Chapters Overture
“As long as Hope lives in our hearts, darkness shall never prevail.”
-Earth Pony maxim
Daylight rose from over the Western mountains. As the light slid across the fields and uninhabited spaces, farmers and wild things began their days. Closer to cities, the factories had already been running full-tilt for hours. Another day, just like any other, had dawned upon Queen Chromia’s empire.
High in a tower in the shining city of Canterlot, a young mare had been awake long before the sun rose. Shafts of light illuminated artifacts and strewn papers. A madmare dashed about, rambling and haphazardly tossing annotated maps and books with already broken spines.She was a tan pegasus whose mane evoked the colors of a moonbow: gradients of white, grey, and black cut in a rakish style that her Mother hated and her sister admired.
She didn’t look up from her instruments and maps spread across a low table, when her sister, a pale grey pegasus with a bright blonde mane and eyes threw open the door and sighed at the mess her beloved sister had made of their library. She dutifully set down an engraved silver tray bearing a tea service of the same metal, pouring out a cup that she set beside her older sister. The tan-pelted pegasus didn’t notice, or didn’t care, having pulled down a book and begun studiously examining the contents of a single page. She didn’t respond as her sister practically shouted her name until she shoved the book aside and screamed in her face.
“Derringer Eskarina! Mother would have a fit if she knew you’d been locked in here for three full days. She’s starting to worry.”
The elder sister turned to the younger, taking in a deep breath before letting it out. “I’m close, Ditsy, I can smell it.” She cast aside the book she was reading and pointed up at a map tacked to the wall above her desk, carefully annotated with the knowledge of a thousand books, the travel paths of Cloudsdale, Fillysburg, and Canterlot itself marked out. “I left just yesterday. I went Below. I found a little shop I hadn’t seen before. Oh, Ditsy, you wouldn’t believe the things he had there. So many things I would have given my left hoof to own- but he said they were all meant for another collector. Except these two books,” she tapped the book she’d been reading and another set beside it, “and this map.”
“Derringer… Derry, please remember, Mother is very ill. It’s very important that we pay proper due to her and follow our lessons. These, fancies of yours, they were fine when we were fillies, but you must remember that you are a lady and a representative of the house of Doo.”
“I know that. I just want to do something with my title. I’m sure Mother would grow to like her little Derringer being an adventuring archaeologist.” Derring grinned and rubbed the back of her head. “Besides, you know I only get this excited when it’s real . Like when I swore up and down the first floor broom cupboard held a secret passage, or when we found that bootlegger’s stash in our new summer home.”
The younger mare, Ditsy, pulled off her glasses and rubbed her forehead. “I’ll bite if it will get you to behave for a little. What’s your big lead this time?”
She immediately regretted her decision when her elder sister thunked down an aged and, most importantly, thick volume from the stack at the edge of her desk, the same that had been shoved aside from her nose. “A first-edition volume of Prediktionf and Profecief from the third century, well before the Purge. At first, I treated it like a curiosity, until I read this passage.”
‘Fire shall reign, and destruction shall follow, but the hearts of ponies shall stand strong. With hope in their hearts, they shall weather the coming storms.
The dreams of a foal lie shattered, broken
And from the shards she builds a token
Sword of steel and magic primeval
Justice in her heart shall conquer evil.
Westward bound but not for home
Compassion rules at the cross of roads
In the heart of the forest shall she make a choice
Guiding with love and knowledge from tome.
The least-loved of a great house shall become a clown
A joyous soul to dispel the gloom
Bravery is also hers, in the face of danger does she laugh
Lifting the hearts of her friends to overcome their trials.
Hopeless and lost does one ponder
To a fire from the dark does she wander
Inspiration she shall find and foster
Protecting the helpless with her pen.
From tin to gold to steel
A mare does make her meal
Tall and strong she shall grow
Everything she performs ‘always just so’.
From these five a sixth
The strength to endure
The heart to temper the sword
The joy to dispel the dark
Sharing their misery and their triumphs
Standing stalwart, to their own hearts true
Hope.”
When Derring finished the passage and looked up, she looked upon her sister’s face with a bright grin. She’d felt something tug in her heart after reading the words, like something bright was in the future of her homeland.
Her sister, however, was staring out the window over Derring’s shoulder. She tapped her sister and frowned, pointing at what she was watching.
In the world below, a bright light was swelling, a cloud of smoke and debris rising up into the heavens and rolling at its top, producing a mushroom above the flash. They watched as it seemed a great wind expanded outward from the point in the midst of the Whitetail Woods, knocking aside huge trees like matchsticks.
In the midst of a noise so intense that it wasn’t audible, the wave crossed Canterlot, the blast force jostling it in its place suspended in the air. The two sisters screamed as the wall fell in, shards of glass and masonry recoiling off a pink hemisphere mere inches from their noses.
They held one another as the ground shook and the sound increased in volume, shutting their eyes against the cataclysm erupting around them and burying noses in each other’s necks, folding wings together for safety.
When they stood again and opened their eyes, they found that the library had been blown apart. One wall was fully collapsed, and books littered the ground, the debris forming a perfect circle around the two. Ditzy tapped her sister’s shoulder and pointed again-- at the map hung to the wall.
Right in the midst of modern-day Saddle Arabia, in the Valley of Pony Kings, a letter opener with a bright jewel in the hilt had been slammed through the map and the wall itself.
“Is that a sign, like the book talked about?”
Nightmare
I am a God.
No, you’re just another asshole.
The day started like any other. After slapping at her alarm clock for several seconds, Pinkie finally found the button to make it halt its incessant keening. With the shades down and curtains drawn, the bedroom was still inky.
Clicking on the lamp fixed that, its warm yellow light throwing a gentle illumination on the furniture of the room. The bed sported a dark green spread that matched the carpet, which in turn felt nice on the groggy pink hooves that set upon it. The half-awake pony rubbed her eyes with a hoof as she walked past well-stocked bookshelves and a messy worktable, all made of a dark wood with a pronounced grain. A layer of dust veiled all the surfaces in the room, as if the occupant either hadn’t used them or hadn’t cleaned the room in a while.
After she reached the bathroom, she drew a nice hot bath, and climbed into the tub, and soaked in the hot water for a few minutes before washing her mane and coat. Another short soak preceded her draining the tub and grabbing a towel. The bright pendant on the choker gracing her neck sparkled from the water as much as it seemed to glow with an inner light. The pendant itself matched her cutie mark almost perfectly: a test tube flanked by wings of scientific implements, indicating her talent as a multi-disciplinary scientist.
With a huff, the pink pony dropped into the chair before her vanity, leaning back and watching in the mirror as the Otto strapped to the back embraced her skull. There was a brief moment of silence as the automaton’s arms moved into place with spider-like grace. With a whirr, the mechanism simultaneously applied tasteful makeup and brushed her mane into tight, cute, but businesslike curls that swept off one side of her head and spilled down her neck with one forelock left to lie before her face.
She clapped and smiled before stretching her hooves to either side and allowing the machine to slide gauntlets over each hoof. Pinkie gave an experimental twitch to test their action before cinching the straps tighter to her forelegs. Her own invention, they translated electrical impulse and muscle movement into the articulation of three digits mounted to each gauntlet, allowing her similar dexterity to a griffon. Once they were secured in place, she slipped boots over her hind legs, standing straight up to check the action of the braces that would assist her balance as she stood and walked on only two hooves to free the other two for manipulating things.
A leather flight jacket lined with fleece and a cap of the type worn by newspaper colts completed her preparations for the coming day. She made a note to have her room dusted as she sat down at her cluttered desk. A pen carefully gripped in the fingers of her right gauntlet, she tugged a diary towards her. She licked the nib of her pen before beginning to write in careful calligraphy.
Dear Sunny,
Today is the opening day of the World’s Faire and Exposition here in Fillydelphia. As I wrote yesterday, I only got back from the Valley of Kings in Saddle Arabia last night. Luckily, there was an airstrip built during the Great War, or we’d have the devil of a time getting there and back again.
It was all there, just like the legends said. The Lost Tomb of Sun-Hoof. The Elements of Harmony. The Stone Soldiers and the statues of the Deposed Queens. I have to go help set up the exhibit for all that, and later today I’ll be showing the Pega-Chute to the Queen herself! I’m so nervou-cited!! … I can’t shake the feeling like something bad is about to happen today, though…
Anyway. I hope to speak to you again soon. I should be home again by 6:00 my time. I can’t wait to hear about what’s got you and Dr. Leary so busy you haven’t written or called and can’t attend the Expo.
Hearts, Hugs, Love, and Kisses
~Pinkamina Dianne Pie, Engineeriteer Extraordinaire.
Her note completed, Pinkie shut her book and carefully wandered downstairs and into the early Fillydelphia sunshine, turning a corner down another street to find tea and a bagel to try and alleviate the sick feeling in her stomach.
A new day had begun.
Across town, Twilight Sparkle, currently of the Fillydelphia Police Department’s Special Crimes Division and formerly of the Canterlot Castle’s Bureau of Investigation, was also starting her day. The daughter of a wealthy and influential family that served in the Castle itself, and a recently discharged veteran, she had led a highly structured life. Her uniform shirt bore wing-pins on the collar and the silver cufflinks of her department. The shirt itself was perfectly pressed, a tight-fitting sash looped across her chest bearing a her badge embroidered with her cutie mark- a shield with a pair of swords crossed behind it. A black tie, perfectly tied in a Windsor knot, hung over the robin’s egg blue shirt, a tailored blazer of the current cut and style.
She finished ensuring her mane was straight and tidy, cut to a perfect military regulation 1” and pulled into a crest, lifting her eyepatch from its stand to cover the left eye she had lost as a child.
Just as she had gathered her things to leave and set her hoof on the handle of the door, she heard metallic knuckles on the other side. She scowled as she threw the door open to reveal the hulking shape of her “partner,” an intelligent Fritzie styled after a dragon, to better interact with the residents of the Dragontown borough. She’d seen Fritzies in Ghangzhou; Griffon-built monsters that were almost impossible to stop and fully worth a tank.
Spike Irontail was its name, and in Twilight’s opinion, that is where they had gone. Giving it a name made it think it was a person which was a preposterous notion. It didn’t have a brain; it had a thinking machine housed in the torso next to the oil pump and the socket for gem cells that produced the electricity it ran on. It did not sleep, eat, drink, feel, breathe, or dream.
And yet, she was expected to treat this tool, this machine, as if it were a person rather than a glorified toaster oven.
The green catseye lights that served as its eyes looked down at her, and its ugly face split into a grin filled serrated teeth.
“Twilight! I’m very glad I get to be permanently assigned to you. I think you’ll find I make a very good partner. Number one, if I may brag a bit.”
Twilight cut off its simulated pride with a ‘silence’ hoof motion, and the square-wave voice trailed off. It was bad enough she had to ride around with it, let alone endure its inane conversations.
But it was useful for relaying information, she supposed. She hated asking it, as it felt like she was taking orders from this machine, but since its home was her precinct house and the chief spoke to it every morning, it could relay their orders for the day.
“Report,” was all she said as she finished getting ready, which included strapping her service pistol into a holster hidden behind the shield on her chest.
“Chief says he wants us working the Expo. Says the arson case can wait, and the theft case will hold.” Spike’s eye-lights avoided meeting Twilight’s eye.
Twilight just stared at him, her expression hardening gradually. The wisps of her short tail and crest of her closely shorn mane seemed to smolder before she took a deep, slow breath to cool the rage bubbling in her gut. Her eye closed as she focused on breathing for several seconds.
“The torch-job case could wait? What if another caper gets pulled while most of the coppers and fireflies were keeping peace at the Expo?” She felt she was close to closing it and had been looking forward to avoiding the crowds with procedural police work today.
He was nervously ticking his claws together as he finally looked down to her face. He’d been worried-- her temperature had climbed almost to 130° before she’d calmed and cooled again. He’d worked with her long enough to have learned that an angry Twi was a dangerous, destructive one, that she was a bluenosed-bearcat constantly searching for something to blow up at. Usually, she blew up at or abused him since she didn’t see him as a person.
She just sighed and gave up, finally meeting his eyes. “Let’s just go out and get today fucking over with, Spike.”
Over the last few months, Rarity had the majority of her employees set constructing temporary structures for the World’s Fair and Exposition in Fillydelphia, renovating local businesses that contracted her and revamping the Fillydelphia Museum of Art, History, and Science to admit their new exhibits as well as the crowds that would strain the aging structure. Now, all the work had been completed, had been for days, actually, and she was performing a walkthrough with her structural engineer, the Fire Chief, and a pony from the city government. As always, the work performed by herself and her crew was exactly to code, under budget, and ahead of schedule.
Her last walkthrough completed and full payment plus bonuses assured, she stood before her employees with a smile on her face.
An imposing, bulky mare, the average pony could walk right under her without brushing her tummy. As far as her employees knew, she’d earned every ounce of muscle in the frame beneath that denim jacket on a job site, having spent half her wakeful life holding a tool. Not one of her gathered employees could remember a time when she’d been less than openly friendly and straightforward with any of them.
“I really gotta hand it to you boys and girls. Ya did a right ducky job an’ earned your bonuses, don’tchyaknow. Now I’m only gonna need one crew here until the end of the Expo, so talk to Rivets or Girder if you’d like to work this week. Otherwise, I’ll see you at the end of the Expo for teardown.”
It had been strange at first to employ and command ponies twice her age, and she herself had put in a lot of time and effort to grow her business into a profitable and successful entity. Like most of her employees, she didn’t live in Fillydelphia, having a small house in Ponyville. Unlike most of her crew, her house was empty. A tall, serious mare more prone to work shirts and steel-shod boots than dresses and heels, she had no children and hadn’t been on a date in eons.
She was satisfied with having a few close friends, and closest she had to a child was a pitbull named Dozer. Sometimes it did bother her, but most of the time it didn’t, for her crew was her family, and her company was at once husband and child.
She resolved to try to have fun with this year’s Expo, which promised to be a good one. The traveling circus had decided to make a stop to coincide with the event. There was going to be a demonstration of new building material and methods that were currently coming into vogue that she’d personally built.
The Canterlot Castle aeroplane casually violated the natural laws of physics as it hung at least a thousand feet above Fillydelphia, and a visit from the Queen herself was promised at the noon ceremonies. All in all, there was a felicitous air as if nothing bad could happen. Ever the worrier, Rarity couldn’t help but imagine something would. Fillydelphia wasn’t the nicest of cities, and bad things happened every day, after all.
Still, she did her best to ignore the cold feeling that settled into the pit of her stomach as she joined the crowd heading towards the podium where the opening ceremonies would be held, and where the Queen would give her speech.
To Rainbow Dash, it was just another town and another show. Like every morning she had bathed in a nearby stream with her sisters, dried herself off, and quickly dressed into her costume for a quick rehearsal before the opening ceremonies at the Faire with the performance following sharply at 9:30.
Life as an itinerant performer was difficult, but the troupe was like a family to her. Her body was trim, slender, and taut after years of high-wire walking, trapeze, and general acrobatics. The daring look and feel of her costume was achieved with a mane and tail cropped and styled to a downy texture that streamed readily with the slightest breeze and was dyed a veritable rainbow of bright, showy colors. Every strand of fur in her coat showed a shade of blue that matched that of a clear sky. Glittery makeup around her eyes matched the sequins of her leotard and wings, the clingy garment a shade of a reddish-purple with gold trim beneath the sequins and sparkles and bore a symbol of a top hat spilling out a jagged rainbow directly over her real cutie marks, which bore the same symbol.
Costumes could be assembled and put on alone, but usually, she, Flitter, Cloudchaser, and her big sister Trixie gathered in the trailer where cosmetics were stored so they could do and check each other’s mane and makeup. They all understood that their image was just as important as their actual practice and training.
Right now she was sitting in Trixie’s vardo, helping the unicorn adjust her bright shoes with their hidden flashpaper mechanisms. As skilled an illusionist as Rainbow was an acrobat, Trixie preferred practical effects, props, and sleight of hoof to the straight magic. The glow of her horn would give away her tricks. Both ponies declared the preparation of the other “good” at roughly the same time, Rainbow’s flashy costume was a perfect counterpoint to Trixie’s more mystic one. Her cape and peaked magician’s hat were embroidered with a pattern of stars layered over a black cotton leotard sewn with tiny silver sequins.
Rainbow sighed quietly as Trixie helped her down off the wagon, leaning against the bigger unicorn. Dash’s small, spare frame fit her leotards well and gave her incredible agility, but it also made her a little bit fragile. Trixie worried about the hairline cannon fracture she was currently walking on. She allowed Dash to use her for support as they walked towards the big tent together, a small warmth flushing her cheeks when the smaller pony tucked her nose in against her neck.
Trixie sighed, smirked, and nudged Rainbow with her hip as they approached the center ring. Their beginning routine was fairly simple. Trixie would conjure flames from her hooves, drawing and curving it with magic into a ring. Rainbow would swing down from one of the lower sets of platforms and release her bar, appearing for all the world and soaring like a real Pegasus. A click would be heard from the barrels of the firework launchers set flush to the platform Trixie stood upon as she tapped the switch as surreptitiously as she could. Then she’d tilt herself upward, catching another bar thrown by Flitter and Cloudchaser on the high platforms and swing out over the crowd.
She’d reach the apex of her swing and pause within inches of a pony sitting in the stands for just long enough to hoof-deliver an autographed photograph of herself to whoever was directly before her. She mimed the action of pulling it from her leotard and passing it off to somepony and then let herself swing back.
From there things would get more complex. The two pegasi would swoop down and snatch up the ropes of her trapeze and dive, pulling her almost all the way up to the platform directly across from the one they’d started on. A few feet from it, they’d suddenly brake midair, spreading their wings wide and slingshotting Dash straight upward to land neatly upon the platform.
Nopony noticed the pony that sat in the stands and watched them, set back in a shadowed corner as it was. If it had been there as they’d entered, one of them would have noticed it in setting up. Suddenly as it had appeared, it turned and took a step, vanishing as if it had crossed an invisible threshold.
Applejack had set up in the parkland where the Queen would deliver her ceremonial speech and open the Expo proper. It was almost time; ponies were gathering on the lawn surrounding the stage where the curtain was set to rise soon.
Applejack was unconcerned about any of this. The orange pony was slender, obviously well-used to working out of doors. Her mane and tail hung loose, not styled in any particular manner but recently trimmed to just above her withers and left to curl around fetlocks, respectively. A chainmail shirt sparkled dully underneath a faded forest-pattern camouflage shawl that hung above well-worn boots on her back legs and dented, tooth and claw marked bracers over her forelegs. She solely concerned herself with what she was doing just that moment.
She made no noise as she walked from enclosure to enclosure, making sure each different animal had everything it needed.
She had brought monsters and creatures from the Everfree to the Expo and was fairly nervous about the reception.
She watched mutely as a large, white-coated unicorn leaned upon one of the enclosures to peer down at the trio of cragadiles in their artificial pond. She gently tapped a hoof against one of the mare’s flanks, pursing her lips in dull surprise at the sound of hoof meeting an appreciable layer of fat over unyielding muscle. She shook her head, clearing her thoughts of happy little animals, and pointed down at the sign posted on the fencing at about the mare’s eye-level stating specifically not to lean on the fence.
The bigger mare grinned sheepishly and dropped back to the ground with a dull thump.
“I was just curious. I’ve never seen a cragadile up close, so I…” she was hushed by Applejack putting a hoof on her lips and pointing over Rarity’s shoulder.
The bigger pony blinked and turned her head to peer at whatever Applejack was pointing at. Her eyes widened when she caught sight of an equine figure, its features shrouded by a trenchcoat and wide-brimmed hat turned down to meet the turned-up collar of the coat. When Applejack had noticed them, they were walking towards the stage where the Queen was supposed to give her opening speech. Out of the other ponies that had started to file into the park, only they seemed to have noticed the pony.
Rarity and Applejack caught a glimpse of yellow eyes and a hunter-green snout glancing their way before it twisted in a way that made the brain itch to watch and promptly disappeared entirely.
Gradually they agreed that they must have had imagined it (with Rarity doing most of the asserting) and eventually forgot about the figure entirely. It was gone now, so it just didn’t seem important anymore.
Fluttershy had awoken early and prepared herself for the day. Her living space featured more boxed belongings than not. She had just moved into her cloud apartment on the outskirts of Fillydelphia days before and had been more more concerned with unpacking her furniture and typewriter.
She’d been awake most of the previous night ticking away at her typewriter, forming the details of what she’d uncovered into a full article on the corrupt administration and poor working conditions of one of the local factories. She had packed this into a folder along with photographs she’d taken and sent the package across town to her editor’s office to be formatted, headlined, and set for tonight’s evening edition of the Fillydelphia Gazette.
She smiled over her coffee as she flipped through her book of leads. A new automaton had been assigned to a fresh-faced dandy investigator from Canterlot, the diamond city in the sky. There were rumors about her, many of which could not be true.
She’d left herself enough time to maybe catch this Twilight Sparkle or anyone else in her lead-book before the Queen’s speech, and the rest of her day would be spent chasing the rest.
She had planned interviews with a spokespony of the Wandering Moons about their superb magic shows and starlet Rainbow Dash. The acrobat’s expression and muzzle shape she’d seen in published glamour shots had seemed familiar to her, but it wasn’t possible she knew such a star.
On the list was Rarity Belle, the owner of the simply and honestly titled RB Contracting company to which the Faire and lots of new construction across Fillydelphia owed their existence. She’d broken into owning her own company six years ago at the age of 18, quickly building success from a foundation of straightforwardness and hard work.
There were creatures from the Everfree to meet and pet. Their “mother,” Applejack, was pushing for the queen to cease sanctioning the hunting of innocent animals and the recent clearcutting of acres of the untamed forest for which Fluttershy humbly felt there was no real defendable reason. This appealed to Fluttershy’s sense of justice.
She shrugged into a plain jacket light green in color as she moved to the next possible lead for today’s investigations: the final name and possibly the strongest story.
A reliable tipster had informed her that the pink mare’s plane had just gotten back late last night from Saddle Arabia bearing news of the single most important archaeological discovery of the last hundred years in the Lost Tomb of Sun-Hoof.
She remembered from her school days that a network of storehouses and catacombs beneath the stones of her adoptive city existed dating back to the same era and that the place had been used as bomb shelters in the Great War.
She settled down before her vanity to put on makeup, admiring her own face. She wasn’t stuck-up in the least, but her mother had taught her that the key to feeling good and keeping one’s compassion alive was to first love yourself, so she had a morning ritual of saying nice things to herself. She spoke softly to her beautiful reflection, filling herself with a quiet yet self-confident knowledge of the majesty held by her tall, slender form and the severe French features of her muzzle and visage.
Eventually, she found herself closing her front door after tokenly petting her cat, splaying her swanlike wings wide and leaping into the world below from the little cloud stoop of her apartment. She banked sharply, the sun warming her feathers and the wind whipping the tails of her stylishly short mane. As she circled the park, she noticed a pony in a trenchcoat near the stage set up for the Queen and that only two of the ponies at the gathering seemed to even see, the one pointing it out for the other to notice.
Her journalistic instincts kicked in as she watched, tipping her wings up and raising her camera to snap a few photos of the scene. It might turn out to be nothing, but all morning she’d had a low-level apprehension that something awful might happen.
She made a more or less perfect four-hoofed landing, taking a deep breath to calm herself. As she approached the pair, she rapidly formulated questions, taking back to the air to free her hooves for notes. She decided to speak first to the unicorn, for the earth pony, hiding behind the white mare, seemed shaken.
As Rarity was trying to fit the impossible event that had just occurred into her concrete worldview, her vision filled with buttery yellow pegasus. She took a step back and held up a broad hoof almost against the pony’s nose to stem the fusillade of questions the thing had for her.
“Jeez Louise, slow it down there. One question at a time,” Rarity smiled as she removed her hoof from the mare’s snout.
“Sorry. I get a little worked up sometimes.” She smiled back and found her hoof fit neatly inside that of the white mare, nudging gently against the frog. “My name is Fluttershy Whisperwing, I am an investigative reporter and interviewer for the Fillydelphia Gazette . Do you have a few moments to talk to me?”
“Rarity Belle, and oh, gosh, is it just the nicest thing to meet a reporter from the Gazette ! It’s just the darned best paper in print. Not a single writer afraid to talk about what’s going on in Chromia’s kingdom.”
“Yes.. uhm… Wait! Uh, I wanted to ask you about the figure by the stage just now.”
“You saw it, too? Strangest thing I ever saw. I didn’t think anybody but us even saw it.”
Applejack nodded from the other side of the fencing, petting the head of a crocodilian rock monster… thing. Her voice was quiet, soft with a harsh burr like her words were her first for the day. In general, she spoke sparingly, as if she were a miser and words cost dearly.
“Wasn’t a pony. Critters wouldn’t be this badly stir’t.”
Fluttershy and Rarity exchanged a glance before the Pegasus hurriedly scribbled in her notebook. Ponies, dragons, and griffons were starting to pack into the area.
Fluttershy left the issue for later, flipping forward in her book and starting a new page as the familiar strains of the national anthem thundered from the floating city of Canterlot occupying the sky above them.
With the sun at its highest peak behind the jewel of Equestria, the opening ceremonies of the Fillydelphia World’s Faire and Exposition were about to begin.
Across the park, six ponies’ previously subdued uneasiness elevated to a sense of dread, and Pinkie hit the ground, clutching her head as it filled with visions of smoke and fire.
Across town, a security guard was making his rounds about the Museum. As he approached the darkened Ancient History wing, he clicked on his flashlight and began sweeping the beam over artifacts in their glass cases. A small smile crossed his muzzle as he whistled, content in knowing that everything was five-by-five.
When he came to the newly renovated hall currently housing the treasures dug up from the Lost Tomb of Sun-Hoof, he leaned against the doorway to light a butt. Puffing thoughtfully, he let his flashlight sweep the room as he entered it. His cigarette fell from his mouth at what his beam revealed or, more accurately, what it did not.
He walked over and listlessly kicked a fragment of stone on the floor. Nothing. The hall, previously filled with statues and artifacts, was now filled with nothing but dust and broken shards of the same stone the statues had been carved from. The only thing he could think about was how he was going to lose his job with the unveiling of the now-empty exhibit later today.
A shame, thought the dark-pelted stallion. His retirement was going to be in two weeks.
He never saw the darkened shape that struck him from behind with four hooves slamming into his withers and snapping his spine and never felt the sharp teeth tear the side of his neck free.
A pair of yellow eyes set in a gray, stone-dusted face watched the moon slowly rise with the crescendo of the Anthem.
A high-pitched shriek bellowed forth as the bat pony slammed through one of the windows and took wing into the gathering gloom.
The day had become a nightmare .**
A brown-pelted pony was halfway through her long-winded introductory speech and starting to catalog the various proper titles of the High Queen Chromia of Equestria, when the daylight dimmed and took on a reddish hue. Finally, after a full thirty seconds of squinting at her notepad, she turned to the closed curtain behind her to introduce the beloved monarch and promptly burst into flames. The magical fire burned an ugly blood-red hue as it spread to the curtains and blackened the boards of the stage.
As the curtains burned away, they revealed not the queen but instead a pair of far larger ponies. Veritable giants to the crowd, the the ponies contrasted each other perfectly. The one was ivory, hooves gilt in gold and armored in the same material, mane and tail a bright corona of sunfire. The other was ebony and clad in silver, and her mane and tail evoked a violet smoky nebula.
As the moon fully eclipsed the sun and bathed the area in a blood-red light, the two shark-toothed alicorns threw back their heads and cackled to the high heavens. Their voices thrummed through the crowd, cowing and shaking those assembled.
“Our beloved subjects, how good it is to see your precious little faces!” the white one began.
A flare erupted from the crowd, a second conflagration that quickly died back down as Twilight was thrown bodily into the mud by Rarity.
“Where’s our Queen!?” came the challenge from Twilight, echoed by the bravest of the crowd.
The black one cackled. “Are we not royal enough for you?”
The white one smirked, “Are our crowns no longer valid after a thousand years of imprisonment?”
Pinkie’s blood ran cold as she straightened back up on her hind legs, tugging her cap off and nervously working it in the fingers of her gauntlets.
“Do you not know who we are?”
“Did you not see the signs?”
“Did you forget the legends?”
Black crystals arose from the ground, growing and overtaking some of the closer exhibits and demonstrations, the fences on Applejack’s critters falling over entirely or otherwise disintegrating from the quakes.
Pinkie spoke up. “We… at least, I know who you are. The Bogeymares. Slim White and Tall Dark. The wicked Queens of Old Equestria: Solaire Flaire and Midknight Moon!”
The pair cackled louder than ever before speaking again, in complete unison. “Exactly right.”
Twilight blinked and swallowed, rage cooling with the ice forming in her veins, as she remembered a tale told to get her to behave in her foalhood. “That means…”
Above them, the Canterlot Castle emitted a keening shriek as it began to pour out soldiers, a shimmer obscuring it before it simply vanished, which had been the result of a mechanism to ensure the safety of their Capital. The alicorns’ near-endless maniacal laughter echoed off a castle-like structure growing from the crystals and demonstrations from the Fair. Its base struck Rarity as being very close to the lower floors of the Sisters’ Shattered Tower from the old myths.
“Mark this day of freedom and self-rule well, my little ponies. For it shall be your last.”
Midknight cut in, slamming her forehooves as the Tower built itself in the midst of the park. All around it, an overgrown forest sprung up, stocking itself with the dangerous animals and monsters that Applejack had so thoughtfully brought.
“Our rule shall last FOREVER!”
Blasting aside the soldiers who charged them as casually as one might swat at flies, the pair disappeared into the growing tower, leaving the blood-red noon filled with the sounds of fighting and anguish across the city.
Above the action, a bat pony with a dark, hunter-green pelt sat on a cloud next to a brown pegasus stallion, the pair of them watching with every evidence of disinterest. The bat turned to the colt and nudged him, lifting a coin from a plate with a fang-filled smirk.
“Pieces are set. Heads, or tails?”
“Heads.”
The coin was flipped, and clattered back onto the plate with a sigh from the male, as he marked the 137th “tails” flip, the entire other half of the chalkboard quite completely empty.
Compassion
-Be careful. There are ponies out there who will look at your love only as a place to put their pain.
Within 10 minutes, the military and police had gotten all the ponies roaming the streets of Fillydelphia back into their homes where they’d be safe, and armed guards patrolled the towns. Stout colts with rifles stood guard at the Fillydelphia General Hospital.
At the Working Girls’ Home, where orphaned fillies were housed, clothed, and fed in exchange for being contracted out to work in Fillydelphia’s mills and factories or in the homes of wealthy ponies, matrons were taking stock of their flocks. All of the fillies had washed, brushed, and dressed in their finest outfits to meet the Queen before all the nastiness had occurred downtown.
The final tally showed that only one was missing, who coincidentally was a troublesome pegasus filly and a recent addition to the Home.
Attempts were being made to get ponies out of the park, which sported new growth cultivated by the black magic of the Tower, turning it into a miniature version of the Everfree Forest: enraged monsters and all. In the city, one could hear chattering gunfire as the forces of Queen Chromia battled the soldiers of the Dark Queens.
Pinkie was fretting, hurriedly flipping through a book she’d pulled from a saddlebag. Twilight suddenly slapped the book out of her hooves and shoved her nose right up against the pink snout. Pinkie shrank back as the unicorn shouted at her.
“You knew! You knew and you didn’t even warn anyone! You tryin’ to find a Guangzhou angle on all this?”
Pinkie blinked at the accusation and brushed dirt off her bomber jacket. “Well, technically, I did know. However, I heard you speak up. You knew about them, too. You’re a police officer; why didn’t you say anything?”
A blue levitation field quickly lifted and separated them. Rarity butted her head in between the pair with a scowl, Twilight struggling against the magic.
“Now, listen here. None of us really know each other, or at this point even like one another very much, but, excuse my language, the darn world is ending around us, and this filly seems like she might know a way to stop it. Hope’s gone, and it ain’t gonna be helped by being ugly to each other. Now, we gonna be friends if I put you down?”
Twilight grumbled when she was set down, dusting off her uniform shirt. Pinkie seemed to have gotten an epiphany.
“That’s it! We can win! I know what we need to do-- we need to become friends!”
The other five ponies gathered around blinked at each other slowly after Pinkie’s outburst.
“No, really! The old story is obviously true. I was one of the ones that pulled the Sisters here. We had the Elements at the same exhibit in the museum; there were four of them in the Tomb and the Crown loaned us the one that they have.”
She cleared her throat and laced her fingers together behind her head, a stance she’d learned from a minotaur friend from university.
“I don’t know about you guys, but if we’re all going down, I’d rather go down swingin’.”
Twilight scoffed and rolled her eye. Those of the group who smoked were standing a couple yards from those who didn’t to avoid cloying the others. She jabbed the cherry of a cigarette in Pinkie’s direction.
“It still sounds to me like you’re a spy. I mean, not only did you know they were returning, you brought them here. How do we know you’re not a plant to make ponies panic, then gather up whoever’s left in the park and turn them over with some bullshit, made-up prophecy?”
Pinkie folded her forelegs in front of her and made a face, another minotaur affectation.
“It was only a little spying. All I did was lean out of my plane and take a few pictures. Second off, why? I’m an inventor, a mare of science. I doubt these prehistoric mares are in the ‘better living through chemistry and engineering’ crowd.”
She let out a breath and held up the book she’d been reading so the others could examine it.
“This one is ‘Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide.’ It’s my personal copy. This has been passed down and periodically translated as the language has changed over the years. It says…
“‘There are six Elements of Harmony, although only five are known. These are: Kindness, Generosity, Laughter, Honesty, and Loyalty. When these elements combine with the Spark, they come together to create the enigmatic sixth Element.’”
Fluttershy chewed pensively on the stem of her parliament, the others too stunned to speak. She cleared her throat as she collected herself with a deep pull of her fragrant clove cigarette.
“Since nopony seems to want to speak up, I’ll say it. What’s that got to do with the price of tea in Ghangzhou?”
It would soon be clear, as Pinkie snapped her fingers and pointed out that, although she was born to invent, she was a natural teacher as well.
“I’m glad you asked. Now, bear with me; these books were originally written by an ancestor of mine and are some of the only artifacts left from the First Century, containing original eyewitness accounts. These objects, the Elements, were used first by the Sisters to defeat the Chaos Lord Discord and later during the rebellion to condemn the Sisters to stone a thousand years ago. Pretty much exactly to the day.
“What I’m saying is this: we storm the tower and make our way to the top-”
“Why the top? That’s awful far for some old pony’s tale, bunny.”
Pinkie rubbed the blush that came to her muzzle at Rarity’s comment and tried to ignore the fact that she could meet her eyes even standing on her hindlegs.
“We’re talking about evil authoritarian megalomaniacs. Every story agrees that they can only be at the very top. The better to look down upon their new Empire.”
Seeing as this seemed to make sense to the others, she decisively slammed her gauntlets together.
“Hokay, so it’s up to us. My Granny told me how to interpret the book, and how to make the Elements work for us. We can re-petrify the Sisters and fix all this.”
She tucked her books into her saddlebags, clearing her throat and looking at the others.
“If we’re going to be friends, we should introduce ourselves, learn a bit about one another. My name is Pinkamina Dianne Pie, Pinkie to my friends. I’m prone to headaches and hot flashes, and a recent magna-cum-laude graduate of the FIllydelphia University of Science and Technology, majoring in aeronautical engineering and minoring in history.”
Fluttershy cleared her throat, slipping the stub of her cigarette into a little pouch to properly dispose of later and stowing her slimline holder and cigarette case into her hoofbag.
“My name is Fluttershy Whisperwing, I have an Amaerican Bombay named Maisie, and I work for the Fillydelphia Gazette by taking photographs and chasing down leads for the major syndicated columnists and article-writers.”
The atmosphere around them was starting to soften, the tension easing as they got more comfortable with one another. Fluttershy was staring at Rainbow Dash strangely, but her old friend was a pegasus, wasn’t she? Not this blue earth pony with her stage wings.
Rarity started to go next, before a violet telekinetic haze closed her mouth. As Twilight opened her mouth to speak, Rarity tackled her, sending them both into the mud of the new forest. Twilight used magic to bolster her strength against Rarity’s as they wrestled. The others watched for a second to make sure they wouldn’t hurt one another, Applejack stepping forward to break the pair up as Rainbow Dash shook her head and sighed at the sight.
“I guess I’ll go. In case you didn’t know, my name is Rainbow Dash, and I’m one of the star acrobats with the Wandering Moons.”
With a grunt, Applejack managed to shove Twilight and Rarity apart, watching each of them with an impassive expression.
Rarity coughed and dusted off her coat and hide, gingerly setting her hoof back down. She’d shaken herself thumping the metal plate in the left side of Twilight’s skull.
“Well, I’m Rarity, and I own RB Contracting. We did all the setup for the Faire and a bunch of other work here in town.”
Fluttershy smiled and tapped her hooves together with dull claps. “I’ve read Uptown Eclairé’s articles about your business. You’re called the “Shining Knight of the working pony” with your union support and the way you treat your own employees. I’ve heard around the office that she’d like to interview you personally.”
Twilight made a fake gagging sound, rolling her eye.
“Twilight Sparkle, Corporal, Equestrian Aerial Marines. Full tour in Ghangzhou. Now I’m a Federal Investigator attached to the Fillydelphia Police Department’s Special Crimes Division.” She scuffed her hoof like she wanted to continue. She cast a glance Fluttershy’s way before clearing her throat.
“Off the record, I’m currently spearheading the investigation of a train-job, and a recent string of torch jobs.”
Applejack opened her mouth, only to be interrupted by the ground shaking badly enough to knock Pinkie flat and stagger the others. Trees shook and were toppled by the passage of something big, sending birds to wing. Twilight’s head throbbed, and she felt the deep lines slashed down the left side of her face burn and itch. She managed to turn first, coming nose to nose with one of the big, brown, and ugly visages of a hydra.
Panic and chaos broke out almost immediately. However,Twilight stood her ground when it roared, her mane starting to curl and smolder as her pelt started to bleach to white. Her horn lit up bright purple, and pebbles and hoof-sized rocks wormed out of the soil, lifting to withers-height.
The other stared, each of them hiding behind Rarity. The bulky mare focused, trees beside her shaking and twisting as they uprooted themselves in a sapphire haze, stacking into a wall for the others to hide behind.
Twilight, meanwhile, was harassing and distracting the hydra, circling it and snapping pebbles off its foreheads.
Suddenly, it was knocked aside as Rarity found room to swing the root ball of a tree into its ribs. Fluttershy ducked down behind the wall, unable to watch as Twilight drew an object she recognized from her brief stint in the compulsory pegasus military schooling: a .45 caliber automatic Ironshod Firearms service pistol 1911.
And then she heard something heavy thump against the treewall. She poked her head back up to see a crumpled and dazed Twilight, her uniform stained with two perfect muddy hoofprints.
Applejack had sat idly until the pistol had been brandished. Hooves glowing faintly, she’d cleared the treewall in a single jump, sailing the thirty feet or so to where Twilight had stood over one of the heads of the hydra. She landed directly in front of her, distracting Twilight just long enough to plant both back hooves into Twilight’s chest, sending the unicorn flying back to slam into the treewall.
The others watched in horror as she closed the remaining distance to the monster, until it whined softly and lifted itself up to show the haft of a spear lodged in its chest.
She tugged it free with a hoof while carefully stroking it and speaking in a language none of them recognized. Soon enough, the spear lay on the ground, and the wound was sealing itself up. All four heads dipped down low and got a gentle nuzzle in exchange for a lick.
Feeling eyes on her, Applejack turned to face the others, reaching out to pet the hydra’s tummy to calm it, the beast rolling over onto its back with a thump. It wriggled contentedly, toppling trees as it dug itself into the dirt.
“M’name’s Applejack. This’s Custard.”
The others stared, Twilight picking herself up off the ground as the others slowly started forward. Rarity pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes, watching the two. Custard seemed about as well-behaved as Dozer, and just as excitable.
“You have a hydra. For a pet.”
Applejack nodded as she leaned against one of the beast’s necks, running the edge of a forehoof between the scales of its belly. “M’yep.”
Pinkie chewed the knuckle of one of her gauntlets, her other foreleg drawn across her barrel. “Isn’t that, you know, dangerous?”
Applejack shook her head. “Little care, little compassion, any beast can be tamed. Even ponies.”
A few minutes later, all six ponies rested on Custard’s back as the beast trundled its way through the forest, knocking aside the thick trees like straw as it wandered towards the Tower itself. The six hopped down as it slammed itself headlong into the crystal, shattering the front wall and doors entirely.
Five made to enter the new gaping hole in the side of the Tower, but Applejack climbed back up onto the beast’s back after it rolled onto its wide claws and shook itself.
“There’s injured ponies and animals in these woods still.”
She smiled awkwardly, like she was unused to it and it hurt her face. She waved them off as Custard carefully pointed himself back in the direction of the path he’d created. Pinkie shook off the mental image of the orange mare’s cutie mark and eyes glowing faintly, a golden necklace around her neck bearing a gemstone image of the wide-limbed apple tree.
While one of the observers watched intently, the other was driving golf balls off their cloud perch.
The coin fell straight down to the plate. Unseen by both of them beforehand, it rolled around the rim before coming to rest still on its edge directly in the center.
The pair stared accusingly at one another.
The batpony spoke first. “Something changed.”
“What did you do?” Replied the pegasus.
“I can’t see what’s different.”
“I don’t, either.”
The two stared at each other for a minute longer, before looking back down at the impossible coin.
“Interesting.”
If one could have watched their disappearance in microsecond frames, they would seem to move away at a constant rate from any vantage point.
Inspiration
“If you’ve got a dream and a lot to do- put your hooves up, and I’ll follow you.”
As the five walked into the fortress’s entry hall, they noticed that features inside were still assembling themselves.
A large stairwell rose up from the floor to a mezzanine level and a set of double doors. Aside from a chandelier, whose candles ignited when they stepped on the pattern of sun and moon in the floor’s center, the ceiling was shrouded in shadows.
As they beheld everything, posts rose along the sides of the stairs. A circular chunk coiled up to meet the top of the first support, growing into a banister up each set of posts before turning to follow the mezzanine.
The five ponies stood still, staring in wonder at their surroundings. Behind them, pieces of the rubble were lifting themselves up, the shattered wall piecing itself back together.
Rarity cleared her throat, breaking the spell that had transfixed the others. She walked in a slow circle, following the pattern in the floor tiles, looking up at their surroundings, noting how the mostly circular room had four large supports filled in with black crystal along the perimeter which gave the impression of corners.
“Does your book mention this place, Pinkie?”
Pinkie flipped through her book, following Rarity’s eyes.
“Yeah. There’s a woodcut that looks just like the exterior but without these lower walls here, like it used to be an open space. And there’s a sketch of a heart right about where you’re standing. The interior pretty much matches the description in the book, too.”
Rarity chewed the inside of her cheek. “Like the rest of you, I grew up on tales of the Two Sisters and the fables of the ancient world.”
Realizing the others were staring with uncomprehending expressions, she tapped one of the railings with a sturdy forehoof.
“One of my favorite stories was of the Battle of Silanzi Tor , ‘Shattered Tower’ in the modern tongue. It speaks of the first and greatest of the Sisters’ defeats, right here on this exact spot a thousand years ago. Right here, this exact spot, was the birthplace of our independance. Here, ponykind built a great temple to Selitos- the Horned Mother of Unicorns.”
Pinkie nodded a little and wobbled a hoof, opening her mouth to reply before being cut off by Fluttershy.
“Actually, it was a holy site devoted to Rhewedig, Mother of Pegasi.”
Pinkie puffed her cheeks out and rubbed her forehead.
“No, you’re both… Look, no. All three races claim this spot. There’s a blank in our history of about a hundred years, long enough for the real story to get confused. Silanzi is the name of the Earth Mother, the Queen of the Wild.”
She laid the book out flat so the five heads could crowd around it.
“Silanzi Tor was built at great expense to the newly unified races at the spot they brokered peace. It’s almost an exact copy of the fortress used as a neutral space for negotiations in the Old Kingdom, and both served as shrines to the Three Mothers.”
She flipped the page to where a helpful ancestor had sketched the interior of the Tower.
“Originally, this lower part we’re sitting in was open, with an eternal flame symbolizing the Fire of Friendship, and was used as a parade ground for the Three Armies. Right where we’re standing, there’s an intersection of six ley lines.”
She pointed to a circular room directly above them.
“There are three main floors that were used as shrines to the Mothers. There’s also writing along the side here that nobody’s been quite able to decipher, but it talks about the Elements of Harmony.”
She flicked the page over, Twilight’s forehead thunking against hers as each quickly read over the passage.
“It speaks of a black magic rite,” Twilight offered, using a pen to point to a specific word in the passage. Pinkie quickly scribbled notes into a blank book. “It says… something something… ah… shit.”
Rainbow Dash wormed her muzzle into the huddle, pursing her lips at the words. “It’s runic Lleferyddbluen, the passage speaks of Agor y Drws .
Pan fydd y bum gwrthrych yn cael eu gosod,
a'r geiriau llafarganu'n,
pum hud dod yn un
Bydd yr haul a'r lleuad yn cyfarfod
a bydd y drysau i dragwyddoldeb agored. ”
Twilight and Pinkie stared at Rainbow Dash and blinked at the utter gibberish that fell from her mouth. She frowned and flushed hotly, rubbing her snout as she looked aside. “What? Some of the Wandering Moons still speak stuff like Lleferyddbluen…”
Twilight rolled her eye and peered down at an untranslated symbol, Pinkie patting Rainbow’s forehead in consolation. None of the three noticed the growing unease of their other two companions.
“Tartarus,” Pinkie pointed at one of the runes with a sharp-tipped finger, “Later in the book it speaks of this rite being performed and the Sisters appearing from a doorway, and later of the ritual chamber being used as an exile for dissenters and monsters. If they’re trying to re-open this rift, well, you get why I was so anxious to get moving.”
Rarity’s tapping on Pinkie’s hip became more frantic, leading her to straighten and glare at her, before the unicorn wordlessly pointed and brought her attention to a scowling grey muzzle.
“Oh.”
While distracted with discussing the form and function of the Tower, a squad of about twenty of the Nightmares’ soldiers had shown up and quietly surrounded the five. The dark ones all possessed yellow eyes, tufted elongated ears, sharp teeth, batlike leafy noses, and grey coats, the pegasi with stunted batlike wings and the unicorns with cracked horns.
The other half of the company was made up of white unicorns with flickering flaming manes and tails, and pegasi with phoenix-like red-flamed wings. None of them seemed any better off than the bat ponies.
The five ponies drew into a loose circle, facing the company and their naked blades. Pinkie and Rarity shifted to defensive postures; Twilight drew and cocked her pistol. Only Fluttershy seemed not to react much.
Fluttershy took a deep, calming breath and pushed Twilight’s pistol to the floor with an admonishing glance.
They glanced intermittently at the largest of the soldiers, the only one in the group with intact, albeit rusted and cobbled-together armor. Fluttershy cleared her throat as she sat back on her haunches, glancing up at the male.
“Are you in charge here?”
The batpony seemed taken aback. Fear he could handle, fighting back he could handle, but this pretty mare threw him off guard. He cleared his throat before replying in a voice that was higher-pitched than seemed to match his stature.
“Lieutenant Pumpernickel, ma’am. I wouldn’t want to hurt any of you fillies if I don’t have to, so please just surrender.”
Fluttershy waved off the others, stepping close enough to rest a hoof against Pumpernickel’s chest. He looked down at her, chewing his lower lip.
“I don’t think you’d like to fight us either, Lieutenant. I understand you’re just following orders, but your ponies don’t look ready for a battle.”
With a poignant expression she gestured to the assembled squad. Twilight rolled her eye at Fluttershy looking like she was about to cry in front of the enemy. “I can’t imagine you were treated very well…”
She looked over the lieutenant and his weary, sickly soldiers. Some leaned on one another for support, and at least one had his eyes closed.
“You’ve been awake all this time?”
The lieutenant refused to look at her, glancing over his squad much the same way a father would his ill children.
“Of course, the Princesses would want you ready for a counterattack whenever they could reopen the rift…”
She suddenly recoiled as a couple of the soldiers shuddered at her words. “You... You’ve been in Tartarus suffering for all this time then?”
The other five blinked in surprise as the male sighed and scuffed a hoof. “We were put in Tartarus before the Tower fell into the hooves of the revolutionaries. We promptly had weapons pressed upon us and sent out when the gate reopened. A thousand years is a long time to think things over.”
She cleared her throat as she sat down again, the bigger male following her to the floor. She tapped her hooves together as she collected her thoughts. “A lot has changed in a thousand years, Lieutenant. Whatever obligation you had to the Sisters, a millennium of service must have discharged it. As citizens of Equestria you’re long-due for retirement. You don’t have to fight anymore, under Equestrian Law.
“Welcome home, Lieutenant.”
Pumpernickel contemplated this for a minute before nodding along with the words of the silver-tongued mare. He barely could open his mouth to reply before Fluttershy spoke again.
“Nopony needs to die, Lieutenant. If your squad were to surrender, lay down arms, and help us defeat the Sisters, it would look very good for you.”
A hushed conversation followed, and Twilight had been dragged forward. The squad formally surrendered to her, the mare fitting Pumpernickel’s straight sword across her withers.
Fluttershy smiled at her friends. “Everypony wants to do good, to do the right thing. Sometimes we just need a little inspiration, someone to show us how to be generous.”
With that, she returned to the gaggle of ponies to talk over their terms, how to leave, and how to convince other members of the Nightmare Army to follow them in laying down arms.
With a glance of finality, the four raced up the stairs leading to the next floor, the double doors opening from the other side to let them through.
The mysterious observers continued watching from their vantage point on the mezzanine. Overlooking the lower floor where the surrender had taken place, and where Fluttershy and the Nightmare troopers were now discussing the proper way to speak to the remainder of the army outside, the batpony lowered her opera glasses and glanced to her companion.
“You see that?”
“Yes. There’s a wave rolling back towards the past. Everything we lay in place is undone.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know what happens. And I don’t think you do, either.”
The show must go on, and the winner takes all.
Pinkie followed her three friends, lost in thought. The headaches and strange images flashing through her mind were increasing in frequency and intensity. This morning had started out so simply, and now she was chasing an acrobat, a contractor, and a police officer up the longest set of stairs ever conceived.
They ringed the next chamber, rising fairly steeply. There were no lights. Darkness shrouded the ceiling, and soon enough, the floor was invisible, as well.
The mental flashes were distracting. Pinkie stumbled, caught her footing, and shook her head. She kept her eyes on the light bobbing above Twilight’s horn.
She stumbled again and yelped, flailing for purchase before realizing that Rarity had caught her. She watched chips from the edge of the stairs tumble into the blackness beneath them, not hearing the impact of a larger chunk for some time. She gulped and allowed Rarity to set her on her back, gripping her stocky neck tightly and settling in to be carried.
Eventually, the stairs met a landing in the ceiling, the door opening into a broad circular room. A pony-sized crystal hung suspended between spikes extending from the floor and ceiling. Pinkie watched ghosts work at cross purposes in the center of the room. The air became gelid as two solid shapes stepped into view.
The hunter-green batpony waltzed across the floor with the tan pegasus. They seemed like a film with every other second cut out and replaced at random, their words not matching the movement of their mouths. The batpony was tall, at least Rarity’s height if not more, and worryingly thin. Fangs glinted from each corner of her mouth, showing to be at least 2 inches whenever she spoke.
The pair wheeled closer, and their banter on the subject of the other’s dancing ceased. They broke off and circled the quartet of ponies, examining them at length. They spoke in absolute unison, trading off segments of their sentences.
“From three,”
“Come five.”
“From Five,”
“Birth One.”
“One saves two.”
“From two, a nation.”
They bowed in unison. The air was clammy, cold as getting doused with a firehose. Breathing was difficult, as if a great weight had settled on all their chests.
“Is it nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take up arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them?”
“Nothing is random, my dear. All suffering has a cause, and everything is important. After all, all the world’s a stage, and we poor fools the players. All have their exits and entrances, and many roles to play in our lives.”
The two chuckled discordantly as they circled the four ponies.
“I wonder if they passed.”
“Surely they do. We’d see it if they don’t.”
“Goodbye, thinker.”
“Goodbye, builder.”
“Goodbye, soldier.”
“Goodbye, lie .”
Pinkie swallowed and broke ranks with her friends, approaching the pair. Twilight’s eyes narrowed as she noticed the blank expression on her face. None of this gelled well with the cop.
Pinkie’s words echoed strangely as she froze, staring straight ahead. Twilight’s skull itched and burned.
“Echo chambers of the past. The Tower’s remembering what it was, what it should be. This chamber belongs to Silanxi.”
Twilight tracked Pinkie’s sightline. Her eyes were locked with the milky absinthe-jade eyes of the Nocturne. She drew her pistol, the slide thunderous in the vacuum silence as she cocked it.
The wall of the room lit up, turning transparent. Beyond the walls, the battle for the city could be seen. The Nightmare Forces were winning. The city was burning. Twilight heard screams.
Only Rainbow seemed unaffected, glancing at each of her friends with concern.
“The respect of Silanxi is reserved for the for the courageous and the wild.” Pinkie’s voice softened to a whisper.
Twilight could no longer hear the screams and sounds of the battle for Fillydelphia over mortar shelling and machinegun fire from a different city, a different battle. She fired. The casing hovered in the air.
She watched the slug flash towards the Nocturne’s fanged face. Her vision swam, the batpony’s face doubling. The green mare morphed, her shape changing to that of a Lung dragon with a red kerchief tied around his upper arm. He held a rifle that flashed terribly bright in her eyes.
The discordant voice of the batpony was taunting over the choked gasp of...
Tamp it down don’t remember it . Her vision swam again, and the floor came rushing up to meet her.
“You are fearful. You miss.”
Rainbow Dash watched as her friends went blank. She watched Twilight shriek and fire at nothing. She heard snatches of speech. She watched Pinkie as she muttered. Pinkie looked at nothing.
“Tinkerer.”
Rainbow Dash shook as Pinkie’s gaze swept over Rarity and Twilight.
“Builder, soldier.”
The pink mare stared through Dash. “Lie .”
She swallowed and let out her breath. This business was horrifying. She could handle a hundred-foot drop to certain death; she could handle this. She guided her friends to lay down so they wouldn’t hurt themselves in their trances.
She trotted to the crystal in the center of the room, gently laying a hoof on the smooth surface. A voice in the back of her head made her shudder with revulsion. Pinkie’s book would never have spoken about this chamber or the mythology of her people. The Speaking Hall, challenging the wandering pony to test her courage. Luckily, she had that in spades.
“Face the fears. Laugh in the face of danger, for it is your greatest weapon. Humor is the arms that can break the sea of troubles, the shield to deflect the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.”
Her hide crawled as she stroked Pinkie’s mane. But the temperature slowly rose as she tried to comfort the mare. The cold was replaced gradually with the smell of ozone as the color leached out of the walls, leaving them transparent. The city around them was revealed.
Twilight roused first. Rainbow watched as the three wandered in unison to the wall and watched the city burn.
There was a consistency, a common thread of the mutterings of the three: uselessness.
Twilight spoke aloud first. Behind Rainbow, the crystal shone dully from within its blackened surface.
“I shouldn’t be here. I’m an Equestrian soldier, and a Filly bull. I should be helping those poor ponies.”
Pinkie’s voice rose as Twilight quieted. “I was wrong . There’s no stopping this. We’re going to fail. I’m going to get you all killed. I’m a tinker, not a hero. This was all for nothing.”
Rarity was hardest to hear. “I shoulda never come here. Ain’t got a purpose being here. I’m a builder, not a fighter.”
I guess that makes me the Lie , Rainbow thought. Their words made her angry. They made her cry. They made her laugh . She understood the challenge presented to her. Conquering one’s own fears was easy. Conquering those of others was a challenge. She wiped tears from her eyes as she watched her friends tremble with fear, thousand-yard gazing over the burning city. The symbol of their failure and uselessness.
“It’s scary, sure. But we need to keep moving.”
They ignored her. It didn’t, couldn’t stop her. She rested her forehead on Pinkie’s, and her hooves on the chubby mare’s cheeks.
“You don’t need to be right all the time, but you’ve been right so far. We wouldn’t have gotten this far without your book, and you’re the only one who can read it. You can’t give up.” She shook her, gently. “C’mon. Up on your hooves. We’ll get through this.”
Pinkie’s color improved as they moved to Rarity. They both whispered in her ears as Pinkie got in on the joke. The very idea of them trying to scare her just made her want to laugh.
“You need to get up,” Pinkie whispered through a fit of giggles.
“When we win, someone will be needed to rebuild.” Rainbow’s voice was soft, but sparkled with barely contained laughter.
Twilight didn’t respond to any of the three’s proddings and encouragement. She just laid there, whispering to herself about fire, mortar shells, and murdered innocents. Rainbow gathered her up in a hoof, and struck her soundly across the face, knocking her to the floor. She shouted at her, standing over the bigger mare.
“If you give up, those ponies will die for nothing! We can beat them. This spot is where it was done last time. We can’t help anyone out there right now. We’d just become victims.”
She shoved Twilight onto her hooves.
She struck her again. "If we can still stop this, we should try. If we go back, if what you and Pinkie said is true, they’d just get stronger by the second. We have to move forward and try to stop this thing, or all that you’re seeing just will get worse, and those sacrifices being made right now will have been made in vain. Don’t let them win. "
“Get over yourself, Corporal.” The fire in her eyes burned brighter than those outside. The false wings made her seem bigger, fiercer than she was. Her words echoed through Twilight’s head.
Twilight didn’t see Rainbow. She saw a bigger mare with an orange coat and Marine drabs. That same wing-splayed stance holding her against a wall as Ghangzhou burned and Griffon Fritzies fired mortars.
”People die, Corporal. It happens. Get yourself together, and get back out there. You swore an oath to do a job, and what is that job?”
“To protect those under the protection of Queen Chromia’s empire. To stop shit like this, Captain.”
Spitfire thunked Twilight’s tin hat and shoved the unicorn’s rifle on her.
“Get out there and do your damn job.”
Twilight blinked slowly as the past collided with the present. She dusted herself off and slowly rose to her hooves, her stomach bubbling. The crystal stopped turning as Dash flashed a devil-may-care grin, which the unicorn mirrored. Twilight mimed pulling down a steel helmet. The giggles in her belly let loose, it being the first time she’d laughed in over a year.
They all started laughing at the weak attempt to stop them. Rainbow grinned and shoved her.
“What’s your job, Twilight?”
Twilight wiped tears from her eyes. “Stopping crime. We don’t usually get to stop crime; most of the time, we have to clean up after the fact.”
Rainbow nodded. “Let’s stop this one. Here’s a crime in progress that you can put an end to. Do your damn job, copper. Catch the criminals red-hoofed.”
Pinkie watched Twilight’s mock salute, glancing up to watch a set of stairs spiral down from an aperture in the ceiling. They curled around the central pillars, the crystal brightening as it spun again. As peals of helpless laughter shook the ceiling, no doubt reaching the prehistoric nags at the top, Pinkie noticed the blackness receding from the crystal. It was red underneath the soot.
Color spread across the floor, flowing along six lines cut into the stone. It revealed metamagical sigils and equations scrawled across every surface. Color crept up the walls, covering over the images of horror with a pictograph of Equine history. It traced the story of the Earth Mother from her part in the formation of the world to the crowning of the First Queen, Silanxi presenting the image of Queen Platinum with a set of gilt shoes.
The stairs locked into place as the mares got ahold of themselves. An agreement seemed to be reached. Pinkie needed to know something. She gripped Rainbow’s shoulder with a mechanical hand, as the other two started up the stairs.
“You were the only one not afflicted with the nightmares. Why?”
Rainbow shook her head. “I’m an acrobat and a wanderer. The Moons took me in as an orphan. When you’re reshaping your life like that, when your life revolves around hoofing your nose at the notion of death… no phantasm has the same weight as the reality of a hundred-fifty-foot drop to hard ground with no safety net. I learned to trust in myself and trust in my family.”
She smiled and patted the gauntlet bracing her shoulder. “That, and a mantra my mother taught me when I was very small. I could teach it to you, but it wouldn’t sink in if you don’t speak Lleferyddbluen.”
Pinkie released her and nodded, glancing back once as she started towards the stairs. “You’re not coming, after all that talk about moving forward?”
Rainbow gestured to indicate the room. “I’m still needed here. There’s still fear. I need to teach our friends and anyone else that comes along to laugh.”
Pinkie giggled to herself and nodded as she trotted shakily up the stairs, managing to ascend two before Rarity pulled her up onto her back and carried her the rest of the way. An image flashed across her mind as she rested her chin between the bigger mare’s ears.
Rainbow, but not. All-white instead of blue and rainbow. Her eyes glowed faintly, a defiant and determined grin painted above the rainbow hat-trick on her golden necklace.
Once the others disappeared through to the next floor, Rainbow sat on her haunches and glared at the crystal.
“Alright. Give me the real test.”
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