Rainbow Dash and the Pie Sisters

by KingMoriarty

Rating: teen
Tags: Alternate Universe, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Rainbow Dash, King Sombra, Crystal Ponies, Adventure, Maud Pie, Pinkie Pie
Length: 7544

With the Crystal War finally over, three veterans gather to reminisce about the early days, and the part they played.

Everyone knows the story of the Iron Wing. They all know how fiercely she fought at the battle of Rainbow Falls. Soldiers measure their worth by where they were when she routed Sombra at the gates of Canterlot. Even now, there's a pilgrimage some take that follows her entire campaign.

And anyone who knows anything about the Iron Wing knows about the Demolition Crew. The story of the Crystal Collapse is one fraught with thrills and chills for fillies of all ages, and the closing of the Ghastly Gorge continues to inspire and terrify all who hear of it.

But legends seldom begin as the titans they become. Heroes are not born, but made, through fire and pain and loss. There isn't a pony alive who doesn't know the story of the heroes, but the story of the soldiers who became those heroes is one known only to them.

This is not the story of Iron Wing and the Demolition Crew. This is the story of Rainbow Dash and the Pie sisters.

Published 2015-12-21 03:00:02 UTC
Last updated 2016-01-02 02:28:50 UTC

Rainbow - I Was Dying

"Welcome to the Wonderbolts, kid."

It seemed like I'd been waiting my whole life to hear those words. Ever since that first show in Cloudsdale, I had wanted to wear the blue and yellow and fly with the best of the best. And then, I finally had it, you know? And I was on top. Like, higher than the clouds, even. I may have just been a private, but I felt like the princess when I put on the uniform that first time.

I kind of hated the helmet, though. I had to stuff my whole mane into that thing, and let me tell you, there used to be a lot more of the ol' rainbow crown. Plus, the whole face-guard thing was just restrictive. I mean, I didn't have trouble breathing or anything, but it muffled everything I tried to say, and I couldn't really flex my jaw that much. Still, the helmet had a lightning bolt on it, so I tried to ignore the drawbacks and focus on the positives.

Looking back, there weren't too many of those. I was mostly just excited to finally get in.

I had barely started wearing that puppy in when we got the call from up top. The main force needed new blood, and they needed it the next day. It didn't take an hour before the standards for field duty went from 'a month of training' to 'able to fly'. There were fillies wearing Wonderbolt blue, for Luna's sake.

Shut up. It's been, like, three years since she died. It's okay to say it now.

But anyway, since I was already a pro speedster, they fast-tracked me up to Sergeant. I would be going in at the very front. I mean, we all would be, but I was the only new recruit who actually had it marked as my official position. Of course, I was so excited you could barely even see my wings flutter. I mean, back then it was a big deal, you know? I had been a fan of the general back when she was a stunt flyer, and now I was going to be flying with her to protect Equestria. It was a dream come true.

Guh.

Damn, Maud, this is some great whiskey. Now where was I?

Training? What training? When did I... oh, right.

Already told you, they didn't have time to train us. All they needed was a new flock of wings. Remember, this was back when the empire was making big moves, expanding its borders and all that. Sometimes, all they wanted was a bit of extra muscle to try and push the crystals back.

Of course, I wasn't about to shut up, stay out of the way and maybe do a fly-by or two. No way, no how.

So when I stepped off the airship onto my first battlefield, I was ready. I had on the whole damn uniform, polished and cleaned as much as I had time to do. Sure, I was wearing the same uniform as everypony else, but I'd like to think I stood out. I don't think I stood still for even a second once we were there.

General Spitfire and her crew weren't that happy to see me. Can't say I blame 'em; everyone except me was pretty sure I was gonna bite it that day. They were pretty nice about it, though. Spitfire even said she'd autograph my helmet if we made it through the day. Well, if I was motivated before, you can bet I wasn't going to hang back with a carrot like that being dangled in front of me.

On that first day, I expected trumpets. I thought there would be some great horn for them to blow, to let us know it was time to go, to let the crystal ponies know we were coming. But even back then, we were waiting for the signal from the princess herself. That first time, I barely even saw it, and I almost missed the mark. That was when things started to go wrong.

Obviously, I didn't fit the formation. Those guys had been flying together since before the war. They barely even said a word to each other while we were flying. And I mean, I know I'm a good flyer, but I had never flown with the Wonderbolts. Sure, I had memorized all their routines back from when I was a kid, but there's a difference between watching and performing. That and I didn't recognize half the maneuvers they were pulling off. War and acrobatics just aren't the same.

They tried to fit me into the pattern, they really did. At the time, I didn't think they gave two bits about me, but looking back, it's obvious how much they cared. They tried to give me orders, tried to direct me, but they were so set in the pattern that they kept forgetting to cut me in. I tried to follow after, but it became pretty clear pretty fast that I wasn't fitting in. I decided to split off and do my own thing. After all, I had been training since I was a filly. Back then, I thought I could do the work of the whole squad, and in half the time.

That was my second mistake. I dove right into the heat of the battle, and I'm lucky I didn't get a concussion in the first five seconds. I had to fly, I had to dodge obstacles, but I also had to crash. And I had to crash with purpose, not by accident. I wasn't used to fighting back then, and I definitely wasn't used to switching between air and land at the drop of a helmet. Still, I made more than a few heads roll on my first day.

And then I saw him. Riding the dark crystals as they grew out of the ground, surfing on the borders of his empire, was King Sombra. I still remember that gaudy cape flapping in the wind, that bloodthirsty grin on his face as he tore across the land. And the laughter. Damn that laughter.

He was laughing like a foal on Hearth's Warming. I could hear how happy he was, could see it in the way he moved. I almost wish I could have tasted how happy he was, just so I could vomit it all up. It was the first time since the war started that I had seen real smiles, had heard real laughter, and it was coming from that monster. In that moment, I learned what hatred was. I knew evil, and I felt the urge to destroy it.

The rest of the battle... it didn't matter any more. The soldiers weren't important, the crystal horde might as well have been smoke, even the Wonderbolts just sort of faded into the background. From where I was standing, I had a mission. My mission was to kill Sombra, and I wasn't about to let anypony get in my way. Third mistake.

It was like there wasn't any space between us. Every inch of empty air seemed to fade away with every beat of my wings. I went from being surrounded by soldiers to circling around the base of the crystals. Sombra didn't look like he had seen me coming, so I crept closer. I tried to be as quiet as I could. I was scanning his armor, looking for any weakness, any place where I could obviously hurt him. I found it, too.

The wind was pretty strong that day. Sombra's mane was getting blown all over the place, and when it blew the whole thing to the left, I saw a chink in the armor. His metal collar ended just below the magic pressure point. You know, that one place where you can hit a unicorn and knock out their ability to do magic for a few minutes? Well, King Sombra, Mister Backup Plan himself, didn't seem like he knew about it. It was completely exposed, a perfect vulnerability.

A good soldier would have fallen back then. A good soldier would have reported back to her superiors, told them about the key weakness, and maybe get to play distraction when they sent a force to take him down. A good soldier would have stayed quiet, would have counted her blessings, would have stayed quiet and slunk away.

I was not a good soldier. I saw a way to end the war, and I seized it. Carpe diem and all that crap. Spread my wings wide, pulled back a hoof, and was totally ready to knock that tyrant down a peg. That was the last time Rainbow Dash made a mistake.

The moment I moved in, I froze. I should have known it would happen, should have seen his horn glowing, but I wasn't thinking clearly. I couldn't move any part of me. Not a single feather, barely even a twitch of the eyes. The spire Sombra was standing on suddenly grew a dome all around us. We were shut out from the war. I was trapped in a crystal with Sombra. Then, before he had even turned around to face me, he started talking. Sweet Celestia, I can still remember every word he said to me.

"To cripple an earth pony, one must first separate them from the earth. To cripple a unicorn, one must strike at the back of the neck." He put a hoof over the spot I had been aiming for, and I swear I heard him chuckle. "The pegasus is perhaps the most difficult to cripple; one must take away the space their wings move in. But tell me, little pony, how does one cripple an alicorn?"

"You can't break Celestia." I had enough bravado to spit that sentence at him, if you can believe it. He actually turned my spit to crystals in midair. He turned just enough so I could see that grin. How could a unicorn have so many fangs?

"Not in the physical sense, I know. This isn't the first Crystal War, after all. But there is a means by which an alicorn might be broken. It is the same way that any monarch who sees their subjects as alive might be broken." I started to feel my wings spreading against my will. "To break a princess, one must first break their subjects."

I told him it would only anger her, that my death would make her fight harder. He laughed that arrogant, childish laugh of his and said, "The first few times, yes. Martyrs are such powerful motivators, after all. But eventually, my victims will cease to be battle standards, and become notches on a sword. I will show Celestia, pony by pony if I have to, the cost of war." My left wing was starting to hurt a hell of a lot more than my right wing.

I wasn't about to go down quiet, of course. I told him, I dragged up all my courage and I yelled at him, "You idiot! Do you have any idea what will happen if Celestia loses hope?"

"I know exactly what it will do to her." He finally turned to face me, and to this day I wish he hadn't. Those eyes... If there were nothing left of Sombra but his eyes, we would still be at war. When he looked at me, I was afraid. The worst part is, I wasn't afraid of anything. I wasn't afraid of him, I wasn't afraid of the future, I wasn't even afraid when my joints started to bend wrong. It was just fear. Total, overriding fear. No source to confront, no phobia to explain away.

What are you talking about? My eyes are fine.

"I did not survive for nearly a thousand years as a puff of smoke because of dumb luck, whelp. There are plans, and plans within those plans. If the sun fell from the sky tomorrow, I would survive. And even if I did not?" That smile. Like a shark and Nightmare Moon had a baby, like a murderer when he knows his insanity plea just went through. "A world of ash, with only Celestia to walk its wastes, caring so little for her kingdom that she would rather watch it burn than let anypony challenge her rule. If that is to be my legacy, then I will have won."

The pain distracts me from the fear. Only a second, though. Eyes fill my vision, drown out my thoughts. He speaks. "These are lovely wings, soldier. Might I ask how you came by them?" He is tearing off my helmet and face guard. I can't hide my face, can't hide my pain. Hurts so much...

"S-Sergeant Rainbow Dash, Wonderbolts." Words not coming easily. Keep getting caught on something in my throat. "I was a profe-ARRGH!" Shit, I think he just snapped my muscles! Can't even twitch my wing anymore! Sombra's still waiting for me, though. Is he going to hurt me more if I'm too slow? "I was a professional speedster, SIR!"

"Liar." That word feels like a knife. Knife on my feathers... wait, is he plucking my feathers? "I have seen speedsters. In the Equestria Games, in a time when we held tournaments because wars didn't give us enough excuses to show off our muscles, I saw pegasi who made the skies their obedient slave. A dear friend of mine helped me to get close, to admire their physique. I have seen the wings of champions." OW! What the buck did he tear that time? I don't think I heard anything crack. "These are not the wings of a speedster."

How dare he? "Cloudsdale circuit twenty times in my sleep! Swear it on my mother!"

"Promising on the dead does nothing but tell me how false it is." He's twisting my wing this way and that, bending it in ways you shouldn't bend wings. "Look at the down on these coverts. Look at all this moisture built up in the primaries. Fluffy rainclouds from the day you were born, and not a hoof onto the ground since. These are the wings of a weatherpony. I wouldn't tolerate these wings on a hoofball water boy."

Okay, what just popped? I can just barely feel my wing. I think he dislocated my OH GODDESS I CAN FEEL IT OH BUCK HE'S TEARING IT GAAAAAAAAAAA-

Wait, where's my wing? Where the buck did that monster throw my wing? How the hell did I get here? Who are you? Why am I not bleeding?

No, stay away! Stay away from me, you crazy-

Maud - I Was Trying

Sir? Sir? It's okay, sir.

No, please don't struggle, sir. Look, your wing's right here, sir. Nothing's happened to it. Yes it is, sir. How very observant of you, sir.

That hurt, sir. That actually hurt. I'm impressed.

Please just lie down, sir. Try to calm down. We're your friends, sir. The war's been over for quite a while now, sir.

Pinkamena? Help me, please. She doesn't want to calm down.

No. No, that won't be necessary. She'll be okay in a few minutes. She'll be okay...

Sir, you remember what happened after you lost your wing, don't you? No, before you got here, sir. About a year ago, sir.

I wasn't there for all of it. I heard that Sombra threw you off the spire after he ripped your wing off. I don't think any of us ever found your wing. We found you, though. Well, they found you. I think it was one of the Wonderbolts. No, not Spitfire. I think it might have been Fleetfoot. I don't know who that is either, sir. The name just sounds familiar.

I was there when they brought you in. I watched three soldiers that everyone said didn't have time for fear or decency, carrying a greenhoof sergeant in on a stretcher. I saw the tourniquet. They made it out of your uniform. They tied it so tight, I think they made it worse. The nurses started yelling at them as soon as they landed, but I wasn't standing very close. I don't know if the tourniquet was too tight.

I noticed your mane. The rest of the war always looked like rocks. There was a lot of gold and lazurite, and the camps were very basalt, and the battlefields were chalk and arkose. But there isn't a rock with all the colors of your mane. I've never heard of any rainbow rock. I used to study rocks, you know, before the war. I've been thinking of going back and getting my rocktorate.

No, sir, it isn't silly. It's a degree. It's very prestigious.

Yes, your mane. Your mane didn't look like a rock. Didn't even remind me of any rocks. Even Celestia reminded me of a rock, but you didn't. You were different.

I hadn't been deployed that day. They were saving me for when the situation was desperate. I didn't have anything to do that day. There was a spot, in the corner of the medical tent, where I wasn't in anypony's way. I wanted to watch. It would help prepare me for the battlefield.

The surgeons knew what they were doing. They cut off the rest of the bone and cleaned up the edges of the wound pretty fast. I didn't know unicorns were so good at detailed work. It was good to know that.

Oh, I'm sure it hurt. You kept gritting your teeth and twitching your wings. Your mane got pretty matted with sweat. Your fur was pretty wet too. Like you just had a bath. I think you started crying after a while.

No, you wouldn't have remembered this. The surgeons were using a lot of sleep magic and anesthetic on you.

The Wonderbolts didn't really know how to stay out of the way. Ponies kept bumping into General Spitfire. She didn't look like she really knew what was going on. After a while, she started asking where your helmet was.

Please don't cry, sir. Pinkamena, could you get her chair standing up again? Thank you. Come on over here, sir. You'll feel better once you can sit down. There. Are you feeling better, sir? You look a bit more relaxed.

Because you're a Wonderbolt, sir. I'm just a demolitions expert. You were our squad leader. Yes, Pinkamena, I do mean past tense. The war is over, after all.

Yes, sir, that is your wing. Yes, sir, you did lose your wing fighting Sombra. It's still your wing, sir. Here, let me show you.

See, it just goes on right here. It still fits the groove of the stump. It was made to. Now, the straps go here, over here, now through underneath there, and then... Yes, that's right. See, you do remember.

Oh, these ones? The hoof controls. They go right down your leg, just like this, and then you just move your hoof to move the wing. Yes, just like that. Very good, sir.

Is it? I never really looked at it that way. Oh, I didn't know it caught the light like that. Is it heavy, sir? Oh. Good. I would hate to find that out now, sir.

Because I made it for you, sir.

Well, I didn't make the whole thing. I'm not a blacksmith. I'm a rockologist. Well, I could be. Please don't laugh at me, sir. It's my dream. Yes, that as well, sir.

The doctors all agreed you would survive. Spitfire was very happy to hear that. She has a very shiny smile. Like diamonds, but not very much. But the doctors also said you'd never be able to fly again. They said they couldn't make a replacement wing. It would take too long, and they didn't have any golem specialists on staff.

I started thinking when I heard that. I wondered what you would think if you woke up and got told you couldn't fly. You were a Wonderbolt, after all. Being able to fly with them was probably a big part of why you joined the war. And you were a pegasus, too. I didn't know much about pegasi, but I thought that flying would probably be pretty important to a pegasus. Pegasi usually get cutie marks that have something to do with flying, too, and I didn't know what kind of cutie mark a one-winged pony might get. I started thinking that there must be a way for you to fly.

I went for a very long walk. I strayed out of camp, but it wasn't a big deal because I strayed south. We thought the south was safe back then, after all. Pinkamena, are you okay? Please don't cry. Here, do you want a hug? Come on, you need a hug. There we are.

But I went for a walk, and I was concentrating on the ground. I always do that when I need to really think about something. I felt a lot of rocks down there. I usually do. But I felt something I didn't normally feel. It was a rich deposit of iron ore, less than twenty feet below the surface. That was when I thought of a way that I could help you to fly again.

I dug down into the earth as fast as I could. I scraped out a pretty big lump of ore, but I didn't know if it would be enough. I decided I could always come back and get more, so I climbed out of the hole and took the ore back into camp. I was very lucky to find a forge, where nopony would give me weird looks for punching a rock over and over.

It took longer than usual to beat the ore into the shape I wanted. Iron is a very selfish rock, you know. Very self-important and full of itself. It didn't want to budge until I told it what it was going to be used for.

I told it I wanted to help a pegasus fly. Since it was a rock, it didn't know what a pegasus was. I told it that pegasi were like earth ponies, except they could fly through the air on very pretty wings. The ore asked me why it had never met a pegasus before. I told it that pegasi could not hear or talk to the earth like earth ponies can. The ore got very huffy, and asked why it should help a pony who would never thank it for its services. At first, I didn't know what to say.

I thought about the war, but ore doesn't care about ponies. It only cares about itself, and the earth it lives in. For a few minutes, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to help you. Then I thought of a way to convince the ore to help me.

I asked if it knew about dark crystals. It answered that it could hear the screams of the earth from where it lived. Then I told it how every pony in Equestria was doing everything they could to stop the crystals from advancing, to beat them back and save the earth. I told it how the pegasi were our best soldiers, how they were doing even more work than the earth ponies, even though they could just hide in the clouds. I told it how the pegasus that it could help to fly again needed its help because she had tried to do more than anypony could do on their own.

The ore was convinced. It promised that it would do everything it could to help you fly again, and told me to be quick about it. I asked the blacksmiths if an iron wing could fly. I expected them to laugh, but they didn't. Instead, they pulled out a blueprint for a mechanical wing they had been working on, and explained that steel would probably work better than iron. I asked if they had a blast furnace. They smiled and asked what kind of engineers they would be if they didn't.

I told them they would be very inconvenient without a blast furnace. They laughed, but I don't think they were mocking me. We got to work right away.

I really wanted that wing to be made as fast as possible. The blacksmiths told me that it would take time for the steel to cool, and that I should get some rest. But I didn't need to rest. I did take a break, though, and walked around the camp a little. I went into the medical tent, and tried to relax by watching you sleep. Your wing was fluttering an awful lot, and I wanted to tell you that everything was going to be alright and that I was going to help you fly again. But the nurses said you shouldn't be disturbed. I didn't know much about medicine, so I listened to them and went back to the forge.

The steel wasn't cool, but I didn't want to wait any longer. I needed to work, needed to bring us closer to making you fly. The mold for the wing was already made, we were just waiting until we had workable metal. I decided that we had workable metal already, and got to work hammering out the finer details in the steel.

The blacksmiths tried to stop me because they thought I would burn my hooves. I expected to burn my hooves. But the steel told me it did not want me to burn. It told me that in this form, it at last knew movement, and it was afraid of not being able to move. I told it that the wing would have joints, and the steel told me it knew what it was like to be crippled now. It never wanted to be inert again. It didn't want you to be inert. So it let me work, and did not burn my hooves.

The steel cooled after about an hour of work, and the finer details started to stick. We started to form the mechanism. Well, I did. The blacksmiths were mostly content to just give me instructions and corrections. They tinkered with the feathers once or twice, but the core mechanics and mechanisms were left to me.

It wasn't until the sun rose that I felt we had something worth calling a wing. It wasn't until noon that we had what the blacksmiths were willing to uphold as a prototype. It wasn't until the next sunrise that we had something we were willing to present to you.

It was the first time I saw you awake. You looked so sad. I wanted to show the wing to you, but I decided to let the blacksmiths handle the presentation. They had a way with words. I have a way with rocks, and metal. That, and I didn't want you to hate me if it all went wrong.

You seemed to be really happy, once they explained it all to you. You had a very big smile when they showed you how it opened and closed and moved. You looked so sad when we found out you were too weak to stand and test it out.

You stayed up as long as the doctors would let you, just talking to the blacksmiths. You asked so many questions we hadn't thought about, told us so many things we hadn't known, it was all I could do not to punch myself in the face every time you opened your mouth. I wanted to take the wing away from you and fix it, but I knew that if I took it away then, I wouldn't hear anything else you had to say. And even though you kept poking all these holes in our design, you kept smiling, and you kept holding that wing. I didn't want to take the wing away in case you stopped smiling.

That night, when you finally fell asleep, I took the wing away as fast as I could. The blacksmiths had turned in for the night, and taken their lists with them. But I didn't need their lists; I had listened to every criticism, every new idea, every brilliant suggestion.

Yes, brilliant. I never would have thought about that extra point of articulation on the basal phalanx. You're brilliant, sir.

But even after everything was done, we still had to wait for three days until you were strong enough to actually try it. I tried to fill the time with a hundred little corrections and improvements, but there was only so much I could do without talking to you. All I could do was listen to you and the blacksmiths talking about the wing, and be happy that you were happy, even with all of the setbacks.

I fell asleep in that corner of the medical tent. I hadn't meant to, but it turns out that you can't stay awake forever. I dreamed about being a rock, and being at the mercy of the dark crystals. I dreamed about you smashing all the crystals into pieces. I dreamed about you having wings made of steel that cheered your name.

I woke up because I realized I didn't even know your name yet. It had never come up. If it had, I hadn't been paying attention. You were just the pegasus with the missing wing. The pegasus with the rainbow mane. The Iron Wing. Commander. Sir. I didn't learn your name until later that day, after we got the call to...

Okay, I guess we're hugging now. This is nice.

Pinkamena - I Was Crying

Wha- My turn?

What would be the point? You already know my story. You were there on my first day.

No there wasn't. I've always been in the war. My life is the war. Beginning, middle, end, all of it is my hoof in the crystals' face.

I know it's over, dammit. I'm not stupid. I was there when we ended it. But just because the war's over, doesn't mean we stop being soldiers.

With all due respect, commander, that's a load of shit.

What do you think's gonna be different? D'you think that just because the war's over, folks will stop looking? Think the Iron Wing won't be recognized on every street corner, worshiped at every intersection, given medals made out of paperclips and a bottle cap every time they meet a foal's eye? That kid got her cutie mark when she ran up to give that to you, sir. Ponies love you enough that you give them purpose in life, just by smiling at them.

We're no better off, Maud. We're the Rockbuster Brigade, Strike Team Pie, the Demolition Crew, whatever they want to call us. You're gonna miss that cramp in your throwing leg when you've got a sore tongue from all the autographs you'll sign, and we both know you won't turn a single one of them down. Those last few days, our scribbled names were practically part of their uniform. The war hasn't stopped. We just don't have a battlefield anymore. It's just the barracks, across all Equestria.

Oh, you think I'm celebrating that, huh? Think I'm happy that we can never be normal mares in a normal world? Think I want to hear the words 'war hero' so much I start to think it's my name? Because I was normal once, and you know what normal got me? Normal got me a boring job on a boring farm with a boring family and no cutie mark and no friends and no colors and I would go back right now if it would stop me from seeing red when I close my eyes!

...

You know, I used to think they had souls.

I remember, maybe a day after you enlisted, Celestia came to the farm. Limestone and I were rotating rocks from the south field to the east field when I stopped for a break and looked up. It was like seeing the sunrise for the very first time. She cut through the clouds like a sword of sunshine, and with every beat of her wings I expected to be blown off my feet. If she had merely passed over us, it would still have been the most glorious day of my life. Instead, she came down to land, and started me on the path that brought me here.

She had just finished mustering the troops at Appleloosa, and was on her way to Las Pegasus to speak with the populace. And on the way she saw us, a humble little rock farm with a family of six, and she came to warn us. I had never felt so important, so cherished. Don't beat yourself up, Maud, this is the Princess we're talking about.

She told us everything. She told us all about the Crystal Empire, and about the evils of King Sombra. The tragedy of the crystal ponies, and those helmets he made them wear, was outlined... vividly. She stressed with every word that they were victims, innocent pawns with no control of their actions, and that the only reason the soldiers were killing them was because there was no other way. "Forgive them, for they know not what they do". That was something she said to us. I hear it was the cornerstone of most of the speeches she gave about the crystal army. Mom actually made a needlepoint of it, if you can believe it.

Celestia was very patient. She answered every question, even the irrelevant or stupid ones. I didn't feel like a child, or a peasant. I felt somehow equal to the Princess of Equestria. It was one of the most amazing feelings I had ever felt. She stayed so long, you could almost believe there wasn't a war on. When she finally left, there was something she forgot to take away.

She left us with hope. She left a fire that burned so bright in my heart that all the blood on my hooves hasn't been able to douse it. From that moment, I have believed in the Unconquered Sun. And yes, I have seen what it made me. But faced with the alternative, I would much rather play the path of the fanatic than that of the heretic.

Those first few days, I prayed. Not to Celestia, because as much as I believed in her, I had seen the look in her eyes. Whatever she is, she believes herself mortal. So I prayed to any god that would listen. Any legend I could remember, I repeated to the heavens, in the hope that one of them was real, that one of them would listen. I prayed for the souls of the crystal ponies. I prayed that they would not be judged for the blood that Sombra had bathed them in. I prayed that history would forgive them, would absolve them of their horrors. I prayed for them to have something, anything, even a moment of freedom before the end. I cried so many tears for the enemy.

How I wish I had saved those tears.

Do you remember when it happened, Maud? No, I'm not asking if you remember it, I'm asking if you know the date.

It was the Third of March. It had been two weeks since Celestia visited. Two weeks of prayer, of belief, of hope that our soldiers did not go to war with smiles on their faces. I was in the west field with Marble, and we were trying to articulate a surprise obelisk when I smelled something. There isn't much on a rock farm that makes any kind of smell, and this was no normal smell. It was the smell of burning wood. Then I heard the screaming.

I don't know why I ran. A scared blank-flank trained in rock farming, with no idea of what's going on, runs toward a burning building with at least ten exits, only two floors and at worst three expert rock farmers who could tunnel out of flame's reach in the blink of an eye. Maybe I just wanted to get a better look. If that was what I wanted, you can bet I got it.

It was Sombra's soldiers. I'll never know how they got past the front lines in all that armor and with glowing green eyes, but they did. They had set fire to the house, and to the silo, and they... and they were beating Mom and Dad and Limestone. Dad was holding his own okay, but I could see him faltering. Mom was just barely avoiding being battered into pulp, and Limestone... I think they broke one of her back legs.

But do you want to know the worst part? The moment where I lost faith in the crystal ponies, the moment that made me me?

They were laughing. The crystals were laughing while they broke my dad's back, they were laughing while they tore my mother's shawl and smashed her glasses, and they were laughing while Limestone tried and failed to stand up. And it wasn't crazy laughter, it wasn't the giggles of a pony who can't fully comprehend what they've done. I know, I've heard that kind of laughter. No, they were laughing like... like normal ponies. They were laughing at the misery of others, the way we might laugh when a clown does a pratfall. They were laughing like they were happy to be alive, like every moment of their lives was pure joy.

Victims don't laugh when they're being tortured. Puppets don't laugh when they can't control their own hooves. Those crystal bastards were laughing like nothing was wrong. They were taking everything from me, and laughing over it like they were drunken idiots splashing paint over somepony's carriage in the dead of night. Every giggle, every chortle, every guffaw and hollered hoot was punctuated by their hooves on the backs of my family. They were mocking me, breaking me, and laughing about it the whole time.

There's a very, very small part of me that still knows what laughter is supposed to be. It hid from the rest of my brain on the Third of March. The rest of me forgot about happiness on that day. The rest of me learned what hatred felt like.

They took my father. They took my mother. They took my home. They were trying to take my sister. Then I felt tears staining my cheeks, and I realized they had been taking my pity. They had stolen my mercy, my kindness, my every sympathy, and laughed the whole way. And now I had no more left to give.

I didn't know until then that crystal ponies are literally crystal. I didn't expect my hoof to go straight through his neck and out the other end. I didn't realize until the fight was over that I had just earned my cutie mark. All I knew was that I packed a hell of a lot more punch than they did, and it was time to take back what precious little I could from them. Lost count of how many died. Wasn't enough, that's for sure.

Don't think I've ever been more happy to see wanton cowardice than when I saw Limestone and Marble running away as fast as Marble could carry them. In that moment, I didn't care if I died. They had escaped. Some part of my family was safe from those lunatic heathens. All I had left to do was try to fill the hole with dead bodies. I did my best with what I had.

Eventually, it got to a point where I was too tired to kill any more. I had rage enough to fight the whole war by myself, but there's only so far adrenaline will get you before it starts to quit. There was at least half of a whole lot of crystal ponies still to go, and I could just barely stand. So imagine how grateful I was when a whole line of those green-eyed freaks suddenly lost their heads. They all fell down, and I got front-row seat view of the Iron Wing's first public appearance. And behind her, I got to see my big sister explodin' fools like nobody's business. Mom and Dad would have been so proud. Probably would have thrown up, too, but it would be proud vomit.

I didn't expect to ever feel safe during wartime. Even when Celestia gave us her speech, and looked at me like I was just as important as her, I still didn't feel safe. But seeing you two cuttin' through the enemy like that, showing Sombra's mooks who the real boss was... I knew I was safe. Probably the only reason I passed out.

Hey, did I ever say thank you? You know, for saving my life?

Well, thanks.

Sweet merciless Tambelon, feels good to be allowed to drink. How did anypony fight in that war without being drunk off their hooves?

Guh. But anyway, here we are. At the end of it all, we're the ones who came out on top. The best soldiers Equestria's ever seen, but just look at our roster. The thing's downright eclectic; we've got a one-winged pegasus, a walking, talking earthquake with a massive soft spot for said cripple, and a wannabe Solar Paladin who lives faith and breathes hatred. Now, I don't know about you girls, but I wouldn't have pegged myself as a savior of Equestria if Star Swirl himself had showed up and slapped me in the face with my own war medals.

Yeah, I know, it's weird. Can't remember the last time I was this cheery. What do you wanna pin it on, the booze or winning the war? I'm puttin' my bits on both. Oh, that's another thing, bits. We got a few years of back pay to finally cash in. Any plans for that sweet dough?

Me neither.

I mean, what are we supposed to even do now? There's no rock farm to go back to. That and the war is all I've ever known. What, am I just supposed to get a job at a bakery and constantly fight the urge to kill my customers? Look at this mark! A shattered rock in the shape of a horse's skull! Would you trust a pony with this mark to watch your kids? To wash your cart? Even just asking directions, ponies will probably be too scared to do that!

Clothes. That's your answer to my problem. Just put on some pants? Yeah, because my work history will totally vanish if I wear a dress and do my mane up real nice. I wore clothes all through the war, and when I took them off for a shower, you know what? My mark, my war-forged destiny, was still there.

You don't have to deal with this. You earned yours before the war even started. You'll just go back to university and get your degree. Your teachers won't see any difference in how you act. And what about you, commander? You're still a Wonderbolt. They'll be back to being stunt flyers in a few months, and then you can live your childhood dream in the same outfit where you shaped everypony else's dreams. There's nothing about two metal wings and a rainbow lightning bolt that says you wouldn't be any good at acrobatics.

Yeah, or you might both end up drinkin' yourselves to death in some crappy little apartment, or die from stayin' awake because you're afraid of your own dreams. But the thing is, you two have got a choice. That's practically the only path I've got left to tread.

As if you'd keep me around. Two lovebirds with promising careers? You won't be caught dead dragging an angry drunk along while you live your perfect lives.

Well, yeah. You complete each other. Where would you be if Maud had never made you that wing? And where would you be, right now, if you hadn't seen her on the stretcher? You've saved each others' lives so many times they closed down the betting pool. I just got dragged along because I had the right skills, and we all know Maud was always pickin' up my slack. You don't need me. You never needed me. And now the war's over, so you can stop pretending.

Go on. Say it. You've been thinking it ever since my first day, so just admit it already!

Shut up! I know exactly what I'm talking about! Do you want to know why I fought so hard? Why I would only stop when everypony was dead? It's because all that rage, all that hatred, all those sun-crazy thoughts, were the only things keeping me from realizing that I'm just a broken little girl who watched her parents die in front of her!

No. Don't you even try it. You are not going to just hug this out of me.

I mean it. You can't just take all this away with a group hug. That's stupid.

You really aren't going to leave me?

...

Thanks, guys.