest, we quickly found ourselves near overwhelmed.

They came in their dozens, huge flies and hornets buzzing through the air at us, darting about fast enough to keep both Pinkie and Stranglethorn on their hooves. Creeping millipedes and marching beetles, even large slugs and grub worms crawling out of the water up at us. We were never given a moments rest as we pushed onwards, but the more we fought the more I began to pick up on something. The closer we got to their nest, the less the monsters bore any pony features; in fact, they were generally less deformed. For the most part they were just giant bugs, it was like they were becoming… purer in their genetics.

It wasn’t until we rounded a corner and saw a bright light at the end of the tunnel, rushing towards it and spilling into a pumping station, that the truth hit me. I should have questioned it before, back at the undersea temple when we encountered the immature versions of the monster from Anchorage, they must have been the result of it reproducing, perhaps asexually. So if that monster had been able to reproduce, then it should have come as no surprise that others were capable of it as well, and that’s exactly what the bugs were doing in the pumping station, for it was a nest in the literal sense of being stuffed full of gelatinous, translucent eggs.

It was true that some insects could reproduce damn quickly, and that must have been what the monsters had done, reproduced repeatedly until the abominations the Covenant had created were outnumbered by the naturally formed ones. Not for the first time, I wondered what on earth Crane had been up to in researching bugs, but now I also wondered just how much control Blueblood could have over this type of behaviour. He wanted to rule the Equestrian Empire, surely he couldn’t be so insane that he would allow all of pony kind to be wiped out in place of this menace, and if that was the case, then was he even aware of what they were doing right under his muzzle?

I could see dozens more of the creatures tending to the nests, even some eggs that were bursting open to allow their vile offspring to wriggle out, but it was the thing attached to the central pump that caught my attention. It resembled a pony whose entire body had been moulded out of a pale green jelly. His form was relatively intact, but his frame was stretched and distorted, pulled out in long, elasticated strands, which reached out and clung all around the pumping station, leaving the pony to dangle and wobble in the middle of it all, a creepy grin and a faraway look etched into his face.

“That must be the hive mind,” I said, pointing up to it.

Stranglethorn nodded before reaching into his bag, he pulled out what looked like a small package with a clock taped to the front of it.

“Is that a bomb?” Pinkie asked, her eyes widening with curiosity as she lent in to examine it.

Stranglethorn nodded, before conveying some signals to me.

“Uh… didn’t quite catch that, Strangle my ol’ mate,” Pinkie told him, still beaming at him.

“He’s going to place the bomb up beside the hive mind,” I translated. “He wants us to cover him…”

He quickly added some more gestures.

“And then we have to run,” I finished. “This whole place will come down.”

“Well, it’s easier to rebuild one pumping station than a whole city,” Pinkie said with a small shrug, spinning her daggers around before spinning to face the angry bee that was swooping down upon us.

As I looked back, I saw that Stranglethorn was already gone, running, climbing and jumping off various pipes and pistons to get himself closer to the hive mind. I sheathed my sword and drew all three of my knives, throwing them at any bugs that tried to go after Strangle, while Pinkie took care of the ones coming after us, flashing and blinking around me, while slashing at such speed that I couldn’t have kept up with her, even if I wasn’t so focused on aiming. Stranglethorn reached the hive mind, the pony head turned slightly to look at him, its fixed features unmoving as it silently surveyed him while he strapped the bomb to the central pump directly behind it.

“Is it ready?!” I shouted desperately, noticing a swarm of hatchlings wriggling my way.

Stranglethorn quickly finished his preparations before nodding down at me. I responded by throwing all three of my knives skywards, each one embedding itself in the bodies of a spider, locust and ant, which were all attempting to dive bomb Strangle. While I retracted my blades, Stranglethorn dived off the pump, using the hive mind to push off of. As he neared the ground, he tucked and rolled, it probably still hurt considering the height, but he was able to walk it off as he re-joined us.

“Pinkie!” I called out, sheathing my daggers and drawing sword instead. “Let’s get clear of this place, now!”

“Follow me!” Pinkie shouted back, slicing a giant flea in half, before rushing down a tunnel that led away from the pumping station.

Stranglethorn and I galloped after her, glancing back only to assure ourselves that our pursuers were far enough behind that we didn’t need to stop and cut them down before carrying on. We just reached the end of the tunnel, arriving at a fork where two separate tunnels came in at angles to converge into the one we were currently in, when the bomb detonated. The force was far more devastating than I had expected, to put it simply, the ponies of Arclight were definitely going to have to rebuild more than just the pumping station.

The tunnel began caving in behind us, crushing the monsters that were hot on our tails, but it wouldn’t be long before we too were flattened by the mounds of brick and stone. Picking up speed, I leapt forward, throwing myself down one of the forked paths, splashing into the waterway without a care for what exactly I was wading in, other than water. Turning back, I saw the destruction settling, the way back completely sealed off by the boulders and lumps of cracked marble… but my friends were not standing with me in the tunnel. For a brief moment, I was terrified that they hadn’t been fast enough and had been buried alongwith the monsters, but I convicned myself that wasn’t possible, since both were considerably faster than I.

I splashed my way through the knee high stream until I reached the newly made barricade, I began trying to shift some of the rubble with my magic in a naïve attempt to get through to them. When I struggled against one piece in particular and heard an ominous rumbling noise whenever I tugged too hard, I packed the attempt in, resorting instead to shouting through the blockage.

“Pinkie Pie!” I cried out. “Stranglethorn! Can either of you hear me?! Please say something!”

I waited a moment, an awful, tense moment, where every second that passed only confirmed my fears, until I heard the muffled sound of somepony calling back.

“Rarity!” it seemed to say, although it was so hard to tell. “We’re okay; we went down the other tunnel!”

“Oh thank goodness,” I muttered to myself, before shouting out once more. “Can you find a way out through there?! I’ll look for my own way out and we’ll meet up at the Tower!”

Another second past before Pinkie shouted back some confirmation. Feeling relaxed and breathing calmly again, I climbed out of the stream, which would no doubt start to rise soon since it had nowhere to flow. Once I was on drier land, I set off down the tunnel to find an exit to the surface, so I could reunite with the others and we could see what else needed done. The hive mind was defeated, the monsters’ ranks should be in shambles now, which would give the Battlemages the advantage over them. Hopefully we would get back to the Tower and find them victorious, and our work would be done.

Reaching a ladder, I climbed up and through the manhole, placing the cover back behind me before surveying the street to figure out where I was. I wasn’t too far from where the pumping station had been, I could tell as there were thick clouds of dust visible just beyond the closest buildings. For a moment I worried that somepony had been caught in the blast, but took solace in the fact that I was in one of the central business districts, and ponies here should have been evacuated. Wasting no time, I began running in the opposite direction, to where I could still see the Tower looming not too far off.

My hopes were high as I jogged through the streets; only to be brought crashing back down as a mighty roar rent the heavens. I instantly forgot about the advice given to me by the battlemage after we left the University, and instead of seeking shelter, I stood paralysed, staring up at the sky as something dark blotted out the sunlight as it soared overhead. It sank through the cloud layer, its long, segmented body twisting as it moved in the direction of the Tower. I could make out the hundred, spindly legs, which twitched aimlessly while the two, scythe like pincers chopped inwards, like ravenous shearers.

I was a bit lost in my own thoughts as I watched the enormous monster soar through the air, that I was completely taken by surprise when I felt a pair of hooves grab me by the jacket, and pull me forcefully off the street and inside a cramped and dimly lit shop.

“Are you nuts?!” a mare’s voice exclaimed, while I tried to figure out what was going on. “Why on earth were you just standing there, do you have a death wi… wait, you?!”

I turned around and blinked in confusion at the mare, she was looking at me with a shocked expression, but I didn’t recognise her… not at first, but then I took in my new surroundings and realised we were in a small dress shop. Not just any dress shop, but the very one that Lyra took me to before the social function where I met Arcana. This mare was the one who sold me the dress… or more accurately, hired me the dress, which might explain why she didn’t seem happy to see me now.

“Oh, uh, hello there,” I greeted uncomfortably. “I have your dress with me.”

I opened up my bag and pulled out the tightly folded dress with my magic, holding it out for her, she just stared at me like I was insane.

“M… my dress?!” she repeated in disbelief. “Forget the dress, do you seriously not remember what you did the last time you were here?!”

“Um… excuse me?” I questioned, now feeling confused. “I hired a dress from you, I admit that I never brought it back and I’m sorry for that.”

“Wait, you really don’t remember,” the mare muttered, sounding less angry and bewildered now. “Well I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised, considering the state you were in…”

“What are you talking about?” I asked, starting to get annoyed at how she was dancing around the subject.

“The night you hired that dress for,” she began, pointing at it, still hovering in my aura. “You were running away from the police, I was about to lock up for the night when you came running down the street. You were off your head on something, you begged me to hide you for a moment and I… and I did. I let you hide in this very shop until the police left the street, and you ran off without a word, high as a kite.”

I was left completely speechless at that; the morning I woke up, tied to the bed in Dolor, I had vague memories of what happened while I was under the effects of the mind fog, including a small shop filled with dresses.

“Oh… I’m terribly sorry about that,” I apologised, feeling genuinely guilty for putting her in that position. “You have to understand, I was being pursued for a crime I didn’t commit… and I don’t take drugs ordinarily.”

“Whatever,” the mare muttered, stepping forward and snatching the dress from my hold. “That’s twice now I’ve saved your neck… but I guess rational ponies like us need to stick together.”

“Pardon?” I uttered, curious at her sudden shift in tone to a much kinder one.

“You disapproved of your friend being involved in the Order,” the mare told me matter of factly. “I saw how you reacted when she told you, I knew you disapproved of what they were doing as well, you said as much when I first hid you… at least, what little I could understand said as much.”

“So you also dislike them,” I murmured, nodding slowly. “You’re an earth pony, aren’t you?”

The mare tensed up slightly, but then forced herself to relax.

“What gave it away?” she asked, most likely so she wouldn’t slip up in future.

“You don’t use magic,” I told her simply. “Even when you were measuring me, that’s a tricky task using only your hooves, although I must say you did it superbly. I’d never heard of a unicorn in Arclight who didn’t use their magic on a regular basis, I found it odd at the time, but I guess it makes sense now.”

“You won’t tell anypony will you?” the mare asked, trying to conceal her worry. “Things haven’t been as harsh for us since Arcana’s death, but I could still lose my shop and even my home if the police found out.”

“I promise I won’t,” I assured her, as I made my way to the door. “It’s like you said, rational ponies like us need to stick together.”

“Thank you,” she replied, before hesitating slightly. “Uh, you’re going back out there?”

“I have to go help my friends,” I told her. “But don’t worry, if today goes well, you may very well be seeing the end of the Arcane Order soon, or at the very least, it’s more racist policies.”

“Oh, so you weren’t talking rubbish when you said you were a super spy,” the mare commented, laughing slightly at my abashed double take. “Like I said, high as a kite.”

“Thank you,” I said slightly sarcastically, as I opened the door, before adding on a more serious note. “Sincerely.”

She waved farewell as I stepped into the streets and galloped towards the Tower. It wasn’t long before I was turning the final corner and skidding to a halt in the circular street, staring up in consternation at the colossal centipede that was coiled right up the full length of the Tower, the pressure of its body crushing several of the metal rings that usually rotated around it. The swollen tip at its tail end was near the spherical head of the Tower, while the centipede’s own head was close to the ground, where it was slashing and snapping at the crowds of Battlemages trying to fight it.

I ignored the fighting unicorns and the great beast for a moment, running around the street on the lookout for my friends, all the way I saw dozens of monster corpses, while there were only a few casualties on our side. It had clearly been a great victory here before the centipede showed up, but once it was vanquished, the day would be ours. I found my two friends around the front doors, which were blasted off their hinged; they too were in the middle of fighting, but not with the Centipede or even some stragglers from Blueblood’s army… they were fighting Blueblood himself.

Okay, it was another avatar, but when I saw the chitinous shell and the six, sharp legs that smashed into the ground like spears, my eyes were immediately drawn to the half pony sprouting from within it. Blueblood’s body was made from a shiny bronze exoskeleton, as opposed to leafy like the last one, and instead of normal forelegs, he had what resembled a crab claw in place of one, while the other was split apart into five long tendrils, each resembling centipedes with their bronze segments and spines running the full length of them. All five of the tendrils wriggled madly and wildly, lashing out at Pinkie and Stranglethorn, who were jumping, rolling, cartwheeling and flipping to avoid them.

While Pinkie was running underneath Blueblood’s legs, trying to poke him with her daggers, only to have them glance off the underside plates uselessly, Blueblood’s horn lit up and he wrenched up the ground slabs. Pinkie tripped right over the new obstacle and fell flat on her face. Blueblood spun around and raised his two front legs, getting ready to drive them down into her back. I reacted quickly, by grabbing hold of Pinkie’s outfit with my magic and dragging her out of harm’s way as the legs came piercing down. Blueblood turned his head towards me, his eyes furious before he saw who was responsible for denying him his kill, then a sinister grin crept onto his face.

In a flashed of blinding white light, Blueblood and the avatar vanished, reappearing almost instantly, directly in front of me, looming down over my much smaller form. I couldn’t have drawn my weapons fast enough, as Blueblood leant down and struck me hard in the side of the head, stunning my magic before he clamped his claw around my entire torso, raising me up so our eyes were level.

“I should have known it was you,” he said in a snide voice, still grinning wickedly. “Always interfering with my plans, aren’t you Rarity?”

I couldn’t respond, even if I had something witty or worthwhile to say, the increasing pressure of his claw was making it impossible to breathe, let alone make a sound.

“Well I’m afraid you failed this time,” he told me, squeezing even harder, so I felt myself growing dizzy. “My minions fulfilled their purpose, and once you and your annoying friends are dead, I’m going to walk right into that vault and…”

He didn’t get any further, as something bright flashed right between us. It was a short sword, sunlight reflecting off the blade as it spun through the air, carving right through Blueblood’s leg at the point where the pony limb changed into the claw. I felt myself falling, the pressure slackening around me as the claw was disembodied. As we fell to the floor, I felt a pair of hooves wrap around me before I was swept away, reappearing at the opposite end of the street. Taking large gulps of air, I looked up to see Pinkie’s mask grinning down at me, as she held me in her forelegs. Turning my attention from her, I looked for Blueblood and quickly found him.

While he was spinning on the spot, trying to find out where we had blinked to, not even acknowledging his missing limb, Stranglethorn sprinted straight for him. He had aimed his throw well, and he now clutched his second short sword tightly, ready to deliver the finishing blow to Blueblood’s avatar… only Blueblood pivoted around to face him, his tendrils shooting out as Stranglethorn leapt… and all five of them impaled themselves in his chest, exploding out his back in a shower of blood.

“No!” I screamed, trying to fight against Pinkie’s hold which had suddenly become quite tight.

Stranglethorn wore a look of mild surprise as the sword dropped from his grip and clattered to the floor, he glanced down at where the centipede like limbs were jutting into him, as if he couldn’t quite register what just happened. As his legs grew limp, Blueblood pulled him in close, smirking as he surveyed his defeated opponent.

“I remember you,” Blueblood said in a mocking tone. “You were at the beach that night, you helped ruin my plans. Seeing you then and seeing you now, I won’t deny you have skill… skill which could be of great use to me.”

Blueblood brought Stranglethorn even closer, his horn glowing bright, even as Strangle’s eyes began to droop closed. The glow from Blueblood’s horn spread to Stranglethorn, and he was enveloped in a pure white aura, his eyes widening slightly as Blueblood’s spell began to take hold in his mind. I knew immediately what he was doing; I just knew in my heart that Blueblood was casting the same spell on Stranglethorn, that he had cast on me when this whole thing began. I couldn’t allow that to happen, but neither it seemed, could Pinkie.

We both leapt to our hooves at the same time and rushed forward, Pinkie was much faster, but my desperation lent me speed, so I was able to keep up. Unfortunately for us, even while Blueblood was casting the spell, his avatar was active in defending him. Pinkie was the first to leap as Stranglethorn had done, and she was knocked clean out of the air by one of the legs snapping out. I managed to dodge the sweep of another, but when I threw all three of my knives at Blueblood, they deflected off a magical barrier I hadn’t even known was there. Before I could think to retrieve them or draw my sword, the leg swung back and finished the job, sending me flying back to where Pinkie had landed.

When I looked up, I saw we were already too late, Blueblood’s magic was fading from around Stranglethorn, and his tendrils were lowering him to the ground. Once on the ground, Stranglethorn stood firmly, his head hanging down while the tendrils yanked themselves from his body, more blood splashing from his chest as they did. Blueblood stepped back from Stranglethorn, glancing over at us with an evil smile, before he turned and started walking towards the open doors of the Tower.

“I’m going to collect some books,” he said clearly. “You be a good toy now and kill your friends for me.”

I snapped out of my funk and ran forward, Pinkie called out after me, before hurrying to catch up. I didn’t know whether I cared more about going after Blueblood or seeing to Stranglethorn, although my decision was made for me when we were less than ten metres from the latter, and his head snapped up to face us. It was the same Stranglethorn I remembered, there was nothing physically different about him, but the look in his eyes struck me deeper than any blade ever could… it wasn’t my friend looking out at me from them.

Stranglethorn darted towards me, even as I continued to run in his direction, I could never have veered out of the way or defended myself in all the time he gave me. Before I knew it, I felt a hoof connecting sharply with my muzzle, and my head snapped right back. As soon as I began to fall back, I felt my hooves swept out from under me before Stranglethorn kicked out with both hind legs, catching me in the stomach and launching me back the way I came. I hit the ground hard and skidded for several feet, left lying breathless and coughing up blood.

I crooked my head to see Pinkie Pie frozen, crouched low as Stranglethorn turned his attention to her. Even though my vision was blurry and tunnelled, I could see Stranglethorn’s wounds healing in seconds, until he was just covered in dry blood. Then he opened his mouth… only to frown when no sound came out. I tiny part of me wanted to laugh despite the circumstances, Blueblood clearly hadn’t tweaked onto the fact that Stranglethorn was incapable of talking, but then he just shrugged and closed his mouth, but spoke regardless.

“You’re not a real pony, are you?” Blueblood’s double toned voice asked Pinkie Pie, appearing to emanate from within Stranglethorn. “I could sense your magic the moment I arrived; it’s like nothing I’ve ever encountered before.”

Stranglethorn stamped down on the hilt of his fallen sword, the blade bouncing up into the air where he caught it and held it out, the point directed right at Pinkie.

“I’m more real than you Blueblood!” Pinkie spat at him. “You’re nothing but a monster, and I’m the pony who kills monsters.”

Stranglethorn leapt forward a second time, but Pinkie was ready, meeting his blade with one of her own, before slashing upwards with her second dagger. Stranglethorn rolled right over her and tried to bring his blade down on her back, but Pinkie twisted around and parried, managing to kick one of Stranglethorn’s legs out from under him. He recovered too quickly though, reaching out with one hoof, the air around it rippling as his second sword was drawn back to him. He sliced up with his second blade, and I saw blood as he managed to cut Pinkie’s hoof, forcing her to drop one of her daggers while also back flipping out of further harm’s way.

Once she landed at a safe distance, she started circling around Stranglethorn, massaging her hoof slightly before spinning her last dagger around her good hoof, never taking her eyes off him for a second. It was like watching the world’s most tense game of chicken, for a moment I was convinced Pinkie would maintain the defensive after taking that first hit, and it would be Stranglethorn to lash out once more, but surprisingly it was the other way around. Pinkie blinked mid-step, appeared directly behind Stranglethorn and jamming her spinning dagger directly behind his shoulder blade.

Unfortunately he didn’t seem capable of feeling pain while under Blueblood’s influence, and quickly spun around, the dagger still in his back, wrenching it free of Pinkie’s grip right before he slashed both his swords in opposite directions, trying to cleave her in half. Pinkie was able to blink away again, landing beside me, bundling me up and blinking us to safety on a higher level that overlooked the street we had just vacated. Pinkie collapsed against the low marble wall, trying to silence her heavy breathing, either all the blinking or trying to keep up with Stranglethorn was wearing her down.

“Running and hiding, are we?!” Blueblood called out. “You’re beginning to see now, aren’t you? You were both quite equal before, but now I am in the driver seat, I have made this body stronger and faster than ever before, now you cannot hope to match it.”

Blueblood wasn’t entirely right though, he may have had Stranglethorn’s body, but he didn’t know how to use Strangle’s senses to their fullest. He couldn’t track us as easily as Stranglethorn could have, and he certainly couldn’t cast any detection spells, an alicorn he may have been, but he was still new to earth pony magic and it would take him time to truly master it. Pinkie Pie pulled off her mask and dropped it between us before pulling down her cowl and clutching the sides of her head in a clear panic.

“Pinkie Pie,” I moaned weakly, my voice muffled from what I could only imagine was a broken nose. “You have to knock him out, Blueblood can’t control him if he’s unconscious, that’s how… that’s how Strangle saved me.”

“Rarity…” Pinkie began, her voice sounding hopeless. “I don’t think I can, if I see an opening to… to finish him off, I might have to take it, we might not have any other choice.”

“We can still save him,” I insisted, not keeping my voice as low as I should have. “Just… please! Knock him unconscious, we can get him to Twilight and she can…”

Pinkie placed her hoof over my mouth and looked at me sadly.

“I’m sorry Rarity,” she said, and I know she meant it. “But we can’t let Blueblood control Stranglethorn; if we can’t save him… we can at least set him free.”

“I thought you didn’t kill ponies who didn’t deserve it,” I responded, my eyes welling up with tears.

Pinkie glanced away from me, lowered her hoof… then blinked away. I quickly scrambled up, ignoring the pain I felt as I pulled myself up over the marble wall so I could see down. Pinkie had already set into Stranglethorn by the time I was able to get a clear view, she had blinked in behind him, pulling her dagger free, and she was now going at him with both daggers after having recovered the other at some point, as well as delivering kicks and head-butts. She didn’t hold back in the slightest, showed no mercy in her attacks, Stranglethorn tried to keep up, but Pinkie was blinking more rapidly now, more than that, her body twisted and stretched around him and out of his reach. Stranglethorn was starting to look worried, or more accurately Blueblood was starting to feel worried, as Pinkie began breaking through his defences and landing blow after blow.

Stranglethorn was down to just one sword after Pinkie cut the hoof holding the other one, so that it was no longer capable of holding the blade. The real Stranglethorn would have found a way to carry on fighting, even after his other sword fell, he would have remained calm and found a way around his opponent, no matter how impossible the odds seemed. As Blueblood said however, he was in the driver seat now, and while he might have had Stranglethorn’s body, he would never have his years of experience or his skills.

Stranglethorn was cast to the ground, his body bloody and broken once more, although the wounds were attempting to heal even as Pinkie stood over him, pinning his legs beneath her own. I wanted to cry out, to beg her to stop as she raised her dagger, ready to bring it down and end the fight once and for all, but I couldn’t form the words. Instead I stared on helplessly, as Pinkie stared coldly down at Stranglethorn while he attempted to smile back at her.

“I was right,” Blueblood’s voice said calmly, not affected at all by the damage suffered by Stranglethorn. “You are no pony… well go on, finish it, kill your dear friend.”

Pinkie’s dagger had been shaking slightly, but now it was steady as she took a deep breath, mentally preparing herself for the final blow. Then in one swift motion, she brought the dagger thundering down… jamming it in the stone slab directly next to Stranglethorn’s head. I let out a huge breath I didn’t even know I was holding in, as I watched Pinkie step off Stranglethorn and start backing up from him, tossing her other dagger to the side.

“No…” she murmured in a strange voice. “I can’t do it… I won’t do it. You’re a monster Blueblood, but Stranglethorn is my friend, I won’t kill a pony that doesn’t deserve it, and I certainly won’t hurt my friends. That’s what I believe in… and I always try to stay true to my beliefs.”

Blueblood laughed harshly as Stranglethorn sat up, reaching around and pulling out Pinkie’s dagger from the ground next to him, his wounds almost fully healed.

“You’re a fool!” he declared, standing up and readying himself. “And now you’re a dead fool!”

Stranglethorn sprung forward, dagger raised, ready to plunge it down into Pinkie’s head… but then there was an explosion of light from Pinkie Pie. I raised my foreleg instinctively to shield my eyes, but found that I was unable to look away, while Stranglethorn was hurled back, the dagger clattering off to one side as he landed hard on his back. The incredible white light enveloped Pinkie, obscuring her from view, but I was able to see her outline as it rose off the ground. Just like Twilight, the light burst out from Pinkie, hovering around her in a holy frame, while Pinkie had a new addition to her outfit.

Pinkie still wore the red and blue striped harlequin outfit, complete with knee high leather boots, but now her forelegs were encased in silver gauntlets that glittered in the sunlight. The armour formed around her whole legs, two sky blue gems on the front of the hooves, in the shape of balloons, with two stoic looking pauldrons that covered her shoulders. Pinkie descended to the ground, still brimming with divine light, while Stranglethorn stared in horror at her.

“What is this?!” Blueblood screamed, although the quaver in his voice gave away that he knew all too well after Pivot.

“This is what conviction looks like,” Pinkie replied simply.

She reared up on her hind legs, bringing her forelegs apart before punching her hooves together. The clash of her Element sent out an overwhelming shockwave that swept over the street, washing over both Stranglethorn and myself. While I felt nothing but a deep warmth in my chest, I heard Bluebloods voice scream out in fury before being eclipsed. When all was over, I found a way down to where Pinkie Pie stood, looking over the unconscious and perfectly healthy looking body of Stranglethorn.

“You… you did it,” I said, smiling at her.

“Not quite,” Pinkie replied solemnly. “Blueblood’s still in his head, we need Twilight to pull him out.”

“Surely any mage here could do it,” I reasoned, but Pinkie shook her head.

“Maybe before, but Blueblood’s too powerful now,” Pinkie stated firmly. “Only Twilight with her Element of Knowledge can purge him now.”

“Wait, how did you know about her Element?” I asked, bewildered.

“These told me,” Pinkie explained, nodding down at her own Elements of Unity. “I can feel Twilight now with her own Element, it’s like we’re… connected.”

I noticed her smiling, but oddly she tried to suppress it, as if she was embarrassed about it, and the day Pinkie is embarrassed to smile is the day the world ends.

“So we need to do something with him,” Pinkie said quickly, regaining composure as she indicated Stranglethorn. “If he wakes up for even a second, Blueblood can take control again.”

“So just don’t let him wake up until you reach Cragsburg, and Twilight can take care of him,” I said simply.

“It took a lot of power just to knock him out,” Pinkie replied in an almost stern voice, I was most put off with this new serious attitude of hers. “It will take too much power to keep him in this state.”

“So what do you suggest?” I asked, before I saw the look on her face and got what she was trying to get at. “Wait… are you thinking of using chaos magic?”

“There is something I can do,” Pinkie confirmed with a nod. “But it’s up to you, if you don’t think it’s safe, we’ll find something else.”

“Well tell me what you’re thinking,” I suggested, a little worried where she was going with this.

“Do you remember what I told you after I first revealed my true nature?” Pinkie asked, before outright telling me. “I said that to open a door to the chaos world, would require more power than I had… well, that was before I got these shiny new gauntlets.”

“You mean… now you would have enough power?” I questioned, to which she nodded. “But what use would that be?”

“Well…” Pinkie began carefully. “If we placed Stranglethorn inside the chaos world, it would sort of sever Blueblood’s connection with him, he wouldn’t be able to take direct control of Stranglethorn while he’s in there. Stranglethorn could stay in there as long as it would take to reach Twilight, but the part of Blueblood inside his mind should protect him from the damaging effects of exposure to chaos magic.”

“Right, so what’s the bad news?” I asked, knowing there had to be some bad news.

“Well, when the time came to purge him,” Pinkie explained. “Somepony would have to go in and bring him out, and the world of chaos can be… a very dangerous place.”

“And you can’t be the one to go in after him?” I asked, guessing the answer would be no.

“I… can’t go over to that world,” Pinkie said awkwardly. “It would have… undesirable consequences.”

“I see,” I replied, although I didn’t understand in the slightest what she could mean, but nor did I really want to find out. “In that case… do whatever you have to do, when the time comes to bring him back to us, I’ll do it myself if I have to.”

Pinkie opened her mouth briefly, as if about to ask if I was sure, but then she closed it when she saw the determination in my eyes.

“Alright,” she said calmly, turning to where the body of Stranglethorn lay. “Let’s make some chaos.”

LXXVI - The Heart Of Compassion

“We just want to hear your perspective on it,” Hex said calmly, from behind the circular desk in the University room. “Then we can finalise our decision.”

I glanced at Pinkie, who just sighed and rolled her eyes. It was getting late and we needed to be on the move, all this bureaucracy was just wasting time.

“It’s exactly as you’ve heard already,” I stated firmly, my voice still slightly muffled from my injury, that had only just been patched up. “By the time the centipede was dead and your mages were able to come to our aid… it was too late. We went up to the vault and Nefarious was dead, they were all dead… and the books were gone.”

“You said that your earth pony friend…” the wizened stallion began. “That is to say, your other earth pony friend, betrayed you, that is why you did not attempt to stop Blueblood?”

“He did not betray us,” I bit back, trying to reign in my temper. “Blueblood was controlling him; we couldn’t have gone after Blueblood even if we tried.”

“That’s quite alright dear,” Diaboli assured me kindly, her eyes flashing towards the other stallion briefly. “We understand you were put in a difficult situation, where is your friend now.”

“He’s in a safe place,” Pinkie replied simply. “And he’ll stay there until we can get him the help he needs.”

“Very well, we shall not pry,” Diaboli went on, giving an understanding nod. “Well, you’ll be pleased to hear that after great deliberation, we have reached a decision.”

I tensed up that, this would be the moment that decided whether this whole ordeal would be worth it or not.

“It is clear to us,” she continued, before casting a glare around some of her peers. “To all of us, that Arclight cannot afford to stay neutral during this conflict. The theft of Starswirl’s grimoire alone is enough reason for us to offer our assistance, but we understand how important it is, that for Panchea to survive this we must all stand together. You’ve done our city a great service by helping to defeat the invaders, we will show our gratitude to you and the Rebellion by offering our Battlemages to your army, may they help see us all through these dark times.”

“Thank you very much,” I responded gratefully, giving a polite bow of my head.

“I will be representing the council and lead our forces north personally,” Hex added. “The task should have fallen to Nefarious, but… I was once his second in command before I joined this council, for this fight, I will take up the role again.”

“That means you get to travel with me!” Pinkie declared happily, before deflating slightly. “Unless I’m still under arrest.”

The mare, Oculus opened her mouth, ready to respond, but was quickly beaten to the punch by Diaboli.

“Let’s say you’re on probation,” she answered. “After all, we can’t afford to be locking capable fighters like you up, not at a critical time like this.”

“Sweet!” Pinkie exclaimed, grinning widely, despite the displeased looks on so many faces.

“If that is everything,” I began. “I need to get moving, it’s a long road south, and we don’t have much time.”

“I’ll see you out,” Hex offered, standing up and making his way around the table, while Pinkie and I made our way over to the doors.

As we exited, I quickly smiled back at Diaboli, who returned the gesture before the doors closed behind us. We made our way outside the University without much word, only speaking once we were walking through the campus grounds. The citizens were already returning to their homes, the defensive shields taken down, while the police patrolled the streets and the Battlemages searched the sewers, eliminating any stray abominations that had escaped the slaughter.

“We really do owe you,” Hex began, as we walked around the statue of Starswirl the Bearded. “It takes a lot of guts to march right into the enemies' lair like you did… it takes even more skill to walk back out.”

“It wasn’t a complete victory,” I reminded him, feeling a pang of sadness in my chest. “Blueblood got what he came for, and Stranglethorn…”

“I know it’s hard to see at the moment,” Hex admitted. “But before you destroyed that… hive mind, did you call it? Before you destroyed it, those monsters were very close to overwhelming us, I don’t think we would have held out much longer. It’s a terrible tragedy what happened to your friend, and as for Nefarious… well, our forces are united as one once more, we’ll stop Blueblood and make sure his death wasn’t in vain. But besides some damage to the Selene Promenade, you really did save this city, and it’s important to remember that, all these ponies are alive and have homes and families to go back to because of how you helped us.

“This will be a turning point for us,” we went on, sounding confident. “Before long, we might even see the Arcane Order fading into the realms of history, then this country can be whole. Perhaps someday we’ll be able to undo the damage Arcana did after he rose to power; Arclight can be a beacon of knowledge and learning to all, and not of oppression and intolerance.”

“I’m glad there are some ponies like you and Diaboli on the council who want to make that change,” I told him, as we walked the city streets, bathed in the glow of the setting sun.

“Well, to an outsider it may have looked like Arcana had the support of the citizens,” Hex began, gesturing to the ponies who bore genuine smiles, as opposed to the wide, fixed grins they wore on my first visit. “The truth was, most ponies knew that what the Arcane Order stood for was wrong, those that didn’t were usually deceived to it’s true intentions or bribed into supporting it. Arcana transformed the old guard into the police force you see now, but he gave them too much power, putting his friends and corrupt individuals in positions of authority, so he could use the police to keep the city in a constant state of fear.

“The mind reading was especially troublesome and worrying for the average pony,” he continued. “hence why it was one of the first things we put limits on upon the formation of the council. Actually, it was only with Arcana’s death that rational ponies like Diaboli and me could rise to power and start fixing things. I guess what I’m trying to say is, I actually appreciate what you did when you killed him, I know that must sound like a horrible thing to say, but I genuinely believe it was for the good of Arclight that you put a stop to him.”

“Well, well Pinkie,” I said in an amused tone. “If there was ever any doubt before, there’s clear proof, Arcana deserved to die. You heard it right from the horse’s mouth; you never had to feel guilty after all.”

“Oh, I’ve never been so glad to have murdered somepony!” Pinkie declared loudly, drawing a lot of disturbed looks from passer-bys.

“Well yes,” Hex said slightly nervously, walking briskly before anypony could question that exclamation. “When all this is over, I’m probably expected to bring you back in to face charges, but if you were to just… not come back with me, I could always say you ran away and we couldn’t find you.”

“Aw, thanks Hexy!” Pinkie cooed, pulling him into a tight hug.

We reached the gate where a number of police ponies were gathered; I wondered if they were maybe the same ones we first met upon entering. They all had their masks off and were talking joyfully to one another, looking deeply relieved to still be alive by the sounds of it.

“You’re going to… Port Mule next?” Hex asked as we stopped just under the tall archway, I nodded in response. “Good luck with those guys, I haven’t had any dealings with the Liberators, but from what I hear, they’re a dangerous bunch.”

“It’ll be fine,” I assured him. “I’m well acquainted with their leader.”

“Alright, well in that case I’ll leave you to it,” Hex said with a curt nod. “I’ll no doubt see you in Cragsburg, we’ll start making preparations tonight and hopefully set off tomorrow. Thank you once again for all your help, and I wish you all the best in your travels.”

I said farewell and he walked a short distance away, giving Pinkie and I some space to say goodbye. The first thing she did was pull me into one of her usual hugs, which felt even stronger than ever as she wore her silver gauntlets, I was sure my eyes were going to pop right out of my skull if she continued to squeeze me for any longer than she did.

“I’m gonna miss you,” she said, almost whining.

“I’ll be fine,” I promised her. “It’s you I’m more worried about…”

“Because of the battle at Cragsburg?” Pinkie questioned.

“No, because of Sufferthorn,” I elaborated. “I have no idea how she’ll take the news, so just breach it to her gently… actually, it might be a good idea to tell Twilight first and have her tell Sufferthorn.”

“Can do,” Pinkie replied with a novel salute. “Do you want us to go ahead and purge him as soon as I see Twilight?”

“I’m not sure,” I admitted. “You both need to be ready for action when Applejack is ready to make her move on the inside, it might be better to focus on the siege and wait until all six of us are together again, that way the rest of us can take over managing the fight.”

“Alright,” Pinkie replied. “In that case, you hurry on and see Flutters, make sure none of those nasty Liberators are bullying her.”

“I will,” I responded. “You go join up with Twilight. With the Rebels and the Battlemages, we already have a pretty good force… for Cragsburg at least, we still have a long way to go if we hope to stand a chance against Blueblood.”

With our farewells said, Pinkie Pie went back to Hex while I set off down the road towards Dolor. I thought about the Elements of Unity, we now had two, and so close together, it could hardly be a coincidence, but then it didn’t exactly qualify as a pattern yet either. I would be keen to see if the theme continued with Fluttershy at Port Mule, if it did… well we might end up standing an even greater chance against Blueblood when the time came to face off. It was around midnight when I reached Dolor; I let myself into the safe house, checking the latch as always, so my adventure didn’t end prematurely. I allowed myself only a few hours’ sleep, forcing myself to get up before the sun had even risen, to start walking.

My route was a familiar one as I started south, it being the very one Pinkie Pie and I had taken when we first properly met. It would take me almost two days to walk as far as Sweet Apple Acres, arriving there late on the second evening. From there it was a straight journey to Port Mule, which might be expedited if I could get a lift from Applejack’s family. Leaving the forest behind me, I retraced our hoofsteps along the river, until I came to the bridge that we would have crossed when heading towards Pivot, going the opposite direction, straight to Applejack’s homestead. The weather was already turning on me as I hurried up the lane to the cluster of farm houses, a light drizzle starting to splash down.

It felt odd to be back, I had completely lost track of time, so it felt strange to think that it had been more than a month ago the last time I was there, yet it felt like no time at all. I felt a pang of guilt as I walked through the empty yard towards the farmhouse, noticing the lights were on inside, I had promised them all I would return. Return I did, but I had taken my time about it, they probably thought something awful had happened in the intervening time, and that wasn’t even mentioning the few weeks since Applejack had last been there. If they were worried about me at all, it would be nothing compared to how much they would be fretting over her absence.

Knocking on the door, I waited, my heart beating rapidly as I heard rushing hoofsteps on the other side. The door cracked open and I instantly made out the sound of Granny Smith’s voice.

“Don’t go gettin’ excited,” she warned from the other room. “You’ll only be upset when it turns out to be another sales p…”

“Rarity!” Applebloom exclaimed, as she saw me standing beyond the threshold, cutting off her grandmother.

Within moments, the whole house was rushing about, coming to see me for themselves, bustling me into the sitting room and bombarding me with questions. My head was absolutely spinning, I didn’t know where to begin, I was most thankful for when Big Mac silenced everypony else with a surprisingly loud and authoritative voice.

“Applejack is fine,” I started, knowing that was the most pressing concern for the majority of ponies in the room. “She wanted me to say sorry for how she ran off without sending word, but that she’s okay and you don’t have to worry about her.”

Big Mac, Braeburn and Caramel all let out sighs of relief, Granny Smith just rolled her eyes, but Applebloom didn’t look satisfied with that answer.

“Ah don’t understand,” she said, her voice quavering slightly. “We went up to Pivot to look for her, but she was just gone. Why did she leave without sayin’ goodbye?”

I bit my lip as I looked around the Apple family, Grass Snake and her girls, and Scootaloo who were all gathered, watching me expectantly. Applejack had asked me to stop in and assure them she was fine when I travelled down this way, but she hadn’t said anything about telling them the truth of the situation or keeping it a secret. In the end I took the honest option, knowing Applejack would never be anything less than upfront with her family if she was here.

“The truth is,” I began in a calm voice. “A lot of things have been going on this last while. We ran into Applejack back in Pivot, we would have come straight back here together but… there was trouble up north, she offered to come help us, and things only spiralled out of our hooves from there. Now… I don’t know how to tell you this, but I’m afraid that soon… the country will be thrown into another war.”

The room was filled with the sound of gasps; all the ponies gathered staring at me in shock and disbelief.

“Another war?” Grass Snake repeated, looking to her girls with a terrified look.

“Between who?!” Caramel questioned. “Why?!”

“Where is Applejack now?” Big Mac asked firmly.

“Applejack has gone to Cragsburg,” I told them. “That is where the battle is going to take place, and she’s gone there to help.”

“Ah’m gonna go help her,” Big Mac said simply, turning around on the spot and marching towards the door.

“Big Mac, wait a moment!” I called out in a commanding tone, that, to my surprise, actually got him to stop and look back at me. “I know you want to protect your sister, and I won’t stop you from going, but you need to know what you’re walking into. This battle… it’s not going to be against Equestria or some local faction… it’s not even going to be against ponies.”

“What do you mean?” Braeburn asked, sounding like he didn’t really want to know the answer.

“In this war… we’re fighting monsters,” I announced. “An army of abominations, a warship that could level Canterlot… and an alicorn who will use it all to wipe out anything that gets in his way.”

There was a stunned silence following my declaration, as the household tried to absorb the insane information I had just presented them with, clearly having some trouble with it, judging by the disbelieving looks on their faces. Big Mac just stared blankly at me, before shrugging his shoulders slightly.

“Fair enough,” he muttered. “Ah’ll buck them all off the face of this earth.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at that, shaking my head in mild amusement.

“I don’t doubt it,” I replied wearily. “But right now I need you to slow down and listen to me. This battle is not going to be won by any one pony; it’s going to take the combined efforts of everyone for us to stand a chance against this threat. We’ve already rallied the Rebellion and the Arcane Order to our cause, they’re on the move to Cragsburg to help Applejack in retaking the city as we speak, but we still need the Liberators if our defence is going to mean anything.”

“Those nut jobs in Mule?” Mac questioned. “If you say so, but what do you need me for?”

“I need a ride.”

Scootaloo started sniggering, trying to stifle it behind her hooves, even as Applebloom looked at her, raising her eyebrow in confusion.

“Not like that,” I specified in a deadpan voice. “It’s a really long story, but we managed to buy ourselves sometime. This alicorn, Blueblood, he’s preparing his own army in the Ash Lands, and we only have until he’s ready to start marching south, to make our own preparations. I don’t have a great deal of time to gather the remaining factions together, I can’t afford to waste any of it walking between the cities all the time. That’s why I need you to get me to Mule as quickly as you can, after that, you can go to Cragsburg if you wish and I’ll find my own way.”

Big Mac mulled it over for a moment, before giving me a firm nod.

“Eyup,” he stated, turing once more to the front door.

“Enope!” Granny Smith interrupted, drawing all eyes to her. “Ah’m sorry, but there ain’t no way ah’m lettin’ either of you go runnin’ off this late. You’ll get fed and rested, and wait until mornin’ before ah let you out of mah sight.”

“Now Granny…” Big Mac tried to say, only to be cut off.

“'Now Granny' nothin’ mister,” she said flatly, making it clear it wasn’t an option. “Besides, it ain’t for your benefit…”

She turned to look at me, her surprisingly sharp eyes looking me up and down.

“You haven’t had a proper rest in days by the looks of ya,” she accused. “Probably haven’t eaten that much either, you’re practically nothin’ but bones!”

“I’m, uh, really quite fine,” I tried to tell her.

It was true, I had long since gotten used to short sleeps and small rations scattered throughout the day, and if I had lost a little weight because of it… well that was just a win-win, wasn’t it?

“And then what happens when you keel over and can’t pick yourself back up?” Granny pushed. “What good will you be to anypony then? You ain’t leavin’ mah sight until ah’m satisfied you can look after yourself, and when you see mah reckless granddaughter, you make sure she’s doin’ the same, you hear? And as for you sonny, you take her on down to Mule tomorrow, but then you come straight back here. Ah won’t have you rushin’ off to war without a well-stocked cart, is that all understood?”

“Yes Granny Smith,” Big Mac and I droned in unison.

“That’s what ah like to hear,” Granny went on, looking to all the fillies in the room. “Now come on girls, we’re gonna rustle up some food for our guest.”

The fillies all hurried into the kitchen after her, Scootaloo lagging behind slightly to cast me a worried glanc,e before Applebloom pulled her along. That left Big Mac to collapse into one of the sofas while Caramel, Braeburn and Grass snake looked between us with varying degrees of concern.

“So, um…” Braeburn began awkwardly, looking to Big Mac. “Should we…”

“Enope,” Big Mac replied simply. “You two need to stay here and look after the farm, can’t expect the fillies to do all the work.”

“Sounds good to me,” Caramel said quickly, smiling over at Grass Snake who was sitting directly next to him.

She smiled back before placing her hoof on his knee in an… affectionate manner.

“Um…” I began, quirking an eyebrow. “Have I missed much?”

The rest of the night progressed rather pleasantly; it was almost like the old days when Sweet Apple Acres was starting to look like it might become my second home. We ate and chatted and generally enjoyed what felt, to me, like the last normal night of our lives. Grass Snake and Caramel told me about their budding relationship, which made things a little complicated considering he shared his name with one of the fillies. Grass Snake’s three fillies told me about how they had adjusted to life on the farm and were now enjoying it quite a bit, Pixie Dust and Emerald both coping considerably better after their traumatic event.

Scootaloo and Applebloom regaled me with tales of how they tried to get their cutie marks through a succession of adventurous and ridiculous methods, that made the other adults groan and roll their eyes. In return, I told them the greatly abridged version of my own adventures, keeping the dark and violence to a minimum so as not to worry them, while putting a little extra emphasis on Applejack’s own deeds. After a while, Granny Smith was ushering me off to bed though, while I didn’t object, the girls were all quite vocal about their displeasure, as they were quite drawn into my stories.

I was allowed to stay in Applejack’s own room, I found Winona snoozing on her bed next to her dusty brown Stetson. I scratched her gently behind the ears before undressing and sliding into the bed, carefully so as not to disturb her. She was such a nice dog, although I could tell she missed Applejack greatly by her proximity to the hat that must carry her scent so strongly. She ended up acting as my alarm clock, waking me up when she started scratching at the door to be let out, no doubt needing to do her business outside. Once I was up, I decided it would be better just to stay up and get ready to set off, giving my clothes a quick clean and mend while Big Mac got up and readied the cart for travel.

It was shortly after sunrise when we were ready to set off, I was just about to mount the cart when I heard the rushing of hoofsteps. Looking around, I saw Applebloom and Scootaloo sprinting up to us from the front door.

“Here to say goodbye?” I asked, smiling down at them.

“Nope!” they both replied, grinning widely up at me.

“We’re gonna come with you!” Applebloom declared.

“I’m sorry, what?” I uttered, sure I had misheard.

“We’re going to help you,” Scootaloo insisted. “We can be, like, your sidekicks, when you’re off adventuring and helping to save the world!”

“What… but… no!” I stammered. “You girls can’t come with me, it’s far too dangerous.”

“But you said to win this war, you needed everypony,” Scootaloo reminded me, as both her and Applebloom adopting the huge puppy dog eyes that Sweetie Belle always used so expertly against me.

“We can help,” Applebloom tried to tell me. “We can fight! We can…”

“Absolutely not,” Big Mac said sternly, walking up behind them.

“But…” Applebloom attempted only to be silenced by her older brother.

“Enope,” he stated just as flatly. “No ‘buts’, you two are gonna stay put on this farm and let the grownups handle this.”

“Would you just listen to…” Applebloom tried to say, before Scootaloo nudged her hard in the ribs, shooting her an odd look.

“You’re right,” Scootaloo agreed with a huge, exaggerated sigh. “We’ll just stay here and wait for you to come back. Right Applebloom?”

“Oh, uh, sure,” Applebloom said quickly, nodding rapidly. “You can trust us.”

“I’m sure,” I grumbled to myself as I climbed onto the cart. “In all seriousness girls, please don’t do anything foolish. Just stay here and… and I promise we’ll see each other again someday.”

They both looked up at me with genuine sadness as Big Mac hitched himself up.

“Tell Applejack ah lo…” Applebloom began before cutting off. “That ah miss her… just tell her to come home.”

“I will,” I swore.

“And you too,” Scootaloo added. “Just, uh… be safe.”

I nodded, before giving the green light to Big Mac to start pulling. As he did, and we very quickly started moving down the lane, the two fillies waved goodbye to me, while beyond them the rest of the family did the same from the front of the house. Big Mac made me proud, pulling the cart faster and for longer than any other transporter could, I could just see the determination etched into his face, pushing him on no matter how tiring it would get, or how heavy the rain fell. I knew even after he dropped me off, he would turn right back without rest, stop at Sweet Apple Acres to appease his grandmother, before pressing forward until he was at Cragsburg.

He got us to the bridge by late afternoon, marching right past the hut where I first met Spoon Bender, even as a pony in black armour hurried out, calling after us to come back. It was very late in the day when Port Mule came into view, the sun was brushing the canopy of the forest to the west, but it still cast enough light for us to see what was going on just outside the city walls. There were a huge number of tents set up, clustered quite close to one another, and stretching out for quite some distance from the western gate. I could make out Liberator standards dotted around the campsite, which made it clear these were their temporary accommodations following the destruction of the fort.

“This should be close enough,” I told Big Mac as we stopped to survey the camp. “I don’t know how hostile they’re going to be, it would probably be easier for you to leave now rather than get held up.”

“You sure?” Big Mac asked, his face twisting.

I could tell he was torn between his eagerness to find his sister, as well as his sense of duty to stay and help me. I was touched by it, but I knew I’d be alright, and I couldn’t ask him to do any more.

“Yeah,” I replied, jumping off the cart. “You should go on; I’ll see you when I get to Cragsburg.”

Big Mac nodded, still looking conflicted as he turned himself around and started off in the opposite direction, back the way we had come from. I turned my own attention back down to the camp and the city just beyond it, taking a breath before starting towards it. It didn’t take long to close the last distance between myself and my destination, but by the time I got there, the light was dwindling. Althoguh the rain was also starting to ease up, which was a small benefit. Once I reached the edge of the camp and walked right on in, nopony even attempting to stop me or even paying me the slightest bit of attention, I set about looking for Fluttershy.

It shouldn’t have been hard to find white amidst all the black, and indeed it really wasn’t. I saw her soon enough, darting about, trying desperately to get the attention of any one pony. However, her meek voice was barely audible over the raucous noise of the soldiers, and she was finding it impossible to get anypony to take notice of her.

“Excuse me, Miss?” she would say to a passing pony. “If it’s not too much trouble… oh, but maybe it is. That’s fine, I’ll just…”

Then she would slowly turn mute before moving on to somepony else.

“Um, sir,” she began, slightly louder this time. “I need to talk to you about something very important… oh, that looks very important too. Well I’ll just let you get on with it and maybe come back later?”

Naturally the stallion didn’t reply, mainly because he never knew he was being spoken to in the first place. Fluttershy was already slinking away, a defeated look on her face as she tried to muster the courage to try again, that was when I decided to step in and help her out.

“Fluttershy,” I greeted warmly.

She spun around, a look of relief washing over her face as she hurried over to me.

“Oh, Rarity…” she moaned, burying her face into my chest. “I’m so sorry; I couldn’t get anypony to listen to me. I tried to explain the situation to the big boss, but he just told me I was being ridiculous, and then when I mentioned you…”

“Okay, slow down a second,” I instructed.

“Sorry,” she said quickly, looking down at her hooves.

“And stop apologising,” I chastised. “Now tell me again, you spoke to Typhoon, correct? But Typhoon didn’t believe you.”

“Yes,” she confirmed. “I’ve tried speaking to him again since, but after the third visit, his guards stopped letting me through. I’ve been trying to tell other ponies, I hoped that if I got the word out… maybe it would start a bit of a panic and he would have to take notice.”

“Well that’s a fair idea,” I told her. “But don’t worry, I’m here now, and together we’ll go convince Typhoon. I don’t care if we have to literally hammer it into his head…”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Fluttershy murmured in a worried tone. “He really wasn’t happy when I mentioned you.”

“I’m not surprised,” I admitted. “But I can’t hide from him, if we’re going to be on the same side, we need to get our… issues sorted out once and for all. Now, take me to where he’s at, I’ll fill you in on what’s happened along the way.”

Needless to say, Fluttershy was distraught at the news of attacks on both Pivot and Arclight, relieved by the final positive verdicts in both cases, worried that Port Mule might also see itself under assault of monsters, and saddened by the news of Stranglethorn. She even seemed mournful for Maverick… although not nearly as much as Stranglethorn, who wasn’t even dead, and she certainly didn’t dwell on it for too long. We marched through the camp and into the city via the eastern gates, once again, nopony stopped us or even bothered to ask what our business was, it was clear the Liberators had grown complacent since the loss of the Fort.

Being so late at night, the streets were relatively deserted, which made navigating to the Defence District easy. It was there in the courtyard that we found the officers tents and makeshift housing. Beyond them, there was clear evidence of construction work taking place where the Fort used to be, although the workers were all gone for the night. By the looks of it, they were still digging through the rubble and working on the foundations before they even dared start rebuilding. It was easy enough to find Typhoon’s tent, it was the largest after all, with two Liberator standards posted on either side of the entrance flaps, a soldier standing with their back to each of the banners, looking considerably more vigilant than any of the others we had passed by.

The two guards glanced at each other as they saw us approach, one of them wasn’t wearing a helmet, so I could see her rolling her eyes, no doubt because of Fluttershy insisting on returning, they probably didn’t even remember who I was.

“Before you start,” the Liberator with the helmet on began. “No… just, no. We’ve made it very clear that you are not to be bothering the Commander any more with your tall tales.”

“But I was telling the truth!” Fluttershy tried to say, before I placed a hoof on her shoulder and gave her a sympathetic smile.

“Would you two be kind enough to let Typhoon know we wish to speak to him?” I asked in a sweet tone, with the slightest undercurrent of threat.

“And why should we do that?” the other mare questioned as they both drew their swords.

“Because Rarity is telling you to,” I answered loudly, satisfied when I heard the sound of rushing coming from within the tent.

The two guards barely had a moments warning before Typhoon came bursting from his tent, quickly followed by a pair of panicking officers, who he must have been in the middle of a meeting with. Typhoon was exactly as I remembered him, same old military uniform adorned with medals, same old reddish brown fur that only covered half of his face, the other half a scorched mess. which despite looking better than the last time I had seen him, still managed to make me cringe.

“I just can’t be rid of you,” he growled, reaching instinctively for his weapon, only to find he wasn’t carrying one.

“Typhoon, don’t,” I began in a calm voice, even as he wrenched the sword out of one of the guards hooves. “We’re here to negotiate.”

“Negotiate?” Typhoon repeated as he started stepping closer, Fluttershy began backing away, but I stood stock still. “The last time you wanted to negotiate, you tried to kill me. Not the first time you’ve tried to kill me, I might add.”

“I already told you, I was under the control of another,” I reminded him, as he walked up mere inches from me and I had to crane my neck to look him in the eye. “And even if you think that sounds silly, why would Stranglethorn not have killed you himself before taking me from your office? Why did I warn you he was there in the first place? The answer is obvious; you just don’t want to accept it. We are not your enemies; I would have thought that was clear when I tried to warn you about the bombs… which needless to say, turned out to be a very real threat to your life.”

Typhoon screwed up his face at me as he tried to think of a response, or at least he screwed up half of his face. A number of ponies had come out of their own tents and were gathering around us in a circle to watch what was going on.

“Please sir,” Fluttershy began, tearing Typhoon’s attention away from me. “We really do need your help.”

“What is the deal with this mare?” Typhoon demanded, looking back at me. “She came here claiming to be a Sister from the Bask, but no sister leaves the Bask, so who is she really?”

“She is exactly who she says,” I replied simply. “She was given special permission by High Priestess Starlight Glimmer to leave the Bask and travel with me.”

Typhoon’s good eye twitched, the name drop certainly helped to convince him what I was saying was true, and that made him realise he had been treating an actual member of the Celestial Sisterhood with a great deal of disrespect.

“She came here, ranting and raving about monsters,” Typhoon went on. “Stuff about an alicorn and a battle at Cragsburg.”

“Again, all true,” I reported, making sure to speak clearly enough for everypony to hear me. “There was a group called the Covenant, they were obsessed with transforming themselves into alicorns. They succeeded through some rather… unspeakable methods, but they were taken over by a stallion named Blueblood. Blueblood was once a Duke of Equestria, but he betrayed them by forming the group known as the Solar Empire, the very same group responsible for blowing up Fort Mule and controlling me to assassinate you.”

“An Equestrian was behind this?!” Typhoon exclaimed, clearly having a bad case of selective hearing. “This is all the proof I need that Celestia is the tyrant I’ve been saying she is!”

“Weren’t you listening?!” I shouted back at him.

“Princess Celestia isn’t responsible for this,” Fluttershy insisted. “Blueblood went behind her back, but when she found out about what he was doing, she sent somepony to help stop him.”

“And she also never wanted to go to war with us,” I added quickly. “She wanted to meet your demands for independence from the very beginning, but she was being undermined… and so were you. You were betrayed by Arcana, both he and Blueblood were working with the Covenant to ignite the war so they could use it as cover for carrying out their experiments.”

That declaration sparked a lot of curious murmuring among the gathered ponies; Typhoon himself had stumbled back from me slightly, reeling from what we were telling him.

“This… this can’t be!” he stammered, refusing to believe that he could have been wrong this whole time.

“The Princess isn’t your enemy any more than we are,” Fluttershy told him. “You can have your independence and the fighting can come to an end… but none of that will matter if we don’t stop Blueblood.”

“Blueblood is in the Ash Lands,” I went on. “He is building his strength, both with an army of abominations created by the Covenant… and a Dreadnaught.”

“What?!” Typhoon hissed, his eyes flashing. “Impossible.”

“Quite possible I’m afraid,” I retorted. “Arcana made copies of all Cogs’ research material before he fired him. Blueblood has a fully operational Dreadnaught, and it’s even bigger than the one you were working on.”

“Well then what is your brilliant plan for stopping that?!” Typhoon spat. “If what you’re saying is true, then why shouldn’t we just start waving our white flags now? The Dreadnaught was designed to be the ultimate weapon of war, there is nothing that can stop it… it was just a fluke when you did.”

“Don’t worry about the Dreadnaught,” I assured him. “Cogs is working on something new that can counter it, but we still need an army if we’re going to stand any chance against Blueblood’s own when the time comes.”

“And that’s why you need me,” Typhoon said coldly, nodding slightly.

“We already have the Rebellion and the Arcane Order agreeing to work together,” Fluttershy told him. “Both their forces are going to Cragsburg now; we need to free it from the Children of the Earth before Blueblood makes his move.”

“That just leaves you and the Dragoons,” I said finally. “And we’ll almost certainly get them to join us, but we still need the Liberators. This isn’t going to work unless we all stand together as one force, fighting for the singular cause of preserving Panchea and all who live in it.”

The muttering from the gathered soldiers and officers sounded encouraging, they all seemed to be swayed by our words, but Typhoon still regarded me with contempt.

“This is all sounds… impossible to believe,” he stated in a sour voice.

“Maybe, but it is true whether you believe it or not,” I replied. “And it’s also true that Blueblood is coming whether we like it or not, the question is, if you’ll help us stop him at the first hurdle… or will you let us perish, only to be left all alone when he comes here after you?”

Typhoon didn’t respond for the longest time, his eyes flickered between me, Fluttershy and his subordinates.

“I did say you and I would always be enemies,” he reminded me in a cool voice.

“Alright, look,” I began with a frustrated sigh. “I had a feeling you wouldn’t make this easy for us… or even for your own ponies, but I came up with a way of settling this, that I think you might like. You appreciate displays of strength; you’re a bit like the Dragoons in that way, only you don’t govern by it, which is commendable. So here’s what we’ll do, to settle this between us once and for all… you and me, first one to yield or die, loses.”

“Rarity, no!” Fluttershy screamed, but I held up my hoof to silence her.

“If I win, you join our cause,” I went on. “If you win… well, I guess you’ll finally be rid of me.”

I held out my hoof to close the deal, everypony was dead silent as they waited for Typhoon to make up his mind. For the longest time, he just stared at me, as if he was trying to figure me out, trying to decide what he should do, until finally…

“Deal,” he said simply.

He reached out and placed his hoof against my own and we shook on it, sealing the deal. I gave him my sweetest smile possible as we shook… before I gripped his hoof hard and pulled myself in close. Typhoon tried to react to whatever it was I was doing, but he wasn’t fast enough for a change, and before he could bring his sword up to meet me, I kicked out hard between his legs. That uniform, as stylish and, dare I say, sexy as it is, offered very little protection for poor Typhoon’s crown jewels. My hoof connected sharply, and I heard Typhoon’s lungs empty as he let out a long, pained wheeze, his sword clanging to the ground as his whole body seized up.

When I drew back the leg I kicked with and let go of his outstretched hoof, I took a small step back, to watch as he collapsed to his knees, his eyes wide and his mouth agape, a strained noise leaking out of it. My smile turned from sweet to downright evil as I observed my handiwork, all before leaning down to look him directly in the eye.

“Yield?”

Fluttershy and I hadn’t gotten much sleep, it had already been late when we had our encounter with Typhoon, and we ended up staying up for a couple more hours while we finalised our plan for moving the Liberator army north, as well as giving Typhoon instructions for where exactly to go and who to report to. Ordinarily I left those details to Twilight Sparkle or Pinkie Pie, but since Fluttershy would not be travelling with the Liberators herself, we thought it better to get it all ironed out before I moved on. Typhoon provided us with a tent for the remainder of the night, where we retired to while he saw to instructing those who would stay and take charge of Port Mule.

I wanted to get to sleep right away, but Fluttershy insisted on taking the time to properly treat my damaged muzzle, and truth be told I was very glad she had pressured me, as it hurt considerably more than I was letting on. After we received our paltry few hours’ sleep, we were up and ready to go, saying our final farewells to Typhoon before we set off for the eastern city gate. I wasn’t surprised that Typhoon had his soldiers whipped into shape and ready to march north in the space of a single night. Indeed I was quite pleased, and it reminded me why I was so eager to have somepony with his many years of experience in our chain of command.

After winning our challenge, Typhoon seemed to have gone through a pain induced personality shift, which certainly made our new partnership a lot easier on the both of us. I was reminded of how his attitude shifted after I turned myself in to first negotiate with him, like he had new-found respect for me, and was satisfied to treat me as an equal… although I also noticed he kept his hind legs squeezed awfully tight any time I came near, but that might have been subconscious. Fluttershy had chastised me for it afterwards, but even she was able to laugh with me about in retrospect as we made our way through the once again bustling city of Port Mule, to the exit that would set us on the path to the Bask.

The gate was in view when we were stopped; when I was convinced somepony was shouting my name from nearby. I turned and started looking about, trying to see if there were any familiar faces among the crowd of ponies going about their daily business. It wasn’t until I noticed six rather burly stallions marching towards me, all wearing leather armour and armed with a variety of weapons. My immediate reaction was to begin drawing my own sword, before I recognised the face of one of them.

“Hammerhead?” I questioned, quickly pushing my sword back into its sheath as I led Fluttershy over them. “Uh… wow, what were the chances of running into you guys here?”

“Not high I imagine,” Hammerhead replied in that soft voice I recalled so well, he was glancing curiously between the both of us. “Although you did say you live here, didn’t you?”

“Well I’m usually on the move,” I admitted. “My friend and I are just on the way to the Bask.”

“The Bask?” Hammerhead repeated glancing back at his friends. “Well, we’re in the area looking for work, if you wanted to, we could give you a ride.”

“That would actually be wonderful,” I admitted in a relieved tone. “The last time I made the journey, we were attacked by bandits… oh, darn. I’m sorry, but I don’t have any money on me.”

“Oh,” Hammerhead uttered, biting his lip as he glanced back at his men who could only return apologetic looks and shrugs.

“It’s okay,” Fluttershy jumped in, reaching into her bag. “I have some money here.”

“Where did you get all that?!” I exclaimed, my eyes wide with amazement as I looked at the heavy bag of coins Fluttershy produced.

“Well, um, you see, the thing is…” Fluttershy stammered nervously. “When I was travelling through the Sanguine Grove, a friendly ferret led me to this fallen tree. It had a ring of thorns carved into it and a lockbox inside which contained… it’s not stealing if it was just abandoned, right?!”

I exchanged a look with Hammerhead; he definitely seemed to pick up on what Fluttershy was talking about, and remembered what had happened during our own travel together.

“Well, I guess we can pay you fine gentlecolts after all,” I told them. “And if it’s not too much trouble… we need to get there fast.”

Hammerhead and his friends weren’t nearly as fast as Big Mac had been, even when they switched around, so none of them would be pulling us on the cart for too long. The Bask wouldn’t come into view until the following morning, that meant stopping for the night on the road, and taking it in shifts to sleep or keep lookout for any unsavoury sorts lurking about. When we started travelling, Hammerhead had been eager to hear what I had been up to since we had parted ways in Pivot all those months ago, he probably thought I would tell him some nice stories about going home and trying to kick-start my old business back into life.

Needless to say, neither him nor his companions were prepared for the truth, all quite blown away by the selection of stories I shared with them. It wasn’t until we stopped for the night and we took an hour to just sit and talk, that I got into the most recent events, and why we were actually in the neighbourhood. It certainly wasn’t the reunion I had had in mind, less drinking and laughing and more… grim silences following harrowing revelations. Hammerhead and his friends responded a little, but for the most part they simply listened in silence, taking in what I was telling them without giving away what they were thinking.

When the morning came and we were setting off, I got the distinct impression there was something wrong, like the six of them had come to an understanding which Fluttershy and I weren’t privy to. As we completed our journey and crested the final hill so the Bask was visible, bathed in the light of the early morning sun and looking just as beautiful as ever, Hammerhead turned to me, a look of acceptance on his face that matched those of his friends.

“We’ve come to a decision,” he said in a neutral tone. “We talked about it after you both went to sleep last night, and we’ve decided… we’re going to go to Cragsburg to volunteer our services.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but found I was left quite speechless by the declaration.

“I once told you that Cragsburg was my home,” he reminded me. “We all grew up there, but we left when those fu… er, the Children of the Earth started growing. All these ponies you’ve rallied together are going off to liberate our home, we should be there to help them, and when this other battle comes… well we’ll stay and fight then too.”

“That’s so nice of you to do,” Fluttershy told them, a number of the stallions blushing at receiving her compliment. “It’s very noble of you to help with this.”

“Well… we ran away once,” Hammerhead muttered in a voice heavy with shame. “We’re not going to do it again.”

“Thank you Hammerhead,” I told him sincerely, stretching up and giving him a peck on the cheek, hoping it would convey my immense gratitude.

Fluttershy then gave them their payment, however they were now a little reluctant to accept it, although we both reasoned that they would need it to get them north, and that we could receive any aid we needed from the Sisterhood. After agreeing and taking the large sum Fluttershy offered them, they prepared to travel on their way, Hammerhead stopping just for a moment to say farewell.

“It really is admirable,” he began, looking between us. “All the things you girls have done… all the things you’re doing. I hope we’ll see each other again when you reach Cragsburg.”

“As do I,” I responded.

He gave a small nod and turned, leading his men down the hill, back the way we had come. Now left alone once more, Fluttershy and I directed our attention back to the Bask ahead of us, although I quickly scanned the nearby vicinity for any signs of bandits, really hoping that we wouldn’t get a repeat of what happened that last time I stood on this very hill. I noticed Fluttershy had a faraway look on her face, I knew it well, to see your home after being away for so long. True Fluttershy had only been away for roughly a month, but considering it was her first and only time away from home, I knew for her, it was a long time.

“Come on,” I said, placing my hoof on her shoulder. “Let’s go see them.”

“Yeah,” Fluttershy agreed with a nod and an almost smile. “Even if we can’t convince them to help us, it will still be nice to see them all… one last time.”

“Don’t say that,” I responded, a little too harshly. “Try to stay positive, this won’t be the last time you come back here.”

Fluttershy didn’t respond, instead she took the initiative and started walking down the hill in the direction of the bridge. I followed quickly after her, deciding better than pushing our conversation and allowing the walk to be a quiet one. As we neared the bridge, I could see two crusaders standing guard at the other end next to the gatehouse. They wore their usual tunics, but their helmets were absent, this allowed us to see the wide, welcoming grins they were flashing our way. Fluttershy smiled upon seeing them, and waved to them before picking up the pace. I had to trot to keep up with her, when we both came skidding to a halt before them, Fluttershy looked just as delighted as the pair of them did… which was a lot.

“Hello Sister Fluttershy,” the first one greeted in a warm tone. “Welcome back!”

“It’s so nice to see you again Sister!” the other crusader added, her tone sounding equally cheerful.

“Uh, yes,” Fluttershy replied, a little awkwardly. “I’m very happy to be back, can we both come in? We need to see the High Priestess as soon as possible, regarding some urgent business.”

“Certainly!” the first answered. “Let’s all go see her right now; I’m sure she and everypony will be just as happy to see you returned as we are.”

“Oh, um, that’s wonderful,” Fluttershy said, glancing briefly at me with a confused expression. “Please, lead the way.”

The two crusaders turned and left their posts, escorting Fluttershy through the gatehouse into the Bask itself, leaving me to stand wearing the most flabbergasted look ever. Perhaps it was down to just how jaded I had become with the world through my many experiences, but I was sure there was no good or natural reason why anypony would be that joyous. That was exactly what I thought, not that there was something going on, but that the fault lay with me, to find something wrong with what could have just been two ponies behaving perfectly good natured to somepony they hadn’t seen in a while.

I mentally chastised myself for that before trotting after the trio; we had more important things to be focusing on than two overly happy crusaders. Such things as trying to convince the High Priestess that the coming threat was indeed real, or persuading her to make a decision that would go against years of tradition for the greater good of the country and perhaps the world as a whole, or why everypony we passed was grinning like a psychopath! Seriously, I didn’t even notice at first, but after a certain point, all the greetings Fluttershy was receiving was starting to rub me up the wrong way.

“Hello Fluttershy,” a sister said, while maintaining a smile that would have freaked Pinkie Pie out.

“Welcome back sister Fluttershy,” another greeted in a tone of absolute bliss.

“It’s so good to see you again Fluttershy,” they were all the same, sisters stopping in their tracks to grin in our direction and spread their overabundance of love.

I could see Fluttershy smiling and waving back, but hers was strained, clearly put on for show so as not to show how disturbed she actually was. I could tell though, I wanted to go up and question her, but I decided it would be unwise to do so within earshot of the crusaders or any passing sisters. I recognised the path we were walking along was to the chapel where Starlight Glimmer’s office was, the very same one where I overheard Fluttershy telling her she wished to leave with me. Once at the doors, the pair of crusaders stepped to one side each to allow us to pass between them, as they did, their tunics fluttered up and I noticed something most peculiar.

“You have the same cutie marks,” I pointed out in a curious tone. “I… I didn’t even know that was possible.”

I had only been able to catch sight of them for a split second, but they had looked like two rather plain black lines, one over the other, much like an equals sign.

“Oh, we don’t have cutie marks anymore,” one of the crusaders told me, her smile never slipping. “We gave them up so we could be equal.”

“Uh…” I croaked, unable to formulate a response.

Fluttershy looked like she was going to have a good go at responding to that, frankly insane statement, but the second crusader quickly jumped in.

“You shouldn’t keep the High Priestess waiting,” she advised. “I just know she’ll want to speak to you both as soon as possible.”

I glanced at Fluttershy, who gave a small shrug while wearing a look of bewilderment, which reflected exactly how I felt. She turned and opened the chapel doors, stepping through while I fell into step behind her. Once inside, the crusaders closed the doors behind us, but we barely took notice, too enthralled by what lay before us. The chapel was packed, all the pews filled with sisters, who all turned in their seats to grin at us as we entered. It was only now that I saw so many of them together, that I realised they all looked like clones of one another with their matching expressions and demeanours… even their manes were all done in the same two styles, a pair of plats or a single tight bun.

“Welcome home Sister Fluttershy,” a jubilant voice greeted from the end of the chapel.

We both looked up to see Starlight Glimmer standing before the altar, wearing her full robes. Unlike the rest, she didn’t have an impossibly large grin, but she was smiling, only hers appeared more… sly.

“It’s so good to see you’ve both made it back safely,” she went on to say, starting down the aisle towards us. “If I’d known to expect you, I would have had something prepared to celebrate such a wonderful event, but as it is, you’ve instead come just in time for a most momentous occasion.”

“Momentous occasion?” Fluttershy repeated in confusion. “Oh, uh, I’m sorry, did I forget that it was some special holiday today?”

“Oh no, nothing like that,” Starlight assured her, reaching out and patting Fluttershy on the head in the most condescending manner.

“Well, um, I’m afraid I can’t stay too long,” Fluttershy admitted, Starlight Glimmer quirking her eyebrow at that. “You see, something terrible is going to happen soon, it’s actually why we’re here now.”

“Something terrible?” Starlight repeated, still talking as if to a small filly. “Oh Fluttershy, I’m sure whatever you’ve done can’t be redeemed through confession and a nice long period of penance and fasting… not that there’ll be time for either, mind you.”

“Whatever I’ve done?!” Fluttershy squeaked in an indignant tone, her cheeks turning bright red as she pulled back from Starlight’s hoof which was creeping onto her back.

“Now hold on a second,” I cut in, getting seriously annoyed with Starlight’s attitude and the way she always talked down to Fluttershy. “Fluttershy has been a model of virtue since the day she left this place; we came here to warn you about a pending tragedy and to seek your assistance.”

“You have to listen to us,” Fluttershy went on, her voice shaking as she tried to assert herself before the High Priestess. “There’s this pony called Blueblood, he’s turned himself into an alicorn. He has an army of monsters and he’s going to…”

Fluttershy stopped explaining when Starlight began laughing, it was a loud and patronising. I saw Fluttershy quell beneath it, unable to maintain her determination, I on the other hand…

“Do you mind?!” I exclaimed, sure I was about to hear steam whistling out my ears any second. “We are telling you the truth, the least you could do is respect us enough to…”

“Oh, no Miss Rarity,” Starlight interrupted quickly. “You misunderstand, we already know full well about this troublesome Blueblood and his army of horrors in the north.”

“Y… you do?” Fluttershy stammered in disbelief.

“But of course dear children,” Starlight replied. “I have a scrying pool for the very purpose of detecting outside dangers, the reason for my laughter was not to suggest that you were fibbing, but because it was such a coincidence that you would come bearing this news, when the momentous occasion I spoke of directly relates to what you came looking for.”

“A… are you serious?!” Fluttershy asked quickly, before quickly adding. “Uh, High Priestess.”

“But of course I am,” Starlight assured her in that same motherly tone… the kind of mother you resented. “I know we have a strict policy on not interfering with the business of the outside world, but I’m not so bound by tradition that I won’t act when necessary.”

“That’s very gracious of you,” I admitted, feeling slightly guilty for snapping a moment before. “We’re going to need all the ponies we can get if we’re to stop Blueblood, the crusaders will be the ultimate counter to his soldiers, while the other sister will be invaluable when it comes to minimising casualties.”

Starlight Glimmer was still smiling at us, but it did slip slightly at what I said, and she blinked a few times as if confused by what I was talking about.

“I’m sorry?” she began, her voice still the same. “I hope there hasn’t been some kind of misunderstanding here, what exactly was it you were hoping I would do?”

Fluttershy and I shared a look of confusion, before she answered.

“We were hoping that you allow the members of the Celestial Sisterhood to join the war effort High Priestess,” she explained. “Is… is that not what you meant?”

“Oh goodness no!” Starlight exclaimed, giving a nervous laugh. “I would never have done that, no… I have a much better plan that will ultimately work out much better for everypony involved.”

She turned and started heading back up to the altar, leaving the pair of us to stare after her, slightly speechless while everypony around us continued to smile in our direction… I was pretty sure they hadn’t budged an inch since we entered.

“Um, High Priestess!” Fluttershy called over to her. “What exactly… are you going to do? If you don’t mind me asking.”

“That’s quite alright Sister Fluttershy,” Starlight replied as she reached the altar again. “I forget that you have been absent during all the preparations, but we still have an hour before it begins, so I can explain it to you. I’m sure you’re both aware that our beloved Princess Celestia is responsible for raising the sun and the moon each day and night, but of course it is common knowledge that long before the time of the Princesses, before the unification of Equestria, this job was done by all unicorns, who pooled their magic together to gain temporary mastery over the celestial bodies.

“It’s a true shame they used this power to hold dominion over the other pony races,” she went on. “Because all ponies are capable of magic, and this incredible feat could be accomplished with enough of anypony as a result, not just unicorns. I tell you this, to give what I am about to say some context, you see, when I discovered what this Blueblood had done… it confirmed everything I’ve feared for a long time. This world has become toxic… poisoned by the countless heinous beings that infest it, beings that commit evil deeds and atrocities simply because they can.

“I have been forced to watch this beautiful world get trampled for too long,” Starlight continued, her voice no longer warm, but cold and spiteful. “While the good are exploited and hurt, and ultimately dwindle down until one day there will be none left. When I saw what Blueblood had done... when I saw what was coming and what it meant for the world, I knew that it was time to take matters into my own hooves… it was time to cleanse this world, so that it might begin anew.”

“What?!” Fluttershy and I bellowed simultaneously.

I heard the doors open behind us, followed by the marching of hooves, no doubt the crusaders, but my gaze was fixed on the mad mare before us.

“Yes, I’m afraid it is the only way,” Starlight confirmed, nodding in a resigned way. “At midday, when the sun is at its highest, we shall all band together and use our collective magic to harness the power of the sun. It will only be for a few seconds, but that is all the time we need to launch a solar flare that will cleanse this planet in Celestia’s holy light and purge it of all life. Only the Princess, in all her glory will remain, and she will build a better world from scratch in her own image.”

“You’re insane!” I shouted, my horn glowing as I drew all my knives instinctively.

I heard a quick movement behind me, but was unable to react fast enough to avoid the mace knocking me in the shoulder. It had only been intended as a gentle hit to deter me from behaving aggressively, but what the Crusader hadn’t accounted for, was my new weakness to holy weapons. It felt like my shoulder had been set on fire; I instantly lost control of my magic amidst the pain, as I fell to the floor, screaming through clenched teeth. Fluttershy dropped down beside me; I could hear her asking what was wrong, but I couldn’t form an answer, I was only glad the mace hadn’t connected with my bare flesh.

“Oh look,” Starlight’s voice called out, it was impossible to place where exactly as my head was swimming from the pain. “Another undead abomination, why do you care for such a creature sister Fluttershy? Can’t you see that her existence is not natural and needs to be brought to a close?”

“She’s not unnatural,” Fluttershy growled, her whole body shaking with anger. “And neither am I.”

“You’re not still sore about your little… problem are you?” Starlight asked in a slightly bored tone. “None of us are perfect Sister Fluttershy, but don’t worry, it won’t be long before none of us have to worry about how imperfect this world is any longer.”

“But… you’ll kill yourself too!” Fluttershy exclaimed, sounding desperate.

“But of course!” Starlight replied, almost sounding ecstatic at the prospect. “We all have to make sacrifices for the greater good.”

“Well we…” I began, struggling to get to my hooves as the pain began to subside. “We won’t let you. We didn’t come this far… so we could allow everypony to perish as part of your… insane scheme.”

Starlight let out a disappointed sigh, as her horn began to radiate with a pale green aura.

“Why can’t you see the big picture?” she questioned. “Why can nopony see the good I’m trying to accomplish here?”

I was still too sore to avoid her spell when she fired it, but Fluttershy threw herself in front of me to take the hit. A noble gesture, which I was truly touched by… were it not for the fact that Starlight just charged up again and fired a second spell at me, this one hitting its mark. We were both frozen in place, her green aura surrounding us. I wasn’t sure what she was planning to do with us until… I felt a sharp pain in my flanks, as if something was grabbing at my flesh and trying to rip it off.

“All your fellow sisters said I was crazy too,” Starlight went on, still channelling her magic. “So I used my magic to help them see things from my perspective, I gave them a new view in life that better matched my own… now you can join us in the cleansing ceremony with the correct amount of joy.”

The pain reached a crescendo when it felt like both my flanks had literally been stripped from the rest of my body, it quickly dissipated along with the green aura, but I saw its effects almost immediately. Three blue diamonds, very familiar diamonds at that, began floating through the air towards Starlight Glimmer. There was two sets of them, each grouped together in threes, similarly, six butterflies drifted away from Fluttershy along with my own. It was our cutie marks, peeled from our own coats like stickers, and now flying over to Starlight who ushered them into her own breast where they were absorbed.

“I apologise for putting you both through that,” she said, almost sounding sincere, but still completely nuts. “But that’s what happens when children don’t do as they’re told, they get punished. Now, these lovely crusaders will show you to your room, where you will wait until you’ve learned to see sense. We will be gathering for the ritual in the central courtyard soon, I do hope you’ll come around before then so you’re able to join us in the final hours.”

I felt the crusaders grab me, not too roughly, but I still didn’t fight back. There was still some lingering pain, but I also found myself feeling very groggy, like I couldn’t work up the enthusiasm for resistance. Fluttershy was more or less the same, allowing herself to be led away from the chapel with me, without much fuss. We were escorted to a relatively normal looking bedroom, only it didn’t have any windows for a convenient escape, the only way in or out was through the door which was locked behind us. I shuffled over to the bed, where I promptly collapsed, Fluttershy meanwhile began pacing around, clearly lost in thought.

The longer we waited there, the more I felt my brain going mushy, my thoughts were becoming less sharp, and it was getting difficult to formulate independent ideas. I knew what was going on, it was very similar to what the Wither had done to us during the second trial on the Isle of Serenity, it should have brought me some hope to know that it couldn’t possible work a second time, since I knew what was happening. However any and all hope was quickly snuffed out with the knowledge that I would never overcome it soon enough anyway, we would all be dead in a matter of hours if Starlight stayed true to what she said and began the ritual at midday.

“I guess there’s nothing more to it,” I muttered in a dull tone.

“Don’t say that Rarity,” Fluttershy chided, attempting to inject some emotion into her own voice. “We can’t let her do this… we just can’t.”

“But what can we do?” I asked, turned my head to look at her. “I can’t even use my magic, and neither of us are strong enough to break down that door. Even if we did, then what? She has an army of brainwashed ponies at her command.”

“I… I don’t know,” Fluttershy admitted, leaning her back against the door before sliding down it to sit on the ground.

We continued to sit for another long period of silence, while our minds slowly baked in the suffocating room. I really hated Starlight Glimmer, but I couldn’t even work up the passion to be truly furious about what she was doing. I remembered how it had been her I saw when rushing to save Fluttershy from the Children of the Earth, because in the back of my mind, I knew she would fuel my hatred and give me the strength to keep pushing on. I began to wonder if maybe it would have been better if I hadn’t taken Fluttershy up on her offer, if I had not agreed to take her with me when I left the Bask. It would have crushed her, she would never have gotten to see all the wonderful things like the sea, and then there was the reason she wished to travel with me to begin with…

“I’m sorry,” I said at last, frowning as my thoughts focused for the first time in what felt like ages.

“Sorry for what?” Fluttershy asked in an unsure voice.

“When you asked Starlight to let you leave,” I went on. “I overheard what you told her, about how you felt I was destined to do great things, and that your purpose was to be by my side when I did… I’m sorry that I let you down.”

Fluttershy stared at me for a moment, until finally she began chewing on her lip, as if struggling to tell me something.

“Well, actually…” she began, looking torn. “When I said all that stuff to her, there’s a small chance that I might have been… lying.”

I heard the words, but they didn’t quite seem to register with me, so I continued to stare back at her with a slightly daft expression on my face.

“You… were lying?” I repeated in a confused voice.

“Um… yes,” Fluttershy admitted in a quiet voice, not meeting my gaze. “I was just so… enamoured by your stories, I’d always wanted to go out and see the world, but you just made me want it so much more. So I… lied about knowing you would do great things, or that it was my purpose to help you, I just thought it might sway her more in my favour.”

I continued to stare at Fluttershy for a long time, her words echoing in my head while I tried to figure out the best way to respond. Finally I felt my cheeks twitching, as my lips curled up into a smile, and before I knew it I was laughing my head off, real, genuine laughter.

“You… you little minx!” I teased, my voice considerably brighter.

“Y… you’re not upset?” Fluttershy asked, a hopeful smile creeping onto her own face.

“Upset?” I repeated, amazed that she could even think such a thing. “Why would I be? I more impressed than anything, you had me convinced for the longest time that you were some kind of seer.”

Fluttershy joined in laughing, I instantly began to feel my mind clear and my thoughts sharpen, until finally we stopped and Fluttershy looked at me with a more serious expression.

“I may have been lying at the time,” she said in a certain voice. “But you really have done great things, getting to experience them with you has been the best time of my life… you never let me down.”

Again I felt immensely touched, I opened my mouth to try and respond in such a way that I could tell her how much it had meant having her with me, but we were both distracted by talking outside.

“Hello friend!” the crusader guarding us greeted.

This was swiftly followed by a loud smacking noise, a thud and then… a baby laughing? Fluttershy clambered up from where she sat as we heard the door unlock. When the door swung open, my eyes opened wide with surprise at who was standing on the other side.

“Autumn?!” I exclaimed, blinking to make sure I wasn’t imagining her.

“Hello Rarity,” she greeted, looking between me and Fluttershy. “Am I the hero this time?”

“You have no idea,” I said, hurrying forward to hug her.

I stopped short when I saw the tiny unicorn foal resting atop her back, staring back at me with adorable eyes while blowing raspberries.

“Oh my goodness!” I exclaimed, suddenly filled with the urge to gobble her up, I was so struck by how cute she was. “Who’s this little angel?”

“Rarity, I’d like you to meet my daughter,” Autumn began, turning slightly so I could get a better look at her. “Clarity.”

I opened my mouth, but found I had zero words to respond with; I was absolutely blown away… that seemed to be happening a lot lately.

“She’s only here because of you and your friends,” Autumn went on.

“I’m… I’m…” I tried to say. “I really can’t find the words, but…”

“Rarity!” Fluttershy interrupted urgently.

I looked around and saw her looking out the window in the hallway outside the room. I knew exactly what she was indicating, the sun sitting resolutely at the highest point in the sky.

“Autumn,” I started, my own voice turning urgent. “You need to take Clarity and hide somewhere for a while, the High Priestess has gone mad and we need to stop her before she does something terrible.”

“Alright, just be safe,” Autumn replied in a worried tone. “Both of you.”

She then began walking briskly back down the corridor, Fluttershy and I went the opposite direction, running at full speed. Despite running right next to her, I had no idea where I was going and was counting on Fluttershy for directions. Once outside however, I tried to ask which direction we were going in, when I heard the flap of wings. Looking around, I quickly got a face full of Fluttershy’s chest as she wrapped me in her forelegs and carried me up into the air. Twisting myself around for a better look, I saw as the Bask grew smaller beneath us as Fluttershy swooped up and over the tower where we had lay to gaze at the night sky together.

From our vantage point we could see the central courtyard, it was filled with what I imagined was almost every single member of the Celestial Sisterhood, all packed into the opening and directing their attention inwards at Starlight Glimmer, who stood in the centre of the crowd and was leading the ritual. Starlight’s green aura was sweeping over the crowd, but as we watched, it was slowly turning more yellow, we didn’t have long to act. Fluttershy dived with speed I would never have accredited her with, I felt her forelegs tighten around me, it was probably going to get messy, but as long as we stopped Starlight, nothing else mattered.

Then we froze, we were no longer shooting down at dangerous speeds, we were paralysed in mid-air, mere metres above where Starlight stood. All the magic that had been building up around the crowd had vanished, instead Starlight was now looking directly at us, her green aura once again encasing us… she was no longer smiling.

“Why do you insist on acting up?!” she demanded, releasing us unceremoniously so we both fell to the ground. “Why can’t you just accept what I am doing is for your own good?! Why does everypony have to question my actions?!”

I felt Fluttershy’s weight leave me as she was picked up and tossed away. I quickly tried to scramble up, but felt something sharp connect with my back, sending wave after wave of searing pain through my entire body.

“Stop it!” Fluttershy cried out in horror.

I fell to the ground, my whole body trembling from the agony. As I looked up through watery eyes, I saw Starlight standing over me with a crusader mace and a look of distaste.

“She’s not your friend anymore Fluttershy,” Straight said clearly, holding up the mace in a threatening manner so Fluttershy would not try to attack or even come near. “Your friend is dead, and in her place is this unholy vermin, it is our duty as servants of the Six to smite creatures like her.”

“She is not undead,” Fluttershy insisted. “She is as alive you or me.”

“And she will be as dead as you and me soon enough,” Starlight countered. “Now be a good filly and do as you are told! Just accept that this is going to happen like your fellow sisters, and do not interfere.”

“Accept it?” I repeated in a strained voice, looking around me at the sea of grins. “You stripped them of their free will when you took away their individuality. They aren’t even the ponies they once were, just empty husks to do your bidding… but then that’s all you ever wanted from them, isn’t it?”

I received another strike in the back for that, eliciting more screams of anguish from me, which couldn’t drown out Fluttershy’s protests.

“This is for the greater good!” Starlight shrieked, her face contorting with rage as her blood vessels bulged. “The world must be cleansed of all life, both good and evil if it is to truly heal.”

“I won’t let you do this!” Fluttershy insisted. “There will always be bad, just as there will always be good, and there is so much good that you can’t see, or just refuse to give credit to. But even if there wasn’t, there only needs to be one creature in this world with an ounce of goodness in their heart to make it worth preserving.”

“Your compassion…” Starlight Glimmer began in a frustrated voice as she raised the mace for another strike. “Is what makes you weak… you have always been weak Fluttershy.”

“You’re wrong!” Fluttershy shouted with such force, that it caused everypony’s smile’s to switch to looks of surprise; while Fluttershy’s whole body seemed to radiate power as she glared at Starlight. “My compassion is what makes me strong, and I will never stop showing compassion to this world or the beings that live in it, because it is never wrong!”

I had rolled over onto my side slightly so I had a better view of Fluttershy as she finally stood up to the High Priestess, so I had a perfect sight when her whole body erupted with a stunning white light. All the sisters and crusaders stared at her in awe as she began to rise up into the air, none of them were smiling, Starlight especially looked both bewildered and terrified by what was happening. I on the other hand couldn’t help but beam as the light shot out of Fluttershy, hanging around her in a halo and framing her in all her glory for the entire courtyard to see.

Fluttershy’s Element complimented her Sisterhood cassock quite well, taking the form of a silver gorget that covered most of her mantle and came up right below her chin, while reaching down to her shoulders. As well as that, she also wore a silver breastplate which didn’t cover much of her body, only the front really, but planted in the centre of it was a pale pink gem cut into the shape of a butterfly. Fluttershy slowly sank back down to the stone courtyard, her hooves touching down gently as she looked around the awed faces of her family.

Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath, and as she let it out again, the light around her flowed from her in a wave, washing over the entire crowd, perhaps spreading as far as the entire Bask. As it passed over me, I felt as light as a feather, all the pain I had endured now feeling like a far off memory, even my muzzle felt made anew. Looking around, I saw all the other sisters expressing feelings of euphoria as the light filled them, Starlight Glimmer on the other hand began squirming and wailing as one by one, cutie marks began spilling out of her, drifting through the air, carried along on the streams of light back to their owners.

As each cutie mark bonded, the pony seemed to glow as their coat and mane shone with renewed colour, and they smiled the first true smiles we had seen of them all day. I saw my own pair of cutie marks soaring across to me, dancing around one another in a helix pattern before swooping down to plant themselves back on my flanks. It was a wonderful feeling, although I won’t go into details as it was greatly reminiscent of something rather… private. When it ended, I looked around to see that the last of the stolen cutie marks had vacated Starlight Glimmer’s body, and she was left to try and stand up on shaking hooves.

“What… what is this?!” she demanded in fearful voice, as Fluttershy opened her eyes and smiled sweetly back at her. “This… this can’t be, I won’t let it end like this!”

She turned as if to run away, but immediately ran head first into the brick wall that was Holly, the head crusader. She fell back on her rump while two other crusaders descended upon her, scooping her up and taking hold of her forelegs so she couldn’t run away. Holly stared down at her with a look of deep shame, while Fluttershy started walking up towards the group. She walked around until she was standing next to Holly, and looking directly at Starlight Glimmer.

“Yield?” she asked simply, her smile intensifying as she cast a quick glance my way.

I had to try my very hardest not to laugh, and I still managed to let out a little snort that drew a few curious glances from some sisters standing close to me.

“You think you can save this world with kindness?” Starlight responded in a cold voice.

“No,” Fluttershy replied, her Element of Unity sparkling in the midday sun. “We’re going to save this world with an army… we’ll use kindness to help keep it safe.”

LXXVII - The Wings Of Valour

“So, um…” Fluttershy began in an awkward tone as we stood just outside the Bask, looking back in the direction of the gatehouse. “Is this what it was like for you when I was trying to leave?”

I took in her words and followed her gaze, looking to the crowds of ponies in white who stood at the opposite end of the bridge, looking like a group of frightened ducklings as they tried to muster the courage to keep walking forward.

“No,” I told her, trying very hard to suppress my grin. “This is much funnier.”

Fluttershy flashed me a quick look of annoyance, before heading back to give her fellow sisters some additional moral support. It was the morning following the events that had occurred in the Bask, while Fluttershy and I would have preferred to move out a lot sooner, we knew that the Celestial Sisterhood couldn’t be rushed out their front door. They weren’t like the other forces that could be rallied and militarised in the space of a few hours, this was all very new and daunting for them. Starlight Glimmer was placed in magical bindings and locked away in a plush bedroom that was the closest thing the Bask had to a cell, there she would remain under constant watch while still being looked after, until Princess Celestia could be alerted to her actions.

The head crusader Holly agreed to take temporary control of the Sisterhood until a new High Priestess could be anointed, and once Starlight was taken care of, she was more than willing to meet with us and hear what we had to say. Everypony gathered in the central courtyard once more so Fluttershy could address them, they were all eager to hear, both what all she had done since she left, and how much truth there was to the things Starlight had seen in her scrying pool. She left out some details, such as the specifics of what had occurred at Cragsburg, as well as the Isle of Serenity. She was clearly unsure how much she was permitted to share with them, when no other sister had been allowed to do so in the past.

In the end, she told them just enough about both events to justify why I was vulnerable to their weapons, which had certainly raised some concerns among Holly and the other crusaders, as well as give them enough context to understand the significance of the Element of Unity she now wore. When the story came to the end, and we told them all what it was we were planning and how we needed their help, there was a definite reluctance. They were all torn on what to do, on the one hand they felt bound to the Sisterhood’s traditions that it was not their place to interfere in war. On the other hand they were also encouraged by Fluttershy’s stories, by the things she had been able to do when she went out into the world, and all the things she saw that needed their help, help which they could never give if they stayed cooped up inside the Bask forever.

The crusaders seemed more amenable to the idea of lending their aid; it was after all their sworn duty to both protect the Bask and all those within it, but also to vanquish foes of this very nature. While they had not found cause to do so since before any of their times, they were still ready and willing to rise to this new threat, and put their years of training to use for the good of all. The sisters themselves took a little more persuading, but in the end it was Fluttershy’s Breastplate of Compassion that swayed them, they saw it as a sign from the Six that Fluttershy was walking a good path, and that they should do everything in their power to support their sister.

With that decided, we immediately set about making our arrangements for travel. As I said, it took considerably longer with the Sisterhood due to their inexperience and nervousness at the thought of going against all the rules laid down for them. A number of sisters, as well as a few crusaders, were left behind to watch over the Bask and tend to the needs of its patients and occupants, including Autumn and Clarity… and Starlight Glimmer. All the travelling sisters would be led by Fluttershy on the most direct route to Cragsburg, that would lead through Timber, Pivot and Anchorage; they would also travel with and be protected by the majority of the crusader force.

As for myself, I would travel towards Olympus via Glean and Breakwater, accompanied by Holly and a selection of her best crusaders, who would part ways with me at Brine. While I went to Olympus to meet Rainbow Dash, they would stay in the town and exterminate the walkers once and for all, before heading off to Cragsburg themselves. When morning came, I paid Autumn one last visit, managing to spend half an hour with her and the new foal Clarity, before Fluttershy came to tell me we were ready to set off. Then sometime later, I was standing at the other side of the river, while Fluttershy patiently encouraged the sisters to cross the bridge one step at a time.

I heard hoofsteps behind me, and glanced around to see Holly approaching, a serene look of understanding as she saw how slow things were going.

“We are ready to set off Rarity,” she told me.

“Shouldn’t we wait to see if they make it?” I asked, gesturing to the rest.

“Have faith in Sister Fluttershy,” Holly told me. “She brought them this far, she will see them all north, there we will all be reunited.”

I nodded, and made to walk after her to where her team was waiting with a pair of pearly white pegasus chariots, as I turned however, Fluttershy took notice and I heard the rapid clopping of her hooves as she rushed back to me.

“I… I’ll see you at Cragsburg,” she told me, her voice trembling slightly.

“Of course,” I replied, stopping to hug her. “Soon, we’ll all be together again.”

With that, I pulled away and continued after Holly, looking back at Fluttershy for just a moment longer before I forced myself to look forward. Once I caught up with Holly, her and the other ground bound crusaders were mounting the chariots, she reached out to help me up onto her own one, while the pegasi crusaders stood at attention, ready to take off.

“Ready when you are Holly,” one of the pegasi called back.

“Let’s fly,” Holly replied stoically, before looking to me and the other crusaders. “Hold on everypony, we’ll be going quite fast.”

I did as I was advised, and gripped onto the left edge of the chariot as the pegasi began trotting forward, steadily picking up speed while simultaneously flapping their wings. I braced myself as I felt the whole chariot tilt up off the ground, the sound of running coming to an abrupt end as the wings took over completely. As we ascended into the air, I looked back in time to see the crowd of white clad ponies moving across the bridge to meet Fluttershy on the other side. We stayed just below the lowest layer of clouds as we flew, which gave us the perfect view of the rolling landscapes beneath us.

We made steady progress, not nearly as fast as our ride on Harbinger, but it was still fairly good. We flew until we were almost at Glean, where we descended and set up camp for night. Holly and her chosen team weren’t particularly enjoyable or interesting company, I tried to make conversation, ask questions about them and what exactly their roles in the Sisterhood were, but all their answers were very concise and to the point, which didn’t stimulate any kind of discussion. For the most part, they preferred to meditate if they weren’t preparing food or sleeping, so I kept to myself while we were camped and continued to practice my fighting technique.

When the morning came and the pegasi were ready to set off again, I clambered up next to Holly on the chariot, the crusaders not saying a word to one another as the final preparations were made. Stalwart and indomitable as they were, they weren’t exactly the most engaging characters I had encountered in my travels. Once the pegasi reported they were ready to take off, Holly gave the good to go and we set off once more, I held on and glanced over as we flew over Glean, the Neptune and Breakwater. This time when it was time to land, Brine was within view, which would be where I cut ties with the Crusaders and made the rest of my journey to Olympus alone.

Upon landing and the setting up of the camp, Holly requested that I walk her to the edge of the town and show her the scorch line. I obeyed, and together we split off from the rest, making our way towards the distant town as the last lights of the day began to fade. I had initially kept my gaze lowered to the ground, as if afraid that I would accidentally miss and walk over the line, but when I spotted something in the distance, I stopped looking to the ground and focused on it instead. As we got closer and I was able to see what it was, I gasped and picked up the pace, Holly calling after me to stay next to her.

I didn’t slow down however, I rushed straight into the Dragoon camp where I had found first found Fluttershy the night she was taken. The place was wrecked, tents torn down and trampled into the dirt, a few errant bodies were scattered about, their armour told me both sides had casualties when they clashed. Holly joined me, her usually composed features cracking to show her shock for a brief moment. Together we searched through the remains of the camp and counted up the bodies, there weren’t very many at all, only a few from either side which suggested most had either escaped or fought elsewhere.

A sense of dread filled me at the idea of them fighting beyond the scorched circle, knowing that any and all fallen would just add to the number of walkers. I didn’t recognise the bodies of any of the Dragoon soldiers, but then I doubted I would have been able to recognise Gale if I had seen her, we had barely interacted after all.

“So these are the Children of the Earth,” Holly muttered, leaning down to examine one of them. “This armour is most curious, I’ve never seen anything like it… You shouldn’t worry yourself over this Rarity, we will see to it that all the dead are accounted for and treated with respect before we leave.”

“All of them?” I repeated, my voice growing noticeably colder as I looked down at the body she was examining.

“Whatever crimes these ponies committed when they were alive,” Holly began calmly. “Are no longer our concern, if there is life beyond this one, I’m sure they will be judged appropriately for their actions there.”

“Right,” I muttered, not sure I agreed, but not wishing to argue with her decision. “Well the line is just over here.”

I walked over to it and showed her, in the distance I could hear the shuffling of hooves and the soft moaning of the restless dead. We both returned to the campsite, a grim silence hanging between us as Holly sat down talk with the crusaders under her command about their plan of action, while I found a sleeping roll and lay down. When the next morning came, I found the crusaders already up, bright eyed and eager to get started with wiping out the entire undead local populace, which was pretty much my signal to say my farewells.

The Crusaders all bowed their head respectfully to me as I began my departure, Holly stopping me just long enough to force a survival kit and rations into my spare satchel, before wishing me luck and promising that I would see her again when we all reached Cragsburg. I walked around the outskirts of Brine, making sure to stay on the safe side of the scorch ring until I had put the town behind me, and I was quickly making smooth progress north to the mountain path that would lead me up the Wyvern Heights and bring me to the gates of Olympus. It was night by the time I got some way up the path, but by that point I decided just to push on and rest when I was reunited with Rainbow Dash.

So I was making my way up the moderate incline, using the glow of my lantern to light my path, as it somewhat dwarfed the light my horn could provide. I was making sterling progress, only to have it brought to a grinding halt when I heard the wheezing gasps of a pony somewhere to the left of me. Curious, I shone my lantern in that direction and saw only rocks, the noise quickly cutting out as if the one responsible had suddenly turned shy. I was about ready to ignore it and be on my way, sure that whatever it was couldn’t be more important than my current objective, when I saw my light reflect off a steady trail of still wet blood that led off the path around one of the larger boulders.

Realising that there must be an injured pony hiding just out of sight, I started edging my way forward, keeping my ears pricked for the slightest sound. There wasn’t a single noise; it was as if they were trying very hard to remain silent, perhaps even holding their breath. I reached the boulder and stepped around it, levitating my lantern ahead of me to illuminate the figure that lay there. It was pegasus mare, yellow coat, and a fiery orange mane in a swept back style that reminded me of somepony else. Her whole body seemed to be covered in sweat and she absolutely reeked, and the loose cloak she wore was tattered and stained.

She stared up at me with an exhausted look, her chest rising and falling rapidly as she stopped trying to hold her breath. Her hind legs were sprawled out in front of her, while she propped herself up on a trembling foreleg, her remaining hoof clutching her midriff. Her eyes were a strong orange, and even though she looked so tired, they burned into me. She just looked so done with things, and my presence only seemed to be the cherry on the top.

“Well…” she uttered between her heavy, laboured breaths. “This is just… fantastic.”

She slid down the boulder she was leaning against, taking the weight off her foreleg as she reached into her cloak and rummaged about. Her hoof emerged with a measly sum of two bits which she tossed to the ground at my hooves.

“Take it,” she muttered darkly. “It’s… all I’ve got.”

“W… what?” I stammered, staring between the ragged mare and the coins in bewilderment. “I don’t want your money.”

“Serious…” she began before wincing, clutching her stomach tighter as pain shot through her. “Well… you’d be the first.”

I dropped down to my knees beside her, setting my lantern down while maintaining my magical hold on it, so it would continue to shine light on the mare. Ignoring the money, I reached out and pulled her hoof and the cloak away, she tried to fight back, but wasn’t nearly strong enough to resist. When she gave in and I was able to see what was causing her so much bother, I immediately pulled back, repulsed by what was the obvious source of both her pain and the awful smell. She had a large gash running diagonally along her underside, it looked like she had tried to patch it up at the time, but done a poor job of it, so now it was opened up again and horrifically infected.

The flesh around the cut was badly swollen and had turned an angry red colour, while the wound itself was oozing copious amounts of puss; the sweating also seemed to be a result of fever. She was now looking at me with a mixture of suspicion and confusion, perhaps because I was taking an interest in her, rather than running off with her money.

“What in the name of Celestia happened to you?!” I asked, not wanting to touch the awful looking injury.

“It’s… a long story,” she replied wearily, her eyelids dipping down.

“Well try to stay awake,” I told her, pulling out my water canister to give to her. “I have some medical supplies, it’s not much, but it will hopefully keep you going until we can get you to Olympus.”

The mare suddenly choked on the water, reaching up and waving urgently with her hoof.

“No!” she exclaimed before wincing again, getting worked up causing her injury to hurt again. “I… can’t, if she knows… if she finds out I’m here…”

“If who finds out you’re here?” I asked, as I started unpacking the survival kit Holly had given me.

“Doesn’t matter,” she stated, not meeting my gaze. “Just… do what you can, then forget about me… I’ll look after myself.”

“You can forget that,” I responded firmly, as I started looking over my choices of treatment. “You clearly haven’t done a very good job of looking after yourself so far, I’m not about to let you out of my sight unless I know you’re being looked after.”

She didn’t reply to that, just sat in silence while I uncorked a bottle labelled ‘Disinfectant’ and tried to figure out how it needed applied.

“Alright, uh…” I began awkwardly, as I looked between the wound and the bottle. “I’ve never really done this before, but I have a general idea so…”

I really did make a hash of it; I could just imagine Fluttershy burying her face in her hooves at the sight of me trying to treat the mare’s injury. I was mentally kicking myself that in all the time we’d spent together, even when I was learning how to fight from the others, I never asked Fluttershy to give me a crash course in this stuff. Luckily when the mare saw I was having trouble, she started walking me through it. It was obvious she had been trained in first aid, perhaps if she had access to this stuff sooner, she wouldn’t have gotten into such a mess to begin with.

I quickly ran out of water when I was washing the wound, but the mare pointed me in the direction of a nearby stream, saying she was looking for it when I found her. I had to make a couple quick runs back and forth, I went through the water so quickly, but eventually I had done everything I could, and under the mare’s careful instructions, managed to get pressure on the wound and bandage it up.

“S… sorry about all that,” I said sheepishly, as I packed up the remaining items and stowed them back in my satchel.

“Don’t be, it’s all cool,” the mare assured me, her voice a little brighter. “You probably saved my life, way more than anypony else in this wretched country would do.”

“Oh…” I murmured, a little sourly at her sudden attitude.

“Sorry, sorry,” she tried to amend quickly, looking guilty. “That was crap of me to say.”

“No, it’s okay,” I assured her. “It doesn’t look like you’ve had the best time here, so I guess I can understand where you were coming from. I do know that Panchea has its fair share of… unsavoury sorts, same as anywhere else I’m sure.”

The mare didn’t respond, just looked at the ground, I decided to take the opportunity to find out more about her.

“So you’re not local then, I take it,” I picked up, noticing her eyes widen in alarm slightly. “So are you from Equestria?”

Her whole body seemed to tense, that intrigued me. I didn’t want to frighten her off, but by the same token I was now more eager than ever to get to the bottom of who she was… and how she came to be in such a poor state.

“I’m sorry, where are my manners today?” I started, knocking myself on the side of the head for such a careless omission. “My name is Rarity.”

The pegasus bit her lip, clearly uneager to divulge any more information about herself.

“Um, right,” I muttered, trying to figure a way past her defences. “I really hope you’ll come with me to Olympus, we can set off at morning after you’ve had time to rest. I have a friend in quite a high position of authority; she can see to it that you receive further medical attention.”

“I told you,” the mare stated coolly. “I can’t just walk into Olympus; if she finds me, then weeks of work will be for nothing.”

“There you go saying ‘she’ again,” I pressed. “Why don’t you tell me what’s bothering you, then maybe I can help.”

“Why do you want to help me?” the mare questioned, the suspicion in her voice increasing dramatically. “What are you getting out of it?”

“Why?” I repeated, bewildered. “I’m helping you because… because you need my help, it’s the right thing to do.”

“Huh, and there I thought all the saints died out in the war,” she muttered thoughtfully.

“Well I like to think Panchea is finally starting to recover from the effects of the war,” I told her, before half whispering to myself. “At least it will soon enough.”

The mare stared off into the darkness; clearly deep in thought, when she finally spoke again it was in a quiet, nostalgic tone.

“I used to have a friend like you,” she said. “He would always go out of his way to be nice to others and offer to help for nothing in return, and if he was ever asked why, he just shrugged and said it was the right thing to do… my friend was an idiot. He was naïve and thick headed, always saw the world through a coloured lens… but he was a good pony at heart, probably why I admired him so much, Celestia knows it’s hard to stay positive in our line of work.”

The mare drifted off again, looking off in the direction where Olympus was, obscured by mountain ranges and darkness.

“And that’s what got him killed in the end,” she finished in a cold voice, narrowing her eyes. “Stabbed in the back by somepony we called our friend.”

“I… I’m so sorry,” I breathed, feeling like I had been punched in the gut.

“Don’t be,” the mare muttered. “You didn’t do anything to be sorry for… but she did.”

“The pony who betrayed you?” I whispered, following her gaze. “She’s in Olympus now? Is that why you’re here… to kill her?”

“Are you going to leave me?” the mare asked in a neutral tone. “Are you going to call me a monster and regret stopping to save my life?”

“I’ve seen monsters,” I told her, almost snapping. “Real monsters, and you wanting to avenge your friend doesn’t come close to the things they did.”

The mare looked at me curiously.

“I’m sorry…” she began slowly, clearly thrown off by my sudden shift in tone. “You told me your name, but… who exactly are you?”

“I’m a mare that kills monsters,” I answered in a clear voice.

“Well then…” the mare began in slow, methodical voice. “If you really want to help me, then why don’t you use those friends in high places you mentioned to help get me inside the city?”

“Sure,” I told her. “But once we’re inside, I want you to let us get your treated before you go off looking for blood, deal?”

“That sounds fair enough,” she agreed. “Although I should warn you, this chick I’m hunting… she’s pretty important around here too, from what I’ve heard. So be very careful who you trust, that they are reporting back to your friend… and not my enemy.”

“Shouldn’t be hard,” I said with a shrug. “My friend is the Marshal; she’s the top dog, so to speak.”

“Uh, no… the mare I’m after is the Marshal,” she argued. “That’s what I learned from the ponies who did this to me.”

The mare indicated her now bandaged up torso, before we both seemed to tweak onto the same worrying idea at the same time, leaving us to sit in silence for a moment, each desperately looking for the right opportunity to strike. The mare was faster, even with her injury, she was still able to dive forward and tackle me to the ground, drawing my own sword out of its sheath and bringing the rapier blade to my throat. She didn’t get much further than that however, as she felt a blade pressed up against her own neck. I saw her eyes flicker down; trying to see the knife I was levitating against her airway.

“Let’s just take it slow,” I suggested in a low voice. “You’re going to ruin those bandages if you act up.”

“That’s what you’re worried about?” the mare questioned in a doubtful tone. “I can’t believe I was fooled by you, I should have guessed that the first nice pony I meet is one of her lackeys.”

“I’m not a lackey,” I told her, a little irritated. “She’s my friend, and there is no way Rainbow Dash would ever have killed your friend.”

“Rainbow Dash?” the mare repeated, pulling the blade back from my throat slightly as she regarded me with confusion. “Who are you talking about?”

“Who are you talking about?!” I demanded, suddenly frustrated. “Rainbow Dash is the Marshal of the Dragoons; she rose to the position after defeating Iron Sights in the Coliseum.”

“No, Fleetfoot is the Marshal,” she insisted, saying the name with such venomous hatred. “I heard she became Marshal recently, after the last one abandoned the city.”

“Wait, did you say Fleetfoot?!” I exclaimed, pulling my own knife away from her. “Time out, we’re on the same side!”

The mare got off me and hobbled back, still holding onto my sword as she stared at me with a raised eyebrow.

“Fleetfoot is the one you’re after?” I questioned, to which she nodded slowly. “Well that’s alright then, she’s my enemy too.”

“Are you serious?” the mare asked, looking like she couldn’t believe her luck.

“Yes, she tried to have me killed a couple of times,” I told her, sheathing my knife. “Although the second time I managed to knock her out cold.”

“You?” the mare uttered in a mixture of disbelief and amazement. “She was one of the best Wonderbolts we ever had, how did you manage to beat her?”

“Her eyes,” I reported. “I knocked off her glasses and blinded her with light, not exactly fighting fair, but… wait; did you say ‘Wonderbolt’?”

“Yeah, surely you knew she was once a Wonderbolt,” the mare stated.

“Yes, I did,” I confirmed, suddenly feeling slightly suspicious myself. “But you also said ‘we ever had’, so you’re a Wonderbolt too?”

“Well you did guess I was from Equestria,” the mare admitted. “I guess there’s not much point in hiding it, I was actually the captain of the Wonderbolts, my name is Spitfire.”

I stared at her in disbelief, my jaw dropping open. She opened her own mouth, looking slightly concerned, but before she knew it, she had three daggers flying up around her head, making it impossible to move without getting cut to ribbons.

“What…” she began, but I quickly cut in.

“My sword, drop it, now!” I demanded, she obeyed instantly. “I would love for nothing more than this to be another misunderstanding, but I really doubt it will.”

“I don’t understand,” Spitfire said, looking slightly panicked now.

“You are an agent of the Solar Empire,” I reminded her, my accusation immediately eliciting a groan from her. “You helped Blueblood, and you’ve been on the run for…”

“I’m gonna stop you right there,” Spitfire jumped in, holding her hooves up defensively. “I am not a Solar Empire agent; I was only ever pretending to be.”

“Pretending?” I repeated, still not lowering my knives.

“Yeah, I needed a way to come back here to find Fleetfoot,” she explained quickly. “The Princess refused to take actions against her after she defected and got Soarin, my deputy and best friend, killed. So when I found out that puffed up Duke was organising the Solar Empire, I pretended I was interested, just so I could get transport over with his other agents. Once we arrived at Panchea, I cut ties with them and went off on my own. I never supported Blueblood or his stupid schemes; I even leaked information about what he was doing to the Princess, so she could take actions to stop him after I got across the sea.”

“But…” I began, my resolve weakening as she explained herself to me. “But Blueblood arrived in Panchea like… fifty days ago, and I know you’ve been around even longer than him, why has it taken you this long to get here if you were so intent on making Fleetfoot pay for her treachery?”

“It’s a long story,” Spitfire replied with a grimace. “Let’s just say I’ve had the worst luck in the world, everywhere I went, something bad happened that set me back or pulled me off course. For example, did you know you have a serious pirate problem around your southern and eastern coasts?”

I lowered my knives, bringing them back one by one and sheathing them. As I did, Spitfire reached down for my sword and passed it back to me.

“Sorry about that,” I muttered, rather meekly.

“It’s fine,” she assured me. “I’m just glad you heard me out, I’ve been tracked by a few different groups who are still convinced I’m a Solar, but they’re of the ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ breed.”

“Yes, I believe you ran into a friend of mine at Glean some time ago,” I reminded her. “You lost your Wonderbolts pin then too, I’m pretty sure another friend still has it.”

“Oh yeah, I was really kicking myself after losing that,” Spitfire murmured before speaking up again. “But now I’m curious, you’re friends with this Rainbow Dash and all these other ponies hunting me, so I have to ask again, who exactly are you?”

“I’ll tell you on our way to Olympus,” I replied evasively, just because I was too tired to get into it. “We should try and get a few hours’ sleep before we move on.”

“Maybe you’re right,” Spitfire agreed, as she lowered herself to the ground. “And you’re absolutely sure that your friend is still the Marshal?”

“I’m positive,” I stated confidently. “The last time I was here, Fleetfoot had gone into hiding after everypony found out how she was working with the last Marshal to deceive them, there’s no way she could be Marshal now.”

Spitfire nodded, clearly reassured by my words as she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep. I finally released my magical hold on the lantern, snuffing out the light, rather impressed and incredibly surprised that I was able to maintain it for so long without even focusing on doing so consciously, perhaps this was evidence of my magic improving even more. Morning came and Spitfire was eager to get moving, like myself she seemed used to having short naps in place of a proper sleep.

As we made our way up the remainder of the mountain path, I briefly filled Spitfire in on my involvement with the Rebellion, as well as what we were currently doing. She was certainly outraged when she heard about Blueblood’s actions, and seemed impressed by the lengths we were going to stop him. As we approached the gate, I told her about my last trip here, and how I first met Rainbow Dash, she seemed amused by it, but our conversation swiftly died when I noticed the gate was lying slightly ajar, and the sounds of fighting could be heard within. Spitfire and I glanced at one another before quickening our pace, trotting up to the gates where we peeked around into the plaza.

The plaza was in absolute disarray when we looked in, there was a very bloody conflict taking place between dozens of silver armoured soldiers, and there was absolutely no mercy being shown to one another as they fought. Beyond the immediate conflict, I could see evidence of buildings being damaged from previous fights, the face of the Stratus Hotel for example looked like it had been blown apart from the inside, even the statue of Commander Hurricane was missing half a head. Spitfire and I exchanged worried glances before we pulled back outside the city, trying to gather our thoughts.

“I might be able to fly us up onto the wall,” Spitfire told me, giving her wings a little test flap. “We’ll get a better view from up there, and we can plan our next move.”

I reluctantly agreed, aware that anything to strenuous would only cause further damage to her stomach area. Reaching around me, Spitfire lifted slowly into the air, carrying us both up the height of the wall at a very slow and measured pace. Once at the top, she set me down before crouching next to me to catch her own breath, muttering something about once being the best flier in all of Equestria. I dropped down onto my own stomach, and pulled myself up to the edge of the wall where it overlooked the plaza and the rest of the city beyond, pulling out my spyglass I took a closer look at the fighting ponies.

They were all wearing Dragoon armour, similar to that worn by the Rebels, only tarnished silver as opposed to steel, and slightly lighter, considering most Dragoons were pegasi. They also all wore the crimson tunics beneath their armour, this made it impossible for me to differentiate them and figure out why they were attacking one another, in fact, I wondered how they even knew that the pony they were stabbing wasn’t on their own side. Turning my gaze from the plaza, I scanned around further districts and streets, as well as looking up to the cloud sector. Everywhere I looked, I saw more ponies locked in combat or evidence that fighting had taken place recently.

“I guess their Coliseum thing fell through,” I muttered, before noticing the confused look of Spitfire’s face. “Apparently there used to be fighting all the time in the city, but then they made it a rule that you could only meet another pony's challenge in the Coliseum. Everypony seemed happy enough with that the last time I was here, why would it change so… dramatically?”

“I don’t like this one bit,” Spitfire spat. “This is more than ponies simply vying to be the most dominant… we need to find your friend quickly.”

“Well she could be in the Pantheon,” I suggested, as I returned my spyglass to its pouch. “But she also has an apartment in the lower section which we could try.”

“Alright, lead on,” Spitfire responded, pulling her old cloak tight around her.

We both crept along the wall to the very end of it, where a stone staircase led down into the streets. Once at the bottom, I started heading the direction I vaguely knew Rainbow’s apartment to be in. It was tricky when I barely knew the layout of the city, and we had to keep straying from our set path whenever we ran a risk of encountering Dragoon soldiers. Until we knew who was fighting for who or what purpose, we decided just to steer clear of the whole lot of them. Unfortunately this only lasted so long, until we started down what we thought was a deserted alleyway, but turned out to be the location for a surprise attack.

They sprung down on both sides, pegasi swooping down from the rooftops, while the ground bound troops jumped out of broken windows. They all directed their weapons at us, while one of the earth ponies strode up to meet us.

“Well, well, what do we have here?” he mocked, looking us both up and down. “Did you ladies think the curfew didn’t apply to you? Although you’re a little too well armed for a mere civilian… who do you pledge your allegiance to? Answer, now!”

I quickly glanced at Spitfire who was giving me a warning look, I wanted to answer Rainbow Dash, but something made me hold my tongue at the last second.

“Uh, I’m not sure,” I ended up saying pathetically.

“What? Are you daft or something?” the pony demanded, looking fed up already. “Don’t you know that Olympus is under the command of Marshal Fleetfoot?”

I could almost feel Spitfire tense up beside me, I had to stop myself from visibly reacting.

“We’re, uh, new to town,” I replied lamely. “But if the Marshal has called a curfew, we’ll be sure to obey it right away.”

“Oh no,” the pony cut in. “It’s too late for that, you broke the rules and now you’re coming with us.”

I felt a spear poke into my back, prodding me to follow the pony as he turned around and started walking down the alleyway. I gave a look to Spitfire, hoping she would understand that it meant ‘just go with it while I think of something’. She didn’t look happy, but she started walking regardless. It turned out I didn’t have to think of anything, as before we reached the end of the alley, a cluster of small, black objects were tossed down at the ground around our hooves. As soon as they made contact with the stone, they cracked and exploded in a cloud smoke.

I had to quickly clamp my mouth and eyes shut as the alley was filled with the suffocating gas, while also trying desperately to not breathe any of it in through my nose. I could hear the sounds of the soldiers coughing and spluttering, while those that hadn’t been caught in the cloud were shouting incoherently. The next thing I heard was the sound of flapping wings, swiftly followed by somepony wrapping their hooves around me and picking me up. I felt the rush of air as they beat their wings hard and carried us both away from the alley, a pained shout to my left told me that Spitfire had also been picked up and was being carried next to me.

We didn’t fly for very long, and I only risked opening my eyes when I felt us slow down, and our hooves touch gently onto a solid surface. I was in a new street, this one completely deserted, we were facing what looked like a club, whose doors were sitting open and an unarmoured pony was hurriedly ushering us inside. Once again I felt myself prodded in the back, but this time it felt less threatening, and I obeyed before I even stopped to take in who exactly had come to our rescue. Once we were all bundled inside the darkened club, which I now recognised as the very place we had gone with Rainbow Dash following her victory at the Coliseum, I heard the doors slam shut behind us and the clicking of a lock.

Looking around, I saw one of the ponies who had helped us, now offering Spitfire assistance over to one of the seats, she was breathing heavily, no doubt the sudden rescue attempt hadn’t accounted for her injury. She glanced up between me and the other ponies, giving a nod to assure us she was okay, at which point I turned to look around the group who had taken us. One of them was a unicorn, the one who had been waiting for us with the club doors open, while the other four were pegasi. I guessed two had thrown the smoke bombs while the other two picked Spitfire and I up.

“I… I don’t believe it,” one of the pegasi was saying, staring at me like he had just seen a ghost. “Is it really you?”

“Um…” I began awkwardly, noticing three sets of eyes were on me, while the other two seemed a bit confused. “I’m sorry, have we met?”

“It… it’s Rarity, isn’t it?” the pegasus asked, sounding hopeful.

“Yes,” I admitted, now feeling thoroughly disturbed and hoping for a reasonable explanation very soon.

“Uh, don’t be freaked out,” he went on quickly, although he was beaming at me now. “You probably don’t remember us, but we met… quite some time ago. It was down in the pass between Daybreak Landing and the Grand Pastures, we… uh, tried to rob you.”

My eyes opened wide in disbelief, as my mouth dropped open.

“Wait… you?” I uttered in amazement, although I had admittedly forgotten their names.

“Yeah, what are the chances,” the stallion went on, before quickly adding. “Oh, my name’s Cirrus in case you forgot, and then there’s Cyclone, Zephyr, Eerie and Alabaster.”

He gestured to each of his friends in turn, the unicorn last. I realised now why only the three of them had remembered me, while the other two were confused, because Eerie and Alabaster were the unconscious ones I had looked after following their attempted robbery.

“Wow, I can’t believe this,” I said quite honestly. “I really never thought I’d see you again.”

“Yeah, well the chances were pretty slim,” Cyclone admitted, pouring some drinks behind the bar. “But we did say if you were ever in Olympus and needed some help, we’d be more than willing, and… well, here we are.”

“And I’m very glad,” I assured them, as Alabaster levitated the glasses around to each of us. “But how did you know we were in trouble?”

“We didn’t,” Cirrus told me. “We’ve just been taking it upon ourselves to patrol around and help any civilians who get caught up in the fighting. We didn’t know you were in trouble until we flew over the alleyway, and we certainly didn’t know it was you of all ponies.”

“And why here?” I questioned, gesturing around the club as I sipped from my glass of cider.

“We own this place,” Alabaster informed us. “After we came back, we got jobs here as cleaners and waiters, but when the place started to go under, we all pitched together to buy it off the old owners.”

“Well I’m really glad you’re doing so well for yourselves,” I told them, feeling elated at how well they had managed to turn things around. “But I need to know, what’s going on in the city? How did Fleetfoot become Marshal? Where’s Rainbow Dash?”

The guys all looked uncomfortably around one another; it was Eerie who ended up answering.

“She’s not really the Marshal,” he revealed. “She’s just telling everypony that she is, half the Dragoons support her, the other half knows she’s full of shi… uh, crap.”

“A short while back,” Cyclone went on. “Rainbow Dash left on some mission, but she never came back, well… not until recently anyway, but during that time, Fleetfoot started declaring that Rainbow had abandoned the city and therefore forfeited her position. A lot of ponies seemed to agree at the time, but recently she showed back up, and now everypony is saying that if Fleetfoot wants her position to be legitimate, she has to fight Rainbow Dash.”

“Only she refuses to do that,” Zephyr picked up. “She insists she doesn’t have to, which has naturally annoyed a lot of ponies.”

“So now the whole city is fighting among themselves,” Cirrus finished in a tired voice. “Rainbow Dash keeps calling for peace, but Fleetfoot has ordered anypony who follows her to kill anypony who refuses to.”

“Why am I not surprised?” Spitfire muttered darkly. “Where are Rainbow Dash and Fleetfoot now?”

“Fleetfoot is in the Pantheon,” Eerie answered. “She has the whole place surrounded by soldiers like some kind of paranoid nutcase, as for Rainbow…”

“She moves around a lot,” Cirrus continued. “She can’t really stay in the one place for too long, as Fleetfoot’s supporters are pretty determinedly trying to kill her, but every day she goes to the Coliseum and tries to address the public. That’s why Fleetfoot enforced this new curfew that doesn’t allow anypony outside their homes… ever.”

“What is it she talks about at the Coliseum?” I asked curiously.

“Not sure,” Cyclone replied with a shrug. “We never went, but ponies we helped out said she was trying to warn everypony about an upcoming battle, that the Dragoons needed to stop fighting each other because there was a bigger threat coming.”

“Well at least she’s still got her priorities straight,” I muttered, before noticing the curious looks on the stallions’ faces. “Oh, uh, Rainbow Dash is my friend, that’s why I’m asking.”

There was a moment's silence while the ponies digested that information, before Cirrus tentatively spoke up once more.

“So that stuff about an impending battle,” he broached. “Is that like, um, for real?”

“I’m afraid so,” I revealed. “But don’t worry; we’ve already convinced most of the country to rally behind us when it comes. Once I find Rainbow and we sort out whatever is going on here, then hopefully we should be able to count on the Dragoons helping us, then we’ll stand a pretty good chance at winning.”

“Then let’s hurry,” Spitfire said, standing up slowly from her seat. “The Coliseum seems like the best place to start.”

“Oh no,” I cut in quickly. “You’re way too badly injured for this.”

Spitfire opened her mouth to argue, but luckily Alabaster jumped in before she could.

“She can stay here,” he offered. “We can look after her until this whole thing blows over.”

“And I can get you to the Coliseum,” Cirrus added.

“Hold on a second!” Spitfire cut across, sounding annoyed. “There is no way I’m letting you take down Fleetfoot without me, she’s my responsibility, I will be the one to end her.”

“You’re staying here,” I responded firmly. “I’m just going to rendezvous with Rainbow Dash and see what the plan is, if we find an opportunity to take Fleetfoot out of the picture, we’ll take it. If we can avoid killing her, then we will, but you need to be patient and stay here, otherwise you’ll just put us all at risk.”

Spitfire dropped back in her chair, refusing to meet my gaze after that. Satisfied that she wasn’t going to do anything rash or downright stupid, I turned back to Cirrus and gave him a nod. Together we left the club through the back door, once outside, he crouched down so I could clamber onto his back. He managed to fly us up through the city via a much more peaceful route, the fighting seemed to be dying down all around anyway, and I noticed crowds of brave ponies were slowly filling into the streets, defying Fleetfoot’s curfew so they could go to the Coliseum and see Rainbow Dash, much like ourselves.

Once we arrived in the cloud district and the Coliseum came into view, I could already see a large crowd was gathering in front of it, but they weren’t going in for some reason. Curious, Cirrus flew us around and landed on the roof of a house, where I was able to safely get off and stand, from our new vantage point we could make out a line of Dragoon soldiers blocking the entrance of the Coliseum, their weapons drawn, while opposite them another group of soldiers stood at the head of the crowd, facing them with their own weapons at the ready.

The crowd was screaming and shouting to be allowed in, the soldiers blocking their path were glancing at each other nervously, clearly aware of how hopeless it would be if the crowd decided to push forward, and that wasn’t even mentioning the opposing soldiers that were standing ready to fight them. They all seemed to be waiting for something, which came when one of the ponies in the crowd pointed to the sky and started shouting excitedly. My own eyes followed those of the everypony in the crowd, including the soldiers standing in their way, and I saw a rainbow streaking through the sky towards the top of the Coliseum.

Rainbow Dash flew right over top of the arena, an escort of several soldiers flying a short distance behind her, struggling to keep up with her. Suddenly the crowd began to surge inwards, the group of soldiers on their side stepping forwards to meet their opponents head on, who now looked terrified. I felt my insides clench as I prepared for the bloodbath that could only result in Fleetfoot’s supporters getting trampled into mulch, until a flash of red quickly sped into view from around the Coliseum, skidding to a halt between the two groups.

It was another Dragoon, only this one wore a flowing crimson cape, pinning him as an officer. He stood with his body facing no particular direction, holding out his forelegs defensively, one hoof pointed at each side.

“Enough!” he called out, slightly panicked. “We won’t stand in your way; I won’t let the ponies under my command die for that maniac Fleetfoot.”

The crowd erupted into cheers as both sides gratefully put their weapons aside, the soldiers moving in to embrace each other, while clearing the space for the civilians to pass through into the stands. I looked to Cirrus, my own wide grin mirroring the one on his face, without another word, he allowed me back up onto his back and together we flew down to join the crowd. Only when we were in the boundaries of the Coliseum did I get off, satisfied that I was still able to walk around inside without the need for a cloud walking enchantment.

We followed in at the tail end of the crowd, following them up into the stands, where we managed to find a pair of empty seats in the front row. From there I could see all the soldiers who were standing outside, as well as the officer who had surrendered, walk in and make their way up to where Rainbow Dash stood in the centre with her personal guard. There was a brief exchange in which Rainbow looked pretty pumped, given away by her impromptu dancing, before she rocketed into the air amid a torrent of cheers, where she hovered to address her audience.

“Hey there everypony!” she greeted, her voice projected through an addition to her helmet that covered her muzzle. “It’s great to see so many of you turning up, really stickin’ it to Fleetfoot!”

There were more cheers and whoops from the crowd; it reminded me of being at a music festival, which was an apt comparison since Rainbow could pass for a celebrity the way she acted, and how the crowed reacted to her.

“But in all seriousness, I want to give a huge thank you to Battery and his unit,” she went on, gesturing down to the officer and eliciting more shouts of approval. “Both he and Air Commodore Kite have chosen to lower their weapons today and say ‘enough is enough’. I know today has been particularly bad, we lost quite a few good ponies during skirmishes, but we are making progress. Each day, more and more ponies are turning around and telling Fleetfoot to shove it up her ass, but if we want to keep that up, we need to get the word out.

“Fleetfoot… is… corrupt!” Rainbow continued, enunciating each word careful for maximum effect. “The Dragoons are a flawed system, created by the jack ass Iron Sights to keep each and every one of you in line, and now Fleetfoot is trying to do the same. But I say no more! No longer should we fight until the last pony standing just to make ends meet! What this city needs… what you all need is a true leader, not one who beats down their opposition, but one who rules fairly and justly. Somepony who won’t order you to turn against your friends and family, somepony who won’t steer this city into ruin or cut ties with the rest of the country.

“Because there is something coming,” Rainbow went on in an ominous tone. “I’ve seen an army that will rampage across this world and crush everything in its way, anything that survives will become slaves to a malevolent being the likes of which ponies have never seen before. And believe me when I say this threat is coming, the only way to stop it is that we all stand together, not just as a city, but as a country. We must reunite with the Rebellion, with all our brothers and sisters in arms, under a leader who puts strength of heart higher than strength of body. Not Iron Sights, not Fleetfoot, and certainly not me!”

The cheers started off slightly hesitantly at first, but soon they built up and became deafening. Glancing back, I was surprised to see that the stands had almost completely filled, ponies apparently continuing to filter in during the speech. Even looking back down to the floor of the arena, I saw more Dragoon soldiers gathered there, looking up at Rainbow Dash with the rest of us.

“If Fleetfoot wants to fight me herself,” Rainbow went on, the crowd dying down to listen. “Then I’ll meet her right here… although I’m not getting that impression from the way she barricades herself inside the Pantheon and sends goons to do her dirty work and try to have me silenced. Speaking of which…”

I looked up, along with everypony else in the crowd, to see the cloud buildings all above us shimmering as silver specks began closing in on the Coliseum. At the same time, I heard the sound of marching and looked down to see a large squad of ground bound Dragoons storm into the arena, all the soldiers who were there supporting Rainbow Dash backing up into formation while drawing their weapons. The flying Dragoons spread out over the open roof of the arena, forming a grid that would allow none of the civilians to fly out, and with the main ground exit blocked we were all pretty much trapped.

“Now come on guys!” Rainbow called out to the new faces. “This is hardly cool… not gate-crashing, that’s totally cool, but endangering all these innocent ponies who just came here to see me… and really, can you blame them?”

“They broke the laws set down by Fleetfoot!” an enemy pegasus declared, coming down from the rest until she was hovering level with Rainbow Dash, her own cape getting caught up in the flapping of her wings. “But since you’re the one who encouraged it, I guess we could forget their punishment this time and just take care of you.”

The crowd erupted into a sea of hate, shouting insults at the pegasus and her allies, some even going as far as to lob rubbish at them, whether they be on the ground level or flying in the air. The soldiers didn’t respond and tried their very best not to react to the missiles, but then they were probably too distracted by Rainbow’s supporting soldiers. They weren’t moving to fight or even behaving aggressively, they were calling out to the ‘enemies’, addressing individuals by name and beseeching them to reconsider their allegiances.

It was a strikingly brilliant tactic, to appeal to their good will and use their already established relationships to inspire camaraderie with the allies. The Fleetfoot soldiers were all looking terribly nervous, most of them clearly didn’t want to fight their own friends, but they must have been under some serious duress from their commanding officers, who were scattered around the units and refusing to budge an inch in their loyalties. Then the first pony moved, he was standing close to the edge of the unit, so he was able to edge further and further to the side without anypony taking notice, until finally he lowered his weapon and bolted to the other side, seeking shelter among their numbers.

His officer shouted after him, cursing his name and swearing that he would be made to pay for his insubordination, but his act had a knock-on effect with the other soldiers. One by one they began looking for ways out, when they saw one, they would rush to freedom, occasionally they would get caught by their officer or some of their more diehard comrades and pay the price for it, but that would only turn more of their own number against them. The pegasus who had been speaking to Rainbow Dash directly, stared aghast as the clear majority of ponies under her command defected, running or flying over to Rainbow’s side where they were welcomed with cheers and pats on the back.

She hovered there for a moment longer, grinding her teeth before she cursed Rainbow Dash and took off in a hasty retreat. The rest quickly followed, any who had not been swayed, hurrying from the scene as their force dwindled in size. A few of Rainbow’s soldiers made to go after them, but she called for them to stop. As she came to the ground, she announced that they would not kill another pony if it could be avoided, that just earned her another wave of applause from the crowds in the stands. As Rainbow Dash touched down, she scanned through the gathered ponies, her eyes quickly landing on us.

She smiled and tilted her head to the side, indicating for us to come down and speak to her. I relayed this to Cirrus and he helped me down from the stands, straight into the arena where I hopped off his back and hurried after my friend. I was quickly stopped by soldiers who were rightly suspicious by my actions, but Rainbow insisted it was okay and they allowed us both to pass. Rainbow didn’t speak until we exited the arena via one of the portcullises and entered into one of the darkened armouries, at which point she turned and gave me a huge, goofy grin.

“You made it!” she declared, leaning in close to my face. “Did you hear the speech? Wasn’t I just awesome?”

“Could you be anything less?” I asked, rolling my eyes at her overenthusiasm. “Where did you get that one? I doesn’t sound like something from Daring Do.”

“Whoa, hey now,” Rainbow said, slightly indignant at my accusation. “Not everything I say is from Daring Do… that one was actually borrowed from Harry Trotter if you must know.”

I had to laugh at that, before pulling her into a hug which she more or less returned.

“Oh, uh, hey,” she said to Cirrus, who was still standing awkwardly behind me. “So who’re you supposed to be?”

“Rainbow Dash, this is Cirrus,” I introduced. “I met him once quite some time ago, but I ran into him again today when he saved us from some of Fleetfoot’s lackeys.”

“Well in that case, he’s alright in my books,” Rainbow said before turning her attention back to me. “How did everywhere else go? Are the others alright? Did you get all the groups?”

“Yes, it’s been a rousing success,” I told her jubilantly. “It wasn’t always easy, Blueblood’s minions attacked Pivot and Arclight, and we only just managed to stop the end of the world at the Bask, but we got the Rebellion, the Arcane Order, the Liberators and even the Celestial Sisterhood to support us, even some other ponies I encountered along the way.”

“Wow, that’s amazing!” Rainbow declared. “Well the Dragoons shouldn’t be any trouble, you saw what happened out there, the only ones who still follow Fleetfoot are the few ponies who actually benefited from the old system, everypony else realises we need to change. Once Fleetfoot is out of the picture, then we can start moving towards Cragsburg. I’ve already spoken about it with the officers on my side and they seem pretty supportive of it… although a lot of ponies are sceptical that actual monsters are involved, I don’t want them walking into this if they don’t know what’s waiting for them.”

“I understand that,” I told her. “But we can cross that bridge when we come to it, right now I need to know what your plan is for Fleetfoot. I was actually travelling here with somepony who will be most annoyed if she isn’t the one to kill Fleetfoot.”

“Well she’ll have to join the cue,” Rainbow replied, laughing at her own joke heartily. “But seriously, who are you talking about?”

“She’s the Wonderbolt captain we thought was working with the Solar Empire,” I briefly explained. “Her name’s Spitfire.”

Rainbow Dash froze momentarily, her jaw hanging open, as her whole body began to vibrate with excitement in a manner I would have associated more with Pinkie Pie.

“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!” she began repeating, the excitement in her voice building up. “Are you saying the Spitfire, captain of the Wonderbolts is in Olympus right now… and she wants to kill Fleetfoot?! This is the most incredible day ever!”

“She was pretty banged up when I found her,” I went on, amused by Rainbow’s fangirling. “She’s waiting back at Cirrus’s club; you know the place we went together?”

“You actually own that place?” Rainbow questioned Cirrus, sounding impressed as she nodded in confirmation. “I am liking this guy more and more. Let’s head there now; we don’t have any immediate plans, other than try not to let Fleetfoot kill us before enough of her own ponies switch sides, that we can risk attacking the Pantheon.”

We exited the Coliseum shortly after; most of the civilians had already left, while the rest were swarming around the exit, slowly filtering out. Rainbow stopped for a moment to talk to some of the officers and the new soldiers who joined after the speech, she even insisted on introducing me to them for some reason. What was even more confusing is why they all seemed to brighten up when she did, like they had been expecting me or something. I didn’t let my confusion show however, I behaved like a proper mare and I think I managed to leave them with a good first impression.

This time Rainbow Dash insisted on carrying me in her forelegs while Cirrus led the way to the club, although I had a funny feeling she could have navigated her way there from any point in Olympus. While in the air, Rainbow called down to me, telling me a bit about how things went after we parted ways. She explained that she parted ways with Applejack at Anchorage; the town never did get the reinforcements she called for, but had managed to look after itself in spite of that. When she got to Olympus, the first thing she did was look into Gale, only to find out that she never returned from Brine, she concluded that she never made it out alive, which would explain why the reinforcements never came.

She didn’t get much further when we came into view of the club, and heard Cirrus utter a short, but alarming ‘uh oh’. Looking down, I saw Eerie and Zephyr standing outside, looking all around for something before waving us down urgently. Cirrus descended first, but Rainbow still managed to land slightly before him, the pair ran up to us, looking panicked.

“She’s gone!” Zephyr told us. “We tried to stop her, but she just bolted.”

“Wait,” I cut in, tugging away from Rainbow Dash. “You mean Spitfire? Where did she go?!”

“She must have gone after Fleetfoot,” Eerie suggested. “But she’s in no fit state, she’ll get herself killed.”

I groaned in frustration, turning my gaze up to the higher levels of the city, imagining Spitfire flying up to the Pantheon right that moment, straight to her death.

“We can go after her,” Rainbow told me, taking me by surprise. “Don’t give me that look; we were going to have to move against Fleetfoot eventually, might as well be now.”

“Alright,” I replied, checking my weapons before walking over to her.

“Whoa, whoa, hang on,” Cirrus said quickly. “We should come with you.”

“No offence buddy,” Rainbow began. “But you guys don’t exactly look cut out for fighting.”

“Maybe not,” Cirrus admitted. “But we can create a distraction; draw some of Fleetfoot’s ponies away from the Pantheon to help you girls out.”

“Can you do that and stay safe?” I asked in a concerned voice.

“You saw us in action earlier,” he reminded me. “We’ve gotten pretty good at this sort of thing.”

“In that case, I’d be happy to have you guys on our side,” Rainbow responded with a salute. “But we need to move out now.”

“Sure thing,” Cirrus assured her before turning to Eerie and Zephyr. “Go get the other guys, quickly now.”

Once Cyclone and Alabaster had joined us, the latter hopping aboard the former's back, we all set off, up through the cloud sector, towards the peak of the city. It didn’t take long before we were slowing down and finding a house to perch on, just out of sight while we scoped out our target destination. They hadn’t been joking when they said it was completely surrounded, it was clear that Fleetfoot didn’t have a great deal of confidence in her own strength to defend herself against angry dissenters. If Iron Sights hadn’t already when his deceit was made clear, Fleetfoot’s actions had almost certainly signed the Dragoon’s death warrant.

Rainbow was instructing the guys in a hushed tone on what they should do, despite the fact that it had been their idea to begin with, but she did also advise them where to go if things got hairy, that her own soldiers would offer them protection. Once everything was made clear to them, they spread out into position, everything kicking off when Alabaster sprung out of his hiding place and zapped one of the officers from a distance, petrifying him in white stone instantly. Things quickly got out of hand after that, with a lot of slinging of smoke bombs and hurling of insults.

The stallions stayed true to their word, drawing a great number of the defending soldiers away from the Pantheon, right past our hiding spot, and giving us a fairly clear path to the Pantheon itself. I gave Rainbow the word that I was ready to move in and she quickly took off, scooping me up in her forelegs as she flew. The remaining soldiers saw us and started panicking, drawing on their bows or pulling back their spears to launch them at us and take us out of the air. Rainbow was much too quick however, easily dodging any projectiles that had been loosed, while reaching the courtyard of the Pantheon before any more could be.

She air dropped me as soon as we were over enchanted ground; I landed hard on one of the ponies, giving her an extra kick to make sure she stayed down, before drawing my sword to meet the oncoming soldiers. They didn’t seem too eager to engage after that first contact, even less so when Rainbow circled around and landed next to me, extending her spear. A couple tried their luck and got swiftly taken down by us, Rainbow Dash insisted beforehand that we stick to nonlethal methods, killing them would only be reducing our final numbers in the end, not to mention most of them were only following orders.

Others were smart enough to sneak away when nopony was watching them, although I noticed, and my smile only grew larger with every one of them I saw skulking away. Once the front of the Pantheon was cleared, we hurried inside before any of the others could return, it wouldn’t take them long to realise they had been tricked. Once inside, we found a group of three officers standing at the top of the stairs, completely oblivious to what was going on outside as they spoke in hushed tones with one another, and glanced warily at the door to the Marshal’s office.

“Oh great,” one of them moaned, the very pegasus who had confronted Rainbow in the Coliseum. “Did you seriously just get past all those guards?”

“Of course we did,” Rainbow replied with a cocky grin. “We’re awesome like that.”

“You’re also pretty stupid,” the mare retorted, drawing her longsword. “Because now it’s three against two, and unlike you, we don’t have wimpy ‘no killing’ rules.”

She dived down upon us, I instinctively slid to the side, but Rainbow didn’t even bother, raising her spear to block her attack before forcing her back into the secretary desk. The other two officers jumped down as well, one of the wielding a pair of tomahawks, who joined in fighting Rainbow Dash, the second going after me. He flew straight for me, swinging a spiked flail around his head which he smashed down at the spot where I was standing a moment ago, before shuffling back. Flails were such impractical weapons I found, maybe in the hooves of somepony really skilled they could be as deadly as they looked, but in this case it was easy to avoid.

The chain was too long for a start, so it took him too long to get any kind of momentum going, otherwise he could only flail it randomly at me… if you’ll pardon the pun. He seemed to realise this however, and soon he was resorting more to blows with his hooves, which proved a little more difficult to avoid, but still avoidable. In the end I beat him by drawing him close to the staircase and giving him enough time to get a good swinging arc of his flail, which naturally I dodged at the last second and allowed it to become entangled around the banister.

While he struggled with that, I sidestepped and turned half a circle, rearing up and bucking him in the side of the head. He was fine after, his helmet protected him for the most part; the same could be said for the other two officers, who Rainbow Dash was mopping the floor with when I looked around. Nodding to her, I started up the staircase towards Fleetfoot’s office while Rainbow Dash flew to meet me at the top. She forced her way through the doors with her shoulder, if they had been locked, it certainly didn’t hold, and together we stormed inside.

The office looked like a tornado had passed through; everything was thrown about and wrecked. In the centre Spitfire lay on the ground, she was still alive, but she was badly beaten up, and she was still pinned beneath Fleetfoot, who was raising her hoof to bring it down again. Without hesitating, Rainbow shot forward, smashing into Fleetfoot and knocking her clear of Spitfire, who sucked gratefully as her airways were freed. Fleetfoot let out a pained yell and I could see why, when Rainbow knocked into her and sent the pair of them tumbling across the room, her visored helmet flew off, leaving Fleetfoot’s damaged eyes open and vulnerable.

Even the little day light the came through the large window in the rear wall of the office, caused her pain, despite the sun not even shining through it and it being a particularly cloudy day. I knew exactly what to do, even as Fleetfoot pulled herself up, reaching out, both for the helmet at her side and the baton at her waist. Reaching down, I grabbed hold of my lantern with my hoof, hurling it forward like it was a bomb, and just as it spun towards Fleetfoot, I channelled my magic into it, causing it to shine like a star right in her face.

Fleetfoot’s screams were deafening, my ears automatically clamping down to protect themselves. I walked over to where Spitfire lay; groaning in pain in between laboured breaths, while Rainbow Dash picked herself up and brushed herself down. I reached down and placed my hooves on Spitfire to stop her from moving as I looked her over, it seemed Fleetfoot had only attacked her with her hooves, but since she was wearing full armour, that could have done quite a bit of damage. Her injured midriff looked especially bad, peeking under the bandages showed that the stallions must have stitched her up, but her escapades had only ruined that.

“What were you thinking?” I asked her, relieved that it really could have been so much worse. “You should have waited and we could have done this together.”

“I… couldn’t,” she uttered in a miserable voice, not looking at me. “I couldn’t let go of my hatred, I couldn’t let all my effort be for nothing, but… but in the end I couldn’t…”

“You were too badly injured,” I told her calmly. “If you had waited, let yourself heal and got your strength back, you would have…”

“You dolt!” Fleetfoot snapped in a trembling voice, ceasing her snivelling, but still pressing her hooves into her eyes as blood leaked out around them. “She could have killed me, she got the jump on me… but she lost her spine at the last moment.”

“You were my friend!” Spitfire screamed at her, angry tears spilling from her eyes as she sat bolt upright and stared spitefully at her. “You both were! H… how could you do it… to him… to me?!”

“It was war,” Fleetfoot hissed back. “There are no friends in war, just those who can help you survive… and those who’ll drag you down with them. I won’t apologise for looking out for my own best interest, everypony does it, I bet even Soarin only helped ponies because it made him feel good about himse…”

“Shut up!” Spitfire yelled, pushing my away as she stood up and stormed over to where Fleetfoot sat. “You do not get to say his name!”

“Or what?” Fleetfoot asked in a mocking tone, while she might very well have been permanently blinded from what I did, she seemed to be adjusting to the pain now. “You’ll kill me? You couldn’t kill me before, you’re too sentimental… you’re too weak!”

“Shut your mouth!” Rainbow snapped, suddenly stepping in. “She is not weak.”

“And how the heck would you know?” Fleetfoot muttered, clearly annoyed by the interruption. “Piss off Dash, you don’t know a thing about this chick, so quit trying to jump in just because you’re not the centre of attention.”

“I do know,” Rainbow argued in a surprisingly calm voice. “Because she pushed herself to come here, despite all your soldiers, despite the advantage you would have over her because of her injury… that takes bravery. And the fact that she was able to go through all she did and still show you mercy… well that takes strength, real strength that you would know nothing about.”

I smiled, thinking back to how I had chosen to spend those hours by the sides of Eerie and Alabaster, and how in the end the mercy shown to them was able to preserve the goodness inside them, all that they would one day come to my aid when I least expected it. I wished the same could have been said for Fleetfoot, but the truth is we would never know if Spitfire’s moment of clemency could have thawed her icy heart and changed her for the better, for at that moment, I saw something large and dark moving towards the window.

The first crazy thought that sprung to mind as the dark shape got closer and bigger with every second, was that it was some kind of flying whale. As it got closer however, and I was able to make out the pitch black, draconic face and the two wings pulled almost straight back… I was only able to make this out for a few seconds, before the creature blotted out the sky and came smashing through the window. Things were rather… odd for the next couple of minutes; like I had slipped into a dream, where I was only half aware of what all was happening around me.

Who even knew so much destruction could be wrought on buildings made from cloud? I certainly didn’t until I was crashing down through layer after layer and building after building, the huge monster ploughing right into the Pantheon and continuing straight downwards, taking me, and presumably my friends, down with it. I became very thankful to the unknown pony responsible for devising a building material that could be so sturdy in construction, and yet so soft for crashing through in destruction, it certainly made the fall less fatal than if I were smashing through stone or wood.

When it all finally stopped and I landed, bouncing slightly off a surface that managed to not break beneath me, my whole body felt groggy as I rolled off my side and tried to move my legs. Opening my eyes took a surprising amount of effort, and when I did, I saw phantom duplicates of everything, sliding in and out of their solid counterparts in tandem with my focus. I tried to raise my head, but found it weighed a ton, just like my hooves. I could hear the sounds of distant shouting, of terrified screams, and somepony yelling very close to my ear.

“Rarity!” Rainbow Dash shouted again, looming over me. “Rarity, speak to me!”

“Please be gentle with me…” I moaned in a dazed voice.

“Good enough,” Rainbow muttered, looking around us.

My vision focused enough that I was just able to see how much better Rainbow seemed to have handled the fall, a little battered, but her armour seemed to do its job, until my attention was diverted to the large dark shape swooping in overhead to the chorus of shrieks. The monster landed on the top of the Coliseum where we had fallen into, its hind claws crushing into the wall, while it spread its wings out around the rim, peering into the arena with its long neck. It was a wyvern, with great leathery wings like a bat, pitch black scales with a dark purple tint, and a head that was large enough for a pony to live quite comfortably in its mouth… before they were eaten.

It was a wyvern, but something seemed very unnatural about it, which gave me a creeping feeling. Despite its scally hide, the majority of its chest was comprised of an exposed ribcage, the hollow areas giving a clear view in at the pulsating, purple energy inside of it. Similarly its face, while clearly dragon like, bore some twisted features, such as the zigzag mouth that made it look like it was wearing a nightmarish grin, or the fact that its eyes radiated that same purple energy, while its mouth churned up clouds of vile gas.

The monster had smashed straight down through the city, decimating the Pantheon and several other areas before it finally came to rest on the Coliseum, easily big enough to fit inside it. Looking about, I saw that many ponies had been caught in its rampage, including the soldiers we’d knocked unconscious and whatever civilians had been going about their business in the intervening levels between the Coliseum and the Pantheon when the monster struck. Rainbow Dash had just moved to check on Spitfire who was lying a few metres away from me, when the beast landed and started looking over us as if it was a gourmet surveying its dinner plate, trying to decide what to begin with.

Finally the monsters eyes appeared to rest on me, and it might have been my imagination, but I was sure the creepy grin only became more pronounced.

“Rarity…” a deep, booming voice emanated from the monsters jaws. “Did you miss me?”

I just stared up in horror as the terrifying face leered over; sure that grin was real as my mind started screaming, trying to figure out who the heck this was supposed to be.

“Call for help,” it told me, leaning down and close. “I will be here when it comes.”

The gears in my mind started spinning as his words repeated in my head; something about them seemed so familiar.

“I guess I could just kill them too,” it went on to say. “Then not only can say I’ve killed a pony, I can say I’ve killed more like a dozen ponies.”

I continued to stare up at the horrible face; the answer was right at the edge of my mind, on the tip of my tongue.

“Really, I’m surprised you’re still awake,” the voice continued, although there was a hint of annoyance in it now. “That usually knocks ponies out. Here, let me try again.”

I just blinked when the monster made no move; it really was like it was just saying stuff for the hell of it.

“Seriously?!” the monster bellowed, frustration finally taking over. “You don’t remember me?!”

“Uh… I’m sorry,” I offered weakly, coughing out the wisps of purple smoke that had been ejected along with his shout.

“Well I remember you,” the monster growled. “I remember how you ruined my life and crushed my dreams! Well I made a new friend since then, and he’s given me the power that I can do the same thing to you.”

“Hey, manure breath!” Rainbow Dash cut in, running up and standing defensively over me. “If you even think about touching my friend, then you’ll be dead before you can even think up anymore stupid quips!”

“They’re not mine, I was reversing them on…” the monster began, its voice contorting with anger. “Oh, never mind, Blueblood might be annoyed when he learns I’ve destroyed Olympus, but I don’t care, because that is exactly what I plan to do. I will tear this city apart and devour every single pony that squats here, and I will make you watch it all and you will know it is all because of you!”

“Blueblood?!” Rainbow Dash and I exclaimed in unison.

“Whoever,” the monster responded disinterestedly. “I didn’t care who was behind what, all I cared about was getting enough power that I might get my revenge. They told me it would kill me, that nopony could survive the number of experiments I volunteered for, but I did. My hatred for you was so great that I was able to stay alive through every excruciating second of it, but now here I am! You once asked me if the Liberators were building any more weapons of mass destruction, well it turns out a different group was… they built me!”

Suddenly it hit me, like a shovel to the face for all the force it carried. All those things he had said, those were things I had said, more or less, and I had said them to…

“Spoon Bender?!” I exclaimed, remembering the devout Liberator who had attempted to capture me in Port Mule and failed miserably.

“At last you remember me,” Spoon growled, that smile returning. “And now you know why I…”

“Wait a second,” Rainbow jumped in, sounding slightly odd as if she was trying to stop herself form laughing. “Your name is… Spoon Bender?! Oh my goodness, that is the most ridiculous name I’ve ever heard!”

Rainbow Dash was now full on guffawing, and I was right to think that Spoon Bender didn’t appreciate it too much.

“Silence!” he bellowed, his voice shaking the entire Coliseum with its rage.

I had been distracted by Spoon, that I had barely noticed the hordes of Dragoon soldiers swarming into the Coliseum, some carrying the injured and unconscious ponies away to safety, while the rest had drawn their weapons. But with Spoon Bender’s shout, they now shook in their armour, unable to hold their weapons up at the horror they were faced with. Spitfire was trying to prop herself up, but even she looked anxious at the sight of the beast Spoon Bender had become.

“You will all fear me!” Spoon Bender screeched, sweeping one of his wings in and sending a number of soldiers flying into their friends. “You will all die! Your families will die! Your lives will be destroyed!”

With each declaration, he swept into the crowd, alternating between wings. By the end of his tirade, soldiers were outright fleeing from the Coliseum, dropping their weapons and running, a small part of me wanted to join them, but I was only just finding the strength to get back to my hooves, let alone run. However many did not run, most stayed rooted to the spot, but they did not stay to look at Spoon Bender throwing his temper tantrum… they stayed to look at Rainbow Dash who had not flinched throughout any of the outbursts. She remained perfectly still until he was done, at which point she flapped her own wings and started rising up off the ground, ascending higher to meet Spoon Bender head on.

“I once fought a guy in this very place,” she told him. “He also liked to make ponies fear him… and he also cheated to become as strong as he was.”

“Cheated…” Spoon Bender repeated, his voice cracking with anger.

“But I’m not afraid of you,” Rainbow went on, ignoring his interruption. “You know why?”

Before waiting for a response, Rainbow flew up even higher, Spoon Bender followed her with his gaze until she stopped some distance above him. The destruction Spoon Bender had caused to the higher buildings, meant that there was now a clear view of both Rainbow Dash and Spoon Bender for ponies in most areas of Olympus. From where I stood, I could see her reach up and slide the mouthpiece into place that allowed her to project her voice.

“Everypony listen to me!” she called out. “I told you about a threat that was coming, an army of monsters in the Ash Lands. Many of you have doubted the seriousness of this, which I totally understand, but right now there is a monster in our city. If you look to the Coliseum you will see him… although really, if you aren’t already looking at the giant nightmare wyvern that just smashed through the cloud sector, you need to sort out your priorities.”

I heard a few of the soldiers around me snigger at that; even I cracked a smile at how she could remain so brash at a time like this.

“But there is nothing to fear,” she went on. “He might look scary, but he’s just one guy… one really pathetic guy, who thinks he’s a bigger deal than he actually is. And you know what we are? We are… uh, hang on. One, two, three, fou… well we’re a lot, is what I’m getting at. One pony alone might be smaller and weaker… but we’re not alone, none of us are. As long as we keep standing beside each other, supporting one another and fighting for a common goal, then we’ll never be alone… and we will never have anything to be afraid of.”

As Rainbow Dash finished, as we all stared up at her, her entire body shone with light. Spoon Bender screeched and twisted his head away from the sight, but I was just filled with that same sense of awe as I saw Rainbow Dash enveloped in the light, before it shot out from her. As it settled around her, making her appear like a second sun hanging in the sky over us, I was able to just about make out the addition to her armour. If I thought Fluttershy’s Element complimented her outfit well, it was nothing to how Rainbow Dash’s worked out, it was as if the two were meant for one another.

She wore her usual silver armour with her trojan helmet, but her wings had always been left free… until now. Now they were encased in shimmering silver, dozens of plates combining together to allow her wings perfect flexibility, while also offering them protection and even giving them offensive capabilities with their blades feathers. The last little detail I only spotted when she manoeuvred herself in the air to look down at Spoon Bender beneath her, placed between the wings, set into the armoured spine, was a bright red lightning bolt, which matched her tunic perfectly.

I didn’t have any longer to take in the appearance of her Element of Unity, as she chose that moment to dive straight for Spoon Bender, who was still too busy averting his gaze to defend himself. As she got near, she twisted in the air in a helix shape, spreading her wings sharply before quickly folding them again to launch the light built up around her in the form of two blinding streaks. They shot out in the shape of an X, which slashed into Spoon Bender’s back, burning right through his scales and causing him to scream in agony.

Rainbow Dash didn’t hold up however, she quickly sped in, delivering blow after blow, making full use of her new toys to send out devastating waves of divine light to slice into Spoon Bender’s body. I watched in amazement, too distracted to notice when a number of Dragoon soldiers took off into the air, flying in to join Rainbow Dash in attacking the monster. Before long, every pegasus soldier was up there, flying around Spoon Bender like a swarm of flies. Rainbow Dash was still doing the most damage with her attacks, but the combined effort of all the others managed to accomplish a great deal too.

Spoon Bender fell… literally, head first into the arena. Some of the ground bound soldiers who had been there cheering on their comrades, had to run back to avoid being squashed by the great carcass, but I was the perfect distance that his head came skidding to a stop right in front of me. I imagined he wasn’t happy that I was the last thing he saw before he died, as the purple light in his eyes went out, leaving only two smoking black craters. Spitfire joined me, still looking as crap as when we found her in Fleetfoot’s office, but forcing herself on as always.

Together we looked up to where Rainbow Dash hovered, surrounded by her fellow soldiers as they stared down at the body of Spoon Bender. I smiled up at her, although I’d be surprised if she could see it, what with the light of her wings reflecting off every soldier present, but I was content that we would have plenty of opportunities to talk as we travelled from Olympus together. That suddenly made my stomach lurch, it was such an odd thought that I hadn’t dwelt on until that point, we were about to go into the final stage… our journey was reaching its end. Next stop Cragsburg, and after that…

LXXVIII - The Body Of Resolve

While I would never say it was a pleasant way to go, certainly one that I would never have wished for her, if it was going to be one of us, I was glad it was Fleetfoot who was situated closest to the window when Spoon Bender came smashing in. I chose not to dwell on how drawn out it might have been, getting caught up in his jaws and chewed up, although I could tell Spitfire was having a hard time dwelling on anything else. Whatever she was feeling, and I was really having a hard time telling, she seemed eager to suppress it and not let it get in the way of what was to come.

“You’re still injured,” I reminded her calmly.

“You said it yourself,” Spitfire argued. “You have sisters making their way there to help tend to the wounded, a few minutes with one of them and I’ll be at the peak of my game.”

“I… suppose so,” I admitted before giving a little shrug. “Well, if you insist, then I’m hardly going to say no to the extra help.”

“Well don’t forget, I’m still a Wonderbolt,” she pointed out, although I chose to keep silent about how debatable that was. “If Twilight Sparkle is involved in this, then it’s my duty to assist her, and by extension… you.”

“And you’re sure it’s not because you like us?” I questioned in a teasing voice. “Just a little bit, come on, you can admit it.”

Spitfire just rolled her eyes and turned to walk away; although I was sure I saw the barest hint of a smile as she did. Rainbow Dash had provided her with a tactical flight suit which she now wore, her goggles raised up to her forehead while her weapon hung from her utility belt. I frowned when I saw it, but I didn’t comment on it as she walked away, if she wanted to use Fleetfoot’s double ended sword then I wasn’t about to pass judgement. I returned to the arena of the Coliseum where the war council was meeting, it seemed like the best place since the Pantheon had been destroyed.

The council was made up of Rainbow Dash and all the Dragoon officers, although continuing to call them that at this point felt like I was behind the times. There were also a number of regular soldiers present, scattered around the rim of the arena so as not to get in the way of the meeting. Among their numbers I could see Cirrus and his friends, all wearing their shiny new armour and nodding politely at me. Returning the gesture, I made my way up to the centre of the arena where Rainbow Dash waited for me, for whatever annoying reason, she insisted that I be the one to relay our plans to the officers and take charge. I figured she was sick to death of it and wanted me to take over for a bit, so I obliged.

I wondered if Fluttershy had felt the same way when she had a position of authority thrust upon her without warning by Rainbow Dash. Only in that case, the reason for choosing her was obvious as only she could kill the walkers, why Rainbow Dash insisted on it being me and not one of her actual officers was a mystery. It had taken hours to remove Spoon Bender’s body from the Coliseum and the city at large; he was far too massive to be carried out, even by every single pegasi in Olympus. In the end they were forced to… cut him up into more manageable chunks. Naturally I chose not to stay and watch that, but it meant that we weren’t able to focus on the mission until the following morning… that and I didn’t know where Spoon Bender’s remains ended up, and had no real desire to find out.

We weren’t expecting things to be difficult, as always, some soldiers would remain behind to watch over the city in our absence, while the rest shifted out in their hundreds towards Cragsburg. Rainbow Dash and I would be escorting the first lot, with the rest coming in behind us at regular intervals. Rainbow wasn’t wrong when she told Blueblood that moving an army took a lot of time and coordination. Our hope was to reach the bridge between Brine and Cragsburg just after nightfall, although that might be pushing it, and reach Cragsburg by the next evening.

I had no doubt by that point the forces we’d already gathered, would both be there waiting for us, and might even have made a start in taking back the city. I was eager to get moving, and I could tell I wasn’t the only one with how readily the officers accepted my instructions and plans before setting out to get everypony rallied and ready to move out. Naturally Spitfire and Cirrus’ crew wanted to travel with us, and I was happy to oblige, neither were part of any particularly unit having only just volunteered, so it wasn’t as if they answered to anypony but Rainbow and I.

We did eventually get set off; it was quite an exciting moment, as Rainbow Dash and I stood together on the wall directly over the gate, looking out across the plaza at the sea of silver, ponies standing patiently in formation before marching off. One unit at a time exited through the gate and down the mountain trail, until the sea became a river, soldiers pulling carts of tents, equipment and food taking up the rear. Once we had overseen all the units leaving, Rainbow picked me up, and together we flew to the head of the winding snake that was only the beginning of Olympus’ contribution to the army. She set me down before landing at my side, and together we led the force down the Wyvern Heights and through the Lesser Pastures.

As we travelled, I looked off to the south, just about making out Brine in the distance, wondering if Holly had succeeded in exterminating the last of the walkers and made it out with her team. I was confident they would have made quick work of the monsters and might already be nearing Cragsburg on their chariots, if they were not already there lending their aid. As we walked, I asked Rainbow Dash if she could ‘feel’ the others. She seemed taken aback by the question, and for a moment regarded me as if I was probing into some rather intimate aspect of her life, before she seemed to tweak on to what I meant.

“Oh, yeah,” she confirmed in an odd tone, her armoured wings tinkling as she fluttered them. “It’s… weird, like I can sense them… like they’re right next to me. Only Twilight, Pinkie and Flutters though, not AJ… and not you for that matter.”

“I guess we still need our Elements,” I proposed, feeling a tiny bit envious, like I was somehow being excluded, despite how silly that notion was. “We still have time to figure out how we’re supposed to get them before Blueblood makes his move.”

“You think they’re going to help against him?” Rainbow asked, before pondering her own question. “Although… considering what mine was able to do to that S… Spoon Bender…”

Rainbow cut off a moment to laugh some more at his name before she was able to continue.

“Imagine the punch we could pack with all six,” she finished.

“Precisely,” I agreed. “It might just be the edge we need to turn this battle in our favour.”

“We both have armies now,” Rainbow pointed out.

“And Cogs is working on something to counter the Dreadnaught,” I picked up.

“And that just leaves Blueblood,” Rainbow muttered. “The Dick of Canterlot.”

“He was a Duke,” I reminded her.

“I know what I said.”

We didn’t make it as far as the bridge, which I was disappointed about, but Rainbow assured me we would still make it to Cragsburg by tomorrow if we really pushed ourselves. While we stopped at our very temporary camp, Rainbow Dash was finally able to have her moment of properly interacting with Spitfire. I imagine she wanted to appear cool and aloof to her, needless to say… she failed miserably. After very little time had passed, Spitfire was desperately looking for a swift exit from their conversation, which consisted mainly of Rainbow Dash drooling over her.

I felt a little bad for Rainbow Dash; she was having the time of her life, without even realising that her over eagerness to impress Spitfire was the very thing that was putting her off. I looked over to where Cirrus and his friends sat, all cringing in embarrassment; clearly they too were aware of how badly she was presenting herself. Luckily Rainbow was able to salvage things at the last moment, just as Spitfire insisted that she was tired and wanted to go sleep, when she brought up the fateful meeting with Firefly that led to getting her cutie mark.

This certainly got Spitfire’s interest, considering that Firefly had been her predecessor, but as Rainbow retold the story of how she got her cutie mark, I saw something dawning on Spitfire, as if the more Rainbow Dash spoke, the more she realised something life changing. After the story was finished, Rainbow was called away to help manage some of the troops, that left me with the stunned Spitfire.

“I… don’t… believe it,” she uttered, staring at the retreating form of Rainbow Dash. “All these years… it was her.”

“I don’t understand,” I jumped in, completely bewildered. “What was her?”

“Firefly… she always used to talk to me about this one filly,” Spitfire went on, still not tearing her eyes away. “Throughout all our training, she would say stuff like ‘keep that up and you might be as good as her one day’. We never knew who she was referring to, only that they once pulled off a sonic rainboom. I just… can’t believe it; a part of me always believed she was just made up, to be this impossible ideal for us to strive for.”

“It was Rainbow Dash,” I breathed in amazement, following Spitfire’s gaze, even though Rainbow was no longer in sight. “And Firefly never told you the truth?”

“I asked her about it a few times…” Spitfire replied. “Okay, a lot of times, but she never said anything… not until the last time I ever spoke to her. She was telling me what a good captain I had become, how I had become better than she ever was. I don’t know why I asked, maybe I just wanted to feel validated, but I asked if I was better than 'her'. She said she didn’t know, and... she sounded so sad when she did. I never got to see her again before she passed away, but something about it always ate at me, that my mentor… my idol had seen so much in this one pony, and I would never know if I had surpassed her or not.”

“Is that really so important?” I asked in a low voice.

“I don’t know,” Spitfire muttered back. “What I do know is it doesn’t matter now, we’re going into battle, and when you start to doubt yourself in battle, then you get yourself and others hurt. I became captain of the Wonderbolts, of all the cadets to rise up and take Firefly’s place, I was the one… and that’s enough for me.”

“Well, I’m glad to hear it,” I replied, giving a stretch as I realised just how tired I was. “Now is certainly not the time for personal drama.”

I split off from the group and went to find a quiet area to lie myself down, finding myself really wishing I had the same magical capabilities as Twilight, that grass bed spell would have come in handy. When morning came around, I found myself being kicked awake by Rainbow Dash, who was loudly saying something about being unable to find a bowl of warm water, so this was the best she could come up with on the spot. Then after magically planting her face into the dirt by grabbing hold of her helmet, before being found by a group of bewildered soldiers, we were ready to grow up again and carry on.

Things became a little grim as we moved onwards, and I knew exactly why as we crossed over the bridge that was completely deserted of Children of the Earth guards. I was replaying my last journey this way, over and over in my mind, how I had rushed through the country side to rescue Fluttershy. Ignoring the pain in my limbs or how cold my drenched clothes made me feel, even ignoring the fact that I was charging head first into one of the most dangerous places in Panchea, without a single friend to help me.

Well this time I marched with confidence as I stared ahead with a steely gaze, hearing the satisfying sound of soldiers following close behind me. As the grass began to thin and ash started to swirl up around us in the moderate breeze, I felt my heart racing at what lay ahead of us, and as we ascended the crest of the last hill… it all came perfectly into view. The city of Cragsburg spread out before us, surrounded by its great stone walls, illuminated by the fire pits that lined it… although the orange glow coming from within was a bit too bright to be down purely to those. I saw plumes of smoke rising from all around the city, heard the sounds of shouting and explosions and the clashing of metal, but what I saw outside the city was what filled me with elation.

The mighty wall had been completely breached; the gates were quite simply gone, as a large section had been torn down to allow a massive army to pour in from the great camp that dominated the wasteland directly outside… our army. I quickly pulled out my spyglass and scanned around the camp, the ponies down there looked so… happy, like they were celebrating something. Turning my attention to the breach in the wall, I saw there were more soldiers of various factions coming out than going in, they appeared so casual as if… as if the battle was already won.

I turned, beaming at Rainbow Dash, only to see her with a sour look on her face.

“They finished it without us?!” she exclaimed in a disappointed voice. “I’m gonna kill AJ!”

“Come on, let’s go down,” I told her before raising my voice to address the soldiers behind us. “Forward everypony, let’s wrap this up!”

There was a cheer from the ones closes to the front, which slowly rippled all the way down the snaking convoy. Turning back towards the city I started walking forward once more, my pace considerably faster as I became more and more eager to get down there and confirm that we really had taken the city and the Children of the Earth were no more. I won’t lie that a small part of me was annoyed in the same way Rainbow had been, I had been quite looking forward to the idea of making them pay for all they had done, and while I knew I had played quite an important part in gathering the army, not being directly involved in the fight itself felt a bit anticlimactic.

As we crossed the plains to the sprawling camp of our allies, I could see ponies stopping to look and point at us. They didn’t immediately rejoice, perhaps unsure whether we were indeed there to aid them and not their enemies, but once word spread that we were there as friends, we found ourselves entering the camp to cheers. The soldiers themselves split off into their separate units and stood in formation just outside the camp, while Rainbow and I entered to get an assessment of what was going on, so we would know if they were needed immediately for something, or if they could start expanding the base to accommodate the increase in numbers.

As we walked through, we were greeted and cheered on by dozens of ponies. There were soldiers from every group in the camp, Liberators, Arcane Order, the Rebellion and the Celestial Sisterhood, all mingling with one another, with only their armour to differentiate them. I even saw quite a few faces I recognised, some ponies even greeting me by name, one particularly good point was when a pegasus mare ran up to us, not to see me, but to see Rainbow Dash.

“Marshal!” Squadron Leader Gale greeted in a relieved tone, giving a firm salute. “My deepest apologies for my failure at Brine.”

“I don’t care about that!” Rainbow exclaimed, looking equally relieved at the sight of her. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”

“I’m afraid I was the only one,” she said rather miserably. “Those blasted Children of the Earth drove us into the town, and we were ganged up on by them and the walkers… I injured my wing and had to barricade myself inside the church.”

I saw one of her wings was indeed bandaged up, just as I did, she turned to me.

“Thank you for sending those crusaders in,” she told me gratefully. “They were able to clear out the town, and I doubt I would be alive, let alone here now, if it wasn’t for them.”

“You’re welcome, I’m glad we were able to help somepony,” I replied. “Where are all the leaders? And what’s the status on the city?”

“They’re all gathered in the assembly area,” she informed us. “In the centre of the camp, I hear the assault went spectacularly well.”

We requested that she return to the solders and give them the green light to start pitching the tents, before we bid her farewell. Making our way through the rest of the camp, we arrived at the assembly area. It was a wide open space, directly facing the place where the city gates once were, in the middle was a large fire, while around it was gathered a number of ponies. All our friends were there, Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Applejack, there was also Sufferthorn, Hex, Typhoon, and Holly, as well as a number of other officers who I wasn’t overly familiar with.

“Rarity! Rainbow!” our friends exclaimed upon seeing us.

There was a moment of hugging and greeting and asking how everypony was, before we got back into a professional mind-set and took our places around the fire.

“Well I think it’s safe to say that our plan was an overwhelming success,” I began, as I looked around at the different faces. “I really can’t begin to say just how happy I am that everypony came together like this.”

“It really is… impressive,” Typhoon admitted, I wondered if he was trying to resist smiling. “With the addition of the Dragoons, our numbers will be phenomenal.”

“Actually, we don’t call ourselves Dragoons anymore,” Rainbow informed him. “We’re done with that crap.”

“On that note, I would like to add, off record of course,” Hex began. “That the Arcane Order won’t be a thing much longer either.”

“What about you Typhoon?” Holly asked casually, he seemed to ponder it for a moment.

“It… is clear to me that we split with the Rebellion for… baseless reasons,” he said at last, giving a curt nod towards Twilight. “I am satisfied that the Liberators are no longer a necessity, that we can re-join with our forebears.”

“So that’s it then?” Pinkie questioned, smiling around at everypony. “We’re all one big happy Rebellion?”

“Well…” Sufferthorn stepped in, sounding unsure. “While I’m happy that all our forces be brought under one banner; I don’t feel we should be the Rebellion anymore. After all, we have our independence; we’re not rebelling for anything anymore.”

“So… a new name,” Applejack concluded thoughtfully, before her tone turned odd and forced. “Ah wonder who could pick a new name…”

“Yeah…” Rainbow uttered, dragging out the single word, while I noticed her winking at AJ from the corner of my eye. “Who could pick a new name for us?”

“Well it would have to be somepony who’s had ties to all the groups,” Sufferthorn pointed out, her tone giving away that she was in on whatever was going on.

“And by ties, you mean someone who had involvement with each group?” Hex questioned. “Somepony who interacted with them on a deep level.”

Sufferthorn nodded, while all the ponies who had spoken began humming thoughtfully to themselves… in a very in synch, rehearsed way.

“What is going on he…” I began, feeling really uncomfortably, only to be cut off by Typhoon’s frustrated sigh.

“They want you to pick the name,” he said flatly, rolling his eyes when they started telling him off for giving the game away.

“Okay, seriously,” I cut in, feeling a bit out of the loop. “Why do you want me to pick the name? What are you all playing at here?”

“Well obviously we need a new leader,” Rainbow Dash pointed out.

“We have Sufferthorn,” I argued.

“I’m a marshal,” she responded. “Not a politician.”

“Well we have Typhoon,” I went on. “We have Hex, Holly, even you Rainbow Dash.”

“I told you I am not a leader,” Rainbow insisted.

"I'm... really not qualified for that sort of job," Hex replied uncomfortably.

“The Celestial Sisterhood will remain as its own independent group,” Holly stated flatly. “We will lend our numbers for this battle, but when it is over, we will return to where we belong.”

I noticed Fluttershy looking a tiny bit disappointed by that, but she didn’t argue.

“And I…” Typhoon began in a disgruntled. “Well… it was you after all who showed me what an incompetent leader I made.”

I wondered just how much he believed that himself, and how much he had to be convinced prior to this meeting to step down from his position.

“Well what about Twilight,” I countered, satisfied that I had won. “She has more experience in politics than any of us.”

“True, but I’m also from Equestria,” Twilight reminded me, making me feel slightly stupid at having missed such an obvious pitfall. “If I took your place, then that would pretty much defile everything the Rebellion worked for.”

“It’s not my place!” I insisted, starting to get angry now. “What makes you all think I can be a leader?!”

“You mean besides the fact that you came up with the plan to bring us all together?” Rainbow answered.

“Coming up with a plan is nothing if there aren’t ponies who can carry…” I tried to say.

“You also travelled around all of Panchea yourself, just so you could make sure the plan went off without a hitch,” Pinkie cut in.

“Well I was hardly going to sit on my a…”

“I know in my case, I never would have convinced Typhoon to join without your help,” Fluttershy added. “I doubt I would even have saved my sisters from Hi… from Starlight Glimmer if you weren’t there to help. I’m sure the other girls would say your help was invaluable to fulfilling the plan as well.”

“But I…”

“Now Sugarcube, don’t argue,” Applejack interrupted, walking over and placing a hoof on my shoulder. “Ah know you, everything you’ve done since you came back, you’ve done out of the goodness of your heart, because you always believed it was the right thing to do, that it was the best thing for everypony. Believe me when ah say that nopony here would make a better leader than you, because that is the honest truth.”

I didn’t reply to that, partly because I was sure if I did, I would just get cut off again, but also because there was nothing I could say.

“I know it can seem daunting Rarity,” Twilights said sympathetically. “But you’re not being asked to sit on a throne and rule over every little thing until the end of your days, we just need you to take up this mantle until Blueblood is beaten. Because when he comes, all these soldiers are going to look to somepony… somepony who can inspire them the same way you always inspired us.”

“So what do you say Rarity?” Sufferthorn asked calmly, no doubt confident that I wouldn’t refuse them after that. “Will you do the honours of naming Panchea’s new army?”

I didn’t have to think about it for too long, the name was obvious; after all, we had all been united together as one.

“The Union,” I replied simply. “Where once we were all separated, now we’ve been brought together as one, we are the Union.”

The others nodded approvingly, and once I was satisfied they weren’t going to be springing any more unwelcome surprises on me, I got to the main issue at hand.

“So, Cragsburg,” I said at last. “Things are looking quite positive.”

“You can thank your friend for that,” Typhoon told me, tilting his head towards Applejack.

“You should have seen it Rarity!” Pinkie jumped in… literally, pulling me close as she waved her hoof through the air, like she was pointing out stars in the sky. “It was just after Hexy and I arrived with the ponies from Arclight, Twilight had just received the signal and our forces were standing by. Then, out of nowhere… boom!”

Pinkie started into a very theatrical representation of how the entire event went down.

“The wall was blown to smithereens!” she declared. “Applejack had rallied all the common ponies to rise up against their insane overlords, and together they opened a path for our forces, while also striking strategically at key locations all across the city! The Children of the Earth were thrown into disarray; they didn’t know what to do! They tried to mount a defence and keep us out, but then who should come marching over the hills…”

Pinkie produced a horn from nowhere and gave it a victorious trumpet.

“Typhoon and his Liberators!” Pinkie continued. “The Children of the Earth didn’t stand a chance, they were creamed! And I don’t use that metaphor lightly, because the icing on that delicious cream cake was none other than our own Fluttershy, in all her adorable glory!”

“In short,” Twilight jumped in, smirking at Pinkie’s recollection. “We won.”

“Well, not entirely,” Applejack argued. “But we will pretty soon, really it’s all down to the ponies livin’ here. You asked me to sniff out discontent, well let me tell you, the city was rife with it. Those poor ponies were just waitin’ for a chance to fight back, and when ah told them that we were expectin’ so many to come and help… well ah was strugglin’ to stop them from startin’ the revolution then and there.”

“So what’s left to be done?” I asked, although I had a faint idea since she hadn’t been mentioned yet.

A slightly grim silence descended around the circle, confirming my beliefs.

“The city is pretty much ours,” Applejack went on. “But there’re still plenty of Children left, and they’re all held up inside the keep. They’re desperate now, usin’ everything they’ve got to stop us from gettin’ in and finding that witch Gaia.”

“We’ve pulled back a little,” Typhoon went on. “They aren’t going anywhere, so we thought it best to take a breather and come up with the best strategy that won’t involve dozens of soldiers needlessly dying.”

“Well we should move up to the front lines,” Rainbow suggested. “I want to see all this for myself… also I am not letting any more fighting happen unless I’m there.”

“Seriously Sugarcube?” Applejack asked in a dull voice as she started after Rainbow.

“You promised me AJ!” Rainbow cried back in a mock tone of betrayal. “How can I trust you won’t launch another attack behind my back?”

Typhoon just rolled his eyes before following after them, with Hex not far behind, their bickering continuing. Holly turned to Fluttershy and said that she was going to check over the sisters who were already hard at work tending to the injured, that included soldiers, civilians and even castrated slaves who had been recovered, and were in the worst condition of all. It was harrowing for anypony to see what had become of them, each one of them having gone through experiences similar to my own, only theirs didn’t end after a few days, but dragged on for weeks, or months in some cases. As soul crushing as it was for anypony to come across one, or see them escorted from the city to the medical tents, it did spur the soldiers on to bring down the monsters responsible.

The crusaders themselves had not intended to fight in the Cragsburg invasion, we had already accepted that, but when they saw the true nature of our opponents for themselves, they took it upon themselves to fight as they would fight any monster. Fluttershy turned to me, but I told her to go on after Rainbow and Applejack, I saw the look Sufferthorn was giving me and knew I had other business to attend to. Once she was gone, Sufferthorn, Twilight and Pinkie all came in close, the latter two glancing nervously at the former who looked deeply troubled.

“Twilight told me what happened,” she muttered after a long, tense silence. “She also told me that you advised leaving him there until all the forces were gathered.”

I quickly glanced between Pinkie and Twilight; clearly she had taken my advice on informing Twilight first. I was glad for that, as I had no doubt Twilight handled it with considerably more tact than Pinkie would have.

“I’m sorry Sufferthorn,” I told her sincerely. “But you know as well as I do that he would want us to put the mission first.”

“I do,” she replied, surprisingly not as angry as I had imagined she would be. “But now everypony’s here, you can focus on finishing this fight, so let me go after my brother.”

I felt torn, I wanted to go with them and help get Stranglethorn, but by the same token, I wanted to be there when we put an end to Gaia and the Children of the Earth. In the end, I knew there would be no talking Sufferthorn out of it, it had most certainly taken a huge amount of self-control to hold off for this long, so I would just have to hope they could manage without me.

“Alright,” I told her calmly. “I’ll stay and help sweep things up here, Pinkie can open the portal as soon as she’s ready. Twilight, you’ll go with her, won’t you?”

“Of course,” she assured me, before turning to Sufferthorn, her voice suddenly stern. “Once we get inside there, you need to stick beside me and do as I say no matter what, understand? I’ll do everything I can to protect you, but chaos magic is dangerous stuff for ordinary ponies, and we’re going to be completely surrounded by it.”

“I understand,” Sufferthorn replied, clearly impatient to get moving. “Really, can we please just go get my brother out of there?”

Twilight opened her mouth, but thought better of it, just sighing as she gave a nod to Pinkie Pie.

“Good luck,” I told them all, before I turned and started walking in the direction of the others.

I thought it best not to stick around, if I waited until Pinkie had the portal open, I might find it much harder to not simply join them… but I’d made my decision. Twilight had to go, as she had the best resistance to chaos besides Pinkie Pie, and her magic would help her even further, Sufferthorn would never allow herself to be left behind, anymore might put too much pressure on Twilight and that wasn’t fair. Stranglethorn might have been my friend, but Sufferthorn was his sister, if anypony should go after him, it should be her.

Besides, I would be helping with something just as important, if not more so. Now that my mind was made up, I found myself looking forward to defeating Gaia much more, somepony might have called the thoughts I was having sadistic, but I thought it was only fitting after what she put me and so many others through. As I made my way up to the wall, staring up in awe at just how unassailable it was, it made it all the more incredible that Applejack and her gang of freedom fighters had managed to blow such a large gap in it.

The gulf in the wall was almost V shaped, and it created such a wide space for our own army to enter through into the city, that I was thankful it was on the south side of the wall. Hopefully it wouldn’t end up coming back to bite up us in the flanks when Blueblood’s army came from the north. I was so distracted by idea of the breach being the downfall in our defence, as well as the large number of ponies still filtering in and out of the city, that I almost missed it entirely. Almost, but it would have taken a considerable amount for me to miss those emerald eyes, peering at me from behind a great chunk of stone that had been blown out of the wall.

“Spike?!” I uttered, both amazed and bewildered to see the baby dragon there of all places.

He quickly shushed me, reminding me that he was most likely hiding from all the soldiers… or more accurately, from all the ponies. I looked about to make sure nopony had noticed my outburst, before trotting over to the boulder, slipping around to where Spike was standing, the both of us now hidden from sight.

“Spike, what ever are you doing here?” I asked, before quickly catching myself on. “Not that I’m not happy to see you. Really, I’m delighted, just surprised.”

“I’m happy to see you too,” he replied. “I… really didn’t think I would. As for why I’m here… I had nowhere else to go.”

“Nowhere else?” I repeated, frowning. “But Spike, what about your clan? Didn’t you go to see them?”

Spike didn’t reply, just stared down at his feet with a look of deep sadness. I very quickly realised what must have happened, and clapped my hooves to my mouth in shock.

“Oh, Spike…” I breathed. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay,” he tried to say, although he didn’t put much heart into it. “I just went back there and… and they were gone. No trace of what happened or where they went, maybe they just moved on to build a new nest or… or something.”

“And… you can’t find out where they might have gone?” I pressed in a hopeful tone.

“I tried,” he told me. “I’ve been searching for a while… I came by here a couple times, but I must say, this is all new. What’s going on exactly?”

“War my dear,” I told him with a sigh, sitting down and pulling him into an embrace. “I’m sorry about your clan, what will you do if…”

I didn’t finish that sentence, but he knew exactly what I was going to say anyway.

“I could always head further north,” he proposed. “See if I can’t find a new clan to join… that won’t be fun.”

“Well I wouldn’t advise that,” I warned him, to which he gave a curious look. “There is an army waiting up north, they’re coming here soon, which is why all these ponies have come to stop it. It’s an army made up of… abominations; intent on wiping us all out if we don’t submit ourselves to the rule of the mad pony behind it.”

“That sounds awful!” Spike exclaimed, before brightening up considerably as a thought occurred to him. “Wait, maybe I can help you.”

“Help?” I repeated, unsure how he meant.

“Yeah!” he said excitedly. “I’m not sure how, but if I do something to help you guys win, maybe ponies won’t hate me for being a dragon, and I can live among them.”

“Well…” I began hesitantly, I liked the sound of it but I was worried it wouldn’t work out quite like Spike was envisioning. “I suppose it’s worth a shot, why don’t you come with me? I’m going to go see my friends now about our next move, and don’t worry; you’ll be safe with me.”

Spike looked reluctant, but eager at the same time, clearly excited at the prospect of living out his fantasies of being accepted among ponies, but still remembering what happened at Timber. After a little more convincing, I got him to hop up onto my back, as I stepped out from behind our hiding place and started into the city. We got quite a few odd looks as we traversed through the centre of Cragsburg, but looks were all we got, as the soldiers and citizens were too busy or preoccupied to give much thought to a baby dragon being accompanied by a pony.

Spike had been very tense when we first revealed ourselves, more so when we started drawing some gazes, but when nopony tried to have him lynched or chased away, he started to calm down. Perhaps the best moment for him was when I ran into Hammerhead and his friends. As I turned down a side street, I saw him taking a seat with his back against the wall of a ruined building, he looked exhausted. As I approached, I saw that they were trying to clear access to the interior of the house, where a family were trapped during the fighting.

When I got close enough to deduce this from their pleas for help and the stallions' reassurances, I trotted the last few metres and started helping to shift rubble with my magic. Hammerhead and the others didn’t stop what they were doing to say hi or question my presence; we just got on with the job at hand. As we worked, Spike jumped off my back and started lending some assistance, being surprisingly strong for his size, and his claws making excellent digging implements. Once the task was complete and we were able to safely pull the ponies out, two of Hammerhead’s friends escorted them away to take them for medical attention.

“Hey again Rarity,” Hammerhead greeted casually, as he and his remaining friends all sat down again, wiping his own brow of sweat. “Glad to see you made it, so is that everypony we’re expecting?”

“There will be some more Dra…. er, ex-Dragoon units arriving throughout tomorrow,” I informed him.

“Sounds like a lot,” he commented. “You did really good, and thanks for the hoof… or magic, you too little guy.”

Spike jumped slightly at being addressed, he glanced at Hammerhead nervously, as if he was expecting him to add ‘now get lost before I take your hide’, but Hammerhead was acting like the sight of a dragon was nothing new.

“Spike has offered us help in the upcoming battle,” I informed Hammerhead, deciding to test the waters. “We haven’t decided what he can do yet.”

“Well he’s pretty tough,” Hammerhead said thoughtfully, before taking his maul and passing it across to Spike. “Here, give that a few swings.”

Spike looked warily at the weapon for a moment before accepting; when he did, he just sort of stood there, unsure what to do. He gave it a few test swings, usually putting so much force behind it, that the weapon ended up carrying him along with it. Hammerhead chuckled a bit before suggesting that he stuck to fire, and taking his maul back when Spike offered it to him. After that, they were just about ready to head on until Spike, in a moment of bravery, called after him.

“Uh, you don’t care that I’m, you know, a dragon?” he asked, fretting as he rung his claws together.

“Kid, I grew up in Cragsburg,” Hammerhead replied patiently. “I learnt that dragons won’t give you any trouble, and in return, you don’t give them trouble. Are you here to give us trouble?”

“Of course not!” Spike answered quickly, sounding aghast at the idea.

“Well then,” Hammerhead said simply. “Welcome to Cragsburg, hope you like it. Anyone gives you trouble, you come find us and we’ll sort them out.”

With that, they turned and continued on their way, looking for things they needed to help with, leaving Spike staring after them slightly slack jawed.

“He… he was so nice!” Spike said in an amazed voice.

“Most ponies are Spike,” I replied, smiling at his reaction. “When you finally get to see them.”

We quickly continued on, making our way through the final streets until we saw a blockade of soldiers set up directly ahead of us, our friends waiting just behind it, talking animatedly. When they saw us approaching, Rainbow Dash waved me over, so I levitated Spike onto my back and trotted over to them.

“Where’re the others?” Rainbow asked, before raising an eyebrow when she saw who sat on my back. “Is that…”

“A baby dragon!” Fluttershy exclaimed, barrelling through Rainbow and Applejack so she could run up beside me and lean right up into Spike’s face. “He’s so cute.”

“Oh, uh, thanks… I think,” Spike replied, pulling back from Fluttershy intense stare.

“Oh, I didn’t know dragons could talk,” Fluttershy voiced aloud.

“Ladies, can we stay focused?” Typhoon asked a little irritably. “Rarity, we have an idea, your friends think you’ll be quite supportive of it.”

“Basically us six fly behind the enemy lines with a squadron of pegasi,” Rainbow began, indicating herself, Applejack, Fluttershy and I, presumably including Pinkie and Twilight. “Typhoon keeps their attention focused forward by pressing the front, and once they're distracted, we launch a surprise attack from the rear. We’ll eliminate the defenders and ride the momentum, storm the keep while the enemy’s at their weakest, and finish Gaia off once and for all.”

“I love it,” I replied, returning her devious smirk. “When can we begin?”

“Pretty soon Sugarcube,” Applejack replied. “We just sent an envoy off to round up the pegasi, and we’re still waitin’ on Twi and Pinkie, figured they’d be with you.”

“They can’t make this one,” I informed them. “They had… another matter to attend to, Sufferthorn as well.”

“Oh, uh, well that’s fine,” Rainbow replied quickly. “The four of us will still be enough; six would have just been overkill.”

We didn’t have to wait long before the pegasi flew in, most wearing Dragoon armour, while a few wore the slightly heavier Rebel variant. With the final details of the plan clarified, Rainbow Dash scooped Applejack up and flew her away to the vantage point, while Fluttershy carried Spike, after he insisted on being allowed to help and I couldn’t talk him out of it. I waited about with Typhoon for a moment while I counted the seconds for Rainbow to return for me. Hex had returned to the camp, so we were left alone, which turned out to be quite awkward.

“Thank you,” I said after an agonisingly long and painful silence. “For not making things more difficult than they had to be.”

Typhoon just grunted in a neutral response, not looking my way.

“Seriously,” I insisted, sure I shouldn’t be pushing it. “We really needed your help here, and… I’m glad we don’t have to be enemies anymore.”

He didn’t respond at all to that, but I did notice him tense up, clearly put off by my attempt at being friendly. Luckily I was spared any more awkwardness when Rainbow returned and picked me up, flying me away from Typhoon towards the high roof of what appeared to be some kind of factory, where the others were lying flat, waiting for the moment to move out. The building was tall, and close enough to the elite sector that we had a clear view of the bulky keep and the spacious areas surrounding it, and all the soldiers packed into the area. They were all equipped for battle and looked ready for anything… well, we were about to put that to the test.

“I love missions like this,” Rainbow murmured in a cheery tone, looking towards Applejack. “Hey AJ, do you remember Major Stripes, at the battle of Olympus?”

“Do ah?” Applejack replied with a snort of laughter. “Guy had a stick so far up his butt... it would explain the way he walked around.”

Rainbow joined in the quiet laughter, while Fluttershy and I just glanced at each other in confusion.

“Oh, uh, Stripes was an Equestrian officer in the war,” Applejack explained. “Had all these stuck up views that unicorns were mightier than everypony else.”

“So another Arcana,” I muttered with a roll of my eyes.

“Pretty much,” Applejack confirmed. “But the thing is, when you lead a unit made up entirely of unicorns who don’t have any respect for the abilities of their enemies, you become pretty open to certain kinds of attack…”

“Like air assaults…” Rainbow elaborated.

“At night…” Applejack added.

“When you’re under heavy assault from earth ponies, who can shrug off anything you throw at them,” Rainbow finished.

“Needless to say, if Major Stripes had been typical of Equestrian officers,” Applejack went on. “The war would have been a much shorter affair.”

Suddenly there was a lot of noise drifting up from the division between the territory still held by the Children of the Earth, and the territory we had taken. Looking down, we saw the enemy soldiers moving into position, focusing all their attention on the front where Typhoon was engaging them at.

“And now history repeats itself,” Rainbow declared with a smirk, before standing up and turning to address the unit. “Alright everypony, move out. Stay high until we get all the way around behind, then… basically just follow my lead and you won’t go wrong.”

With that, she took a running start off the roof of the factory and flew into the night sky. The rest of the pegasi started following suit, Fluttershy waiting until the end, with Spike still mounted on her back. Applejack and I were approached by the two burliest pegasi, who were assigned to airlift us into the fray. We quickly climbed aboard their backs and both pegasi took off, Fluttershy close behind, taking up the rear of the party. We flew swiftly and silently through the air, all the way around the keep before turning and dipping down low.

The pegasi all darted in, dispatching the lookouts prowling the rear end of the city wall and the roof of the keep one at a time, taking things slowly and stealthily. My own ride swooped down and landed behind a tower on the main body of the keep roof, I poked my head around and saw two guards standing about a dozen metres away. They were positioned next to the merlons, looking out over the edge and off into the distance where they could no doubt see the assault occurring, their crossbows were at the ready if the invaders pushed too far.

As soon as I saw that the other lookouts on the towers were taken out, I scurried out of my hiding place and started towards the pair. I pulled two of my knives out and threw one by hoof, while holding onto the other. It struck the closest guard right in the back of the head, and as he dropped and the other began turning around, I picked up the pace, leaping at the last moment so I fell down hard upon the guard, bringing my second dagger down into his neck. Looking around, I saw that any remaining lookouts had been dealt with, and the pegasi were already moving to the edges of the roof, getting into position for dropping down behind the enemy lines.

I trotted over beside Applejack, who had a pair of ropes which she was in the process of securing, as well as two familiar looking metal gadgets.

“Alright Sugarcube,” she began, holding one out for me. “You ever used one of these before?”

“I have,” I assured her, taking it and attaching it to prove my claim.

We looked over at Rainbow Dash who had one of her wings raised up, temporarily free of her element, so she could spread the feathers out like digits. She began folding them down while mouthing numbers, to indicate she was counting down the seconds until we should all descend. When she reached two, Applejack and I pulled ourselves up over the edge of the wall, lowering ourselves slightly. When the countdown was finished, we allowed ourselves to start sliding, while the pegasi simply fluttered down. We still moved slowly and quietly in order to get the most effect when the enemy inevitably realised we were there.

I slid down quite quickly, feeling a little flutter of anxiety in my chest, but generally feeling much more comfortable doing it the second time round. I did notice as we got lower, I was passing quite close to the very same window I had entered when I came here to rescue Fluttershy. Applejack and I reached the bottom, more or less at the same time as one another, although the pegasi were already waiting there for us. Once we were on steady ground again, Applejack drew her claymore, and I followed suit with my own sword. Rainbow Dash nodded as all the soldiers drew their weapons, before leading the way around the side of the keep into the main courtyard, where the enemy was fighting hard to keep Typhoon’s forces at bay.

Rainbow Dash gave a short, sharp whistle as a signal to charge, before swooping into the fray. All the pegasi followed suit, while Applejack charged in as well, managing to keep up, while even beating a few of them to the punch. The surprise attack had gone perfectly, the Children of the Earth turned, only to receive swift death. They started trying to fight back, but the pegasi moved too fast for them, and always flew just out of reach unless they were moving in with an attack of their own. Neither did they stand a chance against Applejack, who ploughed through their ranks, taking on three at a time just on her own, and not even struggling.

Of course once their attention was directed at us, that was when Typhoon really started his assault. I didn’t have to do an awful lo,t as the keep's last line of defence was crushed between the two overpowering forces. A couple of enemies broke off from the rest, trying to get back to the keep so they wouldn’t be fighting two fronts, but that was when I moved in and began duelling. The startled ponies made for easy opponents to outmanoeuvre, and any that were too far away, I disabled from range with my knives.

I had clearly become overconfident in myself and our strategy, I wasn’t paying enough attention when a furious looking stallion came rushing up to me, screaming bloody murder while spittle flew from his mouth. He carried a flail, funny enough, only this time he was able to get one lucky hit in, and that was all he needed. As he charged me, he was swinging the chain in a wide arc, so that when I turned to face him, he was already swinging it at me. The spikey, metal head struck me in the shoulder, causing me to drop my blade as I stumbled back, hissing in pain.

He swung again and again, I managed to keep stepping back out of range, but then I ended up tripping on a particularly uneven section of cobblestone, resulting in me falling down and sprawling into a perfect bludgeoning position. He raised the flail high once more, ready to bring it down on me, but then I was saved, not by Applejack, Rainbow Dash or one of the other soldiers… but by Spike, who sprinted up and came to a skidding stop beside me. He took a deep breath in before the stallion could react, and ejected a gout of acid green fire.

The plume of fire hit the pony directly in the chest, I half expected his armour to protect him for the most part, maybe his robes would singe or even catch alight. What I did not expect, was that the stallion would drop his flail in an instant and start backing up, screaming in terror as the unknown armour that I had likened to granite, that we had never been able to dent or scratch, began to shine bright orange as it started warping out of shape. The stallion began writhing about, trying to wrench the breast plate from his body, but as his gauntlets made contact with it, the heat or the dragon fire just spread to them.

Really, the armour just appeared to be slowly turning molten and dripping off him, but the amount of heat it was conducting must have been burning right through the pony’s flesh, which would explain his horribly drawn out screams. I couldn’t help but feel pity for him, just because it was such an awful way to go, so I decided to show him mercy and put him out of his misery, by levitating one of my knives and launching it through his head. After that, I quickly shuffled back from the collapsing body and retrieved all my weapons, so that neither them nor I got touched by the molten metal.

“I just killed a pony!” Spike uttered in absolute horror, staring with wide terrified eyes at the now still and silent body.

“No,” I began, sitting up and pulling him into a one legged embrace. “You saved a pony… me. I killed him, so don’t blame yourself.”

Fluttershy hurried over to us, they had really only come as back up, not to get involved in the brutal and bloody business. There wasn’t much left for us to do though, the fight was pretty much over, the last stragglers either fighting to the last desperate breath, or surrendering and begging for mercy. While Typhoon was most certainly not eager to show them any, I felt a bit more lenient, although I emphasised that they were to be put in chains and would be punished appropriately when this was all over.

Spike’s moment of heroics certainly got the interest of everypony, if only because up to that point, nothing had been able to get through that strange armour. We couldn’t dwell on it long however, we needed to keep moving and storm the keep before the remaining Children of the Earth could mount any sort of defensive, although at this point I was convinced that they were wasting their own time as well as ours. The Children of the Earth were finished, they had lost the ponies under their rule and the only location they held any power, there just weren’t enough of them left to fight back, and even if those numbers were threatening in any way, we had the luxury of just leaving them to starve in their keep.

Of course that was never an option I would accept, for the same reason I had put that stallion down. If we had to kill, we would do it quickly and as painlessly as we could… Gaia might be an exception, but we would cross that bridge when we came to it. There was also the problem that there might be more civilians in the keep being kept against their will, or more likely, slaves who needed to be liberated. The initial idea was to use a battering ram to break through the doors, but then Applejack came up with a much simpler idea…

“Can ah try somethin’?” she asked Typhoon, walking right past him towards the doors before he answered.

She looked them up and down for a moment, humming to herself as she contemplated whatever it was she was planning on doing. Then out of nowhere, she spun around and bucked them as hard as she could, the wood smashing where she struck, while the doors themselves were flung open, sending several ponies flying, who had presumably been pressed up against it to help reinforce. Without giving them a second to recover, Applejack turned towards the keep once more and stormed right in, not even bothering to draw her claymore this time, as she lay into the fallen ponies with her bare hooves.

Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Spike and I followed after her; we didn’t even have to stop to help her as she had everything pretty much under control. Typhoon stopped briefly to split up the soldiers, ordering most to stay posted outside, while hand picking some to follow him in behind us. Once through the entrance hall, we started filing into the audience chamber where I had first seen Gaia, when she was tormenting Fluttershy. The throne was now empty however, and as we started making our way up, I noticed Fluttershy staring around us with wide, fearful eyes. I opened my mouth to try and say something comforting, but I was distracted by the sounds of clopping hooves, signalling the approach of more enemies.

They emerged from the doors behind the big ugly throne, and started hurrying towards us with no real strategy in mind. Almost barbaric in the way they uttered their war cries, and swung their weapons with all brawn and no finesse or technique. We had them vastly outclassed; I doubt any of the ponies on our side were even injured in the short confrontation. One came at me with a Warhammer, swinging it down over his head; I easily twisted around him, piercing into his side with my rapier through one of the weak points in his armour.

I looked around in time to see Fluttershy knock one in the side of the head with her mace. He didn’t burst into holy fire, so it looked like the weapon didn’t classify them as real monsters… the weapon must have been malfunctioning. It was the one Fluttershy hit that we picked on; being the most aware after the fight was finished. Applejack knelt down beside him, grabbed one of his forelegs and twisted around his back until he was crying out in pain.

“Where’s Gaia?” she asked in a growl of a voice.

“I… I’ll never say… traitor!” the pony shouted back in a strained voice, trying not to show how much pain they were in.

Applejack upped her pressure, and there was a loud snap from the pony’s leg, she wasn’t able to resist the urge to scream after that.

“Gaia!” Applejack shouted, grabbing her other foreleg and twisting it into position. “Where is she? Now!”

“Dungeons!” the pony shouted, her voice now high pitched and trembling.

Applejack released her instantly, deciding not to harm her any further, she was fair like that. She wouldn’t continue to torture if the pony agreed to answer the question, not like they had done even after I had told them every little thing.

“Alright,” Typhoon began, looking briefly at the mare without much care. “If you want to go after the leader, we’ll search the rest of the keep.”

“Sure thing,” Applejack agreed, turning to look at me and the others. “Come on girls… uh, and Spike, if you want. Ah still remember the way to the dungeons from here.”

It made sense that Applejack should lead, it was her and Pinkie Pie who had come to the dungeons themselves to rescue me, Rainbow Dash had been too busy holding off the guards to keep our escape open. So with Pinkie not present, we all fell into line behind Applejack, as she led us up onto the dais and behind the throne to one of the doors leading off to a side corridor. I stopped only briefly to stare at the spot where I had been dragged to, and Terra castrated me while Gaia watched on with her malicious grin. Fluttershy noticed the distant look on my face and placed a hoof on my shoulder, in the same way I often did to her when I tried to be comforting. I met her gaze and saw her staring back at me with big, apologetic eyes brimming with sadness and regret; I reached up and rubbed her hoof gratefully, before forcing myself onwards after the others.

We didn’t have far to travel until we reached the room where Applejack had been waiting with my recovered possessions following Pinkie’s rescue, it was only there that we encountered another pair of guards. They were flanking the staircase that led down into the cell block where I had been held, and they were shaking profusely as we appeared in view. Applejack and Rainbow Dash looked at each other briefly, before giving a little nod to one another and starting to walk calmly up to the guards. They were frozen in terror as my friends drew near, they couldn’t even bring themselves to use the pikes in their hooves, even though Applejack and Rainbow were expressing no hostility in the way they moved and appeared to be defenceless.

Once the pair of them got close enough, they reached out, each of them grabbing one of the guards’ weapons and pulling them right out of their trembling hooves, before tossing them to the floor. They suddenly leapt forward, each grabbing the head of the guard they had disarmed, before bringing them crashing into one another. With both guards incapacitated, we all marched in single file, stepping right over their bodies as we passed through the threshold and started making our way down the staircase. I tried very hard to keep my breathing under control as we made our way down the stairs and started walking down the hallway. I tried not to count the individual cells as we passed by, because I knew very well if I did I would end up recognising my own even without looking, and that might end poorly…

“Rarity,” Fluttershy began suddenly, grabbing my attention. “When this is all over, will you reopen your dress shop?”

“My boutique?” I uttered, slightly surprised at the odd question, and the even odder timing of it. “I’m not sure, that had always been the intention when I returned to Panchea, but what with everything that’s happened, I sort of lost track of it.”

“Well ah think it would be good for you,” Applejack suggested. “Everypony ought to be able to do somethin’ that makes them happy, ah can help you get set up if you like.”

“That’s… very thoughtful Applejack,” I told her, feeling unsure now that it was being sprung on me all of a sudden. “But I’ll need time to think about it; really, I’d just like some time to rest after all this first and foremost.”

“I hear you!” Rainbow agreed. “We all need some R and R after all we’ve done, we could go to the beach.”

“I would like that,” Fluttershy said. “And I’m sure Pinkie would too, she could organise it as a beach party, I’m sure that would make her especially happy.”

“Which way now?” Spike asked, bringing the conversation to a stop.

We looked around, we were at the end of the dungeon area, but there had been no signs of Gaia anywhere. I glanced back over my shoulder at the area we had passed through, what with our little chat, I had completely lost count of the cells… completely forgotten I was even thinking about it. I smiled; somehow I just knew that had been Fluttershy’s intention from the beginning.

“Do you think that pony lied?” Spike asked in a worried tone.

“Maybe…” I replied, bringing out my lantern. “Or maybe we just haven’t explored the whole dungeon.”

I lit the lantern, and almost immediately the light illuminated a rectangle in the wall to our right. Stepping up to it, Rainbow placed her hooves against it and started to apply some pressure. There was a grinding noise as the secret door pushed in and began sliding to the side, dust sprinkling down from the frame as it did as it did. The passage revealed, turned out to be a wide spiral staircase, descending gradually further into the earth, Applejack only needed a single nod from all of us before starting down, slowly and carefully, with her weapon drawn.

I kept my lantern out, holding it high so the light shone over Applejack and lit up her field of view. However, as we got further down, I found we didn’t need it at all. The more we travelled down, the more we began to notice an orange glow emanating from wherever the staircase would spit us out at the end. As well as this, we could hear a collection of odd noises, a deep rumbling, the occasional hiss of steam, and on one occasion as we neared the end… a mighty roar that shook the very walls around us and the steps we walked on, carved right out of the earth we delved into.

We froze when that happened; glancing at each other nervously, suddenly worried that there might be more than met the eye with the Children of the Earth. Spike especially looked disturbed by the roar, but he shook his head, muttering something about ‘must have been my imagination’. Gulping a little, Applejack pressed onwards and we all followed after her, although I could hear Fluttershy’s teeth chattering despite the immense heat that had been building up as we descended lower. At the bottom of the spiral staircase, there was a large archway that led into the next room where the source of the orange light appeared to be. I say archway, it really was more like a cave mouth, just an hole carved out of the rock.

What we stepped out into was not a room, but a cavern, like a stone version of the factory beneath Fort Mule. The heat was overpowering here, a thick haze hanging in the room, and the source of both it and the orange glow was obvious. We walked through the cave mouth onto a metal walkway that stretched right across the cavern, side paths diverging at regular intervals, in the spaces between these walkways, were large stone vats, filled with smoking, bubbling lava, bright gold and blinding. Hanging over these vats were great cages, suspended by chains, some already lowered, that the metal prisons disappeared beneath the molten surface.

Those that were winched up and emerged, in some cases the metal still shining hot from only recently being pulled up, contained some very surprising captives… dragons. I could see dozens of them, ranging in size from not much larger than Spike, to almost as big as he had been when he attacked Timber, and displaying a wide variety of colours in scales. There were enough there to level cities, and that wasn’t even including the ones that were still submerged in the burning liquid, that would have no harmful effects on them. As we stared in disbelief at the scene around us, I saw one of the cages containing a particularly large red dragon, moving sideways across to the end of the cavern, opposite from where we entered from.

I could see more metal walkways higher up, closer to the ceiling where the chains were attached to. Slouching about on them were more castrated slaves, ambling about like walkers, only with less life in them, which was a terrible thought. They were operating the winches and levers that moved the cages, including the one that was now making its way up to the far end of the room. I looked down at Spike, his reaction to all this was just as bad as I feared it would be. He stared up at the other dragons who looked back at him with dull eyes, a pained look etched into his face.

“This is… my clan!” he exclaimed in a troubled voice. “What… what are they doing to them?!”

I didn’t know what to say that could possibly make things alright for him, so I turned my gaze forward, trying to look through the haze at the great structure that sat at the end of the walkway we currently stood on.

“Let’s find out,” I declared, moving forward with determined strides.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash followed close behind, but Fluttershy did not. I slowed down, glancing back to see her frozen in terror, staring all around her at the imprisoned dragons. It was only then I remembered her fear of dragons, fears that could only have spawned from reading about them in books, but only seemed to be reinforced by what she saw now, rather than diminished by how they were being in no way threatening.

“Fluttershy!” I called back, tearing her attention away from the source of her fear. “Take Spike and see to those ponies above us, we’ll take care of Gaia!”

Fluttershy hesitated, before taking a deep breath and nodding. Spike gazed after me, giving me a pleading look, I gave him a look of my own, one I hoped he would interpret as meaning I would do my best to set things right. Whether he got that or not, I didn’t wait to find out, quickly turning and starting down the metal path once more, with my friends at either side. As we approached the end, now thoroughly drenched in sweat due to how much the cavern was like a sauna, we began to make out the structure as some giant furnace.

The red dragon that had been carried over there, was just being raised up over it, the entire cage descending inside so the dragon disappeared from view. While we couldn’t see what was going on within, we could see the flume running down from the great burning hole in the face of the furnace, a steady stream of molten metal trickling down into the work area laid out before it. There we saw more slaves, some busy forging ingots from the metal, others taking the finished metal block over to other areas, where they bathed it in jets of fire spewing from the furnace and hammering them out into pieces of armour.

And there, walking up and down the lines of ponies who stared out empty eyes, was Gaia, still wearing her forest green robes, but her mane was dishevelled with strands sticking out at random. She ground her teeth and narrowed her eyes furiously at the ponies under her command, whipping them mercilessly as she screeched at them to work harder.

“Gaia!” I yelled out, causing her to freeze just as she raised her whip to strike again. “It’s over! Stand down!”

She turned slowly to face us, one of her eyes twitching as she surveyed us.

“You…” she breathed in a raspy voice. “You’re dead… you can’t be here… you’re dead!”

“Stand down,” I repeated as all three of us pointed our weapons in her direction. “There’s no pony left to do your bidding, you’ve lost.”

“Lost…” she repeated in a slightly hysterical tone, tossing the whip down as she started moving closer.

The slaves kept working, they acted as if nothing was going on around them, but Gaia kept getting closer, regarding us with furious, bloodshot eyes.

“You… took… everything from me,” she continued in an ominous tone. “You killed Terra… you destroyed my beautiful world with your foul existence!”

“Shut up and get on your knees!” Rainbow snapped.

“You do not tell me what to do abomination!” Gaia screamed back, reaching into her robes. “I will never lose to the likes of you!”

Before any of us could move to stop her, she pulled her foreleg back out, clutched in it was a blistering bright fire rube, cut into the shape of a heart. As soon as the gem was exposed, it sent out waves of force and heat fiercer than what we had endured in the cavern before, Gaia’s sleeve sliding down to show her bare leg cracking and splintering, as fiery orange lines began splitting down it, her eyes turning a true shade of red. As the wave hit me, I felt myself wobble on my own legs, almost toppling over, even Rainbow Dash and Applejack shook as it struck them.

“I hold in my hooves the Heart of the Earth!” she bellowed at us, her voice suddenly dropping several octaves. “So long as its power is mine, I will never be stopped!”

She then thrust out the hoof holding the Heart, sending out a massive shockwave, that hit me in the chest like a punch from a great stone golem. I was tossed right back a few metres, smacking into the ground while my rapier clattered further behind me. It felt like all my bones were vibrating from the force of the attack, no amount of effort I applied could make my limbs respond. Even Rainbow Dash and Applejack dropped next to me, the former wheezing in shock, while the latter just grunted like a huge weight had just dropped on her.

“Can you feel it?!” she demanded, still holding the Heart out in a threatening manner. “The unstoppable power of the earth itself, look around you if you can, even dragons quell beneath it.”

I was only just able to turn my head, and indeed, at the mere sight of the Heart, the dragons began trying to shift further back in their confined cages, their eyes alive with fear.

“You may have lay siege to my city and massacred my flock,” she went on, the Heart slowly building up with light again as she prepared to strike out a second time. “But I will rebuild… I will find more who will be open to the truth… I will continue to use these lizards to create my indestructible dragon armour. Your little victory here today will be meaningless, especially once you’re all dead!”

The Heart sent out another pulse, and I was sure if this one hit us, it would shatter out bones into dust… only it never made it as far as Rainbow Dash and I, because Applejack had managed to drag herself to her hooves and hurl her body in the way of the blast, stretching herself out so she shielded us with her whole frame.

“Applejack!” I screamed, despite the huge pressure that remained on my chest.

But Applejack did not fall, she continued to stand, even thought I could see her trebling like a leaf in autumn, ready to break off and fall as soon as the wind hits it. Her breathing was heavy and strained, her shoulders hulked as the power of the Heart tried to force her down, but she refused to budge out of the way.

“Impossible!” Gaia shrieked. “How can you still be standing?! Nopony can withstand the unfathomable power of the earth.”

“Ah… don’t… care,” Applejack uttered, I was immediately reminded of how she threw herself under the fists of the golem to protect Rainbow Dash. “Ah’ll never… move… no matter what… you throw.”

Gaia decided to put that to the test by launching another wave, Applejack was deeply shaken, and I was sure she was going to crumble, but she remained standing against all impossibilities.

“If standing… here…” Applejack carried on with great difficulty. “Will protect… mah friends… from you… then ah’ll keep doing it.”

“You absolute fool!” Gaia shouted back at her. “You are pure, and yet you willingly taint yourself by choosing to associate with these vermin. You could have been part of my perfect world, but you chose the wrong side!”

She launched another shockwave, followed by another and another, each time I was sure that would be the one that finally broke Applejack, but it never did.

“Why isn’t this working?!” Gaia screeched, her voice alone causing the entire cavern to shake so long as it was imbued with the power of the Heart.

“Ah told you…” Applejack growled back. “You’ll… never… make… me… move!”

And before Gaia could retaliate with another attack, Applejack body erupted with light, drowning out the orange for white as Gaia was the one to be knocked off her hooves, while Applejack started to rise into the air. From where I lay, still paralysed on the ground, I had the perfect view of Applejack as she raised up and the divine light swept out from her. As it washed over me, I felt that awful weight lift, felt as if my body had been renewed with strength and vigour, so that I was able to sit up and even levitate my sword back to me.

As Applejack started to drop back down, the light hovering around her in a brilliant white cloud, I saw that her leather body armour and pauldrons now had new company. Similar to Pinkie’s own gauntlets, Applejack’s hind legs were now encased in silver armour sabatons, with two orange gemstones in the shapes of apples, set into the front of her hooves, corresponding with the locations of Pinkie’s own gems. However unlike Pinkie’s, Applejack’s Element did not come with pauldrons, but rather, armour that covered her flanks, back and undercarriage. While the new armour didn’t physically conflict with her old stuff, the leather and silver clashed horribly, but I was too enchanted by the gleaming addition that I didn’t worry about it.

Applejack reached up and tilted her helmet’s visor up slightly, as she surveyed the sabatons, giving them a little trot on the spot before grinning and turning her gaze at Gaia, who was fearfully backing up. Applejack started forward, slow at first, but picking up speed as she went, Gaia scrambled back to her hooves and tried to blast her with the Heart but its effect never made it past Applejack’s aura. Before she could come up with a new strategy, Applejack had galloped right up in front of her, and exactly as she had done with the front doors of the keep, she pivoted around on her forelegs before bucking out hard with her hind legs.

Now however, they packed even more of a punch, and Gaia was catapulted through the air. Applejack’s aim had been perfect, and she was kicked squarely through the burning hole in the face of the furnace, the Heart of the Earth had dropped from her grip when she was kicked, so she had no protection for what waited her on the other side. Gaia’s screams sounded so far off as they emanated from within the furnace, but they were cut off by the cavern shaking sound of a dragon roaring. We would later be confirmed of what exactly became of her inside the furnace, but there and then we had a pretty good idea.

As the pair of us walked over to Applejack, our bodies feeling better than ever, we saw Applejack looking down at the fallen Heart. I was instantly reminded of when Rainbow Dash removed the Terrorstone from Iron Sights’ chest, and just like then, Applejack raised her hind leg and brought it smashing down on the Heart, shattering it beneath the power of her Element. I grinned at Applejack, while Rainbow swooped in for a hoof bump. She retuned both, and we thoroughly congratulated and thanked her for what she had done. Fluttershy and Spike chose that moment to appear, running down the walkway to meet us.

Apparently the effects of the Heart had travelled further down the cavern, making it impossible for them to even put one foot in front of the other and come assist us. As Rainbow began recounting the story of Applejack’s heroics to them, the mare in question being too modest to give herself the praise she deserved, my eyes were drawn to Applejack’s new armour once more. We now had five of the Elements of Unity among the six of us, Twilight Sparkle’s Crown of Knowledge, Pinkie Pie’s Gauntlets of Conviction, Fluttershy’s Breastplate of Compassion, Rainbow Dash’s Wings of Valour, and now Applejack’s Sabatons of Resolve. I felt my heart rate increase as the obvious dawned on me, that left only one Element to get before Blueblood arrived… my Element.

LXXIX - The Voice Of Inspiration

I made my way back up through the keep and out into the open courtyard, which was still bustling with soldiers. After sweating myself to the point of dehydration down stairs in the forge, stepping out into the night air where the sky was heavy with clouds, resulted in a very dramatic shift in body temperature. While I stood there shivering, looking about to see what everypony was up to now that Cragsburg belonged to us, I was startled when Hex teleported next to me in a flash green light.

“Ah Rarity, perfect timing,” he began, sounding quite panicked. “Your friend Pinkie Pie asked me to come find you; there’s been a problem with… whatever it is she’s doing back at the assembly area.”

“What?!” I exclaimed, quickly forgetting the cold as I grabbed him by his robes and pulled him close enough that I could stare wide eyed into his face. “What problem?! What’s going on?!”

“I don’t know,” he replied, a bit sheepishly. “I don’t know a thing about chaos magic, but she seemed pretty worried about whatever was going on.”

I quickly let go of Hex and started trotting away from the keep, calling back to him over my shoulder.

“I’ll go see to her now!” I shouted. “Can you go down stairs and help with the dragons?”

“Sure, I’ll just go an…” Hex began, starting to turn towards to keep gates before he did double take. “Wait, dragons?!”

I didn’t slow down to explain, the others could fill him in once he got inside, I was too worried about my friends. I galloped right through the city from the keep at the most northern end, to the ruined section of wall at the south. My behaviour didn’t draw any attention from ponies I passed, they probably figured there was any number of urgent events that required immediate attention. As I ran out through the breach in the wall and started through the camp, I could see the assembly area not far off, a familiar sight awaiting me as I drew ever closer.

As I came skidding through the gravel and ash into the clearing, Pinkie Pie stopped her frantic pacing and came charging at me. Just beyond the roaring campfire in the centre of the clearing, was the door to the chaos world, it hovered several inches off the ground, a single tall tear in the fabric of reality, stretched open to offer a window into the other plane of existence, the outline of which shimmered with a plethora of colours. Some ponies glanced at it as they passed by, wearing concerned or slightly fearful expressions on their face before quickly going about their business; others had actually stopped to sit in the clearing and stare, transfixed at what they didn’t understand.

“Rarity!” Pinkie exclaimed, grabbing my coat by the lapels and shaking me hard. “It’s awful, just awful!”

“What’s awful?” I tried to question, my voice vibrating as she shook me. “What’s happened?”

“Well… I don’t actually know,” Pinkie admitted, letting go of me so suddenly that I dropped to the ground. “But something has definitely happened!”

“What do you mean?” I pressed, picking myself up and dusting myself down of the ash that clung to my clothes. “How can you tell something is wrong?”

“Because of these!” Pinkie declared, waving her silver clad hooves in my face. “It’s faint, but I can feel something coming from Twilight’s Element… like she was calling out for help.”

“But you can’t go in,” I finished, remembering what she had told me when we first put Stranglethorn away.

“No,” Pinkie responded, her whole body sagging. “And it’s taking everything I’ve got just to keep this door open, but they’re taking way too long, something awful must have happened to them in there. Oh no, what if they were eaten by a tatzlwurm… or abducted by a swarm of fruit flies… or they breathed too much air and now all they want to do is sing nursery rhymes for all eternity… or… or…”

I quickly shoved my hoof in Pinkie’s mouth to silence her, and hopefully give her a moment to calm down.

“Calm yourself Pinkie,” I instructed her, although I felt anything but calm myself. “You need to have faith in Twilight and Sufferthorn. However, just to be safe, I will go in and try to find them myself.”

“You?” Pinkie repeated in a muffled voice, my hoof still shoved into her mouth.

“Yes, well I did say I would go after Strangle myself when the time came,” I reminded her, removing my hoof and starting towards the doorway. “Now I’ll just be going after Twilight and Sufferthorn as well.”

“Okay, but it could be dangerous going in their alone without Twilight to protect you,” Pinkie pointed out, pulling out her mask and offering it to me. “Take this, it might stop you from going insane long enough for you to find her.”

“Might?” I repeated in a worried tone as I pulled the grinning mask on.

Pinkie just shrugged, while offering me a slightly guilty look. I sighed, deciding it would be better than nothing… even if nothing was exactly what it did for me. I felt the eyes of Pinkie Pie and multiple soldiers on me as I walked up to the door, stopping to take a deep breath and mentally prepare myself before I leapt forward, diving into the portal and feeling my whole body stretch as I was sucked in. I felt myself spinning around and around at a thousand rotations a second, as all around me the world dissolved into a sea of colours so bright and contrasting, that I thought my eyes were going to bleed just looking at it.

When the spinning finally stopped, I was dumped unceremoniously onto a patch of grass… grass that was a sickening shade of violet, and smelled strongly of pencil sharpenings. Looking around myself, I saw the sky, or perhaps the entire world had become a vibrant miasma of purple blotches and blue waves rippling and flickering. I was instantly reminded of when Pinkie had used her chaos magic while fighting Twilight to create the illusionary world… only this time it was all real. The grass I had landed on was part of a small hill that floated in the void, a narrow dirt path winding and looping away from it, apparently trailing off into nothing.

The moment I landed, I heard the ringing in my ears. It was faint, but manageable, I wondered if that was due to the mask or just because I hadn’t been there long enough, and it would very quickly build up to unbearable levels. I looked around, hoping I might see Twilight or Sufferthorn, or perhaps even Stranglethorn somewhere. There were dozens of floating islands, some drifting lazily, while others zoomed past like comets, and one or two that disintegrated shyly as I looked at them. Some of them had grass like the one I stood one, others had patterned ground like checkers or stars, while a few seemed to turn from solid in the middle to liquid at the edge, dripping down like multi-coloured waterfalls to pool in other platforms below, or just flow down forever until my head spun trying to follow it with my eyes.

Some islands had exotic plant life, like trees of bizarre proportions, with foliage ranging from polka dots to candy floss. On a few, I saw structures like a quaint little cottage that looked completely out of place, to a towering statue intended to parody the one in Manehattan, Equestria, depicting a serpentine creature that looked like a dozen animals smashed together. Naturally my friends were nowhere in sight, I never believed it would be that easy, but something did catch my attention… it was a door, not a portal like the one I stepped through to enter this world, but an actual wooden door and frame just sitting on a distant island, apparently leading nowhere.

I don’t know why exactly it caught my interest, everything I had seen was equally out of place and weird, but something about it just called to me. I walked over to the edge of my hill, looking out across the wide gulf that separated me from it, wondering how I could get over to it, when suddenly my own platform began to rotate, shifting the entire winding path with it, which ended up fitting neatly between myself and the place I wanted to be. Smiling, I began to walk along the path in the direction of the door, gravity apparently being quite fluid and allowing me to walk safely on it, even when it twisted upside down.

As I made my way along and started getting closer to the door, the ringing in my ears was joined by another sound, the sound of laughter. It wasn't sinister or maniacal, it was quite simply the sound of foals playing and laughing together, two of them by the sounds of it. The closer I got to the door the louder and clearer it became, they sounded so happy together, and that made me happy in turn. Reaching the door I saw that it was very neat, the door itself was painted a glossy shade of lime green, while the frame was a soft shade of pink.

I reached out to the door handle and gave it a turn, sure it would somehow take me somewhere, despite not physically connecting to anything. Just as I predicted, as I pushed the door open, I saw nothing but a weird grey light on the other side, which began to seep out as I opened the door even wider. Before long, the light flowed out and washed everything else away, including both the world around me and the sound of laughter. When the light began to dim, I was able to make out my new surroundings, although interestingly there was no colour anymore, everything was grayscale, and in the background I could hear a jaunty tune playing.

I was standing in an open meadow, I could see the lush grass and the wild flowers, saw how they blew about in the breeze that I could not feel. Then, over the sound of the music, I heard that same laughter again. I turned my head slightly to see two young ponies running through the meadow, one was a colt, skinny, with a spikey tuft of a mane, while the other was a filly who looked a little stouter, her own mane tied back in pigtails. They were both earth ponies, and they seemed to be racing to the top of a small hill, laughing as they played together. The colt was faster and pushed on ahead, reaching the top of the hill first and turning to blow a raspberry at the filly… who dive tackled him when she caught up, and the pair went tumbling down the other side of the hill, still laughing their heads off.

I kept watching, completely confused by the relevance of the scene, but I found it oddly heart-warming at the same time. As I watched, the two ponies appeared to arrange a game of hide and seek. The colt dropped onto his belly and pressed his face into the grass, presumably so he wouldn’t peek while the filly hurried off to hide. She disappeared from view, but I kept watching as the colt finished his silent count before looking up and glancing about. The filly wasn’t in his immediate sight, so he started running about, trying to look for her, and I found myself following after him.

As we both walked, we heard the distant sound of voices. The colt quickened his pace, and as we came over another hill, we found the filly, but she wasn’t alone. There were another four ponies there, all looking to be the same age as the pair, but it was clear they weren’t friends with the two. Just as we arrived on scene, we saw one of the fillies step forward and shove the filly we had been looking for, pushing her to the ground while all four began laughing and jeering. I looked back at the colt and saw him bristling with anger, very quickly starting to run downhill towards the group.

“Leave her alone!” he cried out in a high pitched voice.

The four others all looked up in mild surprise; they were still laughing, but not for much longer as the colt trotted up close before leaping forward, head-butting the filly who had pushed his friend hard. They stopped laughing after that, the filly he hit falling back and wailing like a foal as she clutched her head. The colt glared at the other three, who quickly scarpered, the fourth filly hurrying after them, still crying loudly. The colt turned around to the filly he had been playing with and reached out to help her up, she accepted, trying not to look at him and let him know she had cried herself when they pushed her.

“Thanks,” she muttered, reaching up and wiping her eyes with a hoof. “Mum’s gonna be so mad when she hears.”

“Ah don’t care…” the colt muttered, kicking the ground awkwardly.

The two stood in uncomfortable silence for a moment, before the filly reached out and pulled him into a hug.

“You’re the best brother in the whole world.”

And that was it, the music stopped, even though I was barely noticing it at that point. The light came in strong once more, and this time when it faded, I was left standing on another floating island back in the chaos world. I looked around me, everything had changed, none of the platforms were the same, and the door I had opened was now gone, it was like I had moved to an entirely different section of the world. Confused, I started looking around myself, wondering in the back of my mind what that had been all about. The two ponies, the filly and the colt had been siblings, playing together. Of course it was hard to tell because of the lack of colour, but a part of me was certain they had been Stranglethorn and Sufferthorn… so had it been a memory?

My eyes landed on a second door, identical to the first one. Once again it was on a different island, but this time there was a collection of tiny islands lining up between myself and there. If I jumped from one to the other, just as I had done when Pinkie and I were trying to escape the Covenant cathedral, then I could reach the other side. I made a start, finding it much trickier once I was actually doing it, as these stepping stones all trembled beneath my weight as I landed on them, counting down the few seconds before they plunged into the abyss, forcing me to move fast. This time as I got closer to the door, the ringing in my head, which had become slightly more intense, was joined by a very different sound.

It was the sound of ponies cheering; a great fanfare, like there was a parade right outside. I wondered if this door was also going to show me something, and if the sound was in some way related, the same way the foals laughing had been. When I reached the last stepping stone and threw myself to the safety of the final platform, I made my way up to the second door. From a distance it had appeared identical, but now that I was right up beside it, I noticed that the green paint didn’t have quite the same shine to it, that and the brass doorknob was looking a wee bit tarnished, tiny differences that hardly mattered, but I was only able to pick up on because of my discerning eye.

This time when I opened the door and the light swallowed all the colours, the sound of cheering did not fade with them, but rather remained as my new grey surroundings came into focus, and that same music began playing once more. I was now standing in the backyard of a small house; it had high fences and was absolutely packed with troughs and pots where countless species of plants grew. It resembled a garden centre, and while it was small, it looked very professional, but only one pony was present in it. This time there was no doubt in my mind, the lack of colours didn’t matter, I would recognise Stranglethorn anywhere.

He was sitting by a trestle table, an open book lay before him, and he appeared to be in the process of drying and pressing a flower to put inside it. He hummed contently and wore a small smile as he worked, which surprised me, I knew he was a bit of an expert when it came to plants, but I never would have thought of it as a hobby for him. I glanced down at his flank, suddenly curious as to what his cutie mark was, but for some reason the image there was blurry, like I wasn’t being permitted to see it. Before I could contemplate this however, the back door opened, and an equally familiar Sufferthorn entered the garden, her cutie mark equally obscured.

“Good morning…” she greeted in a chirpy voice that I would never have imagined her using, but I was distracted form that as she continued. “####, how are you this fine morning?”

I blinked in confusion, it was like her voice became all scratchy and distorted when she tried to say Strangle’s name, but then spoke perfectly fine after that. Once again, I didn’t have time to think about that, as the next thing that happened caused my heart to skip a beat, it was so unexpected.

“I’m very good,” Stranglethorn replied in a warm voice, smiling up at her. “Although I would love to know what’s gotten you so pleasant this morning.”

“What are you talking about?” Sufferthorn asked innocently, although I was still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I just heard Stranglethorn speak, to really pay attention. “I’m always like this.”

“Of course ####, of course,” Strangle replied, turning back to his work and shaking his head in amusement. “I’m sure you being particularly happy would have nothing to do with a certain… Maverick holding a rally in our quaint little town of Glean.”

“Again, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Sufferthorn replied calmly as she put on a battered gardening apron, although she didn’t keep up the act for long. “Oh ####, you really should have been there, it was just so… inspiring!”

“I’m sure it was,” Strangle replied. “I don’t think you can become such a famous rabble rouser if you’re not inspiring to some degree.”

“I heard ponies saying that Equestria would go to war before they gave us independence,” Sufferthorn told him, a little chillier.

“Well that’s going to suck for business,” Strangle replied, still not looking up from his work. “But I’m sure the Princess will work out something that works best for everypony.”

“Maybe…” Sufferthorn replied as she started looking around the plants, clearly too distracted to work. “####... if it ever did come to war… do you think that we should, you know, volunteer?”

Stranglethorn let out a loud laugh, it was so rich and full that it pained me to think that a memory was the only time I would hear it.

“Good one ####,” he muttered in an amused voice, but then Sufferthorn didn’t reply and he looked around at her with a serious expression. “You’re not joking, are you?”

“I just… really think we have a duty as citizens of Panchea to serve alongside our fellow country ponies,” Sufferthorn told him in a tentative voice.

“But… we’re gardeners,” he reminded her in a disbelieving tone. “We aren’t soldiers… hay; the most amount of fighting we’ve ever done was with the other kids growing up.”

Sufferthorn didn’t respond, just let out a long sigh as she started into her own work. Stranglethorn looked slightly guilty at that, chewing on his lip as he mulled it over.

“Look, ####,” he began again in a hesitant voice. “It probably won’t come to fighting… I really hope it doesn’t, but if it does, and it’s really so important to you that we do our part… then I’ll stick by you, just as I always have.”

Once again, the sound of the cheering ended along with the music, leaving the world to fade out and back in again with colour. Just like last time, the chaos world had completely rearranged itself when I returned, and just like last time, I set about looking for another door, sure it wouldn’t end after just two. I found the next one a lot quicker, it being on the same island as myself, it was just that the platform was considerably bigger than most of the others I had seen up to that point. I started making my way over to it, faintly aware that each time I came back from a memory, the ringing in my head was growing stronger, and that in turn was making the sickening feeling more pronounced.

As I drew closer to this door, the sounds I heard were those of marching and a loud, authoritative voice barking indistinct commands. I was temporarily waylaid on my way over to the door, by a massive, vibrant coloured toad, that crawled up over the edge to the platform to stare at me with bulging eyes that looked like they had seen some things in their time, before it spat its tongue out, which stuck to the trunk of a tree. The tree was uprooted, and the frog swallowed it whole before wandering back off the edge of the island, never taking its eyes off me the whole time and leaving me with a creeping sensation.

When I reached the door, I hesitated right before turning the handle, noticing the paintwork was now scuffed and peeling in a few certain areas. Pushing that to the back of my mind along with the growing list of questions, I turned the handle and allowed the memory to take form. I recognised my new grey surroundings as being the courtyard in the Defences District back in Port Mule, directly beneath the watchful gaze of the Fort, which looked much closer to how I remembered it back when I used to live in Mule myself. All around me were Rebel soldiers marching and going through their drill exercises, but my eyes were automatically drawn to Sufferthorn, who was standing not far off from the front gates of the Fort, staring down at her hooves in shame.

The reason why, I deduced to have something to do with the other pony being carried away on a stretcher behind her, and the presence of another figure I recognised, standing directly in front of her, looking down at her with cold eye.

“I’m… I’m sorry,” Sufferthorn tried to say, her voice quavering. “I didn’t mean to lose my temper with him.”

“Look me in the eye whelp,” Iron Sights ordered her, a look of mild disgust as he regarded her. “What do you think you’re doing here?”

“I… uh, I’m here to fight for the Rebellion,” Sufferthorn answered uncertainly.

“No, you’re here to waste the Rebellion’s time!” Iron Sights snapped at her. “This country is at war, and you are asking us to waste our time and resources in turning you from a worm, to a worm that might last more than one minute in a battle situation!”

“Please, if you just give me a chance…” Sufferthorn tried to say, her voice shaking as she regarded Iron Sights with wide pleading eyes.

“And you will address your superiors as Sir!” he bellowed at her, drawing the attention of some nearby soldiers, including one I recognised. “Look at you shaking, you’re a joke! What were you thinking, volunteering for the army?! I could leave right now and come back after ten minutes with a homeless pony who would make a better solider that you will ever…”

He didn’t get any further than that, as Stranglethorn had broken off from his own unit, ignoring his drill instructor's shouts as he stormed up behind Iron Sights and tapped him on the shoulder. Iron Sights stopped mid-rant to turn around and glare at who was interrupting him, only to have his head grabbed and brought smashing down upon Strangle’s armoured knee. The entire courtyard fell deathly silent as everypony stared in horror at what he had done, while Iron Sights stumbled about, looking like he was about to keel over.

“Nopony…” Stranglethorn growled at him. “Talks to my sister like that.”

Sufferthorn was looking back and forth between her brother and Iron Sights, who was starting to steady himself, a look of undisguised terror on her face. Iron Sights stared back at Stranglethorn with barely contained rage, and before anypony could say anything, he charged in, lashing out at Stranglethorn with his bare hooves. The fight didn’t last long, Iron Sights was too angry too focus, while Stranglethorn turned his own emotion into strength, moving out of reach of Iron Sights’ attacks before coming in with his own.

The fight didn’t last long, and by the end of it, there was no doubt who the victor was. Stranglethorn and Sufferthorn were staring at each other, the former remaining perfectly calm, while the latter trembled uncontrollably. They didn’t notice, but I was able to see two figures emerging from the open doors of the Fort, Typhoon who was looking furious as he started marching toward the scene of the crime, and Maverick who dawdled behind him, regarding Stranglethorn with a look of curious fascination. When the memory faded away and I returned to the chaos world, I found it very hard to ignore the ringing in my head, which had once again picked up in intensity.

I tried to ignore it anyway, looking around me for the next door, eager to find out where all this was leading. It took a little longer than usual to find it, because it turned out to be on a floating island directly below my own. I was able to reach it however by riding the magenta waterfall down into a swimming pool next to the door. As I flowed down it, the sound that began to resonate was one that got my heart racing for what I was about to see, it was the sound of a pony running for dear life, crying out in pain and fear. I quickly pulled myself out of the swimming pool, stopping only briefly to notice how the paint was now coming off the increasingly worn door in large chunks.

I reached out and grabbed the rattling handle and turned it, pushing the door open and beckoning the light that brought on the memory. I was quickly finding that that jaunty tune was becoming quite maddening, in just how inappropriately cheery it was for how grim things were becoming. I somehow knew that we were back in the meadow, even though the grass and flowers had been trampled and torn up beneath the hooves of all the ponies in the camp that had been erected there. I quickly found Sufferthorn, her screams of fear and anguish drawing my gaze.

She appeared to be fleeing the camp, even as Equestrian soldiers took chase after her, and others were roused from their tents by the noise. She was desperately trying to stumble away on only three legs, her other foreleg clutching her side, where blood was flowing freely from a fresh wound. In her hoof, she also clutched a bunch of papers, which were slowly getting stained in her own blood as she held them close. The guards were nearing her, their weapons ready to strike her down, she couldn’t hope to escape them no matter how much adrenaline pumped through her system, or how important it was that she escape with those documents.

The fastest guard was just about to reach her, pulling his spear back to thrust into her hindquarters, only he was stopped at the last second. The rushing of hooves signalled Stranglethorn’s appearance, as he burst out from between two tents and tackled the guard to the ground, getting back to his hooves in a flash and drawing his blades to block the rest from pursuing his sister. Sufferthorn came to a brief halt, look back at her brother with a look of dread. For a moment I was sure she was going to turn and help him, but then Strangle called out to her.

“Just go!” he yelled, trying to fend off the attackers, while ensuring they didn’t get past him to go after her. “Now!”

She waited for only a second longer, looking between her brother and the documents she carried before she clenched her eyes shut and tore off out of the camp, through the meadow and into the night. I felt myself being pulled along with her, the camp fading into darkness so neither of us saw what happened… only heard Stranglethorn’s scream of pain. When the memory ended and I found myself back in the chaos world, I felt particularly numb to everything that was going on around me, even the ringing that made it feel like an earthquake was occurring inside my own skull.

When I finally pulled myself together and looked around me, I saw the next door waiting for me at the end of a beautiful stone bridge, at the start of which I was standing. I began drifting towards it, not in any particular rush, really it felt like my legs were carrying me there of their own free will. With every step I took, I could hear the bridge crumbling away behind me. A quick glance back when I got roughly half way across, showed me that the fragments were simply disappearing into the void, forcing me to go on, even as the sound of crying began to get louder and louder, the closer I drew to the door.

The wood was chipped and cracked, hardly any of the original paintwork remained, and the bits that did were faded and peeling. I reached out and grabbed the door handle, the whole thing half falling out as I turned it, allowing the door to creak open of its own accord, as if the hinges were loose. As that old jaunty tune started to play, it sounded… odd, like it had grown slow and lazy, but as my new surroundings appeared, the first thing I saw was an old gramophone, playing that very music, the record spinning away as it flowed from the horn, completely failing at drowning out the sound of crying.

I turned and felt myself grow faint as I saw Sufferthorn leaning over the body of Stranglethorn, her body wracked with sobs. They were in a small, but neat bedroom, Stranglethorn was lying in the only bed and appeared heavily bandaged. My eyes navigated to his mouth, and I wondered if this was after he lost his tongue. Another pony strode through the room, walking behind Sufferthorn, over to the gramophone and pulling the spike off the record to bring the music to a screeching halt.

“That’s enough of that,” Maverick said calmly, as he turned and surveyed the pair of siblings. “Now my dear ####, I was hoping we could have a word regarding what happened.”

It didn’t escape my notice that even he couldn’t say her name, and now that Sufferthorn was no longer wearing her armour, I saw that her cutie mark was still blurry.

“He… he almost died,” Sufferthorn murmured, her voice thick with tears. “The medic told me he’d never speak again after they… after they…”

She couldn’t finish that sentence, curling up in her seat and clenching her eyes shut to try and hold back her tears.

“It is… most unfortunate,” Maverick said in that sickly sweet voice of his, as he walked across and placed a hoof on Sufferthorn’s shoulder. “But the important thing is that you completed the mission.”

“Only because he sacrificed himself for me,” Sufferthorn mumbled. “He’s always looked out for me, even when we were kids, and now he’s never going to speak again… and it’s all my fault.”

“#### made his decision,” Maverick told her, squeezing her shoulder slightly. “And the Rebellion owes him a great deal for it… you as well ####. You’ve done this country a great service… and me.”

Sufferthorn looked up at him with wide, shimmering eyes, quickly averting her gaze when her cheeks began to darken.

“I think you’ve proven yourself to be more capable than any mere soldier,” Maverick went on, a sly grin on his face that Sufferthorn couldn’t see. “What would you say to the idea of becoming agents under my direct command? You’d be able to use your skills much more effectively for our cause… and we’d be able to work much closer.”

“M… me? An agent?” Sufferthorn stammered, but then she looked at Stranglethorn once more. “But what about ####?”

“Once he is recovered, the offer will be extended to him as well,” Maverick assured her. “You might have to change your names, but I’m sure that is a small price to pay for dedicating your services fully to the Rebellion. You still want that, don’t you?”

“Of course!” Sufferthorn told him, looking back at him with eager eyes. “I wan… uh, we want that more than anything!”

“I’m glad to hear it,” Maverick replied, smiling sweetly at her, before turning away. “Take a day for yourself, then I will come find you and we can start discussing your new work.”

“Of course… Sir!” Sufferthorn replied, standing up and snapping to attention as he exited the room.

Once he was gone, she turned back and slowly sank back into her seat, looking down at her brother with a pained expression.

“I’m so sorry…” she breathed, her eyes wet with tears. “R###.”

And with that, the memory came to an end… and I was hurled from it back into the chaos world, like I’d just been bucked by Applejack. The mask Pinkie had given me was most certainly not helping alleviate the symptoms of exposure any, it felt like my mind was expanding and compressing all at the same time. I reached up to my ears, and when I took my hooves back, there was blood on them. The ringing was so intense, but now it sounded like it was ringing made up of thousands of very high-pitched voices, all talking in my ear at once.

As I picked up my head, that now dragged me down like a dumbbell, I saw that I had arrived at a brand new area of the chaos world. Here the land felt expansive, as opposed to just tiny fragments scattered in a void, beneath a sky that looked almost normal. Until I released the light was not coming from any sun, but rather, an aurora spread out above me, made up of millions of golden butterflies. I stood at the bottom of a path that wound its way up the mound in front of me, and all around, the world seemed rife with astonishing new life.

There were great roots that burst from the ground, and either twisted off into the air, or arched over before plunging back into the earth. Trees that resembled giant capped mushrooms, and dozens of smaller plants, including luminescent blue pods and stumpy looking trees with large pustule like spores growing on their bark. Despite the unending noise, I could vaguely hear the sound of blasting coming from the top of the mound, so picking myself up, I hurried up the path to see what it was.

Along the way, a number of weird snake like heads poked out of the ground and began trailing after me, watching me with curious, beady little eyes. I ignored them, too focused on what was waiting at the top of the incline, I only looked back when I heard a loud munching noise, and saw the half dozen heads being devoured by something that resembled a giant venus flytrap with teeth. Once I reached the top, I was practically dragging myself up, the pain spreading from my head to my limbs, but once I reached my destination and saw what was going on, I swiftly forgot about the aching feeling or the annoying ringing, although they didn’t go away.

The mound resembled a volcano once at the top, due to the gaping hole in the centre of it. Peering down the edge, I could see an endless tunnel, filled with crisscrossing roots, many of which grew as far and spilled out over the top, twisting and spiralling up into the sky. It was within all this, running along and jumping between thick roots as tough as tree bark, was Twilight Sparkle and Sufferthorn, each with their weapons drawn, each trying very hard to kill one another. Well, that’s what it looked like at a glance, but as I watched in confusion, I realised that for the most part, Twilight was just trying to protect herself while Sufferthorn was the one going all out.

“Twilight!” I shouted out, although even my own voice sounded far off.

Twiligth had just sent Sufferthorn blasting off with her sceptre when she heard me, glancing down in surprise, before teleporting over to me.

“Rarity, I’m so glad you’re here,” she greeted in a relieved tone.

As soon as she said that, she raised her sceptre above our heads and summoned a barely visible, gold bubble around the both of us. Once we were enclosed inside, I felt the pressure on my brain ease and the noise start to die down.

“Thanks,” I said, letting out a deep breath. “What’s going on?”

“Things got too difficult…” Twilight began, before looking over to the roots. “For some of us.”

I followed her gaze and saw Sufferthorn bouncing up and down and back and forth between roots. Her whole body twitching and jittering, as she growled and screamed from behind clenched teeth and gripped the sides of her head.

“I don’t understand,” I began. “What happened to her? And did you find Stranglethorn?”

“Yes, we did,” Twilight replied, pointing.

I shifted my gaze from Sufferthorn to where Twilight was pointing, at one particular root which had grown higher than all the rest, at the tip of which, was dangling what appeared to be a cocoon. While wearing the mask, I could see a purple cloud inside the flesh of the cocoon, at least that meant he was alive in there.

“As for her,” Twilight went on. “It wasn’t easy getting this far, we got separated for a bit and during that time… I guess this place just got to her.”

“I’ll go talk to her,” I told Twilight. “You get Stranglethorn out of there, and we’ll meet you back here.”

“She won’t listen to you,” Twilight warned me. “I don’t even think she’s really aware of what’s going on anymore.”

“I’ll make her listen,” I replied simply. “Because she’s going to want to hear what I have to say.”

Leaving Twilight on her own, I cantered out of the protective bubble and started towards the edge of the pit, feeling the chaos slowly creeping its way back into my mind, now that I was no longer protected again. Once at the edge, I leapt off the solid ground, finding that my jump had quite a bit of extra bounce in it, allowing me to reach the nearest root easily. I kept hopping from place to place, until I was within shouting distance of my target.

“Sufferthorn!” I called out.

She had been busy banging her head against a root when I shouted, but then her head snapped around to face me. She was breathing heavily, practically seething, although she refused to unclench her teeth. She looked positively demented, not helped by the fact that her eyes now stared off in different directions.

“I want to talk to you,” I told her calmly, but drawing my sword, just to be safe.

It was a good thing I did, as Sufferthorn sprung right off her perch and flew at me, hacking through the air with her own sword. I stood my ground and blocked her, using all my might to stop her from breaking through my own guard.

“I know… what happened,” I told her, as I fought against the mounting pressure. “I know… how you feel.”

“You don’t know anything,” Sufferthorn hissed.

She pulled back and swung her sword down from above. I dodged out of the way by jumping to another root, where I immediately propelled myself off to another. Sufferthorn was already pursuing me, but I kept on the move, choosing to keep up the conversation as we travelled.

“I do!” I called back to her. “I saw the memories; I know how he lost his tongue… I know that you blame yourself.”

“Shut up!” Sufferthorn growled, diving for me and swinging her sword into one of the roots.

It managed to get completely stuck, and while she struggled and wailed to pull it back out, I slowed down to try and speak more.

“You ran away,” I went on. “It was your first big mission, it went wrong and he came to rescue you. He told you to run and that’s exactly what you did, you ran.”

“Shut up, shut up, shut up!” Sufferthorn screamed, forgetting her sword and rushing after me, intend on beating me to death with her hooves.

“You’ve being blaming yourself ever since!” I went on, staying just slightly out of her reach as we bounced around. “You’ve become obsessed with failure, terrified of it… but you don’t have to be, what happened was not your fault.”

“It was!” Sufferthorn bellowed at me. “He was my only family, and he…”

“He made his own choice!” I cut in, staring at Sufferthorn from across the gulf between us. “And it was the exact same choice you would have made if you were in his position. You ran, but that’s nothing to be ashamed of, you were scared, it was natural.”

“You… you don’t know what you’re talking about,” Sufferthorn tried to say, but her voice was cracking.

“I do,” I said again. “When I first went to Cragsburg, I went there to save Fluttershy. They were going to cut her wings off when I stopped them; we were going to get away when… when I fell behind. I told Fluttershy to go on, and she did, she was scared and she left me to save herself, and did I resent her for it? Not one bit, she was my friend, and I would do it again in an instant if necessary, just as Stranglethorn would have done for you.”

“It wasn’t just that,” Sufferthorn spat back at me. “He never gave a damn about the Rebellion, he only ever joined because he wanted to watch over me. I knew, but I never said anything, I… I was afraid he would leave. I know all he ever wanted was to go back home and tend to the garden, that’s what always made him happy, and I wanted him to be happy, I really did, but… I wanted myself to be happy more. I watched him throw away everything that made him happy, just so I could live out my stupid fantasies…”

“You mean Maverick?” I asked in a gentle voice, Sufferthorn nodding in response.

“He… he only ever wanted him,” she went on, her voice strained. “But like I said, he never cared about the Rebellion, so Maverick went through me to get him. He asked me to be an agent as well, because he knew I could keep my brother on a leash for him, and like a school filly with a crush on her teacher, I said yes. I treated my brother, who had given his voice for me to live, like some bargaining chip, just to help me advance myself.”

“And what? You think he resents you for it?” I questioned sceptically.

“No… maybe… I don’t know!” Sufferthorn answered in a torn, frustrated voice. “I know he would never complain, but I know that he isn’t happy either, he hasn’t been happy for a long time. He insists he takes those drugs to help him with his missions, but I know it’s a lie, I know he uses them to escape. I thought maybe if I could become better, stronger and more efficient, that Maverick would be satisfied with me alone. Then he could leave and go home, not that there was a home to go back to after the war. Maverick never wanted me, it was convenient for him to make me Marshal, and I forced myself to get good at whatever he asked of me, but nothing I did would ever change the fact that it was never me he wanted.”

“So what now?” I asked. “Will you stay here… leave us now when we all need you the most? Or will you finish what you started at Pivot, face your regrets and mistakes head on, be honest with your brother, make amends and rid yourself of this guilt that’s weighed you down all these years?”

“I… I need… I can’t…” Sufferthorn tried to say, groaning as she clutched her head.

I saw her drifting about, looking like she was about to drop right off the root she stood on, so I leapt forward and tried to balance on the same narrow platform, while I reached out with my forelegs and held her up.

“Sufferthorn, we need to get you out of here,” I told her, feeling the strain on my own mind as I said it. “The chaos magic is affecting your mind; if you stay here much longer, it could do permanent damage.”

“But… R…” Sufferthorn tried to say, struggling to get the words out.

“He’s going to be fine,” I cut in quickly. “Twilight’s getting him now. If we hurry, we can all leave together and she can purge him.”

“What if… what if I didn’t go?” she asked, looking up at me with desperate eyes. “You could tell him I didn’t make it, then… then things would be fixed, they’d be set right after I lived while he had to suf…”

She was stopped when I slapped her hard across the face, staring back at me in stunned silence with a look of surprise. She then looked all around us, as if just realising where we were and what was happening, before turning back and giving me a defiant look.

“We are leaving here… together,” I told her firmly. “And you are going to talk to your brother, and you will see that there is nothing for you to feel guilty over.”

Sufferthorn opened her mouth, before quickly closing it, nodding rapidly at me while still looking a bit dumbfounded. With that, I crouched down and indicated for her to climb onto my back, which she only half reluctantly agreed to, looking a bit like a lost foal as she did. Just as I was able to bounce with unnatural springiness, I was able to hop my way from root to root without feeling hindered by the added weight. Once I had disentangled ourselves from the mess of roots, and landed back on the edge of the pit, I saw Twilight standing at the bottom of the winding path where I had started. She had Stranglethorn’s unconscious body draped over her own back, and was waiting anxiously beside the door back to the real world.

“You see? They’re right there waiting for us,” I told her, pointing them out, while she stared with a distant expression on her face. “Let’s go Sufferthorn.”

I started walking forward, assuming she would keep up, but she didn’t move. I didn’t realise she wasn’t following me until she spoke up, after I had already walked a few metres down the mound.

“Lily.”

“I’m sorry?” I questioned, looking around to see her staring down at me with a hard set eyes. “Did you say something?”

“My name,” she elaborated, starting to walk down the mound towards me, and only continuing when she was right beside me. “Is Water Lily.”

I blinked at her for a moment while I digested the new information, but then I smiled at her.

“It’s an absolute pleasure to meet you Lily,” I told her genuinely.

Then we both turned and carried on down the mound to where Twilight waited for us, looking deeply relieved that I was able to get through to her and get back while the portal could still be opened. Lily stopped for a moment to check that Strangle was alright before we moved on. As I watched, I began to wonder what his name was, but I decided to hold off on asking until we were outside and things were ironed out between them. When she was happy enough to move on, Twilight led the way back through the door, getting sucked in after she was about half way in, taking Stranglethorn with her.

Lily briefly glanced back at me and I gave her an encouraging nod, before she turned back and dived through herself, that just left me to jump in after her. The journey back was just as disorienting as the journey there, except when I was thrown out, it would have been onto hard stone rather than spongy grass. Thankfully Hex was standing by to catch me with his telekinesis as I dropped out, and set me down next to the others. Pinkie then let out a long, exhausted breath and the door sealed itself, making a noise reminiscent of a balloon having the air slowly let out and flying around the room.

Things were carried out pretty quick following that, Hex and Twilight started setting up a magical perimeter of various warding spells to help hold off Blueblood’s influence. When they brought Stranglethorn around, they couldn’t risk Blueblood taking control again when he was right in the middle of our camp, and due to Blueblood’s vastly increased power, magical bindings weren’t going to cut it alone. Lily wanted to stay, but she was politely, but firmly encouraged to leave. That got her a bit emotional, but Pinkie agreed to take her to the medical tents to see Fluttershy or one of the other sisters, she needed to be checked for any side effects of exposure.

I probably should have as well, but I was eager to get to work, and check on other things while waiting for Twilight to finish with Stranglethorn, so I just gave Pinkie her mask back and lied, saying it did wonders. She regarded me with suspicion for a moment, as if she knew I was lying through my teeth, but then she brightened up and just seemed to accept it, bouncing away with Lily in tow. I started back out of the camp and through the city towards the keep, naturally I wanted to get back and make sure that any remaining slaves had been freed and were being taken care of… and that the dragons could tell the difference between the ponies who imprisoned them, and the ponies who rescued them.

I had faith that Spike would keep things diplomatic though, so when I reached the keep, I went straight on in and made my way down stairs. Typhoon met me at the top of the spiral staircase leading down to the forge, he looked exhausted, no doubt from being down there in the heat for so long, it would be draining for anypony.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” he grumbled at me, when he saw me approaching.

“What do you mean?” I asked, a little unsure.

“Letting those things go,” he explained. “Now don’t get the wrong idea, I’m not about to go defending what these brutes did, but having this forge could have been invaluable for the upcoming battle.”

“Slow down a second,” I requested. “What’s going on exactly, I had to go deal with some other stuff.”

“This forge,” Typhoon explained. “It’s a dragon forge, used for making dragon armour, by dragons… from dragons.”

“You mean…” I began in a disgusted tone.

“Yes, Gaia culled off a number of the brood,” Typhoon went on. “Dragon bones are akin to metal ore, but they can only be refined and moulded in dragon fire. Like I said, I don’t approve of it, but there’s already so much bone left over down there, it feels like a waste to let the dragons go, when at the very least we could make up the remaining armour so our soldiers are better equipped for the upcoming battle.”

“Well, I do agree it’s a shame to let it waste considering what is approaching,” I admitted. “But we have to keep in mind that those are the remains of their kin, and we don’t have the power to force them to stay. Any attempt to do so would only antagonise them, and we really can’t afford to have dragons trying to kill us as well.”

“True,” Typhoon muttered. “Besides, there might not have been enough time to make up any new armour anyway.”

“Indeed, let’s just gather up what we can from the fallen enemy and use that to equip as many of our soldiers as we can,” I instructed, to which he nodded.

“I’ll get right on that,” he agreed. “Rainbow Dash had some ideas regarding how to equip the soldiers now that they’re all part of the Union.”

“I’ll go speak to her about it,” I replied, before starting down the staircase, leaving Typhoon to carry on his way.

Once down in the forge, I saw Rainbow Dash and the mixture of soldiers that had been assigned down there to help, all standing near the entrance, well out of the way as the dragons climbed and roamed free around the cavern.

“What’s happening?” I asked, approaching Rainbow from behind.

“Oh, well we found this tunnel that leads away out of the city,” Rainbow explained. “We figure that’s how Gaia got them all down here in the first place; I mean, they couldn’t exactly walk down those stairs. Spike’s up near the end now, talking to the alpha, we’re just waiting back here until he’s made sure that they don’t, you know, have the munchies for ponies.”

“Of course,” I replied, nodding. “Typhoon mentioned you had an idea regarding armour.”

“Huh… oh yeah,” she uttered, suddenly remembering. “Just a little thing, since we don’t need different armour to identify factions anymore, we could switch them about based on their weight and uses. Like, obviously Battlemages and crusaders have their own getups, but for regular soldiers, we could give them a choice of the Dragoon, Liberator or Rebel armour. The old Dragoon stuff is the lightest, best for manoeuvring and moving quickly, that black stuff the Liberators wore is heaviest and can take the most punishment, and the Rebels gear is a good balance of both.”

“That sounds perfect,” I replied, quite impressed as it was easy to forget Rainbow was a professional solider. “Can I trust you to organise that? Typhoon is looking into gathering up the dragon armour from the defeated Children of the Earth, you could see about giving those out as well.”

“Sure, if we can find anypony who will want to wear the stuff,” Rainbow replied in a grim voice.

“I think ponies will quickly forget its association when they realise how it’s almost indestructible,” I pointed out, craning my neck to try and see Spike past the heat haze. “You know, I think I’m going to go see how it’s going with Spike.”

“Uh, are you sure?” Rainbow asked in a wary tone, but then she saw the look on my face and shrugged. “Well, you’re a grown mare; you can make your own decisions.”

I started down the metal walkway, feeling the eyes of the soldiers piercing into the back of my skull as I walked. Once I got far enough down, I could see Spike standing near the dragon forge. He was communicating with the same great red dragon who had finished off Gaia, in the background I could see the dragons moving towards the far left corner, presumably that’s where the tunnel exit was. As I got closer, I could begin to make out what Spike and the alpha were saying, although they spoke in their own tongue, so I didn’t know what exactly they were saying to one another.

“Nuz mu fozir niin kogaan!” Spike declared, his voice surprisingly booming in his own tongue. “Malkey lahvu los facing suleykaar paal.”

“Daar paal los ni un hahvoth goraan gein,” the alpha replied, in a voice that absolutely dwarfed Spikes. “Mu fozir nid wah malkey lahvu.”

“Nuz nust stin hi,” Spike went on, looking slightly desperate. “Dreh ni pentaar niin fah vosod do gein wo poltor hi.”

“Dreh hi lorot Zu'u los ful prudil?!” the alpha roared down at Spike. “Zu'u krii tol sosin fah niin, nuz nu Zu'u kent frolok mindin dii brod.”

“Ko tol trun zu'u fey,” Spike responded defiantly as the alpha began to turn around, causing him to snap his head around in surprise. “Waan hi fen ni krif voth niin, ruz Zu'u fen dreh ful naalein. Nust lost genun zey dremsilaar ahrk eimend, Zu'u korah til vis kos vahzah fahdonmaar nix mii, nuz tol huvut ont skilaan enook vorey.”

The alpha stared back at him for a long time before finally replying, turning away as he did so.

“Hi dreh fos hi lorot los viilut,” and with that utterance, he began walking way toward the tunnel.

Any dragons that had been dawdling about, followed his lead and began to walk or fly towards the exit, leaving Spike to slouch and start walking back over to me.

“What was that about?” I asked him in a tentative voice, knowing it couldn’t have been anything good.

“Oh, uh, it doesn’t matter,” Spike replied, only just realising I was there when I spoke up. “They’re going back to the old nest now, but I… I want to stay, I’ll keep helping.”

“And we’re all very glad to have your support,” I told him, inviting him to climb up onto my back.

Once he was on board, we made our way back to where Rainbow Dash was, I quickly told her the dragons were all leaving and didn’t seem to be causing any bother for us. She told me she would get started in managing the troops and I bid her farewell, walking back upstairs with Spike still on my back. We left the keep and made our way back out through the city, occasionally stopping to lend some aid to other ponies or resolve disputes, until we finally neared the city gates where I saw Applejack, but as well as her, I also saw Big Mac and…

“Oh no…” I groaned as I saw who was with them.

Big Mac was looking annoyed, but Applejack was absolutely livid, the two fillies standing between them looked like they were really starting to question their life choices.

“And ah can’t believe you’d be so irresponsible to bring Scootaloo along as well,” Applejack was saying to her younger sister. “Not only have you endangered yourself, but you’ve put another pony in danger!”

“Applejack, ah’m real sorry, but…” Applebloom tried to say, but she was swiftly cut off.

“Don’t blame her Applejack,” Scootaloo insisted. “I was the one who came up with the idea, I pushed her into it, blame me instead.”

Applejack clearly lost her steam for telling off the fillies at that point, either uncomfortable about telling off somepony who wasn’t officially her family, or touched by Scootaloo’s honesty… so she then directed her ire at Big Mac instead.

“And you mister,” she said, jabbing a hoof into his chest. “You realise this is all your fault, how in the hay do you manage to cross half a country with two fillies hidin’ in your cart and not notice?!”

“Ah… didn’t stop walkin’ much,” Big Mac admitted, looking down at his hooves in a guilty fashion.

“Well, well, I really shouldn’t be surprised by this,” I said, announcing my presence. “But I actually am, I really thought I emphasised to you girls how dangerous this was going to be.”

“We’re sorry Rarity,” both fillies chorused, looking even more ashamed now.

“And now we’ve gotta get you two back home,” Applejack grumbled. “Mac, go get your cart.”

“Now Applejack, slow down,” I told her in a calm voice. “Big Mac doesn’t have the time to take them all the way back to Sweet Apple Acres and get back here before Blueblood arrives, and we’re going to need every able pony we can get.”

“Ah am not allowing these two anywhere near this place when that maniac comes rollin’!” Applejack exclaimed, aghast at the idea. “Surely we can spare somepony to get them out of here.”

“Would you trust just anypony to look after these girls?” I asked, knowing full well that she wouldn’t. “Applejack, they will just have to stay in the city with the rest of the civilians, the plan is that we don’t let Blueblood get as far as here, if he does, then we aren’t doing our job right.”

Applejack opened her mouth to argue more, but she was cut off by a familiar voice speaking up.

“Excuse me,” it said, drawing all our attentions. “I couldn’t help but notice you were having a slight problem, well I might be able to offer a solution.”

“Oh, hello Cogs,” I greeted, a little surprised to run into him. “How can you help with these two?”

“Well, as you know, I’m working on my latest creation,” he explained, walking closer. “Zee new weapon to help counter ze Dreadnaught, I have been looking around for ponies who don’t seem to be busy, who might be able to assist me, but so far, no luck.”

“And you want these pair to help?” Applejack questioned. “How will that help them stay out of harm’s way?”

“Well I certainly don’t plan on being anywhere near the fighting,” Cogs replied with a little laugh. “But I will be able to keep an eye on zem, and I’m sure zey will make perfect assistants.”

“What do you say Applejack?” I asked, liking the idea myself. “It means they would be out of the way of any danger, we’d know exactly where they are at all times, there will be somepony we know and trust looking after them… they’ll even be able to help.”

“Ah’d still rather they went home,” Applejack muttered, before glaring down at them. “Or that they just never snuck up here in the first place.”

“Well we can’t change the past,” I told her. “And I know I’d feel more comfortable knowing precisely where they are, rather than never knowing for sure that they got back home.”

“Ah guess…” Applejack relented.

“Don’t worry Applejack,” Applebloom assured her. “We’ll behave ourselves.”

“And we’ll do our best to help too!” Scootaloo added, jumping up and down excitedly.

“Fine,” Applejack agreed with a small groan. “Mac, take them over to wherever it is this thing's gettin’ built, make sure they know what they’re doin’ and they won’t just be gettin’ in the way.”

As the four of them left, the two fillies talking loudly and excitedly to Cogs, asking him questions about what they were building and what the deal with his accent was, I turned to Applejack, who looked tired.

“Need somethin’ Sugarcube?” she asked, trying to give me a smile.

“I was saying about the civilians staying in the city,” I began. “While Rainbow and the others are sorting out the troops, will you be able to work with Fluttershy and the sisters in making sure all civilian ponies are taken care of? Some may prefer to evacuate, that’s fine, but those that don’t… or can’t, make sure they’re well taken care of, and find safe places in the city where they can take shelter during the battle.”

“Ah can do,” Applejack assured me. “Is that all?”

“Hopefully, if I need anything else, I’ll come find you,” I told her.

Once we said goodbye and she went off to find Fluttershy, I started continuing on my way into the camp, but barely got a few paces when Feather Duster came zooming up and landed in front of me.

“Hey Rarity,” he greeted, slightly breathless. “Lady Sparkle wanted me to come find you; they’re done helping your friend.”

“Oh, excellent news,” I replied eagerly, as I picked up the pace in the very direction I was heading in. “Has Lily also been informed?”

“Who?” Feather Duster asked, slightly confused as he flew along next to me.

“Oh, uh, Sufferthorn,” I specified.

Realising it would still take some time for her new name, or old name, to get spread around, just like the new name I chose for the army. Although just from listening on snippets of soldier’s conversations, I could tell that one was picking up considerably quicker than I expected.

“Yeah, I found her before you,” Feather Duster informed me. “She ran off as soon as I told her, so she’ll probably be there already.”

Indeed she was, pacing impatiently around the protective wards while Twilight leant over the much more active body of Stranglethorn, probably just doing final checks before she gave the all clear. I walked up to Lily, noticing that for the first time since I met her, she wasn’t wearing armour and she had washed the green dye from her flank, revealing her cutie mark, which was a lily pad with a soft pink flower blooming upon it. I asked Spike to run on and give us some space for a moment, before I tried to speak to her.

“How are you feeling?” I asked her.

“Better,” she muttered in response. “That place… it was so hard to think straight. Your friend checked me over, said I would be fine.”

“So about Stranglethorn…” I broached, wondering if she would now tell me his name.

“You want to know his name, don’t you?” she questioned, seeing right through what I thought had been a subtle emphasis. “You can ask him yourself. Don’t worry though, he likes you, so he’ll probably have no problem with it… he might be quite glad to stop using his agent name.”

“Well, I suppose he won’t be an agent anymore,” I commented.

“About that…” Lily began in an uncomfortable voice. “I’ve decided that I’m going to wait until after the battle before talking to him.”

“Are you sure that’s wise?” I asked in a wary voice. “Remember, there’s no guarantee there will be an afterwards.”

“I know, but… just trust me,” Lily requested. “I hate it, but right now we need him ready to fight… not fertilize.”

“If that’s what you think is right,” I responded slowly, looking up just as the wards were lowered.

Lily trotted past me, not even stopping to speak to or thank Twilight, before she dropped down beside Stranglethorn who was trying to sit up, looking tired.

“How are you feeling?” she asked in an affectionate voice I had only heard her use in the memories.

Stranglethorn nodded to her, indicating that while he could have been better, he was ready to get moving.

“Not right now,” Lily told him. “Take tonight to rest and eat, you can start helping tomorrow, and that’s not open for debate.”

Strangle looked like he was going to argue anyway, but then his shoulders slumped in resignation. Then Lily took him, and everypony watching, completely by surprise by pulling him into a tight hug and burying her face slightly in the nape of his neck.

“I’m so glad you’re alright…” she told him as she pulled her face back to look at him. “Rose.”

Rose blinked in confusion at her addressing him using his real name, or at least, the shortened version of it, she later told me that his full name was Rose Bud. As much as I wanted to speak to him myself, I decided that I wouldn’t interrupt their reunion, so I made my way over to Twilight.

“Rose?” Twilight murmured in surprise. “I’m not even going to question that, how’s everything going? Did you need me to do something?”

“Everything should be going well,” I told her. “These next few days will be critical for us, but we’re going to need all the warning we can get when Blueblood gets close, can I trust you to take care of that? Use your magic and try to figure out how far away he is?”

“I’ll get right on it,” Twilight replied, with a curt nod before waving Feather Duster over. “I’ll go to the northern section of the wall to work, I’m keeping Feather Duster with me at almost all times, he is my responsibility after all.”

“Well in that case you might be interested to know that we found another pony who will be your responsibility,” I informed her, to which Twilight raised a curious eyebrow. “You remember Spitfire, don’t you?”

I wasn’t wrong when I said the next few days would be critical, each and every one of us was kept busy, there was no end to the preparations required for the upcoming battle. The morning following our victory at Cragsburg and Rose’s purging, I was meeting once again with Twilight, on the wall where she had been working through the night. Flanking her like bodyguards were Feather Duster and Spitfire, the latter now wearing her old Wonderbolt’s pin on the breast of her flight suit. In the background I could see Pinkie Pie pacing the wall, looking sulky that Twilight and I made her give it back.

“And that’s what I’ve found out,” Twilight finished, lowering her sceptre and the magical display vanishing as she did. “At the rate they seem to be moving, they could arrive on the horizon any time from tomorrow afternoon onwards.”

“Well that’s much too late to start getting everypony into position,” I replied, looking out over the wall at the vast stretch of barren wasteland, which would very soon become the stage for our final battle. “We need our fastest scouts positioned further ahead, and we need ponies stationed here to sound the alarm once the scouts return. I don’t want a single pony in this city left in any doubt of what’s happening, when it happens.”

“I’ll speak to Rainbow and Lily about that,” Twilight assured me. “We can take it from here, if you want to go check on the other preparations.”

There weren’t many things for me to do personally, so much of it was simply making decisions and having one of my friends see to it that they were carried out, but even then, I trusted them all to be able to do things of their own initiative without having to consult me every time. I was able to find an opportunity first thing that morning to go see Rose, it was then that he told me his full name via a written note, and gave me permission to call him by it; although he made it clear I never needed to ask in the first place. Like Lily, I also got to see his cutie mark, without it being obscured by apparel of dye, it wasn’t a huge surprise that it was a lone rose.

He seemed to approve of my friends ganging up and declaring me to be the new leader, even more so when I told him briefly about all that happened while he was out of commission. I could sort of understand Lily’s desire to wait until after the battle before opening up to him, nopony could afford to be letting personal matters get in the way of what was to come, but I decided I would take the first small step in helping him. I asked him that he wouldn’t resort to smoking those herbs he often did before missions, while he didn’t seem too pleased at the thought, he agreed to do it for me. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust him, but just to be safe, I asked him to work alongside Applejack and Fluttershy, while privately telling both of them to keep an eye on him.

While going about my rounds sometime in the afternoon, I came across Hammerhead and his friends, just as they encountered Cirrus and his group. It was certainly an interesting meeting, which I couldn’t help but giggle at. The two groups didn’t exactly part as best friends or mortal enemies, but I got the distinct impression they would much rather avoid one another for the rest of their time there. It was also during that day that we saw the arrival of our remaining forces from Olympus, the addition of which brought our numbers to bursting point.

Sometime during the second day of preparations, I was helping Twilight and Holly establishing the new medical centre at the base of the northern wall on the outside of the city. We would need it close by for when the battle started, rather than have ponies carried on stretchers all the way around the city to the south, where the main camp was still set up. It was during this time that Spike came and found us, and he had a most unusual proposition for us…

“I’m sorry,” Twilight stated, frowning between me and him. “You actually want me pump you full of magic?”

“Only if it’s possible,” Spike specified. “If there was some way you could do what those other ponies did to me, but without me going crazy. I just think I would be able to do more if I was big again… and could fly.”

“Rarity?” Twilight questioned warily, looking my way for guidance.

“If… it’s possible,” I replied slowly. “Do you think you could do that?”

“I can certainly try,” Twilight responded, not sounding too eager. “It’s not exactly something I’ve done before, and if it goes wrong…”

“I’m sure it won’t Twilight,” Spike jumped in in a positive tone. “I mean, who’s better at magic than you?”

“Nopony,” I answered for her, smirking her way. “He seems to have his mind made up, if you think you can pull it off, I wouldn’t say no to a full grown dragon on our side.”

“Well… alright,” Twilight relented, pulling out her sceptre. “But let’s head further north so we’re well out of the way… just in case something goes wrong.”

As they started off further into the Ash Lands, Twilight called back to Spitfire and Feather Duster to carry on helping without her. I myself moved on, along the new medical centre to the place where Cogs was constructing his new device. It too had been moved out around the north, so it would be easier to access when the time came to use it, so it was now relatively centred, in line with where the keep was on the other side of the city wall. I had yet to actually see this invention, so I was quite eager to see what awaited me.

What I found was certainly impressive looking, even in its incomplete stage, but it was still nothing like I was expecting, and I admit to feeling a bit underwhelmed upon first seeing it. It essentially appeared to be a much larger version of the glider I had used to destroy the last Dreadnaught, back beneath Fort Mule. Although that had been appropriate then, as that Dreadnaught had still been under construction and wasn’t even in the air. When it came to the flying war machine that we would be up against, all I could picture was a fly trying to go up against a griffon.

“Greetings Rarity,” Cogs said, appearing next to me. “Do you like what you see?”

“I’ll be honest Cogs,” I began, unable to mask the disappointment in my voice. “I really don’t see this helping us destroy the Dreadnaught.”

“Oh my, not at all!” Cogs replied, sounding appalled at the idea. “Given enough time, I might be able to fit zis plane with enough guns, powerful enough to rip srough ze Dreadnaught’s hull, but zat would have taken weeks, perhaps even montz. No, zis plane will allow you, or whoever you assign to zis mission, to get right on top of ze Dreadnaught. It’s main purpose is transport, fast enough to avoid any projectiles, but tough enough to sustain many hits before it falls from ze sky… you recognise the metal we are using, yes?”

I looked closer, noticing that the plane was crafted from an eerily familiar, blue metal.

“It pained me to strip that beautiful machine down like it was scrap,” Cogs went on. “But do not worry, I made plans of it, we will be able to build a new one whenever we want. But I digress, ze point I was making, is zat ze plane is only intended to get you inside zee Dreadnaught. I am working on somesing else alongside zis, somesing zat will destroy it from zee inside out.”

“Hey Rarity!” Applebloom and Scootaloo interrupted, popping their heads out of the open door of the plane.

“Aha, zere are my two wonderful assistants!” Cogs declared happily. “I must say Rarity; I would never have made as much progress as I have, wizout ze help of zese two fillies.”

“Really?” I uttered, rather surprised by that.

“Yeah, this is great!” Scootaloo declared happily. “I never knew that flying could be done using machines, maybe one day I’ll be able to fly one of these, then it won’t matter that I… well, you know.”

“And ah love workin’ on this thing,” Applebloom added. “It’s just like when ah used to tinker on the harvester back home.”

“Indeed, little Applebloom has a natural talent for zis line of work,” Cogs informed me. “A filly after my own heart, and zat’s not to mention Scootaloo’s sheer passion for it. Why it’s even inspired me to create somesing brand new zat can… eh, but zat will have to wait. Zere is still much to be done, finishing touches to be applied, but I can assure you we will have zis ready for you to use when ze time comes.”

“Alright, well thank you,” I told him, before looking back at the two fillies. “And good work you two, keep it up.”

“Thanks Rarity!” they chorused as I started to walk away.

I barely made it several steps before I was frozen in place by a mighty roar that rent through the air. My head snapped north, my first thought being Blueblood and his army of monsters, but then I saw a familiar, purple scaled dragon stretching his new wings some distance away. He seemed to be behaving himself, even leaning down and allowing the tiny Twilight Sparkle to walk right up to his head, without trying to eat her or cook her… then eat her.

“Cool!” the pair announced in a single, drawn out utterance.

“Cool indeed,” I agreed, more muttering to myself. “Now we have a dragon.”

The rest of the day went by without incident, although I could see everypony beginning to get tense, they knew the battle was approaching, but nopony could be sure when. We managed to get through the whole night without any issue; it wasn’t until the next morning, shortly before midday, as I was walking through the streets of Cragsburg, talking with Fluttershy, that we heard it. It started with a single horn that caused everypony to stop dead in their tracks, but as it sounded, it was joined by another, and then another, until the air was filled with the sound and everypony sped into action.

I galloped through the streets, faster than I thought was physically possible for myself, as I made my way up to the keep where Fluttershy quickly scooped me up without having to be told, and delivered me onto the wall where Rainbow Dash was waiting. I stared out north over the Ash Lands, across the wide open plains, broken up only by the occasional boulder or jutting crag. The sky was heavy with clouds, the light of the sun glaring through to give the clouds a bright outline to contrast their dark grey bodies. All three of us stared in silence, I became deaf to the sounds of the horns and the soldiers hurrying about and getting ready. I felt my heart racing in my chest, could feel my breathing picking up in pace, couldn’t bring myself to blink as I pulled out my spyglass and raised it to my eye.

There was nothing to see, nothing… except the faintest outline, a silhouette of some hulking form suspended in the air at the very furthest reaches in my gaze. I lowered the spyglass, putting it away, knowing it wasn’t going to be necessary very soon. The scouts had not been wrong in their report…

“It’s them…” I breathed to Rainbow and Fluttershy. “They’re coming.”

It was absolutely hectic, everything blurring together as every single pony armed themselves and swarmed to battlefield. My friends and the other officers shouted and bellowed commands, arranging their units and making sure everypony was in position for when things kicked off. I made my own way down, slowly, taking my time to gather my courage and my wits. As I walked through the crowds of thousands to the front line, I thought of my family… my mother, my father and my dear sister, all safe in Canterlot with no clue that I was at that very moment, walking into a battle that I might very well not walk out of.

It was a silly thing to dwell on, as I walked forward as far as I could go and stopped… but I never did send them that letter. I stood there, absolutely still as I saw the dreadnaught come into focus… it was still far away, but I could see it well enough now without the need for my spyglass, and that meant all the ponies standing behind me could also see it. They probably also saw the army that was storming towards us beneath it, stretching far both east and west, churning up clouds of ash as they marched, which failed to hide how disturbing even their outlines looked, ranging dramatically in shape and size so it looked like a writhing mass was rolling its way towards us, as opposed to a force made up of individual creatures.

I turned slowly, looking out over my own force, only now realising just how much the Union force had grown with the addition of each new faction. At the very back, closest to the city wall, were the sisters of the Celestial Sisterhood, all prepared to treat the wounded as they came in. Just ahead of them was Cogs, who was now rather desperately trying to complete the plane and his other weapon. After them was the main bulk of the army, everypony split up into their units and squads, and visually differentiated by their armour. We had the battlemages from Arclight in their blue robes, joined by anypony from the other cities who felt more confident in their spell casting over their close combat, overseen by Hex.

There were the crusaders, led by Holly, and while they were easily the smallest of all the units, they were using their enchantments to their fullest. Their armour and weapons, which included maces as well as halberds, longswords and broadswords, all shone with holly, golden light. Then we had the primary Union soldiers, I recognised individuals such as Squadron Leader Gale, Cirrus, Eerie, Zephyr, Cyclone, and Alabaster among the light armour regiments, Big McIntosh in the heavy armour groups as well as Rainbow’s friend Dew drop who had switched up, while Hammerhead and his team could be seen among the medium armour squads. There was also the smaller group composed of ponies decked out in dragon armour, although I didn’t know the names of anypony there.

Typhoon was standing in the same position as the other officers, no longer wearing his uniform or medals, but a set of medium armour himself, he had probably compromised on the bases that heavy armour would weigh him down too much while flying. Water Lily too was wearing the same brand of medium armour that she had worn during Blueblood’s attack on Pivot, while Rose Bud, who was standing next to her, had gone for the barest amount of light armour. Scanning my eyes from them, I saw Feather Duster and Spitfire, both wearing similar flight suits, the former with a simple short sword, while Spitfire drew the baton she had taken from Fleetfoot and extended both curved blades.

Spike was off to one side, trying to stay out of the way of all the neat formations, but his size meant that I was able to see him pretty clearly despite how far down the line he was. That brought me to my friends, all five of whom were standing in a line directly in front of me. Twilight was wearing her purple battlemage robes, the hood still pulled down to reveal her silver crown, her sceptre drawn and levitating beside her with the pink orb pulsating with magical power. Pinkie Pie stood beside her, that same old blue and red striped harlequin outfit, she kept her cowl down and her mask was pulled up over her forehead to allow her actual face to show, while she idly spun her two rondel daggers around her silver clad hooves.

Fluttershy was in the middle, wearing her white cassock and mantle bearing the sun and cross of the Celestial Sisterhood, along with her silver breastplate and gorget, she had her mace drawn, and there was already a golden light shining from within it. Rainbow Dash stood in full light armour, rainbow plumed helmet already on, while her armoured wings matched the rest of her silver armour perfectly, she had her spear already extended and at the ready. Finally Applejack stood, wearing her mix of leather armour on her front half, along with her sallet helmet, the visor still angled up, while her rear half was dressed in silver, her claymore remained fastened to her back.

As I looked around the hundreds and thousands of faces, I saw… fear, wide eyes and rapid breathing, ponies shaking inside their armour and weapons that trembled in their hooves. Some had their eyes shut, others were muttering to themselves, perhaps trying to pretend they were somewhere… anywhere else. We had brought them all together, brought them all this far, but now that the enemy was on the horizon and the end was quite possibly around the corner, so many were getting cold hooves. They might have been screaming internally, regretting their decisions, contemplating running away. When Blueblood’s army met our own, we couldn’t have that, they needed to stand strong and defiant if we were to win.

“Maybe you ought’a say somethin’,” Applejack suggested. “Like a speech, something to rally their spirits.”

“What should I say?” I asked, feeling a bit lost.

“Whatever comes naturally,” Applejack replied. “It’s just like Twilight said, this is the moment, these ponies are all waitin’ for somepony to stand up and be the inspiration they need.”

I nodded slowly, I knew she was right, this would be the moment that could make or break everything we’d been working for… and like an idiot, I had signed up for it, although I had felt coerced. I felt a tap on my shoulder and looked up to see Rainbow Dash, she was holding out the metallic mouthpiece she had used to project her voice back at Olympus. I accepted it in my magic and turned around, seeing a rocky outcrop that would serve as an ideal stage. So once I climbed up and was satisfied everypony could see me, I raised the voice projector to my mouth so they would all hear me. For a moment I just stared, but then I shut my eyes, took a deep breath… and began to speak.

“Hello everypony,” I began, inwardly cringing at how awkward it sounded. “Many of you already know me, but for those who don’t… my name is Rarity, I was born and raised in Port Mule, I owned my own boutique where I made dresses and outfits. I never had strong beliefs or opinions when it came to politics or philosophy, I never thought about my role as a citizen of Panchea or a subject of Equestrian Empire, and when the war came around... I ran. My entire family packed our bags, and we fled to the safety of Canterlot.”

I was getting quite a few odd looks already, but I expected that, and I also knew that if they were to accept me as their leader, then they needed to know who the real Rarity was.

“I came back eighty-five days ago,” I went on. “I arrived at Daybreak Landing after a three week voyage from Equestria. From there, my intention was to return home, confirm that everything was as we left it, and write for my family to come and join me… I was incredibly naïve back then. The war had been a novelty to me, stories of great battles where soldiers fought with honour and earned glory was all I heard, I never knew the truth until I came back and saw it for myself. Everywhere I went, I saw the true horrors of the war, towns and cities brought to the brink of ruin, ponies who lost everything and were left with nowhere to go, families torn apart, leaving the young and elderly all alone.

“I found myself dragged into helping the Rebellion,” I continued. “I got tangled in the affairs of multiple factions and conflicts, and throughout my journey and the many trials I came to face, I learnt something… the war never ended. The Equestrian government may have surrendered and its soldiers left our borders, but for Panchea and its citizens, the war carried on, and every day it claimed more victims. I’ve been made to face a lot of things since my return, both about my country and about who I am as a pony, not all of it was good… but I did find that there was so much here that I cared deeply about, and wanted to do my best to preserve, to shelter and protect. I discovered that I care about this land and those who share it with me.

“So I tried very hard,” I carried on. “I tried to help others in the way I had been helped, I tried to make a difference for the good… but no matter how much I tired, I would never have accomplished anything if I had been alone. Which is why I am glad that I’ve never been alone, in my time here, I have made friends who have stuck by me through it all, supporting me during the bad times, and being there to make the good times better. I’ve done so much, things I’m proud of and things I’m ashamed of, but I know that through their friendship, through the unity we share, I have grown into a better pony than I could ever have hoped to be without them.”

I saw all five of my friends beaming up at me, as well as the many other faces I recognised and cherished, it filled me with elation and allowed me to keep going with heightened passion.

“The war never ended… but it’s about to,” I announced. “Right now there’s an army approaching, it’s led by a creature who doesn’t care who you are, what you believe in, or how you exist. All he cares about is everything submitting to his absolute rule, and eradicating anything that does not. We’ve all come here today to tell that monster ‘no’, that we will not be ruled by a tyrant, through fear and oppression. We have all thrown down our individual banners and come together as one. Where once our beliefs and loyalties divided us, now we are united.”

My speech was starting to rouse the crowd; I could hear the hum of many voices murmuring approval, even some who shouted aloud their support.

“Take heart everyone!” I declared loudly. “Because I have faith in each and every one of you, I have faith that we will win this day. Just as I grew as a pony through the bond with my friends, our Union will not be overcome by this foe, thanks to the unity each and every one of us shares. We are all citizens of Panchea, and today we stand united, stronger than we could ever hope to be alone, stronger than Blueblood and all his abominations combined!”

A huge cheer spread across the entire army, most ponies raising their weapons into the air as they shouted their agreement. I took that moment to reach down and draw my own sword, holding the rapier aloft so the sun glanced of the narrow blade.

“We… are going… to win!” I stated with confidence. “We are going to survive! This day, this final battle, marks an end to the war… and the beginning of Panchea’s new future! So if you are with me, if you will stand and fight by my side, then shout! Let me hear your voices… let the enemy hear the voice of Panchea and the Union army! Let them know that we will be the ones left standing this day, let them know that we are united, now… and until the end of days!”

The noise was deafening, a part of me believed that Blueblood might just hear it from where he was at. Every single pony shouted in unison, they cheered for Panchea, they cheered for the Union… they cheered for me. As I looked out over the sea of faces that no longer looked scared of nervous, but strong and confident, at the thousands of individuals I had inspired with my words, I felt an incredible warmth inside of me, like a fire had ignited in my very soul. Glancing down, I saw my friends’ faces all begin to light up, Pinkie grabbing Fluttershy and shaking her, while jabbing a hoof up at me in excitement. My eyes travelled down to my own body which I could see was beginning to shine with a divine light.

Very soon my whole body was overwhelmed by the light, it felt like I was floating inside a pool of liquid purity. I felt more attuned with my body, mind and soul than I had ever been in my entire life. I could still hear the sounds of cheering, but I didn’t really pay attention to them, as something began to appear before me, a spark of silver amidst the glaring white. The spark seemed to expand, turning liquid, like molten metal, before it began to take shape. I stared in wonderment as the object finished taking form and presented itself to me, revealing itself to be a masque.

I wanted to reach out and touch it, but found that my body was too relaxed to move, even to take hold of it. The Masque was shimmering silver, a very elegant design, with simple and modest facial features. It looked so serene with its ever so slight smile, and eyes that shone like sapphires, but it was the gemstone embedded in the forehead that drew my attention. It was a deep purple gem in the shape of a kite, reminding me of the masks worn by the police in Arclight, but more appropriately, it reminded me of my own cutie mark.

This was it, the final Element of Unity, the Masque of Inspiration. I could almost hear the name resonating throughout my being as the Masque slowly turned around and began moving into my face. It fitted perfectly, causing absolutely no discomfort, resting in place with no need for a strap or anything of the sort. It covered my entire face, from my muzzle to my forehead, cutting off directly beneath my horn. As it fitted into place, I felt my body suddenly brimming with power. Everything felt sharper, enhanced, and the Masque itself didn’t appear to weigh anything, while still allowing me to see clearly through the eyeholes.

I felt my body sinking back down to the ground, felt the rock reappear beneath my hooves as the white light began to part before me, allowing me to see my friends and the army once more. As I looked down at the five of them, at their own shining Elements, I felt the very connection they had spoken of to me, like the one I often felt in my heart when we were all together, but magnified to new and incredible levels. The soldiers were still cheering, perhaps even louder and more enthusiastically, which I had been sure wasn’t possible, but they made it happen.

I smiled beneath the Masque; turning on my platform towards the ever approaching enemy, sweeping my sword out and holding it aloft so the point of the blade was pointed directly at them… it was time for the final battle to begin.

LXXX - Unity

And there I was… eighty-five days since I set hoof on the shores of home… one hundred and six days since I last saw my family… too many days since my story began in Canterlot Castle, I was there, running across a rocky wasteland as ash swirled around me, caught in the wind and kicked up by the cantering hooves. My head was filled with the sound of charging and of battle cries, but it all sounded so far off, like I wasn’t really a part of it, even though I was there in the middle. If I turned my eyes to the right or the left, I could see my allies spread out far to either side, but when I turned my gaze forward I saw the enemy…

The army of abominations was everything I expected and more, hideous monstrosities, revolting grotesqueries, I could call them names all day and it would never do justice to just how terrible they really were. They came in hundreds of varieties, it was hard to find any two that looked similar, so many shapes and sizes… every single one of them an insult to the ponies they once were, before they were augmented against their will until very little of their true selves shone through the unnatural façade. While the Dreadnaught, the great metal behemoth in the distance, maintained a fairly standard speed, encroaching steadily closer to us with every passing minute, the enemy army charged forward when they saw us rushing in to meet them.

And there we were… both forces moments from clashing… moments from the conflict that would end with only one side left standing. It had been a long road that brought me to that moment, a long twisting road, along which I saw many things, met many faces and did so much. I had journeyed to each major location in Panchea, from the five great cities and the smaller towns, to the secret and forbidden places, the Nether Vale and the Demon Shaft, the Isle of Serenity and the Covenant cathedral.

I had made enemies for myself, ponies like the Dishonoured, Starlight Glimmer, Typhoon and Spoon Bender, Iron Sights and Fleetfoot, Gaia and Terra, Crane and Blueblood… but I had also made considerably more friends. Hammerhead, Cirrus, Grass Snake, Big Mac, Cogs, Spike, Lily and Rose just to name a few, but most of all there had been Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, and that wasn’t even touching on the countless individuals I had encountered along the way, who had helped me in so many small ways.

I had brought my body to the point of collapse so many times, through starvation, exhaustion, mental collapse and physical injury. I had been tortured in the most brutal fashion for days, finally ending in my own death and rebirth. I had learned to fight and taken up arms, I had used them to fight and hurt others, I had taken the lives of my fellow ponies, sometimes in self-defence, other times in revenge. I had deceived and gone under cover, toppled power structures and destroyed war machines. I had sat with those closest to me and gazed up at the night sky and listened to the sound of the sea, together we had been there for one another and overcome challenges.

It’s hard not to be charging head first into the jaws of death, feeling more alive than you ever have since the day you were born, your heart thumping and your breath sticking, and not look back on everything that led you to that moment, wondering if there had ever been another way. Had my decision been set in stone? Could I have done something differently, and set the entire universe on a different track? But that was the past, and there was no changing the past, in that moment we could only look forward and wonder about the future.

Would we win? Would we lose, and everything we’d worked so hard for be for naught? Would we even survive to see the world our decisions helped shape? I believed in my heart that we had what it took to succeed, we could work together to overcome this final hurdle and lead Panchea into a bright new future. I believed that by all of us working together, we would triumph, that working in accordance with the spirit of the Elements was what we needed to do to guarantee victory. The Elements of Unity themselves were still an enigma to us, we had all six, but what did that even mean? They were created from the Elements of Harmony, the divine artefacts wielded by the Six, but in all we had learnt, we still didn’t know what precisely they were supposed to do or how we made them work.

Not to say my new Masque was little more than a stylish accessory, simply by wearing it I became faster and stronger, my endurance higher and my senses more focused. But was giving me that physical boost really what would see us through the day? I was about to find out as I galloped into the charging path of a huge beast with great hunched shoulders, a thick scally hide, long crooked claws, and a distorted face with crocodile like features. I sprinted right for it as it raised its claws and opened its jaws with a feral screech, as the distance between us closed to almost nothing, I leapt forwards, propelling myself off a small jutting rock so I was as high as the monster’s head.

Raising my rapier high, I brought it swishing down diagonally across the creature’s head, my blade raking through his hide and causing it to twist back in agony. My jump saw me hammering right into it, my sudden weight bringing it crashing to the ground after my initial slash had thrown it off balance. Once on the ground, I raised my sword once more, stabbing it down into the creature’s eye and piercing right through until my blade was buried to the hilt. As quickly as I had driven the sword in and the beast ceased moving, I pulled it back out and continued to rush forward without losing my momentum, seeking out my next opponent.

There were plenty to choose from; now that the two armies had met, I was absolutely surrounded by monsters, many of which were already locked in combat with my own allies. The closest fight taking place to me was with two light armoured ponies dodging out of range of the rapid head-butt attacks of a monster with hydra like qualities. The heads smashed themselves into the ground like hammers, with little regard for their own safety, by the time one had hit the ground, one of the other three were already swinging down. This resulted in neither of the ponies finding an opening to attack during, as they had to keep rolling and running out of the way of the heads.

Drawing two of my knives, I threw them with magic at the two heads that were most stationary, hitting them both in the eyes. The heads writhed and flailed around, giving a short enough break in their assault for one of the ponies to roll inwards and swing his glaive through the air, taking off one of the heads with a single clean swipe. I pulled my knives free of the creature, while the second pony moved in and began stabbing it in the torso with his sword. They had that particular fight in the bag, so I left them be and moved on. As I ran towards an ogre like creature, its rolls of fat literally rotting as it slouched its slow way across the battlefield, I felt the ground beneath my hooves suddenly rise up sharply, sending me sprawling onto my rear.

I looked around behind me in time to see a colossal worm burst out of the ground, it must have tunnelled right beneath me, which was what upset the ground. It had come out of the earth right beneath a pony in heavy armour, and was trying to ingest him into its circular mouth lined with teeth. I picked up the pony’s fallen battle-axe in my magic and hurled it at the worm, causing it to drop the pony as it spun around to face me. I hurriedly scrambled out of the way as it rose up out of the earth and leapt through the air in an arc, coming right down to where I had been standing when I threw the axe.

I got out of the way in time, lumps of dirt and stone showering up as the worn burrowed back into the ground. Taking my chances, I looked about for my sword, which I had dropped when the worm first tunnelled under me. I found it quickly enough, giving quick thanks to my improved vision as I pulled it over to me with telekinesis. Just as I took hold of it, I heard a low rumbling and turned in time to see the worm burst out of the ground a second time, diving straight for me. I readied myself to leap out of harm’s way, but found I didn’t have to, as a huge club came smashing down on the worm. I glanced about to see that the rather slow looking ogre had been moving in to attack me while I was distracted, and seemed to have struck the worm by mistake.

As the head end of the worm was flattened beneath the club, I quickly darted around behind the ogre, grimacing at the stench it gave off before taking a last gulp of precious oxygen, running up and grabbing on to his flabby flesh. The ogre began lazily shaking, sending ripples down its body to try and remove me. I held on, although it wasn’t easy what with how damp the skin was, if felt like it would peel right off if I pulled too tightly. Once on his shoulders, I began stabbing my sword down into his neck and head, but he didn’t seem to register it, just waving his arms at me as if I was nothing more than a pesky mosquito.

I heard somepony shout out to me and glanced around to see a soldier I didn’t recognise, running over with a bomb held aloft in his magic. I pulled my sword out of the ogre’s flesh and I leapt off as the pony threw the bomb, as soon as it made contact with the creature’s body and cracked, it went off in a torrent of flames. The ogre began to squeal, sounding an awful lot like a huge pig as it tried to put out the fire that was spreading over its body, apparently it was rather flammable. I shouted some praise over to the pony who threw the bomb as the ogre went down, its flailing becoming weaker until it stopped altogether.

I saw a monster; it looked like a shrunken, shrivelled pony with a cauliflower growing out its neck. It was running rampantly across the battlefield, no sense of direction, but I could see it was getting awfully close to a pair of ponies, one lying injured, while the other stood over her in a protective manner while shouting out for a stretcher. I sprinted across, cutting off the monster right as it was about to throw itself on the pony while his back was turned. We both fell to the ground together where it began bucking about madly, apparently unable to get up after landing on its back.

I stood up and brought its head off with a swing of my sword in a chopping motion. This turned out to be a mistake however, as the cauliflower head grew vine like legs and began to scuttle away. I managed to take it out from a distance with a single well aimed knife, but while I was aiming, I didn’t notice the monster that looked like a demonic bull charging towards me. Right after I let the knife fly, I was thrown to the ground, not by the monster, as that might have broken me in two, but by Spitfire who had flown in at the last second. She quickly helped me to my hooves again, uttering a short apology, before turning to face the bull as it turned to face us once more.

As it started running, I pulled my thrown knife free of the weird head, which now lay motionless, and spun it through the air, striking the bull right in the eye. It didn’t embed itself, which I had been hoping for, but it managed to glance off its brow, causing the bull to dip its head reflexively. This allowed Spitfire to sidestep it as it got close, and raise her double ended sword, spinning it through the air and decapitating the beast as it charged by, sending the head arcing into the air, while the body dropped forwards and skidded on for several metres.

I caught my knife before it flew off too far again and brought it back, sheathing it as I muttered a quick thanks to Spitfire, who offered to airlift me over to a point some ways west of our current positon, where they were having trouble. I agreed, and while we flew through the air, occasionally dipping down so I could swipe out a monster with Spitfire’s blade, which I was able to spin around us with magic, I heard what sounded like the cawing of a crow. I glanced up, half expecting to see Harbinger, but instead I saw a creature that had clearly once been a pegasus, but now resembled a vulture, its wings too big for its body and looking badly moulted.

Spitfire had to twist drastically in order to avoid colliding with it, but this resulted in me slipping off. As I started to fall, I hurled the doubled ended sword skyward and it impaled the creature in the chest. Almost instantly, Spitfire zoomed up and pulled the weapon free as the monster began to drop, retracting the blades back into the baton before speeding down to scoop me back up, before I was splattered over the ground. She kept me held beneath her this time as we completed our journey over to where Hex was leading a number of battlemages, trying to hold off the enemy horde while covering the escape of about half a dozen injured ponies on stretchers.

“Ah, perfect timing!” he greeted, sending a bolt of magic into one of the many eyes of a monster that seemed to be nothing but eyes. “Spitfire, can you cover the injured while they’re taken back to base?”

Spitfire nodded and sped after them, that left me to stay and help Hex in fighting the monsters that were encroaching on their barrier. The one that Hex had zapped, that resembled a blob of reddish brown muck covered in eyeballs, appeared impervious to their magical attacks, reaching the barrier and simply passing through it. Once it was on our side, all its eyes, which had previously being staring off in random directions, focused in on a single battlemage, paralysing him on the spot. I ran forward and tried to bring my sword down on the slime creature, but it just sank into the muck, the eyeballs rolling out of harm’s way, while I had to drag it back out before it was swallowed.

“Rarity, try this!” Hex called out, his horn glowing.

At first I didn’t know what I was supposed to be trying, but then the blade of my sword ignited with fire. I instinctively held it slightly further away from myself, worried that I might do more harm to myself than the monster with this new enchantment. I saw the eyes beginning to turn; releasing the pony it had captured in its gaze and rotating towards me, so I quickly brought the flaming sword down. This time I was satisfied when it scorched right through the middle of the slime. I slashed at it a few more times, repeatedly dividing it, until the pieces appeared too small to function independently and dissolve on the ground in a bubbling mess.

As I was busy finishing it off, a massive boulder was hurled through the shield, the battlemages holding it up were thrown off by the sudden impact and their concentration slipped, allowing the rock to break through and pummel into a pair of them. I wasn’t able to run back and check to see if they had survived the blow, as a new monster was scuttling towards me on long mantis like legs, dragging behind a body that resembled a fleshy sack of Hearths Warming presents. I moved in to meet it, holding my sword aloft with magic, just to keep the fire at a safe distance until it wore off, but then the monster propped its wretched body up using its legs, and began birthing dozens of fat, fly like creatures in a shower of bodily fluids, which buzzed towards me.

I froze and quickly started spinning my sword around me with magic, creating a whirlwind of fire that swatted the flies out of the air and left them twitching and singed on the ground. Beyond them I could see the monster that spawned them, already swelling up with more, but then it began to rise up off the ground in a green aura. I glanced about to see Hex running back over to help me, looking back in time to see him pulling the legs out one at a time, leaving the sack like body to hover in mid-air, connected to nothing. Aiming, I threw my flaming sword towards it, splitting the body open as it spun through, causing it to gush with rancid fluid and half developed flies, which wriggled and died on the ground.

I nodded in appreciation to Hex before running off after my sword, it had fallen not too far off, the fire enchantment having ended, leaving the blade as it once was. As I made my way towards it, another creature sped my way, it looked like a cluster of rocks and boulders orbiting a winking orb of magic, I noticed that some of the rocks resembled petrified pony parts, including one that was most definitely a face. I steered clear of it, rolling in the opposite direction of where my sword had fallen, and losing track of it while I tried to dodge the cyclone of flying rocks, as they tried to batter me to death.

While backing up, I wandered right into the path of something that resembled a walker, only it was mostly bones, with only a little tattered flesh hanging of its old pony form, levitating off the ground slightly and filled with a haunting light of pale blue. The creature hissed at me, and I felt ghostly shackles snapping around my forelegs, pulling me up off the ground and hanging me in front of the creature, as its skull cricked my way and the jaw opened wide. I heard it sucking and felt a rush of air tugging at my insides; quickly I focused my magic to my horn and began charging up, unleashing it as a simple blast. However, I was surprised that as I charged up the spell, I felt it resonating in my Masque too, specifically in my eyes.

When I released the spell it came out in three beams, one from my horn and the bottom two from my eyes, merging together into a greater triangular laser that decimated the creature’s skull as it passed through it. I felt myself drop back to the ground where I landed neatly enough, whereas the skeletal monster fell and its bones exploded into dust. Spinning around, I saw the rock cyclone had ceased its pursuit, now focusing its attacks on a familiar pony who was having much greater ease at dodging it than I.

“You can’t catch me!” Pinkie mocked in a sing song voice, as she danced out of the monster’s reach.

As the monster hurled itself in its entirety at Pinkie Pie, she dived forward, her body twisted as she stretched and slipped her way in between the speeding rocks. She dived right into its magical core, where her whole body warped and twisted around for a brief second before leaping out the other side again. The pile of flying rocks all fell to the ground, no longer animated, as Pinkie held the ball of magic in her own hooves, squishing it between her gauntlets. I trotted over, scanning around for my fallen sword as I did.

“Hiya Rarity!” Pinkie greeted, almost certainly smiling behind her own mask. “This is actually going pretty well, it’s even a little bit fun.”

“Don’t get relaxed just yet,” I warned her, glancing across the battlefield at the hordes that still lay between us and the Dreadnaught. “There’s a lot to go, and I’ve already seen ponies on stretch…”

Pinkie chose that moment to stop me in my tracks, by diving forward and tackling me to the ground. I wasn’t sure why, until I saw the ground where I had been standing explode in chips of stone and ash, as if something had struck it, although I couldn’t see what. Pinkie grabbed me and hauled me back to my hooves, tapping my own Masque and muttering ‘is this thing on?’. I frowned at that, wondering what she was meaning, but as I began to focus on it, the world around me started changing. It was as if I was seeing it all through a new filter, where I was looking, not at the physical constructs that made up bodies and objects, but at the magic that flowed within all living things.

In a place like the Ash Lands, using this ability could be a little risky as there was no life in the environment, the ground instead appearing as a cold expanse of nothing… I had a mental image of tripping over a rock, which made me anxious. This new sight did however, allow me to see what had tried to attack us; it looked like a great serpent, only its head was split open like a banana peel to allow half a mare to protrude from within. There was only so much detail I could detect when looking beyond the physical realm, but I saw enough to know what we were up against, and I was ready when the invisible monster began slithering towards us a second time.

The creature got close before it lunged out, the mare baring her fangs and raising her forelegs, which each tapered off into long, sharp scythe like appendages. Pinkie and I both rolled to either side, allowing the serpent to pass between us, as we each pulled out a pair of blades and stabbed them into the monsters side, its own momentum allowing us to remain stationary while our blades sliced along it. We almost got down the full length before the serpent was able to slow itself down and begin flipping and writhing in agony, forcing us to pull out our blades and jump clear of the thrashing tail.

I saw Pinkie’s own magical essence, which I could see was a huge amount compressed into such a small place, appearing quite frantic as she struggled to contain it all, as she back flipped her way back over beside me. She hurriedly asked me to keep it focused a moment, while she got the jump on it. I assured her I would, and a moment later her essence vanished, leaving behind only trace residue, no doubt she had blinked away somewhere. This left me to run up to the serpent, which was still trying to pull itself together after suffering the injuries it did.

I drew my three daggers and held them behind my back, as the serpent saw me and dived again, I sidestepped it and launched one of the knives. I heard it make contact and the creature shriek in pain again, but cursed myself as I had subsequently lost track of one of my knives as well as my sword. I couldn’t see it while looking through the Masque’s magic vision, but I didn’t want to turn it off, as I figured being blind to the serpent would be much worse. As the beast lunged and struck out at me again and again, I held onto my last two knives, I had an idea, but I was worried if it didn’t work, I’d be left with only one until Pinkie made her move.

I decided to take my chances, and when the serpent moved in to attack again, I threw my second knife, but this time using magic. The experiment was a success, the knife made contact and resulted in the monster rearing up in pain, but the knife was still giving off a small magical reading from when I held it. It was faint, but I was able to see it just long enough to retrieve it. I felt a little more confident after that, but unfortunately my confidence came to a swift halt when the serpent sprung forward again, but this time not aiming for me. The half mare head went right past me, and it was only too late that I realised what it was doing.

The serpent wrapped its whole body around me, and before I could move to escape, it constricted and I felt myself trapped within it. The head moved around to the front of me once more, appearing almost victorious as it surveyed its trapped prey, the mare scraping her scythe arms off one another, getting ready to strike. My own limbs were trapped, slowly being crushed by the steadily increasing pressure of the serpent’s body, so I couldn't get at my knives, even with my magic. The mare pulled back before lunging down upon me, but just as she was about to reach me, I saw Pinkie blink into existence right over her, leaving a cluster of magical residue resembling a portal behind as she did.

Whatever she did, the snake mare froze in an instant, her fangs mere feet from tearing into me. She had been vanquished, and as I felt her grip around me slacken, I wriggled free. Once I was outside the serpentine prison, I thought very hard about getting my Masque to return to normal vision, trying to simply will it, just as I had done to switch it in the first place. It worked like a charm, the world returning to normal to show a now visible snake monster with Pinkie standing on top of it; my own rapier plunged right through the mare’s head and body. Pinkie returned the sword, as well as the knife I had lost track of, which had managed to jam itself in her hip, the lowest part of her pony body before she merged with the snake form.

I would have liked for Pinkie to stay, but before ten seconds had passed of her giving me my weapons, she spotted a number of soldiers struggling to bring down a monster that looked like a walking tree, and dashed off to help them. That left me to gallop to the front line where our own troops were quite often finding themselves ganged up on by the enemy, as their numbers began to pile in on mass. Therw was one individual I quickly spotted, who was having no trouble handling multiple attackers on her own, even if those attackers were mutated abominations, and that was Applejack.

If anything tried to take her from behind while she was mowing down enemies with her claymore, you could be certain she’d notice it and give it a firm bucking with her new sabatons, one hit from which was usually enough to keep them down, and if not then it kept them down long enough for her to focus on them and put them down specifically. It also helped that another familiar pony was fighting not too far off from her, which I knew was no coincidence, thinning the herd that tried to approach her. Big Mac wasn’t even bothering with a weapon, he just got in close and personal and let his hooves do the damage, he didn’t even try to avoid attacks, soaking up damage like a walking tank.

This attitude however, I could see was about to prove very problematic for him, as a tall, spindly creature composed of shadows began ambling over to him. Naturally he tried punching it, but this time he found his hoof just flying harmlessly through its skinny torso. The monster responded by reaching down, almost lazily, like it was just trying to get his attention, and pushing its hand through his shoulder. It didn’t appear to do any physical damage, there was no blood or breaking of bones, but Big Mac’s whole body did seize up immediately, I saw his eyes go wide and breathing seemed to halt.

Applejack hadn’t noticed, but I couldn’t be sure she even knew her brother was there watching her back, so I rushed forward, charging up my horn and Masque as I did. The creatures turned its blank, shadowy face towards me, looking curious in a way as I launched my beam at it. It had the desired effect, forcing the monster to pull its hand back from Big Mac, allowing him to take a huge gasp of air, while the figure began writhing in the light, its shadowy flesh peeling away to reveal a much more physical looking body beneath. Big Mac didn’t hesitate in jabbing out at the hole my magic was making, his hoof connecting sharply with the monster’s exposed chest and causing a loud snap to be heard, like a whip cracking.

The monster collapsed instantly, apparently being quite fragile beneath its protective outer layer. I stayed with Big Mac for a little longer, helping him and Applejack cut through the enemy ranks, before I decided that they had everything well under control on this front, and to move further up the line to see if anypony else needed my help. It was Hammerhead who my eyes fell upon and decided to run towards next, he was crouched down beside one of his friends, who was bleeding profusely from several laceration wounds, a monster with limbs resembling bundles of razor wire lay dead nearby, none of his other friends were in sight.

I ran up, throwing a knife at a small yappy creature that Hammerhead was attempting to fend off with his maul as it tried to chew on his friend’s fetlocks. Glancing up, he saw me approaching and a look of relief swept over his face. Without stopping to speak, I helped pick up his groaning friend and lay him over Hammerhead’s back. We started running back towards the base, I covered our rear by giving a quick flick with my sword at any monsters which got too close, but then we were brought to a shuddering stop when a great hand burst forth from the earth and latched onto Hammerhead’s hind leg.

I heard a loud pop as it dislocated, followed by Hammerhead’s cry of pain. He fell to the ground, his friend rolling off his back while the hand dragged Hammerhead toward the hole it had sprung up from. I began sprinting over, throwing my knives at the hand while readying my sword, but they just scratched it, and it barely noticed. It started sinking back down, Hammerhead about to go with it, when another pony swooped down, bringing a battle-axe chopping down. The hand’s fingertips were severed, and the rest of it very quickly retreated, leaving Hammerhead breathing rapidly, probably still disturbed by what had almost happened.

I looked up; smiling when I saw it was Eerie who had come into rescue Hammerhead. Moments later, Cirrus and the others either ran or flew in. A quick discussion later and they worked together to get both Hammerhead and his friend carried back to safety, this allowed me to return the way I had come. I stopped briefly to admire the work of Holly and some of the other crusaders, they were absolutely tearing through the enemy, and they made it all look so easy with their precise, coordinated attacks, and enchantments that burned any and all monsters they encountered in a wave of holy fire.

The clearly didn’t need my help, so I moved on, finding a group of soldiers taking cover behind a large crag, as a monster which resembled a living, walking cannon, bombarded them with acidic projectiles, which began eating through anything they struck. I narrowly avoided one myself, dropped down and sliding to safety alongside the rest of the ponies, who looked pleased at my arrival. Among their number was two medium armoured ponies, a battlemage, and Gale, whose wing still looked to be out of commission.

“We can’t get through,” Gale told me. “The rest of our unit is further ahead, but this thing cut us off.”

“Can you make a shield for us?” I asked the mage, but he shook his head.

“I’m not specialised in shields,” he explained. “But if I got close enough, I could crush that thing into a cube. My special talent is using magic to warp metal, and there looks to be quite a bit on that thing.”

“Warping metal…” I repeated thoughtfully, before a metaphorical light bulb appeared above my head. “I have a plan, if you two could remove your armour…”

The other two ponies stripped down, and I instructed the battlemage to cobble the pieces together to make up four shields. He worked quickly, while one of the ponies who had taken their armour off, used their crossbow to protect us from any other monsters coming around the rock. Once the mage was done, we had four, very hastily made square shields. I gave one to each of the ponies except the mage, keeping the fourth for myself, as I explained my plan. The cannon creature barely let up in its assault, so we weren’t going to get any obvious openings, we would just have to try our luck.

We stepped out of cover in our designated formation, myself and Gale at the front, our shields held out before us to create a small wall, the other two ponies who had sacrificed their armour for this, were directly behind us, their own shield held over us to create a small ceiling. We began marching forwards simultaneously, having to stoop ever so slightly so the front shields covered everything from the acid shots. We had essentially become a tortoise, shielded from the front as well as the top, from any shots that came over head and dipped off. With the battlemage safely behind us, as we all marched together towards the enemy.

The shields would never have held out for very long before the acid started dissolving through them, but they lasted just long enough for us to get close enough, that the mage could step up and play his part. The monster had been almost mechanical, all its organic matter contained safely inside its own metal shell, although that had been its downfall as he compressed all the metal in on itself, crushing the biological matter within. We cast the now useless shields down, Gale and the battlemage thanked me before going to re-join their unit, while the other two retreated to get new armour, I wouldn’t have them on the battlefield without some kind of protection.

I looked around, trying to find other ponies who needed my help, or monsters that were making a push forward and not being challenged, when I saw a pillar of light erupt into the sky over to the west. I could feel the connection to Twilight and her crown through my Masque, and while that attack could have been seen as evidence that she was coping well enough on her own, I saw it as evidence that there was some kind of struggle at that end, that she would resort to such a large scale and presumably devastating attack.

I started making my way across there, along the way, I slowed down twice to help groups of soldiers in taking down a monster that resembled a minotaur with a steely exoskeleton, and another that multiplied whenever it had a limb severed or was cleaved in two. By the time I reached the crater where Twilight had presumably just been, I was starting to feel very thankful for that increased endurance that Masque lent me, but I was worried how the rest of the soldiers might be coping. I could see Twilight further up ahead, far away from our own front line and any allies, but considering how devastating her various magical attacks were, I guessed that was intentional for their own safety.

I didn’t like the idea of her being so isolated however, so I began running around the crater that had been left from that pillar of light I saw, before galloping across the plains towards her. Twilight sensed me before I reached her, sending the twister she was currently conjuring around her, hurtling into the enemy ranks and keeping them safely off her back for a moment.

“You shouldn’t be here!” Twilight shouted out to me, the orb on her sceptre opening up to allow a stream of power to burst forth and turn three monsters to dust. “I’m still trying to get the hang of my spellcasting with this crown; the new magnitude is a little… wild.”

To prove this, her horn flashed very briefly within its silver casing, causing a series of stalagmites to begin erupting from the ground in a trail from her outwards, impaling a couple of abominations somewhere along the way.

“I have faith you won’t hurt me,” I replied, swinging my sword to parry a bat like creature that swooped down on us.

After pushing it back, Twilight grabbed it in her magical hold and chucked it like bowling ball into a charging monster that resembled a wolf with two heads, one of which was more akin to a very hairy unicorn, its horn basically a shaft of exposed bone jutting out its forehead, and humming with energy. The bat and wolf monsters collided and both tumbled across the ground together, but as they did, the unicorn’s horn began emanating a violent, rippling aura. As we watched, the two bodies rippled for a moment, getting sucked into a vortex of the unicorn’s creation. Getting spat back out seconds later as a bizarre hybrid, the limbs and appendages of the bat monster now spliced onto the body of the wolf thing.

As it was released from the singularity, which promptly vanished, it landed on all four legs, which now no longer matched, as one was a claw that it half trailed behind it while running towards us. Twilight grabbed me and teleported us to a safe distance before we both lit up our horns and sent a beams of magic at the monster, each moving in from either side so it was trapped, unable to run either direction without getting incinerated by one of us. Of course, we should have predicted it jumping into the air and flying out of range, leaving our streams to cross before we allowed them to fizzle out. In my defence, I had seen the addition of the bat wings, and thought they looked so malformed that it couldn’t possibly fly with them, I was wrong it seemed.

Twilight raised her sceptre, launching several orbs of varying elements in rapid succession of one another; almost all of them hit their target, sending its smoking, charred body soaring to the ground. Unfortunately it hit the ground, its limbs breaking upon contact, near another monster resembling a wyrm, and the unicorn head was quick to create another vortex, drawing both bodies in and fusing them together. The result looked even more deformed and unnatural than the last, the body elongated, so now none of the three wings even lined up, the multiple ugly heads all vying for control and direction.

“We need to destroy it utterly before it can merge with anything else,” Twilight told me, sending out her sceptre to draw a ring of warding fire around us and the monster. “And that includes us, so don’t get too close when it feels threatened.”

I nodded and charged in; ducking beneath the jet of flames the wyrm head sent my way, rolling until I was knelt just below the collective heads. Before they had time to direct any attacks my way, I swung my sword upwards, slashing through the throat of the unicorn head, almost taking it clean off but it managed to hang on by a narrow chunk off flesh, leaving it to dangle aimlessly. I saw its horn beginning to charge up, but felt my whole body yanked back by Twilight’s magic to her side. Once I was safely out of harm’s way, Twilight aimed her sceptre at the unicorn head and conjured a ghostly chain with a gruesome looking meat hook on the end, to spring out and impale itself on the head.

She gave a hard pull of her sceptre, like she was trying to reel in a particularly defiant fish, managing the rip the head off whatever remaining bit kept it connected to the rest of the body. As it soared through the air, Twilight waved the chain out of existence before directing her sceptre at the spot where the head was flying, opening a singularity of her own for the head to get drawn into and pulverised. That just left the rest of the misshapen body, which was still managing to flail around randomly without the unicorn head. I ran back across to it, running specifically around its right side so when the wyrm tried to breath fire at me, it ended up breathing it all over the wolf head, which it appeared only tangentially connected to.

While the monster was busy doing more harm to itself than me, I managed to duck down around the back, and jump up on top of it. The wolf head was now busy retaliating by trying to tear off the wyrm head with its powerful jaws, while I went to the bat head located somewhere further down the half exposed spinal column and drove my sword into it. It didn’t take long to finish it off when it was doing most of the work for us, but once it was completely dead, Twilight lowered her ring of warding fire just in time to allow another several monsters to move in for a fight.

“Okay Rarity, now you really have to leave,” Twilight warned, as the exposed orb on her sceptre began overcharging, the glass petals struggling to keep it under control as they whizzed around it in orbit. “I promise you I can manage here, somepony else might need your help.”

I looked up to the sky, there were a number of flying monsters, not nearly as many as those on the ground, but enough that Spike had taken to the air and was now taking on about a dozen on his own.

“Teleport me up to Spike,” I requested.

Twilight nodded, as her eyes darted up to where he was and her horn flashed, my own surrounding vanishing to be quickly replaced. I appeared right on top of Spike’s scaly back, having to grip tightly onto one of the green spines so I wasn’t cast off by the powerful wind. Looking down to the earth in time, I saw the area I had just been at with Twilight explode, as another pillar of magic decimated the foes that had been encroaching upon us before I left. Spike had clearly felt something on his back and his head quickly reared back, looking ready to snap at me before he saw who it was.

“Hey big guy!” I shouted over the rushing air. “How’s it going?!”

“Not too good!” Spike roared back, his voice much more powerful following his sudden growth spurt. “I can handle these flying freaks fine, but that Dreadnaught keeps spewing them out, and they’re starting to gang up! I can’t get close to it either, those guns hurt!”

I noticed the large wound in his side, and that one of his wings was looking slightly tattered, but he was pushing on regardless, without showing any kind of discomfort.

“I can send some pegasi up to help you!” I offered, charging up my horn.

I quickly shot out a triangular beam of magic at what looked like a huge, floating brain, trying to swoop in on Spike’s left side, while he was snapping out at a giant moth pony on his right.

“No good!” he replied with a mouth full of moth wing. “They aren’t fast enough to get out of the way of my fire; I don’t want to hurt them!”

“I think I know somepony for the job!” I informed him, thinking of one pony who was fast enough to avoid anything.

I focused on calling out to Rainbow Dash through my Masque, I could feel her out there among the other soldiers, doing her part, and I knew she could feel me too and the signal I was sending her way. Whatever she was in the middle of, she quickly dropped and started moving towards us, it was only seconds later before I spotted the rainbow blur zooming across the sky our way.

“What’s up?!” Rainbow asked, flying alongside us.

“Can you help Spike here?!” I requested. “He’s getting overwhelmed, and he needs somepony fast enough to keep out of the way of his own attacks!”

“Sure thing!” Rainbow replied, before pushing forward to get closer to Spike’s head. “I’ve got your back kid! You go all out and don’t worry about me, I’ll look after myself!”

Spike nodded, just as a deep mewing noise echoed across the sky, cutting through the air that was drowning out almost all other sounds. All three off us glanced over at the Dreadnaught, which was starting to get dangerously close to our army on the ground, as something long and dark sank out of it. It looked like a cross between a whale and an eel, and it was floating rapidly our way, still making the low warbling noise that sounded so peaceful.

“And there’s our first target!” Rainbow declared before looking back at me. “Shouldn’t you get back to the ground?!”

“I’m working on it!” I called back, as I sent another signal through my Masque, drawing two of my knives and holding them in my hooves.

The leviathan picked up speed, not looking quite so relaxed and easy going now, as it sped toward Spike with its jaws open wide, looking like it was going to try and swallow him whole, despite not being that much bigger than him. Spike shot out a ball of fire while rolling out of the way, forcing me to grip even tighter. The beast twisted its face out of harm’s way, but still powered through the flames on its original path, and as we passed by one another, I let go of Spike’s back spines and threw myself across to the monster. I landed on the leviathans rather slippery body, driving both my knives in as grips, I don’t know if it even registered them as anything more than pinpricks, but it certainly took notice when the force of the air started dragging me back in the opposite direction the creature was flying, causing my knives to start slicing down, with me still hanging from them.

The leviathan began to flip around, no doubt to try and put a stop to me, but I chose that point, seeing my own ride getting close, to push against its body with my hind legs, in order to leverage my blades back out. As soon as my blades were loose, I began to drop, nothing left holding me in place as the leviathan finished twisting about in time to receive a face full of fire from Spike who was charging in to meet his opponent head on. I continued to fall however, sheathing both knives as I watched the pair of flying titans go at each other, with Rainbow darting about all around the leviathan and slashing at it with her spear.

Then, feeling her presence without actually seeing her, I turned in mid-air and stretched out my hooves, Fluttershy taking hold of them and pulling me in close as she flew us both safely to the ground. Once we were both safely down, she drew her mace and I brought out my sword, just as a heaving mass of living matter began squelching its way towards us, oozing a bile like substance and hissing clouds of toxic gas from many slopping orifices. There was already two soldiers trying to fend it off, jabbing out at it with pikes, but they didn’t slow down its advancement. Fluttershy called for them to get back, and as they did, she swooped in and brought her mace down hard into the throbbing mass.

Like all monsters and abominations created in the Covenant’s experiments, this one had a glaring weakness to holy weapons, Fluttershy’s mace rupturing the monster as it split through the body, while golden holy fire spread across and quickly incinerated the rest, like it had just been teleported to the surface of the sun. Not for the first time, I found myself really wishing there were more holy weapons available, and that just using them didn't require undergoing weeks of solid blessings and training. A real shame, if our whole army had that sort of power, then there never would have been any doubt as to who would win this battle.

With that creature defeated, the two soldiers quickly grouped with us as another monster started approaching. It came in very slowly, it resembled the tall creature that Pinkie had led into the bog near that solitary cabin, only this one didn’t appear to move at abnormal speeds, but rather, it had a major twitching problem. As it got closer and closer, it looked like it was having a seizure, its whole body was shaking and jerking so much. One of the soldiers with us offered to take care of it, if we could keep its attention on us. We agreed and started jumping about in front of it, allowing the pony to circle around and start edging his way up behind.

He was right up behind it, pulling back his pike to thrust it forward and stab it right in the back of the head… but then the creature stopped moving towards us. It was as if it knew he was there, but without even turning around to check, its skin began to wriggle and squirm, until out of nowhere, fleshy spikes shot out all over it like a puffer fish. The pony dropped her pike as the spikes extended as far as her and impaled her in several places, the other soldier and Fluttershy both cried out, I just gritted my teeth angrily and charged up my horn. I sent out a bean, which struck the monster in the head, it didn’t appear to do any damage, but it retracted all its spikes back into its body, allowing the pony to collapse in a pool of her own blood while the monster stood, appearing dazed.

Fluttershy took the opportunity to rush in and crack it on the side of the head with her mace, the skull practically exploding from the impact, leaving the rest of the body to crumble to the ground with a singing neck stump. All three of us hurried over to the pony, she was still alive, but bleeding profusely, her breathing coming in short sharp gasps, as a look of shock came over her. Fluttershy dropped her mace and quickly brought out her medical pouch, instructing the second soldier to go and fetch a stretcher team.

“Rarity, I need you to apply pressure to the wounds,” she explained, quickly going through her equipment.

I was about to ask how she expected me to do that, when there were too many for me to place my hooves down on, before I realised she probably meant to do it with magic. So while I focused on applying pressure with my magic to all the puncture wounds, Fluttershy went through each of them one at a time and bandaged them up tightly, just a temporary measure until she could be taken back to the medical centre to be treated properly. I was surprised at how calm Fluttershy was, even as we were fighting she looked terrified, and I noticed the slight tremble in her every movement, but now she was completely still and cool headed as she worked.

If anything, I felt more nervous than Fluttershy at the point, who appeared completely in her own element as she treated the pony. It was clear that when the chips were down and another pony’s life was hanging in the balance, Fluttershy would push everything else to the back of her mind and do everything she could for them. A part of me wondered if she wouldn’t be more suited to helping back at the medical centre, but when I thought back to how she dispatched those two monsters right after rescuing me, and was now there to help this mare, I realised she was exactly where she needed to be. Fluttershy finished her work and I was able to get back up, watching over the pair of them while Fluttershy spoke to the mare and assured her everything was going to be alright.

The second soldier returned with a third, and a stretcher between them. With our help, they got the injured mare on and Fluttershy offered to escort them back, leaving me alone once more. After a short tangle with an armadillo like monster, that managed to roll me some distance away from sight of any of my allies, I found myself sprinting back to the safety of others while being pursued by several new monsters from the latest wave dropped by the Dreadnaught. I was approaching an incline in the ordinarily quite level wasteland, just as a line of archers appeared, bows at the ready to fire a volley down on the monsters chasing me.

Thankfully their commanding officer was good enough to wait until I had put enough distance between myself and the monster by sprinting with all my might, before he gave the order for them to loose their arrows. Only the monster responsible for dragging me out that far avoided any damage, as its shell protected it. So while the archers readied another round to finish off the ones they had hit, which were slowed or injured, I was joined by a trio of soldiers as I turned to face the approaching beast. The monster saw me and my new allies readying our weapons, and it jumped a few inches into the air, curling its pony form up as it began to spin on the spot for a moment, before rolling in our direction.

I quickly relayed a plan to the others, so as the monster got close, myself and the two other unicorns used our combined magic to stop it in its tracks and hold it in place, while the much larger earth pony moved in, bringing his Warhammer down hard on its shell. The monster let out an indignant roar as the shell cracked, we held on tightly as it struggled against us, the stallion raising his Warhammer once more, swinging it down and breaking the back of the creature. With it dealt with, we turned and ran back to where the other monsters had fallen, the arrows had killed a few, but the others were still struggling onwards, despite the large number of arrow shafts protruding from them. We quickly put them down without much trouble, before regrouping with the archer unit. While they pushed further up, I moved on.

As I ran, I saw two figures fighting in the distance, surrounded by monsters and too far from the front line to expect any immediate help. I turned off my set route and started towards them, they looked like they were handling themselves well enough, but I wanted to be absolutely sure. As I got near, a slimy creature began making a move, its multiple tentacles reaching out to them, like feelers sniffing the air. I dropped down and forward rolled right beneath its rather bowed legs, stopping and swinging my rapier in a complete arc, severing all the tentacles from the monsters body.

The monster stopped moving, not making any noise, as it had no mouth or even face to speak of, but it moved as if looked down morosely at the tentacles, as they wriggled frantically on the ground, the life slowly leaving them. I stood up, and slashed diagonally across the creature as I did, splitting it rather cleanly in half without much trouble as its whole body appeared to be made of a soft, squashing material and completely lacking in any tough muscles or bones. I then turned to the pair as they each finished off their own opponents with equal ease, looking to me with looks of pleasant surprise.

“Nice to see you’re not dead yet,” Lily commented in the kind of voice that made it sound like she didn’t really care, although I knew she did, even if she might want to act tough and deny any such thing.

“Likewise,” I replied, nodding once to her and once to Rose, who gave me a small smile in return.

“You should know…” Lily began, stopping briefly to take the head off something that resembled a walker before continuing. “Casualties are low, we can thank the sisters for that, but they are building up. If this goes on for much longer, the troops will get too tired and the tide will turn, and that’s saying nothing of that Dreadnaught…”

“Is somepony managing the reinforcements?” I asked, standing back to back with Rose as more monsters pressed in around us. “You know, sending fit soldiers out to replace those that come in injured or tired?”

“Well of course, we have officers left in charge of that,” Lily responded a little snappy, as if it was obvious. “But clearly someone on the enemy side is doing the same thing.”

“Well I assumed…” I began, jabbing out with my sword at a two dimensional monster that looked like a shadow with a single red eye in the middle. “That Cogs would send word when the plane was ready.”

Rose took the head off a monster that still wore is embroidered Covenant robes, even after it had been completely swollen up with numerous large, unsightly boils until you couldn’t make out the pony beneath, only the mouth that couldn’t close because of the number of sharp teeth. As soon as he did so, he turned slightly to the pair of us and quickly gestured out a suggestion.

“He’s right, you two should fall back” I told Lily, getting a well-aimed pierce in the creatures eye that it hadn’t been able to dodge out of the way of. “If the death toll is picking up, then we need our hard hitters to stay and support the main body.”

“Alright, let’s wrap this up and…” Lily began before she was cut off, managing to sound agreeable and disgruntled at the same time in a way that only she could.

What she was cut off by, was the retching, heaving noise made by a new abomination slowly tramping over to us. It was a huge, lumbering atrocity, reminiscent of the tree back in Pivot as it was made up of dozens of whole ponies packed together, all wheezing and twitching, and staring blankly out their cold, dead eyes. The monster reached the circle of ever dwindling enemies surrounding us, it stood behind one particularly jumpy creature that growled and snapped at us, looking for an opening, until the huge monster slowly raised its arm like appendage. The legs of the ponies in its arm wiggled about, before curling in like digits folding down to form a fist, before the arm came sweeping through the air, catching the annoying little beast and sending it flying off to the side.

The great monster, groaning with the many hollow voices of the ponies that made it up, carried such an air of dread, that even its fellow abominations left us to find new prey. It was an interesting display of power and dominance I never thought existed among the abominable army, I wondered if Blueblood or another being was directing them like had been the case in Arclight, or if they really did have some lingering instincts, rather than being mindless beings of carnage. It was an interesting question, one I would have to address at a time when we weren’t about to be mauled by a walking jumble of corpses.

The monster raised both arms this time, hammering them down upon the ground, causing a quake to flow from where it struck, in a trail to where we stood together. We all dived, sidestepped or rolled out of range as the earth was ripped up along the line, stone cracking and giving way to dirt, long forgotten bones churning to the surface. The monster started forward once more, moving for Rose, who had dodged to the left while Lily and I moved to the right when avoiding the quake. Rose managed to avoid another strike of the arm, jumping up on the writhing limb before the monster could pull it back, running up the length of it until he stood on his head.

Rose jumped off the front, turning as he did so he fell facing the creature, both his blades directed outwards, slicing down the full height of the body as he fell back to the ground. The monster didn’t react in the slightest to his attack, the bodies he cut through looking completely unphased by the gashes that were not spilling any blood, despite the sickening depth of them. The monster didn’t have individual legs, the bodies that made up the lower half of its torso just spilled together, but the monster did place both arms on the ground in order to support it, as it lifted up its whole torso and tried to bring it down on Rose.

Naturally it was too slow, and he flipped his way back from the monster to a safe distance with acrobatic ease. Unfortunately, not being prepared for the quake that came his way when the monster struck the ground where he had been moments before. Just like the first one, the quake trailed out in a relatively straight line, but a straight line was exactly what Rose had move in, so when he came to a landing, he got the briefest of looks of what was coming his way before he was rocketed into the air by the force of it. He eventually stopped rising, reaching his peak before starting to return to earth, from a height that would almost certainly end in some broken bones at the very least.

Lily cried out in objection, running beneath him as if that would help, rather than just get them both injured, but thinking quickly, I whistled over to her and shouted a single command before sprinting her way. She had the sense to turn and face me, getting into position without questioning what I was planning. She crouched down and placed both her forelegs together, the moment I reached her, I placed a single hoof on the point where her own connected, before she boosted me up, launching me into the air with all her strength. Rose only had a few metres left to fall when I collided with him, focusing hard and channelling as much magic into my horn as I could… and praying that I could make it work.

As we both fell to the ground together, we vanished at the last second in a flash of blue light, successfully teleporting out of the air and back onto solid ground. I hadn’t been able to eliminate all the momentum we built up, but I got rid of just enough that we only felt slightly winded upon reappearing. Although we didn’t have time to celebrate our lucky break, as Lily called out an urgent warning to me. I rolled over where I lay on top of Rose in time to see the monster looming over us, this time it wasn’t moving to crush us beneath its limbs, but rather. the bodies that comprised its chest were separating to reveal a hollow space within.

From within that hole, long, narrow tendrils began unravelling, spindling down towards me and wrapping themselves around my own limbs before I could move to escape or fight back. With my legs restrained, I couldn’t use my sword and swiftly dropped it, but one of the tendrils also wrapped around my horn, sapping my magic. Then it began to lift me up, dragging my entire body inside the crevice. It almost had me inside, before I felt a pair of strong forelegs wrap around me and begin pulling me back. Lily gripped on to me and pulled me back by several inches, enough to expose the lengths of the tendrils for Rose to leap in and sever them with my fallen sword.

As the connections were snapped, Lily and I both tumbled back to the ground, but I recovered quickly, focusing my magic once more in my horn, before the monster could shift its bodies back and reseal the hole in its chest. I fired out my triangular laser, grinning behind my Masque as I saw that the monster was indeed weak on the inside, and following my attack, whatever force that held the corpses together was eliminated, and they began to flake off. Rose presented me with my blade, and the three of us made our way back to the front line to aid our allies. Along the way I was very glad for my Masque, while teleporting may have still been hard to pull off, I found my magic recovered so quick, I felt practically no effects of overspending or even draining.

We didn’t stay together long, Lily informing me that she would send a messenger to check on Cogs' progress, before her and Rose went their separate ways for the time being. This allowed me to continue along the path I had been cantering, before I saw them so far out on their own. I spotted a large unit making a solid push and doing quite well, they were being led by Typhoon, who was at the very front leading by example, behaviour I wouldn’t have anticipated of him, as he came off more as the armchair general sort, but I was impressed none the less. I hurried up in time to throw a knife into the head of a pony with insect legs, wings and a belly bursting with eggs, trying to make a move on Typhoon’s blind spot.

“Ah, Rarity!” Typhoon called out, turning around as the enemy hit the ground behind him. “My thanks. Keep moving soldiers, we are crushing the enemy beneath our hooves!”

The unit carried on the push, another officer taking over while Typhoon stepped out to see me.

“I’m surprised to see you here,” I admitted, hoping that my admiration came across.

“I didn’t get those medals from sitting in a tent, while the ponies under my command did all the work,” he replied as we both started a brisk walk further east, where we could see another unit wasn’t doing as well as the last one. “We’re doing well, the day will most certainly be ours, presuming the Dreadnaught is toppled before it gets much further.”

“We’re just waiting for Cogs to…” I began, before I saw that the unit we were moving to support, were now all fleeing.

“What in the name of Discord are they doing?!” Typhoon demanded, suddenly furious at the sight of the retreating soldiers.

He started flying forwards, and I ran to keep up. By the time we both reached the area, the remainder of the unit were too far back for even Typhoon’s shouts to reach them, but I was more focused on the number of dead soldiers scattered about the immediate area. I readied my sword and adopted a defensive stance; Typhoon noticed this and quickly did the same, picking up on what I had noticed. There were dead ponies all around us, but not a single monster, they were strangely absent from this entire section of the battlefield. Although if we looked further west and further east, and even behind us, we could see the enemy fighting with our own troops.

We both stood back to back, knowing there was something we didn’t see. I switched to my other vision with a quick thought, but I didn’t see any invisible monsters… I did however see the magical residue of what looked like portals all around us. I realised quickly what we must be up against, and cried out to Typhoon to duck, switching back to regular vision just as the monster blinked in next to us, in much the same fashion as Pinkie Pie. This one also looked like the monster Pinkie had led into the bog, but it was different again, with its head encased within what looked like a miniature iron maiden, while its right arm was severed at the elbow, with a long cleaver riveted in its place.

The moment it warped in, it pulled back with its cleaver and slashed horizontally, it would have decapitated both of us if I hadn’t called out at the last second. As it was, we both managed to duck down, feeling the blade whistle over our heads, and the assassin instantly blink away before either of us could think to retaliate. Typhoon and I quickly backed up, looking all around us as if we would see something that could indicate where it would come out of next. It reappeared a second time, this time targeting Typhoon specifically, but he was able to fly straight up into the air to avoid the attack. It disappeared and returned much quicker this time, reappearing right in front of me, while thrusting its blade forward within a split second.

I would never have had the reflexes necessary to dodge it; the blade came right in, striking me in the middle of my face. It would have stabbed right through, killing me instantly… were it not for the Masque. The blade couldn’t hope the scratch it, let alone break through to do any damage. It did however pack enough force to knock me to the ground, however it also threw the assassin off balance, giving Typhoon enough time to dive in and slash it with his own blade. I saw it begin to draw blood, but before Typhoon had even completed his swipe, it blinked away again… reappearing instantly behind him.

I opened my mouth to call out a warning, but it was too late. The assassin reached out with its left hand, the long digits wrapping around the back of Typhoon’s skull and lifting him into the air… then it thrust the cleaver through his back, the blade bursting out his chest, now soaked in his own blood. I couldn’t even scream I was so shocked, but the assassin retracted the blade just as quickly, before dropping him and vanishing. It reappeared in the air above me, falling with its blade pointed directly down at me, a mistake on its part, as I gathered power in my horn and sent out a beam of concentrated magic, almost without thinking about it.

The assassin’s limbs flew off as the torso was blasted apart by the force of my attack, leaving me to stare in shock at Typhoon’s bloody body for a moment, before scurrying over to him and taking hold of his body with trembling hooves.

“Typhoon… Typhoon!” I shouted, my voice shaking as I saw how dire the wound was. “Speak to me… say something… anything!”

“Rar… Rarity…” he muttered in a weak voice, cutting off as he began to choke up mouthfuls of blood. “Stran… strange… they don’t usually… get that clo…”

He stopped once more, as his throat made an awful retching noise, his eyes bulging slightly before they began to droop.

“Just… just don’t move,” I told him, looking around wildly for somepony who could help. “We’ll get you back to the medical centre and the sisters will…”

“No…” he interrupted in a faint voice, his eyes barely open now. “Too… late…”

“Don’t say that!” I chastised him, getting angry for some reason. “There’s never been a fight you haven’t waked away from; this time won’t be any different.”

“You… you made a good enemy…” he told me, his voice so quiet, I had to lean in close to hear him. “You’ll make a better leader…”

“I really hope you’re right…” I murmured, feeling slightly miserable, before I noticed he had become very still. “Typhoon?”

I felt a wave of coldness sweep over me, as I realised he wasn’t going to answer me. It was such an odd sensation, as I laid him down on the hard ground while his blood soaked into the ash. He hadn’t been my friend, not exactly; for the most part we had been enemies, so why did I suddenly feel so empty? I stood up and began walking, leaving Typhoon’s body behind as I drifted back into the battle. Things seemed to drift by in a bit of a haze after that, I fought a few monsters, helped a few ponies, but always moved on quickly, throwing myself into another fight.

I had just pulled my sword free from a pony with a venus flytrap for a mouth and dry, leafy skin, when I heard somepony calling my name. I turned on the spot and saw Feather Duster landing several metres away, as well as huge floating eyeball with gory, red tentacles coming out the back where the retina should have been, approaching him from behind. I shouted for him to drop as I pulled out a knife and hurled it through the air; he obeyed, quick enough to be well clear as my blade popped right into the slit pupil. Clear fluid began spraying out of the wound, as the eyeball started deflating and sinking slowly to the ground. As it did, Feather Duster reached across, pulled the knife free and threw it back my way while also shouting a warning.

I lent to the side, narrowly avoiding the knife as it struck the plant pony who hadn’t been as dead as I thought. It all happened so quickly, from the moment I threw the knife, to it hitting the eyeball, and Feather Duster taking it and throwing it back. I turned to look at him, blinking slightly, genuinely impressed at the quick action.

“Nice,” I complimented, pulling the knife back out with magic. “What did you need?”

“Cogs just finished his metal bird thing,” Feather Duster informed me. “He wanted me to come find you.”

I glanced up at the sky, at the Dreadnaught which had begun firing down into our ranks not long before with its cannons, finally close enough that it could start doing damage itself.

“About time,” I muttered, glancing back to see how far I was from the city walls, and reassuring myself that we still had time to bring it down. “Go find my friends and tell them all to rendezvous at Cogs' work area.”

“Most of them are already there,” he reported. “I just need to go find Lady Sparkle and the crazy one.”

I shut my eyes momentarily, sensing them out. They were both together, still fighting around the area I had left Twilight at. I just went ahead and called out to them from there, rather than send Feather Duster to fetch them.

“I took care of it,” I informed him. “Can you get me back to base?”

“Sure, uh…” he replied, hesitating slightly. “Rarity, is everything alright? You seem a bit… off.”

“Huh… uh, I’m fine,” I lied, trying to shake off the funk Typhoon’s death had left me in. “Let’s just go, we don’t have much time to spare.”

It didn’t take long for Feather Duster to get me back to where Cogs had been working; Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Applejack were waiting there for me. Applebloom and Scootaloo were running around the completed plane, tightening screws and checking rivets, from the looks of it. As we landed, Lily approached, and not moments later, Twilight and Pinkie appeared in a flash of purple light.

“Alright Cogs,” I called over, as the stallion stepped down from the open door. “What have you got for us?”

Cogs gestured us over to a nearby table, where we all gathered around. On it, was the same blueprints for the Dreadnaught I had stolen from Typhoon’s office so long ago.

“Zis is a bit outdated,” he pointed out. “But it is ze best we have, so it will have to do. Now I have already explained the plane to you, it controls in more or less ze same fashion as zee glider you once piloted.”

“So I guess that means I’m going on this mission,” I muttered, although I never had any doubt that it would be me, or desire to have anypony else go in my place. “And the other thing you were working on?”

Cogs reached under the table and produced a small black box with a control panel.

“Bombs,” he replied simply. “Six, very powerful bombs, to be placed in key locations around ze Dreadnaught, all rigged to be detonated remotely by zis device.”

“Six bombs eh?” I repeated, nodding slowly as I looked about at my friends. “I guess we’re sticking together, if you don’t mind that is.”

They each assured me that it was fine, and that they weren’t about to abandon me at this late stage.

“I sink that would be best,” Cogs agreed. “If you each take one, you can have zem all placed and escape much quicker. The locations zat you need to place ze bombs at, are zese four rooms, each of zem controls one of ze turbines keeping it afloat. Ze fifth will be placed in zee engine room, and ze last must go in zee command bridge. When I see ze plane taking off again, I will assume you are all safe and detonate zee explosives.”

“Alright, sounds simple enough,” I responded. “Let’s move out girls. Lily, can I trust you to manage things while we’re away?”

“Of course,” Lily replied. “Although, where is Typhoon?”

“He’s dead,” I replied simply, not looking back as I made my way across to the plane door.

I got into the plane without another word; I could hear Applejack and Applebloom conversing right outside the door, the latter sounding quite tearful.

“You promised you’d come back,” a small voice said suddenly.

I spun around on my way over to the cockpit, to see that Scootaloo had followed me inside and now stood staring at me.

“Do you still mean it?” she asked in a nervous voice.

“Of course I do Scootaloo,” I assured her, believing it myself as I crouched down in front of her. “We are winning this battle, pretty soon it’s all going to be over, and then things will go back to normal.”

“I… I just…” Scootaloo stammered, her eyes filling with tears.

“Don’t cry kiddo,” another voice jumped in, making Scootaloo jump slightly.

I glanced over to see Rainbow Dash climbing into the small compartment, her helmet off as she regarded Scootaloo with a surprisingly warm smile.

“Nothing bad is going to happen to Rarity so long as we’re with her,” she went on, walking over and playfully ruffling Scootaloo’s mane. “Not that she needs us foalsitting her, she’s like… one of the few ponies who’s nearly as awesome as me. If she says she’s coming back, you can bet she will.”

“You see Scootaloo,” I went on, smiling as Scootaloo looked up at Rainbow Dash with wide eyes. “With friends like these, there’s nothing that can hurt me… or you.”

I reached down and pulled Scootaloo in for a hug, for a brief moment I shut my eyes and imagined it was Sweetie Belle wrapped in my forelegs. When I finally let her go, I gently ushered her towards the door while made my way over to the pilot seat.

“So you’re Scootaloo,” Rainbow continued from behind me, as she led her out of the aircraft. “I’ve heard a lot about you, you snuck here in Applejack’s brother’s cart. I’ve gotta say, that’s pretty awesome kid.”

“Everypony else said it was dangerous and stupid,” Scootaloo replied, although I could hear the hope in her voice.

“Of course it was dangerous and stupid,” Rainbow replied, as she picked the filly up and hopped out of the plane. “That’s what makes it so cool, and only the coolest fillies pull that stuff off.”

I smirked at that, even more so when all my friends boarded, Applejack and Rainbow came in last, the former giving the latter a stern telling off for being an irresponsible role model. Cogs had been right when he said the controls were relatively similar to the last glider, the wiggly stick I had once used for steering, had been replaced with a Y shaped object that served pretty much the same function, but allowed me to hold on with both hooves. There was also considerably more buttons and displays on the dashboard, but many of these were already primed and ready to go, no doubt Cogs had started the plane up while waiting for me.

“Rarity, can you hear me?” Cogs voice asked, crackling out of a circular disc on the dashboard, made of what looked like tight mesh.

“Um, yes…” I said uncertainly, wondering if it would pick my voice up automatically.

“Do you see ze red switch next to zee speed gauge?” Cogs went on as the plane door was slammed shut from the outside. “If you flick zat, it will start zee engines. When you land on ze Dreadnaught, do not turn anysing else off and you will be able to get away quickly.”

I flicked the switch, hearing the turbines hum into life. Glancing back, I saw all my friends standing awkwardly around the main compartment, there were no seats or safety belts for them, only belt loops hanging from the ceiling for them to grip onto.

“Good luck Rarity,” Cogs said finally, as the crackling stopped and we were left with just the loud droning of the turbines.

I put on my own belt, before casting one last look back at my friends who all gave me confident nods, except Applejack, who looked like she was trying not to throw up. Turning back to the windscreen, I braced myself, pushing my hoof into the accelerator pad and starting the plane forward. Taking off had definitely been a smoother process back in the factory beneath Fort Mule, but I had been driving across metal flooring then, whereas now we were trundling over uneven rock and stone.

The whole plane trembled violently as we picked up speed, I didn’t attempt to start pulling back for a moment, I wanted to get as fast as we could before attempting take off. We were fast approaching a natural decline, the very area the Union army had gathered before the battle, when I delivered my speech. If I was going to pull up, it would have to be soon, or we’d very quickly find our new plane crashed and our hopes dashed. Pushing in the accelerator as far as it would go, I began pulling back on the steering sticks, feeling the whole plane begin to tilt nose up. For a scary moment, I thought I had left it too late, but as we reached the end of the makeshift runway, I felt the trembling in the aircraft stop, as the rear wheels lifted off the ground.

After that, we were soaring through the sky, flying across the battlefield and steadily picking up height. I imagined looking down and seeing our soldiers scattered across the battlefield like ants, but unfortunately the only window in the vessel was the front windscreen, and due to the angle of the aircraft, the only thing I saw out it was the endless expanse of grey cloud and cracks of golden sunlight. I could hear a mixture of noises coming from my friends, no doubt as they dangled helplessly in the near vertical compartment; they ranged from Pinkie whooping, to Applejack being sick.

Once we were high enough, I pushed the sticks forward again, bringing us more level and allowing my friends a break. As I did, I nearly lost my own meal as my sight was filled with the gargantuan form of the Dreadnaught, directly facing us as we sped straight towards it. We appeared almost level with the deck; it gave me the perfect view of all the guns turning in our direction.

“Brace yourselves girls!” I shouted back, knowing things were about to get messy. “It’s time for some evasive manoeuvres!”

“Please… no more…” Applejack uttered weakly.

Then the cannons opened fire on us, and I twisted the steering sticks to the left and caused the whole plane to spin wildly to the side, the air all around us filled with sound of explosions. Once the plane had righted itself, I started down around the underside of the Dreadnaught, the cannons on the hull searching us out as I did. I zoomed to avoid them all, dipping underneath the Dreadnaught and coming back up the other side, pointing skywards as I pulled ourselves back up to the deck while the cannons on the opposite side began homing in on us.

I soon found myself flying right past the deck, so I pulled back on the steering stick so the plane ended up flying over it… upside down. I was sure that couldn’t be good for it, so I managed to spin us around a bit, putting us right side up before we crashed right into one of the cannons. Turning sharply to the right I was able to avoid colliding, this set us on a path towards the bridge; I could almost imagine Blueblood somewhere within… I wondered what might be going through his head. Dipping low to the surface of the Dreadnaught, I circled around the bridge until I was at the back of the entire ship, which thankfully turned out to be a blind spot for the cannons.

Once we had a moment of peace from the enemy projectiles, I slowed down and flew around a bit, planning out my next move. We needed to land on the deck, but approaching from the front and sides was completely out of the question, there was only so much dodging I could do, and I didn’t want to test how many shots this metal armour could take before we were falling out of the sky. That left just one other option, so after a quick role call to make sure none of my friends had perished amidst my rather slapdash approach to flying, I started forwards once more, directing the plane up and over the back of the bridge.

We passed right over the top of it, the deck sweeping into view before us, before I started to steer us back down. As we descended, the cannons didn’t even attempt to shoot us, to do so would risk hitting the command bridge or some other section of the Dreadnaught. The landing proved to be much smoother, although I was still filled with dread as we touched down and began skidding and bouncing all the way up to the very furthest end of the deck, threatening to slide right off the bow. Thankfully we managed to come to a complete stop with a reasonable distance to spare, taking off again might be a bit tricky, but I was satisfied to cross that bridge when we came to it.

I unbuckled my safety belt and turned to look at my friends, only Pinkie Pie didn’t respond with a look of mild resentment. Rather, she popped her head out of the dogpile my friends had formed, and loudly requested that we do it again. I made a mental note to tell Cogs to install multiple seats and belts in his next design, before walking over to the metal crate tethered in place at the back of the plane compartment. Cracking it open and reaching in, I pulled out six identical black boxes, relatively similar looking to the detonator that Cogs had shown us. Twilight produced the blueprints of the original Dreadnaught and we quickly went over the plan, making sure each of us knew where we were going.

“Remember girls,” I said in a warning tone. “This one is much bigger, so don’t be surprised if the interior is laid out differently, just use your intuition.”

“And if any of y’all get into trouble,” Applejack added. “Just give one of us all a shout over the Elements.”

“And that goes double for running into Blueblood,” Twilight finished in a dark tone. “I don’t know where he’ll be, but under no circumstances should anypony attempt to fight him on their own. If you see him… run, forget about the bombs, just get yourself as far away from him as you can.”

“Everypony ready?” I asked one last time.

“Ready!” five voices declared.

Rainbow cracked open the plane door, and one by one we all jumped out onto the deck, the force of the wind hitting us so we felt ourselves being buffeted towards the bridge end of the ship. As Twilight jumped out last, she quickly cast a spell on plane, immobilising it in place, so we didn’t come back and find it had been knocked over or even thrown overboard by nothing more malicious than the wind. We all split up, Rainbow Dash and Applejack sprinting and flying their way over to the left side of the deck, Twilight and Pinkie teleporting their way across to the right, while Fluttershy and I went straight ahead in the direction of the bridge.

Once the other two pairs got below deck, they would each split up and go towards one of the four turbine control rooms, similarly, when Fluttershy and I entered the bridge, she would go down to the engine room, while I headed up to the command deck. We didn’t spend too long trying to run the whole length of the dreadnaught, quickly realising that would be a huge waste of time, so Fluttershy picked me up and flew us both there, the air current allowing her to move much faster while off the ground. At the base of the bridge, which I now realised was essentially a tower that we were right up next to it; we found a large bulkhead door, which I managed to open by heaving at it with magic.

Once inside, I didn’t bother to close it behind us, I’d much rather have a quick getaway. Fluttershy and I ran down the first wide metal corridor, quickly discovering the Dreadnaught still had plenty of monsters left to stalk its hallways and protect it from invaders like ourselves. We encountered two monsters ambling about, turning to face us as we approached, one was a huge, muscular creature with curving tusks and crab claw in place of one of its arms, the other looked like skeletal bird with dozens of pincer like arms growing out its back. Fluttershy swung her mace up into the bleach bone beak of the bird one, silencing its alerting screech instantly, while I jumped up and kicked myself off the wall, so I landed on the other beast’s back, driving my sword down where its head connected to its spine.

After we so quickly dispatched the pair of them, we continued forward until we reached a junction, the blueprints had said that in the original, one would eventually lead down while the other went up. Assuming it was the same case here, we both wished each other luck, before running off in separate directions. The interior of the Dreadnaught reminded me in many ways of the factory below Fort Mule crossed with the sewers in Arclight, for the most part it appeared like a technological wonder, like a floating fortress… but then occasionally, I would notice evidence of the abomination influence. These could be anything like coming around a corner to find a corridor filled with strands of sticky phlegm like substance, that forced me to look for another route, or finding a burst pipe hissing steam, which upon closer inspection is filled with cluster of egg like tumours.

Perhaps the strangest one was when I was fighting a monster with long, spindly arms which grabbed hold of me and threw me against the wall. The section of wall I hit cracked and crumbled, like the sheet of metal it had been made from was decades old. Behind it, I was able to see some of the inner workings of the Dreadnaught, and found them tangled up in a mass of invading tendrils and tissue stretched over the intricacies, almost as if something living was trying to take over. I cantered up stairwells, stepping in to dodge the corrosive vomit being choked up by a monster that clung to the ceiling. I managed to avoid a swarm of leaches that poured into the corridor I was running down, by hoisting myself up into the air vents.

I ran down a hallway, weaving and ducking beneath the hands, claws and hooves stretching out from the walls, trying to latch onto my clothes and drag me in. I fought one on one with a great suit of armour, animated by the grotesque pony face nestled within the breastplate, but finally I reached my destination. The final door that led into the command deck of the bridge, I knew I was at the right part, as it relatively corresponded with what I had seen on the blueprints, there didn’t appear to be any floors higher than this one, and outside it had been several walkers. These ones were more rabid than those at Brine, as they charged at me like savage dogs, but at least they stayed down when I killed them.

I walked up to the door, suddenly feeling nervous, I still hadn’t run into Blueblood, but nor had I received any kind of alert from my friends. I had predicted he would be there at the very head of his greatest weapon, it was why I had volunteered to go there myself, not that I had any intention of fighting him on my own, and now that I was here, I was starting to find it very hard to press onwards with the knowledge that he might be right beyond that door. Finally, I swallowed my nerves and began turning the valve handle of the heavy door, pushing it open with my magic, right before storming in.

The command deck was a very spacious room, absolutely packed out with consoles, each permeated with buttons and switched, lights and displays, that all came together to operate the Dreadnaught. There was a wide windscreen at the far end of the room, stretching from one end to the other, and allowing for a great view of the sky beyond. What really struck me about the room, wasn’t how mind boggling it all was, or how glad I was the plane was nowhere near as complicated as this, but how empty it was of life. Blueblood wasn’t there for a start, which I was eternally grateful for, but then there weren’t any abominations there either.

Presumably they didn’t want relatively mindless mutants to be allowed anywhere near such delicate machinery, but then that raised the question, who was allowed in this room? Who exactly managed the Dreadnaught, if not Blueblood, and all the Covenant members had been unwillingly transformed? Of course the answer was obvious, it was the only other feature of the room that I had omitted to mention, which was a little misleading of me, as it was easily the first thing that caught my eye when I entered. It was a pony, or something that looked quite similar to a pony… a pony that had been moulded out of jelly.

I knew immediately that it was the same kind of thing as the hive mind back in Arclight, the one that had been controlling the bug army from the pumping station. The major differences were, that while that last one had been a singular shade of green, this one was a swirling miasma of lots of colours, and it also appeared much more bloated than the last. Rather than having its form stretched far out to hold it in place, so the pony dangled in the middle, this one was focused to the very centre of the room, making it appear more tubular, like it was the support column, keeping everything else in the room from collapsing in on its self.

It still had the eerie face as the last one, that nightmarish grin plastered on and unmoving, while the eyes stared straight at me without blinking, like they were gazing into my soul. It was very unnerving and sent a chill up my spine, but at least it did explain one thing, as chaotic as the enemy had been during the battle, this thing must have been controlling them to some degree. That made me feel even better about what I was there to do, not only would we destroy the Dreadnaught, but we would cripple the remaining enemy force, making the leftovers that much easier to finish off. I had just started forward, levitating the bomb I had secured to my belt up, when a voice spoke up and caused me the jump in fright.

“And what exactly do you plan on doing with that?” the voice asked.

I felt my flood run ice cold, I knew that voice, there was only one pony that spoke in a nasally tone like that.

“Crane?!” I exclaimed, looking all around me for the Covenant leader. “How in Tartarus are you still alive?! Show yourself!”

“Oh, but I am,” Crane replied, and suddenly I felt another chill run up my spine as I turned to the hive mind. “Yes, that’s right… this is what I’ve become, thanks to you.”

I backed up from Crane as his face remained passive, the mouth not even moving as he spoke to me. I could hear the bitter, almost huffy tone, and knew he wasn’t pleased with ending up like his own test subjects.

“After our encounter,” he went on, the door slamming shut behind me as if he had just willed it. “When you threw me down into my own work station, my body was exposed to countless chemicals, I was changed irrevocably… thankfully, I was able to drag myself to one of my secret tunnels, and I reached the sanctuary of this vessel before I could perish in that place.”

“Technically, I didn’t throw you anywhere,” I corrected, beginning to edge around the room. “It was your little potions that melted the floor you were standing on.”

There was a loud crashing noise, as one of the ceiling panels was knocked down, a group of tentacles writhing down and wrapping their way around me before I could move to resist.

“Don’t test me,” Crane’s voice gurgled, as the tentacles carried me across so we were face to hideous face. “Although really, I should be thanking you for your actions. Who would have guessed that in the end, that random assortment of chemicals would result in making me my own greatest creation?”

“You don’t look like an alicorn,” I mocked, feeling the tentacles tighten around my limbs and throat in response.

“No… that accursed Blueblood took that honour,” Crane muttered angrily. “But I’ll be taking back what is mine soon enough… Blueblood thinks he is in control, but those creatures down there were once my followers, they obey my command. And while he was busy recovering after what your friend did, and completing his ascension, I have been habituating the Dreadnaught, so I can control every single function from the steering to the turrets from this one spot.”

“And where…” I bega,n before choking slightly from the increasing pressure around my neck. “Where is Blueblood exactly? Last I heard, you two weren’t on good terms, strange that he’d allow you anywhere near here.”

“The fool underestimates my new power,” Crane replied. “He believes I am brain dead, incapable of conscious thought, like the other hive mind was. As for where he is, he has claimed the core of the Dreadnaught as his private quarters, he is no doubt still there, pouring over those tomes he stole from Arclight. He has become so obsessed with power, so confident that he cannot be beaten, that he has failed to notice just how much of a failure his campaign has been so far… until of course, the Dreadnaught moves into range of the city, at which point your valiant, but utterly laughable defence will crumble in minutes.”

“Assuming we don’t stop you first,” I told him, attempting a smug smile.

“With that?” Crane questioned, no doubt referring to the fallen bomb. “Unless your friends plan on leaving you here to die in this ship with me, I don’t believe that bomb will ever detonate, and after what I saw and heard back at the cathedral, I know they will never allow that to happen. You see, your friendship will ultimately be the downfall of everything you’ve fought for.”

“And what…” I tried to say, starting to get light headed as breathing became difficult. “What if they were to come and rescue me? We would still escape, and the Dreadnaught would be destroyed… not that you’d be alive to see that.”

“Your friends all ran off to different sections of the ship,” Crane reminded me, laughing in a condescending manner. “They don’t know you’re in trouble, and by the time they begin to suspect something is wrong, it will be too late.”

“What if they already knew?” I asked, really grinning now. “What if we had a special way of communicating with each other… and I alerted them the moment you opened your ugly mouth…”

Crane was silent now, although I noticed that the smile on the gooey face shrunk by a few millimetres.

“And then, what if I was just keeping you talking…” I went on, coughing with laughter. “Because I knew they were already on their way… and were about to break down the door in three… two…”

The door exploded of its hinges; I was able to see Twilight from my peripheral vision, standing with her sceptre pointed straight out, Applejack, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash gathered around her. I then felt the tentacles suspending me snap, as Pinkie blinked in behind me and severed them all by swiping out with both her daggers. I hit the floor and rolled back so I was safely out of Twilight’s line of fire, as she and the others stormed in.

“No!” Crane screamed in a furious voice. “I won’t be defeated again, not when I’m so close to…”

“Goodbye Crane,” Twilight interrupted simply, the orb shattering open to reveal the magic inside.

The beam she launched was almost twice the height of her, and just as wide, making me glad I had backed up. It travelled right across the command deck, ripping up the floor and going as far as the front window, shattering it and continuing for some distance beyond. Crane literally exploded, as the magic hit him like an oncoming train, causing thousands of little bits of Crane to rain down across the room. Pinkie helped me up and the others walked over to me, I thanked them profusely for their good timing, feeling greatly relieved when I learned that they had all reached their own objectives when they heard me calling out.

So with all six bombs placed somewhere within their designated rooms, we all hurried over to the broken window, looking down and out. We could see the deck directly below us, our eyes travelled up, passing right over our plane and the bow of the Dreadnaught, before looking out over the city of Cragsburg and the swarm of tiny specks that was the Union army still spread out before it, keeping up the battle.

“Come on,” I said to them, bracing myself against the rush of air streaming in through the open window. “Let’s get out of here and send this thing to oblivion.”

Twilight teleported Applejack right down, while Pinkie blinked with me, leaving Fluttershy ad Rainbow Dash to fly down on their own. Once we were all together at the base of the bridge, we began sprinting back across the deck. The sooner we got inside the plane and took off, the sooner Cogs could detonate the bombs, and then the battle would be over. We reached the other end pretty quickly, whether it was our Elements or our sheer excitement, something was offering us a huge speed boost. The plane was so close, I could probably have opened the door with my magic if I reached out, victory was within our grasp, when…

“Everypony down!” Pinkie screamed.

Pinkie Pie has a sense for certain things, that’s what she says at least, so when she said to get down, we all obeyed without question. I dropped to my belly as I saw a blinding, blistering ball of light careening overhead, coming right down on the plane and blowing it into shrapnel, which blasted outwards in all directions, easily killing us if we had been standing when they did. I stared in horror at the quite literally smoking remains of our plane scattered across the deck, a hole punched in the deck at the place where it had been stationed. Time seemed to slow down to a snail’s pace at that moment, a wave of dread sweeping over me as I rolled over to see what had launched the attack, even though I knew in my heart it could only be one.

He stood there, on the peak of the Dreadnaught, on the highest point of the bridge, his whole body shining like a star… a beacon whose light spread out across the world and beyond… a sun in the sky, that only made me feel cold to look at. I couldn’t tear my eyes away, although they stung to look at him… and I knew he was looking down at us too, his eyes boring into us. Blueblood stepped forward, right off the edge of the bridge, but he did not fall. Rather, he lowered his hoof down onto nothing, where it held firm, the air shimmering beneath it. He kept moving towards us, raising one hoof at a time and bringing it forward. Every time his hoof would land slightly lower than the last, so it appeared as if he was descending a shimmering, crystalline staircase, that only revealed itself when he made contact with it.

Every step he took was torturously slow and drawn out, like he had all the time in the world, like he was savouring this moment where he revealed himself to us in all his terrible glory. Blueblood’s transformation had certainly not ended with him receiving a pair of wings, although he did have those, and was taking the opportunity to show them off by spreading them wide as he approached. His body was now easily twice the size of Big Mac’s, perhaps even larger than that, and he was quite clearly all muscle, in some areas looking like it was going to rupture through his skin and coat, which now radiated a chilling white light.

His chest and barrel were a little different; less muscular and looking more like his bones had begun to burst free and expand to form a marble like exoskeleton. His rib cage and spinal column were particularly prominent, looking much more defined, and even slightly sharp along the points and curves. His legs, which looked strong enough to rend a full-grown dragon in half, were split from the knees down, in a similar way to how Lyra’s had been. Blueblood’s looked considerably better developed however, the three prongs fitting neatly in place on all four legs, so it didn’t disrupt his walking, each ending in a slight claw.

His wingspan was absolutely massive, seeing them spread out made me feel tiny and insignificant beneath him. I doubted even Celestia’s were as big as his, but then hers probably looked more angelic, and less like a demon masquerading as an angel. The feathers adorning them were easily the darkest part about him, white, but with a dark trim, resulting in a very haunting look. The exoskeletal features continued up and around his thick neck, even spreading as far as his lower jaw, giving it a rather chiselled look. His eyes were a cloudy white, like those of a blind pony; only they seemed radiate light, a power brimming deep within, emanating out.

His horn was elongated, curving slightly so it looked like a glaive piercing out his skull. Like the exoskeleton areas, it was just bone, the skin splitting apart around his forehead. The final aspects of his transformation was his mane and tail, they were still that hay shade of blonde, although now they were both much longer, an odd cross between physical and ethereal like Celestia’s, flowing out behind him as if perpetually caught in a light breeze… as opposed to the strong wind the rest of us were feeling on the deck. As he got near, I saw his lips peeling back in a sinister grin, showing off his rows of razor sharp teeth.

“I hope you weren’t planning on leaving,” he began, that same double tone sounding all the more nightmarish that we were hearing it from his own lips. “These last couple of weeks, you’ve been working so hard to build your little army and thwart my conquest, I’ve been looking forward to showing you how utterly fruitless it all was.”

“In case you haven’t noticed bud,” Rainbow snapped back, being the first one to get back to her hooves. “But we’re absolutely crushing your horde of freaks.”

“I have noticed,” Blueblood replied coldly. “I had higher hopes for this force, but it would seem if you want something done, you must do it yourself. Besides, you have actually done me a great service by staging this tenacious defence.”

“And what service might that be?” Applejack demanded, bracing herself.

“When I descend from the heavens and smite every last one of them,” Blueblood answered, his smile returning. “Then the citizens of that hovel you call a city, will go on to tell the world what they witnessed, and never again will anypony dare attempt to stand against me. So helpful of you to bring all my most radical dissenters to one place, so that I might eradicate them all without having to seek them out myself.”

“You’ll never make it anywhere near them!” I shouted, trying to quell the fear I felt as I drew my sword. “Because this ends now!”

“Such confidence,” Blueblood muttered as he regarded me, taking the final step and coming to a halt on the deck a few dozen metres from us. “It’s almost as if you’ve forgotten who you’re talking to, I am… a god!”

As he bellowed, his entire body flared with light, his voice sending out a wave of force that slammed into us. I was immediately reminded of when Gaia used the Heart of the Earth, the sheer power of Blueblood’s voice carried so much force that my every bone threatened to break from the impact, it was taking all my strength and determination just to stay standing. I could see that all my friends were in the same boat as me, their faces straining with the effort of staying upright, even Applejack, who had always stood strong against this kind of punishment.

“Give in,” Blueblood commanded. “Realise my power and crumble beneath it. There is nothing you can do to overcome me, this is where you will fall, and your pathetic Union will watch as their heroes are extinguished by my superior might.”

“No…” Twilight managed to growl, crouching low, but slowly pulling herself up. “No… we won’t be beaten… so long as we’re together… we will win!”

Just like Blueblood, Twilight’s voice bellowed out, sending out a hurricane that struck him and sent his whole body sliding back by a few feet, as he reeled from the sudden blow. At the same time, Twilight’s body ignited with power of her own, her horn and crown blazing with a magical aura, her eyes a dazzling white. As Blueblood was forced back, I felt the pressure leave me, and at the same time felt all my strength recover, simply from standing in Twilight’s presence. Our morale reaching new height, all six of us drew our weapons, assuming offensive stances as Blueblood snarled at us, his face contorted in fury.

Pinkie Pie moved in first, blinking across the deck and reappearing at Blueblood’s left side. He detected her instantly and spun around; striking out with a powerful foreleg, but Pinkie bent her body back in a full arc to dodge it, before sweeping around and giving Blueblood a firm uppercut with her silver clad foreleg. Blueblood clutched his shoulder as he stumbled back from her, but Rainbow Dash zoomed in, becoming nothing more than a multi-coloured blur as she homed in on him. Blueblood tried to keep up with her, his own speed was pretty incredible, but Rainbow’s was phenomenal, proven as she flew circles around him, avoiding every single attack he could throw at her, while stabbing in repeatedly with her spear.

Blueblood’s horn lit up and he pivoted his head around in a wide circle, creating a twister all around him, which caught Rainbow Dash and sent her tumbling away from him. As she soared through the air, she managed to right herself almost instantly, landing perfectly before giving her wings a powerful beat to send out two bright slashes through the air. As they connected with Blueblood, he was sent hurtling back, right into the path of Applejack who quickly galloped around into position, rearing up her hind legs in time to buck Blueblood right back the way he came.

Blueblood spread his wings, and with a single might flap managed to stop himself in mid-air, and with another flash of his horn he cast out several glaring, ethereal chains to wrap around both Applejack and Rainbow Dash… Pinkie as well, but she just walked right out of the chains as they tried to loop around her. The chains began tightening around my friends, Blueblood clearly wasn’t taking it slow or trying to enjoy it, he obviously wanted to choke the life out of them as quickly as he could. Unfortunately for him, that wasn’t nearly quickly enough, as I drew one of my knives and took careful aim, finding my mark in record time before sending it spinning through the air, the blade striking the very tip of Blueblood’s horn and interrupting his spell.

The chains vanished in clouds of pale yellow smoke, releasing Rainbow and Applejack who very quickly recovered. Using my magic, I guided my knife right around Blueblood and back into my possession, but by the time I did, Blueblood’s horn was already glowing again. Clearly he couldn’t be stunned for too long, perks of being an alicorn it seemed. Twilight teleported in behind him, her sceptre split apart into the six glimmering duplicates, each one she wielded like a blade made of pure light, controlled in perfect synchronisation with one another. Twilight moved incredibly fast, her body floating several inches off the ground, carried by the magic that surrounded her.

Blueblood responded by summoning a pair of ethereal blades himself, one extending from each foreleg, the three prongs of which had snapped open to resemble long, sweeping claws. They duelled relentlessly for a couple minutes, parrying and counterattacking, blocking and retaliating, all while floating around, dodging one another’s attacks and trying to out manoeuvre the other. They started out rather evenly matched, but Twilight’s flurrying of blades quickly began to overcome Blueblood’s, and he soon found himself getting beaten back. Finally, Twilight brought an end to it by knocking Blueblood’s blades clear with two of her own, before firing the other four right through his body.

They all impaled him, passing out the other side; I saw a brief flash of pitch black blood spraying from the wounds, before they very quickly healed themselves. Twilight was quick to press her advantage however, sending all six of her sceptres to diverging points from Blueblood, each one shrinking and compressing into a singularity. Blueblood’s body was pulled taught between them all, each pulling on him equally; Twilight took a step back and nodded to Pinkie Pie, who grinned at her before charging in. Once she got close enough, Pinkie jumped, allowing herself to be drawn into the closest anomaly.

As she got close, Pinkie drove her hoof inside the anomaly; gripping onto something only she could have felt, using it to spin herself around and around, each rotation picking up more and more speed. She finally let go, launching herself towards another singularity, but as she sped towards it she passed right over Blueblood, slashing out with her daggers as she did. She repeated this over and over again in so little time, bouncing from one singularity to another, cutting up Blueblood a bit more every time she went by. As I said, she did it all in an absurdly short space of time, Blueblood didn’t just hang there and take the abuse.

He managed to teleport out of the magical trap, reappearing further down the deck, stopping a moment to allow the dozens of lacerations to heal themselves. I noticed that with each regeneration, the recovery took a tiny bit longer each time. Twilight waved her horn, closing the singularities and reconstructing her sceptre, while Pinkie froze mid jump, as if she simply decided she didn’t want that momentum she built up to exist anymore, before stepping neatly to the deck. Blueblood’s eye was twitching now as he regarded us, his chest heaving as his breathing became more laboured, meanwhile we regrouped.

“Impossible…” he gasped, backing up even more as we started marching towards him in a line. “How are you able to stand against me? You should all be dead now!”

“We’re able to stand because we have the support of one another,” Fluttershy told him in a sympathetic voice. “You don’t have to be alone, if you surrender now, there can still be redemption for you.”

“Surrender? Redemption?!” Blueblood repeated before barking with laughter. “You think I want your forgiveness?! You think that means anything to me?! I will never stop until I have what is rightfully mine, and you are no more!”

We all hesitated a moment, looking to Fluttershy expectantly, who gave a little sigh followed by a shrug.

“I tried,” she muttered in response to our looks, sounding resigned. “Let’s finish this.”

Blueblood opened his mouth to respond, but very quickly found he had no words, when an angry Fluttershy was flying towards him at high speeds, her mace raised high. Blueblood raised his hooves reflexively, his horn lighting up and creating a magical shield around him, but it was no use. As Fluttershy neared him, she swung her mace down hard, breaking right through the shield, before the glowing head came hammering down across Blueblood’s face. His screams pierced the heavens as he was tossed to the floor, holy fire spreading across his face while Fluttershy landed at his side and pulled back for another strike.

As her mace swung down a second time, catching him in his undercarriage, his entire body was lobbed across the deck from the force, crashing down once before bouncing up again, before finally landing and sliding to a spot a short distance from us. We all rushed in, but Blueblood was quick to scramble back to his hoof claws, his face not appearing to heal after half of it was flayed from his skull, his left eye a charcoal black crisp. His horn glowed brilliantly, almost frantically in the way it flickered and flashed, four of the deck mounted cannons tore themselves up and flew across to the centre where Blueblood was.

Two he pulled to shreds, the resulting cloud of shrapnel he began spinning around himself to create a protective barrier or razor sharp metal fragments, while the other two he animated to begin shooting at us rapidly with ghostly projectiles, that I had no doubt would still hurt if they hit us. Rainbow flew up to one and began flying around it, cutting the gun barrels up into smaller slices with her silver wings. I ran towards the second one, jumping up and reaching out into thin air with my hooves, Pinkie blinking into place on cue, taking my hooves in her own before tossing me up the rest of the way.

She threw me just over the cannon, and as Blueblood tried to point the barrels upwards, I gathered my magic in my horn, charging and releasing a triangular beam which blasted the cannon apart. I dropped back to the ground, rolling as I landed, before looking over my shoulder to see Twilight pushing into the wall of spinning shrapnel, casting a shield bubble around her and Applejack. It was difficult to see beyond all the flying bits, but I was just about able to see them as they passed beyond the wall, and Applejack struck Blueblood with her claymore, ending his spell and sending him stumbling back, clutching the gaping wound in his chest.

As all the metal chunks dropped to the deck, I saw the wound on Blueblood was healing, but not nearly fast enough for his liking. He spread his wings and began flapping to safety, but Rainbow Dash swooped around to flank him, sending out another blinding X right into Blueblood’s back. He dropped back to the deck, his wings a mangled mess, hardly able to lift themselves up anymore, let alone fly. Applejack ran in next, ducking under the swipe of Blueblood’s foreleg, rolling forward and standing up once she was positioned almost back to back with him. She reared up and bucked out, her sabatons connecting sharply with Blueblood’s pelvis, a loud cracking could be heard echoing across the deck as his hind legs gave out.

Pinkie blinked in, appearing right in his face, leaning down to grin at him before slashing out with both daggers, severing both hoof claws from the rest of his forelegs. She cartwheeled out of the way as Blueblood screeched in anguish, sending out dozens of magical attacks after her. He wasn’t able to keep that up much longer however, as Twilight teleported in behind him, lowering her horn and sweeping her head quickly from one side to the other. It was as if she had sliced through the air with an invisible knife, Blueblood’s horn severing clean from the rest of his head. He didn’t scream at that, I think it occurred too quickly for him to register any pain, he simply stared in shock at the long, slightly curved bone that dropped in front of him.

Fluttershy flew in next, whispering a short word to her mace before it shone as bright as the sun itself, and she thrust it into Blueblood’s chest. The mace blew a crater at the point of contact, white holy flames spread right across Blueblood’s entire body, his screams quickly drowned out. As Fluttershy stepped back and his body very quickly extinguished itself, revealing a broken, bloody, charred husk of what he once was, I strode forward. I stood directly in front of him as I raised my rapier, the tip almost touching his one good eye which had managed to survive the combustion. He stared back at me through it, complete and utter hatred being the only thing it was capable of expressing… before I pulled back my blade and drove it through his head.

We all stood in silence, none of us really able to believe that it was over, that we had won. Well, we had almost won; there was still the matter of a war machine that needed blowing out of the sky. Wordlessly, we all began running back to the bow of the Dreadnaught; the plane was destroyed, so we were a little clueless as to how we’d all get off safely. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash might have been able to fly, and they could certainly carry one of us each, but if Cogs saw them doing so, and thought to detonate the bombs…

As we reached the bow, I started pushing myself towards the edge, fighting against the wind as if buffeted against me and tried to force me back. We were so close to Cragsburg now; I hoped Hex and the battlemages would have the sense to raise shields to protect everypony from any falling debris once Cogs set off the bombs. As I peered out over the edge I could see our army down below, the fighting seemed to have come to an end, or else there was just considerably less of it going on, but I also noticed something else, an unusual purple shape flapping from the ground up to meet us.

“Need a lift?!” Spike called out as he swooped up over the edge, landing next to us with a loud thud.

We all praised his good timing, five of us clambering aboard and hugging the spines on his back for safety, while Rainbow assured us that she could keep up on her own. As soon as we were all set, Spike beat his wings hard and took off, flying fast and far from the Dreadnaught, Rainbow speeding alongside him. I turned my head and looked back at the Dreadnaught as it quickly got further and further away, mentally counting the second in my head until…

“Woohoo!” Pinkie screamed as the bridge was obliterated in the first of many explosions, raising her hooves into the air without any regard for holding onto Spike to avoid flying off. “We did it!”

I couldn’t help but grin beneath my Masque as Twilight hurriedly grabbed hold of Pinkie Pie, right as she began to fall off, holding her close with a startled look. The entire Dreadnaught was engulfed in flames and clouds of smoke, very quickly obscuring it from view entirely, as the sounds of the multiple detonations boomed throughout the Ash Lands and beyond. Spike dived towards the ground, landing a short ways off from where the Union army was gathered, making a solid attempt at cheering louder than the explosions. We all hopped off as Rainbow landed next to us, we then began hugging and patting each other on the backs, Spike said he would go and let the others know we were all okay, before flying off back to base.

I admit that I even shed a few tears as we stood there, drinking in the success. It was such a perfect moment, all of us standing there, basking in glow of our victory… but the moment was spoiled as the noise of blasting began to fade, replaced instead by a deep, booming laughter that reverberated across the battlefield. The cheering from the army in the distance died almost immediately, my friends all froze as looks of disbelief washed over them. Slowly I turned around; panning away from our allies and the city behind them, tilting my head up to where the Dreadnaught had been as the bombs went off… then the clouds of obscuring smoke began to clear.

The Dreadnaught remained defiantly in the sky, but it was no longer the war machine it had once been, now it had been transformed… warped and corrupted into something vastly more awful than we could ever have imagined, an abomination right out of the darkest of nightmares. The great hulking hull was now surrounded in masses of creeping, crimson tissue that spread out all around it, stretching out and sticking like invasive tendrils, only patches of the metalwork beneath was still visible. The creep pulsated and palpitated, like they were the blood vessels in some great living organism, spreading over the cannons completely, and morphing them into bizarre mockeries with unholy visages.

The turbines were motionless, more of the creep stretched across and dangling between the individual rotors; instead there were large webbed wing like appendages growing out each of them, looking almost like fins. The bow, relatively plain and featureless before, now bore a huge, gaping maw, opening vertically and running almost the entire height of the ship, with rows of sharp teeth within and strands of saliva dripping down. The main change however, was what now grew in place of the command bridge, a gargantuan figure, his lower half gone in favour of the new and enhanced Dreadnaught, which he now sprouted out the top of.

Blueblood looked more terrifying than ever, truly colossal, as his body had expanded to its new accommodation. His torso looked like it had been carved from a mountain, still all muscle and bones, his forelegs spread wide, split apart at the ends into five long, crooked prongs, which looked like they could cause earthquakes by piercing the ground and dragging them through. His wings were huge, but they appeared so unhealthy looking, tattered and stripped of feathers in some places, those that appeared whole looked oily and decayed. His entire body was no longer pearly white and brimming with a hallowed light, how his flesh was dark and stone like, stripped of fur while creep spread up, tangling and wrapping around his body and limbs.

His face was completely unrecognisable as the fairly good looking, pampered Duke I had once met in an office, the flesh around the eyes and mouth was pulled taut, and gave him the look of having a permanent snarl, looking like his entire face was about to snap apart at any moment to show nothing but a terrible black skull beneath. His jaws and set of shark like teeth were more pronounced than ever, making him looking like a savage animal. His eyes once a cloudy white, were now an inky black, great pools of darkness. The curvature of his horn was more dramatic now, the bony glaive now resembling a metal scythe jutting out his forehead. Like his fur, his mane was now completely absent, making his head appear slightly smaller in proportion to his body, which wasn’t much of a silver lining, when his nostril was still big enough for all six of us to squeeze inside.

“Pitiful fools!” Blueblood’s voice boomed, where once the demonic voice was the undertone, now Blueblood’s original voice came second to it. “Did you really think I could be vanquished so easily?! I am a god, I cannot be destroyed!”

I glanced back briefly, even from this distance I could see the soldiers quelling in fear, many running for the shelter of the city.

“Now you show yourself for what you really are,” I growled, turning my eyes back to Blueblood. “You’re no alicorn, you never were… you’re an abomination, just like the rest!”

“You continue to speak blasphemy to your new ruler?” Blueblood growled, appearing to lean in slightly, although his movement was severely limited in his new form “I think I will not kill you, I would rather keep you alive for all eternity at my side, in perpetual suffering. You will serve as an immortal reminder to all would-be heretics, a fitting reward for how you have helped me achieve this new state of transcendence.”

“Maybe you didn’t hear us earlier,” I called up to him, feeling a spark ignite in my chest. “We’re going to win this fight!”

“And how do you plan on doing that?” Blueblood questioned in a mocking tone. “You have nothing that can hope to match me, let alone overcome my perfection!”

“You’re wrong,” I told him, smiling around at my friends, who all nodded to me. “We have something that you will never have… something more powerful than any god or monster!”

“And what is that?” Blueblood asked in an almost bored tone.

“We have each other,” I answered simply.

With those words, I shut my eyes, my friends following suit, we knew exactly what we had to do. We had the tools to defeat him; all we had to do was awaken the power inside us to use them, the power that came from our connection with each other. As I shut my eyes and focused, I felt my friends there, closer than they stood to me physically, I felt the beating of their hearts and heard the echo of their thoughts. Then, all as one, we opened our eyes…

The skies opened up, the clouds swirling and churning to create a hole directly above us, a shaft of divine light plummeting down upon us, so the world all around us became nothing but light. I saw my friends rise up, saw myself rise up, as if I was nothing more than a spectator. All six of us were shining bright, our bodies permeating with a light from deep within. Slowly, all physical objects such as clothes and weapons began to fade away, until we were left with only the Elements of Unity, which sung out to one another, the exquisite voice resonating deep within our souls.

First was Applejack, the Element of Resolve, her whole body shattering into thousands of shimmering shards, which clustered together and were absorbed by her armour and sabatons. Second was Pinkie Pie, the Element of Conviction, as her body split apart and became one with her gauntlets and pauldrons, the armour pieces flew into place alongside Applejack’s. Third was Fluttershy, the Element of Compassion, her being seeping into her breastplate and gorget before they too were soaring across the join with the others. Fourth was Rainbow Dash, the Element of Valour, as soon as she became one with her wings, they quite literally flew into place, completing the body.

It was my turn after that, the Element of Inspiration. I both saw and felt my own body fracturing into countless pieces, feeling myself split across thousands of places at once, before all them came hurtling together and merging with my Masque. It felt as if I was diving through space before splashing into a liquid sun, only instead of burning, I felt a deep warmth in my soul as I sank in and allowed it to overcome me. I then saw as my Masque moved into position right over Fluttershy’s gorget, that left one final member of our group before we could be complete, Twilight Sparkle, the Element of Knowledge.

Twilight’s body disappeared, binding together with her crown, which began to lower itself onto our head, and as it made contact with my Masque… we became one. It was a moment unlike anything else… unlike anything that should be felt by mere mortals, as my friends and I were bound together in one body… our thoughts and feelings becoming as one… our hearts beating as one. The column of light that ascended into the heavens dissipated, allowing the new figure to slowly lower themselves to the ground. This new figure looked like a pony… a pony completely encased in silver armour, with liquid light flowing out the back of her helmet and tail guard instead of a mane or tail, this pony… was all of us bound together as one, we had become Unity itself.

Our Elements had remained more or less the same, the only slight difference being that Twilight’s crown had changed slightly, becoming a much fuller affair, while the pink crystalline star that had been on the back of her mind, was now on our collective flanks as our cutie marks. We turned our gaze up towards the Dreadnaught and Blueblood, our eyes met his, and we saw the fear and confusion in them. We looked back, seeing the faces of the Union army, a dwindle of hope reignited as they looked to us as their saviour. We spread our wings, crouched low to the ground, before rocketing into the air to meet our foe.

As we rose, the cannons began firing towards us, their rounds packed full of toxic chemicals, we dodged them easily as we continued upwards, until we were hovered level with Blueblood himself. He let out a feral roar as he opened fire on us with everything he had, all the deck mounted guns began bombarding us, while his horn radiated a magical aura that seemed to suck the light out from around it. A pair of large runic rings spawned over each of his shoulders, one glowing blue while the other was red, each of the were slowly rotating, shooting beams our way. Similarly he raised both forelegs, firing highly concentrated laser from the tips of each of his claws, these all came together so that sky was absolutely saturated with Blueblood’s attacks… naturally we had no trouble in dealing with it all.

We flew straight forwards, Rainbow Dash’s speed and flying skills guaranteeing our safety as we dodged all the attacks on our way down to the deck. Once we landed, we started galloping towards the first cannon, Applejack’s strength enabling us to punch right through it, decimating it instantly before moving onto the next one. We moved up the row along the right, destroying each and every one of the biological cannons, before moving in on Blueblood. He swept his claws down, the multitude of lasers crisscrossing all around us, trying to bisect us. Clearly he didn’t account for Pinkie’s Pie’s reflexes and agility allowing us to flip, roll and tumble under, over, around and beyond them easily.

We took off again, spiralling our way up Blueblood’s body, my own discerning eye picking up on his smallest movements, allowing us to predict his attacks and prepare counter strategies ahead of time. We noticed that the runic discs appeared to be automated, locking onto us and firing a steady stream, so using this information we purposely flew in front of one for a moment to get its attention, when it started firing its beam at us, we slowly made our way behind his own wing, the spell not stopping before it had almost completely burned through the limb. Blueblood screamed in fury and agony, shattering the runic disc with a wave of his horn, summoning instead a cluster of eldritch tentacles to burst out of the centre of his ribcage and begin swarming and snaking their way through the air around him.

We spun through the air, avoiding them as they homed in on us, as we dived down they gave chase. They weren’t quick enough however, we swooped down low and close enough to Blueblood’s shoulder that we were able to speed straight into it like a bullet. We heard the satisfying pop of dislocation before we dropped out of the way of the tentacles which splattered uselessly against the injured appendage, which Blueblood was too busy trying to heal, to notice as we flew back up to his head. Our horn glowed with a divine light as we began channelling our magic into it, Twilight’s expertise in magic allowing us to cast an abundance of spells in rapid succession of one another.

Blueblood’s head twisted back as our spells began ripping through his flesh; he thrust forward against the growing bombardment and snapped out at us with his teeth. We flipped backwards, narrowly avoiding it before he opened his mouth as wide as it would go, a blood red light brimming within his throat. A moment later, a massive beam burst forth from his mouth, packing enough of a punch to wipe us right out of existence, but we held our position, Fluttershy’s blessings allowing us to form a bubble shield around us that nothing could hope to penetrate. When the blast ended, Blueblood appeared triumphant, before seeing we were still there, completely unharmed. Before he could react, we shot in, uppercutting him in the jaw.

We watched in satisfaction as a few teeth flew out, careening down to the deck of the Dreadnaught and smashing right through due to their weight. Blueblood gave a loud groaning noise as he brought both of his claws smashing together to try and squash us like a fly, having recovered from the injury we dealt to his forelegs moments before, and already in the process of growing new teeth. His claws never connected with us, as we simply stopped flying and allowed ourselves to drop out of the sky right before his claws slammed together. We soared down carelessly, only spreading our wings when we neared our landing pad, the murky green tentacles still writhing from his chest.

We landed perfectly on the slippery writhing surface, starting to gallop down and along, approaching the ribcage and picking up speed as we went. As we neared out target we jumped and dived forward, focusing all our energy into our horn and using it to help blast our path clear and we punched through the centre of his chest, bursting out the other side in a shower of black blood and tissue. We kept up the pace, Flying high into the air and diving back down, repeatedly smashing our way through his body, and even the Dreadnaught beneath, until he was steadily becoming perforated with holes we had created using a combination of speed, strength and magic.

The pivotal moment came when we went hurtling through the back of his skull, bringing his entire upper body toppling down into the deck. As we flew away, reaching a good distance before turning to admire our handiwork, we saw him slowly picking himself up, the numerous wounds we had inflicted still persistently healing themselves, even if it was causing him a huge amount of energy to do so.

“It’s futile…” Blueblood breathed in a severely weakened voice. “You may have the power to cause me harm, but it is no use… I will never be defeated! If you injury me, I will regenerate… if you kill me, I will come back stronger every time!”

We surveyed him in silence, we didn’t doubt the sincerity of his words, after what he had done by merging with the Dreadnaught and how he healed his injuries, we were sure this fight would only carry on for all eternity with no positive result in sight… we would have to try a different tactic. We rose up, approaching the cloud layer as our body began to light up, until we were the beacon that shone across the world. When we reached our apex, we spread our body out wide, stretching our forelegs apart and focusing our magic through not just our horn, but through every inch of our body.

“What are you doing?” Blueblood demanded in a fearful tone.

We were doing the only thing we could… bringing an end to this battle once and for all… doing what could only be done using divine artefacts… opening the doors to realm where Blueblood would not be able to harm anypony ever again… to Tartarus.

The light shot out from us, flying from our core, all the way across the sky to a point directly behind Blueblood. The air rippling around the point for a brief moment, before a bolt of lightning passed down through it, and the walls of reality began ripping open along that line. The doors opened wide, we were the key, and our will was keeping it unlocked while it opened wider and wider, until finally it was a rift large enough to swallow Blueblood whole. We could see into it as well, the entire Union army could see into it, a window into the most nightmarish place in the universe… a place where we were damning Blueblood to.

Tartarus was just as we remembered it from Pinkie’s nightmare, an endless abyss of clouds tinted sickly green, while bolts of lightning flashed and the whole world trembled and flickered in and out of existence. We could hear the screams, they sounded so far off, and yet the sound still chilled us to the bone. Blueblood could hear them too, and he was paralysed in fear, his whole body twisted around to gaze in horror into the void. Then the chains came, the same kind that held Pinkie, only much thicker for their considerably larger victim. They sprung out of the door in their hundreds, wrapping around Blueblood or latching onto him with hooks.

He tried to fight against them, he tried to scream and cry out in terror, but nothing could stop them. Even when he began crying out to us, begging for mercy, we had none to give him. Even if we did believe it for a moment, it was too late, we had opened the gates and offered them a soul, and a soul they would have. Blueblood’s upper body was wrenched from the Dreadnaught, literally torn from it, his spine and entrails dangling from the gaping trauma. The rest of the organic matter was stripped from the Dreadnaught; peeling away as Blueblood was parted from it, until only the charred husk of the original was left behind, falling and smashing to the battlefield, free of the taint Crane and Blueblood had spread within it.

Blueblood never stopped fighting against his bindings, even as they began pulling him irrevocably in through the doors which started to close once more. We felt our connection to the gate starting to wane, a feeling of immense relief washing over us as the burden of holding the tear open was lifted from our shoulders, a far greater task than fighting Blueblood had ever proved for us. Blueblood had given up any attempt at feigning remorse for his actions, now screeching and shouting insults and threats up at us, swearing he would escape and make every single living thing suffer forever to punish us.

We paid his threats no heed however, he was defeated, the battle was ended, the day was ours. We allowed ourselves a moment to relax as the connection to the barrier between worlds began to thin, and the door started sealing itself along the line created by the shaft of lightning. It was a moment of foolishness on our part, to feel like we were out of the woods, to let our guard down even for a second. For at that moment, Blueblood gathered all his hatred and malice, all the negativity inside his heart, and used it to fuel his power, swiping out one last time with the tip of his foreleg, that was the last part to be dragged over to the other side.

A final desperate attack that could do nothing to save him, but the wave of darkness it sent hurling up at us, was enough to guarantee him some final, small act of revenge. The dark arc split across the sky, leaving a phantom trail as it shot towards us faster than anything we could have been prepared for at that moment in time. It struck us directly in the face, and suddenly… it wasn’t ‘us’ anymore, it was ‘me’. The Masque had been struck by the attack, my Masque had been broken, the connection binding us all together was shattered, and I felt myself fall out of synch with my friends. The pony contorted in the sky as I began flickering in and out of existence, jumping back and forth from being one with my friends, to being cut off.

When I was with them, I could feel them panicking, trying desperately to reach out to me, to reel in the power that we were still putting out. When I was separated from them, I was completely alone, as I was thrown into the firing line of the very power I had been helping to wield mere moments before. We had been using so little power as the door began to close, little in relation to how much we using when fighting Blueblood, let alone how much we had used to open the gate in the first place. But even the comparatively tiny amount my friends were trying so hard to put a stop to, was enough to make me feel as if every atom in my body was being systematically erased… only I wouldn’t have thought that atoms could feel pain the way I did right then.

I felt like screaming, and indeed sometimes when my physical form flickered into existence, still suspended in the sky alongside the silver armoured pony, I was screaming. Other times, I found my mouth too warped or deformed to do so. Everything was happening so quickly, I found the frequency of times spent connected to my friends was getting increasingly less, while the pain of existing apart from them was only increasing times fold with every exposure to it. It felt so unfair, to have worked so hard and come so close, mere milliseconds to absolute success, and to have it all ruined in the blink of an eye.

But then… was it really ruined? We had still won, hadn’t we? Blueblood was vanquished, banished to Tartarus where he could do no more harm. The Dreadnaught was destroyed, now a wreck on the battlefield, perhaps to stay for years to come as a monument to what occurred there. The abomination army was wiped out, the Union army I had helped to build from the bottom up standing victorious. Yes, victory had been achieved, Panchea and the world at large was safe for the foreseeable future. Everything we had worked and fought for had not been in vain, so was it right for me to suddenly declare it all unfair, that out of all the ponies who had not made it this far, I was now one of them?

No, I had gone into this battle knowing full well I would probably not walk back out again. But I pushed on anyway, because I knew it would all be worth it, if before my end I could do some small part in ensuring that the ponies I cared about were able to live in a safe world. I had achieved that much, so as I felt the various aspects of my being slowly get erased, I didn’t feel bitter or resentful, just content in the knowledge that in the end, I had achieved something good… something great. That was the last thing I was able to dwell on, everything else was gone… my thoughts… my feelings… my memories. All I had was the knowledge that it had all been worth it, but then even that left me… and finally there was nothing.

…

The next thing I knew… I was on a boat.

Author's Note

End of Part 10

Epilogue - Story's End

Rarity finished her tale, giving out a long sigh before continuing. It hadn’t been physically exhausting as such to recount the whole adventure, perhaps because she was unsure how much of her story had been conveyed through her own words, and how much had been represented through scattered visions, that made it feel as if she had really been living it all for a second time. Still she sighed, if only because of how real reliving it all had felt, before she continued speaking.

“And that’s that,” Rarity said at last, turning to look at the figure in the grey cloak, who looked as if they hadn’t moved the entire time. “After that I… I’m actually not sure how I got here; I’m not even sure where this is. Am I dead… again? As in, for real this time?”

“I certainly hope not,” the figure replied in a neutral tone, that implied they didn’t really care one way or another. “Because if you are dead, then perhaps I am too… that would be unfortunate.”

“So… where are we?” Rarity asked at last, unable to rack her thoughts and memories for a conclusive answer of her own. “Did the elements send me here? Is this… Tartarus? It doesn’t look like it.”

“No,” the figure stated. “Although you are not far off, this place is known as the Sea of Tranquillity, it is the plane of existence where dreams come from.”

“So how did I end up here?” Rarity asked, looking out over the grey waves. “And is there any way out?”

“I would imagine…” the figure began, a hoof reaching out from under their cloak. “That your friends sent you here accidentally, when they were trying to reign in the power of the Elements.”

Rarity glanced around at the sudden movement, her eyes widening in amazement when she saw what the other pony was holding out to her. It was the Masque, her Masque, her Element of Unity, the Element of Inspiration. She began reaching out for it, almost entranced by its smooth, silver face, its calm, serene features, the grand, deep purple gemstone in the forehead, shaped like her own cutie mark… the terrible gash running diagonally across the face, an awful black scar in the otherwise pristine face.

Rarity’s hoof retracted slightly as she saw the tear, the mark left by Blueblood and his last desperate attack, the very reason she had ended up disconnected from her friends and thrown into the firing line.

“My apologies for keeping this from you,” the figure said, as she reached it further out for Rarity to take. “But I wished to know what it was before I blindly returned it to you, it is after all, very different from the last Element I saw.”

Rarity nodded, reaching out and taking the Masque back, grimacing slightly at the ugly wound.

“As for a way out…” the figure said suddenly, tearing Rarity’s gaze away from the offending mark. “Well, now you hold the key in your hooves.”

“I… can use this to go home?” Rarity asked, almost daring to hope. “How?”

“The Elements are connected,” the figure explained. “Just as you and your friends are. If you think about them, if you remember your times together and your feelings for each other… then the Elements will remember too, and no matter how far apart you are, they’ll bring you back together when you need them to.”

Rarity nodded slowly, sure she understood. Shutting her eyes, she began thinking back, reviewing the story she had just told, picking out individual moments for closer inspection. She remembered how Applejack had been there when she was alone, with nowhere to go, so ready to offer her a place in her own home and among her family. She remembered how Twilight Sparkle had comforted her when she began to fear what her family would have thought of her if they knew the things she had done. She remembered how Fluttershy had flown her to the highest tower of the Bask and properly introduced her to the night sky. She remembered how Pinkie Pie had held her in that awful prison cell after coming to her rescue, and returning her father’s compass to reignite her spirit.

Finally, she remembered how Rainbow Dash had embraced her following her rebirth, letting her cool façade slip just to show how much she cared. When she opened her eyes again, the figure noticed they were shining with unshed tears, but Rarity didn’t notice, as she was too focused on the Element in her grasp, which had suddenly lit up like a spotlight. As if on cue, there was a spark of light several metres from the bow of the boat, appearing in the air directly ahead of them, a single twinkling star in the drab, lifeless world. As Rarity looked up into it, the tiny sparkle exploded outwards, growing into a divine doorway of near blinding light.

Rarity stood up on the boat, the Element still clutched in her hooves as she stared into the door. As she looked, she felt something calling to her. She felt it in her heart, five distinct voices all calling her name, calling her through the doorway to come back to them. That wasn’t all however, amidst those five voices; she could here dozens of others, slightly quieter than the first five, but no less touching. She recognised the voices of the Apple family and Scootaloo, of Grass Snake and her three fillies, of Water Lily and Rose Bud, even though she had never heard the latter utter a word of his own, she just knew in her heart that it was him.

She heard all their voices, all the ponies whose lives she’d touched and connected with, and she heard her family. Her mother, her father, her sister, they were all there too, calling her home. Rarity smiled, still unaware of the tears running down her face she turned back to the figure who had sat with her throughout her whole story, and reached out her free hoof for them to take.

“Come on,” Rarity said in a voice brimming with joy. “We can go back together.”

But the figure simply shook their head, a simple gesture that seemed to carry the weight of years of sadness.

“I cannot,” the figure said in a quiet voice. “I would wish for nothing more than to leave this place, but… my time has not yet come.”

Rarity lowered her hoof slowly, not understanding.

“But…” the figure began, her voice returning to its usual volume. “I think that time is coming soon, certain details of your story made me realise… well, that can wait, but I feel you and I shall meet again, Rarity. Until that day comes however, would you pass on a message to somepony very important to me?”

“Of course,” Rarity replied, eager to do whatever she cold for this lonely pony.

The figure stood up, standing much taller than Rarity, as they began to lower their hood. Rarity stared up in awe, for a moment she was simply lost in the other pony’s face. As impossible as it was, Rarity couldn’t help but feel a strong connection to this pony; it was almost as if she had seen her before. The pony bent down slightly, so her muzzle was right beside Rarity’s ear, and as she whispered her message, Rarity nodded, reciting the words to memory.

“I promise I’ll…” Rarity began as the other pony pulled back, but as she turned to face her once more, she saw that the pony was no longer there.

Rarity looked around for a brief moment, confirming that she was indeed alone. With a small sigh, she turned to face to doorway again, her frown turning back to a smile as she opened her heart and listened to all the voices a second time. Taking one final breath, she began walking backwards until she was as far back as the small boat would permit. Drinking in her last view of the Sea of Tranquillity, she focused her attention on the door in front of her… and made a run for it.

The boat shook and wobbled beneath her as she galloped, but she refused to be slowed down. It was only a few strides from one end to the other, so she soon found herself jumping onto the bow, and using it to propel herself forward as she leapt for the door. Once she was hanging in the air, she clutched the Masque tightly to her chest, savouring its warmth against her skin as she came closer and closer to the portal. As soon as the tip of her horn passed through the doorway, it was as if time sped up, and she felt her whole body plunging through the light.

She no longer felt like she was jumping, rather she was falling, spiralling faster and faster through the ocean of light. As she fell, she heard the voices, louder and clear than before, and the further she went, the closer they felt. She kept her eyes open the whole time, seeing as the light around her changed from being formless and ethereal, to more fluffy and tangible. It took Rarity a moment to realise that what she was looking at was clouds forming around her, and after that fact became apparent, she realised what had happened.

The Element had brought her back to the world she knew, but at a rather inconvenient place. The gold light she saw now, was entirely just the sun’s rays reflecting off the cloud layer she was now plummeting through, the bloody Element had decided to drop her out of the sky. As she dived through the clouds, she burst out into open sky, seeing the world stretch out beneath her. It was indeed very beautiful, getting such a panoramic view of Panchea, from the snowy caps of the Wyvern heights to the dense forests in the west, however, it didn’t justify falling to her death.

She began to panic, but not for long before she caught a glimpse of something sparkling on the ground directly beneath her. More accurately, she saw five somethings sparkling directly beneath her, and while most were remaining fixed to the ground, one was getting incredibly close, incredibly fast. The next thing Rarity knew, her vision was all a rainbow blur as she felt something swirl around her, slowing her down, before reaching out and taking hold of her. This time when she began to fall, she could feel the flapping of powerful wings and the feel of familiar hooves wrapped around her. Twisting her head around, she broke out into a wide grin, despite the rush of air, as she looked up at the smirking face of Rainbow Dash.

“I told you I’d pay you’d back!” she shouted over the howling wind, giving Rarity a wink before returning her attention to flying, and ultimately landing without being pulverised on the ground bellow.

As the pair began to descend slowly to the ground, Rarity could see the other four rushing to meet them, and beyond them, the rest of the Union army. Rarity could see dozens of familiar faces among their ranks, and she felt a warmth in her heart as she recalled how they all called out to her from across worlds to help bring her home. As Rainbow touched down and Rarity was released, she was very quickly caught in another embrace as Pinkie dived in and wrapped her hooves around her.

Rarity tried to object, tried to ask the others for help, but they were content to simply add more pressure by joining in. Rarity quickly forgot about her lack of oxygen, or the pain in her ribs, as she simply basked in the love of her friends. She could just about make out the Masque pressed against her chest, still glowing brightly, as were all the other Elements, which her friends were still wearing. When they finally did let Rarity go so she could breathe, she noticed more ponies rushing down to meet them. Rarity was looking forward to seeing them all again, to be able to talk to them, knowing that the adventure was over, that their enemies had been thwarted and peace was finally restored to the land.

Twilight gave Pinkie a slight nudge with her muzzle, Pinkie suddenly remembering, reached around behind her and pulled out a bundle of clothes from nowhere. Rarity immediately recognised them as her own, and resting on top was her father’s compass and spyglass. Twilight gave a small wave of her horn, and the clothes were caught in a flurry of magic, becoming translucent as they swept over Rarity’s body, reforming around her so that she was once again fully dressed. Fluttershy walked up and hung the two pouches around Rarity’s neck, placing her treasures inside each of them, as Rainbow presented her with her trio of knives and rapier.

Once Rarity was comfortable, she felt a slight pressure on her shoulder, and glanced over to see Applejack standing beside her, looking just as happy as Rarity felt.

“Welcome home Rarity.”

Epilogue - Reunited

The celebrations went on well into the night… and then carried on to the next morning, Cragsburg had probably never seen such festivities in all its years. Naturally time was taken before hand to tend to any wounded and make preparations for the dead, but almost as if fate had been on their side during the final battle, very few ponies actually lost their lives, and those who were injured, quickly found themselves recovering thanks to the efforts of the Celestial Sisterhood. Really, everypony was in the mood for celebrating their great victory, and with Rarity returned to them and the injured on their road to recovery, there was little reason to hold it off.

Everypony was saying it was a night to remember, but for Rarity, it was what happened the following morning that really made everything complete. It started out as whispers of something seen flying in from the distance, a few jokes that Cogs had let another one of his contraptions run wild, and finally full blown panic as everypony realised that, yes, Princess Celestia was flying in on her personal chariot. The celebrations came to a swift halt, as everypony composed themselves for the Princess’s presence. Rarity found it rather funny how in the past, some, if not many of them, had actively opposed the Princess, and yet faced with her impending presence, they couldn’t help but stand in line.

As the covered chariot touched down, the eyes of everypony fixed on it, and the doors opened, there was a collective holding of breath as the Sun Princess stepped out for everypony to see. Once out she stood to her full height, really it was a wonder she could even fit in that chariot, and she looked around at all her little ponies as they bowed politely.

“Well don’t stop on my account,” she said in a cheery voice, smiling brightly over them.

Rarity looked over to Twilight, who had gone into a low bow, but was now sniggering slightly at her mentor’s casual greetings. Rarity turned back to the Princess, she was smiling right up until she saw who was behind her, poking their heads out of the chariot. Rarity’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped as the three ponies clambered out behind her, looking around nervously for her. Finally, it was the smallest one spotted her first, her face lighting up like the morning sun.

“Rarity!” Sweetie Belle screamed in delight, as she charged forward.

Rarity immediately said ‘screw it’ to any social etiquette when standing before a Princess, and broke into a run herself. The moment they were close enough, Sweetie Belle leapt into Rarity’s outstretched hooves and they embraced tightly, both crying into each other shoulders as their parents ran into join them. Somewhere in the background, a few ponies ‘aww’d’, but most just smiled on silently.

“We’ve missed you so much!” her mother wept.

“Why didn’t you write?” her father asked, trying desperately to hold back his own tears as he clutched his daughter tightly. “We were so worried about you.”

“I think you’ll find…” Princess Celestia began calmly as she approached the family, all of whom immediately piped down to listen to her. “That your daughter has been quite busy as of late, she has accomplished a great many things since she came here.”

“She… she has?” Rarity’s mother asked, slightly blown away by the praise the Princess was giving her daughter.

There was a tumultuous cheer across the crowd of gathered ponies, and while it was difficult to make many of them out, it was clear that they were cheering for Rarity.

“Your daughter is a hero,” Princess Celestia finished, smiling down at Rarity.

“Not quite,” Rarity replied, before her parents could begin gushing with praise. “The things I did… I didn’t do them alone.”

Rarity glanced back at where her friends stood, Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, but beyond them, there were even more. She saw Water Lily and Rose Bud, Big Mac and Cogs, Applebloom and Scootaloo, Spitfire and Feather Duster, Hammerhead and Cirrus, Holly and Hex, and even Spike, now returned to normal size.

“I was just one hero,” Rarity specified. “One of many.”

After the initial excitement of their reunion, Rarity’s family finally allowed her some space so the Princess could address her and the others. Things were a little more formal at that point, the task of addressing the Princess fell to Rarity and Lily, who briefly informed her of the events that led up to the battle, as well as the current political landscape of the country. Twilight Sparkle stood by the Princess’s side the entire time, occasionally whispering into her ear. Rarity glanced over at the others, who all stood off to the side and waited in silence for them to finish, but as Rarity looked at them, she couldn’t help but feel bothered by something, like something… or somepony was missing.

“Well, things have certainly been very interesting here,” Princess Celestia said, when Lily finished delivering her assessment. “And most definitely very difficult for you all, I deeply regret not having been here to lend you the aid of myself and my armies. Still… you handled yourselves incredibly well on your own, if anything, it looks like you’ve all come out stronger than before. If this isn’t enough evidence to prove to the rest of the Equestrian government that Panchea is fit to rule itself, I don’t know what is.”

Lily stared back in amazement, her mouth hanging open slightly. Rarity managed to keep her composure a little better, even if she too was internally jumping for joy.

“And of course,” Princess Celestia continued. “You will have Equestria’s full support, both in your immediate recovery following this conflict… and as your ally in the future.”

“I… thank you for your understanding Princess,” Lily stammered in a disbelieving tone, before sinking into a clumsy bow.

“I take it you shall be leading the Rebellion… I’m sorry, the Union, in the absence of all your previous leaders?” Celestia asked, directing her attention specifically to Lily for a moment.

“Actually…” Lily began, looking across to Rarity. “It was Rarity who led us during our most difficult times; I think it should be her who continues to lead us. She’s certainly proven herself time and time again to have the talent for it, but more than that, she has the combined wisdom of all her friends to help her.”

“A very interesting proposal,” Celestia commented, although it was clear she had planned for the conversation to go in that very direction. “What do you say Rarity? The darkest part of the night is behind you, will you continue to lead this country to a new morning?”

Rarity didn’t immediately answer, taking up the role of leader when things were at their worst was one thing, but it was like the Princess had said, the worst part was now behind them. Rebuilding the country and helping to restore true and lasting peace would be a huge responsibility, she could always pass it onto somepony more qualified, there was no urgency this time around. However, as she looked around at her friends and thought of what Lily had said about their combined wisdom, Rarity knew she could provide something as a leader that few others could.

“I will continue to lead,” Rarity announced at last, there was a monumental cheer from the surrounding crowds until Rarity held up a hoof to indicate she was not yet finished. “Until such times as a stable, national government can be set up, and official elections can be held.”

The cheers resumed and the Princess smiled down at Rarity, clearly pleased, and even a little impressed at her decision. Rarity looked to her friends for signs of approval, which she received across the board. As the noise started to die down, Rarity turned back to Lily who was also smiling, she was getting pretty comfortable with that Rarity had noticed.

“I hope you’ll stay with me,” Rarity said to her. “I’ll need my Marshal… and I don’t think Rainbow Dash would be happy if I tried to promote her.”

Rainbow chuckled behind Rarity, but she ignored that.

“Well, I would be honoured to continue serving you,” Lily said, bowing her head respectfully before snapping it up as if she’d suddenly thought of something. “But I will have to make one request.”

“Um, of course, anything,” she promised, a little taken a back but not annoyed.

“I will continue to serve you… but Rose won’t,” she stated firmly, her brother did a double take at that, but she carried on. “You won’t ever ask him to be a soldier, an agent, a spy or an assassin. You’ll never ask him to fight for you… heck, you’ll never let him fight.”

Before Rarity could answer, Rose made his way over to his sister and began conversing with her in his usual silent way.

“No Rose,” Lily said flatly. “You’ve followed me long enough; you’ve given up more than enough to watch over me. When I joined the Rebellion, I did it because I believed passionately in what they were seeking to achieve… but I never stopped to see that none of that mattered to you, that you had given up everything that you were passionate about, just so you could stay by my side… or maybe I did see, and I just refused to acknowledge it, because what I wanted was more important than what you really wanted. Not anymore though, I’ll continue to do what I’m doing, but I want to know you’re doing what makes you happy as well.”

Rose gave her a few looks which she quickly read.

“I know the garden centre is gone,” she admitted. “I’m sure we’ll figure something out though.”

“You know,” Applejack cut in, stepping forward. “If you’re lookin’ for a place to do some gardening, then you’re more than welcome to stay at Sweet Apple Acres. We’ve got tonnes of space, and we could always do with an extra set of hooves about the farm, especially an expert in plants such as yourself.”

Rose contemplated the idea, Rarity could tell he hated the idea of leaving Lily on her own, but the sound of Applejack’s offer was incredibly tempting.

“Yeah mister!” Applebloom chipped in, jumping up behind Applejack. “Our farm’s great, we’ve got loads of space, and we’re always welcomin’ new ponies, you’d be right at home!”

“Eyup,” Big Mac agreed, right before swiping up Applebloom and carrying her away from the incredibly important diplomatic meeting about gardening she just interrupted.

Rose blinked slightly before glancing back at his sister, who gave him an encouraging nod. Finally he relented and gave a quick gesture, which Rarity knew meant he would consider it.

“You know…” Princess Celestia began, looking over at Twilight Sparkle. “What with Panchea’s new status and our relationship with them, we’re going to need to appoint an official ambassador. Somepony who would be able to travel over regularly, and is already on good terms with the locals.”

“I think that would be for the best,” Twilight agreed. “And I’d be honoured to fill the role.”

“You’re sure this wouldn’t be placing too much responsibility on you?” Celestia asked in a slightly wary voice. “You already have so many other duties.”

“I think I shall be able to handle it, besides…” Twilight assured her, glancing off to where Spike stood, shuffling awkwardly to hide his anticipation. “I’ve already found a suitable candidate for an assistant, someone who has agreed to alleviate some of my burdens in return for… certain rights he would not usually be otherwise familiar with.”

Celestia followed Twilight’s gaze, her eyes widening ever so slightly, before nodding in acceptance.

“I shall leave that decision in you capable hooves,” Celestia replied simply before looking in Fluttershy’s direction. “Now, Sister Fluttershy, could you step forward so I might have a word with you?”

Fluttershy squeaked in horror at being addressed by the Princess directly, looking in panic at Rarity, who offered her no sanctuary, but rather shooed her on up to the spotlight. Fluttershy slinked forward, bowing low in front of the Princess.

“You may rise Sister,” Celestia allowed, which Fluttershy reluctantly obeyed. “I am aware of the incident regarding the previous High Priestess, Starlight Glimmer. Naturally I am horrified and deeply ashamed by her actions, I will see to it that she receives due punishment for what she attempted to do in her position. You however… you defied centuries of tradition and lead your fellow Sisters from the Bask into a war.”

Fluttershy didn’t say anything, she had no excuses, her actions spoke for themselves, but that didn’t stop her trembling in the Princess’s gaze.

“It is clear that the Celestial Sisterhood has been stagnating for some time,” Celestia said suddenly, earning shocked gasps form many ponies, and for Fluttershy to stare at her in disbelief. “To continue to abide by such out dated traditions in this day and age, the Sisterhood could never have functioned as it was intended. In truth, I was at fault for allowing this to happen, but you… you have changed that, you have given the Sisterhood renewed purpose. I can think of no pony better to lead your fellow sisters through this time of change, as such I will anoint you, Fluttershy, as the new High Priestess of the Celestial Sisterhood, if you are willing to take on this mantle.”

“I... of course, I mean…” Fluttershy stammered, clearly unable to decide how she felt about it all, before finally composing herself. “If this is what you wish, then I will accept your offer.”

Rarity broke into a wide smile, as Princess Celestia began the process of anointing Fluttershy as the new High Priestess; she could see the look on Fluttershy’s face, like she couldn’t believe this was really happening, while Celestia looked back at her with… pride? Rarity wasn’t able to think about that for too long, before she felt something tap her on the shoulder. Looking around, she saw a face poking out from behind the crumbling remains of a wall some distance away. Rarity knew somepony had been missing, Pinkie Pie had vanished the moment the Princess showed up, but there she was again, pelting her with stones to get her attention.

As Pinkie disappeared behind the wall, Rarity slipped away from her friends, navigating to where Pinkie was hiding. Pinkie was shifting about, pacing back and forth as she waited for Rarity to come talk to her. When she looked up and saw her friend had arrived, she gave a wide smile and pulled her into a surprisingly gentle hug.

“I wanted to say goodbye before I left,” Pinkie whispered, letting go quickly and starting to back up.

“Left?” Rarity repeated, confused.

“Yeah, you know,” Pinkie replied in an uncomfortable voice. “Lots of places to go, things to see, there’s only so long the Spirit of Chaos can stay in one place, you know?”

“You’re leaving?” another voice asked from behind Rarity.

Rarity first saw Pinkie flinch, clearly caught out by the one pony she didn’t want to see, before turning to see Twilight had followed her behind the wall. Twilight was looking wide eyed and confused; Pinkie was trying not to meet her gaze.

“B… but why?” Twilight asked, perplexed.

“You know why,” Pinkie whispered back. “She can’t see me, she’ll know who I am in an instant, and then… and then it’s back to Tartarus. I can’t go back there, I don’t remember much, but what I do remember… I just can’t.”

“But Pinkie,” Twilight began, rushing forward and grabbing hold of her hooves so she couldn’t disappear randomly. “I… I can talk to her; I’ll make her see that you’ve changed, that you’re good now.”

“I can’t ask you to do that Twilight,” Pinkie said forlornly. “I know how much she means to you, I can’t ask you to risk your relationship for my sake.”

“But it’s not fair,” Twilight mumbled, screwing up her face and clenching her eyes. “You’re just as much of a hero as the rest of us… you shouldn’t have to run.”

“It’s only temporary,” Pinkie promised her. “I’ll find a way to show I’ve changed on my own, then you won’t have to, but until then… I can’t stay.”

“You’ll come back, right?” Twilight asked, sounding a little desperate. “You always come back... even when I don’t want you to.”

“Of course I will,” Pinkie assured her. “No matter what happens, no matter where we go, you and I always seem to find our way back to one another.”

Rarity hadn’t interrupted, but she was just releasing how close the two were drawing to one another. She began to feel rather awkward as she watched the pair freeze, staring deep into each other’s eyes, their muzzles mere inches apart, with their mouths slightly parted. She really should have called this, but as touching as it was, all Rarity really wanted was to get out of there and not be the only witness to… whatever was happening between these two. However, just as things were about to reach the climax, Twilight flinched back suddenly. She quickly let go of Pinkie’s hooves, backing up slightly, before turning and running away.

Pinkie stood still, her hooves still hanging in the air where Twilight had been holding them, her eyes were glazed and she had an odd look on her face. As Rarity walked over to her, she seemed to shake it off, giving a small sigh as she dropped back to all fours.

“I was hoping to avoid that,” she muttered in a disappointed voice.

“You really don’t have to go,” I told her. “We won’t let Celestia harm you.”

“I know you won’t, but…” Pinkie began, shuddering slightly. “You don’t know her like I do, she despises me.”

“Why?” I asked in utter bewilderment.

“Just another question I need answering,” Pinkie replied in a stern voice, before reverting back to her usual joyful persona. “I’ll be back before you know it Rarity, so until then…”

Pinkie pulled up her jester hood and donned her grinning mask.

“Smile.”

And with that, she vanished, simply disappearing from Rarity’s sight. Maybe she teleported, maybe she turned invisible and was currently running away, or maybe she jumped into an alternate dimension. When it came to Discord, anything was possible… Pinkie Pie was no different.

III

Rarity, Twilight and Celestia walked together through the Union camp; the revelries were once again in full swing, now that the diplomatic matters had been dealt with for the time being. Rarity noticed how withdrawn Twilight had been following her encounter with Pinkie Pie, she was obviously feeling very conflicted over it, as much as Rarity would have liked to sit down with her and have a heart to heart about it, she decided it would be best to give her a little time first. Not to mention she was practically glued to Celestia, and mentioning Pinkie around her was obviously a bad idea considering the circumstances of her departure, it had been hard enough trying to hide Pinkie’s involvement with everything from the Princess.

As the three of them travelled together, Rarity took it upon herself to talk as much as she could to the Princess, even when she didn’t have anything worth saying, just trying to keep her focused, so she wouldn’t pick up on how mopey Twilight had become. Celestia didn’t want to stay too long, as she had to get back to Equestria, but there were a few individual’s she wanted to speak to personally outside of myself and my friends. We found the pair of them sitting outside Twilight’s tent, they were joined by four Union soldiers who were supposed to be guarding them, but all six of them were chatting and drinking and generally getting along quite well.

When they saw us approaching, both the ‘prisoners’ were quick to stand up and bow low before the Princess, while the four soldiers all stood to attention for Rarity. She excused them, and very soon the trio were left alone with Feather Duster and Spitfire.

“Princess, I want to begin by…” Spitfire tried to say, but Celestia didn’t let her get any further.

“Captain Spitfire, I wish to speak to Feather Duster alone for a moment,” she stated, her tone making it very clear that there would be no question in the matter. “I would like you to wait elsewhere, and I will speak to you in a moment.”

Spitfire quickly closed her mouth and bowed once more, before quickly marching away. Now only Feather Duster remained, trembling slightly under the Princess’s gaze.

“You needn’t be afraid my little pony,” Celestia assured him in a calm, understanding voice. “Rarity and Twilight have already told me everything you’ve done. You helped Blueblood by joining his renegade faction known as the Solar Empire, you performed reconnaissance work in the city of Port Mule, and ultimately played a minor role in the destruction of the Fort there and the subsequent deaths of a great number of ponies… but you also cooperated with your interrogators and supplied information that aided in the stopping of the Solar Empire. More than that, you volunteered yourself to help the Union army during their fight with Blueblood, and accounts I’ve heard, say you fought valiantly.”

I could see Feather Duster looking almost hopeful as he listened to the Princess praising him.

“You know that we must still charge you for what you’ve done,” Celestia continued. “But I can promise that you will be looked upon favourably and punished leniently because of the steps you have taken on the path to redemption.”

“T… thank you Princess!” Feather Duster gushed, suddenly quite overwhelmed by emotions as he bowed again. “I can’t tell you how much I regret what happened… I promise I’ll prove myself a changed stallion.”

“You’re already making a good start,” Celestia told him with a smirk. “Now why don’t you run on and have fun with your comrades, I don’t think you’ll try to run away. Also, if you could call Captain Spitfire over on your way, I would appreciate it.”

Feather Duster did as he was bided, leaving, but not before beaming at Rarity, who returned it quite genuinely. Moments later, Spitfire marched back looking determined, if not slightly resigned to what was coming.

“Princess,” Spitfire greeted, giving a short bow before saluting.

“I would like to begin by thanking you Captain Spitfire,” Celestia began, although her voice had a clear edge to it. “The tip off you gave us into the actions of the Solar Empire were vital, had you not, they might have been able to go undetected for much longer, whenever we did discover them it might have been too late. It is clear you never had any real ties to Blueblood or his group, so you can rest easy knowing you will not be charged for involvement… however, you disobeyed my express orders by returning here with the intention of seeking revenge for your friend.”

Spitfire grimaced, she was clearly annoyed at being scolded, but didn’t respond, just stood silent and waited for the Princess to say what she wanted to say.

“I will not keep you,” Celestia went on, picking up on her irritation. “You will be suspended for a period of six months, during your absence, Surprise was promoted to Deputy; she will stand in as Captain until you return. You may leave now, and in future when I give you a direct order, I expect you to follow it.”

“Yes Princess,” Spitfire replied in a dull voice, bowing, if only to hide the grinding of her teeth.

Once she too had left, the Princess had one other pony she was eager to speak to, but this was on a more positive matter, one which Rarity was keen to get involved in. Cogs wasn’t celebrating like the rest, he was found sitting on his own, warming himself by a campfire.

“Hello there Cogs,” Rarity greeted, snapping him out of his daze. “Is there something wrong?”

“Oh, hello Rarity… Princess,” Cogs replied, hurriedly standing up and stooping into a bow when he noticed Celestia. “And yes, eversing is wonderful, after today, I don’t believe anysing can be wrong.”

“You just looked a bit… lonely, sitting here on your own,” Rarity informed him. “I figured you’d be joining in with the celebrations.”

“Oh I’m much too old for zis level of excitement,” he replied with a little chuckle. “Perhaps once I have recovered my energy a bit, I shall go back for more. Until then, how might I be of service?”

“I wanted to personally congratulate you on your involvement with yesterday’s victory,” Celestia informed him. “Rarity has told me a great deal about your research and the inventions you’ve made, we’ve been discussing a proposition if you’d be interested.”

“Oh, what proposition is zis?” he asked, sounding intrigued.

“Well, we have been thinking about how we might cut down the travel time between our countries,” Rarity began to explain. “Three week long voyages can be a large time commitment for anypony, and not everypony has access to Princess grade chariots.”

“Well, quite,” Celestia picked up, giving a small titter. “Essentially what we would be asking of you, is that you adapt your Dreadnaught model to a more… commercial design, something that would allow quick and regular transport for lots of ponies between Panchea and Equestria.”

“Zat sounds very possible,” Cogs replied thoughtfully. “It would be extremely expensive, and would take some time to get it lifted off the ground… no pun intended.”

“Well you don’t need to worry about costs,” Celestia promised. “We’ll take care of all that, we are after all expecting this development to mean big things for the world of international trade, so I think it’s a worthy investment.”

“And if you have any other bright ideas,” Rarity went on. “Like adapting that underwater boat we found to improve our ships, or long range communication like the one you had installed in the plane, just let us know and we’ll help you make it a reality.”

“I will be sure to,” Cogs responded with a nod. “Ah, zis is quite an exciting opportunity, a technological revolution… finally my creations might be used for good, instead of war and violence.”

“Do not fear,” Celestia assured him, with a smooth grin. “So long as I rule Equestria, these developments will never be used for evil.”

Rarity was very thankful for when the Princess left to attend to some private business, because it meant that she was free to spend some time with her family, catching up and hearing about their lives since she left, as well as introducing them to her new friends. She primarily wanted them to meet Applejack, since she would eventually have to tell them about what happened to the house and that Applejack had offered to let them all stay on the farm as long as they wanted, although Rarity promised it would only be until they could get back on their hooves.

Of course Applejack was her usual courteous and respectable self; Rarity’s parents fell in love with her instantly, and she knew they would get along with the rest of the Apple family just as well. Sweetie Belle was a little more difficult when it came to introducing her to other ponies, Rarity knew she was just anxious around strangers, it made her a little worried how she’d handle living at Sweet Apple Acres, which was now packed with ponies who would all be new to her, but her worries were quickly assuaged when Big Mac arrived on scene with Applebloom and Scootaloo.

If her parents got along well with Applejack, it was nothing compared to how perfectly Sweetie Belle seemed to mesh with the other two fillies. Rarity was instantly relieved that they managed to kick things off so well, she was also a little touched, and very embarrassed, when Scootaloo started gushing to Sweetie Belle about what an awesome big sister she had. Rarity was happy to let the three run off together, so long as Big Mac followed and kept an eye on them. As they started running off, she could already hear Scootaloo proposing that the three of them make a club together, she wasn’t sure, but she thought she heard something about cutie marks.

After that, Rarity led her parents away from the celebrations towards the camp, they were both quite exhausted from their long travel, especially after being swept away at such short notice. Rarity took them both to her own tent, where she hurriedly changed the bedding and allowed them to make themselves at home. She left them be, and promised she would come back and see them later that evening, they still had much to discuss, but it could wait a while yet. When she got back to her friends, she found Applejack and Rainbow Dash just starting a drinking competition, an event which had drawn quite a crowd of rowdy soldiers who were eagerly betting on it.

Rarity didn’t chastise anypony for this or try to put a stop to it… if only because she ended up putting twenty bits on Applejack winning against Gale. It looked like it might take a while, since both of them would probably hold their own for quite long, so Rarity moved on and made a mental note to come back and see if she won or not. She found Fluttershy, who was meeting with Holly and a number of other sisters; they were all congratulating her on her promotion, and asking what she was planning with regards to the big changes Celestia was hinting at. After taking that first step from the Bask into the big bad world, and seeing first-hand what good they could accomplish outside the confines of their sanctuary, they all seemed quite eager to go further and do more.

Fluttershy was obviously still reeling from becoming High Priestess, and all the questions were clearly overwhelming her a bit. So Rarity came to the rescue and assured them that Fluttershy had lots of ideas, which she just needed to run by the Princess before making any kind of announcements. This seemed to placate the mares and they all left quite cheery, leaving Fluttershy to let out a long sigh.

“Oh, I have no idea what I’m doing,” she moaned.

“Of course you don’t,” Rarity told her, as if it was obvious. “But you will, you just need to give yourself time to adjust and learn what kind of leader you’ll be, figure out exactly what you want to do, as well as what’s best for the ponies following you.”

“It can be difficult having leadership thrust upon you, but you’re not the only one who did…” Holly added, glancing between Fluttershy and Rarity. “You’ll both do fine, but nopony says you have to figure it all out on your own. If you work with and support one another, then you’ll do more than fine, you’ll be more than fine, you can be exceptional leaders.”

“Thank you Holly,” Rarity responded, taken by surprise, but feeling rather touched by the sentiment.

“Yes, thank you both of you,” Fluttershy agreed. “It’s going to be strange, but… I’m looking forward to it.”

Holly suggested going over to the medical centre to check in on the few ponies who were still be treated, as well as the other sisters still on duty, so Rarity bid them farewell and went on her way. She ran into Hex next, he was holding a magic mirror and was in the middle of contacting Diaboli, telling her of their success and the political developments. When he saw Rarity approaching, he waved her over and invited her to talk to the older mare, who lit up upon seeing her.

“Ah, Rarity my dear,” she greeted warmly. “Well done on your victory, Hex here tells me it was all down to you and your friends. I just knew the moment I saw you, there was something special about you.”

“Well thank you Mistress Diaboli,” Rarity replied, feeling a bit light headed from all this praise. “But really, we couldn’t have done it without the combined efforts of everypony.”

“Don’t be so modest dear,” Diaboli went on. “After all, you wouldn’t have been declared the new leader of Panchea if you hadn’t played a significant role. So what is it they’re calling you now? President Rarity?”

“I hope not,” Rarity said, with a noticeable shudder.

“Well, whatever you settle on,” she continued with a small chuckle. “You’ll be pleased to hear that a number of the council have resigned, and in their place some considerably more… rational ponies have been selected, ponies who will quite readily support the ending of the Arcane Order in favour of a unified Panchea government.”

“I am glad to hear it,” Rarity responded, with a knowing smirk. “Can I trust you will be available to help represent this new government?”

“Certainly President Rarity, so nice of you to offer,” Diaboli answered in an overly innocent voice.

Rarity scowled and gave the mirror back to Hex, who was sniggering, unable to maintain a straight face. Rarity very quickly laughed good-naturedly, and said goodbye to both of them. The next ponies she encountered was Hammerhead and his friends, who in all the time Rarity had spent with them, had never actually told her their names. Most surprisingly, she found them sitting alongside Cirrus, Cyclone, Zephyr, Eerie and Alabaster, all of them chatting, laughing, drinking heavily, and patched up to various degrees.

She sat down and joined them briefly, accepting a drink cider, which she found definitely took the edge off. She stayed and chatted with them until she was finished, Cirrus and the others said they would go back to their club at Olympus, while Hammerhead and his friends told her that they would finally settle back down in Cragsburg, now that it was no longer run by psychos. When she left them and moved on, she was faintly aware that Hammerhead had been a little too drunk and distracted by their new friends from Olympus, to remember his earlier offer of the pair of them going out for a drink together, she wasn’t sure whether she was happy about that or not.

The last stop she made was on the roof of the Cragsburg keep, she wasn’t sure what drew her there, but somehow she wasn’t surprised to see a familiar pair hiding up there, chatting away in privacy. At least one of them was chatting away, the other just sitting and listening. Rarity held back, ducking down behind the same tower she had hid behind during the surprise attack, listening in for a moment before revealing herself.

“I was… nearly not about to leave,” Lily admitted awkwardly. “I still thought I could run from it, you can thank Rarity for wising me up… you can thank Rarity for a lot of things.”

Rarity smirked at that, she probably shouldn’t have been eavesdropping, but she couldn’t help herself.

“You two always got along so well,” she went on. “I remember the first time you brought her up; I couldn’t believe it was the same pony I’d met in Pivot. You seemed so… interested in her, even back then, she would have made a better sister than me.”

Rose gave her a short, sharp jab on the shoulder in response; I could make out the frown on his face.

“I know, I’m sorry,” she replied, rubbing the place where he hit her. “But just you wait, things will be better from this point onwards. I hope you’ll take Applejack up on her offer, it’ll be good for you… and I could escape once in a while and join you, live like we used to, before the Rebellion and the war.”

Rose nodded, looking satisfied at the thought, before quirking an eyebrow, nudging Lily and indicating something to her.

“Oh…” Lily responded, her voice a little cooler. “Quit hiding back there Rarity!”

Rarity smirked; she was surprised it had taken Rose that long to catch her out. She stepped out and made her way over to them, they weren’t sore about her listening in, and they let her stay with them and the three… or more accurately the two talked, while the third listened and occasionally signed. After a while, they decided it was time to stop hiding from everypony and returned to the camp. They got fresh drinks, found some familiar faces to join… and Rarity collected her twenty bits.

It was getting late into the evening when Rarity, Twilight Sparkle and Princess Celestia detached themselves from the celebrations, that had once again returned to full swing, and went for a walk around the battlefield. Even in the low light, Rarity could still make out the carcass of the Dreadnaught, Blueblood may have been ripped from the bridge, but the husk of the ship itself remained at the sight of where it all ended. There was talk of leaving it, preserving it exactly as it was in its ruined state, to serve as a monument to the end of the conflict.

Rarity was lagging back from the other two, they were discussing some rather personal matters, and she didn’t want to appear nosey. Not that she couldn’t hear every word they were saying, they weren’t exactly trying to keep their conversation from reaching her ears.

“We couldn’t have got her out,” Twilight said, her voice full of shame. “I imagine she’s buried under the cathedral now.”

“It’s alright Twilight,” Celestia said, lifting her chin up with her hoof. “Expecting you risk your lives to preserve one… body, would be ridiculous. What’s done is done; you shouldn’t feel guilty for what happened.”

“Blueblood…” Twilight began in a high pitched voice, before composing herself. “Blueblood only knew about her tomb… because of me, he figured it out after I went there and you… shouted at me.”

The last few words came out as little more than a whisper, now it was Celestia’s turn to look guilty.

“I’m sorry I lost my temper with you over that,” Celestia said sincerely. “It seems a bit late for an apology I know, but at least now you know why I reacted the way I did.”

“I just feel like it was all my fault,” Twilight muttered. “She was your friend, and she was desecrated because of what I did.”

“What you did?!” Celestia repeated in disbelief. “Never say that Twilight! Blueblood made the choice, the fault is in him and his allies… but you made the choice to stop him, and for that I am truly grateful.”

Celestia placed a comforting hoof on Twilight’s shoulder, but she still looked ill at ease.

“When we found out what they had done…” she began in a distant voice. “I was… so angry, and I don’t know why. It felt like… like what he did to Clover… he had done against a good friend of mine, like Rarity or you.”

Celestia’ s hoof retracted quickly from Twilight’s shoulder, a brief look of worry flashing across her features, but only for an instance, before she returned to her usual look of serene calm.

“Empathy is an important life skill Twilight,” Celestia pointed out. “There’s nothing wrong with getting angry or upset over what happened, if anything, I’m touched that you can appreciate my pain over the matter.”

“Yeah…” Twilight replied, not sounding too certain about it. “Thank you Princess, and again, I’m sorry for what happened, I’ll give you a moment alone.”

Twilight gave a curt bow, before turning and making her way back towards the city, as she passed by Rarity, she noticed that same distant look reappearing on her face. With Twilight gone, and Princess Celestia staring out over the battlefield and the Dreadnaught remains, Rarity suddenly felt very awkward.

“Um… Princess?” she began tentatively. “Would you like me to go as well, so you can be alone?”

“Hmm? Oh, no Rarity, it’s fine,” Celestia assured her, although it sounded like she had only just remembered Rarity was there. “Besides, you look like something’s bothering you. Is there something you would like to discus with me?”

“Um, yes actually,” Rarity admitted, making her way over to stand by the Princess. “I wanted to talk about what happened after we defeated Blueblood, when I…”

Rarity drifted off, but Celestia could tell where she was going.

“You are referring to when your Element was damaged,” she finished. “And you disappeared.”

“Yes,” Rarity confirmed. “I was wondering… do you know what happened to me?”

“I’m afraid not,” Celestia admitted. “The Elements and their properties have always been a mystery to me, they really were Clover’s domain.”

“Oh, well… when I became disconnected,” Rarity began. “I got caught in the crossfire of the magic we had been using against Blueblood… and I ended up going someplace else for a while.”

“Blueblood is safely locked away in Tartarus,” Celestia stated with a frown. “You don’t mean to tell me you followed him, do you?”

“No, thankfully,” Rarity assured her with a look of relief. “No, because my friends tried to hold back… I ended somewhere else. I was on a boat… in the middle of endless sea… and there was another pony there with me.”

“Oh?” Celestia uttered, raising a curious eyebrow.

“She asked me how I came to be there,” Rarity recalled. “And I told her my story; from the day I first met Twilight and Blueblood, to the day where we defeated him here. When it was over, she gave me my Element back and told me I could use it to go back home if I thought about my friends.”

“And that worked?” Celestia questioned, to which Rarity nodded in response. “Interesting, do you know who this pony was?”

“Well, that’s the thing…” Rarity continued in a hesitant voice. “When I opened the door, and I was able to come back, I asked if she wanted to come with me… but she said she couldn’t. She did however, ask me to deliver a message to somepony very important to her… to you.”

Celestia froze, her face completely blank and expressionless as she waited for Rarity to continue.

“She stood up and revealed herself to me, and she…” Rarity stopped, trying to find the right words to describe the pony, until she glanced up to see the first stars appearing overhead. “Princess Celestia, there was a moment some time ago, back when I first met Fluttershy, where she took me out to look at the night sky. I had never really taken the time to stop and appreciate just how incredible it all was, it was… enchanting. Ever since then, I now look up at the stars in the sky and I’m at awe of the sheer magnificence of it all. This pony I met on the boat… it was as if she encapsulated all the beauty of the night sky in one body.”

Celestia’s eyes were now wide, her breathing had become shallow, and her whole body tensed.

“And what did she say?” Celestia asked in a barely audible voice.

“She wanted me to tell you…” Rarity started, closing her eyes and thinking back, so she got it word for word. “It doesn’t matter what happens, because even when we’re worlds apart, I’ll always be with you, and I know you’ll be there with me… always, until the end.”

Celestia’s breath seemed to catch in her throat, and for a moment, Rarity was sure her eyes had become shiny with unshed tears.

“Princess…” Rarity began in a concerned tone

Celestia didn’t answer for some time; it was like she was no longer there in the present with Rarity, as the message became the only thing that mattered.

“Thank you for delivering that message Rarity,” Celestia finally said in same quiet voice. “Now… I think I would like to be left alone.”

Rarity nodded, bowing in a similar fashion as Twilight had done, before making her own way back. As she walked away, she briefly glanced back and saw Celestia was no longer staring over the battlefield or the Dreadnaught, but up at the night sky, as more stars began to twinkle into view.

Rarity sat down on the rocky crag, her parents and sister were already waiting there for her. Sweetie Belle opened her mouth to say something, but was quickly shushed by her mother, they continued to wait in silence for Rarity to speak.

“The house is gone,” she said finally. “There’s nothing left.”

Sweetie Belle gasped, but her parents nodded in acceptance, they had no doubt guessed as much. Rarity reached into her saddlebags and pulled out the photos she had held on to this entire time, passing them over to her parents.

“It was all I was able to recover,” she stated as her parents looked over them, smiling as they did. “I’m so sorry I didn’t write, but after seeing what happened to the house… I wanted to try and sort an alternate out before I wrote to you; I wanted to be able to show something for my travels. After a while though, it stopped being about finding a suitable house and more about… building a better home.”

“We were just so worried,” her father told her again. “We don’t blame you, but…”

“It was hard,” her mother finished. “We thought you’d been hurt or di… or worse.”

Rarity bit her lip, she had indeed been hurt many times, even died, but she decided it would be better to tell her parents about that gradually. Instead, her eyes lit up as she remembered something, pulling the draw string pouches from around her neck she passed them to her father.

“It wasn’t always easy,” she began, as her father stared in delight at what she was holding out to him. “But I kept them safe, I… I didn’t really realise how much I missed you all until I was already gone, but being able to hold onto these… just made everything that much easier.”

Her father pushed her hoof back, clearly indicating she should keep the objects, before pulling her into a tight hug.

“I’m so proud of you,” he whispered, and she could hear his voice cracking as he did. “Hero or not, you’re still as perfect to me as the day you were born.”

“Thank you father,” Rarity replied, returning the hug enthusiastically.

As they pulled apart, Rarity suddenly felt a slight pang in her chest as her eyes were drawn to her weapons, which she was still wearing.

“Mother… father…” she began awkwardly. “I know the word ‘hero’ has been getting thrown about a lot lately, but you should know… not everything I’ve done has been good.”

Rarity drew her sword, looking over the now clean blade, seeing it bathed in all the blood it had drawn since the day Applejack bequeathed it to her.

“I’ve made… many mistakes,” she admitted, looking away from her family in shame.

She suddenly felt a hoof on her own, and glanced up to see that it was her mother's. Her mother squeezed her hoof, the gentle persuasion making Rarity drop the sword the few inches to the ground.

“Everypony makes mistakes Rarity,” she began, but continued quickly when she saw her daughter was about to argue. “And sometimes they can be hard to live with, but know that nothing you’ve done could ever make us stop loving you. The fact that you can sit here and admit that you’ve made mistakes, proves that you’re a good pony… not that you ever needed to prove that to us.”

Rarity pulled her mother into a hug, smiling as she remembered what Twilight had told her the first time they met in Port Mule. Once they pulled apart, Rarity removed the sheath for her rapier, as well as her three daggers from their place on her belt, then she set them all to the side. As she did, Sweetie Belle began bouncing up and down in her face.

“Rarity, did you ever open that present Mister Fancy Pants asked me to give you?” she asked excitedly.

“I did actually,” Rarity told her with a smile, as she reached into the pouch where her compass was and pulled out the dull stone.

Sweetie Belle looked confused and a little bit disappointed when she saw it.

“I don’t understand,” she muttered in a put down voice. “What was so secret about this?”

“Sweetie Belle,” Rarity began as she held it out closer to her. “This little stone saved my life.”

“It did?!” Sweetie Bells exclaimed, her eyes growing wide.

“Yes, it used to contain a very powerful magic,” Rarity explained. “If not for this, I don’t think I’d be here today, and since it was you who gave this to me, in a way you are the one who saved my life.”

“I… I did?” Sweetie Belle asked in a hopeful voice.

Rarity pulled her into a hug, whispering directly into her ear

“Yes, thank you Sweetie Belle,” she said. “Thank you for saving me.”

Once all was said and done, Rarity instructed her family to lie back down on the crag. They all obeyed, a little confused as to what she was getting at. Once they were all lying down, staring up at the night sky, Rarity instructed them simply to look, and for a long time that was all they did. They lay together, reunited at long last, under the sea of stars.

Author's Note

The End

Prologue - This Is My Story

The tiny, wooden row boat bobbed along across the endless ocean, the lone mare riding within it standing up tall to survey her surroundings. She looked in every direction and yet all she could see was an infinite stretch of cold grey sea as far as the eye could see, with no hint of land in sight. Even though the sky was nothing more than a limitless expanse of grey clouds, preventing any light from penetrating and making it impossible to tell the time of day, there seemed to be an ever prevalent light none the less, allowing the mare to see the vast nothingness perfectly clearly.

With a small huff she sat down in the boat, looking about herself. There were no oars to be told of, had they fallen overboard earlier on? Or had they never been there to begin with? The mare couldn’t quite remember. It truly seemed hopeless; she probably should have been panicking but… for some reason she was perfectly calm. As strange as the situation she found herself in was, she couldn’t help but feel relaxed, if anything she was more concerned about the absence of her clothes.

While it wasn’t a big deal to the majority of ponies, wearing clothes had become exceedingly popular in recent years, and this mare in particular had taken to the shift in fashion with much pleasure. Just like her predicament regarding where she was however, she quickly stopped worrying about the absence of her clothes, she just considered it strange when she was sure she had been wearing them not that long ago.

With no way of actively steering the little boat, and nothing in it to occupy herself with, she settled on humming to herself in an attempt to keep herself busy. It was a fairly tuneless hum, the light wind had more melody to it, but she continued none the less. It was unclear exactly how much time had passed before something interesting happened, it could have been a few minutes or a few days and she probably wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference.

“How did you come to be here?” the figure next to her asked.

She briefly considered that to be an odd thing to occur, hadn’t she just been alone this whole time? But the figure was indeed right beside her, tall and draped in an all obscuring grey cloak. She had probably been there the whole time and the mare just hadn’t taken notice, that was very unsocial of her and she mentally chastised herself for it.

“Oh that,” she replied with a little laugh, “That is a very long story.”

“I have no doubt,” the figure replied. “But…”

The figure made some motions as if they were looking from side to side; they were all covered up so the mare couldn’t be sure.

“It doesn’t look like we’ll be arriving anywhere soon,” they said at last, turning to face the mare once more, or at least she assumed that’s what the figure was doing.

“Hmm,” the mare considered. “Yes I suppose that is true, and there seems to be little else to do.”

“Indeed,” the figure agreed. “So, while we wait for this boat to take us wherever it’s going, why don’t you tell me the long story of how you came to be here?”

“Very well,” the mare agreed giving a small nod in return before casting her eyes off into the distance as she pondered where to begin. “I suppose I should introduce myself first?”

She looked to the figure, hoping to receive some idea as to whether they already knew who she was or not. When no confirmation was given, she began.

“My name is Rarity, and this is my story.”

VII - First Impressions

We may have been a little later than expected, but shortly after one in the afternoon; the city of Pivot was now in our collective sights. I had visited it a great many times during my lifetime, while not nearly as opulent as Arclight; the whole town had a rustic charm to it. It was located almost dead centre in Panchea, hence the name, as such it acted as the capital and trading hub for the rest of the country. Many centuries ago when Equestria first colonised Panchea, Pivot had been the first major town the settlers built. It had survived ever since, only growing larger and larger, but always maintaining the same colonial style that it had been originally built in, meaning paved streets lined with black iron lamp posts and wooden market stalls, and rows of two or three story terrace houses built from red brick with grey slate roofs and fuming chimney stacks.

There was also the occasional church spire, public garden or grand building dotted about, the latter possibly being a wealthy home or important business such as a bank. At the very centre of the town was a large, circular square where the town hall sat, a large cube shaped building with a wide set of steps leading up to the main doors and a clock tower that overlooked the square and the traders that would often set up stall there. Life in Pivot was always a busy one, the main streets were always bustling with ponies and carriages, you couldn’t walk more than a few metres before arriving next to another store, which is to say nothing of the street vendors.

Even at night it would be hard to find one of the major streets completely deserted as there were still many pubs and clubs keeping the town alive even after dark. Beyond the shopping aspect of the town, there was an abundance of houses across the various districts, perhaps some of the most affordable housing in the country; as such the town was mostly populated by the working class, with very few wealthy ponies calling Pivot their home. That was Pivot back when I used to visit it, so imagine my shock when we arrived and discovered a city of such smothering silence.

Even at a distance, from the hills as we approached the outskirts of the town, I knew something was different. Now that we were walking the streets, the full extent of the change became apparent. No longer did crowds of ponies or carriages fill the streets, no longer were there vibrant shop windows and welcoming signs lining the streets, no longer were there any trading stalls set up, where once you could barely move without tripping over one. Now in the traders places were gloomy, miserable looking ponies, sitting in against the walls of buildings, wrapped in rags and thin blankets.

Shops were boarded up with planks of wood, some buildings had their windows smashed in, others looked as if they had been blown apart from the inside, hollowed out husks of buildings left behind while bits of brick and rubble littered the street around them. The few ponies that did wander around, walking as if they had no real destination or purpose, simply passed by the homeless and stepped over the rubble, all as if it were just another day in the life. Our group walked down the main street in horrified silence, only Hammerhead and his men weren’t fazed by our surroundings, no doubt they knew full well what Pivot was like before we arrived.

Some of the homeless ponies saw us and began shuffling forward, shaking cans and metal dishes in the hopes of receiving a few bits to buy them a meal that they desperately needed. Others saw us and stayed exactly where they were, there was no hope left in their eyes as they cast them towards the ground. A loud part of me really wanted to give them something, even a single bit for each of them, but there were too many and I didn’t have nearly enough, and if I gave some to one but not another I would just feel worse.

As much as I hated myself for it, I mimicked my companions and looked at the ground while quickening my pace. The main street led straight from the outer most reaches of the town right up to the steps of the tow hall, that was where Hammerhead was taking us. As we walked, and the number of homeless ponies thankfully began to thin, I began to notice shops that I recognised. There was a sweet shop I visited as a filly, and took Sweetie Belle to when I was older, it was closed down. There was a textiles store that I used to materials from when I first started out making dresses, it was boarded up. There was even a café that I liked to stop in and get a hot chocolate anytime I was up for business, it was one of the few places that were still open, but there wasn’t a single customer to be seen within.

When we finally arrived in the town square after an agonisingly long walk, Hammerhead turned to face us all. After roughly three and a half days we had arrived safely in Pivot, their job was done, now it was time for them to leave and for us to make our own way to our respective homes. I was a little sad at the thought of Hammerhead and his men leaving, I had gotten quite used to having them as travelling companions, even if they rarely spoke, when they did they were always very pleasant and polite.

“Right,” Hammerhead began in that same old soft voice. “Welcome to Pivot. I’m sure you’ll be able to find your own ways from here, but for us this is as far as we go. It’s been… interesting escorting you all here, it’ll be a shame to say goodbye to some of you.”

I had to smirk slightly at that, even as a number of the ponies in our group began getting in a tizzy with him, demanding compensation for the loss of their luggage or the delay in arriving in Pivot, some even demanded that they continue to escort them as far as their respective home towns. While that was happening, me and Lyra broke off from the group, there would be time to say goodbye to Hammerhead personally once he had rid himself of our more annoying companions.

“So, I guess this is where we say goodbye,” Lyra began in an unnaturally serious voice.

“You’re leaving so soon?” I questioned.

“I think I should,” she replied before gesturing to the mother who was glancing our way. “Yesterday I offered to travel back to Arclight with Marea, she needs to get her kid home soon so we really shouldn’t delay.”

“I guess that makes sense,” I agreed a little solemnly. “How will you travel there? Do you really feel safe on the roads?”

“Not particularly,” Lyra admitted. “But I used to know a guy here in Pivot, ran a sort of taxi service. I’m hoping he’s still about, although considering the state of this place I won’t be surprised if he isn’t.”

“Well then, I wish you all the best in your travels,” I began, feeling my chest tighten. “And maybe one day we’ll see each other again.”

“I would really like that,” Lyra agreed, moving in for a hug. “And I hope you make it to Mule safely too.”

As we pulled apart I spotted something glisten at the corner of Lyra’s eye, although I couldn’t tell for sure before she blinked it away.

“If you do ever find yourself in Arclight,” Lyra finished, starting to back up slightly. “Come and find me in Cadance Avenue.”

“Same if you’re ever in Port Mule,” I added. “Number forty-two in the Botanic District.”

As Lyra nodded and turned away, making towards Marea and her daughter, I turned my attention back to Hammerhead who had just managed to disentangle himself from the rest of the group.

“So what will you do now?” I asked him as he approached. “Will you be escorting the next… shipment?”

“Should be,” he replied, glancing around to make sure nopony was listening in. “Although the next lot isn’t due for about three months, so until then we’ll just be heading off to see where our services can be required. Times like this, there’s a lot of work to be had for mercenaries.”

“Don’t you have homes to go back to?” I asked, a little concerned.

“Maybe,” he replied in a distant voice. “I used to live in Cragsburg, I was a stone mason there, but after the war… I just don’t feel welcome there anymore.”

There was an uncomfortable silence, a part of me wanted to probe further and find out what he meant, but the more reasonable part of me knew it was none of my business.

“I suppose you’ll be heading off now as well?” he asked, quickly changing the topic. “You live in Port Mule right?”

“Yes,” I confirmed. “And I’m not sure if I will head straight off. Lyra is getting a carriage to Arclight, makes me think I should look around for transport myself. It would take me days to reach it on hoof, and I don’t think I’d be particularly safe on my own.”

“I’d offer to come with you and help,” Hammerhead began. “Really I would, you’re definitely one of the more pleasant members of this group, but I have to stick with my men and we can’t afford to be doing jobs for free…”

“And I don’t have nearly enough money to pay you all,” I finished. “It’s fine really, you’ve done more than enough getting me this far. I’ll find my own way from here now, thank you.”

“No worries Rarity,” he replied with a polite nod. “It’s been a pleasure.”

He turned and began walking back towards his men, but stopped after only a couple steps and glanced back.

“If things ever get better,” he began. “And we should ever run into each other again, would you fancy going out for a drink together.”

The proposition took me by surprise, but what was even more surprising was that I responded to it more favourably than with the last stallion.

“That would be nice,” I replied, giving him a smile.

And that was that, another chapter in my journey had come to an end. We reached Pivot, Lyra had gone on her way, Hammerhead and his men set off, all the other ponies I had been traveling with separated onto their own paths, and I was left on my own. I was on my own with very little direction, I knew my next and hopefully final destination was Port Mule, but it was many miles to the south. It used to be I could turn a full circle and somewhere along the rotation I would have seen somepony offering rides to other towns and cities, things were a little trickier now.

I was already at the town hall; perhaps if I went inside I could find some record of businesses that were still up and running following the war. I might even have found somewhere I could sell the arrows and bolts I was still carrying, I wasn’t exactly short on bits yet, having kept them all in my satchel so none were lost with my suitcase, but it couldn’t hurt to have some spare should things go south. With a short term objective in mind, I began making my way towards the town hall, mounting the steps and trotting up to the front doors which stood open.

The inside was surprisingly well intact, either it had been spared the same destruction that most of the town had suffered or it was one of the few buildings that had been restored. There were more ponies inside the entrance hall than there were walking the streets, there were a few guards in varying levels of armour, posted haphazardly around the room looking rather bored. Most ponies were cued up waiting to get to the front desk and talk to one of the secretaries, seeing no other information point I decided to join the back of the cue.

It took an unbearably long time for the line to thin out; I would only be able to shuffle forwards a few inches every several minutes. It got to the point where I was thankful when someone further along than me got frustrated and left, bring me one place closer to the desk. Eventually I was second in line, and I could hear the discussion between the stallion store owner and the secretary mare in front of me.

“I need something done!” he exclaimed. “You have to move those tramps away from the front of my store, they’re damaging my business.”

“Sir, we have no power to send anypony anywhere,” the secretary tried to explain.

“Aren’t there shelters for them to stay in?” he asked. “It’s always the same ones camped right outside my front door, and they won’t move when I tell them to.”

“All official shelters are full,” the secretary informed him. “Like I said, we don’t have the power to force them away from your property as long as they remain outside it. If they came into your store then we could do something, but they’re completely within their rights to sit outside it.”

“But I need them to go!” he insisted. “I haven’t sold a single shoe in weeks! I have almost no money left; I’ll be forced to get the planks out soon.”

“Sir, we cannot do what you are asking us to do,” the secretary stated firmly. “And even if we could, there’s no guarantee that having the front of your shop free of homeless ponies will improve anything. Now I must ask you to move on if there is no further business as you are holding up the line.”

The stallion began to object but quickly shut up when he saw a nearby guard moving in. Hanging his head low he slouched away from the desk and began moving towards the exit.

“Next!” the secretary called, and I stepped forward.

“Excuse me; I was wondering if you might have a list of businesses that are still open?” I began as politely as I could. “I just arrived in town and I need to know if there is anywhere I could hire a carriage to take me to Port Mule. Perhaps also a store I could trade in some… random items and maybe an inn with a room for the night.”

“You can go over to the records office,” the secretary said, gesturing to a corridor behind her. “Although I’m not sure you’ll have much luck, places close down so regularly these days that it often goes unrecorded.”

“It will do for a starting point, thank you,” I replied, stepping back from the desk before walking around it towards the corridor the secretary had indicated.

The corridor was wide, with various office doors along each side and one very official looking door at the very end, flanked by a trio of heavily armoured guards. The records office was about halfway down the corridor on the left hand side, I noticed the guards watched me suspiciously all the way, stopping only when I made to enter my destination. The records office was a cramped and dimly lit room, the walls obscured by filing cabinet after filing cabinet; there was a single desk in the middle of the room where an ancient pony lay snoring at.

I tried briefly to wake her, but gave up when I noticed an empty bottle of whiskey lying under the desk and realised I was just wasting my time. I then set about trying to find the files I needed myself, surely it couldn’t be that hard… after about five minutes however I realised how wrong that notion was. The place was a mess, nothing was in order, most of the documents I pulled out were massively out of date or were covered in scribbles as if somepony had tried to update and amend them all by hoof and really hadn’t been all that enthusiastic about doing so.

It really was an embarrassment, it was no wonder the town was falling apart if this is the shoddy work that took place behind the scenes. I was sure things couldn’t have been like this back before the war, Pivot used to thrive, something it could never have done if this was how it had been run. I guess the whole thing made me angry, I could accept things being difficult during the war, but now it was over, there was no excuse why the mayor, whoever they were, was allowing this happen right under their nose. Frustration bubbling away inside of me, I slammed the drawer I was sifting through closed before storming out of the room, making for the door at the end of the hall.

This was easily one of my most foolish moves, even as I drew close and began to recognise the armour the trio of guards wore, my mind was too clouded to think straight. Of course they moved straight in, one blocking my path while the other two moved in behind me.

“Where do you think you’re going?” the guard in front asked, his voice cold and his eyes even colder.

“I… I need to see the mayor,” I began, frustration already ebbing away to be replaced by regret.

“The mayor isn’t seeing anypony at the moment,” the guard continued. “You’ll have to leave and make an appointment.”

“I… This is really important,” I tried to say, but my voice was already beginning to quaver.

“I’m sure it is, so why don’t you make an appointment?” he asked in a threatening tone, moving in even closer so I had to crane my neck to meet his gaze.

“Alright, I’ll just leave then,” I tied to say, backing up only to be met with a solid wall of steel and muscles from the two guards behind me. “I said, I’ll just lave then.”

But they didn’t move, the guard in front smirked while the two behind chuckled darkly.

“Sorry little lady,” the guard continued, not sounding sorry at all. “But what’s to say you didn’t come here with evil intentions? I think we might have to escort you downstairs and ask you all about why you needed to see the mayor so desperately.”

“I haven’t done anything wrong!” I squealed, panicking now. “What kind of guards are you?!”

“Guards?” he repeated. “Who ever said we were guards?”

If I didn’t recognise their armour before, I certainly did then. It was the very same steel armour that the pegasi who had attacked us in the pass wore; only this armour was in top condition. I was surrounded, not by a trio of town guards, but soldiers. My racing thoughts were interrupted as I felt a hoof running up along my hindquarters. I screamed and reared up, bucking the groping soldier right in the face. I don’t know if I had done any damage, but the soldier in front was not amused by it, and he expressed as much when he raised his foreleg and smacked it right across the side of my face, the force sending me crashing into the wall of the corridor.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” one of the soldiers said in a grim voice, I couldn’t tell which one it was as my vision had gone blurry. “Now that questioning we promised you will end up being a little more…”

“What the heck is going on out here?!” a sharp voice demanded as a door was thrown open.

“This crazy mare attacked Tumbler,” one of the soldiers answered quickly. “She must be an enemy, came here to get you Sir.”

There was a moment of silence, during which I could see the blurry outline of the new figure examining me.

“She’ll be fine,” the figure said at last, their voice sounding bored. “And she’s no threat.”

With that the figure turned and began to walk down the hall, the three soldiers reluctantly falling into line behind them. I couldn’t believe what I had just heard, he was just going to let those soldiers get away with what they had tried to do, and he was also going to leave me lying there after what they did do.

“Who… the hell… do you think you are?!” I shouted as I tried to stand up on shaking legs.

The sound of hoofsteps stopped abruptly.

“Excuse me?” the figure said in a venomous tone. “Are you saying you don’t know who I am?”

“I’m guessing you’re the commanding officer to these cretins,” I replied as I clutched my head and tried to focus my gaze on the group standing at the other end of the corridor. “And if you’re just going to let them off after they were going to do to me, then I guess that makes you a cretin too.”

The corridor was deathly silent, more than that; I couldn't hear a single noise from the rest of the entrance hall beyond. As my vision cleared I could see that there were still many ponies crowded within the town hall, but they were all facing my way, looks of horror on my face. Even the three soldiers looked slightly scared, while their commander finally came into focus. To my surprise it was not a ‘he’ after all, but a ‘she’, a tough looking mare admittedly, an earth pony with a pale green coat, and soft pink mane and tail, both spikey and cut short. She wore no armour like her subordinates, but her mere figure radiated power and authority.

“You really don’t know who I am, do you?” she asked again, this time actually sounding surprised. “I guess you really are no threat, because only a coward who hid away in their homes while we fought for your freedom would not know who I am.”

I wanted to respond by telling her I was no coward, but she wasn’t wrong, I hadn’t fought in the war and the last thing I wanted was for her to know where I really had been hiding during it.

“Then tell me who you are,” I demanded, refusing to be intimidated by this mare, even though everypony else seemed to be. “Tell me why you’re not a cretin for ignoring the fact that your soldiers are nothing more than thugs and molesters.”

There was yet another long, painful, fearful silence following my demand, but the mare remained composed.

“My name is Sufferthorn,” she finally replied. “Marshal and second in command of the Rebellion army.”

I really had trod on the wrong hooves, but I wasn’t about to lose face at that point, I refused to show any fear even though I had basically signed my own death warrant.

“These men will face the consequences of their actions,” she continued, taking me completely by surprise. “That I can promise you, but I would strongly advise that you avoid ever crossing my path again, for I will only ignore your disrespect this one time.”

With that she turned on the spot and marched out of the building, her soldiers following closely behind, occasionally casting furious looks at me. Once they had left, everypony turned their gazes back to me, staring at me in stunned silence. For a moment I was completely frozen in one spot, snapping out only when I heard a coughing behind me. Turning I saw unicorn stallion standing in the door to the mayor’s office; he was balding and wore delicate spectacles as well as a tweed suit.

“Excuse me Miss, but could I have a word with you?” he requested hurriedly.

“Are you the mayor?” I asked sternly.

He nodded in response; I glanced once more behind me at the room of stunned ponies before facing him once more.

“Sure,” I replied, narrowing my eyes at him. “Let’s talk.”

IX - Generosity

I was awoken the next morning by somepony gently shaking my shoulders, cracking open my eyes I saw Grass Snake leaning over me.

“Sorry to wake you so early,” she began, standing up once she saw I was awake. “But I needed to make a quick run into town and I was wondering if you could do some things while I’m out.”

“Of course,” I replied in a groggy voice as I sat up, my back popping as I did. “Whatever you need.”

“Mainly I just need you to keep an eye on the girls until Lock Pick is up,” she explained. “He’s not feeling too well this morning so I thought with you around he might be able to get a lie in.”

“No worries,” I assured her. “Anything else?”

“There’s some herbal tea in the kitchen cupboard,” she continued. “Could you make up a cup and take it up to Granny Willow please?”

“I can do that,” I said as I stood up and began rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.

“Thanks a lot,” Grass Snake said as she headed towards the door to the hall. “While I’m in town I’ll ask around and see if anyone could give you a ride to Port Mule.”

“You would?” I asked slightly surprised. “I would greatly appreciate that.”

Grass Snake flashed me a quick smile before heading out to the front door, calling back one last time to ask me to lock it after her. I set straight to making the tea, which wasn’t hard to find since the kitchen cupboards were almost entirely devoid of any contents. I would certainly have to be generous when it came to paying Grass Snake at the end of all this, although I needed to be careful not to give away too much and end up not having enough to get me to Mule.

While I waited for the pot of water to boil over the pathetic heat of the stove, I thought about the residents of the house. I had been properly introduced to everypony after my conversation with Lock Pick the night before, besides Pixie Dust, the other fillies were called Caramel and Emerald. They all slept on the second floor and while they were shy around me at first, they quickly became more comfortable in my presence to the point where they were chatting away quite happily with me. They were all very nice girls, bright and inquisitive, reminded me in many ways of my sister.

Thinking about Sweetie Belle brought back the hollow feeling in my chest, so I took out my compass to alleviate the feeling. As I removed it however, the bright stone that Sweetie Belle had delivered to me also fell out. I had kept it wrapped in the note that came with it and stored alongside the compass, I had also thoroughly forgotten about it. When I got a moment alone I took the time to examine it properly for the first time, I didn’t really know any spells for analysing magical objects, but I was sure the stone was magical.

I was tempted to ask Lock Pick if perhaps he knew anything about it, but something told me I should keep the stone to myself, at least until its properties became clear. In the end I hid it away inside a hollow space in the back of the compass itself which could only be accessed if I unscrewed the back disc. Besides the three fillies and Lock Pick, Grass Snake also looked after an ancient earth pony mare whom they all referred to as Granny Willow, despite not being related to any of them.

The poor dear was the feeblest excuse for a pony I’d ever met, utterly bed ridden and often going into fits. I didn’t get much opportunity to speak to her, Grass Snake told me that her moments of lucidity were getting fewer and further between, so most of what she says is incomprehensible or completely devoid of rhyme or reason. She slept on the third floor with Lock Pick, who had to be helped up and down the stairs everyday by Grass Snake as he too could barely walk.

I wondered why he didn’t just sleep on the sofas, but it turned out that’s where Grass Snake always slept, and subsequently I did too. The reason why Lock Pick didn’t sleep there was obvious after about ten minutes of lying down on one of them and trying to get to sleep, I had been more comfortable sleeping on the hard ground in the pass. Everypony in the house was so close and compassionate with one another, it was clear that when Grass Snake referred to them as ‘the family’ she was being completely serious.

Once the water was boiled I prepared a cup of the herbal tea and levitated it in front of me as I left the kitchen and made my way up the stairs. Both bedrooms were as bare and lifeless as the den below, as I passed through the second floor I saw the girls were already up and about, washing themselves with old cloths in a wooden tub of cold water that was meant to constitute a bath. They all smiled and waved at me as I continued on up the stairs, I was sure to smile back and mentally add a few more bits to the amount I was planning on giving at the end of my stay.

Once I was upstairs I found that Lock Pick was still sleeping soundly which pleased me, while Willow was half sitting up in her bed, staring out the gaps in the boarded up window. She really was one of the oldest looking mares I had ever laid eyes on; she looked like one of those weird dogs with the amount of wrinkles. Her coat was a haunting shade of blueish green, while her wispy white hair seemed to drift slightly around her despite there being no draft entering the house.

“Um, Willow?” I began; it didn’t feel right for me to call her granny. “I brought you some tea.”

She didn’t speak, didn’t even move, I wasn’t sure if she had heard me or even knew I was there.

“Do you need some help drinking it?” I asked, realising I had no idea what I was doing.

Still she didn’t acknowledge me; desperately I looked about and spotted an old bedside table over by the wall. Lifting it over, I set it right next to Willow’s bed before setting the cup down on it.

“I’m going to leave this here for you,” I told her, raising my voice slightly in case she was also a little bit deaf. “I’ll come and check in on you again soon.”

When she still didn’t move I let out a little sigh and turned to make my way downstairs, perhaps I could ask one of the girls if there was something specific I should be doing.

“Oh, there you are child,” a croaky voice spoke behind me, making me freeze. “I was wondering when you’d come to visit me again.”

I turned very slowly, hardly daring to believe that she had really just spoken to me. Sure enough she was now turned away from the window, looking directly at me, her cloudy eyes bright and her drooping mouth turned up in a warm smile.

“No doubt you’ve come to hear more of my stories,” she continued in an amused voice.

“Actually, I thought you might like some tea,” I tried to say, gesturing to the cup.

Willow glanced at the tea cup, a surprised look on her face. She began to reach out with trembling hooves but I rushed forward and scooped it up for her, bringing to her lips. She drank gratefully from it before smacking her lips and looking at me again.

“Now, where did we leave off last time?” she asked, causing me to raise an eyebrow. “Was it the story of the Crystal Empire? Or perhaps the story of how Princess Celestia defeated the god of chaos using the Elements of Harmony?”

“Aren’t they just fairy tales?” I asked, forgetting about my prior confusion regarding her addressing of me.

“All fairy tales and myths have some grain of truth to them,” she informed me. “Or have you forgotten?”

“Forgotten?” I repeated in a quiet voice.

“I know, how about Granny Willow tells you the story of the Isle of Serenity?”

I smiled at that, while I wasn’t sure what Willow was thinking, that if she really knew who I was or not, I definitely knew about the Isle of Serenity.

“Everypony knows about the Isle of Serenity,” I told her. “The forbidden island where only the righteous may tread on their pilgrimage to the Temple of Unity.”

“Aye, but have you ever heard about it from somepony who’s actually been there?” Willow said with a knowing smirk.

My jaw dropped at that as my mind struggled to comprehend what I had just heard. I had learned about the Isle from a very young age, everypony who lived in Panchea did. It was located just off the south eastern corner of the mainland, and was forbidden to everypony who had not received a personal invite from the Isle’s mysterious inhabitants. The idea that I was talking to one of the few ponies who had set foot on the island was mind blowing.

“You’ve been on the Isle of Serenity?!” I asked in disbelief and amazement. “How? When? What was it like?”

That actually got the old mare chuckling, I blushed when I realised I sounded like an excited filly.

“Your granny’s lived a long life,” she replied. “She still has plenty of surprises up her sleeve.”

I was still confused by the way she was referring to me, but now that she had piqued my curiosity I was inclined to ignore it and let her talk.

“I was just a little pony at the time,” she began, taking on a wistful expression. “About your age I would imagine, when I received the summons. And when I say summons, I really mean it, there is no refusing the call of the King Crow.”

“King Crow?” I repeated, a faint memory sparking in my mind of the crow that I had seen while aboard the Siren.

“I guess you don’t know everything about the Isle after all,” Willow said with a little self-satisfied smirk. “If King Crow has a real name, nopony but those who live on the Isle know it. It acts as their eyes and ears, bringing those they deem worthy to the Isle to be tested.”

“Tested for what?” I asked eagerly, unable to get the memory of the crow out of my head.

“I may not say,” Willow replied, shaking her head solemnly. “Only those who complete the pilgrimage and pass the trials may learn the secrets held within the Temple. Ah but the Isle is beautiful, it certainly earned its name. Even now in my old age I will never forget the things I saw there, even if all else fades away I know those memories will stay with me to the grave.”

“That good?” I muttered with a smile. “I actually saw a large crow a while back; do you think it could have been the King Crow?”

“Perhaps so,” Willow agreed. “Very few ponies ever catch a glimpse of it, even fewer are approached by it. I don’t know of anypony that has received a summons since I did all those years ago, but then I always did say there was something special about you, perhaps you will be the next to travel there.”

As I helped her take another swig of tea, I thought about what she had said, what she had kept alluding to. The way she spoke to me, it was as if she thought I was somepony else entirely. If she was confused about who I was, what else might she be confused about? As much as her story and the thought of me going to the Isle someday tantalised me, I had to wonder how much of it was true.

“Are you not allowed to go back to the Isle?” I asked once I set the cup down again. “Once you’ve completed your pilgrimage.”

“Even if I wanted to I don’t have to energy to anymore,” Willow explained.

“Meaning you don’t want to?” I pressed.

“No,” she said firmly, shaking her head. “I saw many things there, learnt many things…”

She drifted off and started staring into space. I blinked a few times waiting for her to continue, but she never did. It was like she had reset to the way I found her when I first entered the room.

“Um, Willow?” I began, hoping she would snap out of it and continue her story. When she did not I decided it was time to leave her be. “I’ll let you get some more rest, I’ll bring you up more tea later and perhaps we can talk again.”

She didn’t reply, so I stood up awkwardly and made my way down the stairs, completely bewildered by what had just happened. For a while I just sat in the den and played with the girls, which I was well used to from time spent with Sweetie Belle, the three fillies definitely seemed to be growing fond of me. Eventually I heard a knock on the door followed by Grass Snake announcing herself, Pixie Dust rushed to get it again and I waited with the other two for her to return. Once all the locks were redone, Pixie Dust and Grass Snake entered the den, the latter carrying a shopping bag and a sack of apples.

“Guess who I ran into today?” Grass Snake asked in a playful tone as she presented the bag of apples to the fillies.

All three of them were ecstatic at the sight of them, rushing forward to thank Grass Snake before taking one each.

“Don’t thank me,” Grass Snake told them. “Thank the kind ponies who gave them to us, or at least do so next time they’re in town, we can all go see them together.”

“Friends of yours?” I questioned, gesturing at the sack of apples.

“Sort of,” Grass Snake replied. “Some apple farmers who live south of Pivot, they come into town most weeks to sell their products, but lately they just give out bags for free to anypony who needs them.”

“Did you find anyone who would be able to give me a lift?” I asked.

“Yes actually,” Grass Snake said brightly. “The pony I just mentioned actually, their homestead is about halfway between here and Mule, so they agreed to give you a lift that far. I don’t know if they’ll be willing to take you the rest of the way, even if you paid them, but it’s certainly a good start if you’re interested.”

“You mean they aren’t charging me to go as far as theirs?” I asked in amazement.

“No actually, since it’s not out of their way they said they would do it for nothing,” she confirmed.

“Are you leaving already?” a timid voice asked behind me.

I turned to see Caramel and the other two all staring up at me with the same big eyes that Sweetie Belle tried to use on me just before I boarded the Siren.

“I’m afraid so,” I told her, trying my hardest not to succumb. “But don’t you worry, once I get settled in my own home I’ll be back here as soon as I can and I’ll pay you all a visit. I’ll even make you those dresses I promised you.”

“Please do visit again,” Grass Snake said from the doorway of the den. “It would be nice to see you again.”

After trotting back upstairs to say goodbye to Lock Pick and Willow, although the latter was now fast asleep, I returned to the front door where Grass Snake was waiting to escort me to where the apple farmer was waiting. The journey back to the town square felt much quicker than the journey away from it the night before, even though we were taking it much slower this time, perhaps it was because I was eager to get moving. I was going to be sad to see Grass Snake and her family off, but by the same token I wanted to get home. Once I was settled back in, I’d be in a much better position for coming back and helping.

It was a bit earlier than it had been when our party arrived in Pivot the day before, so there were a few more ponies out and about. Some ponies were making a brave attempt at setting up market stalls, although most of their time seemed to be spent watching out for homeless ponies sneaking up and stealing their merchandise. Our target was already packing up their cart, which despite its large size, had managed to rid itself of every single apple that it had brought. As we approached the cart, the huge red stallion saw us and turned to greet us.

“Hey again Big Mac,” Grass Snake began. “This is the mare I was telling you about. Rarity, meet Big McIntosh.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” I began, offering my hoof which he gave a small shake.

“Eyup,” he replied with a smile.

“Grass Snake mentioned that you could take me as far as your homestead,” I stated.

“Eyup,” he confirmed with a nod.

“And that’s about halfway between here and Mule?” I questioned.

“Eyup.”

“She also mentioned that you didn’t want payment, are you sure that’s alright?” I asked, slightly concerned that I would be taking advantage of him if I didn’t. “I can pay if you need me to.”

“Enope,” Big Mac stated flatly, shaking his head.

“Well if you’re really sure, then thank you very much,” I said sincerely before turning to Grass Snake. “I did however promise you some money.”

“I almost feel bad taking it now that we’ve gotten to know each other,” Grass Snake replied, looking awkwardly at her hooves.

“Nonsense, you have those girls to be looking out for,” I insisted, opening my satchel with magic and levitating out my coin purse.

I was pretty thankful then for the additional money father had given me. Since the start of my journey, I had already spent some money at the bar in Daybreak and the tavern here in Pivot, I had managed to get away with not paying for our room at Glean following the owner's little incident. That still left me with most of what I started off with; still I knew I could make the last leg of my journey with only a fraction of this. Hoping my father would agree that it was for a good cause, I removed about a fifth of the bits from the bulging purse before passing the rest to Grass Snake.

“Rarity No!” she exclaimed. “When I asked for money, I meant like a dozen bits or something, but this…”

She opened the purse and began trying to count, her eyes widening even more.

“I can’t accept all this,” she said, her voice shaking slightly.

“You can and you will,” I insisted. “This money will go a long way in helping you and your family, and once I get myself sorted in Mule I’m coming back with even more.”

“This is… this is…” Grass Snake began mouthing wordlessly, tears rising to her eyes.

“Well, just use it wisely,” I said awkwardly.

Suddenly I was being suffocated as she threw her forelegs around me in the tightest hug I’d ever received.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she said, almost squealing. “I’ll get this straight back to the house and lock it somewhere safe. Please come back and visit soon, you don’t have to bring any more money, just promise me this won’t be the last time we see you.”

“I promise I’ll be back,” I assured her.

After a final farewell and a quick word between her and Big Mac, Grass Snake departed, a new spring in her step. Once she was out of sight I turned to Big Mac who was looking at me with an unreadable expression.

“Do you need any help packing or are we ready to go?” I asked.

“We’re ready,” he said, taking me slightly by surprise as those were the first proper words he’d spoken.

He gave me a boost onto the cart before hooking himself in and beginning the steady march down the main street out of Pivot. The trip out of the town was completely silent but for the trundle of the wooden wheels on the stone road, it was only once we were free of Pivot that he turned his head to me and spoke.

“That was a really generous thing you did,” he said in an odd tone. “This country needs more ponies like you.”

With that he turned his head forward once more and continued walking.

XXII - The Grinning Mask

Had that been my first exposure to crazy stuff since I arrived in Panchea, I might not have handled the situation as well as I did. As it was however, I was starting to expect the unexpected, so I was able to stop panicking after only a moment and starting putting a plan of escape into action. I didn’t know how the assassin had escaped and survived, but I wasn’t risking taking the same route out, my only hope seemed to be going out the way I came in. Naturally I couldn’t walk out the door as Arcana’s body was in plain sight, were the police pony to glance in, so using my magic I dragged his corpse across the floor, leaving a dark trail across the carpet as I went.

I tucked the body in under the bed and proceeded to casting my fabric cleaning spell on the carpet, the same one I used on my clothes. There was so much blood soaked in and I had too little time to do it properly, but I managed to get it to a point where it would only be obvious once you were in the room, that might give me enough time to get out before the alarm was raised. Taking a deep breath to calm my nerves and looking myself over in a tall mirror to make sure there was no splattering of blood on my dress or coat, I made my way over to the door. As I stepped out, the police pony’s head turned slightly in my direction.

“Arcana’s just getting… cleaned up,” I explained, hoping the pony wasn’t such a robot that it would get the implications. “I’m just going to go downstairs to fetch my friend and we’ll be back up in a moment.”

The police pony didn’t nod or say anything, simply turned its head forward and continued ignoring me. With that obstacle apparently overcome, I made my way over to the teleporter, making sure not to walk too quickly lest I appear suspicious. As I tapped the entrance hall on the digital map of The Tower I had to resist the urge to sigh with relief when it didn’t ask for identity verification. The teleporter lit up and for a brief second I was blinded by light before reappearing at the top of the staircase, overlooking the crowds of ponies still enjoying the evening, unaware that their host had just met a tragic end.

As I made my way down the staircase I scanned the room for Lyra, she was no longer with the rest of the musicians so I assumed her set must have been finished. I also noticed that the harlequin wasn’t where they had been earlier, although there was never any real doubt in my mind that it wasn’t the same one who had murdered Arcana. It didn’t take long to see Lyra, quite easy to spot with her bright coat and pale gold dress, standing over by the buffet table, making conversation with a couple unicorns I didn’t know.

I bit my lip as I watched her talk away, briefly considering whether I should leave with or without her. On the one hand all my stuff was back at her house, although I was mainly thinking of my father’s spyglass and compass and I didn’t think it would be hard to steal her front door key or even knock it down when I got there. Lyra was part of the Order, even if she had been lied to or was simply delusional, but could I really leave her behind and risk her being punished for being associated with me? I gave a little sigh as I started walking across the hall towards her; I was never really going to leave my friend behind.

“Hey Lyra,” I greeted, breaking her out of her conversation.

“Oh, there you are Rarity,” Lyra said, smiling as she saw me. “I know you wanted to do some schmoozing tonight, but sucking up to the main man himself, very impressive.”

“You have to do crazy things to get ahead in the business world,” I said casually. “Hey, could I speak to you in private for a moment.”

“Yeah sure,” she said, glancing over at her friends who both nodded and went off with one another. “So what’s up?”

“Lyra, do you trust me?” I asked in a suddenly serious voice.

“Huh? Of course I trust you,” Lyra replied, looking a little concerned. “Rarity, is something up?”

“Yes Lyra,” I told her. “Something bad has just happened, and I need you to trust me when I say that we need to leave right now and go back to your house.”

“Leave?” Lyra repeated in a shocked voice. “Why? What happened Rarity? Was it something to do with Arcana?”

Lyra stopped asking questions when she saw the grim look on my face.

“Alright Rarity…” Lyra said slowly, looking unsure. “I trust you, we’ll leave now.”

With no further words we both made our way across the hall to the main doors, the whole way I was waiting for somepony to call out after us or to order the police to seize us. Thankfully nopony did, and the flood of ponies entering the event had long since ebbed, leaving the door relatively clear for us. We started making our way through the almost deserted streets in utter silence, although I could tell from the look on Lyra’s face that she was burning with questions. Finally we reached a junction and she came to a halt, turning to face me, an annoyed look on her face.

“Okay Rarity,” she began in an irritated voice. “What the actual he…”

She didn’t get any further than that however, as all across the city, from every direction around; a loud siren began blaring out. It started out slow, occasionally jumping up in pitch before coming back down again. I knew exactly what it meant and that my time was running out, more than that, if I was caught while Lyra was still with me she would almost certainly get dragged into this.

“Lyra, you need to go home now,” I ordered. “Please hide my things and I’ll try to come back for them, but you need to go right now before you’re seen with me.”

“Rarity I don’t…” Lyra began in a terrified voice.

“Just do it!” I bellowed, startling her into silence.

She gave me one last worried look before turning tail and running down the street I knew would take her home. That left me with the task of getting out of the city before the police ponies found me. From everything I had learnt, the police would be able to see into my mind, they would see that I hadn’t killed Arcana, but they would also see that I was a Rebel agent. I couldn’t allow that to happen no matter what, so I pulled out the stained glass bottle from within my dress and held it in front of me. I wasn’t going to drink it right away, but I would need to get at it quickly if I got ambushed.

Getting ambushed is exactly what happened in the end. I had made it pretty far though the city, keeping to the shadows, dodging the patrols. It was only when I arrived at the city gate and found a wall of masked police ponies standing, waiting for me just as another patrol flanked me from behind. The police behind me all spread out, creating a wall blocking my exit, while the row standing before the archway began marching slowly forward, every step perfectly in synch with the pony standing on either side. As they began to encroach, the purple gems in their masks began lighting up all in unison, slowly at first before getting brighter and brighter until it was like they were all wearing torches on their foreheads.

I guessed this was the way they invaded ponies’ minds, so without a second’s hesitation, I uncorked the bottle, brought it to my mouth and downed it in a single gulp. The effect was instantaneous, it began with what felt like a lightning bolt passing through my brain, causing me to gasp in shock as I reached up and clutched either side of my head. The initial pain faded quickly leaving a very numb sensation in my skull, like my brain had just been replaced with copious amounts of cotton wool. My sight became much sharper, every colour massively exaggerated while shapes constantly shifted in and out of focus. Every little light, no matter how dim began shining like suns until my vision appeared to be little more than lens flaring.

The siren turned to indistinguishable ringing in my ears, and the ground turned to air beneath my hooves. From the little I could make out in front of me, all the police who had been marching towards me had the light in their foreheads snuffed out while they all collapsed to the ground, writhing in agony. Everything that followed was a blur; it was as if I had lost all control over my body. My memories of all that occurred while under the effect of the Mind Fog was sketchy at best, I recalled disjointed events or brief images of places I had been and faces I had met.

At one point I was crawling around in a gutter, another I found myself inside a cramped dress shop, at one point I was sure I had been falling from a very tall building and yet my next memory was of me running through the forest, still in my dress. The very last thing I remember was nearly taking a pendulum to the face and collapsing into Stranglethorn’s forelegs. When I woke up the next morning, not that I knew it was morning until a little later, I felt like death itself. My limbs ached, my mouth was dry and my tongue felt like sandpaper, but most of all my eyes felt like they were bleeding while a corkscrew was twisted into the back of my skull.

Once the various pains began to ebb away and I became more aware of my surroundings, I realised I was lying on the double bed back in Dolor. Something felt wrong through, my limbs felt… constricted. I was still wearing my dress, but then I would have been more concerned if Stranglethorn had taken it off me. No, something else was wrong, and I didn’t know what until my head rolled to the side and saw my foreleg tied to the bedpost. After a quick look around I confirmed that, yes, all my limbs were tied to the four bedposts so I was now restrained, spread eagle on the bed.

“Good morning!” a high pitched, cheery voice greeted.

I craned my neck so I could see who it was at the foot of my bed, and who presumably had tied me up like this. The blood drained from my face when I saw a horribly familiar figure dressed in a red and blue striped harlequin outfit, complete with grinning mask and a single rondel dagger that they were currently spinning around their gloved forehoof.

“It’s nice to see you awake at last,” the seemingly female voice continued. “I was beginning to get so bored talking to myself.”

I tried to speak, but no words came out. I wanted to shout for help, for Stranglethorn to rush in and save me, but still I couldn’t find my voice.

“Don’t worry Rarity,” the pony continued, sheathing her dagger. “I’m not here to hurt you, I actually came to apologise for throwing you under the bus like that. I had you figured all wrong, thinking you were just another boring, upper-class tool, but watching the way you dealt with the body and escaped the police… 'boring' is definitely not a word that describes you!”

“H… how do you know my name?” I asked, still slightly afraid.

“Because Rarity…” the figure began, in a very serious voice all of a sudden. “I… am you mother.”

I simply stared at the figure in utter confusion before they burst into a fit of giggles under their mask.

“Sorry, that’s a terrible joke,” the pony said through her laughter fit. “But in all seriousness, your friend left a note for you.”

The pony walked over to the bedside table and picked up a scroll which she opened up and read allowed for me to hear.

“Dear Rarity, I apologise for leaving but something urgent has just come up,” she read. “You will probably be feeling very sick when you wake up, just drink plenty of water and the effects will dissipate quickly. You probably don’t remember, but you filled me in on everything when you got back last night. Don’t feel bad, you did well in spite of the circumstances and you’re not always going to succeed in your missions. I am going to return to Arclight and retrieve your equipment from your friend’s house, I will leave them in a dead drop half a mile south of where you are right now, you know what to look for. Do not return to Arclight, take some time for yourself, perhaps return to your friends at the apple farm, we will contact you in a few days.”

The pony finished reading out the letter before flipping it around to show me.

“Look, he even drew a pretty picture for you,” she informed me, indicating the wreath of thorns he left in place of a signature. “So, Rarity the spy, eh?”

“I’m not a spy,” I retorted.

“Oh, well what do you call yourself then?” the pony asked.

I opened my mouth quickly before shutting it again when I couldn’t think of an answer; the only words that came to mind were agent, operative and even spy which annoyed me.

“Well I don’t know what I am,” I admitted. “But it’s only part time. Now why have you tied me up if you aren’t here to hurt me?”

“Sorry, I didn’t want you overreacting when you saw me,” the pony explained as she began undoing my bonds. “I did spoil your mission after all.”

“Yeah, why did you do that?” I asked, annoyed when I remembered just how close I had come to cracking Arcana. “He was just about to tell me what I needed to know, you could have killed him right after that, I wouldn’t have cared.”

The pony snorted with laughter at that.

“That’s exactly why I killed him then,” she explained once I was free. “The ponies who hired me to kill him didn’t want him revealing his dirty little secrets.”

“What?!” I exclaimed, leaping off the bed and approaching the pony, forgetting she was armed and I was not. “They must be the ones he was in contact with, tell me who they were!”

“Not a clue I’m afraid,” the pony said, pushing me away slightly. “I didn’t know who they were or why they wanted him killed; they were just a group of ponies wearing fancy robes.”

“So how much did they pay you?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at her. “How much was doing their dirty work worth?”

“Nothing,” the pony replied, her voice sounding genuinely bitter, no trace of its previous amusement. “They offered me something more valuable than money, something I had been seeking for a long time. I didn’t question why they wanted him killed because no life was important enough to come between me and what I sought. But after I did the deed and watched you escape back here, I went to meet them, and they decided it would be easier to kill me off as well.”

“Oh…” I said, taking a step back.

“They probably never had what I was looking for,” the pony continued bitterly. “They knew they could play me and get me to do what they couldn’t risk, and when all was said and done they could take me out of the picture… only they didn’t account for how very angry that deception made me.”

There was a long silence between us as I tried to figure out what I could say to console the weird clown killer standing in front of me.

“So I took care of them,” the pony said suddenly, brightening up greatly. “And I was left without a direction to follow, until I remembered you. Seeing you in action, you really caught my interest, so I thought I’d look into you, and now I know that you’re some kind of super spy who was looking for information on the ponies who tried to stab me in the back. Well we might have gotten off to a bad start, but why don’t we let bygones be bygones and team up, after all, just imagine the things two talented ponies like us could accomplish together.”

“Sorry, but I’m not about to go trusting a pony wearing a mask,” I replied sternly.

“Oh, sorry,” the pony replied, reaching up to take the mask off. “It’s so easy to forget about this thing sometimes.”

She removed the white and gold mask with one hoof, while pulling the jester cowl off with the other. As she did, a mass of bright pink curls sprang out, bouncing slightly before settling into a poufy, candy floss like mane style. How she kept it all held flat beneath that skin tight cowl I couldn’t begin to fathom. Her coat was also pink, while her eyes were the brightest blue, and even without the mask she wore a huge grin on her face.

“So, now for a proper introduction,” she began, clearing her throat. “I’m Pinkie Pie!”

“Well hello Pinkie Pie, my name is Rarity,” I replied a little awkwardly, before muttering under my breath. “Although you already knew that.”

“Well Rarity, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” Pinkie said jubilantly. “I just know you and I are going to end up being the best of friends.”

XXXIV - The Sound Of Surf

I hadn’t returned to my room until late into the night, as the sun had set and the clouds began to clear a little, Fluttershy insisted on me coming to her other favourite spot. I suggested that we bring Applejack for that trip, as she would probably be going stir crazy as we spoke, Fluttershy was hesitant but agreed. It turned out the reason she was hesitant was because it involved flying us both up, one at a time to the highest point in the Bask, setting me down on the roof of the tallest tower and instructing me to lie back on the slope while she fetched Applejack who was going to be much heavier.

Fluttershy managed however, she certainly seemed like a stronger flier than she gave herself credit for. Once the pair of us were settled, Fluttershy flew up and used her wings to flap away at the remaining clouds. It was a rough job, it was clear she would never be a weather mare, but it achieved the desired effect as it opened up the night sky in all its glory for as to view from our front row seats. Applejack let out a low whistle as Fluttershy joined us, I just stared in silence at the blanket of stars scattered above us.

It was weird, in my whole life I had never taken the time to stop and really look up at the night sky, but once I was there doing it properly for the first time with my friends… it truly was a magical experience. We stayed up there for a while, alternating between chatting amiably and sharing stories to moments of silence, where we would just look up and admire the many constellations. Eventually Fluttershy had to call an end to our stargazing, clearly worried what would happen if Starlight Glimmer discovered we hadn’t stayed in our rooms like we were supposed to.

Fluttershy flew us back down and together we walked back to the building we were staying in, retiring to our rooms for the rest we would need if we were to set off in the morning. Fluttershy was very disappointed when we reminded her of that, she tried to hide it, but I could tell it bothered her. It bothered me too, we had barely known each other and we were already forming a close connection. Fluttershy stayed to make sure we were alright before leaving to go to her own home, wherever that was in the Bask. Once she was gone, I found it near impossible to sleep, unable to, now that I knew of the beauty I was missing out on every time I did. At least I would have something to do if I was ever keeping watch at night again.

The next morning came and I didn’t get nearly enough sleep, but I soldiered on and started getting dressed, humming to myself as I packed my equipment, briefly checking the compass and spyglass to ensure they were still safe. I wondered if Starlight Glimmer would try to keep me and Applejack from leaving, if she did, she would be in for a surprise. Obviously we would never harm her… but she didn’t have to know that. Smirking to myself, I turned away from the desk to face the room and immediately screamed, leaping into the air, my heart rate jumping to several beats per second.

“Stranglethorn!” I yelled at the assassin who stood in my room, having made absolutely no sound getting in. “What are you doing here? And how did you get in?”

He pointed at the window before pulling a letter out of his bag and handing it to me. Taking it from him, I quickly skimmed over it to learn that Maverick was urgently calling me back to Port Mule, that they had successfully captured an agent of the Solar Empire and they needed my assistance. When I looked back at Stranglethorn, I saw him eyeing my with concern, clearly my presence in the Bask had raised alarm bells.

“I’m fine,” I assured him. “Applejack and I were attacked on our way here, but we’re okay now, really.”

He still didn’t look convinced, so I carried on regardless.

“You picked a perfect time actually,” I told him. “We were permitted to leave today. Applejack is two doors down, could you go tell her to wait at the bridge while I say thank you to our hosts?”

Stranglethorn nodded before leaving the room to do as I requested, there was a high pitched shriek from a passing sister as he did. I chuckled darkly to myself before heading out to make sure she was alright.

“It’s okay,” I began to explain. “He’s with us; he’s here to escort us home.”

“Oh, uh, of course,” the sister said, still looking shaken as she watched Stranglethorn walk down the corridor.

“Tell me, have you seen Sister Fluttershy this morning?” I asked.

“Why yes actually,” the sister replied. “I passed her on my way here; she was on her way to see the High Priestess.”

My heart skipped a beat upon hearing that, my thoughts instantly jumping to the possibility that Fluttershy was in trouble for her behaviour the day before.

“You wouldn’t be able to take me to them, would you?” I asked hopefully.

Naturally the sister obliged quite happily, clearly nowhere was out of bounds in the Bask. She took me to a small chapel through which she led me to the back room, politely suggesting that I knock first before going on her way. I strode up to the door and reached out, ready to push it open, but stopped when I heard Fluttershy’s voice inside.

“That is what I’ve decided,” she said in a voice brimming with confidence, before slipping back into her usual timid tone to add. “If you would permit it, High Priestess.”

“This is…” Starlight Glimmer began, certainly not sounding happy about whatever it was Fluttershy had suggested. “Most irregular Sister Fluttershy. You have never received any training as a Crusader and…”

“No, not as a Crusader,” Fluttershy interrupted quickly. “I wish to leave the Bask while remaining a sister of the Celestial Sisterhood.”

There was a long moment of silence following this declaration.

“That…” Starlight began in a low tone. “Cannot be done, you know full well that sisters are not permitted to leave the sanctuary of the Bask. Only Crusaders are allowed to venture forth into the world, and only under very express circumstances. As a sister, your place is here where you can fulfil your duties in the right environment.”

“With all due respect High Priestess,” Fluttershy replied, her voice building up in confidence again. “There are many sisters here in the Bask that can perform my duties; I don’t feel like I’m needed here. I do however feel like the world outside this sanctuary needs me… and I feel Rarity does also.”

My eyes widened when I heard my name used in such a manner.

“You seem infatuated with this mare Sister Fluttershy,” Starlight said in a warning tone. “Is there something you wish to confess to?”

“Not at all,” Fluttershy stated calmly. “I do not wish to follow her for those reasons, rather, I feel like it is my purpose to do so. I cannot explain it, but when I spoke with her yesterday, when she told me of the things she’s done, I just knew in my heart that there are great things in her future, things that might shape the world itself. And I knew that my purpose was to travel alongside her and help her in her quest, whatever that might turn out to be.”

“That is… very dramatic,” Starlight admitted, sounding a little flabbergasted. “You talk like you think yourself some kind of prophet.”

“I’m no prophet,” Fluttershy disagreed. “I’m just a sister, that’s all I’ve been since I was taken in as a foal, left at the doorstep of the Bask… and it is all I ever wish to be.”

“Alright…” Starlight said slowly, as if trying to think of another argument. “You have me convinced, but do you really think you can convince Rarity of this nons… belief of yours? She is a pragmatic mare; she’ll have no time or patience for your feelings about the future and purpose.”

I gritted my teeth; I had lost all patience for Starlight Glimmer and the way she insisted on putting Fluttershy down. Fluttershy may have believed she was doing it because she felt she needed to protect everypony, but all I saw was a mare who wanted to control everypony. Well I wasn’t about to let her control Fluttershy, not anymore.

“As a matter of fact,” I said loudly, announcing my presence as I strode through the doors. “I would be honoured to have Fluttershy travel with me.”

Fluttershy beamed at me and Starlight Glimmer’s eyes twitched, but she didn’t argue, she couldn't without going back on her poorly chosen words.

“Very well,” she said in a stiff voice. “You have my permission, as High Priestess of the Celestial Sisterhood, to go forth from the Bask and fulfil your duties elsewhere.”

“Thank you High Priestess,” Fluttershy replied respectfully, bowing at her superior as she did.

“Before you leave however,” Starlight began in an authoritative tone. “You should consult Holly in the armoury; I will not have you leaving this place without some protection.”

While Fluttershy and I made our way to the armoury and met Holly, the head Crusader, word quickly spread of what the High Priestess had just allowed. When we exited the armoury, Fluttershy now equipped with a single handed mace topped with six flanges and a pair of bags similar to my own, one filled with medical supplies and the other with food, there was already a crowd gathering to see Fluttershy off. I went ahead to the bridge to explain the situation to Applejack, who was more than delighted to bring Fluttershy with us, while the mare in question said her farewells.

We stood on the bridge, looking back towards the gatehouse as Fluttershy made her way towards us, a crowd of sisters waving goodbye just beyond her. As she neared us, I could see her wiping away her tears with her foreleg.

“Are you sure you’re ready for this?” I asked, slightly disconcerted by her crying.

“I am, I am,” Fluttershy insisted. “I’m just sad to be leaving everypony behind, but I’ll come back someday, so It’s okay.”

“Well in that case, it’s good to have you with us,” Applejack told her, pulling her into a hug with one foreleg.

Fluttershy smiled up at her, but then her eyes widened and she jumped back slightly upon seeing Stranglethorn for the first time, standing next to Applejack. Stranglethorn didn’t react in the slightest, just continued to watch Fluttershy with his neutral gaze.

“Fluttershy,” I began calmly, placing my own hoof on her back in what I hoped was a reassuring manner. “This is Stranglethorn, you remember me telling you about him.”

“Oh, Stranglethorn,” Fluttershy said, brightening up now that she recalled the stories I told her about him. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Fluttershy held out her hoof, but Stranglethorn didn’t shake it, he simply nodded in greeting and naturally said nothing. While I told Fluttershy lots of stories of my travels across the country, I did leave out certain aspects that I deemed too… unpleasant. Not to say I didn’t tell her anything of the sort, she knew I had taken lives, but I tried to keep it to a minimum. One of the things I had failed to mention was how Stranglethorn couldn’t speak, it had just never seemed like an important detail when recounting my stories of him, but that was probably because I barely noticed it anymore when interacting with him.

“Fluttershy, darling,” I began; now feeling a little awkward that I had to do this in front of him. “Stranglethorn is very happy to meet you, but you should know that he cannot speak.”

“Oh,” Fluttershy murmured, quickly lowered her hoof and trying not to make eye contact with him.

“Strangle came here to escort us back to Port Mule with him,” I explained. “He brought me news that our other friends managed to capture one of the Solar Empire agents I was telling you about.”

“That’s very good news,” Fluttershy declared brightly before adding in a slightly more doubtful tone. “Isn’t it?”

“It’s fantastic news,” I confirmed. “So what do you say, your first major act outside the Bask, helping to stop a war?”

“Lead the way,” Fluttershy replied before turning back to give one final wave at her fellow sisters.

We began making our way across the bridge; I noticed that as we neared the end, Fluttershy’s breathing began to increase. Once we were at the end, Applejack, Stranglethorn and I all walked across quite easily, but Fluttershy hesitated at the last step.

“Gettin’ cold hooves?” Applejack asked sympathetically. “Don’t worry Sugarcube; ah know leavin’ home ain’t easy.”

“It’s not that at all,” Fluttershy said with a small shake of her head. “It’s just that I’ve imagined this moment for so long, I guess you could say I’m… savouring it.”

Applejack and I shared a smirk at that as Fluttershy took one final breath and took the final step from the stone of the bridge to the hardened earth of the road. There where was a short pause while she seemed to consider what she had just done before looking back up at us and smiling. As we continued on our way, we passed back over the hill where we had been attacked. The apple cart was still there, at some point during the fight it had been hit and one of the wheels knocked clean off, it was clear we weren’t taking it back with us.

Applejack poked through the wreckage, announcing with great delight when she recovered her hat from it. After deciding to leave the remains of the cart there, remembering that we had recovered the other cart from the zebras, which would make a decent replacement, we decided to move on, Fluttershy casting one final glance back at the Bask before it was completely out of sight. As we walked, Stranglethorn insisted on being filled in in what happened after we left Port Mule, and how we came to be attacked.

“As far as ah could tell,” Applejack commented. “They were just a gang of no-good bandits, lookin’ to score an easy steal from the kinds of ponies who needed to go to the Bask. Downright despicable, ah hope those Crusaders clear them out of whatever hole they’re hiding in.”

“Don’t count on it,” Fluttershy said in a dry voice. “The Crusaders are normally only permitted to seek out threats which are considered… unholy, monsters or demons.”

“And even then they seem rather reluctant to,” I added. “I told that head Crusader Holly about the monster I saw in Pivot, she said she’d look into it, but I know full well she was just saying that to placate me.”

“Actual monsters haven’t been seen in decades,” Fluttershy explained. “Most of the things we once considered to be monsters are now known to be just other predatory animals.”

“I know what I saw,” I stated in a chilly voice. “That creature was not natural.”

“Don’t fret about it,” Applejack suggested. “Maybe Pinkie will know somethin’ about it when she comes back.”

We kept walking in relative silence until Fluttershy slowed to a stop when she heard the cry of gulls; looking back I saw her staring up in fascination at the flock of birds.

“Is this the first time you’ve seen a seagull?” I asked. “They’re practically pests in Port Mule where I grew up.”

“I’ve read about them,” Fluttershy replied, not taking her eyes off the birds. “But they never came as far as the Bask, they’re wonderful.”

“You like animals, huh?” Applejack guessed quite easily.

“Ever since I was just a filly,” Fluttershy explained. “But I didn’t see many different types for myself, I learned about most in the library. It was actually how I got my cutie mark, everypony thought it was weird, but I could actually… sorry, I’m blethering on, we should keep moving.”

I was actually curious to what she was about to say, but she started walking quickly, eager to move on as if she had been embarrassed about what she had almost admitted to. Nothing eventful occurred again until the road took us over a ridge and we came into view of the Horseshoe Bay and the ocean beyond that. Fluttershy froze once more, her eyes wide and shining as if enchanted by the sight, and before we could say or do anything she broke off from the road, galloping towards the coast.

“Fluttershy!” I called after her, initially panicked.

“We need to stick together!” Applejack shouted, taking the lead after her.

I ran after Applejack while Stranglethorn took a more leisurely stroll to follow after us. Fluttershy didn’t stop running, even at the sound of our pleas to slow down; she kept on galloping until she reached the very edge of the water where she skidded to a halt. When we caught up with her, she was staring out over the water, her mouth hanging open slightly as she took it all in, occasionally looking down when the incoming tide tickled her hooves.

“You know,” I began as we slowed to a walk behind her. “If you close your eyes and just listen, it’s hard to find anything more relaxing.”

Fluttershy obliged, tilting her head back and allowing her eyelids to lull shut. She stood there for a few minutes, simply breathing in and out, listening to the sound surf overlaid with the occasional gull cry. When she finally opened her eyes again they were glistening with tears, I would never really know what it was like for Fluttershy, living her whole life in one place, only ever hearing about the rest of the world from books and the stories of others, before one day being set free to experience it for herself it, it must have very overwhelming for her.

“You know, ah reckon we could stop here for the night,” Applejack proposed, glancing at Stranglethorn who nodded in approval. “Just need to get far enough back that the tide doesn’t reach us when it comes in.”

“I think…” Fluttershy began, still not taking her eyes off the water. “I think that would be nice.”

While Applejack fetched some dryish driftwood from around the beach for a fire, Fluttershy asked Stranglethorn a very interesting question.

“So Stranglethorn,” she began in a nervous voice. “I’ve been wondering, how did you lose your tongue?”

I almost choked on the water I was gulping down, while Stranglethorn slowly turned to face Fluttershy, his expression still neutral.

“Sorry!” she exclaimed quickly, shrinking beneath his gaze. “It’s just, I could tell because I’d seen other ponies who lost their tongues, and Rarity said you couldn’t talk… and now I’m wishing I hadn’t said anything at all, please don’t hate me!”

There was a moment of silence, although that didn’t mean Stranglethorn wasn’t communicating with me. He looked at me, pointed at himself and then pointing at Applejack before standing up and making his way over to her to help gather fuel for the fire. Fluttershy looked at me with a horrified expression, I felt bad for her, but at the same time it reminded me that I didn’t really know the circumstances beyond what happened to him. Only the fact that it was during a mission, that’s what Sufferthorn had said at least.

“Don’t worry,” I assured her. “He’s not upset with you.”

“You can tell?” Fluttershy asked, confused by my certainty.

“Yeah…” I replied, suddenly equally confused. “I guess I can tell now.”

I pondered it for a brief second before glancing up at the sky, it was still pretty cloudy from the scattered showers we had during the day, but there were some clear patches where I could see the stars again. Fluttershy followed my gaze and smiled, before turning her own gaze back out to the sea.

“Thank you for letting me come with you,” Fluttershy said suddenly.

“We’re friends,” I told her simply. “Friends stick together.”

I hadn’t talked to her about what she told Starlight Glimmer in her office, despite how much it had been eating away at the back of my mind, but that could wait for another time. Come morning we would get back to Port Mule, find our way in somehow and go see this Solar Empire agent that had been captured. Once that was all behind us, then I could worry about what Fluttershy had meant when she said there were great things in my future. That would wait, because at that moment I was perfectly content to lie back, look up at the stars and listen to the ocean.

L - New Friends...

My immediate thought was ‘Holy Celestia, he can talk!’, but rather than immediately blurt that out, I took a moment to script something a little more civil.

“Hello Spike, I am Rarity,” I replied warmly.

“And I’m Twilight Sparkle,” my companion added, although she sounded more curious than friendly. “Incredible, I never knew dragons were capable of speech. Can you understand what we’re saying to you too?”

“Uh, yes… I do,” Spike replied, although I could almost see his mind working behind his big emerald eyes.

Seriously, have I mentioned his eyes yet? I don’t know what it is that has me so fixated on them. Twilight opened her mouth, and I could tell from the look in her eyes that she was about to bombard Spike with questions, she was after all a scholar. However she never got a chance to ask anything before the sounds of the ponies all around us piped up again.

“What are you doing?!” one of the demanded. “Kill that creature while you have to chance!”

“Don’t just talk to it!” another snapped.

“It needs to be put down before it can grow big again and kill us all!” one particularly hysterical mare exclaimed.

The rest of the shouts followed the same general vain; I looked over at Twilight who was frowning in irritation and Spike who was staring at his feet in obvious shame.

“Now hold on a second!” I called out, the ponies quietened down a bit at that. “I know he did some bad things, but he wasn’t in control. You all saw how my friend freed him from the magic that was manipulating him, he’s a completely different dragon now, he’s a baby for Celestia’s sake!”

“He’s only a baby until he grows up!” one stallion pointed out, storming up dangerously close to us. “And then he’ll just start attacking and killing ponies again. I say kill him now and spare the lives of his future victims!”

Almost all the ponies gathered cheered their agreement to the proposal; some had even produced pitchforks and burning torches from nowhere. I raised my hooves defensively as they began charging downwards into the trench to slay Spike. The dragon himself didn’t try to run away, I could tell he was afraid, but his misery and guilt seemed to outweigh it and forced him to stay put and wait for his end to come. When I could see the angry villagers wouldn’t listen to reason, I drew my sword, although I knew I couldn’t bring myself to turn it on an innocent pony, even if they were behaving uncouthly.

They probably realised I didn’t have the stomach to fight them, so they just pushed past me, some charging right into me, sending me sprawling to the ground as they descended upon Spike.

“Enough!”

I wasn’t sure at the time what happened, but I was very quickly glad that I was already on the ground as the sheer force of the word sent everypony in the mob toppling to the ground. Sitting up, I realised that Twilight Sparkle was hovering a few feet off the ground, her whole body brimming with magic.

“This dragon is under my protection!” Twilight declared in that same overpowering voice, facing it head on felt like I was caught in a wind tunnel, the force was so immense. “Those who would attempt to do harm to him shall be subject to my judgement, do I make myself clear?!”

Once she stopped speaking and the ponies of Timber were able to move again without fear of being blasted away, they all scrambled to their hooves and fled. Very soon only Twilight Sparkle, Spike and myself remained in the trench, the former’s magic draining away as she lowered to the ground once more.

“That was…” I began, looking around wide eyes to see that we were really alone. “Effective.”

“I… I didn’t even know I could do that,” Twilight stammered, walking over to help me up.

“Well then, aren’t you just full of surprises today?” I managed as I wobbled about on my hooves.

“Sorry about catching you in that…” Twilight said sheepishly before snorting with laughter. “And sorry about your mane.”

“My mane?” I repeated, confused at first before I realised what she was implying. “What have you done to my mane?!”

“Don’t worry, it’s all still there,” Twilight assured me as she conjured a small hand mirror. “It’s just a little more… wild.”

I quickly set about fixing my hair, it had felt like such a long time when I was bothered by something so petty, but I allowed myself the momentary lapse considering the deed we had just performed that day.

“That thing with your voice,” I began as I finished fixing myself. “What was that exactly?”

“The, um, the royal Canterlot voice,” Twilight replied, blushing slightly as she glanced away. “I’d never done it before… I never even knew I could.”

“Must have been an instinctual thing,” I muttered in reply as I handed back the mirror and turned my attention to Spike who was watching us curiously. “I’m sorry about all you’ve been through, particularly at our hooves.”

“No, no, it’s okay,” he assured me. “I don’t blame them for what they wanted to do, and I know you two were only defending yourselves when you attacked me.”

“We shouldn’t stay here,” Twilight stated. “Just in case the ponies find their courage again, we’ll head into the woods for some peace.”

Nodding, both Spike and I followed her out of the trench and the smouldering remains of the village. the whole way I could see Spike trying to avoid looking at the destruction he had caused, I felt terrible for him, knowing what it was like to be made to do something while under another’s control. As we left the village behind us and made our way into the woods, I put a hoof over Spike’s shoulder in what I hoped he would interpret as a comforting gesture. He did seem to get the message as he smiled up at me and didn’t try to fight me off.

“I wanted to ask back when we first caught Blueblood,” I began to Twilight as we walked. “But that sceptre, what is it exactly?”

“I… I’m not entirely sure,” Twilight admitted as she floated the object in front of us. “Princess Celestia gave it to me when I completed my studies under her. She took me to a vault where it was being stored, and told me that it was made and wielded by an old friend of her, the pony who taught her everything she knew about magic. She said that in all her centuries, she had never grown powerful enough to use it herself but… but she believed that I could. I reached out and lifted it up, as soon as I did the orb lit up and… and she was crying.”

I heard Twilight’s voice crack slightly as she recounted the tale.

“She told me that I had surpassed her and I was no longer to be her student,” Twilight continued, her voice odd as she looked into the orb. “Ever since that day I served as… well, I wouldn’t say her equal, but I know there’s nopony else in Equestria with close to the same authority and power she has.”

“How long did you study under her?” I asked, although I knew whatever she said it would blow me away.

“Several years,” Twilight admitted as she returned the sceptre to her belt. “I know what you’re thinking, how could I ever learn more in several years than the Princess could in over a thousand years, and honestly… I don’t know. There’s still so much she doesn’t tell me, like who made the sceptre or what all it’s capable of. You saw just there now that even I don’t know all of its powers, and I’ve had it for years now.”

“Well, I think it’s safe to say that my horn is feeling considerably smaller next to yours,” I joked, earning laugh from Twilight and officially putting an end to the serious tone of the conversation.

“Here’s a good spot,” Twilight said, pointing out a small clearing with some large flat rocks we could use as seats.

Once we were all settled, Spike summoned a small fireball which he held between us all, hovering just off the forest floor.

“Impressive,” Twilight muttered. “I read that dragons were magically on par with unicorns by use of their fire, but to see it first-hand… very impressive.”

“Thank you,” Spike replied.

“So… I have to ask,” Twilight began tentatively. “How is it you’re able to speak fluent Equestrian?”

Spike scratched his head in thought for a moment before answering.

“Twilight, that’s hardly a way to start a conversation,” I chided her before addressing Spike. “How are you feeling after what happened?”

“Much better,” Spike responded with a smile. “It was horrible being trapped in my own body like that; it was like my mind was chained up while the rest of me was given the freedom to go wild.”

“Very fluent,” Twilight murmured.

“Where exactly are you from Spike?” I questioned. “I thought dragons only lived in the most northern parts of the Ash Lands.”

“Yeah, that’s where I’m from,” Spike confirmed. “My whole clan lives there.”

“But if you’re from the Ash Lands,” Twilight began. “How did you get so far south? And for that matter, how did you come to be so full of dark magic?”

“I think both those questions have the same answer,” Spike said with a frown. “You were surprised by how I spoke your tongue so well, you see the thing is, I always liked watching ponies. My clan doesn’t live too far northwest of the city you call Cragsburg, the first time I ever saw a pony was when I was very young. It was my first time outside the nest, my first time searching for gems on my own. I saw a group of ponies out mining and… and I watched them, for hours.

“I don’t know why, but ponies always intrigued me,” he continued. “The rest of my clan didn’t care about them; they had long since stopped trying to hunt ponies as it only resulted in them hunting us in return. However I was interested in ponies for reasons beyond wanting to eat them, which always confused the others, something about them I just found fascinating. After the first time, I would intentionally seek out ponies to watch rather than gems to scavenge, I spent months travelling from my nest to the places where I knew ponies often gathered to work.

“I was always a quick learner,” Spike said, the pride clear in his voice. “I’m easily the best at magic in my brood, so picking up your language was easy with the amount of time I spent watching and listening to ponies. As time went on, I got more daring, travelling further and further from my nest, there were times I was nearly inside Cragsburg itself. The closer I got to the city, the more I heard and the more I learnt. It was crazy, but for a while I actually convinced myself that if I observed long enough, I could one day walk into the city and talk and act like just another pony, and I might be accepted into their world and for once not have to sneak around and watch them from a safe distance.”

“I don’t understand, did you not like living with other dragons?” I asked, slightly concerned.

“I did, I did,” Spike insisted, although I could hear the hesitation in his voice. “I don’t know why I distanced myself so much from my clan; I don’t know why I felt so restless among them. I certainly don’t know why my only dreams were of one day being able to live among ponies like I was one of them, and not having them fear and want to slay me… but I guess those dreams will never come true, not after today.”

I walked over and sat down on his rock and pulled him into a hug.

“So how does watching ponies tie into what happened earlier?” Twilight asked warily.

“Because…” Spike began, swallowing slightly. “Because one day… the last day I remember, I left my nest and followed my usual route towards the city, but along the way I noticed a group of ponies I’d never seen before. These ponies wore black robes, but they had this amazing design that looked golden until the light reflected off it, at which point it shone with all the colours of the rainbow…”

My grip around Spike slackened and I felt my insides go cold. Twilight seemed to notice the look on my face and nodded for him to continue his story.

“I don’t know what came over me,” Spike went on. “But I had waited so long, I wanted just once to be able to put everything I’d learnt into practice, to be able to talk to another pony like we were the same. So… I revealed myself to them, I stepped out of my hiding place and tried to speak to them directly… and they immediately attacked me.”

Twilight gasped and I gritted my teeth.

“They cast… loads of different spells on me,” Spike said, his voice sounding drained. “Before long I barely conscious, after that… almost nothing. Everything is a blur right up until you saved me, even when I was attacking, it felt like I was slipping in and out of a dream.”

“So these robed ponies are responsible for what happened to you?” Twilight questioned, narrowing her eyes as she rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “Is there anything you can remember about your capture? Anything at all?”

“I don’t even know how long I was out,” Spike muttered wearily. “I have… flashes, nothing concrete. Figures too blurry identify… restraints that eventually became too small to hold me… I think I escaped. I think when my body was changed, it acted to save itself.”

“That… that sounds awful,” Twilight murmured, but suddenly Spike perked up.

“I… I do remember one thing clearly,” he said, a hint of excitement in his voice. “Like a single image… I think I was looking back after I escaped, but I can’t be sure.”

“What did you see?” I asked, trying to suppress the urgency in my voice.

“It was a building…” he began. “A massive building, like a castle… it was by the sea. I’m sorry, but that’s as best as I can describe it. After that it’s just flashes of flying over countryside until… until I attacked that town and saw you.”

“A castle by the sea…” Twilight repeated before looking to me. “Does that mean anything to you?”

“I don’t think so,” I replied, searching my memory for any such structure in Panchea that I might have heard about while growing up. “There’s only two places on the coast that I’m aware of, Port Mule and Daybreak Landing, neither of which have anything that could be mistaken for a castle… unless you count the Fort at Mule, but it’s hardly much bigger that the city around it.”

“I’m sorry I can’t tell you anymore,” Spike apologised lamely.

“Don’t be, you did great,” Twilight assured him in a soothing voice. “And I’m terribly sorry for what happened to you, your first experience with ponies should have been better than that.”

“Maybe… but it’s not my first experience I’ll remember when I think about ponies,” Spike said, smiling up at. “It’ll be my second experience, the time when you both saved me.”

Together the three of us wandered out of the woods, heading up north so that we emerged near the bridge, the same bridge where we had first spotted the green glow in the sky. Looking back we were pleased to see the sky was blue once more. We decided it would be safer to keep Spike away from the ponies of Timber; they had to focus on rebuilding their homes and lives, a process that wouldn’t be helped if they wasted time trying to get revenge on a dragon who wasn’t even culpable. Once we turned back to Spike after looking at the sky, I could see him fidgeting awkwardly.

“Something wrong?” I asked, slightly concerned by his agitated behaviour.

“I think… I think I should make my own way home,” he said, rubbing his claws together. “Those ponies in that town probably won’t like you for defending me; you shouldn’t have to make enemies for my sake.”

“It’s a long way to the Ash Lands,” Twilight informed him in a sympathetic voice. “It’s your choice, but are you sure you wouldn’t be more comfortable staying with friends?”

“I think it would be for the best if I went my own way,” he insisted, looking slightly pained. “And don’t worry about me, I spent years watching ponies without ever being seen, I know how to be sneaky.”

“Do you know your way back?” I asked uncertainly. “You’ve never been this far south before.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” he said with a grin. “A dragon can always find its way back home no matter how far away it is.”

He pointed off in a seemingly random direction, and I quickly referred to my compass to confirm that he was indeed pointing slightly west of north.

“If you’re sure…” I muttered, still not convinced.

“Give him some credit Rarity,” Twilight said quickly, resting a hood on my shoulder. “He’s pretty smart for his age; I think he can manage it if that’s what he wants to do.”

“Alright then,” I said with a small sigh before reaching down and pulling him into a hug.

We said brief farewells before he quickly scurried across the bridge, once on the other side however he stopped a brief moment to look back.

“Don’t worry, I just need to see my clan again,” he called over to us. “I don’t know how long I’ve been gone for. Once I know they’re okay, I’ll come find you again; I do owe you for saving me.”

“There are no debts between friends,” I told him.

“Fine, then I’ll find you because friends stick together,” Spike compromised, flashing a smile back at me.

I couldn’t help but smile in return, he gave one last wave before continuing on his was, and very quickly he disappeared from sight. Twilight and I let out a simultaneous breath at seeing him go before turning to face one another.

“He was nice,” I commented lightly.

“Yeah, I’m glad we were able to help him,” Twilight agreed.

“I wish I could say the same for the ponies of Timber,” I muttered a little despondently. “It was such a nice town too.”

“I’m sure the new mayor of Pivot will include them in the restoration programme,” Twilight pointed out. “But I doubt they’ll help us find Blueblood or Spitfire if we go back.”

“We should just head to Pivot,” I proposed. “There’s too much to report back about.”

“Sure, we’ll follow along the Lonesome Lake and find the next bridge,” Twilight suggested, leading the way down along the river to where it opened out into the lake.

It was late afternoon as we walked around the lake, we had stayed mostly silent during our trip, clearly both of us were feeling a bit exhausted from the hectic events of that morning. After a while of walking in silence, we stopped for a break, standing some ways off from the water’s edge itself, looking out over the smooth lake. We chatted about the Blueblood situation for a bit, but for the most part we were only reviewing the facts we already knew and not coming up with any new ideas or suggestions. After another brief moment of silence, Twilight let out a small groan.

“Is something wrong?” I asked her in a worried voice.

“Um, no… it’s just, uh, I need to… go,” she said, trying not to meet my eye. “As in… go.”

“Oh,” I uttered, realising what she meant.

I looked about, but we were in a fairly blank stretch of the Grand Pastures.

“I guess you could do it down by the lake,” I suggested. “I could go back a bit until the hill obscures you from me.”

“I guess that could work…” Twilight mumbled, although it was obvious she wasn’t happy about it. “As every casual boat owner in Panchea chooses this moment to go out for a paddle.”

Still muttering to herself, she made her way down towards the edge of the lake while I turned and started making my way up the gentle slope behind us. Once at the peak, I started to make my way down the other side, only to have somepony barrel into me, knocking the wind from me as we tumbled down the hill together, limbs tangled and locked.

“Rarity!” Pinkie exclaimed when we stopped rolling as she was lying directly on top of me, looking down at me with her grinning mask. “You’re okay! And you’re here of all places, you’re okay and you’re here!”

“I’m glad to see you too Pinkie,” I replied, recovering a little quicker from her surprise hug than usual. “But can you lose the mask, it’s really creepy having that thing staring down at me.”

“Oh, sorry,” Pinkie said, quickly removing the mask and her jester hood to allow her mane to spring out. “I always forget I’m wearing it, but how are you?! Why isn’t Fluttershy with you?!”

Pinkie let out a loud, horrified gasp.

“Did something happen to her?!” she exclaimed, her eyes wide and terrified. “I swear if anything happened to my precious little Flutters on your watch…”

“Fluttershy is fine!” I shouted. “Now can you please stop lying on top of me? Celestia know how this might look to a passer-by.”

“Sorry again,” Pinkie said, bouncing off me and landing on her hooves.

I got up a little slower, brushing myself down.

“What are you doing here anyway?” I asked her in bewilderment. “I thought you were still at Brine, how long have you been gone?”

“Oh, I actually found out some really cool stuff!” Pinkie informed me, almost vibrating with excitement. “I knew you and Fluttershy were busy at Olympus, so I decided to follow it up on my own. I was just checking in at Sweet Apple Acres there, they’re all good, but Applejack’s away in Pivot at the moment… oh! We should go visit her together!”

“Sounds good,” I agreed. “Along the way you can fill me in on what you found out, and I can tell you what all I’ve done.”

“Sweet!” Pinkie exclaimed. “So where is Fluttershy anyway?”

“She had some business of her own to attend to,” I explained, deciding I would get into details later while we were on the road. “Right now I’m travelling with a different friend.”

“Oh, a new friend of Rarity’s?” Pinkie said, rubbing her hooves together in excitement. “I can’t wait to meet them, I love making new friends! Then we can all be friends together!”

“Well she’s not exactly a new friend,” I specified. “You know I’m surprised I haven’t mentioned her to you before… or you to her for that matter. Her name is… oh wait, there she is.”

At that moment I just saw Twilight’s head appear over the crest of the hill, as she began making her way back to me after finished her business.

“Good timing,” I greeted. “Twilight I want you to meet my friend…”

“You!” Twilight exclaimed, her eyes flashing with anger as they landed on Pinkie Pie standing behind me.

“Ah…” Pinkie uttered. “Oh dear.”

My head spun around in time to see Pinkie Pie drawing both her daggers, a sinister grin threatening to split her face in two. Then back to Twilight as her horn began glowing, her entire face burning with hatred.

“You and I just can’t seem to stay away from each other,” Pinkie declared as she readied herself for a fight. “My old rival.”

LXVI - Trials And Tribulations

With the sun gradually getting higher into the sky, while we slowly drifted closer, the Isle of Serenity became much clearer and we could begin to make out the land features. The western side of the island we could see, was mainly covered in thick forests, while beyond that, was a mountain range that stretched almost the whole length of the island. Somewhere amidst it all, was a temple that was currently out of sight. Once we were all woken up and standing on the pier, we began wondering aloud where the boat was that King Crow had mentioned, since we couldn’t see anything sailing from the island.

As if we had specifically summoned it by talking about it, the water directly by the pier began bubbling and churning violently, as something began rising up from the depths. It was a large row boat; it looked like it had been submerged for decades and yet somehow managed to stay together even after all six of us were all inside it. Of course magic was the obvious explanation, particularly when we found there were no oars, right before the boat began moving itself away from the pier, towards the Isle.

“So once we get there, are we gonna be… greeted by anypony?” Rainbow asked, peering off towards the oncoming shore.

“Doesn’t look promising,” I replied, looking through my spyglass at the apparently deserted pier we were approaching.

“Then how will we know where to go?” Fluttershy asked in a concerned voice.

“It shouldn’t be too hard to navigate this island ah reckon,” Applejack assured her. “Besides, it can’t be too hard to find a temple.”

“Maybe finding the temple is the first trial,” Twilight suggested. “I guess whoever lives here would want ponies to prove themselves before meeting with them face to face. Let’s face it, anypony could have made it this far.”

“Yeah, anypony who could cast a really complicated magic spell that teleports six ponies across an entire country in the space of a couple hours,” Rainbow agreed sarcastically.

“This is going to be so much fun!” Pinkie declared, trotting on the spot and making the boat rock slightly. “Even I’ve never been on this island, at least… I don’t remember if I ever have. One thing I’m certain of, is that I haven’t been here with you girls, that makes this trip way more fun than my last one!”

“The last trip you were certain never happened a second ago?” Twilight commented.

“That’s the one!” Pinkie confirmed, nodding her head rapidly.

As the boat began to pull up to the pier, Rainbow took to the skies, flying inland and heading upwards, stopping at a certain point to scan the area. We were all hopping off the boat, onto the wooden pier when she returned to report in.

“I don’t see any buildings on this side of the mountain,” she told us. “There seems to be some clear land to the south, but mostly it’s just forest between here and the mountain.”

“Could the temple be on the other side?” Fluttershy asked. “If so, how will we get to it? We can’t all fly, and it looks very steep.”

Indeed the mountain peaks did have an absurdly steep gradient, I was about to open my mouth and offer the idea of going south and trying to get around the mountain instead, when I felt the strangest urge to look inside my satchel. I opened up my bag and looked through it, I wasn’t carrying an awful lot, and I was sure there was nothing there that shouldn’t have been there, but then my folded map caught my eye for some reason. The same urge to open my bag struck me again, this time pushing me to take out the map; I did so and unfolded it in front of me.

It was a very detailed map; it showed mountain ranges and patches of forests as well as all the major rivers of Panchea; however the Isle of Serenity off to the southeast, while fairly accurate in its shape and size, was left completely blank. Needless to say, that while sailors could get an idea of the shape of the island, they couldn’t have known what it was like on the Isle itself to accurately map it out. However, as I stared at the map, the blank island began to fill itself in, as if a phantom pen was quickly drawing in the missing details right before my very eyes, complete with a large black dot on the eastern side of the mountain.

“Girls!” I exclaimed. “Take a look at this!”

I held my map out to them and they all looked in excitedly. I waited eagerly for them to comment and express their amazement, but as I watched and waited, their excitement faded and turned to confusion.

“Ah don’t get it Rare,” Applejack said at last. “What are we supposed to be lookin’ at exactly?”

“Uh, the island of course,” I replied, tapping the point on the map frantically. “It was blank a moment ago, and then it just filled in all these details on its own!”

“Um, Rarity…” Rainbow began, sharing a worried glance with Twilight. “The island is still blank.”

“What? No it isn’t,” I insisted, taking the map back and looking at it to be sure. “There’s the forest, there’s the mountain, and just beyond that is this hilly section where the temple is. It’s all right there, how are you not seeing it?”

“Wow, and everypony said I would be the first one to go crazy,” Pinkie commented.

“I’m not crazy!” I responded haughtily.

“Okay, okay,” Twilight said, raising her hooves defensively. “Girls, I think we need to consider the possibility that this is part of our trials. Rarity says the map is filled in, we should trust her, perhaps this is the Isle’s way of saying she’s supposed to lead us.”

“I guess that would make sense,” Fluttershy agreed.

“Yeah, sorry Rarity,” Applejack apologised. “We didn’t mean to get you worked up like that.”

“It’s fine,” I assured them, before shooting a quick glare at Pinkie Pie. “If I really am the only one who can read the map… it looks like there’s a path here, and it goes right through the mountain.”

“A pass?” Twilight questioned. “Or maybe caves, either way, do you think it’s the best way to go?”

“I haven’t much to go on,” I admitted. “But it seems like a pretty good start.”

“Well you’ll have to keep us right,” Rainbow commented. “Because I’m not seeing anything that resembles a path.”

I pulled out my compass and got myself oriented, the trail on the map didn’t appear too hard to follow, there were some twist and bends when it came to the forest, but I’m sure those were there for a good reason. Taking the lead, I started along a relatively straight path from the pier to the edge of the forest, the others walking in single file behind me, with Pinkie Pie bouncing at the rear.

“Keep your eyes open girls,” Applejack reminded us. “No tellin’ what we might find on this island.”

“It looks peaceful enough,” Fluttershy commented, smiling sweetly at some rabbits hopping around the open field.

“It also looks surprisingly ordinary,” Twilight added, a hint of disappointment in her voice. “I always expected there to be really exotic plants and animals here, but it looks… normal.”

“Don’t worry Twi,” Pinkie replied. “I think normal is boring too.”

“I’m not saying it’s boring…” Twilight tried to protest.

“It is pretty boring,” Rainbow interrupted. “Glad you said it first Twilight.”

“Yes Twilight,” I agreed, playing along while trying to suppress the urge to giggle. “Thank you for taking one for the team.”

“That was… nice,” Fluttershy said at last, at which point we all lost it.

“Ha, ha, very amusing,” Twilight muttered with a deadpan expression while the rest of us laughed.

“Lighten up a little,” Applejack said, poking her in the ribs. “We’re only messing with you, you know that.”

“Well, if you can’t laugh at yourself…” Twilight admitted, allowing a small smile at her own expense. “But we really should keep focused, we still don’t know what to expect.”

We continued on in silence for some time, reaching the edge of the forest where we stopped for a quick rest while I checked the map to make sure we were on still on track. Once we were prepared, I stepped beneath the canopy and began navigating the unusually dense forest. It was quite clear that ponies rarely, if ever came through this way, there was nothing to even hint at a path. It was only the map that kept us right, leading us down the clearest and most easily traversable route. We had all become deathly silent as we journeyed through, our ears perked up, listening out for the slightest sound, and our eyes scanning the thicket for the smallest movements.

We did hear the occasional rustle of leaves or the calling of birds, but nothing that struck us as out of the ordinary… nothing, until we were a short ways into the forest and began to hear the sound of panting. I raised my hoof to signal for the others to stop, once they did, I listened very carefully, the panting was coming from somewhere up ahead, just out of sight. As I moved forward, taking every step one at a time so as not to make any noise that might give away our position, I could hear it more clearly, it sounded… pained.

I wondered if maybe there was another pony just ahead, someone who was injured and needing our help. I glanced back at the others, they seemed to have reached the same conclusion based on the sounds, when I received a couple nods of encouragement, I stood up straight and stepped around the corner into a small clearing… and my jaw dropped.

“No way…” I breathed in disbelief.

“Oh my…” Fluttershy murmured.

“It can’t be!” Applejack exclaimed.

“Who’s this guy?” Rainbow asked in bewilderment.

“Blueblood!” Twilight cried out in a mixture of shock and fury.

Duke Blueblood sat crouched in the centre of the clearing, he was still wearing the impressive tailored suit he had been in the night we captured him, although now it was badly torn and stained with dirt and dried blood. His mane looked sticky with sweat and was hanging more limply than usual, his face was gaunt and sunken, he looked to be trying to suppress the agony he felt. His forelegs were clutching his belly, doing little to stem the steady flow of blood, seeping from a deep wound.

“T… Twilight?” he stammered weakly, looking up at us as if unsure we were really there.

Twilight didn’t reply, she looked too shocked to be able to form a sentence. Rainbow Dash took advantage of her silence to ask her question again.

“Seriously girls, who is this guy?” she repeated.

“It’s Duke Blueblood,” I replied softly as I narrowed my eyes at him. “We told you about him, the one who led the Solar Empire.”

“This is him?!” Rainbow exclaimed, now sounding angry herself. “I was hoping we’d run into him after what you told me!”

“P… please…” he attempted in a shaky tone. “Please… help m… me…”

“Help you?!” Applejack repeated in an indignant voice. “After what you did at Fort Mule, you think you deserve our help?!”

“I’m… I’m s… sorry…” he uttered, wincing at the pain.

“Not mention how you nearly got me killed,” I added bitterly.

“What are you even doing here?!” Twilight snapped before he could say anything more. “This island is forbidden!”

“And where are those ponies you abducted?!” Pinkie demanded.

“My friend was among them,” I added. “Where are they, and what have you done to them?!”

“T… they’re dead…” he admitted, raising his bloody hooves from his stomach to clutch the sides of his head. “Oh lord… they’re all dead!”

I felt my heart stop and I stumbled back slightly, Pinkie Pie catching me and holding me up.

“They’re…” I began in a barely audible tone.

“I’m sorry…” he muttered again, sounding like he was about to start crying.

“You’re sorry?!” Twilight bellowed, staring back at him with unbridled fury.

“Girls, he doesn’t look too good…” Fluttershy said quietly.

“You think saying sorry will make up for the things you’ve done?!” Twilight went on, Fluttershy going unheard.

“Come on girls,” Applejack muttered, resting a comforting hoof on my shoulder. “Let’s go on, leave him to his fate.”

“But Applejack…” Fluttershy tried to say again.

“Oh no!” Rainbow jumped in. “We’re not about to leave this guy on his own, we can’t trust that injury to finish him off.”

“Rainbow is right,” Pinkie agreed. “If we leave now, he might patch himself up and go on to hurt other ponies, we need to put a stop to him now.”

“I’d suggest just taking him prisoner,” Twilight muttered darkly. “But he already escaped once, and that was from a team of armed guards who had nothing else to be doing. We wouldn’t be able to keep a watch on him and get to the temple.”

“We have to end this,” I finished coldly.

“No… p… please…” Blueblood tried to beg. “I want to m… make amends, to make things r… right.”

“I’ll do it,” Twilight said, drawing her sceptre and moving slowly forward. “It was my mission after all…”

“No!” Fluttershy screamed out, flying between Twilight and Blueblood.

Twilight froze on the spot, still half way through drawing her sceptre, looking back at Fluttershy with confusion.

“We can’t kill him,” she said firmly, spreading her forelegs wide.

“Fluttershy, what do you mean?” Twilight asked. “Have you forgotten what he’s done? Didn’t you hear what he just admitted to?”

“Yes, he has done terrible things,” Fluttershy stated calmly. “But right now, he’s nothing more than an injured pony who is no longer capable of committing any more evil, we can’t kill him.”

“But what are you suggesting?” Applejack asked. “That we stop what we’re doing to help him and take care of him?”

“I am,” she replied simply.

“He’s our enemy Fluttershy,” Rainbow pointed out. “Do you think he’d treat you any better if the tables were turned?”

“Maybe not, but then the tables aren’t turned, are they?” Fluttershy countered. “Right now we’re the ones in control, we could kill him now that he’s weak and wounded and begging for forgiveness, and prove that we’re just as capable of evil as he is… or we could be the better ponies. We could help him, give him a chance to prove he’s sorry for what he did and face justice. We should show even our enemies, when possible, a little compassion.”

There was a long moment of silence as we all digested what Fluttershy had just said, she didn’t move from her spot, but nor did Twilight lower her weapon.

“You’re right,” I murmured, just loud enough for the others to hear me.

Slowly, one by one, the others all voiced their agreement, their bodies visibly relaxing as the aggression left them. Finally, Twilight put her sceptre away and gave a firm nod to Fluttershy, who only then lowered her hooves.

“Alright Fluttershy,” Twilight said calmly. “We’ll show him compassion.”

And the moment the words left her mouth, Blueblood seemed to smile, before his whole body began to shine with a bright white light. As we watched in shock, we saw his form melt away, breaking up into thousands of tiny specks of light, which floated up into the sky where they sparkled before disappearing from sight. Soon we were left standing on our own in the small clearing, no evidence that Blueblood had ever really been there.

“But… how?” Twilight uttered, looking back and forth between the spot where Blueblood had been and up in the sky.

“I… I have no idea,” Fluttershy admitted.

“Do you think…” I began, an idea springing to mind. “That was one of the trials?”

“That’s a good thought,” Rainbow agreed. “Either that or we let Blueblood slip through our hooves.”

“I think you might be right there,” Twilight added before looking back to Fluttershy. “And I think we passed it… thanks to you.”

“Me?” Fluttershy uttered in disbelief, turning bright red as we all smiled at her. “I didn’t think it was any kind of trial.”

“That was probably intentional Sugarcube,” Applejack pointed out.

“Aw, my little Fluttershy is so special!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, pulling Fluttershy into a tight hug. “She passes exams without even knowing she’s sitting them!”

“Shall we carry on?” I asked, smirking at the display before looking to the others.

“Yeah,” Rainbow replied. “I kinda want to see what they’ll throw at us next.”

The others all nodded, while Fluttershy just flopped to the ground when Pinkie Pie released her. I quickly consulted the map and figured out where we were, that trial had taken us a little off the path, but it wasn’t hard to find again. Once we were on the move again, we fell silent once more, keeping our ears open for any indication that we might be approaching another trial. We hoped the next one we’d recognise as a trial from the start, as opposed to once it was over. However, as we continued to walk, the high we all felt following Fluttershy’s success began to dwindle gradually.

We were now deep in the forest, or at least… we had to have been, we seemed to be walking for so long. I stopped several times so we could get our bearings, every time however, I was convinced we were getting further from the path laid out for us, despite my constant vigilance and checking of the map. I would have asked Rainbow Dash to fly up and get a bird’s eye view for us, but the canopy was so thick with tangled branches that it was impossible for her to get out without finding a less dense area… besides, she was lagging behind a little, she looked tired.

“Are we stopping?” Applejack asked when I sat myself down on a large rock, I grunted in response. “Good!”

She slouched off out of sight, I wondered briefly why she sounded so tense with me, but I found I didn’t care that much. If Applejack had a problem with me, I wasn’t about to go chasing after her, she could come find me when she was ready to grow up. I unfolded the map and placed it on my lap, setting out my compass as well. I started trying to figure out where we were, or how far off the mark I had managed to land us this time! As I stared at the map however, it was as if the entire image was becoming blurry.

I rubbed my eyes and checked again, it looked as clear as it always did, so I continued on. This time however, as I looked at the small island off the corner of the mainland, I was sure it looked different. Was the forest always that shape? Surely the mountains didn’t take up that much space, and that lake, it was always there… wasn’t it? I groaned, wishing I could show the others and ask their opinion, but they couldn’t see the island anyway… a lot of help they were!

While I tried to focus on the map, I found my eyes drifting more and more to my compass. After a while of making no progress, I picked up the compass and stared at it, thinking about my family back in Equestria. They probably thought I was dead by now, and who could blame them? I had been in Panchea for sixty-five days now, add another three weeks for the trip on the Siren. All that time I had never sent them a letter, even just a postcard to let them know I was alive and well, some daughter I was. Even if I had sent them a letter, I was hardly alive and well, they would have just freaked out if they knew all the terrible things I'd gotten involved in.

And terrible really was the word for it, how many ponies had I seen die since I began my journey? How many of them had I killed? And after all of it, were we really any closer to bringing an end to it all, to achieving some kind of peace? That idea seemed laughable, and I probably would have laughed if I could bring myself to do so. As it was, all I could do was sit hunched on the rock with a cold scowl on my face. What were we even doing on that island? What kind of magic, fix all solution did we really expect to find?

Maybe Maverick was right, maybe I should have stayed in Pivot… maybe I should never have gotten involved in the Rebellion… maybe I should never have left Equestria… maybe I should never have survived what happened in Cragsburg. I suddenly felt very cold at that point, remembering how I had died, remembering that feeling of relief as the pain came to an end… but then I came back, thanks to Twilight and her stupid stone. I was thrown right back into the world, back into the pain and the suffering, all so I could continue making mistakes and providing nothing to the ponies who I was supposed to care about.

Why did I even try to go on? As I looked up, I could see the others, Rainbow lying flat on her stomach, Applejack sitting against a tree, Fluttershy off in the distance, sitting on the ground with her back to us all, and Twilight who was pacing about slowly, practically dragging her hooves. They all looked miserable, and it was all my fault… everything was my fault. I curled up tighter as the feeling of cold intensified; I was a burden on them, just like I was a burden on my family. It seemed all I was destined to do was fail everyone I thought I cared about… and it was so cold.

“That’s enough!” a voice shouted.

I glanced up, although I found I didn’t care an awful lot about who it was who had yelled or what they meant by it. When I looked ahead I saw Pinkie Pie standing between us all, staring at a point somewhere just over my shoulder, she looked livid. I briefly wondered why I hadn’t noticed her there before, but then I realised it must have been because I was such a poor excuse for a friend.

“You can’t affect me,” she went on to say, I still wasn’t sure what she was talking about. “And I won’t let you have my friends either!”

Pinkie trotted over to me, grabbing me roughly by the shoulder and shaking me.

“Rarity!” she began loudly, trying to get me to look up at her. “You’ve got to snap out of it!”

I found I didn’t want to meet her gaze; I didn’t want to subject myself to her disappointment.

“Rarity, this isn’t you thinking,” Pinkie went on to say. “That voice in your head, it’s not yours!”

For a moment, it felt like I was taking an interest in what she was saying, but then I felt myself getting yanked back down into the cold… that felt strange.

“It’s trying to make you doubt yourself,” she told me. “It’s feeding off your despair; you have to put a stop to it.”

“I…” I began, suddenly finding myself wanting to look up. “I’m not sure I can.”

“You can!” she insisted. “The Rarity I know wouldn’t give up, none of you girls would. Here, come with me.”

I felt myself get picked up, sometimes I forgot how strong Pinkie was. She carried me off to a seemingly random point, before plopping me back on the ground, as she did, I briefly noticed something dark flitting about behind me. Pinkie left for a moment to gather up the others, bringing their limp bodies back and dropping them down beside me, so we were all huddled closely together.

“All of you listen,” she began in a loud and clear voice. “There’s a Wither standing right behind you, it’s filling your head with negative thoughts, trying to make you doubt yourselves so it can feed off your despair.”

“A… Wither?” Twilight repeated slowly, sounding like a small part of her knew what Pinkie was talking about.

“Yes!” Pinkie said clapping her hooves. “I know it’s hard, I know you’re probably all feeling like you don’t matter, but you need to shake yourself and get rid of those silly thoughts.”

I tried to give my body a shake, but finding that I still didn’t have the enthusiasm for something like that.

“What’s the point?” Applejack muttered in a tired voice.

“It doesn’t matter…” Fluttershy murmured.

“It does matter!” Pinkie cut in. “You matter! All five of you matter… to me, but I’m willing to bet I’m not the only one. Applejack, I’ve met your family, I’ve seen your home. You want to go back to them, don’t you?”

“Ah… yeah…” Applejack began in a confused tone. “Of course ah do, more than anything.”

“Then think about them!” Pinkie said quickly. “Don’t think about how you’re letting them down or anything else ridiculous. Think about how they make you happy, and how you’ve made them happy in return.”

Applejack nodded, slowly at first, but I could see some life returning into her as she picked up speed.

“All of you need to do the same,” Pinkie went on. “Think about those you care about, your friends, your family… think about each other! Think about how much you care for them, and how much you know they care for you. Think about how everything we’ve done has been for them, that voice in your head will try to tell you otherwise, but you have to believe in yourself. You have believe and stay true to your beliefs.”

“You’re right Pinkie Pie,” Applejack said suddenly in a much firmer voice as she began rising to her hooves.

“Good Applejack!” Pinkie cried excitedly. “Now Fluttershy, think about the Bask, think about the sisters who raised you and grew up with you. I’ve been there myself; I know how much it must mean to you.”

“It means everything to me,” Fluttershy insisted, injecting some strength into her voice as she started standing up.

“That’s the spirit Shy!” Pinkie declared. “Rainbow Dash, I find it hard that you could doubt yourself. The fastest pegasus that ever lived! The mare who stopped the unstoppable Iron Sights! You have a whole city riding on your back; do you really think they would have followed you so readily if they didn’t believe in you?”

“You know what Pinkie?” Rainbow began as she stood up with the others, confidence building in her voice. “I am awesome!”

“I never said awesome, but yay anyway!” Pinkie quickly replied before moving onto me. “Now don’t you try to say for even second that you want to give up. You’re the one who’s led us since the very beginning, through thick and thin, through the fun times and the difficult times. We’ve believed in you, now you have to believe in yourself!”

I could hear that voice in my head, telling me her words were empty, that she was only saying it all to get me moving because they were all tired of waiting, but the thing was… I didn’t believe it. I had been the one to bring them all together, I had been the one to lead us into one adventure after another, and I don’t regret any of it. Yes it had been difficult, yes it sometimes felt like we weren’t making a difference, but the truth was we had accomplished so much working together, and I was proud to have been a part of that. My friends had believed in me, just as I had believed in them. Pinkie Pie was right, I needed to stand up and start believing in myself again!

Pinkie beamed at me as I pulled myself up to her level, completely ignoring the voice in the back of my head that was still trying to make me doubt myself. I returned the smile of all my other friends before giving Pinkie a confident nod; she returned it and moved onto the final member of our group.

“Twilight…” she said in a quiet voice as she crouched down to look her in the eye. “I’ve known you for a long time now, I don’t know if you really hate me or if there’s some small part of you that might like me… but when I say that there is nothing you could do to let down your friends, your brother… or your mother, I am telling you the truth, as your friend.”

Twilight continued to avert her gaze from Pinkie for a moment, until finally she glanced up at her with slightly wet eyes, a small smile forming.

“Thank you…” she began in a slightly cracked voice, before smirking properly. “Discord.”

Pinkie simply grinned wider at that, offering out her hoof and helping to Twilight up to her hooves. With us all standing together, Pinkie looked past my head to something standing just behind us.

“What’s the matter?” she mocked. “Are you confused why it didn’t work?”

I turned around to see the Wither for myself, finding myself staring at a dizzyingly tall figure, draped entirely in black robes that seemed to melt into the darkness around it. Its body had no visible features or appendages, there wasn’t even a face to speak of, although I got the impression it was staring back at us none the less.

“It’s because we have each other,” she went on to say, pulling us all into a big group hug. “So long as we’re together, you’ll never overcome our conviction.”

There was a moment of silence as the Wither watched us, I wondered if maybe we would have to fight it, but then the creature lit up just as Blueblood had. We all gawked in surprise; we had been so distracted by the effects of the Wither, that we had completely forgotten about the trials. Like Blueblood, the Wither dissipated, its scattered pieces floating up into the sky where they flashed briefly before vanishing.

“Well that was convenient,” Pinkie said. “Those things are a pain in the ass to kill.”

“So that was the second trial?” Rainbow queried. “Nice one Pinkie, you totally nailed it!”

“Ah think you did more than pass the trial,” Applejack argued.

“You really saved us,” Fluttershy finished.

“Aw, it’s okay girls,” Pinkie insisted, tightening the group hug slightly. “Since it wasn’t a real Wither, I guess it wasn’t actually feeding off you.”

“No, but the doubts we had felt real enough,” I pointed out. “Really, thank you Pinkie Pie.”

“Well, that’s two trials down,” Twilight reminded us in a cheery voice. “Nothing like I would have expected… not nearly as easy.”

“We’ll get through it Sugarcube,” Applejack assured her. “But how about we get movin’? We must nearly be at the end of this forest.”

I separated myself from the group and walked back over to the rock where my map and compass still sat. When I looked down at them, I was pleased to see that the map was exactly as I remember it when the island first filled in. After a couple minutes, while I reoriented myself and tried to gauge where exactly we were, I was satisfied that we weren’t far off the trail laid out on the map. More than that, it appeared we were indeed drawing close to the edge of the forest. We got walking again, this time keeping up a little small talk to avoid falling into any kind of magic induced despairs a second time.

As the trees began to clear, we could make out patches of sky through the canopy, as well as occasionally glimpses of the mountain peaks in the distance. It wasn’t long before we were stepping out of the forest completely, finding ourselves in the open once more, on a short stretch of grassland that sloped upwards to the base of the mountain. We kept moving, although Rainbow Dash quickly darted ahead and returned with news that there was a cave entrance some way ahead of us. As we got higher and the grass began to thin beneath our hooves, replaced by dry earth and stone, we began to make out the cave opening.

It was a large, gaping mouth, the inside of which appeared completely black. What little we could see, showed stalactites hanging form the roof of the cave, giving the impression of the mountain having teeth as well as a mouth. We slowed our approach, wary of something jumping out at us from the darkness inside.

“Let’s take it slow girls,” Twilight warned. “We’ve been taken by surprise twice now, let’s not make it a… a…”

“Hat trick,” Rainbow finished for her. “Shouldn’t be surprised you don’t know sports terms.”

“Yes, well,” Twilight muttered uncomfortably. “I’m more of a… what you might call…”

“Egghead,” Rainbow finished once more. “That’s fine; I pegged you as one anyway. Here, I’ll scout ahead, make sure there’s nothing waiting to ambush us.”

“Rainbow,” I called after her, even as she was flying towards the cave entrance. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“It’ll be fine,” she assured me, not looking where she was going as she glanced back at me. “What’s the worst that could…”

Then, out of nowhere, a massive stone hand swung through the air and connected with Rainbow Dash. Like a rolled up newspaper connecting with a fly, Rainbow was batted out of the air by the force behind the slap, and sent spiralling to the earth, crashing violently.

“Rainbow!” we all cried out.

Fluttershy was the first to speed forward, not even stopping to see what it was that had attacked Rainbow Dash in the first place. The rest of us saw it however, we saw the rest of the arm materialise out of thin air, followed by the torso and the rest of the limbs. The colossal stone golem appeared before the cave entrance, as if it had been there the whole time, but hiding like a chameleon, although it was more likely to have been under some cloaking spell. We watched as it pulled back its left fist before punching down at Fluttershy, we screamed out to her, warning her, but the attack came in too quickly.

Fluttershy froze right before the giant’s fist came down on her, but it never connected as a purple shield appeared between them. The force of the punch was so great, that it broke right through the shield like it was glass. I heard Twilight cry out in pain before collapsing to the ground; however it had slowed the golem down just enough for Fluttershy to dart out from under it. Fluttershy reached Rainbow and landed beside her, Applejack and I made to run forward as well, but I felt Pinkie’s hoof grab hold of me, and before I knew it the pair of us were standing in front of the fallen Rainbow Dash.

Applejack was caught hold of by Twilight, who teleported them both over to where we were. The golem was turning slowly to face us while we all drew our weapons, with the exception of Fluttershy.

“How’s she lookin’?” Applejack asked as she took a defensive stance, claymore at the ready.

“Oh no… oh no…” Fluttershy was saying in a panicked voice, that didn’t encourage us any.

“Rainbow!” I called out, not taking my eyes off the golem which was now slowly approaching. “Please speak to us!”

There was a low, guttural noise from Rainbow Dash as she attempted to speak. It sounded horribly strained, and I had no doubt that she had broken many bones.

“We need to get out of here!” Fluttershy told us in a terrified voice.

“I agree,” Twilight stated. “This might be a trial, but we can’t leave Rainbow like this.”

“Okay Dokey,” Pinkie said, spinning her daggers around her hooves, even though they would be nothing more than cocktail sticks to the approaching golem. “Twilight, teleport Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash back to the forest, we’ll keep it busy.”

“Alright,” Twilight agreed as she lit up her horn and grabbed hold of Fluttershy and Rainbow.

Just then, the golem swung its arm up, but rather than moving to attack, it simply held it out straight before opening its hand. Placed in the golem’s stone palm, was a red, kite shaped crystal, and as it was revealed, it flashed with light and I heard Twilight cry out behind us. My head snapped back to see Twilight’s horn sprouting numerous pustule like crystals over it. I only had time to mentally curse before the golem crouched down and leapt into the air, rising before rapidly descending upon where we all stood clustered together.

Instinct for self-preservation kicked in, and I sprinted right before diving out of the way. I caught glimpses of the others doing the same thing, and saw Pinkie appear out of thin air some way ahead of me, clutching Fluttershy. I saw them, saw them both looking wildly around themselves to search for Rainbow Dash who had not travelled with them, then I looked back as a feeling of terror rose within me. I looked around just in time to see the golem collide with the earth, both fists directed downwards.

I never got a chance to see if any of my friends had been left under him, but I stared in horror anyway, my heart beating like a drum in my chest. Fluttershy screamed out behind me, a horrible choking sob, I also heard Twilight shouting something from the opposite side of the golem. As the great cloud of dust began to settle and clear, I could once again make out the golem, standing in a crouched pose with both fists still planted towards the ground. The earth around its feet was completely shattered and cratered from the impact of the golem, and as the last of the cloud shifted from my sight, I was able to make out the forms of my friends who hadn’t run away.

Rainbow Dash lay there, looking up weakly at Applejack who stood defiantly on her hind legs, her claymore forgotten she reached out with her forelegs and was locked in an intense struggle with the golem’s fists. She looked incredibly battered, like she might break at any given second, but the fact that she was able to stand there and not only withstand the golem’s attack, but was matching it with her own was astounding. I stared in awe at the struggle, Applejack gritting her teeth as her legs trembled against the force, while the Golem looked down at her, as passive and stalwart as ever.

“Ah’m… not… movin’!” Applejack announced between heavy breaths. “Ah don’t… care… if it… gets me… killed! Ah’m not… gonna… move.”

I could hear Rainbow croak something from beneath Applejack’s protective frame. The golem simply applied a little extra pressure, I could see Applejack’s face become even more strained, but still she didn’t buckle.

“Hah…” she uttered in an almost laugh, forcing herself to smirk up at the golem. “Not… happenin’… buddy. You… ain’t… breakin’… mah… resolve!”

And in that moment, my own legs stopped shaking, I forced my breathing to calm down and for my heart rate to slow. I had run, I had saved myself without sparing a single thought for my friends. It wasn’t really something to be ashamed of, but Applejack had managed to silence her own screaming instinct and stayed by Rainbow Dash’s side, even as we all ran for cover. Even now she wasn’t giving up, no matter what force she was met with, she wasn’t going to give up. Just seeing her display, I could feel my own resolve strengthening, and before I knew it, I was rushing forward to Applejack’s side, and I wasn’t the only one.

We were all there as quickly as we could cross the distance, joining Applejack beneath the golem’s fists and reached up to apply our own pressure. With all five of us pushing back, Applejack’s struggle began to lessen; I could even feel the golem being forced back ever so slightly. Then behind us, Rainbow Dash shifted, forcing herself back onto her hooves despite the incredible amount of pain she must have been in. She held herself up, shaking even more than Applejack had been when she was on her own, but she still managed to bring up one hoof next to the rest of ours.

The act seemed to be enough, the golem retracting its fists, leaving us all to teeter slightly on our hind legs before dropping back onto all four. The golem stood up straight, making no attempt to fight us anymore. We all watched warily as it looked down at us with red, almost curious eyes, not letting our guard down for even a second. Then, like the others it shone brightly, its body shattering into thousands of tiny, shimmering pieces which ascended up and out of sight. This time however, as it disappeared, I felt the whole ground beneath us tremble and shift, as the earth it had disturbed reassembled itself to the way it was before the golem had landed on it.

I glanced over at Rainbow Dash in time to see her body repairing itself, blood vanishing, cuts closing up and bones realigning. Applejack too looked to be renewed with energy, and Twilight’s horn shed the crystal growths. It really was as if the fight had never happened, the only evidence being our memories of the situation. There was a period of silence, brought to an end when Rainbow gave Applejack a light punch on the shoulder.

“Uh… thanks,” she uttered pathetically, not meeting Applejack’s eyes.

“Eh, don’t mention it Dash,” Applejack replied equally awkwardly.

I looked over to Twilight, Pinkie and Fluttershy who all looked exactly as I felt; before we could help it, all four of us were rolling on the ground laughing. After we were told to stop laughing, carried on laughing, were joined in by Rainbow and Applejack anyway, we finally stopped and took a moment to relax. We had reached the mountains, completed three trials and were at least half way to the temple according to the map.

“That last one… really hurt,” Rainbow pointed out. “Like, I know it wasn’t real, but it seriously felt real.”

“I wonder how many more there are,” Fluttershy thought aloud. “And if we’ll be expected to do more when we reach the temple.”

“Well, so far one of us has solved each of the trials,” Pinkie reminded her. “Maybe we’ll all get one trial, so that would make six!”

“What about the map though?” Applejack asked. “And Twilight teleportin’ us all from Pivot, were those trials or weren’t they?”

“I guess we’ll just keep moving forward,” I suggested. “We’ll get to the temple and they can answer all our questions.”

“It is exciting,” Twilight said. “Just through those caves is the fabled temple, to think we’re so close and then we’ll finally get to learn the truth about this place.”

“Well then let’s go!” Pinkie exclaimed. “We aren’t gonna get there unless we keep on walking!”

We didn’t need to consult the map this time before heading off, considering the only path was through the cave and into the mountains. As such, I put my compass and map away for a bit. Once we entered the cave, Twilight took the lead, lighting her horn as well as her sceptre, which she hovered behind her in the middle of the group. I took up the rear with my weaker light, but I also had my lantern out which, like Twilight’s sceptre, I was able to levitate further out.

The cave tunnel remained relatively featureless, just a wide, rocky corridor winding through the mountain. Occasionally we would enter into a larger cavern or notice other diverging pathways, we’d stop at these points and refer to the compass to give us the best indication of which way would lead us out the other side. Nothing happened for a long time, Pinkie was telling us a story about how she once cloned herself using a cave pool, a thought which we all found deeply unsettling, when I felt a slight tremor beneath my hooves.

I came to a stop, but the others kept walking, Pinkie still talking away. I frowned, wondering if I had imagined it, but then it happened again, much more definite this time. I also heard the sound of distant cracking, and still the others walked on ahead of me, apparently oblivious to it.

“Hey girls!” I called after them.

They all stopped walking, looking around in surprise, clearly unaware that I had stopped walking.

“Do you feel that?” I asked in a wary tone as I started approaching them.

“Feel what?” Twilight asked, sharing a confused glance with the others.

“That…” I began, only to feel another tremble. “That shaking! Right there, didn’t you feel it?”

Once again they exchanged bewildered looks, I shook my head, telling myself it was just something intended to get to me, perhaps another trial. I continued making my way forward, but then I heard a deafening rumble again as the ground began falling apart beneath my hooves. I heard my friends cry out and I tried to run towards them, but it was too late, the ground swallowed me whole and I fell down into a dark chasm. The speck of light from above grew fainter and fainter until it was extinguished altogether, and I was left completely alone in darkness.

“Twilight!” I called out. “Pinkie! Fluttershy! Applejack! Rainbow! Can any of you hear me?!”

I received no answer, I had no idea how far down I had fallen, or even how I had managed to avoid breaking my legs doing so, but for some reason that question quickly vacated my mind. I lit my horn, finding myself in a tiny, cramped cavern. Looking around, I couldn’t see my lantern anywhere, I must have dropped it before I fell and it was still somewhere up with the others. As I thought about my missing lantern, I became faintly aware of how light I was. Looking down, I was horrified to see that my sword and knives were all missing too.

How was that possible? Had I dropped them too? Had they been pulled off by some falling rubble? It seemed so unlikely, I always kept them well strapped to my belt, but they were nowhere to be seen on the cave floor around me. As I looked about for them, I started to feel a slight chill in the air, and heard the distant sound of breathing. Stopping my search, I looked up, was it perhaps one of my friends? Had they fallen down too and were now lying injured somewhere? I started walking in the direction I had heard the breathing, all while calling out my friends’ names, however my voice sounded faint and distant, even to myself.

As I walked, the stone beneath my hooves turned to hardened earth, and the darkness around me began to lighten. So gradually that it turned from pitch black to pearly white without me even noticing a change. I walked through the forest and the fog, searching for my friends. I could still hear the breathing, but for some reason, just focusing on it made me feel cold and for my heart to start racing. I could see the trees around me, twisted and gnarled, yet no matter how far I walked they always seemed to look the same, as if I was running in circles or merely on the spot.

I broke into a full gallop, now trying to get as far away from the breathing. I wasn’t sure why, but something about it no longer seemed friendly or inviting. As I ran, it became much more apparent that I wasn’t going anywhere. My head began to spin as I took in the same trees over and over again, and soon I was stumbling over my own legs, tripping myself up as they grew weak. I collapsed to the ground hard, from there I felt the weakness slowly spreading up my legs into my chest, tightening it and making it difficult to breathe.

I knew this feeling, I had been here before, but how could I be here again now?! I was with my friends moments ago… or had it been hours? Maybe even days, and what was it we were doing? Where had we been? I heard the long rattling breath from behind me; I rolled over and stared up in horror at the spectral being floating towards me, reaching out for me with its long skeletal hands from beneath the wispy sheets hanging over it. The Wight was drawing closer and closer, sucking in through the single dark hole in its face that was its mouth.

I tried kicking away, tried to pull and drag myself across the ground, anything to put some distance between me and it. But it was no use, my limbs barely responded to my commands, and I was only able to move centimetres at a time. The Wight reached me, descending upon me, reaching out to take hold of me with its twitching, groping hands. I felt its bony hands wrap around my throat, twisting my head up to look at it. As I did, I saw the pale sheets split apart, revealing what lay beneath.

Beneath the sheets was a stallion wearing a crown of laurels, grinning sadistically as he began sawing my horn off. I screamed and flailed about against the two laughing ponies who held me in place, but all of my struggling and fighting amounting to naught as I heard the grinding noise of the saw, and felt the excruciating pain when it reached the nerves within. It felt like my head was filling with blood, everything was spinning; the whole world appeared to be on fast forward. I felt the two ponies dragging me away, throwing me down flights of stairs.

They dragged me to a chamber, where I was forced to watch as they set fire to the mutilated corpses of my friends. I cried and begged even though it was beyond too late to save them. They laughed the whole time before I was spun around, suddenly strapped to a chair, while before me were three ponies I knew very well, each being held by a pair of ponies dressed in forest green robes and stone like armour.

“Mother?!” I exclaimed. “Father?! Sweetie Belle?!”

They looked miserable as they stared back at me, bruised and beaten. Sweetie Belle especially looked to be in a terrible state, my mind began filling with horrible images of what they could have done to her.

“Rarity…” she said weakly. “Please… don’t let them hurt me anymore.”

I wanted to reply, to lie to her and tell her it would be okay, but my words were sucked right out of my mouth by the Wight who hovered behind me, drinking my very life-force until I didn’t even need straps to remain immobile. Then Terra appeared once more, the saw still in his hooves, still wet with my blood. He started with my father first, I sobbed even as he tried to stay strong for his girls and failed miserably. Then he went over to my mother, I sobbed more as she didn’t hold back her screams of agony. Finally he came to my sister, and looked me square in the eye, grinning wickedly as he held the saw in place.

“Please…” I begged in a barely audible whisper.

I felt nothing inside of me, I felt as if my very soul had been stolen and devoured by the Wight, while my heart had been torn into shreds by Terra and the Children of the Earth. Terra only smiled wider as he prepared to start sawing… then he exploded into wisps of smoke as a cyan hoof in silver armour punched through him. Rainbow glared at the spot where he had been, before hurrying over to me and dropping down to my side.

“Rarity!” she exclaimed. “Rarity, this isn’t real, you have to wake up!”

“Please, save my sister!” I begged her, ignoring her words. “Save my parents! Please don’t let them suffer anymore.”

“Your family isn’t here Rarity!” Rainbow yelled. “Your family is safe in Equestria, this is all just an illusion created from your fears!”

“But…” I began, looking past Rainbow Dash to where my sister was being horribly violated.

“No!” Rainbow snapped, pulling my gaze back to her. “It’s not real! The only way you’re going to get out of this, is if you accept that this is all in your head.”

“Even if it was,” I moaned, tears still streaking down my face. “What if it…”

“What if it happens for real?” Rainbow finished, before slapping me hard across the face. “Get it together Rarity! Would you ever allow that to happen to your family?!”

She jabbed her hoof out at my family as the three of them were thrown onto the same pyre as my friends.

“No, of course not!” I insisted.

“Exactly,” Rainbow hissed. “Your fears will never come true, because you will never let them.”

I took a shuddering breath as her words echoes in my head, she was absolutely right. I would never allow this to happen to the ponies I cared about so long as I was alive, I saved Fluttershy from it, I could damn well save everypony else. There was nothing to be afraid of… not as long as I had my friends; they were my source of courage. All around me, the sounds of screams stuttered out, while the terrible visions faded into nothing. Soon it was just Rainbow Dash and I standing in a vast nothing, a set of four shining doorways dotted randomly about, waiting for us.

“Come on,” Rainbow said, making for the closest door. “I might need your help with the rest.”

I nodded firmly before trotting after her, we both passed through the door at the same time. For a moment everything was bright, and I was forced to clench my eyes shut against the glare. When I opened them again, I found myself standing in a neat courtyard at an unforgettable location. We both stood at the Bask, however, where I remembered everything being pristine and beautiful, it now lay in ruins. Towers were collapsed, whole buildings had been raised to the ground, and there was fire everywhere, deep and crimson.

We could hear wailing echoing from some way ahead, and we both galloped towards it. We rounded a corner and saw Fluttershy kneeling in a spacious area, the destruction visible from all angles. Her whole body was wracked with sobs, five charred corpses were scattered before her. While they were burnt beyond recognition, I could easily guess who they were. Just ahead of Fluttershy, perched on the nearest building and coiled around the very tower she had taken Applejack and I up, was a dragon. It was huge in size, perhaps even bigger than Spike had been while under the magical influence, its scales were as black as night and it spewed jets of crimson fire all around Fluttershy’s home.

We hurried forward, dropping to our knees beside her where I quickly began shaking her to get her attention.

“Fluttershy, it’s us,” I told her.

She looked up at me and then Rainbow Dash, looking confused by our presence.

“But… you’re… you’re d… dead,” she stammered, unable to control her crying. “I saw that awful dragon kill you!”

“It wasn’t us,” Rainbow told her gently, perhaps knowing to take it easier with Fluttershy. “This is all just imaginary, it’s your fears brought to life.”

“None of it is real,” I reaffirmed. “Once you accept that, we can wake up and be together again properly.”

“But this could happen!” she insisted. “You already died once, how long before it happens again? Or for you to die Rainbow? Or any one of our friends?”

“Fluttershy, everypony dies,” Rainbow pointed out. “It’s not nice, and it’s rarely easy, but it’s a simple fact that one day we’re all going to go.”

“It might be tomorrow while fighting,” I told her. “Or it might be years from now when we’re old and grey, we’ll never know.”

“But when the time does come,” Rainbow continued. “We’ll wish we had spent the time between now and then really living, instead of existing in fear of something we had no power to stop.”

“Damn that was profound,” I whispered over Fluttershy's head at Rainbow, who gave me a little wink.

“You’re… you’re right,” Fluttershy said, wiping her eyes. “I can’t… I can’t be afraid of the inevitable; I just need to enjoy it while it’s here.”

“That’s the spirit girl!” Rainbow said, patting her on the back as the Bask melted away and the sounds of the dragon’s roars were cut out.

Again we were left hanging in nothing, only the ethereal doors lighting the way for us, although now there was one less.

“Come on Fluttershy,” I said to her, taking her by the hoof. “We need to go help the others too.”

She nodded and followed us through the next door. This time when I opened my eyes and the light had faded, we were standing in a forest at night. Fluttershy let out a small squeak, and I followed her gaze directly above our heads to see a huge, full moon hanging directly over our heads, only it was blood read. Like Fluttershy’s crying, we could hear the muttering of somepony nearby, and we began walking towards it. As we made our way through the tree, I began to notice that they weren’t just any trees, they were apple tree, long dead admittedly, but I knew who’s fears we had entered this time.

We came around the corner, into a clearing where Applejack sat, rocking back and forth, clutching her head and muttering to herself. The clearing was covered in blood, it looked like a wild animal had come through and ripped a pony apart. As that thought entered my head, I found it very hard to get out again, and I wondered what it was Applejack was imagining. As we drew closer, I could make out what she was repeating, it was simply ‘they’re gone’, over and over again. We reached Applejack, and Rainbow Dash was about to speak when we heard a piercing howl in the distance.

“Um… Applejack,” she said after it had stopped. “Applejack, it’s us, we’re here to get you out of here.”

Applejack glanced up at us, like Fluttershy and I, whatever she had seen had driven her to tears.

“You’re not real,” she muttered back. “You can’t be real; none of this can be real.”

“Well you’re right about the second part,” Rainbow agreed.

“This is all just a manifestation of your fears,” I told her.

“But we’re real,” Fluttershy assured her. “We’ve come to get you out of here.”

“You should just run while you can,” Applejack said, shrugging off Fluttershy’s hoof. “If that monster wants me, then ah don’t want you girls here when he comes. Better for you to run… leave me to mah fate.”

“We’re not leaving you to anything!” Rainbow snapped. “You don’t get to shelter me from a stone giant and then tell me to run and leave you anywhere!”

“What is this monster anyway?” I asked, although a second howl narrowed down the possibilities.

“He’s… it’s nothin’,” Applejack insisted, not meeting my gaze. “And ah’m not takin’ no for an answer, you girls can still get away, but me… It’s already taken the rest, Mac, Bloom… they’re all gone, ah’m all that’s left.”

“Applejack, if I have to punch you, I will!” Rainbow shouted at her.

“It’s true, she will,” I added, remembering the sting on my cheek.

“You’re like… one of the most badass ponies I know, who isn’t me!” Rainbow continued, putting her face right up into Applejack’s. “Do you expect me to believe for a second that there is any monster in this whole world that you wouldn’t be able to slaughter, if it ever tried to harm your family?!”

“Ah…” Applejack began but Rainbow wasn’t done shouting yet.

“Whatever that thing out there is, that’s your business,” she stated. “But if it ever does come sniffin’ up to your house, looking to run off with your sister, are you just gonna stand by and let it?!”

“Hay no!” Applejack shouted back, jumping to her hooves until she was Rainbow’s level.

“Then what are you so afraid of?!” Rainbow demanded, shoving Applejack back. “Are you afraid that you’re not strong enough? Are you afraid that you won’t be fast enough? Because you can be damn sure you’re strong enough, and if you aren’t fast enough… well, that’s what you have me for.”

Applejack was breathing heavily, I wondered how Rainbow’s pep talk would affect her, but when she gave a hard grin and a stiff nod, I knew it had paid off.

“You’re right Rainbow,” she said before turning from us to face the forest, tilting her head slightly to the blood moon. “You hear that you furry sack of shit?! You just try comin’ back; ah’ll be waitin’ for you when you do!”

With that, the world melted away for the third time, and for the third time we were left stranded in blackness, this time with a choice of two doors as our destination. Applejack looked about in confusion; I quickly filled her in on what was going on. Once she was clear, Rainbow picked a door and led the way. As we stepped through this one, we found ourselves in what seemed at first to be an unfamiliar environment, but the more I thought about it, the more I realised I had been here before. It was Canterlot Castle, and we were standing inside a long hall, lined with stained glass windows depicting various events in Equestrian history.

It didn’t take long to find Twilight Sparkle; she was in the very room we spawned in, kneeling before Princess Celestia who was staring down at her with utter contempt. I made to move forward, but found that my body was almost completely paralysed, I was able to turn my head and see that the others were having the same problem, and not one of them could understand why either. I turned my attention back to Twilight and Celestia, wondering if maybe we had to wait until a certain point.

“To think that you hid this from me,” she was saying, her voice filled with disgust. “I used to have such high hopes for you, but to know that you actively conspired with my greatest enemy is unforgivable!”

“Please Princess!” Twilight begged. “It’s not like that, Discord is…”

“Discord is a monster!” Celestia bellowed, her whole figure exploding into fiery fury. “Have I not taught you as much since the day I took you in?! Is this what you think of me, the one who had given you so much? That you would disregard my teachings so readily.”

“No, please…” Twilight tried to say again.

“Perhaps you would prefer to live alongside the monster,” Celestia suggested coldly. “I think there’s plenty of room in that wretched creature’s cell for you too.”

“No!” Twilight exclaimed, throwing herself forward to latch onto Celestia’s leg. “I love you! I love you so much, you mean everything to me! You’re like a mother to me; you’ve always been like a mother since the day you took me in.”

“Get off me!” Celestia spat, flinging Twilight off her leg and sending her sliding across the floor. “How incredibly dense of you, to think that somepony as pathetic as you could ever be a daughter to somepony like me! You are nothing to me!”

Twilight was openly sobbing now; behind her, a tall stallion appeared, wearing some very impressive purple armour. He reached out and grabbed hold of Twilight roughly, when she saw him, there was a flash of hope.

“Shining armour!” she exclaimed. “Big brother, please don’t let her do this!”

“Silence traitor!” he snapped, slapping her hard across the face before echoing Celestia’s final words. “You are nothing to me!”

With that, he began dragging the weeping Twilight back across the hall towards us.

“No more!” Rainbow Dash bellowed before bursting forward.

I too felt my body released from the strange hold on it, and was able to run forward to Twilight’s aid. I saw Rainbow Dash punch through Shining Armour just as she had done with Terra in my nightmare, with him out of the way, all four of us were able to surround Twilight and crouch down to take hold of her.

“It’s okay Twilight,” Fluttershy soothed. “It’s not real, none of it is real.”

“She… she hates me,” Twilight said in a trembling voice. “She said I was nothing to her, my own mo…”

Twilight broke into a fresh wave of tears and I held her close along with Fluttershy, I gave Rainbow a little nod indicating that I would take care of this one.

“Twilight, you know this isn’t real, right?” I began. “Princess Celestia would never say those things. I don’t believe for a second that she would treat you so harshly just for associating with Pinkie Pie, and I definitely don’t believe that she would see you as anything less than a daughter. I believe she sees you just as you see her, there’s no way she could have raised you, looked after you and taught you all these years, and let you stay with her if she didn’t care for you, your brother too.

“They would never abandon you no matter what you do in life,” I went on. “It’s exactly like you told me when we ran into each other in Port Mule all that time ago. If your family loves you, then they’ll understand and accept you no matter what mistakes you seem to have made, although in your case I’d say you’ve committed no mistakes whatsoever. Your mother and brother are no more likely to abandon you than we would, and we never will.”

Twilight sniffed before looking up at me, smiling slightly.

“You’re right Rarity,” she replied in a muffled voice. “Thank you.”

Canterlot Castle dissolved, and once more we were standing in nothing as I helped Twilight to her hooves. She looked about at us all, a look of confusion crossing her face.

“Pinkie Pie?” she questioned.

Rainbow pointed past Twilight to the next and final door.

“She’s the last one,” she stated.

“I’m not looking forward to this one,” I admitted as we started walking towards the door.

“Why?” Applejack asked.

“Because whatever can scare Discord, must be pretty terrifying,” I replied in a tense voice, right before we stepped into the light.

The place we emerged in was entirely unfamiliar to all of us, and I was thankful for that. The moment we arrived, I wanted nothing more than to get out again. It was a nightmarish place we found ourselves in, floating in another endless abyss, only this one was made of dark clouds with a sickly green light seeping through the gaps, which went on for all eternity. The world we found ourselves in was filled with chains, pulled taught and going off in all manner of directions, so it felt like we were descending into a haunting, metallic spider web.

But it wasn’t the chains or the clouds that got to us, it wasn’t even the flashes of what appeared to be lightning, that cleaved the world in two for the briefest of moments, or the way the entire universe seemed to sputter and shimmer in and out of existence, it was the screams. There were dozens of them… hundreds of them… thousands… millions… the number only increased the longer we listened. There were infinite souls, all screaming in unending, unparalleled horror and agony, but one scream was closer than all the rest. We could see Pinkie Pie, at some points she was a mere speck in the distance, other moments she flickered right up in front of us.

Five chains held her in place, four holding her spread eagle, meat hooks at the ends, driven into each of the legs. The fifth and final chain was driven right through her torso and travelled out the other side. As we watched, she contorted and writhed, her body occasionally flashing from a pony to a bizarre serpentine creature with mismatched limbs. Only for a brief second however before snapping back, never long enough to make out any details.

“I’m sorry!” she was screaming. “I’m so sorry, please; I can’t take this anymore! Just tell me why! Why did I do it?! What possible reason could have been worth all this?!”

“Pinkie Pie!” Twilight exclaimed, trying to hurry towards her, but only being able to swim slowly through the heavy air.

“Please…” Pinkie moaned. “I’ve tried to make things right… I’ve tried to be better… what more do you want from me?! What more will it take before you realise I’m not the spirit I once was?!”

After an agonisingly long time, we managed to get close enough that we were able to grab hold of Pinkie and stop her blinking around the world.

“Pinkie Pie!” Rainbow Dash called out to her.

“No!” Pinkie screamed, twisting her head away from us. “No more! Please no more!”

“Pinkie this isn’t real!” Rainbow shouted at her.

“Of course it’s not!” Pinkie snapped back, almost incoherent in her emotional ramblings. “Nothing here is! Every second lasts eons, and every new eon is filled with more torment than the last!”

“But we’re real,” I told her. “Your friends are here for real, here to take you away.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Pinkie cried. “This is my fate, I can’t escape it. Death would be better than this, but there is no death in Tartarus, only never-ending suffering.”

“It’s not your fate Pinkie,” Rainbow tried to tell her. “We won’t let this happen to you.”

“You won’t,” Pinkie repeated before turning to Twilight. “But she will!”

“What?” Twilight uttered, looking in horror at Pinkie.

“Why did you do it Twilight?!” Pinkie demanded, as tears streamed down her face. “You knew Celestia would send me back here, why did you hand me over to her?!”

“I… I didn’t!” Twilight stammered in a panic. “I wouldn’t!”

Pinkie didn’t reply, just began twisting her head about as she clenched her mouth shut and let out a muffled scream.

“Pinkie, listen to me!” Twilight shouted, grabbing Pinkie’s head. “I will never give you over to Celestia! I don’t care who you are or who you were, you’re my friend now, and even if I have to defy Celestia to protect you, then so be it!”

Pinkie stopped screaming and was now staring at Twilight in disbelief, her eyes wide and her mouth agape.

“And I mean that,” Twilight finished in an assertive voice.

“You can’t stop her…” Pinkie breathed. “You can’t fight her if she fights back.”

“Not alone she can’t,” Rainbow jumped in. “But we’ll all stand together, even against the Princess herself, we will never allow you to be sent back here.”

Pinkie stared for a moment before swallowing and giving a small nod, finally managing a weak smile. When Tartarus disappeared around us, I was very glad to see it go, It may only have been a dream, but it was doubtlessly the most nightmarish one I had ever experienced. This time we didn’t reappear in endless darkness, but rather we found ourselves sitting on the cave floor, all huddled together. Rainbow Dash was the first to sit up, her eyes immediately focusing on something standing on the opposite side of the cavern we lay in.

“You see!” she exclaimed victoriously as she got to her hooves. “It doesn’t matter what you show us, we’ll always be able to overcome it.”

I sat up myself, while the others did the same, looking to the end of the cavern where the cave exit was, allowing copious amounts of natural light to spill in. Standing just before the exit however, was a gangly figure comprised of old sack and stick limbs, a literal scarecrow, complete with a nightmarish grin stitched into the bag that made its head.

“Even if you make one of us scared,” Rainbow went on. “The rest of us will be there to show them that there’s nothing to be afraid of. As long as we have each other, our valour will be unbreakable!”

The scarecrow stood still for a few seconds, before giving a slow, single nod and lighting up. As it split apart, the shining pieces drifted out the cave mouth and disappeared from view as they were lost in the daylight awaiting us. We were all left in a long, tense silence; it was finally broken when Pinkie Pie spoke up, in a voice that was unusually quiet and uncertain.

“Um… Twilight,” she began. “Did you really mean… what you said back there?”

Twilight looked back at her, and for a brief moment I was worried she had only said it to encourage Pinkie without really meaning it, but then she gave Pinkie a warm smile.

“Yes Pinkie Pie,” she confirmed. “After everything we’ve been through, I’m happy to call you my friend.”

It was a lovely, heart-warming moment for us all, especially when Pinkie pulled Twilight into a hug and Twilight returned it without hesitation. With everypony once again chatting amiably, I walked over to where my lantern had dropped and picked it up, hooking it back onto my belt since we were now at the end of the cave and wouldn’t need it. I looked up at the cave exit and simply stood staring at it, as I did, the chatter slowly died around me, and one by one my friends came and stood by my side, following my gaze.

“So this is it?” Fluttershy asked, voicing everypony’s thoughts.

“Seems so,” Applejack replied.

I turned my head to the left and looked down the line; smiling at all my friends and having them smile back.

“Let’s go then,” I said simply.

We all walked together in unison, marching up the slight incline to the wide opening, all six of us stepping out of the dark and having to shield ourselves from the sudden intensity in light. Once my eyes had adjusted, I took a final breath, bracing myself for what we were about to see, and I lowered the hoof I had risen to shield my eyes… and I looked out across a sea of corpses, and a temple that lay in ruins.