About Us, Without Us

Next day. Morning

When his hoof hit the floor it stirred up cloud of dust so heavy, that almost anypony would at least sneeze. But he was used to it and walking too fast. Everything in his house was covered in centimeters of dust, as if it hadn´t been used for decades. The only place in the room, where the filth wasn´t as strong was the narrow path leading from one door to another.

He never went anywhere else. There was no need to.

His magic grabbed the handle and quickly opened the way to the next room. The movement stirred cloud of dust so large, that even he finally caughed and sneezed. It was present even there, because most of the time he just teleported to his destination. But today he wanted to think and thinking was always easier, when walking. Just a harmless habit.

The room was perfectly clean, compared to the rest of the house. In it´s middle stood large table, mostly covered with strange equipment and bottles, holding liquids, which would propably caused some of his collegues raise their eyebrows, questioning, how he got his hooves on those things. And most importantly – why?

And then, there was a corpse lying on it, surrounded by all those tools and ingrediens. It belonged to a young unicorn mare. She must´ve been beatiful when alive, but now her body has been mutilated the by chemicals and by usage of tools on the table.

He walked to her, put his hoof on one of her wounds and just like dozen times before, her body shined weakly with his magic.

At first, nothing happened. Then her foreleg moved, even though she was dead for days. The limb leaned on the table and tried to create a support for the rest of the body.

Not now!

Some of the dust was still left in his nose and chose that exact moment, to make him sneeze. When he opened his eyes he saw, that the leg, used in the attempt to make the body stand, was now unnaturaly twisted, definetely with every single bone broken in multiple places.

Angry and discousted he levitated the corpse, while opening a hatch on the floor and dropped it there, finally giving it at least some sort of burial.

„I don´t need your help!“ Not a speck of dust answered his refusal. He was alone.

Elsewhere

„And she will just make me the documents?“ Asked Twilight, when Sunnyside explained her, what was her task. Or as the leader of rebels phrased it: what the purple unicorn has to do in oder to be able to help them.

„Pretty much, yes. Obviously your name will be the only true informations. Our enemies don´t know it anyway and it will prevent you from becoming a suspect just because of the habit.“

Her task was to cross the border seperating New Land region and Emperor´s Garden, to meet with Paper Wings. An ally of the rebellion, who was to make her documents, allowing her travel across the Empire of Equestria.

Twilight had finally the oportunity to look at the map and learned, that it was almost identical to the one of her Equestria. Just cities were called differently and on different places. The region they were in – the New Land – was actually called Hayseed Swamp in her home world and the Emperor´s Garden was Filly Delphia and it´s surroundings. No wonder she belived for a second the Empire to be nothing but woods.

The problem was that borders between regions weren´t just stones set in ground, or rivers. There was an invisible magic barrier created by the Inquisition and only they were able to make a hole in it for somepony to pass through. Well, to be exact, to pass through without the entire order going after them. It wasn´t a wall, but more of a alarm spell which could be set off only by a pony, since it led through woods and rivers and the Inquisition didn´t want to be bothered by every single animal, that crossed the border.

„And I think I know, how to get there, without Inquisition´s knowledge. At least I will find out, if the magic in this world works like in our world,“ said Twilight with her all-knowing smile. It felt good, that she could start repaying her debt to Sunnyside.

„That´s great. Otherwise we would have to send somepony with you, to serve as a bait, while you would get to Paper.“

„You would do that?“ The purple unicorn was actually suprised. Sacrifising a pony for another?

„Time taught us, that there are ponies more important then others. We are all willing to give up our lives, if it helps the citizens of Union to free themselves.“

Twilight couldn´t say, that she liked that answer, but it made sense. She just wished for all of them to live happy lives, not ones they had to be prepared to lose.

„So Hoofville it is,“ Hoofville being a fairly large village in Emperor´s Garden region, where Paper Wings lived.

„Yes, but before you go I want you to take this,“ Sunnyside´s horn shined and when she reached her hoof, a simple crystal necklace appeared on it. „Shatter it and it will teleport you back here. It will alert the Inquisition, but I am confident, they won´t be able to find us. Still, only use it, when there is no other option.“

To the border, Twilight would be accompanied by a militant, since Sunnyside said, that a young mare walking though forests alone might arouse suspicion. His name was Gleam Patrol, a yellow pegasus with blue mane, of roughly same age as Twilight. Gleam maybe wasn´t the most experienced fighter, but he grew up in the New Land and knew his way around the region.

Both received saddlebags with food, water and a map. Even though, Twilight wouldn´t be going alone, there still was a possibility, that Gleam wouldn´t be there to accompany her on the way back.

But there was something, that made Twilight really happy. While they would be gone, Sunnyside promised her to send somepony to the place, where she was captured by the grand inquisitor, to search for her lost belongings. The leader of rebels wasn´t there, when it happened, but Fort Desire worked like some sort of hub for rebels from neighbouring regions, and after describing the place, they were able to locate it. It wasn´t New Land´s forest where she appeared, instead it was in part of what she knew as Everfree Forest, which was in Eastland region, streatching from where Los Pegasus should be, almost to where Dodge City would be.

That was the reason, why Sunnyside couldn´t get to Twilight right away, since she planned on disrupting the barrier on their way back. Funny, but the alarm spell on the borders wasn´t that much of a danger and fast enough pegasi were deep in the region, before the inquisitors on guard even reacted. But if they did it too often, the imperials would now, that there is something going on in that particular region.

That brough a question on Twilight´s mind: did the alarm spell recognise gryphons? Sunnyside said, that it works only on ponies, but that would be strange, considering the fact, that Union was pretty much a single state. Truth be told it was easier to say „ponies“ than to name every single intelligent race.

„So, why did you join the rebellion?“ Asked Twilight, shortly after they left the fort, trying to strike up a friendly conversation. Since it seemed she would be stuck in the Union for some time, she might as well make some friends, which brough her to question, if friendship even existed in that society. It propably did, but she didn´t meet, nor talked to enough ponies to be sure.

„I don´t usually tell this story, but Sunnyside told me, that you are completely unacquainted with how the Union works, so guess you should know, so you can make a better picture of what we are up against. You know about the Inquisition, right?“

„Bits and pieces. They are led by the grand inquisitor Snaky Arcanum and they are basically executioners, who hunt down rebels and sometimes help the army with law enforcement. That´s at least what Sunnyside told me.“

„Heh, that does sound like something she would say. But, just between the two of us, Sunnyside is...lets say way too straightforward. She only sees the bad things Inquisition does and believes, that they are all evil because they serve the Emperor, while they saved many innocent lives, by protecting them from creatures too strong for the army to take care of. But I am getting off track.“

„I don´t mind. If I am to help you, I need to understand the enemy too.“

„I know, I know, but I want to finish the story first.“

It seemed like telling the story really mattered to him, so Twilight just nodded and stayed silent. It sounded serious and maybe he hoped that he would feel better after telling her. He seemed really kind, so it was the least she could do.

„They story is actually really short. I used to date a mare. Her name isn´t important at this point. She was like the most kind pony in the Union. An herbalist, you see? No matter what illness you had, or how ritch you were, she always did all she could to help you. You might see the problem already.“

Gleam gave Twilight short look, but continued walking through the forest.

„She was helping the rebels as well. I don´t know, if she agreed with them, but to her they were just ponies who needed help. But...ech...but the Inquisition has no understanding for this and executed her. You see, there is a small branch of inquisitors, called the interrogators: group of unicorns specialized on mind spells. I would lie, if I said I know how exactly they do it, but they are capable of finding out, if you have anything to do with the rebellion. And they are never wrong.

Fortunately they realized, that I didn´t know about anything, unlike her who knew, that she was curing rebels. And so I ended up here, since how could I continue living in that society?“

„That´s...I don´t know what to say. I am sorry. There is almost no hatred in our world. I met only one pony, who truly felt it and we were forced to destroy him to protect our land. I...I understand you. I would hate the Inquisition as well. I was fortunate to never lose anypony, so I don´t know, what I would do.“

To her suprise, Gleam laughed with honest merriment.

„You don´t have to pity me. I am a stallion who at one point wanted to become professional soldier. I don´t feel pain from losing her for a long time now. I am not flowey, nor a mare to be so sensitive. Heh, it wouldn´t bring her back anyway. But more importantly: you are wrong about the reason, why I joined the rebellion. I have no hatred for the Inquisition. Hell! My grandpa, whom I love very much, used to be an inquisitor and still is a great pony.“

She would say, that he was just trying to impress her, but there was such strong certainty and honesty in his voice, that there was no doubt he was telling her truth. Were minds of these ponies so different from the ones she knew?

„I don´t get it. Why then?“

„Heh. There is a strange enjoynment in complexing somepony so unacquainted. Sorry. You just don´t understand, what the Inquisiton is all about. I do not hate them, because they are doing only what they believe to be the right thing. She was helping their enemies. We are at war. Sunnyside might tell you, how many friends we lost to the Inquisition and the army, but they are no different. Both imperial soldiers and inquisitors lost comrades and family members to our people and my marefriend was knowingly healing those, who did it. Have you though about it?“

He wasn´t mad at her, but Twilight still looked down at the ground in shame. She wanted to say, that she isn´t used to thinking about such things, since she never was at war, but it felt like a pathetic excuse.

„I hate the Emperor. And that´s why I joined.“

„I don´t get it. Why doesn´t Inquisition and the army help you overthrow the Emperor? Sunnyside told me about the everpresent fear, but somepony as powerful as Snaky Arcanum must be strong enough to resist it. And if everything they do is for sake of the Union, then you should have the same goal! To get rid of the tyrant!“

„That would be nice, wouldn´t it? Having Arcanum as an ally would be gift from the heavens. But I can tell you, why they do, what they do. They believe that citizens are living good lives under his rule. And guess what? They are. To an extent. The majority of ponies are living good lives. There is no poverty, the goverment generously takes care of sick ones, old ones and even orphans. But, there is a large but. This doesn´t justify the rest of the things goverment does.

They should not force barely adult colts to attend brutal training in the army, ponies should not be thrown into jails for saying outloud what they don´t like about the system, prisioners shouldn´t be tortured, ponies should not be bullied just because they love the same gender and brothers shouldn´t execute their sisters! Which is what my marefriend´s brother did. He and most of other inquisitors are so influenced by... traditions...“

Gleam said that last word like an insult and for the first time, she heard anger in his voice.

„...that all their love can turn into hatred in an instant! When they told him, that his sister betrayed the Union he volunteered to be her executioner!“

The unicorn took a deep breath in an attempt to calm down. This was obviously something he was holding inside him for some time.

„Inquisitors don´t care. None of these are their problems. Pride. What a joke! It´s nothing but bunch of obsolete habits and customs, holding everypony back. I am not a flowey, but tell me, is it right for a family to expel their child, just because it fells in love with the same gender?

That´s why I joined. Because I do care, even if it isn´t my problem. Because the Union can be better! Ponies can live better lives. We can have more.“

With that, Gleam seemed to lose all his energy. He was breathing heavily and his eyes were blank. He probably wasn´t in the forest anymore and instead was re-living some old distant memory.

Twilight decided to not disturb him. Even if he seemed joyful, his life propably wasn´t nearly as happy, as his attitude would led one to believe.

She herself had lot of things to think about. It was clear, why the rebellion existed and there was no doubt in her mind, that she had to do everything to help them defeat the Emperor. But there was something she wanted to do at some point. Something Sunnyside and propably not even Gleam would aprove of.

I have to meet with Snaky Arcanum. I have to convince him to help us. Sunnyside said, that Inquisition is doing everything he orders them to. And if it´s true, that they also protect the citizens, it means that he ultimately means well. I am sure, that they just use wrong means and follow the wrong orders.

Afterall, even without wings, I am princess of friendship and if somepony can bring peace to rebels and the Inquisition, it´ s me.

„We have reached the border.“

Twilight was so lost in her thoughts, mindlessly following a dirt path, that if he didn´t spoke out, she would pass the border stones and triggered the alarm.

„Now let´s hope, that this plan of yours is going to work. Can you explain it to me, so we could try to replicate it, in case it works?“

„Well, in my Equestria all barrier and shield spells are made the same way. Imagine the bubble shield as a very thin waterfall, in which the water comes right back. The magic doesn´t usually follow the laws of gravity, but this kind follows one different law of physics. What happens if you put our hoof into a waterfall?“

Gleam wasn´t sure, if that was a real question, but answered anyway: „The water splatters everywhere.“

„Excactly, the splatters are what the caster notices, the disturbance itself is part of the alarm. But if you put something like a blade of a knife into the waterfall, the flow almost doesn´t change, yet the knife still get´s through.“

„So what you are going to do is change the shape of your shield, into a blade, so that you can cross the border, without any magic splattering?“

„Yes!“

„Welp, I´ll tell Sunnyside about it and maybe she can do it. To me all this magical stuff is completely unfamiliar. Now let´s see, if you can do it.“

The militant gave her confident smile.

It was tough, but Twilight eventually managed to conjure several meters tall sharp blade-like shield around her. It wasn´t practical and was very difficult to maintain. The key to spells like that was focus, any slight disruption could change the shape of the shield and ruin it´s purpouse.

When it seemed to be stable enough, the purple mare walked in the direction, she knew the border was. Her eyes were closed, risking she might trip, but Twilight didn´t want to let her sight distract her.

She walked few meters more then she had to, but the unicorn wanted to be sure, that she crossed. Since the barrier itself was invisible there was no telling when was it safe to disable the shield.

„I will hide here and wait for you till the evening, then I will return to the Fort. Good luck and don´t forget: if you see any soldiers or, First protect you, inquisitors, don´t look them in the eyes. Just walk past them and try to look, like you have a clear goal. I believe Sunnyside explained to you, how to find Paper Wings?“

„Yes. Good luck to you too,“ both ponies waved at each other and parted their ways. Twilight was now alone, folowing the map she got, in a potentionaly hostile region. Thankfuly, the village was rather close to the borders, at the south-east side of the region, near a mountain.

What wasn´t great was that Twilight would have to at certain point cross a river, meaning she had to either find a bridge and risking meeting with a patrol there, or teleporting on the other side. She decided to go with the second option, since, from what she saw, the use of magic and teleportation was so common, that nopony should notice.

Later that day

After succesfully crossing the river, Twilight continued traveling through a forest undetected. Ocassionally she was so close to the edge, that she could see the main road and it was strangely empty. The unicorn didn´t have the opportunity to see it very often, but when she did look, there was nopony using it.

There was no reason for ponies to not live in Emperor´s Garden, as far as she knew and she would expect the road to be full of travellers and mainly traders, going in and out of the region to either sell things, or buy new products.

After about two hours of following various dirt roads, made most likely by local lumberjacks, Twilight heard something strange: distant roar coming from the direction where Hoofville was. Whatever it was, it wasn´t a pony and Twilight could swear she heard it before.

And it definetely didn´t sound like something that should be near ponies, so with the edge of the forest in her sight, Twilight started running, with occasional teleportation jump, to get to Hoofville as quickly as possible.

The houses were closing in and mare´s stomach constricted, when she didn´t see anypony there. The village was layed out on top of a hill, at the bottom of the local mountainside. Because of that she could only see very small part of her goal, but the roar, now really close, assured her, that something was terribly wrong. And she still couldn´t remember, when did she hear it before.

Last jump and she appeared between some houses on the edge of the village. The laud roar didn´t repeat, but Twilight now could also hear some distant growling and shouting of ponies. She was too far to understand the words, but it sounded like angry orders and warnings.

All the voices were for a moment silenced by a loud crashing noise, followed by animalistic roar.

„Watch out damnit!“

Her vision was blocked by a body dressed in like ashes grey uniform and just second later a huge piece of wall was crushed after hitting a magical shield the pony casted at the last moment. When the rubble stopped raining, her savior turned to her and Twilight now could see, that she was saved by a stallion, but couldn´t say, if he was younger or older. His face was covered in dust mixed with sweat.

„What is happening here?“ Asked Twilight, before he could pester her, which was something he seemed to be about to do.

„Are you deaf? There is a dragon attacking!“ Now she remembered, where did she hear the roar before.

From one of the streets rushed to them group of ponies. Three of them were wearing dark grey armor, short black cloaks with red sun on them and strange bracelets on their forelegs. The rest of their group were five mares and two children. They must´ve been the local villagers.

„Are you two alright?“ Asked one of the soldiers, whose mane was starting to turn grey with age. He seemed to be the one in charge.

„Obviously. Did you find everypony?“ Responded Twilight´s savior and the older pony just nodded.

„Okay, you!“ he turned his attention back to her. „Go with them, the soldiers will lead you to a safer place. I am going back there.“ The last sentence was for the old soldier, who again nodded and motioned her to follow him.

„Let me help!“ It didn´t matter, that those ponies were imperials and that one of them was even an inquisitor. A dragon was everypony´s problem.

„No way in hell. Just go with them to the safe place and let the Inquisition take care of things,“ he sounded angry, but Twilight could tell that he was just hiding his uncertainty. His eyes betrayed him, when he looked in the direction the noise was coming from.

„I faced a dragon twice before, I can be helpful!“

Her grey uniformed savior looked indecisively at the older soldier. It was obvious that he wasn´t used to making important decisions, but the officer, since it he had to be some higher rank for an inquisitor to ask him for an advice, just shrugged.

„Alright. Stormrage you take the civilians to safety. You, girl, come with me.“

She did as he said and ran behind him deeper into the village. Along the way they saw some destruction, like caved in roofs caused propably by debree falling on them, but no signs of fire, which was strange considering that most of dragons used fire as their primary weapon.

„What color is the dragon?“ Twilight shouted at him, so he could hear her over the screams in the distance.

„Black scales and orange stomach. Does it mean anything?“

„Well that´s both good and bad. Dragons differ by the color and every kind does something diferentely. For example-“

„Briefly!“

„Black dragon can´t use it´s fire breath right away. It takes some time to prepare it, but when it does use it there won´t be much left of the village.“

„So we have to pray that the help comes soon.“

They finally reached the very peak of the hill and Twilight could now see the dragon. It was just as huge, as the red one she and her friends met years ago, when it covered Ponyville in smoke. But it behaved strange. From their position it looked as if it was trying to destroy something in front of it, but was failing. But Twilight didn´t have enough time to think about it, as she kept on following the inquisitor, who introduced himself as Vortex Reach.

Finally they arrived to what propably used to be village´s square, before the dragon ripped it to pieces with it´s claws. Against it was five inquisitors and twice as much regular soldiers. Some of them were hurt and every single one of them looked tired. The unicorns from casting one shield after another to protect the buildings or their comrades and the soldiers from trying to take the beast down.

And judging by several dead bodies and huge blood splatters they were losing. This was the first time Twilight saw a dead body and the sight made her almost throw up, but she kept her composure. There were ponies in danger and she had to help them. Strange thought went through her mind: it was the third time she was facing a dragon, but the first time the goverment was helping her.

Seriously. Almost everytime there was some kind of danger, whether it were dragons, timber wolves or evil magicians, it was up to Twilight and her friends. This time it was her helping the army, enemy army no less.

„Listen, I will try to come up with a plan. You help the others and make sure that the dragon doesn´t kill them. If you find yourself with free time on your hooves, then try to protect the building too, but lives are more important. And don´t worry about the citizens, there is a group of inquisitors protecting them.“

It was interesting to hear, that Vortex was capable of sarcasm in a situation like that, but Twilight figured that it was his way of calming down. She was about to do what she was asked to, but somepony else seemed to already have a plan.

„We need you to protect everypony for few seconds. We´ll just grab the wounded and get them to safety, then come back and support you,“ shouted at her different pony in grey uniform, without even turning his head. He was too focused on blocking dragon´s movement. Sometimes two or more shields appeared on the same place, as there was no coordination, but it didn´t  cost almost any energy, if the shield didn´t get hit, so it created something like backup.

„I can do that.“

Determined Twilight teleported just few steps from the dragon and casted her spell. She tried to put as much force into the shield´s creation as posible and as a result, the dragon was thrown off balance and almost fell backwards from the sheer impact of her magic, with it´s body.

„Holy...“ she heard voice of the inquisitor who told her to do that, followed by the sounds of teleportation. The dragon quickly recovered, but for some reason, it didn´t try to punch through the shield anymore. Instead it was taking deep breaths and Twilight could swear, that she heard some strange noises, similar to gushing of wind coming from it´s chest, where the lungs were. It was preparing to breathe fire.

„Turn off the shield! Now!“

Behind her was standing Vortex with two soldiers, propably those who were the least hurt. Now she could see, what the bracelets were for. They were weapons. Magical swords and shields, hidden, most likely in crystals, which the bracelets were holding. Twilight never thought about using stones for something like that and nopony else in her Equestria propably did either, since they were still using metal spears. They must´ve been very similar to the arcane book. Spell and some energy to turn it on and one had instantly weapon more durable and effective then anything ponies could make out of a metal.

She wasn´t sure, what the inquisitor planned, so she did as he said. When the last bit of her purple magic dissolved in the air, the two guards, for a blink of an eye, disappeared and reappeared flying incredibly fast towards the dragon´s neck, suddenly with a strong magic rope inbetween them.

Vortex teleported himself too and it was when he appeared in front of beast´s eyes, holding a unstable looking ball of magic, Twilight realized, what was his plan. He planned on staggering the dragon with his attack and have to rope to make the beast fall and pin it´s head to the ground, forcing it to beathe the fire harmlessly in the air.

But only the most talented and skilled unicorns could pull off such powerful attack and teleport away in time. Vortex wasn´t  as powerful, other inquisitors were exhaused and she...she wasted her time by hesitating and now the young pony, who saved her life, was destined to die in the fire.

Or not?

All three ponies disappeared, before they could even touch the dragon. It, seeing an opportunity to attack, threw it´s head and in the next moment breathed column of dark grey fire so strong, that even Twilight, who was standing at it´s feet gasped in pain.

But as quickly as the heat appeared, it was gone and the pain slowly followed. The mare looked up and gasped in shock. The flame stopped in the middle of it´s way toward the group of ponies, bend straight up and went harmlessly into the sky.

In the place of the bend was floating a pony in what looked like upgraded version of Inquisition uniform. But instead of simply covering the chest and forelegs, that version was more of a coat, with four sleeves, high collar and a hood. On top of that the pony was also wearing tall black boots and a mask of the same color. De facto every part of his body was covered, even his tail was hidden. He looked more like some kind of ghost, or maybe even demon rulling over flames.

At least, that´s how others except for Twilight propably saw him. She could feel it: his shield was very high level of defensive magic, but it didn´t seem to fit to him. She couldn´t say, if the newcomer would be able to save them, but she was certain, that if things would be going the way they were, there still would be a marthyr at the end of the day.

This time she wouldn´t let her hesitation endanger the ones who saved her. The next moment she was  hovering next to the mysterious pony and put all the magic she had left into the shield. Even with her alicorn leveled magic, she wasn´t her brother and so her addition to the shield only rapidly increased their chance of survival, but didn´t ensure it.

No! What is he doing?

The shield was changing. Their shield could be imagined as two canvases of cloth, on top of each other, but for some reason, the masked pony was pulling „strings“ from the half protecting him and adding them on Twilight´s side. More and more magic was being moved in that way, that Twilight soon wasn´t in any danger and the shield was ensured to redirect the flames till the end.

Stench of burned cloth and fur filled her nose, followed by painful growling. The pony next to her was now in mortal danger. With so many strings missing he still was protected from the flames themselves, but the heat was so high, that his suit started to scortch, along with his fur. He was covering his eyes with his hoof, but it also caused the cloth covering it to catch on fire. Something kept on extinguishing all open flames, but everytime something ignited it caused more and more pain and damage.

„No! Stop holding my magic. You are gonna die!“ shouted at him Twilight, when she realized, that she can´t  give the shield´s strings back. His magic was on top of hers and she didn´t have any strenght left to overpower him.

„Come on friends! For the Emperor!“ shouted somepony behind them, on the ground.

Some were weaker, some were stronger, but quickly the part of shield, that was protecting the mysterious inquisitor, got covered and enforced by strings of different colors and powers.

Who´s are they?

Twilight couldn´t fully turn around, or else she would disrupt the shield, so she at least checked on the pony next to her. His suit was full of huge burned in holes and on some places it was about to fall of. The most worrying were red spots on his skin, but he didn´t look seriously hurt.

She was still looking at him, when she realized, that the flame stopped. Twilight looked to the dragon, prepared to face him again, but instead all she could do was to stare in horror.

There was blood-like red, with black core magical tentacle around the beast´s neck slowly squeezing the life out of it. It´s eyes were filled with primal fear as the dragon hopelessly scratched it´s own neck in an attempt to get rid of it´s killer. But not even dragon strenght could save it from the horrible fate. Slowly, but surely dragon´s eyes went blank, movement of limbs slowed down and finally, with few last twitches, the huge creature fell to the ground.

Dead, but the image of the dragon desperately clinging to life still haunted Twilight´s mind. Dragons were intelligent creatures, as much as ponies, so what made this one attack the Hoofville?

Darkness of her thoughts was pushed away by cheer of ponies behind her. She looked and saw citizens of the village – the ones who combined their strenght to save the burned inquisitor, who was doing his best to stand still. The suit was just hanging on him and the mask protecting his face fell off after having it´s strap burned apart.

He looked about same age as Twilight, maybe a bit older.

Are there no old ponies in the Inquisition?

Besides the cheering crowd there was a group of ponies, who weren´t there, when Twilight arrived and who definetely didn´t look like normal villagers. There was twelve of them, six wearing the same suits as the one, who saved her and the other six wore the same type, but white and red and without the masks.

„Necri! Are you alright?“ one of the grey uniformed ponies left the group and runned to the wounded pony, along the way dropping their mask, revealing a pretty mare underneath. Twilight just politely stepped away and watched her hug him.

The mare inquisitor didn´t say anything, but from the look she gave to Twilight, the purple unicorn knew that she was grateful and smiled back. To give them some privacy she looked, what the rest of the newcomers were doing and to her amusement all of them were doing something, even if it was just looking at the damages. Horns of five red and white inquisitors were shining in different colors, but without any visible effect. The inquisitors seemingly also didn´t want in any way disturb those two.

After few moments, one of the red and white uniformed ponies spoke:

„Citizens of the Union, my name is Crimson Scythe. The head interrogator of the Inquisition. First I want to assure you, that the Empire of Equestria will do everything in it´s power to help you in these difficult times. Homes will be rebuild and the security increased, that I can promise you. But now we have to punish those, who stand behind this discousting betrayal. The attack of the dragon was no coincidence. The beast was driven mad by dark magic and it is our duty as Inquisition, to find and punish the evildoer.“

While the pony was talking, Necri, being supported by the mare inquisitor, hubbled his way to him and something whispered into his ear. Judging by Crimson´s face he wasn´t too happy about what he heard, but didn´t argue.

Gasps and suprised screams sounded from all around Twilight. Tentacles, same as the one that ended dragon´s life, were now holding in the air five ponies, one of them being the old soldier, whom Twilight met after arriving into Hoofville.

„Every single one of these is a traitor. After this trial we ask you to report any crime to me and the Inquisition will take upon itself to find the culprit. Since commander Stormrage was working with the rebels, it´s highly possible that he also covered them.“

Crimson was about to say more, but some angry voice from the crowd jumped in.

„Stormrage you bastard, it´s because of you Duskglider is still missing!“

The accusation was followed by loud approval from the rest of the crowd. Everypony was looking at the prisioners with hatred and every now and then Twilight could hear insults. There was no doubt in their minds, that their former friends were traitors to the Union and even though they couldn´t know what exactly they did, it was enough to turn any fondness into hostility.

„The rest of you. I am giving you opportunity to confess to your crimes, so at least you can die with dignity.“

Nopony said anything, so Crimson raised his foreleg - a sign to prepare for the execution.

I have to do something!

Twilight reached for the little magic she had left, but nothing happened. Her magic was being shielded from her will.

Shielded?

Twilight somehow knew, where to look and her eyes met with the grey ones belonging to Necri. When he noticed she realized it, he just shaked his head.

Her hopes on saving the ponies from execution crumbled to dust, when she heard five necks break, followed by the sound of their bodies hitting the ground and the crowd cheering. Twilight´s eyes floded with tears and her legs just gave up under her.

„Don´t worry about it. Lady Guillotine isn´t one for commendations. I will never forget, how you helped us instead of getting to safety,“ said Vortex´s voice behind her. He seemingly didn´t notice her crying and explained her weakness as simple fatigue and, or minor letdown, from Guillotine´s lack of interest.

She was scared. She knew that Necri wasn´t going to let her go. He knew, that she was a rebel, but events of last minutes were too much for her. Twilight wanted to run away, to be back home. In Equestria where ponies didn´t live knowing that every day might be their last and where crowds didn´t cheer, when their neighbours were executed for following their ideals.

The necklace!

In all that mess, she completely forgot she had it. With her sight fuzzy Twilight grabbed the crystal on her neck. She had to hurry, because Crimson, Necri and Guillotine were coming straight towards her.

With fear kicking her into overdrive she crushed the small crystal with her hooves. The last thing she saw, before the released magic teleported her away, was Necri´s confused face.

That expression stayed in front of her eyes even after she found herself in the Fort Desire.

Literally. Necri was standing right in front of her and after quick look around, he looked anything but happy.