Lyra slowly woke up to the sound of somepony muttering worriedly. “Where are they…..they should have been here by now…..” the voice said. The unicorn slowly opened her eyes and tried to sit up but a sharp pain put a stop to that and made her cry out. “Careful, do you want to puncture a lung?” the voice said sternly. “here let me help you.” Lyra felt a magic aura wrap around her and slowly moved her into a sitting position.

“Thank you.” She said as she looked at a dark grey unicorn with a black mane sat across a small fire from her.

“Don’t mention it, if I let you hurt yourself anymore then I’d be a dead mare.” The unicorn said in a slightly educated voice. Lyra blinked at the statement and opened her mouth to speak but the unicorn continued to talk. “I managed to bandage you and it should help hold everything in place but you are in serious need of a doctor as my first aid training can only do so much.”

Lyra blinked once more and looked down to find her chest wrapped tightly is bandaged and several of her worst cuts with bandages as well. She looked up at the other mare who was looking around at the surrounding forest while stroking a strange object with a large box attached to it and some gold pieces shinning in the fire light that rested beside the mare. “um…thank you….for the help.” She said a bit sheepishly.

The mare looked back at her. “Don’t mention it, if I didn’t help you then I’d never hear the end of it.” She said. “Besides helping you might give me a few points towards a cuddle.” The mare said.

Lyra’s eyes widened. “Brah? Um…I’m….I’m taken….” She stammered out.

The unicorn blinked and then seemed to realize what she had said. “Not with you.” She said with a slight blush. “no no, I’m taken as well and I don’t want anyone else.” The mare said waving a hoof before her as if shooing Lyra’s thought away from her.

“Oh….um…Sorry.” Lyra said with a deep blush. “I’m Lyra Heartstrings by the way.” She said trying to change subjects.

“Chrissy.” The mare said with a nod. “It’s a pleasure to meet you Lyra.” Then looked around them once more before looking back at her. “Now you mind telling me what was going on back in town?”

“oh…um…” Lyra looked around not sure if she should say the truth but after thinking about it the mare had saved her and in doing so made herself an enemy of the Empress. Sighing she spoke up. “I’ve been helping Bonnie gather information on the Empress’ forces.” She said. “I play in a lot of places soldiers hang out and I keep my ears open and then tell her what I hear. She then hands it off to the resistance.”

“So you two were spying and somehow got caught?” Chrissy asked.

Lyra nodded. “Yeah I think something I overheard was false and meant to see what information reached the resistance. All I know is on morning our front door was kicked in and we were dragged to the base.” She said and looked down. “I….I tried to stay strong….I didn’t want to tell them…but……”

“Don’t think like that.” The grey mare said looking at her sternly. “You have no reason to think you failed. You aren’t trained to resist torture. The fact you made it as long as your injuries were to suggest is impressive.” The mare said and nodded in respect.

Lyra blushed lightly and looked down as she pushed a small pebble around with a hoof. “you…you really think so?” She asked quietly.

“I know so, most ponies in your position would have broken within the first half hour, you look like you endured days.” Chrissy said. “So you have no reason to feel as if you let anypony down.”

Lyra looked at the unicorn as she stared at her from across the fire. The way she said all that so matter of factly made Lyra feel like it was true. Taking a deep breath, the musician looked down. “Thank you….” She said.

“Don’t mention it.” The grey unicorn said as she looked around once more.

“So…where are we anyways?” Lyra asked looking around, she was sure this wasn’t Whitetail Woods.

“The Everfree Forest.” The other unicorn said as if telling her they were in a park.

“Th-the E-Everfree Forest?” Lyra said snapping her head around to look at the unicorn before she started to franticly look around. “What are we doing I here? This place is the most dangerous place in all of Equestria!”

“I know, that’s why we are camping in it, those soldier will be hesitant to search here, and if they do they won’t go far before giving up and assuming we are head.” Chrissy said.

“That’s because we will be dead!” Lyra said franticly, trying to keep her voice down.

“No we won’t, trust me, I know my way around this forest and should be able to deal with most of the beasts who call this place home” She said and tapped the strange musket beside her. “In the mean time you should get some sleep. You have a lot to recover from.” She said gesturing to the bandages around Lyra. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep watch and if anything happens I’ll be sure to wake you up.”

Lyra stared at the unicorn wondering if she was insane or not for being so confident she could deal with the monsters of the Everfree. But looking at the mare Lyra found she actually believed it if she had been able to escape the Empress’ soldier and make it this deep into the forest. Plus, setting up a camp while tending to an injured pony.

Slowly Lyra nodded her head and carefully laid down. Resting her head on her hooves she finally noticed just how exhausted she actually was and within seconds sleep claimed her.

<<>>

The sun was shining brightly through the window when Broken Dawn slowly woke up. Stretching as she yawned the little filly grabbed her pistol and slowly crawled out from under the bed. Slowly she scanned the room for anything that was out of place before she made her way to the door. Using her magic, the unicorn filly carefully removed the glass she had placed on the door knob the night before. Setting it aside she silently unlatched the door and peeked out.

Seeing the hall was clear Dawn nodded her head and turned around as she placed her pistol back in her saddle back.

“Hi Dawn, how’s everything look?”

“GAH!” Dawn stumbled back as she found Violet only an inch from her face and took a wild swing with her hoof. The other filly calmly ducked, her smile not once leaving her face. “Damnit Violet don’t do that!” Dawn scolded.

“Do what?” Violet asked as she blinked and tilted her head in confusion.

Dawn facehoofed, she was just like the Princess when it came to personal space, in that there was no such thing. Dawn had tried explaining it but the other filly never understood so Dawn just came to live with her friend’s odd tendency of suddenly being on top of you.

“Nothing, how did you sleep?” She asked looking at the undisguised filly.

“Oh I slept great, the bed was nice and comfy, I still don’t know why you didn’t want to sleep on it.” Violet asked as she tilted her head, a smile on her face.

“Just personnel preference.” Dawns said. Trying to explain the Tartarus damned place she had come from to someone who had never actually been there was impossible. Least the Princess understood having been there.

“Do you think miss Cheerilee slept good?” Dawn asked as she glanced at the door.

“I’m sure she slept fine.” Dawn said. After arriving at the mare who had grabbed them while they made their way for the edge of town’s house she had locked the door before making sure they weren’t followed. Afterwards the mare had gone to make them all dinner and during the meal introductions were made. Dawn hadn’t really been paying much attention as the mare talked to them as she had been busy trying to form a plan for how to get away and meet up with the Princess and Chrysalis.

Despite everything Dawn had decided it would be best to stay the night with the mare and slip away sometime during the day when things had calmed down and there weren’t soldiers everywhere. And thus the two fillies found themselves sleeping in the mate’s bedroom while she took the couch. Dawn had said they would be fine with the couch but the mare had insisted that foals needed proper sleep to grow up healthy.

It had been clear the mare would hear no argument so Dawn reluctantly agreed.

A small knock at the door drew Dawn’s attention and she quickly waved to Violet to get her to disguise herself as she went to the door. She only spoke after she saw Violet wrapped in flames and replaced by a normal dark purple unicorn filly. “Hello?” Dawn asked through the door.

The door knob slowly turned and Cheerilee stuck her head in. “Oh good you two are awake.” She said and smiled. “Breakfast is ready.” The mare said pushing the door open before she turned and headed back down the hallway.

Dawn looked at Violet before reaching up and adjusting the goggles on her forehead. Once they were straight the two fillies left the room and followed after the dark pink earth pony.

Breakfast consisted of a large stack of pancakes for the both of them already sitting on the table when they entered. Dawn blinked as she looked at the food. “This is for us?” She asked looking at the earth pony as she came in with a container of syrup balanced on her back.

“Yes it is.” She said with a smile. “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day for young foals and you want to grow up big and strong don’t you?” She asked with a smile as she placed the syrup on the table before taking a seat and gesturing at the other two seats.

The two fillies climbed into a chair and Dawn let Violet use the syrup first before using it herself and then passing it to the earth pony. “My you two seem rather skilled in magic for being so young.” She said as she poured syrup on her pancakes.

“Yup, mom is a really good teacher and she’s also teaching Dawn as well.” Violet said with a big smile.

Cheerilee nodded as she started to eat. “So how did you two sleep?”

“We slept well, thank you.” Dawn said around a mouth full of pancake, Violet was eating smaller bites though she had been born as changeling royalty so some of her mannerisms were genetics.

Cheerilee couldn’t help giggling as the two ate their food as perfect opposites, she had assumed the two were sisters at first but Dawn had corrected her in that they were friends. She did mention she lived with Violet’s family though. “That’s good to hear, I know last night was rather scary, I was worried you two would have trouble getting to sleep.”

Dawn shrugged. “Wasn’t that big a deal, I’ve seen worse.” She said as she shoved another large bite of pancake into her mouth. The princess had introduced her to them the day after she had followed her back home and Dawn was practically addicted to pancakes from that moment forward. They were as bad as chems but without the negative side effects and she had them every other day for breakfast.

Dawn had been living with the Princess for almost a year now, ever since she had first learned the Princess was indeed a Princess and not like the other alicorns she heard about.

The Princess had given her some lessons on magic as she had worked on her gear and when the rift had opened to recover the Princess Dawn took one look at the barren wasteland she called home and the rift to an unknown land that the foul mouthed princess called home and made an easy choice.

The Princess had been upset that she had followed her and try to send her back but the rift had snapped shut before she could. It seemed the device that opened the Rifts was only able to lock onto objects and people from the Princess’ home and so since nothing from the dimension was left in Dawn’s home reality there was no way to guarantee they’d get a lock. Since opening a Rift to a random dimension and shoving the filly through wasn’t an option according to the Princess and the science team Dawn was told she’d stay with the Princess till they could find her a foster family.

It had been almost a year since then the Princess had given up trying to find one do to no one being able to deal with someone like her correctly. Plus, the Princes had continued to give her lessons in magic, as well as reading, mathematics, history and all manner of subjects and slowly Dawn became the Princess’ personal student without anyone noticing.

Dawn was drawn back to the present when Cheerilee spoke up after she finished her pancakes. “Now then once you two are done eating go get cleaned up as we have a big day ahead of us.”

“oh? What are we doing today miss Cheerilee” Violet asked as Dawn’s ears perked up.

“Well today is Monday which means it’s a school day.” Cheerilee said with a chuckle.

“What?” Dawn cried loudly.

“Well I can’t just leave you two here as I need to go and teach my class and two foals not being in school would look rather odd and get ponies talking.” Cheerilee said. “It’s best if you two go to school like normal fillies. I already filled out the paperwork last night saying you are the foals of some friends of mine who are traveling abroad on business so sent you to stay with me so you can keep up your schooling.” She said with a nod. “as long as they don’t look too closely at it or run a background check on the names it should work.”

Dawn stared at her before groaning and facehoofing. As much as she hated to admit it, the school teacher was right, people would notice two fillies running around and not in school, which meant they needed to go with the earth ponies plan, which meant they would have to wait about tracking down the Princess and the Queen till some time later. Dawn was sure that the meeting spot had been abandoned within the hour as staying while the soldiers hunted them would have been suicide or at least a real pain in the flank for the alicorn and changeling queen as Dawn was sure they could handle anything with ease.

Still Dawn was not looking forward to this as her only experience with schools was sneaking through them to scavenge for whatever of value was inside, that and them being used as a camp for some ponies you really did not want to be found by.

Sighing with accepted of the situation Dawn shoved the last large bite of pancake into her mouth and started to chew, least she got pancakes before having to face her first day of school.

<<>>

It seemed Dawn’s experience with schools was rather accurate and she kept glancing at the ticks at the bottom of her vision but so far they all remained yellow. Currently her and Violet stood in front of about fifteen other foals all staring at the pare as Cheerilee introduced them. “Now Class these two are Broken Dawn and Violet Flame. They will be joining us for a while as their parent are traveling abroad on business and asked me to look after them.” She said with a smile before looking at the two fillies. “Why don’t you tell us a bit about yourselves?”

“Hi! I’m Violet! I like math, biology and people watching.” The purple filly said with a big smile.

“Uh…I’m Dawn, I mostly like building things.” The blue filly said glancing down really quick as if she were shy before looking back up at everyone.

“Hi Violet, hi Dawn.” The class said together. Dawn found that rather unnerving.

Cheerilee nodded before looking at the two unicorns. “Why don’t you two go find a couple of empty desks and we can get started with today’s lessons.” She said and Dawn nodded before gesturing with her head for Violet to follow her.

The two fillies found a couple of empty desks in back and they claimed them for themselves. No one noticed as the dark blue filly looked at the object on her right foreleg and mutter something along the lines f “how do you know the name of this place?” before shaking her head and looking back up as Cheerilee started with a history lesson.

The two fillies followed the lesson though Dawn grew somewhat board as she had heard this part of history before from the Princess she found her mind wondering as she tried to form a plan on how to find the others and meet up with them, prospects were not looking good as the Princess and Queen could be anywhere by now though she knew they wouldn’t abandon the two foals. Which meant something was keeping them busy but in the end she couldn’t come up with anything besides sit tight and wait for the others to come for them. Which meant more school, great.

Dawn didn’t mind learning, far from it actually, but she liked it when the Princess was teaching her as she made it all interesting by demonstrating things and giving random trivia she thought Dawn would find interesting and she let Dawn choose what she learned by asking question. That and Dawn was just with Violet and not a bunch of other foals.

After history they were all given paper started being taught multiplication. Dawn sighed and had to suppress her urge to facehoof as she had already learned the basic times tables but these foals were just starting on them.

The two new fillies easily breezed through the multiplication work they were given, one with a broad smile on her face and another with a slightly annoyed face, though only one of them wrote down random notes in the margin for a completely different subject. That filly asked if she could have the paper back later so she could keep her notes on hoof for later use.

Then they moved onto something that perked Dawn up, science. Ever since the Princess had explained to the filly how the sun and the moon orbited the planet the dark blue unicorn had been obsessed with learning more about science, something the Princess was more than happy to tech though she seemed rather quiet when teaching any subject except engineering and physics. She hired a tutor to teach the foals Biology and on those days neither of them saw the Princess till evening when she tucked them in.

As Cheerilee explained basic physics of gravity Dawn couldn’t help raising her hoof. “Yes Dawn do you have a question?” the teacher asked with a small smile.

“Are you using Rarehoof’s theories on the nature of physics or Dr. Swift Talon’s?” She asked.

Cheerilee blinked at the filly. “I’m sorry but…what do you mean Dawn?”

“Well Rarehoof theorized that the gravity of Equus was the result of a large deposit of magic at or near the core of the planet and that is what gave us gravity as it maintained a constant pull on everything while Dr. Swift Talon theorized that the planet itself is rotating at thousands of miles an hour and thus creating gravity on the surface. Both of them did experiments that leant a great deal of weight to their respected theories and so the scientific community has been divided about who is right. “Dawn said and tilted her head to the side as she thought for a moment. “Personally I think Dr. Talon’s theory has more merit as while a lot of things on the planet is controlled by magic not everything is and a deposit of that much magic would do a lot more then create gravity and would have most likely been found or detected by modern equipment.”

She looked back at the teacher. “Anyways the reason I asked is both theories of the nature of gravity have their own branching sub sciences and theories as to the nature of physics that have drastically different ramifications on our perception of the world around us and so I wanted to know which theory you were basing the lesson on so I know which mind set to be in for the work.”

When Dawn finished speaking she finally noticed everyone in the classroom was starting at her, some in confusion, others with their jaws on their floor and two with sneers for some odd reason. “What?” The filly asked tilting her head.

Cheerilee blinked several times as she recovered from her confusion and shock at the fact the filly seemed to know a lot about advanced scientific theory, she put on a slightly trained smile. “We teach Rarehoof’s theory here as the Empress preferred that theory.”

Dawn nodded. “Ok, thank you.” She said and sat back as Cheerilee got back to the lesson. Over all in the entire lesson Dawn raised her hoof about a dozen time to either ask a question or correct Cheerilee when she said some that wasn’t right or had been proven false by later studies. Violet has also raised her hoof to ask several question concerning the lesson and between the two of them the lesson ran for an extra half hour then normal.

“Ok Class, I think that is enough for science today.” Cheerilee said. “Oh my, seems we are late for recess.” She said and looked back at the class with a smile. “Do to the lesson running later then planed we will have to shave off about ten minutes if we are to cover the other subjects before school is out today.” She said and all the foals groaned, except for the two fillies in back, one of which had a hoof raised. “yes Dane?” Cheerilee called on the unicorn and the class groaned once more.

“This isn’t a question about the lesson but it is a question for clarification.’ Dawn said. “What’s recess?”

The other foals in the room stared at the dark blue filly as if she grown a second head and she tilted the single head she did have. “What?”

“Oh…um Recesses is a time where the class get to go outside and play and enjoy the outdoors for a time.” Cheerilee said. “You didn’t have recess at your old school?” She asked.

Dawn shook her head. “No, we were taught throughout the day for the most part till the pri---till mom decided we had done enough for the day.” Dawns aid having barely caught herself from mentioning the Princess, her and Violet had agreed it would be for the best to not mention the Princes till they had more information and Cheerilee had suggested that the two of them pretend to be siblings so the cover story would be more believable. To dawn it felt weird calling the Princess mom as she was always the Princess, even if she did take care of her and make sure she was ok and the like.

“Ah, so you were homeschooled, that explains it.” Cheerilee said with a smile. Yes, well everyone is free to go outside and play.” She said and with a loud cheer the foals in the room rushed for the door. All except for the two in back who calmly walked to the door, their unfamiliarity with recess easy to see for anyone who dealt with foals on a daily basis. Cheerilee could only shake her head with a small smile on her face after the two had left the room. “Such strange fillies but they are still good foals and their parent must have loved them a lot.” She said before sighing as the smile dropped from her face and she stared off into the distance, her hoof absent mindedly rubbing her stomach. “if only…..”

Outside Dawn and Violet looked around the playground with confusion clear on their faces. “So….any ideas?” Dawn asked looking at the purple filly beside her.

Violet shrugged. “We could always go see what materials we can find and build something, we do have your altered designs for your flying machine.” The filly said with a broad smile, most people seemed to find it unnerving but Dawn had long since grown used to how the other filly smiled all the time.

“Yeah but all we got is my blow torch, the rest of my tool are back in my workshop, I don’t think we can build anything with just that.” Dawn said and started to scratch her chin with a hoof. “Well….maybe we can….”

Dawns thought of some sort of full body steel armor designed for two foals and able to stop bullets as well as grenade explosions were interrupted by two other fillies walking over to them. “Well look what we have here, it’s the two nerds.” The pink filly with a purple and white mane and wearing a tiara said to a grey filly with a two toned grey mane and sore a pair of glasses.

Dawn blinked out of her thoughts and looked at the two other fillies. “Huh? Are you talking to us?” She asked as her mind reoriented to the outside world.

“Yes I am, because of you two nerds we were late for recess and also its being cut short because of you and all your questions.” The pink one said.

“uh….sorry?” Dawn said not being sure how to respond. She glanced at the ticks at the bottom of her vision but they still showed everything as yellow.

“Sorry? Sorry? Sorry doesn’t get us our recess back. “The pink one said.

“Hey Diamond Tiara they aren’t just nerds.” The grey one said and pointed at the two fillies’ flanks. Dawn looked back but only saw her normal flank.

“Oh my gosh! You two are totally blank flanks!” The pink ne, Diamond Tiara apparently, said.

Dawn looked back at the two of them. “yeah so?” She said.

“Well it means you two are a just sad blank flanks like those Crusaders or whatever they call themselves.” She said and scrunched her face up in discussed.

“Wait the Crusaders are here?” Dawn asked wide eyed, how could the Crusaders be here? Dawn left them all behind when she followed the Princess. How could they be here?

“No, no one has seen them for a long time, well that blank flank sweetie bell was in school still till about a month ago but no one’s seen her since.” Tiara said.

“I bet she got arrested for not having her Cutie Mark yet.” The grey earth pony said.

“Yeah I wouldn’t be surprised.” Tiara said.

“somehow I don’t think anyone would arrest a foal for that. She’s probably just been sick or something. “Violet said.

“tsk, shows what you know, her house has been abandoned for the month as well and no one has seen her sister either.” Tiara said. “Anyways it’s been so nice not having a punch of blank flanks crowding the playground but then you two showed up and what’s worse you both are nerds.”

“So…what’s wrong with being a blank flank?” Violet asked tilting her head to the side.

“What’s wrong? What’s wrong? Everything! It means you don’t have a special talent like we do!” Tiara said and the two of them turned to show the two black flank fillies their flanks.

“So….” Dawns aid looking at the pinkie fillies Cutie Mark. Your special talent is wearing a tiara?” She looked at the other one’s flank. And yours is….bulimia? I think you should see a doctor about that.”

“What? No!” Tiara said her face scrunching up in anger as she turned back to face the other two fillies.

“Then what is it?” Dawn asked.

“Tsk, none of your business, I doubt you two would understand anyways.” She said and looked at the grey earth pony filly beside her. “Come on Silver Spoon, I’m tired of talking these two and I don’t want the blank flankness to rub off on us.” She said before turning and walking away her nose held high in the air, the other filly doing the same right behind her.

“That’s now how Cutie Marks work!” Dawn called after the two but shrugged when they didn’t respond and turned to look at violet. “Well I have no clue what’s up with those two.”

“Well seeing as one’s talent is basically wearing a hat and the other is a sever eating disorder I can see why they are in bad moods.” Violet said before nodding sagely.

“Right.” Dawn said turning to face the playground. “Anyways let’s go find some materials to build us some armor.” Dawns aid before she started to trot off to begin her search.

“Ok!” violet said happily before following after the dark blue filly. She had to admit so far school was really fun as she got to lean thing and spy on new people and practice her emotional sense. Mom and Sire would be so happy to learn how much experience she got with it, maybe she will have mastered it by the time they came to pick her and Dawn up

Either way she was looking forward to more schooling as well as helping Dawn with her inventing and experiments. She’d also need to see about setting up some of her own biology experiments as well once she got her notes on the subject back from Miss Cheerilee.

Both fillies waded into the playground on a quest for things to help experiment and to learn more about things just like they were always told to do.

Author's Note

Thought we should check in and see what the others were up to while The Commander was on trial as well as get to see the relationship and thought process of several of them.

next chapter will be back with our favorite psychotic mare.