A Link to Equestria

Chapters

Execution
Companions
Clash
Exodus
Rise of the Stalponies
On the Right Track
Ghost Town
Return of Chaos
The Ruins
Mending Bonds
Midnight Talks
Prelude
Last Train Home
Pets of Chaos
Treason
Courage
King of the Hill
The Heist
Trouble in your Wake
In the Dark
Interlude to War

Execution

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The scorching wind… it never changed. It seared the lands that were unfortunate enough to stand in its way. No matter when or where it blew, it brought only one thing with it.

Death.

This was the Gerudo Desert, after all. How the Royal Family had succeeded in negotiating with the tribe of thieves, no-one couldn’t tell. But to negotiate the execution of the Gerudo’s only male in so long at a location they worshipped was surprising news. It betrayed just how greatly Hyrule had been changing in the recent years. The Sages of Hyrule, the infinitely wise, eternally faithful spirits that swore allegiance to the king, had as much interest in such changes as there was water in that haunted desert.

In the opinion of the Sage of Light, leader of the council of sages, the man whose life they were about to reap could be thrown into Lake Hylia with five iron balls tied to his feet. He would not be missed. Not by the Hylians, not by the Gerudos, not even the Moblins would mourn his death.

Perhaps such an execution would prove ineffective, however. Ganondorf was no ordinary man. He was a demon capable of a million tricks. He would likely make it in freeing himself from the heavy binds. Then, he would disappear without a trace again. Hylia knew how hard it had been to chase him through the verdant fields of Hyrule after a courageous fairy boy discovered his plans to conquer the kingdom.

Alas, that was not a matter of his concern, nor was it his decision to make. He did not dare voice his thoughts either; it was not his place as a Sage to do so. Sages were beyond advisors. Once upon a time, the Hylian King relied on them to supply their ancient wisdom, and heeded their advice when such was required. In the present, their task had been reduced to that of an executioner. They were called to deliver the 'sanctified justice', as the king had called it, so that the thieves and prisoners they killed could find their way to Hylia.

His Majesty knows what he is doing, the sage thought, staying true to the unwavering faithfulness that the sages were famous for.

He cast a discreet glance at the other sages. A total of five others composed his council. Today, he was positioned rather oddly. He was almost detached from the council, even though he led it. Usually, the duty of terminating the prisoner's life befell upon him. Today was different.

It had been deliberated that the finishing blow should be dealt by the hand of the Sage of Water. Donning their white vests and masks of eternal neutrality, the sages were arranged one next to the other in front of a gigantic slab of charcoal rock. A pair of chains slithered from its top to the wrists of the struggling, devilish fiend. His eyes burned with a thirst for vengeance. They bore a dangerous gaze capable of piercing through one’s soul – almost literally so.

As the Sage of Water began to mutter the necessary words to enchant the sword before him, the thief’s mouth contorted into a snarl, and his head slowly rose in accordance with the tip of the sacred blade of light. The Sage of Light felt that no words were necessary for this brutal ritual of death. It would be a clean, quick execution, much undeserved for the man he was.

The moments that followed would remain hazy in his mind for a long time.

The sword twirled on itself a couple of times before pointing skyward in front of the Sage of Water. There was silence.

Then, the blade whistled through the air. The sickeningly acute screech of steel piercing through bone filled the air. The sages were unfazed even as the man's body twitched violently. The chains didn't allow it to move. Ganondorf had reacted just as little. A grumble was all he uttered before his eyes closed and his head drooped. His body hung limply from the chains that kept him imprisoned. The threat that was the Prince of Darkness was gone. Dead.

...if only that were true.

The Sage of Light’s head arched back in perfect synch with the sudden shudder of the man’s hands. The placid expression on the sage's mask slowly became a disturbed frown.

Ganondorf laughed. The man was suddenly overcome with life. He stood up and threw his fists forward, as if to punch the sages. The thick chains shivered and creaked, but held him back.

The Sage of Water gasped. The wise men, stripped of their only weapon and unsure of what to do, looked on. They could only watch as, one by one, the bolts that kept the locks in place shot in all directions.

The demon finally succeeded in releasing his left hand. They could only consider what they saw to be the single greatest horror they had ever witnessed in their ethereal lives.

The golden mark of the sacred Triforce shone on the back of his palm.

The Sage of Water visibly retreated. Ganondorf just cackled madly, mocking at the way his executioner had frozen in fear. When the last bolt failed to accomplish its only duty, the thief bounced off the monolith, arm outstretched toward the sage. The Sage of Water didn't so much as gasp before his neck was crushed in the man's grip. Just like that, the wise spirit disintegrated in a cloud of pure white specks of dust, which were carried away by the disgustingly hot breeze.

The other sages all took a step backwards, then more to make sure they were out of man’s reach. No, this was no longer a man. Those were the eyes of a beast, of an incredibly powerful devil, the stare of a madman. Without hesitation, he removed the sword from its chest. A toothy grin scarred his face, and a maniacal laughter burst forth. He was a bloodthirsty, insane demon.

In the Sages's darkest hour, only one solution appeared viable to spare their lives and the lives of the Hylian people. As if it had been orchestrated, all sages turned to the rear of the amphitheatre, preparing to raise their hands at the Mirror of Twilight. They would banish the fiend to the dimension where only the damned roamed. A suiting end for the one who claimed to rule evil.

They never did call upon the mirror's power, for before them did not stand the Mirror of Twilight. Their only hope of banishing this man to somewhere away from Hyrule was not there. In its place was a cloud as dark as the night sky, made of celestial dust and stars, surrounding the precious artifact. It rippled and whirled around the mirror.

The screech of something sharp scraping on glass filled the execution grounds. The wise men, trapped in their own confusion, did not even react. The ancient runes etched upon the mirror’s surface were wiped out of existence before their eyes. New, deformed lines were appearing in their place. They were ugly inscriptions written in a language not one of the six present had ever seen.

And though they were frightened, the condemned man held no fear in the gaze he cast directly at this nebulous being. Curiosity was possibly the best way to describe the spellbound manner with which he observed the birth of a new mirror, one which’s purpose they could only speculate.

Bearing a smug expression upon his face, he stepped forward, the triangular mark on the back of his open hand glittering ever brighter as he raised it at the ominous cloud. The air stilled, the sages but mere bystanders, paralyzed with unspoken words of terror and disgust.

Perhaps considering its work on the mirror done, the cloud floated down, towards the Gerudo. Even when he was being completely enveloped by the forthcoming mist, Ganondorf didn't utter a sound. He breathed in the cloud until it was no more. A deep blue aura slowly appeared around his body, like a flame that inspired further fright in the minds of the onlookers.

“Your land will be spared... for the time being,” it spoke, its voice a cavernous howl. It seemed capable of throwing the sages off their feet should its volume rise in the least.

The burning monster's eyes were set on the ancient artifact. The hand, still raised towards the cloud’s former position, slightly adjusted its angle to point directly at the modified mirror. “They speak the truth… only the true ruler of the Twilight Realm may destroy this relic.”

An inexplicable shimmer erupted from the new lines drawn upon the mirror's surface. It reclined back on its own, projecting its light upon the massive black stone where the man had been imprisoned.

Rings of light with engravings of complex designs materialized in thin air, rotating in different directions as the stone drew closer and their radius grew wider. Once they touched the grand rock, the strange patterns seemed to scar the monolith's shell. Soon, the projection on the mirror’s surface had been copied exactly onto the rock. The sages knew what was taking place: the activation of the portal that the looking glass was supposed to be.

“Stripped of your hero, however, you will find the task of directly confronting me much more arduous than it appears,” it continued, grabbing the sword by the blade and proceeding towards the podium where the mirror rested. The reflection on the stone had strangely assumed depth, like a funnel. Just like with the previous projection, the rings that composed this copy rotated. Their center was a single, triangular piece.

“That mark… it cannot be…” the Sage of Light managed to utter. The demon chose to simply ignore him. It waited with a satisfied smirk as the tug of the portal began to affect his legs.

“Your land has changed much since I last blessed it with my power. To think that imbuing the simple thought of owning one of the most powerful artifacts of all time would spawn an entire era of chaos… You have all done me proud. Perhaps, upon my return, I will grant you that honor again.”

The demon stretched out its arms to their full span. As if owner of a mind of its own, the mirror's brightness became equal to that of a thousand suns, and the demon’s body began to dissolve into countless fragment as dark as the moonless night sky. These were drawn into the portal, flying against the wind’s will.

Behind echoed its final words of farewell. When the sages finally grasped the gravity of the situation and their minds caught up to the incident, any trace of light abandoned the mirror, and the portal was no more.

Ganondorf was gone from Hyrule.

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“Are you completely sure of what you saw?”

It felt like it had been the millionth time that the mare had placed that question. No matter the answer the guard gave her, she insisted on asking it time and again. Breathing a long, deep sigh, the guard looked at her over his shoulder and summoned whatever politeness he had left. Hopefully it would clear the mare's doubts once and for all:

“Miss Sparkle, we have the creature locked up and incapacitated. I’m fairly certain we had enough time to look at it and describe it properly.” The mare was about to pose yet another question, but the violence in the guard’s abrupt shout left it to die in her throat. “WE’RE HERE.”

Ears pinned against her head and eyes fixed on the bulkier pony, the purple mare trotted forth. She carefully approached the wooden door of the dungeon chamber, as if the creature within would suddenly leap at her from within the darkness of the cell.

What met her eyes, however, was not a violent creature at all. Perhaps it was because it lay cold on the rocky ground, arms and legs splayed in random directions. Maybe even the way its mouth opened and closed rhythmically in its slumber. Whatever the reason, nothing about the thing inside told she should be afraid. The closest approximation she could give of it was that of a perfectly shaved Diamond Dog, albeit much, much smaller and even less muscled – let alone threatening. Dirty, green cloth adorned its whole body, a pointy hat of the same color over its head, a pair of belts holding the clothing in place.

“Are you sure that thing was about to attack you?” she asked, a certain hint of scorn rather patent in her words. The guard didn’t appear to take the subliminal message very well, as his previously passive expression quickly shifted to a frown.

“If you had read the briefing properly while we were in the chariot,” he brusquely replied, not willing to pass on an opportunity to bash the mare for her persistence. “Then you would have known that it was armed. A rather sharp sword, at that; I’ve only seen few like it.”

“Well I did read the briefing, but I still don’t see how that can be a threat to anyone. Even with a weapon. Especially a sword,” her retort carried just as much hostility as the stallion’s, something she realized too late but immediately tried to remedy by lowering her voice and looking away. “Whatever it is, it can’t be much older than a school-age foal. How would something that young go around with a weapon like that?”

“Reports from witnesses established that it came from the former entrance to the Canterlot Mines, which opens up near the city’s main plaza.”

The Canterlot Mines…

Memories of her brother’s wedding the previous year assaulted her mind. Her stay in those abandoned caves had been far from a good one. Her only salvation had been an auxiliary exit to the castle dungeons.

"Is there any other entrance?"

“None. This one's been blocked for several years now, and it’s the first time anything’s come out of it,” the guard added.

Chewing on the information for a moment, she continued to watch the creature in its sleep.

Green clothes… a creature stranger than anything ever seen in Equestria… Where have I heard of you before…

“I would like to see it up close,” she suddenly spoke, catching the guard completely by surprise.

“In there? You want to go in there?” his words dripped with ridicule, prompting a mixture of determination and anger to take over the mare's brow. They stood there for a moment, apparently an attempt from the guard to break the librarian, only to find that it was a lost battle.

The Princess’s protégé’s stubbornness was rather widespread among the higher ranks, if the constant hitch-hikes aboard a chariot to Canterlot were any indication. A groan was his sign of resignation. A pair of keys floated from the side of his armor to the front of his face. The crimson glow that enveloped the keys was immediately replaced with a purple one, and with a quick thanks, the mare plugged the key in the lock.

“I will wait here. If it tries anything funny, it gets a beating,” he remarked while stomping his hoof, causing the creature in the prison to twitch slightly.

Twilight gave him a sheepish smile. “Ha ha… ha… I don’t think that will be necessary, sir. With all due respect, of course,” she laughed uneasily, pushing the door open with a hoof and moving inside. “I, huh, won’t take long!”

Finally in the silence of the putrid stone cubicle, Twilight Sparkle made her relief clear with a sigh. Royal Guards (save for her brother that is) had never been easy to deal with. At least one or two of her friends could vouch for that, and it hadn’t changed in the least before and after she was in Canterlot.

Her train of thought was then interrupted by the soft snoring of the creature. The first thing she took notice of was the chain attached to its right leg, giving it minimum mobility thanks to its short length.

A necessary means of security, I suppose, she thought, crossing that mystery off the list.

There didn’t seem to be anything about this creature that particularly caught her attention. The only possible exception was the almost unbearable feeling that green was the only color she should be recognizing.

The report had mentioned how confused the creature had seemed upon arriving, having appeared to look around frenetically before engaging in combat with the guards after harassing civilians. Her mind began to drift into thought, the veracity of the report suddenly turning dubious. Suspicions regarding this creature’s ability to fight still pestered her, and she had severe doubts that it would simply cause a mess for no reason.

Maybe I just need to see it while it’s awake… I think I know where to find the information I need about this. At least it'll keep me busy meanwhile.

She hazarded a movement, approaching her hoof to its head to gently move the fringe of golden hair aside. The pair of tightly shut eyes underneath seemed to have longed for sleep. She would know – spending entire nights with her sight set on elaborate texts had eventually done a number on her appearance. The bags under her eyes were the proof.

Twilight actually felt a pang of sympathy for the creature. It had obviously been journeying for a long time. You poor thing… what have you endured...

An instant of further examination later, she got up and left, casting one last quizzical gaze at the sleeping being. The guard's little smile wasn't there anymore when she turned to him with her most serious expression.

“I want to know immediately when it wakes up,” she spoke noncommittally, closing the door behind her with a simple whisk of her magic. The guard gave a quick salutation and watched the mare leave.

In her mind, Twilight was banging her head against a wall. Something had clicked when she set her eyes on the alien creature. The green clothing. A beast unlike anything Equestria had ever seen.

It was in her nature to look into it. Her curiosity motivated her to beeline towards the Canterlot Castle's library. Books had always provided the answer she sought. There was no reason for them to not do so now.

But there was something else. Her drive wasn't based solely upon curiosity. The fact that this could be destiny nagged her to no end.

She stepped up her pace. She would either get to the bottom of it, or die trying.

Companions

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Twilight sighed.

A yearning to return to the Golden Oaks Library was beginning to develop in the young mare’s mind. Though the Canterlot archives were considered one of the most complete archives in the world, the sheer vastness of a single wing, coupled with the vagueness of the information she sought, reminded her of just how small and familiar her little Ponyville library was. The stack of books she’d already skimmed over grew at a steady pace, most of considerable thickness, and still she didn't find herself any closer to discovering the origin of the phrase that echoed in her thoughts.

’…wearing the green of hope, a creature stranger than anything ever seen in Equestria…’

Another book flew to the top of the pile, another tired sigh escaped her lips. The flame of the candle that had kept her company throughout the evening was ebbing, allowing the darkness that was characteristic to the wing to slowly settle in. She could only hope that the guard would arrive to tell her that the creature had woken up. She risked falling asleep over a book if he didn't do so soon.

Another book flew towards her. The glow that encased it faded abruptly, and it fell on the table with a loud thump that was sure to keep the mare awake for just a little longer.

She had almost completely exhausted two entire shelves of the rather lengthy Mythology Section, but her results had always been related to extremely old legends long ago proven wrong by all sorts of researchers (sometimes twice). This new book would most likely be another one of those – but precision in her research commanded that she read it anyway.

“Sky Book… Maybe the pegasi have information about it…” she mumbled to herself, the long yawn she had been suppressing finally making its way out of her mouth.

Wiping the resulting tears from her eyes with a hoof, she unlocked the book, but stopped to observe the cover. It was much unlike most of the books she’d read there so far: upon it were etched a circle and a couple of crescent moons of escalating size surrounding each other as if the first figure emitted waves towards the top of the cover.

She ran her free hoof over the design, temporarily engrossed in its elaborateness, before cracking it open and marveling at the discovery: the characters she saw written on the aged pages were not in Equestrian – no, they were a complicated arrangement of odd figures that seemingly made no sense unless they were together. A language she’d never seen in any of the books that composed the records.

Schematics of a gigantic machine – or so it seemed, scaled as it was with the creature beside it – were drawn on several of the pages, its shape resembling a legged cannon, depicting several of its motions and positions. It walked on its own!

“Could it be… they were getting ready for a war?” the mare softly muttered. Exhaustion was instantly replaced by the enthusiasm of discovery. “These blueprints… they don’t seem to include a trigger anywhere…”

Much to her delight and simultaneous sadness, the incomprehensible scribbling ended abruptly in the page that followed the last of the blueprints. An archaic form of the Equestrian language now filled entire pages. Clapping her hooves in joy, she began to turn the pages, briefly scanning the contents of one page before hurriedly getting to the next. For now, she was focused on finding a single mention of the words she wanted.

And surely enough, there it was, black on white, in the delicate writing of the book’s author:

“‘…a boy clothed in green appeared as if from nowhere.’ A… boy?” she repeated, quickly going back a few words to find the beginning of the sentence.

She immediately regretted doing so. The singular combination of the dreadful words she found, combined with the unexpected creaking of the chamber doors, startled her out of her mind.

The world grew blurry for the faintest moment. Her own whispers comforted her enough to coax panic away. It was the familiar voice of the dungeon guard that brought the stallion at the end of the room back into focus.

“Ah… hum…" she mumbled, still slightly stunned. "Would you mind repeating that, please?”

“The creature is conscious, Miss Sparkle.”

The book fell to the ground, spared from the invisible grip of magic. But it was too late. The words that were written on its pages had already been burned into her memory.

‘But then, when all hope had died, and the hour of doom seemed at hand…’ the words spelled...

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Link's head ached, as it had the entirety of the time he’d spent lying there, wherever that place was. In the distance, a drop of water fell on a little pond. The resulting 'ping' resonated in his sharp ears like a hammer banging on metal, prompting him to shake his head as though it would drive the painful sound away.

He knew two things for sure; he was locked up, and the intense stench of the dead was almost palpable in every corner of that chamber. Scratch that, it was literally palpable. From where he lied, he could see the wooden door with three simple iron bars halfway up that sealed him in that cell. Beyond those, he could see the faint glimmer of a torch, casting an unrecognizable shadow on the rocky walls.

Mounds of hay were randomly scattered throughout the compartment, little of which within his reach, much to his annoyance, and even less cushioning the back of his head.

Rocks had never provided a good pillow. Having spent several nights sleeping in the verdant Hyrule fields or secluded from the fiery meteors that rained down from Death Mountain, Link knew that there was a clear difference between red earth and fertile earth in terms of comfort.

He clearly remembered the Gerudo Fortress’s cells, and how uninhabitable that place in the desert had been. The Gerudo had designed it as if any prisoner that spent a single night there would be dead by sunrise, be it of starvation, thirst, or both. The gang of thieves was not exactly known for its hospitality. Taking those terrible women in account, questions regarding these beings’ way of taking care of their guests began to arise.

Tired of lying down, he sat and stretched his arms and legs in an attempt to get rid of the numbness that ailed them. The sound of chains rustling called his attention to the cuffs around his right leg, and to the short chain that connected it to a spike on the ground.

Great… and they took my sword too, he sourly remarked in his thoughts while a hand probed his back for the equipment, finding only the empty belts.

“Psst.” Furrowing his brow, he took a careful look around the ward, stopping at the little barred window behind him. Amidst the silver radiance of the moon was tiny green dot that gently fluttered in front of the grating. It didn’t take long for Link to remember who this was, and the epiphany was explosive.

“YOU! GET IN HERE, COWARD! WHY DID YOU PRETEND TO BE HER?!”

“Look, I’m sorry, but you need to calm down or they’ll hear you!” Much to his surprise, the emerald fairy’s tone was apologetic (though just barely sincere), and a bit rushed as well. After their first and only encounter, he wouldn’t have pegged her for the type that would be sorry for its actions, let alone show their face in front of their victims again.

Of course, none of that was enough to quell the beast she’d upset before.

“WELL THEY CAN COME IN IF THEY WANT! I WOULDN’T BE HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE IF YOU HADN’T TRICKED ME!”

“Hey! I had to, okay?! I had to do it to live, so there!”

“You had to do it to live?! Who told you to do it?!”

“NOBODY! I’M A CHANGELING SPRITE, ALRIGHT?!”

“…what…” The boy’s expression visibly softened, only to resume its heavy frown just seconds later. “And what’s that to me?! You could be a Deku for all I care!”

“I feed off positive emotions, alright?” The fairy seemed suddenly angered. Her wings emitted a loud buzz. “It’s… complicated… but I didn’t mean you any harm! It was an accident!” Taking note of Link’s invariably fuming look, she went silent, slowly backing away from him. “I don’t expect you to understand… but I want to make it up to you.”

“Make it up. Tsc. That’s rich.” The boy sat down, crossing his arms. “And just how’ll you do that?”

“I’ll help you get back to Hyrule. Then we can just go separate ways and you won’t even have to see me again.” Some pep returned to her speech as she approached him again. “I won’t bother you anymore.”

His face retained its initial passiveness, as if the fairy hadn’t even spoken. She seemed to be making the ordeal of returning home – one he’d considered hard enough without even trying – so simple. So simple, in fact, that he couldn’t help but be slightly annoyed.

But… it was his only hope. Better said, she was the only being he had met so far who was both aware of Hyrule and that he was Hylian. She was, at the same time, a curse and a blessing in this place.

And the fact that he had nobody else to ask for help only served to aggravate his frustration.

“…what’s your plan?”

“Watch out, they’re coming!” she spoke up all of a sudden, hiding behind the wall outside as the sound of hooves clacking on the dungeon floor began to reach them. The boy was about to shout for her, but her whisper somehow overpowered it: “Just do whatever the ponies say for now! As long as you don’t make them mad, they won’t hurt you!"

The fairy stopped for a moment, as if to carefully select her next words. "Trust me… I would know.”

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There was an unmistakable sense of anxiousness in the air once the heavy door slid open, dragging along the bigger mounds of hay that were close to it. Twilight stepped in.

Without even wanting to, the mare and the boy had engaged each other in a staring contest, where the first to break eye contact would be the first to talk. She could see his azure eyes flickering slightly in the dark like the stars in the nocturnal sky, his eyebrows curved down in a seemingly unbreakable determination. Had she not known any better, she would have said that he was a monster protecting its treasured loot. A cuffed monster, for that matter; one that she knew couldn’t hurt him under the penalty of being harmed in return.

He seemed fairly aware of what she was capable of, and also of what she possessed: a horn, and magic. His eyes shifted nervously from hers to the horn on her forehead.

“H-Hello,” she decided to speak, finally breaking the ineffable quietness and somewhat catching the creature off-guard. She was trying her best to sound innocent, maybe even friendly. “My name is Twilight Sparkle. Do you understand what I am saying?”

But no matter how slowly she spoke, the creature would simply stare open-mouthed at her, baffled and lost in confusion.

Of course. It doesn’t understand a thing.

She wasn’t sure of what to do. The methods of communication were more likely than not different between their two kinds, and judging from the being’s wide-eyed stare, it had never even seen something like her. The quote regarding a ‘boy’ clad in green continued to play in her mind like a broken record.

I need to calm it down…

Very carefully, she took a step forward, their gaze still intertwined so as to test each other’s reactions. Taking its lack of a response of any kind as a sign of confirmation, she took another one, then another one. With each step she took, a soft, purple glow began to envelop her horn. Behind them, the clatter of hooves echoed in the tunnel, the steps appearing more distant and urgent with every passing moment.

It was when they were but centimeters apart that the creature began to pull its head back, certainly an attempt to look properly at her. But no – its eyes were set on her horn. It was fear. Whatever she was doing, she was provoking a befuddling terror on the young being.

“I’m not going to hurt you…” she decided to try a vocal approach on soothing it, but met only failure. As cautiously as possible, she tried to make up for the gap it had created, lowering her head as she did so. Her horn drew closer and closer to its forehead. Though it resisted for a moment, she could feel its breath against her mane.

“M-Miss Sparkle!!” the guard barked from the entrance, completely breaking her concentration on the spell and putting her horn’s glow out like a breeze to the flame of a candle. She unleashed a profuse sigh, lowering her head and just barely missing the creature’s nose with her horn.

“This had better be good,” she continued with a groan, frowning at the guard over her shoulder.

The moment she noticed the graveness of his expression was the moment it infected her with panic. It was no joke; something serious had happened. It was the only possible justification for the guardspony to have fetched its weapons, and her mind raced with all the possibilities of things that could have gone wrong in the castle. Unfortunately, it was that single line in the book that resonated in all of them, the same disturbing legend that would otherwise have no meaning whatsoever. The hour of doom.

“W-What is it?”

“…Something is happening in the throne room.”

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The colorful banners of the Canterlot Castle Halls zoomed past Twilight as she galloped alongside the royal guardspony. The latter’s armor pieces rattled on each other with every step they took. A heavy lance was splayed across his back.

The tower containing the throne room, the only tower that soared over Canterlot peak's massive chasm, was the farthest location they could hope to reach from the dungeons. Lost in a state of dizziness from exhaustion, Twilight tried to shun the feeling of impending disaster than continued to haunt her. Try though she might, there was an undeniable connection between the book, the boy and the problems she was about to face. The guardspony spared her of those thoughts when he came to a halt, consequently causing her to stop. They had arrived.

It was a scene to behold, the organization of the royal guard. Despite their captain’s untimely absence, they still organized themselves as if someone was giving out the orders, setting their pace and mission and directing them to their inevitable deaths at the pitiless hands of whatever foe threatened Equestria this time.

Ugh. This really happens too often. the mare realized before noting the circumstances and chuckling lightly to herself. There was no joy in that little giggle. Just a desperate attempt to convince herself that everything was fine.

“They’re mobilizing most of the platoon!” The stallion beside her's weary talking snatched her back to reality. “Whatever’s in there – it’s gonna get ugly!”

The phrase 'getting ugly' was one Twilight had grown accustomed to. With a loud gulp, she tried to keep focused on the task. A large group of armored ponies was already rushing across the bridge that led to the throne room.

“Stay close to me, and whatever you do, you do it when I say so, got that?” the stallion snarled. A quick nod from Twilight brought a smirk to his snout. “Alright then, let’s get this over with.”

Finally stepping on the marble arch bridge, the mare found herself in the middle of two organized rows of guards, all of which saluting the one that accompanied her. The former stopped as well at one point, gesturing likewise at another stallion. They exchanged formalities before handing out the information. They knew just as much: there was a threat in the Throne Room.

But perhaps there was something that went unstated, and Twilight got to witness it first-hand when she peered discreetly from behind the larger pony. At the end of the bridge, where the largest, most finely decorated door of the castle stood high and proud, was none other than a group of obviously exhausted soldiers. They struggled to get it open in whatever way they could - conventionally or not. Their efforts were always fruitless. There was always a bright blue, translucent barrier that kept the, from succeeding.

A bright blue barrier.

Magic.

“I-I think I can get us in there,” Twilight spoke up to the stallion. She was greeted by a mandatory frown, but allowed to continue. “If I can get close, I can probably break that barrier. It might be difficult without disrupting the source, but the least I can do is try!”

“You heard the little filly. You!” he spoke with unexpected swiftness, turning to the closest unit before beckoning at the barrier with his head. "Get her over there, stat!”

“Yes, sir!” the guard replied, hurriedly accompanying the mare through the organized rows before presenting her to the door.

Twilight took a deep breath and analyzed the barrier. There was powerful magic behind it, for sure. It was focused solely on the door, and exerted such strength that no simple counter spell would break it. She had a few ideas, and the only way to know if they would work was to try them.

“Step back, this might backfire…" Her horn lit up. "Certain force fields have this…”

She found her words harder and harder to mutter as the barrier became the focus of her magic. She had, in truth, done this perhaps once or twice. Most of the time, it was her barrier she was taking down, and not somepony else’s, so destroying a spell she hadn’t cast was no easy business.

And though she had seen a quite wide variety of protective spells in her life – or at least read about them, never had she encountered one like this. Not a sentient one. But especially not one…

"Hello, Twilight. It has been a while, has it not?"

…with the voice of Nightmare Moon.

And just like that, the eruption of a blinding flash was followed by the darkness of the void, as if all light in the world had just been wasted on this one, incredible burst. She was conscious, however. The feeling of travelling at immensely high speeds – one not foreign to her – coursed through the entirety of her body and being.

She was being teleported.

Clash

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Teleportation always seemed to last an eternity for the pony being teleported. The 'tunnel' that had to be crossed in order to get from point A to point B was, as always, devoid of content. Just like Twilight remembered. In spite of that, she forced her eyes to shut as tightly as she could, as though an obfuscating light harassed them.

Her mind was conjuring all sorts of wicked scenarios. A looming disaster that would scar her for life. For Celestia to have been imprisoned in her own tower could only mean trouble, and the fact that Nightmare Moon's voice had greeted her only made the situation even worse.

The end of the funnel-shaped world of the void appeared, at long last, in the form of a light that crept from a breach in space itself. After this trip was over, she would have the opportunity to see just how powerful this old enemy was – and how they would stand against it.

Try as she might, however, her eyelids would not break apart even after she felt a shiver cross her body, ruffling the fur of her coat. It was the telltale sign that the teleportation spell had ended. She had braced herself for a tortuous sight, maybe even to receive the first blow right off the bat.

But there were no screams of agony. Only a voice.

“Ah yes… your prized student…” It was a male voice. It was deep, it was frightening, and above all, it was imposing. “Rise, Twilight Sparkle.”

It was only upon the mention of her name that the mare realized she was crouching so as to keep her head close to the floor in subjugation. She scrambled to her hooves and averted her gaze from the rest of the chamber.

Please be okay, please be okay, please be okay... she prayed. Silence continued even after a moment of waiting. No shrieks of pain were heard. No ragged breaths or the sound of blood splattering against the walls. Twilight gathered her courage and slowly turned forward.

Princess Celestia sat on the throne, bearing an unusually grave look. She held her head high as she gazed down at the creature that kneeled at the throne's feet. One of its hands hand rested on its chest in what appeared to be a demonstration of humbleness.

When the creature rose in accordance to her, Twilight was impressed. It wasn't the fact that it was so similar to the prisoner in the dungeons that impressed her though. It was how different it was at the same time. Where the one they held captive had a ‘natural’ skin color, this one's skin was tainted a dark shade of sickly green. The former’s bright yellow ‘mane’ was instead a carefully combed mesh of blood-colored hair in the latter, kept in place by a complex, golden headgear that vaguely resembled a crown.

A sinister cape of red tones adorned his back, covering much of his long bleak robe. An insignia, colored crimson like the stripes that decorated the cloak here and there, embellished its back. The end of a clearly improvised scabbard stuck out from the garment, as though it was a warning.

You do not want to meddle in my plans, it seemed to say.

“The Princess and I were simply negotiating,” he continued. He was incredibly tall, perhaps about as tall as Celestia herself. An uncontrollable quake shook her being when his eyes settled upon the young mare’s. There was an indescribable sense of malevolence swirling about in those tiny rubies, in the wicked, maybe even derisive smirk he sported.

“P-Princess… Who is this…” the unicorn somehow found the strength to utter, quickly alternating between Celestia and the ominous being.

"You may call me Ganondorf," he answered, giving Twilight a much more discreet bow.

She took a step forward, but Celestia intervened. "Stay back, Twilight Sparkle!"

“I would heed the Princess’s advice. This is business for grown-ups.”

“You will speak when spoken to, Hylian,” the Princess was quick to hiss, stomping a hoof to further prove her point. Her voice was raised to a volume Twilight hadn’t seen her use in a long time. “I will have none of your impertinence in my presence!”

Hylian? the unicorn wondered, tilting her head.

“As you wish, Princess. However,” The creature seemed to have conceded for a short time, bowing so imperceptibly that she would have missed it if she had blinked. Ganondorf's little smile suddenly became a heavy frown. “I will remind you that you lack the necessary connection to the Elements to face me.”

“Is that a threat, Hylian?” Celestia's wings unfurled in a rapid movement. Her horn blazed, distorting the air around it, such was the might of whatever spell she was concocting.

Heat. Intense one, Twilight thought from her place.

“Certainly not. Perish the thought of threatening the guardian of the Sun.”

There it was. The sarcasm that dripped from his voice and tugged at the Equestrians’ patience. Apparently unaffected by this irreverent behavior, the Princess simply raised an eyebrow and coughed politely. “State your terms, Hylian, and begone from Equestria.”

“Ah, yes. It is rather fortunate that your student happened to stumble upon us. It will make this much quicker, you will see.” The ‘Hylian’ looked back at the unicorn, flashed a toothy grin for a split second and then continued. “Surrender the Elements of Harmony, and your land shall be spared.”

Twilight’s heart stopped at that moment, when the conviction in the individual’s request stilled the air around them. There was silence. The Princess was unquestionably looking for the best way to solve this, as she cast a wide-eyed gape at Ganondorf, who returned an ever growing smile and…

…and prompted a laugh from the princess. The most sarcastic, unladylike, most out-of-context guffaw burst from the regal alicorn.

“Surely, you jest!” she spoke between gasps for air. “Hylian! Why would I surrender the Elements of Harmony to a being such as you?!”

Ganondorf shook his head while clucking his tongue. With a sudden flick of his hand, Twilight was whisked into the air and pinned against the nearest wall by magic. She struggled to move, even summoning her own magical prowess to break free, but Ganondorf's grasp was too strong. Celestia's laughter ceased immediately. A choked gasp was the only reaction she mustered.

“I am disappointed to find that a person such as you would be so rude,” Ganondorf muttered darkly, stepping towards the throne. “But I am even more disappointed that you haven’t fully understood the extent of my power.”

“P-Princess! Why won’t you do something?!” Twilight managed to shout before her head was again locked in place by the invisible hands of magic.

“HYLIAN! You shall release my student or suffer the wrath of the sun!”

“Now, now, Celestia…” The concern that was beginning to grow in the back of Twilight’s mind made up for the lack thereof in the Hylian's visage. Completely ignoring Celestia's warnings, he continued to walk, already pointing his free hand at the monarch. A deep violet aura enveloped the gloved limb, as if it had been set ablaze. “Let us avoid any unnecessary scuffle. One of the Elements is already present, after all.”

“I shall never surrender any of my subjects to the likes of you, Hylian!”

“That is a pity,” was all he said before unleashing a war cry and skidding across the floor with his arm pulled back, ready to strike. With a beat of her strong wings, the Princess took to the air, skillfully avoiding the man's assault. The very ground shook when his fist struck the throne, effectively shattering the gilded chair into pieces.

Taking the moment of inaction in her favor, she prepared to launch a spell. Ganondorf just smiled at the glow that encased her horn. “I would not do that, Celestia.”

He motioned towards Twilight with his head. Once Celestia followed his hint, he flicked his hand downwards, and Twilight found herself crashing headfirst against the ground. Celestia cancelled her attack, not willing to test her fiend's abilities.

“Now, there are two ways we can solve our little predicament," Ganondorf continued. "First, you will willingly give me the Elements of Harmony.” With a gesture, Twilight began to float once more. The unicorn struggled to breathe. The throne room appeared blurry to her eyes, and a throbbing pain in the back of her head muddled her thoughts.

“Or…” Another quick movement ended with the back of his left palm facing the princess. “I will force you to give me the Elements of Harmony.”

“Your magic is nothing, Hylian! Your kind has but a mere fraction of what Hylia spared!”

“Oh? I beg to disagree… your Majesty.” As though it had been planned, the back of its hand shone with unforeseen brightness. In the place of the bare, worn off glove was one of the few things the alicorn feared to see.

A golden, triangular mark.

“You… the T-Triforce…” she wavered, much like the rhythm of her wings. The mere presence of that symbol appeared to weaken her resolve. The man was rather pleased by this, if the ear-to-ear smirk he bore was any indication. Even Twilight could feel the desperation that harassed the ruler’s judgment. It was just like the book had said. Exactly like it. There was no doubt about it now.

And even so, it was too late to remedy the situation.

“You are a fast learner, Celestia.”

Numerous plans emerged from the blank slate that was Twilight's mind. She considered all of the ways that she could use to escape this fiend’s grasp and somehow reach the Hylian that was locked up in the dungeons. All the paths she could take to reach out to the guards and alert them of the impending catastrophe should the prisoner not be released.

Oblivious to her musings, Ganondorf unsheathed his sword and stepped forth. “Now then… Would you hear my desire?” Celestia didn't offer an answer. “To take this foul blade…”

Twilight tried to avert her eyes. The man's spell didn't allow her. Please do something...

“And use it to blot out your light… forever!!”

As the sword whistled through the air towards the alicorn’s head, time seemed to slow down to an infinitesimal rate.

The creature’s malicious eyes locked upon Celestia’s. They hungered for bloodshed and power while the pony yearned only for peace and hope to propagate. To ensure the safety of her subjects, and the continuation of Harmony in her land. To destroy light itself… she could think of only one entity who could wish that.

“NEVER!!”

Bellowing a roar so powerful it shook even the very core of the foe, horn met blade with a sickening crunch. A duel of honor and demonstration of raw strength began as each struggled to subdue their adversary with their weapon of choice.

"You will never have your way, Nightmare Moon!!”

“Then why not allow me demonstrate it?” That had clearly not been Ganondorf. Another spoke through his mouth.

Lost in confusion for the briefest second, Celestia quickly understood what the Hylian meant. Her student’s hooves suddenly shot up to clench her throat. It was a desperate attempt to do away with the unseen force that threatened to crush it.

“Yes… why not let me show you just how your rule ends…” The unicorn’s gagging motion became more vicious; time was running out. “And how eternal night takes over Equestria!”

She must be saved.

With the dexterity of a trained warrior, the alicorn swept away the sword. There was barely had time for Celestia to turn around, and yet she managed to land two bone-shattering kicks on the creature’s stomach.

Ganondorf reeled back in pain, offering her the precious time she needed to teleport across the throne room. With the man's focus weakened, Twilight plummeted to the ground. It was the accuracy of Celestia's magic that kept the unicorn from hitting the floor.

Twilight was only just conscious when her tutor brought her close for an affectionate nuzzle. That fleeting moment where Celestia wrapped her forelegs around Twilight's weakened body felt like a lifetime.

In this hour of need, I gift you the remainders of my power. Though Twilight could not hear Celestia's voice, these thoughts did not need vocalization. The alicorn could feel the fire of appreciation burning in her student. She smiled, but only because of Twilight's pleas. Twilight was begging her to stop so that she did not do this, to herself and her apprentice, and all of Equestria. She could not disappear.

What will we do if you’re gone?

You will finish what I could not.

Feeling that the last she could spare had been given away, Celestia released her student. Her magic gently guided Twilight's body to safety.

Though they struggle to obliterate the light, it is the force that each of you carries within that will shine when all hope has died.

Adjusting her eyes to the bright new light in front of her, Twilight saw the faint outline of her tutor grow further and further away. Celestia's kind voice was being overpowered by the maniacal howls of a crazed beast.

Why are you sending me away… I want to help you…

Find me.

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“All units, fallback! I repeat, GET. AWAY. NOW!”

“Sir!” The tired voice of a lightly armored stallion called the captain's attention to his underling. “Princess Luna’s quarters are empty, sir! She is nowhere to be found!”

“Blast it all!”

Another quake attacked the bridge, its foundations beginning to crack under the continuous assaults of the past few minutes. The captain looked around nervously. The weak points of the overpass were marked on the marble stone by large cracks. If Twilight’s prolonged and sudden absence had annoyed him, then the most recent breakthroughs had definitely reduced his serenity to zero.

So it was, of course, a reason for joy when the same explosion of light that had taken the mare away happened again in the exact same spot, this time to return the Element of Magic to their care. The time to escape the collapsing bridge was running short, however. They had to take her out of there.

“Sweet Celestia, what are you waiting for?!” the captain yelled to whoever had already taken shelter outside the bridge. “Go get her!”

The bewilderment in the guards’ faces was enough indication that if you want something done, you will have to do it yourself.

Which is precisely what the captain did.

Cautiously approaching the unstable bridge and setting off with a quick gallop, he reached the nauseous mare just in time to avoid the crumbling of their end of the bridge.

He flicked her over his back with a jolt of telekinesis. There was no time to grunt a complaint about the added weight, for the ground beneath his hooves collapsed not instants later. Not willing to be defeated by such an environmental hazard, his brow furrowed in determination.

Adrenaline coursed in his veins as he avoided the traps that previous tremors had set up for him. As a royal guard, he was well used to this sort of hurdle dash. It had been part of the admission exam, and he had passed it brilliantly. He was not about to let his superiors down.

The last stretch was nothing out of the ordinary, and having found he had covered a lot of ground in comparison with the rate at which the bridge fell, the captain allowed himself to briefly relax. Before long, he was back among his subordinates, and Twilight Sparkle was finally off his back and in the safety of their hooves.

A look back revealed that there was now a broad gap separating them from the highest tower in the castle. He gulped as he saw the illuminated windows well above them. He pondered on whether or not he wanted to know what sort of cataclysmic battle was taking place beyond those walls.

Curiosity won.

“Miss Sparkle, what the hay is going on in there?” He allowed the informality. If anything, cordiality was unnecessary towards her.

The mare seemed responsive enough, if not somewhat dazed as well. Shoving aside the guards that kept her standing, Twilight held a hoof to her head, rubbing it lightly so that the blurriness that troubled her perception could disappear.

“I… I’m not sure. I-I think… Nightmare Moon…” The mere mention of the name had the platoon’s fur stand on end. “There’s something else with her though. Something… something the Princess was afraid of…”

“A-Are you sure of what you’re saying, Miss Sparkle?!”

“I know what I saw, captain! That… thing… it almost killed the Princess!” Her gaze wandered over to the unreachable door across the breach. She felt a tear creeping its way up to her eye. “And now… now we can’t help her.”

A wave of chatter took over the legion around her. Their leader stood frozen on his spot. Had Equestria fallen to the clutches of chaos in his watch? If the Princess herself hadn’t been able to do anything, then what help would a bunch of guardsponies be?

“But there’s hope,” Twilight continued in a hushed voice. “I-If the legend is true… then there’s one that can helps us.”

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Link’s patience was thinning, much like his trust on the fairy. She’d been away for the better part of the time since the ponies left, having promised to ‘get his sword and help him out of there’.

The impossibility of said agreement only got to him after she was gone. Now he lay there, helpless and alone, hands pillowing his head in the inevitable wait for the sprite.

Olivia. That was her name. Link felt like he could relate its meaning to its owner.

An entire realm filled with ponies, he echoed in his mind, remembering the fairy’s words. I suppose Princess Celestia is their Princess Zelda. I’d know about how that works.

I suppose I would.

He suddenly became aware of the weight of his pocket. The instrument his princess had awarded him remained there. The ponies had apparently assumed that there was no risk if he kept it.

Oh, if they knew what I can do with this… he smiled inwardly, recalling his previous experiences with the Ocarina of Time. With it he had summoned storms and turned day into night, and night into day. Perhaps that was information better kept away from the minds of the equines, however.

“Link! Link!” His musings were interrupted by the call of his name. The humming of the fairy's wings resonated across the tunnels. The sound of her voice had never been so welcome before. Instantly sitting up, the boy found Olivia flying through the door’s grating. With no sword or shield. “I found your sword! And your shield, too! They’re just around the corner, at the end of this first tunnel!”

“You know it won’t help me at all if I don’t have them!” he quickly retorted, falling to the ground on his back again.

“I know, I know! But there’s something else!” Indeed, her excitement did let out that she had found something interesting. It had caught the Hylian's interest as well. Trying his best to remain good-natured, he sat up again, allowing her to continue. “I remembered the spell!”

Had the source been someone else, Link’s eyebrow wouldn’t have raised that moment.

“Wait… what… spell?”

“The one I need to make you understand them!”

There’s a bit of Navi in her, that’s for sure…

“Although… well, for it to work… I’m gonna have to be by your side all the time AND I know you don’t like that very much. If I had an alternative, I’d go with it, but I don’t, so there.”

“Hum… Okay but!” The fairy would have tackled him just then had he not spoken up. “Why do you have to…”

“It’s complicat-”

“Sounds more like you make it complicated. Try me.”

If Olivia had a face, she would be frowning.

“Alright, farm boy. The spell connects your mind to mine and no I won’t be reading your thoughts.” Link lowered his hand and closed his mouth. “But as long as I understand what the words mean, then you, too, will understand. Words are just… ways… of expressing concepts. Ours will be a unified language. It’s like sharing… feelings. Changelings… have those…”

They shared a moment of silence. The boy’s face bore an unreadable expression.

“Okay,” he simply replied. “I get it.”

“Wow, real-I mean, huh, of course you did.” The familiar clops they had heard earlier began to reverberate in the tunnels once more, for some reason putting the fairy on full alert. “Buck, they’re coming! Stand still!”

Olivia fluttered closer to him, almost forcing the boy to cross his eyes in order to see her at all. The green tones of her body became clearer and clearer, and eventually, the entirety of the fairy was white, a soft glow that Link found rather nostalgic. There was a flash and then…

“OW!” he complained as soon as the fairy flew off his forehead, the impact having thrown the boy off his feet and onto a sitting position. “Was that really necessary?!”

“Well excuse me if I don’t have a horn to cast spells,” she snapped back, digging her way through his hair and into his hat. “I’m gonna stay in here for now! If they find me, I’m done for!”

“He’s in here!” That voice was new. It was definitely a female, and it accompanied the crescent sound of hooves on stone. Standing up again, he could see, through the gratings, that someone was approaching his cell. A pony, maybe two, given the amount of clops he heard was headed his way.

Sure enough, the door flew open just instants later, and in came the familiar purple unicorn, closely followed by yet another unicorn – this one heavily armored. What caught his attention was what the latter held in the air through the use of magic: the Kokiri Sword and the Hero's Shield. His belongings.

Something had changed, however. While the mare had seemed curious about him in their previous encounter, everything about her now suggested exhaustion. Her breaths were long and ragged, just like the guard's, and in the lavender pools of her eyes burned only one flame: the flame of courage. As the holder of the Triforce of Courage, Link had some experience in that field.

A rusty little key floated to his leg, where it was used to unlock the cuff. Once free from his binds, equipment fell to the floor before him. As he eagerly picked his gear up, he heard the female pony talk again. He was sure he still could not understand those words, but the feeling they conveyed was all he needed in order to comprehend the message within.

“We need you.”

Exodus

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For a fleeting moment, Link's mind wandered. He was now back in Hyrule, sitting on Epona's saddle, galloping with all the haste his steed could muster to Hyrule Castle. A sealed letter was sticking out of his belt, holding a request from Princess Zelda to meet as soon as possible. Hair windswept and eyes set on the castle town that rose in the distance, Link had the singular worry of not getting there fast enough. Without a madman to threaten Hyrule or monsters roaming the verdant fields of the kingdom, the never-ending scoldings the princess gave about tardiness were his only enemy.

A cry from below whisked him back to reality. He didn't like this reality. He wasn't riding Epona, nor was he in Hyrule. His steed was a heavily armored stallion, a captain of the guard, no less, and the walls that surrounded him weren't drawn by Goron and set down by Hylian hands. He was riding at a princess's request, to be sure - just not the princess he would have preferred. The feeling wasn't the same, no matter how much danger he was in.

"Get your head in the game, boy!" the stallion he rode was shouting. "You're lucky Miss Sparkle has placed this much confidence in you, considering you've just met!"

“Sir!” the voice of another soldier called from a perpendicular corridor. Link's steed firmly dug his hooves into the ground to stop, an action that was almost abrupt enough to fling the boy out of his seat. Right on cue, another tremor shook the hallway, and though the ponies held their balance, the lower ranking soldier could barely be heard over the rumbling. “The remaining Elements of Harmony are on their way to Canterlot!”

“NO!” Twilight’s sudden cry startled ponies and human alike! The mare mouthed a sheepish apology, which didn't save her from receiving a stern glare from the captain. “I mean, err... send them back! That’s exactly what that thing in there wants!”

The captain ruminated on the proposal for a brief moment. “How close are they?”

“At least fifteen minutes before the train arrives, sir.”

The stallion harrumphed. “Point of no return then. There’s no station between there and Canterlot for them to turn around.”

“Stop the train then! Call a chariot down and take them back to Ponyville!”

“Miss, one does not simply stop a train in the middle of the mountains,” the captain stated matter-of-factly. “My best guess is that they’re about to enter the Canterlot mountain tunnels. Just getting a message in there would take enough time for them to cross the mountain and arrive in Canterlot.”

“But-”

“My decision is final! My highest priority right now is to get you out of the castle. Order the immediate evacuation of all guards! And for Celestia’s sake, make sure somepony, anypony, finds the night shift squad and tells me why they aren’t here yet!” Responding with a salute, the guard ran off. “This is very strange. The Night Guards are never late for their duty. Princess Luna so demands.”

“But she’s not here either, right?” Twilight asked. The captain shook his head, confirming what the mare already knew. Looking up at the ‘Hylian’, she was reminded of the task at hand: escape. “We need to go. There’s something I still need to do.”

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"The Canterlot Archives?" the captain barked as soon as Twilight skid to a halt. "Miss Sparkle, I seriously doubt this is the appropriate time for reading!”

With the loudest groan either warrior had ever heard, the purple unicorn lit her horn up and magically pried the repository's heavy door open. A nauseating scent of dust slipped out of the room, as if nobody had opened that door for at least a thousand years. Link and the captain winced, but the mare paid it no mind at all.

“The book I need is what led me to him in the first place,” she continued nonchalantly, trotting in. Link and his steed shared a confused look before following her.

If a mere whiff of the breeze outside had been enough to cause nausea, then the asphyxiating odor that populated the archives’ atmosphere was certainly intense enough to rouse the dead from their eternal slumber.

Despite the less-than-agreeable atmosphere, the captain looked around in awe, contemplating on whether the higher ranking guards were able to see places like this on their shifts. He had always been placed in front of doors or just assigned to rounds on the courtyard - the life of the lowly guard he had been for the better part of his career. Never had he been assigned to a place in the castle halls proper, and much less on the mythical Canterlot archives so few had access to (or so the rumor went).

It was, therefore, with great astonishment that he found that particular section of the castle to be everything he expected. It was a place of immeasurable length with just as uncountable a number of shelves, lined with books of all sizes, colors, and even state of conservation.

Several wooden tables, where towering piles of books rested, were randomly strewn amidst this maze of wood, stone and knowledge. If they were able to see anything, it was thanks to the natural light provided by the moon. The ceiling was an enormous glass dome, allowing the light from above to bathe the wing. The resulting soft blue tone granted the whole place an almost mystical ambiance.

Immense though the place may have appeared, Twilight had traversed it with relative ease, maybe even with a hint of thrill, disappearing behind columns of bookshelves soon after.

“Okay, hop off. You’re getting too heavy,” the captain grunted with a shake of its flank, motioning Link to climb down. The boy complied, and a long sigh of sincere relief escaped the guard. “So… you know how to use a sword?”

Casting a quick glance at the sword on his scabbard, Link nodded back, eliciting a gentle chuckle from the equine. The latter’s lance levitated from the hold on his side before falling next to him, where it was kept standing by a hoof.

“So you really can understand me. Heh. Now there’s something I’d like to see… you look pretty young to, you know… wield a sword? Hey, no need to get angry," he quickly added as the swordsman’s expression contorted into a frown. “We just… don’t get many like you around here. Usually, all the colts just want to join stuff like ‘The Wonderbolts’ or run around and start some business. Don’t get me wrong, I’m fine with that. But… the Royal Guard doesn’t get much attention anymore.”

The stallion quieted, his gaze apparently fixated on the moon above. Now with a place to sit down, the boy just watched, listening to the rhythmical tapping of Twilight’s hooves in the back of the archives as she moved around. He felt Olivia’s wings nudge his hair inside the hat, the familiar sensation of a fairy spirit’s natural warmth all but unwelcome to him.

I almost bet she doesn’t mind it either.

His gaze finally settled on the spear to admire the detailed work on its azure handle and polished tip of gold, sharper than the best of arrows. The effigies of winged equines spiraled up the handle, with depictions of the moon and the sun decorating the remaining space. It awakened within him a certain curiosity, as the sun and moon had been featured prominently wherever he looked here.

Granted, he wanted to ask things – questions regarding his location, regarding the ponies he was now ‘forced’ to follow and cooperate with, about the land and its sovereigns. Doubts that he didn’t think would torment him now begged to be solved, right there and then, in the few moments of simultaneous peace and company he’d had since his arrival to this realm.

And yet, he couldn’t speak their language.

“Name’s Shiro, by the way,” as if reading his mind, the captain’s voice broke the silence. Link’s head rose, finding that the pony’s were still set on the celestial body in the skies. “That’s the nickname the rest of the guards give me, anyway. They say it has the same meaning and that it’s shorter. Heh. What language was it now? Canternese?”

“Captain White Castle!” Twilight’s voice echoed across the archives. “Would you mind bringing the Hylian here?”

“That’s our cue. Come on. We can ‘talk’ later,” Shiro added with a wink, walking past the boy while the lance returned to its rightful position.

Wish they could know my name. ‘The Hylian’ doesn’t sound nice.

The pair found the unicorn in the center of a proper fortress of books. Surrounded by towering stacks of tomes, she was fervently skimming over entire volumes while one in particular floated by her side, always open in the same page. On either side of the hall were shelves, now devoid of any content. A golden label at the highest shelf read ‘Mythology of Equestria’.

“M-Miss Sparkle, did you really…”

“Read all these? No. Well, not now. I have copies of several back in Ponyville, so I skipped some.” But the captain continued to look flabbergasted.

The literal walls of text grew at a fast pace. One last manuscript flew to the top of the heap before she took notice of the swordsman, beaconing towards the center of the ‘fort’ with a free hoof.

No words were exchanged for several seconds – an eternity for both males. Twilight continuously looked to and from the pages of the book, the gap her mouth created growing with every couple of gazes.

“There… there are no doubts left…” the mare muttered, raising her head for what they hoped was the last time. Not even looking at it, the book flew towards Shiro. With the book safely embraced by his magic, Twilight stepped forward, a leg shakily approaching Link's left hand. “You’re the one the legends of your world speak of. But... we've never met any of your kind..."

“Hush,” Shiro suddenly commanded, much to their surprise. The book had been slammed close, floating back to Twilight’s side. He surveyed the area, raising the lance. There was an unnerving stillness as they tried to follow his gaze, which somehow always ended up directed above them.

Crack.

At the dome.

Crack.

“INCOMING!!” No sooner did the momentous holler reach their ears than the ceiling shattered into millions of glass shards that rained down upon them. The frigid gale that cradled them swept away the tomes on the ground and shoved the gargantuan bookshelves in all sorts of directions.

While Twilight had taken cover on the ground by covering her head with her forelegs, Link had jumped to her side and hoisted his shield above their heads. The barrier successfully guarded both from the downpour, a feat that genuinely impressed the stallion. He couldn't admire the boy's skills for long, as avoiding injuries in the labyrinth of collapsing walls kept him busy.

A thick haze descended upon them, and one by one, the fine stained glass portraits on the walls all around burst into fragments, further supplying the already dim library with another layer of smoke. Encased in mist, the three occupants of the library moved together. They couldn't see anything past an arm's length.

“Miss Sparkle! Hylian!” Shiro’s voice continuously cried out as the archives toppled like a row of dominoes, fueled by the wind. Link did respond with shouts of his own, but all seemed to fall on deaf ears as the calls did not stop.

And then that sound. A sound he thought he would never have to hear again after facing the living horror that was the cursed Shadow Temple of Hyrule. The hum of the wind whistling through the very cracks of this monster's claws as it descended upon its victims.

The swift motion of drawing the blade of the Kokiri and thrusting at the creature above had been enough to save both their lives. There was a disgusting sound of steel piercing flesh, and a gigantic, dismembered hand fell out of the shadows. It clenched its fingers and exploded in a cloud of darkness before even hitting the ground.

“W-What… what was that?!” the pony quickly asked, barely having had time to see what the fiend had been.

Wallmasters, the boy remarked in his thoughts. The excruciating howl of yet another monster resonated across the wing, tangled with the grunts of a struggling stallion, himself engaged in a battle somewhere in the haze. He couldn’t bear to imagine what something like Ganon’s army would do to a place such as this after witnessing the disasters in Hyrule.

“Hylian!” Twilight’s cry hauled him back to reality, confronting him with the sight of a mare who anxiously overturned piles of books. “The book! I can’t find it! It was here just now a-and now it’s gone!”

Forget the book! We need to go! he hoped to say as he grabbed one of her forelegs and pulled. She offered a surprising amount of resistance.

“No! We need it!” she insisted, eventually exerting enough strength to force the boy’s hand loose. She dove back into the mound, just in time for Link to dodge a stray book that zoomed out of the mist and right past his head. A second one collided against his shield, and a spectral figure lounged at him soon after.

Despite its ghostly appearance, the weapons it used to attack were very solid. Strikes landed on Link's shield with the precision of a trained combatant. The boy waited for the rhythmical assault to lose its momentum before pushing its foe back and plunging his sword forward. He just caught a glimpse of the plated ghost when its spirit emptied the metallic shell.

It was a pony that carried a lantern, its skin partially translucent and its body mostly shrouded by an aged white cloak.

A pony… Poe?

They were regular fiends in his nemesis’s army. Poes were ghostlike beings, but roughly resembled the owners of the souls that had been heavily corrupted by evil. He had fought a great number of these in his treks through a Hyrulean graveyard, and all of them had resembled humans.

This fiend had been a pony.

But Ganondorf was never here…

“I found it! I found it! I found it!” Twilight cried in joy, merrily hopping out of the mountain of tomes. A hardcover book levitated by her side, wrapped in a translucent lavender casing.

“HYLIAAAaaan!” The shrill noise that caught their attention was followed by a sickening crunch, and something slumped to the floor.

“Captain!” Twilight’s called as they ventured into the fog.

The magnitude of the disaster only now struck them. Whatever the archives were prior to the attack, they were not now. Wherever shadows did not roam, ruined books lay open and honorable statues rested in humiliating shams of their former state. Everywhere, loose pages fluttered in a windy cradle, sharp splinters of wood mingled with jagged glass shards across the floor, and chaos reigned beyond what they could see of the fog. The constant suffering of the relics was like a nightmare for the librarian pony.

Something rolled to their feet. Both of them looked away instantly, in the event that it was what they feared.

The inevitability of the situation ended up conquering their disgust. There was no bleeding limb at their feet, much to their relief. Instead, it was the decapitated head of an ancient investigator’s sculpture. They could see the statue it belonged to up ahead. One of its sides bore scorch marks, while a crack dug through its underside and surfaced on its back.

The unending grumbles of a warrior ahead gave them a new direction to follow. Just ahead, they were met with the shadows of an army that rained upon a spear-wielding pony, each of their strikes foiled by a secure flail of the weapon.

“White Castle!”

“Stay back!” he bellowed instantly, the moment of distraction costing him the ambush of an enemy.

Twilight flinched, uncertainty and panic taking over her mind. They saw only shadows, cast by the moonlight that shone in from a close-by window. She was sure that the guard was not unharmed, and just imagining a pony so roughed up and heavily bruised and yet under the constant assault of the monsters brought tears to her tired eyes.

“You’re close to the door! I’ll hold them back, but you two need to get out of here NOW!!”

“But-”

“No more objections, Miss Sparkle! We should never have come here in the first place!” The resonant crunch and the scream of agony were felt as though it was their own. “G-GO!”

The tug on her mane indicated that the Hylian was leaving towards what he believed was the right direction, but her legs refused to move.

“W-We can’t leave him here! H-He’ll…”

“HYLIAN!” the words of the pony palpably reflected his exhaustion, the voice but an echo as boy and unicorn ran away. “PROTECT… HER!”

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The mere sight of the castle halls was heart-wrenching for the young mare and the boy that rode on her back, sturdily grasping her mane as they galloped across ruined passageways, the colorful fragments of the stained window portraits high above shattering beneath her hooves at every step. Now and then, a tremor would nearly shake the twosome’s balance, but they would struggle forth while the night grew darker and darker, the flames of the torches that decorated the walls appearing to be the dimmest lights in the world before such dense gloominess. A pleading scream would occasionally haunt their journey, but even when faced with that dreadful spectacle, the Hylian’s expression remained impassive.

Not far ahead, the cracked pavement ended abruptly, proximity revealing that a set of stairs was beyond it, a course made hazardous by the plentiful rubble that fell from above; Twilight recognized the wreckage as the remains of the magnificent stair rails as the ones placed directly at the entrance to the Canterlot Castle, the only thing between freedom and them being the entrance plaza in front of the immense castle doors.

“I can see the exit!” she called out to the boy, who had bent his head towards her neck by instinct; she, too, mimicked his gesture, clearing the staircase in the blink of an eye. She could feel the exhilaration of victory; she could almost taste the freedom that waited beyond those nearly closed doors…

…closing doors?

The unexpectedness of her shrieking halt almost brought Link tumbling to the ground; the doors had closed before them. Her eyes shifted from one side to the other; she knew the castle like the underside of her hoof. Their only opportunity had been exhausted.

“Going so soon?”

That voice… you can feel the evil that it irradiates those who listen with…

Though she didn’t want to, she knew she had to turn around and face the towering cloaked figure that stood at the end of the steps, the same indigo aura she so feared exuding from the bleakness of its entire body and nearly cloaking the two lofty stained glass windows her sovereigns were so proud of for bearing their image.

“I-I’m not afraid of you this time!” Celestia knows I’m wrong…

It seemed to stiffen a laugh as it walked forward.

“And why would you not fear me, little pony?”

“B-Because…” she gulped. “I have the hero with me!”

The wheels in the creature’s brain began to turn at that moment. The most unfitting expression fell upon his features - curiosity – when it tilted its head slightly to the side and his eyes widened in complete disbelief.

“Y-You?”

“It’s your chance now, Hylian!” the unicorn said, but the boy numbly climbed off her back, the violent shivering of his body beginning to infect her. “H-Hylian?”

“T-The child!”

“Destroy it! Destroy the unicorn!” Ganondorf suddenly blurted out. The change in tone was so drastic it startled Twilight and Link. “It is but a foal! It cannot hurt you!”

“But he bears the Triforce! The Master Sword!”

The furious tone returned. “It carries no weapon that may harm you, Ganondorf! Slay the creature!”

The shock in Twilight’s face could only be compared to that of the demon as realization struck them both. The pair of gazes fell onto the boy’s back, and onto the simple, handmade scabbard that he carried.

Two swords were unsheathed.

“H-Hylian?” the mare stuttered, watching the armed boy approach its rival.

“She speaks the truth then,” the bigger creature bellowed. “You are but a child, Hero of Time.”

“I've faced you once already,” the young swordsman serenely replied. “Age doesn’t define a hero.”

Ganondorf’s head raised slightly in contemplation.

“No… it does not.” No further words were uttered as the thief leaped forth and deftly swung his weapon. It ricocheted back as it impacted Link's shield. Taking the brief moment of weakness for his advantage, the Kokiri Sword sliced through the air…

…and did not even scratch the demon’s hide.

“It appears, however, that the blade you wield does.”

It was not a weapon that struck the boy, but a powerful kick of the man’s monstrous legs aimed at his chest. The excruciating blow threw Link across the lobby, robbing a gasp from Twilight as he fell at her hooves. The Kokiri Sword had flown out of his hands to parts unknown.

That was the least of their problems. Their real threat approached in slow and short steps, baring its sword at them.

“And now, Hero of Time… you meet your demise.”

Sparing no time, Ganondorf soared across the air towards the boy’s lying body. In that short instant of flight, the derelict lobby was filled with the scent of brimstone. An obfuscating explosion of light ensued before his sword met not any part of the heroic boy’s corpse, but the dusty velvet carpet beneath his feet.

“She is not a foal, Ganondorf…” the booming voice erupted from the man’s throat. "She is well capable of escaping."

“Do not fret,” he said, drawing his sword from the ground. “It is the way you spoke. Without the blade of evil’s bane… the Hero of Time is a farce. A hurdle we shall cross… together.”

With the satisfactory sound of the sword slipping back to the comfort of its scabbard, the man turned, cape fluttering at the wind’s mercy. There was much to do.

"You may do what you will with the unicorn," he spoke, flashing a toothy grin. "But getting the boy… Link… is a pleasure I will reserve for myself…"

Rise of the Stalponies

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The endurance of this... long eared, bipedal creature never ceased to amaze Twilight. She observed him with the quietness of a hunter stalking its prey, already drawing a mental map of his physical limitations. But whenever she thought she had found a weakness, he would surpass her expectations by some bizarre coincidence where a skill was necessary.

Craftsmanship, while not necessarily a hindrance, was not exactly at everypony’s reach. Granted, hooves took their toll in such chores, such as handling some of the objects that required greater precision. Magic was indubitably a blessing to those whose passion rested in such an arduous occupation.

Such tools were, for example, simple, rather sharp stones that the unicorn was certain had been randomly picked. She’d witnessed this kind of dexterity in her draconic assistant. Utensil in hand, the Hylian had set off for the forest in her sleep, a hefty log rolling by him when he returned. Jab after jab, the trunk began to lose its size, and before long, a handmade sword had been created out of wood, and was now swinging loose in its provisional scabbard.

Trailing over a path of beaten earth under rainwater that refused to stop pouring from the pitch-black skies above, she’d long since recognized their current location, if the poorly melded fences and sporadic arrow signs stumped on the ground were any indication. They had been forsaken in the Whitetail Woods. Where exactly, she couldn’t tell. She found solace in the fact that at least one of these paths, scarred as they were with hoofmarks, would lead to Ponyville proper.

If not, then, well, she was dooming herself to wander aimlessly in the wide open plains around the forest with the depressing company that was a creature that may as well be mute for all the words she could understand.

Coat drenched and mane drooping over her eyes, she began to feel the delayed effects of constantly walking while a storm ravaged the lands. Taking a step no longer felt safe, as if the ground would be swept from under her hooves at any moment. Her eyesight was beginning to blur and weaken – though perhaps she could attribute the blame for that to her muddled mane.

Yet again, however, the Hylian exceeded her expectations with a steady demonstration of endurance and determination, as no amount of water or wind seemed enough to deter him from achieving his goal. He marched against the tempest with the implacability of a stone wall (and the personality of one as well), always choosing the path to take for her.

“H-How do you… you…” Twilight still mumbled. It was only when she spoke that the realization of just how exhausted she was struck her, words but lowly croaks that escaped her sore throat. This night was definitely not being kind for her. “…you…”

The loud splatter her head made upon hitting the mud succeeded in what her voice could not, as the Hylian was swift on his feet to turn and throw his arms around her to lift the mare’s limp figure off the pool of dirt.

“I-I’m fine…”

Her companion simply shook his head in reply, gaze surveying the forest surrounding them in hopes of finding shelter. His search was interrupted by the violent cough spilling from her mouth, shaking her damp body. His impenetrable expression was shattered to fragments by apprehension. He was genuinely confused, trapped in a situation where he was reduced to his weapons and the company of a pony.

But when Twilight closed her eyes and drew a long breath that silence quickly consumed, something neither had ever expected –for entirely different reasons – happened.

As if stirred by the urgency of the situation, a golden blaze enveloped the unicorn’s horn, bathing the woods in a newfound radiance and nearly blinding the boy with its might. A sudden warmth appeased the frigid temperatures they suffered, and Twilight felt the familiar sensation of the sun’s touch on her face.

This power…

‘Do you like it?’

Princess…

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“It’s… pretty…”

The princess simply smiled as Twilight walked into the room, an uneasy expression upon her after being caught prying. Naturally, she was expecting some form of punishment, but the younger ponies are always like that, afraid of the consequences regardless of what they did wrong.

“Why don’t you join me?”

The question had obviously caught the purple unicorn off-guard, if her surprised look was to be trusted.

“I-I… I don’t know how to play anything, Princess…”

“Oh!” Celestia spoke a little louder than she’d wanted, mentally chiding herself for it. “Well, I appreciate a good company just as much.”

The filly’s mouth contorted into a circle as astonishment dawned on her. Her mentor always did know what to say when she needed it.

“Of… of course! I’d love to, Princess!”

With the silent giggle of a contented mother, the regal alicorn moved aside, allowing her student to sit right next to her. Thinking back to it, her eyes shimmered with nostalgia as she quietly observed the filly.

“Alright, now listen carefully…” The first chords of the magnificent, gilded harp before her were strummed, producing a short prelude to her piece, she reckoned. “This song means very much to me… I used to play it with a very important pony once…”

“Was he your special somepony?”

“Oh no, nothing like it,” the princess couldn’t help but chuckle, effectively infecting the pony beside her with laughter. “No… she was just a great help when times were difficult for me.”

“What is… what is the song?”

“We called it ’The Ballad of Harmony’.” She paused before lowering her head to Twilight’s level and gently nuzzling her on the cheek. “One day, you’ll be a very, very important pony. But being important means having great responsibility and work.”

Her horn shimmered, producing the same comforting presence of the sun in the sky.

“Whenever you think you can’t go any further, think of this song.” Their horns touched, and Twilight’s involuntarily lit up that instant. “That is my gift to you. Never forget that.”

Twilight’s jaw hung open for a moment, watching her instructor in awe. Moving away, Celestia giggled again and closed her eyes. The chords were strummed once more, and this time, the melody was longer.

She reminisced about the same melody she had heard from the halls, but no memory came close to what she heard now. Listening to it when its performer was right next to her granted it an entirely different dimension.

The composition was worthy of accompanying the achievements of the greatest characters in Equestrian history, struggling to maintain that which their sovereign defended for a long time: harmony. Occasionally, Celestia’s humming gave the melody company, but the song remained just as powerful.

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“She’s not waking up!”

“Just leave her here then! We have to go, they’re almost onto us!”

“What?!”

“Hey! Don’t you wanna get out of here?! Well I want it just as badly as you! And I say we get going before we get caught! Again!”

“I-I can save her! I can do it! …wait, she’s coming to!”

“Whatever! I’ll just wait where it’s safe!”

“Olivia! You’re a fairy companion, for the goddess’s sake! Start acting like one!”

“Like hay I am! I’d be much better off if I was! At least then all these damn ponies wouldn’t be chasing me for something I didn’t do!”

“And what did you not do?!”

“I’m a changeling!! For them, I’M THE ENEMY!!”

“Change… ling?”

Separating her eyelids with as much sluggishness as she could muster, Twilight already felt the cold sting of the rain on her coat, the wind still wiping at her mane at full force. Surprisingly, she felt okay – more than okay, perhaps, considering that any pain that previously assailed her had been inexplicably vanquished. Her first image was that of the Hylian’s face, sporting a grin that was blemished by distress, his arms under her head to support her weight.

There was something else to it. Right above him, seemingly hovering in place, was a deep green, luminescent orb. If it had eyes, Twilight would have known for certain whether or not it stared directly into hers. In her current state, all she could ascertain was that it seemed paralyzed on its spot.

“What… is that?”

As though he had been struck by realization, the boy’s eyes went wide, and one of his hands hesitated to grab the fairy. That never came to pass, for the sprite was faster, managing to dodge the hand’s grasp and hide behind his hat.

“I-It… it was speaking!”

No reply was given to her again – she didn’t expect one from the swordsman anyways, so she pressed on, ridding herself of Link’s support so she could stand by herself.

“I heard you talking! You said something about Changelings!”

The Hylian raised both hands in an attempt to quiet down the mare, but found it unnecessary as a distant roar made its point in marking the approach of hostility. Shooting his gaze to the path behind them, Link could definitely now spot the turmoil that drew nigh, hurling mud in all directions with the power of a hurricane.

They were many.

Too many.

“Link, we need to go. NOW.”

“Link?” Twilight echoed, raising an eyebrow at the boy, but shaking her head right after to focus on another topic, one requiring a glare to be thrown at the sprite. “I still don’t have your na-”

“Listen up, pony! If you want to live, you follow us! Otherwise, just run someplace else! So put your horseapples behind and helps us outta this!” the fairy retorted in such an unexpectedly violent way that even Link’s head arched back momentarily. The inbound monsters’ howling remark was enough of a reminder of what his mission was right now. Sword and shield at hand, Link stood up, facing the pack. “What?! Y-You’re not going to fight those things, right?!”

“Wait, you can understand what he sa-” The sharpness with which the fairy turned to Twilight was everything she needed to not speak any further. “Okay! I get it!”

Snapping his fingers to call their attention, the boy murmured something to the fairy, a reluctant sigh ensuing before a question was asked:

“…He wants to know if you know how to fight.”

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“Rainbow, on your tail!”

The fury of the multicolored pegasus pony’s back hooves sent the horrid creature planning to ambush her careening across the cave, stopping only when its skeletal frame met the underside of a tipped wagon, where bones were flung across the air at random.

Despite the situation, Rainbow Dash knew she could still score some points against her unofficial rival; so without a moment’s hesitation, she flared her wings and zapped towards the orange earth pony, headbutting an airborne skull pony before it could strike.

Applejack eyed her with annoyance, a reaction cut short by a looming claw that very narrowly missed her side, its failure being rewarded by a precise buck to the cranium, shattering the limb to fragments with its sheer power.

One success was just as quickly evened out by a loss with the clean swipe that landed on her flank during the rebound of the move, temporarily throwing her balance off; but proud as the pony was, she’d never let her foe go away without retribution, which came in the form of a head-first slam and finished off with the fiend’s complete annihilation under her forehooves.

It was that last, more complex strike that made her realize just how surrounded she was, but walking backwards so as to keep an eye on all her opponents revealed only that Rainbow was in a similar situation, the twosome sitting back-to-back while the carcasses swarmed ever closer.

“I reckon ya don’t have a plan we can use?”

“Actually, I do!” The pegasus raised a hoof towards a nearly imperceptible entrance atop a heap of rocks, rails snaking from underneath it. “That’s where I came from, and that’s also where Rarity’s waiting; we make it there, we’re off the hook!”

“Ya seem mighty confident about that plan.”

“Eh, didn’t hear ya come up with a better one.”

The earth pony tilted her Stetson back, a tiny cloud of dust flying off its folds.

“Point taken.”

“Race ya there!” With that, Rainbow was gone in a streak of vibrant colors, choosing to course directly through the horde instead of flying overhead, effectively opening up a tight path between her friend and their goal.

That pony… I swear. On’a these days…

But these thoughts were mere whispers in the back of her mind, the long run and the pressure of its time constraints weighing down on the mare, the walls of skeletal beings closed up and in no matter how fast she ran.

On the other hoof, Dash, who had already reached the top of the mound without the least of concerns, seemed to be taking this as an amusing challenge, literally hovering in excitement as Applejack was forced to run faster and faster.

She met the peak of this enthusiasm when the swarm blocked not her way back, but her way forward. Lowering her head like an enraged bull and hastening her gallop, the earth pony was but inches away from the barrier of enemies when she took off into the air in a magnificent jump, the skeletons naught but a hurdle as she climbed all the way to Rainbow’s side, stopping only to utter a ‘you owe me’ before crawling through the hole to safety.

The pegasus, of course, let out a short snigger. Her friend's annoyance was the trophy for a successful jab.

Her mirth was quickly forgotten in the heat of the escape. She followed her friend while the cursed ponies struggled to reach them like a pack of hungry wolves, never truly succeeding in climbing. Any further attempt was completely cut off with the placement of an object in front of the opening, trapping the fiends in the cave.

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“They’re Stalponies!”

Olivia’s voice was somehow clear over the obnoxious sound of bones clacking against the armor their fiends possessed, their cracked hooves makeshift claws in the battle they fought.

Link was pleasantly surprised to observe just how durable the wood of the log he had picked up was. No matter how many times he smashed the sword into his enemy’s skulls, the weapon never seemed to even fracture.

Unlike certain sticks from the Deku.

Unfortunately, this was not the case for their armor, as a distressing crack rang from the sword’s edge whenever it impacted on the metallic plating. Coupled with their erratic movement, Link was having a hard time striking only what was skeletal about them.

Twilight had proven a very useful asset to the battle at hand; he could best compare her horn to a sort of magical bow given the way it fired off a piercing beam of light that knocked back even the bulkiest of the foes.

However, the swarm never seemed to end. One after the other, more Stalponies would appear from the little bushes on either side of the road or, much to Twilight’s dread, from the mud itself. They had long since picked up their strategy; by surrounding the pair, they could easily overwhelm them, were it not for Twilight’s capability to repel these foes with a potent outburst of magic. Link himself had one or two tricks up his sleeve to deal with this kind of situation: planting a foot on the ground, he would spin over it while his arm was outstretched, delivering the power of a spin attack to his enemies.

“Oh-oh, there’s more coming,” Olivia cried out when their numbers lowered significantly, flying down to her temporary companion’s side. “We can’t handle all these creeps! We gotta get out of here!”

“She’s right!” Twilight concurred, much to the annoyance of both the females. “If we don’t run, they’ll never stop coming in!”

Though the Hylian boy wavered for the briefest moment, he too nodded, not even bothering to ask for the unicorn’s consent before hopping onto her back and having her gallop her way across the growing mud pools, Stalponies hot on their heels at every turn they took.

What happened to Whitetail Woods… Was all she could think as the forest became more devastated the further they went, to the point where entire groups of these evil creatures dotted the territory where once green trees had been torn off the ground and basically chucked away in whatever direction the wind desired.

Nevertheless, their worst fears had not yet been confirmed; that only occurred when the unicorn’s trail ended before her eyes with the gigantic obstacle the mountain between Ponyville and the woods provided. Leaping to turn around, she was met with the gruesome sight that an entire horde of living skeletons under a stormy night sky could constitute, the rain’s water not even capable of cleansing their bare bones of the soil that stained them after spending an indefinite amount of time buried beneath the ground.

Never one to give up, Link stood and somersaulted directly over his steed’s head, landing on the mud with the gracefulness of a bird and receiving the mute complaints of Twilight and Olivia behind him.

Don’t worry. I’ll be care-

“LIIIIINK!”

The boy didn’t take long to process the fairy’s thunderous bellow. An indescribable sense of distress overtook his mind and body when he spotted, from the corner of his eye, a Stalpony that fell directly from above, ready to strike down the stunned swordsman in his moment of weakness.

There was a swish a split second later, and the Stalpony was no more, the dark blue spear stuck through its ribcage keeping it imprisoned against a nearby tree. Not a moment later, their enemies’ skulls were impaled by similar weapons that mingled with the rain itself to punish their foes.

Blinking in bewilderment, Link very nearly had to cover his ears when a voice louder than he’d ever heard boomed from the skies, as though the goddesses themselves had been angered:

“THOU WILL NOT HARM TWILIGHT SPARKLE OR HER FRIENDS, FOUL FIENDS!”

On the Right Track

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The earth’s very core shook beneath the hooves of the majestic being that plummeted before him, deep azure wings spread as wide as it stood tall, a mane like the starry sky that seemed to possess a life of its own, flowing over its dark cloak. It was possible that Twilight couldn’t be more overjoyed than she was when her eyes met the winged unicorn before them:

“Princess Luna!”

“It is my pleasure to meet you again, Twilight Sparkle,” the alicorn courteously replied, bowing her head ever so slightly before her relaxed gaze was twisted into a terrifying glare. The incoming Stalponies were none the more intimidated, which got the sovereign’s horn to shimmer and magically toss aside the zombies, her power so much vaster than the purple unicorn’s that a great amount of the horde was shoved aside.

With the temporary reduction of the mass, the princess needn’t even turn to raise a foreleg upwards before waving it forward; a battle cry was heard in the distance, and soon after, platoon upon platoon of armored ponies flocked from within the clouds, weaponry ranging from the Royal Guard’s characteristic spears to bows and - though rarely – swords already at hoof for the impending scuffle. The four grounded ones could only watch with varying degrees of awe as the Stalponies found themselves as the targets of the fearsome Night Guard’s wrath.

Twilight was well aware of their reputation; Luna’s private guard was far more aggressive than her sister’s, or at least were garbed in order to appear as such. She’d never really interacted with a pony who belonged to it, nor had she seen one up-close like she had the day shift, but rumor had it that in order to belong, changes to their very appearance were required. She’d once overhead it was about ‘order and progress’. Of course, rumors could be just that, rumors and speculation.

What wasn’t speculation was their efficiency, as she witnessed first-hand how the bat-winged ponies skillfully pierced through the enemy forces with their lances, diving in the next moment to retrieve their weapon of choice and even score a hit on some other fiend’s skull, their job finished by those who dove with the handle of a short sword on their mouth. The sharp arrows of the airborne bowponies proved to be a sufficient deterrent and sometimes deadly weapon against the skeletal beings, who were disoriented by the spike precisely stabbed between their eyes, providing all the distractions other guards needed to deliver the final blow.

“We must leave,” the princess spoke, turning to briefly study the Hylian boy, whose eyes hadn’t lain off of her since the pony’s sudden arrival. Though he tried to cover it, the princess easily saw through the façade of determination, where sincere wonder at her appearance rested.

Courageous. Defiant, but courageous, she mentally noted, lightly tilting her head with her eyes closed; a gesture the boy returned.

“The Guards will keep them away from us, but not forever. If we are to reach Ponyville in time, then we cannot wait any longer.”

“Wait, princess,” Twilight’s voice called out just as the alicorn was about to move. “Why is all of this happening? Why weren’t you with Princess Celestia at the castle?”

Luna averted the unicorn’s eyes upon the mention of her sister’s name, instead focusing on the flash produced by a lightning in the distance.

“I was busy. We were busy. There is not much I can tell you right now,” the princess spoke carefully. The last sentence irked Twilight to no end, but she remained quiet. “I can, however, tell you this much, Twilight Sparkle…”

The unicorn had never seen her princess’s features become as somber as they had now, when even the wind died to heed the alicorn’s words.

“The gates of Tartarus have been opened.”

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“Why are you so far away from the meeting spot?”

“Oh! You’re back!”

Miraculous though it may be, Rarity had begun to miss the pink party pony’s constantly cheerful demeanor. Forelegs on the rocky walls around them, Pinkie Pie hopped from place to place with the enthusiasm of a foal in a candy shop, admiring the pale blue minerals that stuck out from everywhere. With every new corner of the cave she visited, she would tap the stone lightly with a hoof, and right on cue, the pebbles would respond with an echo of their own, inciting an even wider smile to appear on the pony’s muzzle.

A very quiet sigh from the unicorn’s side snapped her back to reality, instead facing the yellow pegasus whose head was closer to the ground than it was to its proper position. She did feel sorry for her, what with having endured the surprise attack from those hideous, walking skeletons. Thinking back to it, she may have actually been lucky that she had appeared at such time – a moment later could perhaps have been too late.

She examined the cave in silence, casting a longer stare at the tunnel to her right before stopping on the restless pink blur.

“Pinkie, where is Rainbow? Or Applejack?”

“They’re not back yet,” she managed to say in one of her breaks. Rarity’s expression turned sour, a sentiment that morphed into forlornness when she turned to watch the darkness at the end of the passage again. Though she was well aware of both of her friends’ abilities, what means those monsters would employ to achieve their ends were still strange to her. Adding such competitiveness between them to the mix, trouble was sure to brew. “You don’t see these everyday! Actually, nopony sees these everyday! Can you imagine if somepony did? It’d be really dangerous! And boring, too!”

“Pinkie, please, this is not the time for-”

“I don’t think aaaaanypony could spend sooo much time looking at these rocks! But even if they did, it wouldn’t be a problem, because it’s these rocks, and not some other rock!”

This is starting to get too random.

“You know who’d just loooove to see one of these working though? Twilight! I mean, it didn’t work last time, but it’d really work this time!” By now, the mare was hopping on the center of the cave, forehooves waving above her head. “And then she’d shift back, then forth! Then back, then forth! Hehe! They should call these Teeter Stones and not-ooooh! What’s this?”

As she turned her back and reached into a concavity in the rocks, Rarity took the chance to roll her eyes, finally granting her friend the satisfaction of attention.

When her leg pulled back, she held a tiny, perfectly round gem in her hoof. The designer immediately cringed at the repulsiveness of its gray, blotched hue, but gradually became enamored with the clear etchings on its sparkling surface, dripping little glittering dots from the edges. The impression of an eye stared back at her, and an engraving of what seemed like a tear fell from its lower eyelid. Before she could notice, the item was floating towards her, engulfed in a blue aura.

“I knew you’d like it! It’s perfect for you, because you like to chat, and gossip, and it’s a Gossip Stone and you love gems so you probably love that gem too because well it’s not a gem but it can be!”

“It… can?”

“Well, yeah! The core is a gem!”

“But Pinkie, why… how did you know this was there?”

“Because, silly, Gossip Stones grow near these-”

“Ain’t no reason to go’n leave me alone!!” the discernible accent the infuriated howl carried with it was enough to direct both ponies’ attention to the tunnel, from whence two figures began to emerge into the weak luminescence of the cave. “Ah better not catch ya doin’ that again! Somepony could’ve gotten seriously hurt!”

“I see you are both well,” Rarity deadpanned, stirring a quiet giggle from the pink earth pony.

“Well, duh! Of course we’re okay! Takes more than a bag of bones to take me down!”

“Tsc, yeah. ‘specially when ye’re flyin’ over’em.” Feeling the remark had accomplished its desired goal, Applejack allowed herself to flash a cocky smile at the pegasus beside her, who remained gaping for a few moments before groaning in defeat. That mild grin would fade once she spotted the other winged pony. “Is, huh, Fluttershy okay there?”

“I-I’m okay.” The own pony replied before her companion could, much to Rarity’s surprise and delight. “I just… just want to get out of here. Those things… aren’t normal…”

“Could not agree more, darling. We simply must get out of this wretched cave.”

“Found anythin’ we can use to escape, Pinkie?”

“Huh?” the mare replied, spacing out for an instant after being distracted from her current prospecting. “Oh! Yeah! Here, follow me!”

“She’s real excited about this place,” the orange pony couldn’t help but comment as they followed Pinkie’s lead through the tightening walls of glistening stone, corridors where their only light source, much like in the cave, was the pale blue light from the naturally luminous minerals.

“I know.”

With a precautionary glance back to confirm that Fluttershy was following them taken, Rarity’s gaze fell upon the perfect sphere she still held with her telekinesis. Skilled in the action, she had already verified the contents of the orb, confirming that there was, indeed, some sort of precious gem within. What it was, or even the identity of the material surrounding it, she could not establish. Whatever it was, she could sense a great amount of magical power irradiating from inside it.

But the sketches engraved upon its surface were still what piqued her curiosity on the tiny object – it was barely the size of the underside of a hoof. The large eye, which occupied the entirety of its side, possessed a single, flawlessly round pupil that consistently stared directly into her eyes, and perhaps, she believed, even beyond that: into her mind.

“…I know.”

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The night had inexplicably grown calmer. With the ceasing of the downpour, only the distant rumble of a thunder remained echoing in the air, reverberating throughout the cave where they had taken shelter. Surely enough, the night guard seemed to have survived the skirmish, now having taken to keeping watch at the cave’s entrance, spears once more hoisted next to them should the undead foes return. The Stalponies, too, had regressed to whatever dark hole they had crawled out of, granting the group of weary ponies some much deserved rest.

The military provisions that the guard had brought along had been the first thing they had eaten since escaping the castle, supplies that the silent sentinels gladly gave away after the details of their flight from Canterlot were made clear.

Luna quietly digested the information she was receiving from her perch on the other side of the campfire, her gaze never shifting from its sternness, not even when the gruesome details of the assault were given out by Twilight herself.

Reluctant at first, the guards were eventually forced to grant Link the permission to wander with his equipment; the word of the princess was indisputable. The Hylian sat at a sort of intermediate point between the two mares, Olivia appearing to be asleep on top of his hat while he patiently waited for his turn to pipe into the story. His meal had been nothing but a couple of empty, half-eaten slices of bread; but he couldn’t complain. Hyrule had already been much crueler to him before.

“…and then we just… woke up in a cave. I know we were teleported out of there, and when I came to, I went outside and saw a winged pony fly away from us. And that pony had a cape… like yours…”

“I believe I understand what you are implying, Twilight Sparkle. However, I am afraid I did not so such a thing.” The unicorn raised an eyebrow, but before she could argue further, the princess took the word. “You did… mention, however, something peculiar. You said my sister… ‘gifted’ you the remains of her energy…”

It was clear that the memory was just as sensitive a subject for the alicorn, despite only being able to imagine how violent the scenery must have gotten afterwards. The pause was interrupted with a dismissing shake of her head.

“The only reason we found you was due to a burst of light in the middle of the woods. It… pains me to believe in such a thing, but this is my sister we are talking about,” she continued.

“I-I’m not sure if I’m following.”

“Naturally,” the matter-of-factness in the princess’s tone appeared derisive, but all present remained quiet. “It is obvious that you would not know about such a thing. But you are well-versed in all that is arcane to your limitations. Tell me, Twilight Sparkle, where does an alicorn draw its power from?”

The purple mare was obviously reeling back through her knowledge, searching for the answer.

“I… suppose from one’s own energy? Like a regular unicorn pony?”

“…you are close enough,” Luna replied, sighing in apparent relief. “Though an alicorn draws its power from ‘one’s own energy’, that is but a fraction of what one of us can accomplish. There are different sources for different alicorns: my sister relies on the sun, and I, on the moon.”

Her gaze fleetingly drifted to the relentlessly ominous clouds that concealed the sky above.

“And then… there is the one we both share. The power we, as sisters and equal rulers of Equestria, split into equivalent proportions and took for ourselves. The same force that has allowed us to shine forth through the many difficulties, and that I eventually grew to… gloat…”

Twilight knew very well the particular part of her history that was about to be told, so she inched closer to her, resting a hoof on her shoulder, getting to feel just how tense her body had gone with the mere mention of her past.

“…power is a dreadful thing to have. The power we, the alicorn sisters, wield, is by far the most frightening one of all. A power that was bestowed upon us so that we could endure the bleak events that were part of the foundation of Equestria itself, as wished by the three founding races. A power that we came to call… the Light Force.”

Link’s ears twitched upon ‘hearing’ the term. Luna seemed to take note of this, as she watched him from the corner of her eyes. He still couldn’t understand exactly what her position about him was, for in all the instances in which they’d crossed gazes, the emotions they transmitted had been mixed. As if desperation met hope and the two switched places every so often, regularly replacing each other.

“When there is light, there is darkness. They are two sides of the same coin that must coexist so that the balance may be kept. When envy began to grow in my heart, so did the inevitable corruption of the light within me. Before I could even realize it, something new had been born.”

“Nightmare Moon,” Twilight concluded. Luna offered only a weak nod in reply.

“If what you said is correct, then the only way to vanquish that spirit is to use the power of the Light Force.”

“Then… why didn’t Princess Celestia do it when she had the chance?”

“…because both of us had to be there.” A lonesome tear rolled down her cheek as she closed her eyes in contemplation. “I fear that my sister may have given you that power so that it could not be caught by the Nightmare. In doing that, she put herself into a greater risk, for she fought a dangerous enemy unarmed.”

Still, Twilight was not satisfied. Her eyes were set on the dimming flames, staring absentmindedly at their darker core, where the temperatures were higher. Something did not add up.

“But when Princess Celestia fought Nightmare Moon… wasn’t she alone too?”

“That… is a problem he is related to.” Link very nearly leaped onto his feet when all eyes were set on him. “You see, I was the vessel for the spirit of Nightmare Moon – not only that, but the ghoul had naught but been given birth. There was also the matter of the Elements of Harmony – my sister had none of those this time, I believe.”

“That must be why it was demanding that the princess relinquished the Elements…”

“Tsc… the nerve… to attack in her weakest moment… typical of such an avatar of malevolence.”

“But… what does… Link… have to do with it?” She clearly had not gotten used to how unique the name sounded yet. Luna did not answer straight away, instead taking her time to word her answer carefully.

“As you are aware, the vessel is of Hylian origin. You have witnessed already that Equestrian magic was futile against it.” Slowly turning to face the boy, she continued. “Like my sister and I, the Hylians, too, were blessed with a power greater than that which they could possibly fathom. They call such power ‘The Triforce’. Link, I believe, possesses a part of that power. Unfortunately… it would seem that the vessel, too, carries one.”

“T-Then… what does it mean?”

“I am not sure myself…”

The confession hit the unicorn’s mind like a brick, but deep down, she knew she had been expecting this. The failed confrontation with the towering creature, her tutor’s defeat at its hands… and now a mystical power that all of them seemed to possess. It was quickly becoming too much for her to assimilate, let alone believe.

“If I had to hazard a guess… I would say that the only way to defeat this foe is to somehow combine whatever power we have. Without Celestia, however… I am not sure how we shall do such a thing.”

Rising to all four legs, a movement that Twilight did not delay in following, the princess rested a hoof on her sister’s most prized student. There was a sense of familiarity in the action that she could not exact, but settled with taking in the soothing effect of the moment.

“I will trust my sister’s judgment. Her part of that power was entrusted to you, and nopony else. If she chose to have faith in you, then I, too, will.” Needless to say, Twilight was nothing short of amazed; if not for having been delegated the total confidence of her two sovereigns, then for the swiftness with which Luna had accepted to do so.

“…Thank you, princess.”

“There is much we still do not know, and even more which I have yet to tell you. For now, I must return to Canterlot and see whatever damage that has been dealt with my own eyes. I am afraid that the Night Guard will be extremely necessary there.” She raised a foreleg towards a particularly bright point in the horizon. “Ponyville lies that way. From what the guards have gathered, it is still safe to cross the periphery of the town. Worry not for the monsters you have encountered, nor with the nightmare that is Tartarus; I shall personally see to it that Ponyville remains safe.”

The alicorn lowered her head in a discreet bow, which Twilight mirrored.

“I wish thee luck on thine return home,” she bid.

“Thank you… hum, there is something else I must ask…” With the consenting nod of the princess, she sighed, summoning all of her strength to not look fragile in the moment she needed fortitude the most. “When you get there… please… find my friends. Guide them to safety.”

Ghost Town

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“The Light Force…”

Her part of that power was entrusted to you, and nopony else.

“Why did you have to do it? Why… me?”

The answer to such a question was painfully obvious. There were, in fact, several reasons she could point as to why she, of all of the princess’s subordinates, had been chosen as the vessel that would carry half of an enormous magical power.

If she chose to have faith in you, then I, too, will.

The princess hadn’t selected her as somepony to pass the baton to somepony else; she’d required one thing and one thing only when their eyes met for the last time in the heat of the battle:

Find me.

The cracking of a fallen twig beneath her hoof startled her and brought the path back into focus. Ponyville drew ever closer, and while she did feel extremely happy for returning to where she belonged, to the house she had been longing so much, the welfare of her friends, whose whereabouts were completely unknown to her, continued to tug at her heart.

Luna will watch over them. She won’t let anything happen.

“Hey, huh…”

Now there was a voice she hadn’t expected to hear. Just slightly tilting her head to the left, she spotted the green sprite flying at her side, at the precise position where both she and Link could face her at the same level.

“I’m… sorry,” Olivia apologized, her voice low. “You know, for… snapping back there.”

Twilight’s mouth subtly gapped in surprise, something her wide-open eyes instead expressed rather straightforwardly. It’s difficult to determine just how honest someone is being when all you can see about them is a colorful blur that might blind you when you’re too close; all you can use in those moments is their voice and your instincts. But after standing by someone’s side in a battle, your confidence in said characters develops, and in Olivia’s case, the simple fact that Link accepted her company was sufficient proof that, at least in this moment, she was being honest.

“It’s okay,” the mare finally spoke, an understanding smile slowly creeping across her features. She did, after all, own some of the blame for the untimely display of anger. “I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have assumed anything.”

“That tends to happen with us…”

“You didn’t exactly cause the best impression some weeks ago in Canterlot.”

“…I didn’t do anything,” the fairy’s voice dripped with desperation; the silence that ensued spoke volumes for what she couldn’t say. Judging from the position of the wings, she was no longer facing the unicorn, but rather an undefined point ahead. “I don’t have anything to do with Chrysalis. Not anymore.”

“So you… participated in the attack?”

“Not directly,” Olivia replied almost instantly. Twilight began to frown; the attack did not hold any good memories for her. Perhaps more painful ones than anything else. “I was just a scout for her. The mission was simple. Infiltrate the castle, gather all the information I could about where the couple was staying, study the bride and the groom, and return with the information. But I made a mistake.”

“You were found out.”

“A guard saw me as soon as I was leaving the castle for the last time and thought I was a parasprite.”

“And Shining Armor went on full alert. The barrier. You caused the whole thing.” The inescapable flame of anger burned in her mind. By now, her voice revealed utter disbelief; she was still connecting the dots, but she had already figured it all out. “You’re responsible for the whole attack.”

Olivia barely had time to react before being plunged against the ground by an invisible force that threatened to crush her with all its might, and Twilight took the chance to loom over the defenseless sprite. Her gaze was tarnished with a rage that had been rekindled by memories deliberately pushed to the back of her mind when her fuming snout was inches away from the fairy’s bioluminescent body.

“You caused everything that happened in those two days, you’re the one who led the Changeling Queen straight into the castle, and you’re the one who caused Cadance to be imprisoned in those dungeons.”

“I had NOTHING to do with it! It was that or being used as fodder!”

“Then how come you’re here?! Why aren’t you with your ruler plotting against somepony else?!”

“Because I fled! Got that?! The moment Chrysalis took off to invade Canterlot, I fled! Because the last thing I wanted was to be under the rule of somepony like her!” the fairy shouted. Her voice echoed across the empty plains for a moment, as if to allow the unicorn to study her tale. “I had to do it! I didn’t have a choice!”

Link frowned at Olivia’s excuse, but kept any complaints he had to himself. He had, after all, learned much in the past few moments, especially regarding the fact that everything was in fact not always well in this land where mythical creatures roamed. Not only that, but he began to question the legitimacy of the fairy’s promise of leading him back to Hyrule, now more than ever with the new details on her background. She had lied for a living once; what kept her from doing it again now?

“Fine,” the pony sighed, raising her head again. Her horn’s faint shimmer died away, and the fairy’s wings once again buzzed with her ascent. “I… believe you.”

Without a word more, Twilight turned sharply and trotted off. Olivia simply hovered in place, gaze certainly locked on the mare that distanced herself from her and her Hylian companion. Had she a face capable of demonstrating emotions, apprehension was indubitably the feeling it would convey.

“You know… being a Changeling gives you some… perks,” she mumbled. Her tone, however, held no sentiment of its own. “You can… feel… the emotions of the others. Kind of like reading their mind. Whether you want it or not, they naturally… flow towards you.”

Link listened intently, a short nod his unasked consent for her to continue.

“She won’t forgive me. She doesn’t trust me yet. But deep down… she’s trying to. Trying to make sense out of the whole thing.”

She fell silent, absentmindedly flying forward. The boy took notice and promptly began to walk along.

“Maybe that’s just how she works,” he proposed, hoping to continue the conversation with the only friendly being in that land that understood what he said.

But the exchange ended there.

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Admittedly, she’d never been to Canterlot much.

Having been brought up in a farm for almost all of her life, Applejack was perhaps the least appropriate pony to ask for a description of the capital of the Equestrian expanse. Amidst her breaks between plowing the lands and harvesting their apple orchard, she often cast an inquisitive gaze at the distant city perched on the mountainside, its bright, marble walls shimmering dazzlingly even from such a distance, and planting in the pony’s mind the seed of curiosity regarding how it was to live in such a city. After all, Canterlot was not just any urbanization, like Manehatten had been in her filly-hood; it was much more than that, it was the hub of any and all royal activity. No matter how much the fanciness of such places failed to spark her interest, there was always a little voice in the back of her head that insisted that business there would skyrocket the moment it was set up.

But now… now there was none of that. Even when the intermittent lightning bolts shone upon them, the tall, fortress-like walls of the city never sparkled, always retaining their dim color. Everywhere they looked, smoking wreckage was all they saw, the vibrant flames burning behind the curtain of pollution appearing as the only source of light in that sinister new place.
They hadn’t seen even a single pony pass by them since their arrival, and the exit they had used was well behind them already.

There was more to this abundant, terrorizing stillness than what met the eye, however. A vicious howl boomed in the distance, then another one, and another one, until a disturbing humming perked their ears up. The cruel fate that had befallen this city suddenly became that much more apparent with the nauseous trail of crimson liquid that stained the walls and the ground, the extent of its destruction climbing the closer they got to the center of the deserted settlement. The houses, once topped by beautiful golden stars, had been reduced to a blazing pile of rubble; the fertile gardens that populated the sides of the Canterlot streets lay in total mayhem, the earth that provided a bed for their elegant flowers strewn over the pavement they stepped in a sickening mix with the ponds of water that the rain had created in its gaps.

Fluttershy shrank against her oldest friend at the sight of an ashen skull that unceremoniously rolled in the mud, the remaining bones that composed its body just a few steps away, a pile of scorched fragments waiting for Nature to do its job. The other pegasus sighed, but ultimately stretched a wing over her friend, a protective act the meeker pony gratefully took.

She couldn’t blame her; the sight was disgusting to say the least. She was on full alert herself, as, she was sure, were the others, her eyes frantically shifting left and right in a constant search for the creature that was right now targeting her as its next victim. Perhaps there wasn’t even anything watching them, lurking in the shadows and waiting for its opportunity to strike.

But it sure felt like they were being followed.

“Guys…” Rainbow whispered, coming to an abrupt halt; Fluttershy was quick on her hooves to make up for this, instantly pacing backwards to the wing’s comfort. “T-There’s something around here…”

“We know, Dashie!” Pinkie piped in before anyone else could respond. “But if you just pretend it’s not there, then it doesn’t get so scary!”

“She’s right ‘bout that. We dun’ wanna provoke these things, if they’re still here,” Applejack piped in.

“Just keep moving, darling,” Rarity added. “I’m sure there’s still somepony around who can help us.”

Despite her best efforts, the feeling wouldn’t go away. She slowly resumed her normal pacing, anxiety peaking at every little sound that reached her. She could fly away, she realized; surely, those things couldn’t catch her in the air.

And if they’re attacked? What then?

There was barely time for her to curse her bonds before a wail broke out much closer than any other had before, causing the canary yellow pegasus to crumble to the ground in shivers, forelegs over her eyes to avoid watching the impending assault of the undead.

“They’re comin’! We gotta run!” the cowpony shouted before turning sharply towards Pinkie. “And no more playin’ make-believe, Pinkie! Either we get outta here or we’re as good as dead!”

Having half-expected an unenthusiastic rebuttal, Applejack was as pleasantly surprised as the situation entitled her to be when the party pony’s expression exuded seriousness like she’d only seen few times before.

The flash of a lightning called their attention to what was behind them; it revealed the outline of a figure at the end of the road that approached them at an alarming rate; even more alarming, however, was the absurd amount of other bodies that followed the former, their cries for bloodshed becoming increasingly higher and fervent – time was running out.

“The maze. We’ll hide there.”

“That’s where there’re least ponies… so it’s where there’re the least of these things. Good thinkin’, Pinkie!”

“The buck are we waiting for then?!” Rainbow’s slip of the tongue cost her a glare from Rarity, but even that was soon forgotten when the group was on the run again, Fluttershy constantly attempting to keep up with her eyes closed while Applejack and Pinkie led the group through the debris, the skeletal foes hot on their tails even at their speeds.

Too hot at one point, in fact, as the cowpony was forced to retreat to the rear of the group to handle a pony that had risked getting too close, its prize a well-aimed kick that managed to eliminate even others that were behind it.

Grass finally became the floor that supported them when the houses and walls disappeared, giving place to the lush fields and tall trees that had somehow been spared from the tragedy that took the city just next to them. The orange pony allowed herself a moment of relaxation with their return to something remotely familiar: the wide open meadows surrounding the great labyrinth.

It was strange to note just how untouched this area was, as if the monsters had chosen that the city was an abomination and decided that it should be brought to the ground, but considered this to be too beautiful a sight to tamper with.

Even odder was the fact that they were no longer being followed, as the entire group noted – much to their massive relief – upon entering the Canterlot Gardens. The high walls of the maze loomed over them already; the diversity of statues symbolizing relevant Equestrians began to populate the grass. From previous visits, Rarity had gotten to know the names of some of these, and recalling that had a peculiarly soothing effect on her. She could clearly remember the names of the three musicians who were prominently featured all around: Natural Scale, the Baroness Plainsong, and Prince Baton, all three of which important symbols and references to ponies like the Grand Galloping Gala performers.

The arrangement of the statues, she noted, had been changed this time. Part of her knew the reason for this: the sculpture of the spirit of chaos had been relocated, this time occupying a major position directly in front of the maze’s entrance, its frightened gape still the same as it had been when her friends, the Elements of Harmony, imprisoned the fiend in its stone cage once more. Both the Baroness and the Prince had been moved to either side of Discord, their grandiose poses, for all eternity frozen in the rehearsal of a melody, appearing to be the reason why the draconequus cowered. She couldn’t help but giggle at the sight.

“Y’think they’re gone fer good?”

“They left us alone, and that’s all I care right now!”

“I wonder… if the Elements can fix all this…” the fashionista pondered out loud, eyes still set on the cringing bust. None of her friends answered, instead choosing to face the same way she did. Little drops of rain fell on her already ruined mane, but for once, she paid it no mind. With her magic, she pulled the Gossip Stone out of her bag, allowing its one-eyed look to see into her mind again. It was hypnotizing, staring into that little circular etching on that simple, sparkling rock. “Maybe this is why we were called to Canterlot after all… Maybe we were already too late.”

“Time…” a disembodied voice spoke. Hearing those words was enough to quake the pony’s body and mind. “You claim to know what… time… means…”

“W-Who’s there?! Show yourself!” Rainbow blurted out, only to immediately scold herself for it with the sudden burst of smoke from the cracks on the earth underhoof, geyser-like strings of dark purple fog like leaks in a gas pipe. She retreated as fast as she could, but the jets would follow her, eventually forcing the pegasus to take off so as to avoid being hit.

“A-Ah dun like the look’a this! Rarity, get away from there!”

However, the unicorn did not move. Her item floated gently back into the saddlebag, its flap closing as quietly as the swirling haze that surrounded her, creeping against the floor in a perfect circle.

“W-Who… are… y-you?”

“Are you afraid, unicorn?” the voice spoke again, this time clearly originating from the clouds around her. “Do you wish to suffer the same fate as the ones who dared oppose me?”

“She said… GET OUTTA THERE!”

No sooner did the voice finish its question than Rarity was snatched off the ring of clouds and tossed away in a messy snowball effect with the blue pegasus, their trip ending only upon crashing against the pillar of a nearby stone representation of the sun.

“Humph.”

The ominous vapors began to spiral upwards, surpassing their height by twice at its highest point. When it cleared, they beheld a monster unlike anything they had ever seen, its movements suggesting it was climbing its way out of a deep pit inside the sinister mist. It walked on its back legs, and the entirety of its body was covered in a dim red cloak, head kept under a shade by a large hood that revealed only its abnormally long nose and frowning mouth.

None of the ponies moved as the creature gazed around, as though the gardens had suddenly become very appealing to its hidden eyes. Tired of the landscape, the creature turned in a swift motion, cloak fluttering in the wind behind it, making its way towards the chaotic being’s prison. A gloved hand reached out for gray statuette, carefully touching the cold stone.

“The spirit of Chaos…” It uttered, raising its head up. “We seem to be alike… do we not?”

A metallic sound rang from the entity before a faintly gleaming blade escaped the inside of its coat.

“Though our goals may be different… we share one weakness…” They could not see it, but they felt the creature’s eyes rest upon them as he uttered those words. “The Elements of Harmony.”

The statue cracked loudly as the sword pierced it in a single, nearly imperceptible thrust, prompting gasps from the ponies that watched powerlessly. The weapon was pulled out with another revolting noise, steel slicing through stone and enlarging the fissures that already propagated from the point of encounter.

“Rise… Discord.”

All at once, the sculpture began to fracture itself, its once clear surface now completely scarred by a multitude of breaches that gave off the impression that the weakest of breezes could blow it apart like a house of cards. Then, when it seemed that the statue could not take it any longer, an intense light burst forth from its crevices, and before any of the present could find shelter, it exploded in a spectacular display of pitch-black smoke and lights, every fragment that composed it wildly hurling through air.

“Sweet… Celestia…” the cowpony muttered under her breath, finally daring to raise her head and let go of her hat when the resulting gale of the blast waned. Despite the thick layer of smoke that shrouded the area, there was clearly something shining ahead: a glistening pair of circular rubies that pierced the darkness and cast upon them a wicked glare, one of utter madness that could only be associated with the thundering, maniacal laugh that boomed ever louder in perfect synch with the lightning overhead.

And when that faded and the dust began to settle, their worst fears were confirmed.

“Hello… my little ponies…”

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The boy’s lower jaw hung in awe at the village that stretched in front of him, covering a good portion of the little plot of green land cut into the forests that surrounded it. He had been expecting something largely different – or so he thought, because in reality he hadn’t expected to see anything at all. How these beings had constructed the variety of yellow and white buildings that dotted the land was beyond him, but the fact was that they had.

The beaten earth road ended there, where the extensively colonized fields of grass began. Here and there, streetlights sprouted from the ground, adding the vivacity of their glow to the faint, dark orange brightness already provided by the population of thatch-roofed houses.

Yet the place held resemblances that reminded him of Hyrule, if not for the little similarities with Kakariko Village (save, perhaps, for the lack of a graveyard), then for the way it fit so naturally into the environment to the point that it blended with it, like his home, the Kokiri Forest.

Such likeness was magnified exponentially with their approach to what the mare had called her house, and Link couldn’t help feeling a pang in his heart when he found that this was, in fact, their destination. Residing in a tree – that hit too close to home for the young hero.

“This place…”

Though it was certain that the unicorn couldn’t understand what he said, sometimes pictures speak a million words, and looking back to check on the boy, the darkness was no obstacle in the interpretation of the forlorn gaze he possessed. The frown she’d kept all the way since her quarrel with the fairy softened.

“Do you like it?” she asked quietly. Link wasn’t facing her when he nodded, still engrossed in the memories and emotions a simple tree house had surfaced. Twilight smiled sympathetically, completing the final steps towards the door. “I just hope Spike isn’t too worried…”

Summoning her magic in complete silence, the door slid open, and the tree’s interior became illuminated soon after the mare went in. A weak smack of Olivia on his arm incited him to move after.

“You can, huh, put your stuff over there. I’m just gonna check on Spike and get you a place to sleep.” No objections made, she started up the staircase, disappearing behind the walls just moments later.

As per her suggestion, Link settled the scabbard and shield against the wooden bust placed on the center of the library. The first thing he thought was how… appropriately… sized everything was in comparison with him. The door frame would perhaps fit the average adult, but any taller would impede their entry without crouching.

Olivia idly browsed the books on the shelves, her intentions in actually reading any of them obviously null.

“Magic 101, Modern History of Modern Equestria for Modern Ponies, Supernaturals…” she distractedly quoted, any interest she may have had in the tomes dying with the shelf’s extent. Not finding anything worthy of her time, she let herself slump towards the boy’s hat. “I’m bored. Goodnight.”

Link did grunt at the way the fairy’s lack of consideration, but that fell on deaf ears. Reaching into his tunic, he removed the book Twilight had asked for him to keep. He’d never lost any belongings before, and he’d carried many more, so a manuscript was barely any more uncomfortable than a handful of Deku Nuts in the pocket or a boomerang and a slingshot on his belt. Or an egg. He didn’t think too fondly of the time when the egg he’d been asked to carry was nearly broken because of a Deku Scrub’s pellet.

The book ended up revealing nothing he didn’t already know; the Triforce’s creation by the Goddesses, the spirit of the hero, the Master Sword…

The Master Sword…

His latest rendezvous with Ganondorf hadn’t been the most fortunate one, and just thinking about how shoddily he’d performed made him blush. Not just that, but he’d lost his sword as well. A lengthy piece of wood was all he had for a weapon now.

“You think… we’ll be able to return home now?” the boy quietly asked.

“Yeah, yeah, I have a plan and all that…”

“And what is that plan?”

The fairy’s prolonged silence gave Link all the answers he needed.

“Just… don’t worry. We’ll be out of here before we’re neck deep in these ponies’ problems.”

And there was the fundamental reason why she wasn’t Navi.

“I was thinking we should… help them…”

“You help’em. You’re the one who wants to get back to Hyrule. Not my war to wage.”

“Link!” the mare called from the top of the stairs. “I’ve set up the guest bed. You can stay there for now. Oh!” A purplish aura enveloped the book and lightly tugged it towards the mare, as if asking for his consent. When he released it, the tome flew towards her, remaining in the air while she continued. “I see you’re reading the Sky Book!”

Slowly getting up and retrieving his equipment, he made his way towards the stairs, stopping halfway to make his attempt at communicating with her. It took several moments of pointing to and fro plus much shrugging and a great amount of groans cursing his failure, but the lavender unicorn got the point.

“I’ll just be studying this. Maybe I can find something that can point towards how we’ll fix this. Oh, don’t worry!” she quickly added when Link raised an eyebrow. “It’s not the first time I’ve done this! Seriously! Just get some rest, and I’ll tell you everything in the morning!”

…Whenever that may be…

Return of Chaos

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“Why did you release him?!”

“Now, now… did you not miss me? I honestly feel offended,” the draconequus spoke instead, further aggravating Raindow’s already blazing annoyance. “After all, we never even got to say goodbye!” A deep, short snigger from the creature called Discord’s attention to his side. “And who, pray tell, are you?”

“Spirit of Chaos,” it said with a bow. “I am Ganondorf. I was the one who freed you.”

“Yes, I seem to have gathered as much. For the record, I’m not a genie; I don’t grant wishes. I like what you’ve done with the place, by the way. Loving the chaos.”

“SILENCE!”

Even the chimera cringed at the sheer power that the man’s holler possessed all of a sudden. He’d seen it a few times in the past – the distant past, no less - but in all occasions, it had been vociferated by the same entities: monarchs. Merely knowing this… thing… dominated such ability was petrifying enough for him – and there seemed to be no greater joy for the cloaked fiend than to witness his subjugated grimace.

“Ah… so you know…” the man spoke, grinning deviously.

“Who… are you? Why did you free me?”

“I have awakened you so that I may offer a proposal that may benefit both of us,” Ganondorf continued. The spirit’s expression slowly softened, curiosity beginning to overlap panic.

“And what does such offer entail?”

“It is simple.” The swordsman spun in place, raising his sword. The nature of the deal dawned upon Discord when the tip of the blade pointed towards the ponies who spectated the negotiations. “We destroy our common enemy.”

“I see… Though you seem to be forgetting an important detail.” The way the thief’s mouth contorted when Discord closed in so that their heads were side-to-side could be seen from miles away. “They are the Elements of Harmony.”

Confidence flashed across the ponies’ face for the briefest moment – a moment interrupted by the crescent of devilish laughter that erupted from the man, his head leaning back as if to properly project his voice – apparently surprising even the spirit himself, who instantly removed his hands from the creature’s shoulders and slowly backed away.

When his mirth ceased, Ganondorf abruptly faced forward again. He raised a hand, and it was as though the menacing storm clouds that above spiraled down towards his palm, where a swirling ball of darkness began to take shape. Forming a fist, the orb exploded, and in its place floated a jewel fitted box, its gilded, indigo color extremely familiar to all of those present.

“The Elements!”

“Give those back!”

“Rainbow, don’t-!” Applejack still tried, but it was already too late, as the cyan pegasus was already airborne when the warning came.

“Insolent pony,” Ganondorf simply grunted, his timing perfect when the sword was dropped to the ground so that the hand that wielded it could be raised directly at the pony who bulleted his way.

As the man drew closer, Rainbow closed her eyes and braced herself for the impact, teeth clenched in a demonstration of fierce fortitude…

Yet the crash never happened.

She knew she was still in the air, and no matter how much she squirmed, her hooves never touched the ground. Her throat ached; something firmly gripped her around her neck, impeding all of her movements.

“These toys are too much for you to handle!”

The man’s voice snapped her eyes open, and before she could realize what had happened, his fist connected with her chest with astonishing power, hurling the pegasus across the air and back to her friends, sliding to a halt just steps away from them.

“Rainbow!” the unison wave of gasps cried out, the remaining ponies rushing to her side while Discord inched farther away from Ganondorf, his renewed cackling none the more contagious.

“You do not understand the powers you wield,” the thief continued, taking hold of the box to open the lid. His smile grew wider as the natural shimmer of the jewels bathed his features, his free hand digging hungrily into the container to grab all of them at once. The spirit of chaos winced at the boldness of the man, his two previous encounters with the relics having been events he’d rather forget.

“These… things…” he added, his voice becoming tinged by anger. One by one, the gem-studded tiara and necklaces fell to the grass, a pile beginning to take shape. Rid of the objects, it was as if his left hand had caught on fire when it curled into a fist and burst into a dark violet flame; the man arched the arm back, and his intentions suddenly became clear: “THEY ARE WORTHLESS!”

The personification of anarchy himself became appalled as Ganondorf’s fist shook the ground underneath them with its sheer power, a precisely aimed action that audibly shattered the artifacts into countless golden fragments that were scattered to the seven winds by the resulting shock wave.

“You… you destroyed the Elements…” surprisingly, the spirit had been the first to speak up, the ponies too stunned to even move just yet. “Ahahahah! You destroyed the Elements of Harmony! Oh, this is-”

“SILENCE, I SAY!” Ganondorf retorted instantly, retrieving his sword. “My task – OUR TASK – is not yet complete! While the five of them live… Then there is still work to be done!”

The distinctive cry of a horn in the distance brought the man back to his feet, his gaze directed to the burning city next to them. Something soared in the middle of the blaze columns of smoke that rose to the sky, headed their way at impressive speeds – which for him was apparently a cause for joy, if his quiet snicker was any indication. Discord followed his eyes, and saying his reaction was much milder would be a massive understatement.

“Ah, I was beginning to question when they would arrive,” Ganondorf spoke, perhaps too contentedly for Discord’s liking.

“You mean to tell me that the one in the lead…”

“Yes. The other half of the Light Force.”

As if on cue, the regal alicorn of the night descended upon the gardens, a fierce glare scarring her features as she flared her midnight blue wings so that the baffled ponies behind could be protected. Her guard landed next to her just moments after, a pair of sentinels carrying with them a somewhat charred wagon. Ganondorf remained impassive to the abrupt increase of his enemy’s numbers, much unlike his ally.

“We meet again, Princess Luna!”

“THE PLEASURE IS ALL YOURS, NIGHTMARE MOON. IF I NEVER SAW YOU AGAIN, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN TOO SOON.”

“Luna! Please! Can I not be content for meeting my mother? Perhaps you, too, should share my happiness; you are, after all, seeing your own spawn!”

“ENOUGH OF THIS! CEDE MY SISTER’S LOCATION AND SURRENDER, AND PERHAPS I WILL NOT BE SO SEVERE IN YOUR PUNISHMENT!”

“Ah, but how will you accomplish that? I hold all the cards… do I not?” The statement clung to her mind like a leech, consuming the willpower she had been garnering while overflying what remained of her city. The disgraceful scenario she’d encountered awakened a thirst for revenge that – she refused to admit – she had been craving. Knowing who was responsible for it only served to rouse the fire that burned within her.

No. She wouldn’t forfeit to such a foe. She’d done so once – the result had not been optimal.

“…I will fight you.” Grabbing the cape on her back with her teeth and tossing it away, she lowered her head and spread her forelegs, hoping to appear threatening to the enemy. Her horn flared to life for safe measure, and the guardsponies followed her lead, hoisting their spears. “This time, I will not lose.”

“…you share your sister’s stubbornness,” Ganondorf spoke after a moment of contemplation, raising the sword. “You also share her ingenuity.”

“ALL OF YOU!” The hastiness in the princess’s voice stirred the ponies from their trance, though fear was still patent in their eyes. “BOARD THE CHARIOT AND FLEE!”

“B-But we can’t just go’n leave ya here! How’re ye-”

“THAT WAS NOT A QUESTION!”

Her will inevitably came to pass with the assistance of the cart’s soldiers, who took the more relentless mares and readily tossed them into the wooden contraption.

“Do not let them escape!” the evil man issued as soon as the rudimentary chariot left the ground. He only had the chance of watching Discord take off after it before a rampaging Luna required his immediate attention, raising his sword at the last possible second to stop the alicorn’s assault and lock horn and sword in a lethal duel.

Higher above, the Night Guard struggled in their journey away from the arena, a task made much more complicated by the storm that raged over the lands. Knowing that one of the mares in the wagon had passed out from the shock didn’t help either, and they could only imagine what they still had to go through before reaching Ponyville.

“Everything okay back there?!”

“We’re fine! Just get us to Ponyville!”

“We’re doing the best we can! The storm’s starting to get really violent!”

“Wind’s getting too strong! We got a hurricane coming up!” the other guard alerted.

“Hurricane?! What the hay are the pegasi back in the weather factory doing?!” the guard began to trail off when a gust brought him higher than his teammate, nearly tossing the ponies in the back out of their transportation.

“Brace yourselves, this is about to get nast-WHOA!” the guard exclaimed before the wind treated them and their cargo like a ragdoll, constantly shoving the pilots in every direction while the ponies in the back suffered the wrath of the cyclonic drafts. Up became down, and the guards, exhausted from fighting against the vicious breeze, resigned to their fate, allowing themselves to be cradled by whatever this gale had in store for them.

Surprisingly enough, it was as if they were disregarded by the tornado, as they plummeted to the lake below just when their resistance wore off. It was the cargo that this sentient storm seemed to want.

“Fluttershy, wake up! Come on, snap out of it! We gotta get outta here!” the rainbow-maned pony practically screamed while shaking her friend back and forth. The pegasus did come to, and only didn’t plunge back into a deep slumber because of Rainbow’s perseverance. “No! Don’t go away again! I – we – need you! We gotta fly out of here!”

“I-I can’t do this! The wind is too strong!”

“We’ve been through this, Fluttershy! We’ve done something like this before! But now, it’s doing it or kicking it!” No sooner had she finished talking than the cart toppled, the five mares being forcefully pulled out and strewn haphazardly across the sky.

Dash was the first to take the matter into her own hoof, beating her wings as fast as she could to pierce the air current and grab whichever pony was closer to her. Applejack’s grip was as strong as always, the two hooves intertwined while they pulled each other mutually, until the cowpony’s forelegs were crossed around the pegasus’s neck.

Fluttershy, however, still battled two enemies at once: her mind and the rainstorm. Luckily enough, Pinkie – who seemed to be having too much fun with the way she orbited the eye of the storm – crashed against the yellow pegasus, the result being similar to her friend’s, much to Rainbow’s relief.

A quick search revealed that Rarity had somehow clung onto the cart, her screams nothing but hums in comparison with the wind that boomed in her ears. Without further ado, the pegasus shot in her direction, summoning whatever strength she had left to aid her.

But the twister had other plans.

“It’s been fun playing with you five again! What a shame that your other friend couldn’t join in,” the storm’s amused voice boomed; one too familiar to not recognize.

“Discord!” Rainbow promptly yelled. Any other words died in her throat as the wind began to pull her farther and farther away from her goal.

“Ah yes, the Element of Loyalty strikes again! I should be careful, maybe! Another one of your ‘friendship’ beams might hit me while I’m not looking!”

“We’ll get you for this!”

“Oh, I’m sure you will. In another lifetime, of course. Right now, I have a… deal… I have to stick to… but the contract never stated how I’m supposed to get rid of you!” Rainbow could feel the draconequus voice whispering the next words in her ear, as if he was right beside her. “And just like last time, I’ll do it slowly… One by one, I’m going to break you apart... and when you’re within an inch of giving up… I’ll take your power, and claim the world for myself… I am stronger in chaos… and if Nightmare Moon wants chaos… then I am the right spirit for it!”

“Y-You… traitor!”

“Now now, Rainbow Dash. No strong words. How about we calm you down by starting with your struggling friend over there?”

“You wouldn’t!”

“Once more, I feel offended. It is as if you do not know me. I’m just going to have some fun!”

The wind somehow stopped blowing, and Rainbow began to feel Applejack’s weight again, the drafts no longer supporting both of them. Fluttershy seemed to fare similarly, if against her will, but thankfully so.

However, her eyes went wide upon noticing where this storm had moved to, like the world itself was distorted by the sheer force this whirlwind possessed, effectively ensnaring the fashionista and her cart inside its walls of wind.

“Well, that was fun! I will be seeing you again soon! For now… arrivederci!” And with that, the tempest disappeared altogether, the abrupt stop of the wind making momentum kick in and catapult the cart and its contents to the distance, the previously muffled shrieks of panic bellowed by the pony inside it now very clear for everypony to hear.

“Rarity!” Rainbow still yelled, taking off without a moment’s hesitation. But the speed at which the wagon was being carried proved to be far too great for the already tired pegasus. “Dang it, I can’t… get… to her…”

“Y’gotta get’er, Rainbow!” Applejack called from her back. “The way she’s goin’, she’ll be cockatrice fodder… or worse!”

“I know, I know! But the only way I’ll get to her in time is…”

“Then do it, Rainbow! You’ve done it before! Thrice!”

“But it was different! I wasn’t-”

“Consarnit, Rainbow, do it now or Celestia help me I’ll…”

Whatever threat she was about to utter faltered with the pegasus’s sudden increase of speed, the cyan mare having ducked her head to as to obtain greater speeds. Applejack could only smile at the show.

“That’s right! Giddyup, pony!”

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Sparks flew into the air every time their powers clashed, a magical sphere charged with electricity colliding with the sharp edge of his sword, only to ricochet back at its creator, who found himself immobilized before the power of the sacred arrows and thus forced to land. Link didn’t want to waste his chances, and immediately leaped onto the central pillar unleashing his fury upon the King of Thieves, Ganondorf, each swing of his blade a dedicatory to those who had helped the hero and those who had fallen in combat for the same goals. Though the Gerudo managed to block some of the hits with his armored limbs, he still could not avoid the greater damage that the Hero of Time could still cause.

When he sensed that his foe could no longer protect himself from the final, deadly blow, Link gripped the Master Sword ever tighter and plunged it into the man’s chest, removing it immediately after with the sickening noise of metal slicing through bone.

“Link…” it coughed with a hand over its chest, spraying a cloud of crimson blood with his name. Somehow, Link knew what would happen next: the castle would crumble around him, and he and Zelda would have to escape as it ruined around them; when they reached safety, the castle would fall apart entirely, and the ultimate beast, Ganon, would appear.

His heart stopped when none of that happened.

“…you cannot kill me… fool…” the man snarled. Without any warning, Ganondorf darted forward, digging its fist in the young man’s stomach. “I am the Prince of Darkness…”

His vision blurred every time his hand twisted in place, but Link still couldn’t move. He had his sight fixed on the man’s malevolent eyes, where the desire to see the hero dead burned intensely.

“You cannot stop… the eternal night… perpetual twilight…”

“Wake up…”

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“TWILIGHT! WAKE UP! TWILIGHT!”

The boy’s mind hadn’t even finished understanding whether or not this was already reality when he leaped off the bed and grabbed hold of his equipment before tumbling down the stairs with the sword raised; there he was met with the sight of a lavender unicorn lying over her side on the wooden floor, and right beside her…

“DRAGON!” his voice seemed to startle the creature as well, but that didn’t matter, as Link was not about to give the monster an opportunity to strike, instead swinging his improvised sword in hopes that it was not that resilient.

But the purple-scaled dragon was not about to give in, having narrowly dodged his strike and grabbed a weapon of its own – a sealed scroll? – to hold it as though it was a real blade.

This shouldn’t be too difficult, the swordsman thought after realizing their size discrepancies, the fiend barely reaching his shoulder’s height.

The dragon struck first, and Link skillfully blocked the hit with his shield. Taking the moment of proximity for his advantage, the boy swung the sword again, this time successfully smacking the edge against his enemy’s arm so that its lowly weapon could be dropped. Seemingly confused and with the wooden blade pointed at his chest, the dragon slumped to the ground on its knees, surely ready to…

…beg for forgiveness?

“LIIIIIINK!” the fairy’s voice called from the top of the stairs at an increasingly high volume.

“Stand back! It’s dangerous!” he warned as soon as Olivia was by his side, a hand keeping her back while the other held the sword in place. “It did something to Twilight!”

“P-PLEASE, DO WHATEVER YOU WANT T-TO ME, J-JUST LEAVE H-HER ALONE!” a third, unfamiliar voice stammered between desperate sobs. Tracing the sound to its origin, he was astounded to find that it belonged not to some person/pony in the room, but to the pleading dragon beside him. Utterly confused, the boy turned to the fairy for enlightenment.

“Not all dragons are trying to eat people, you know,” she stated flatly. Link felt his cheeks grow warm in embarrassment. He’d only seen maybe one or two dragons in all of his life, and all of them were trying to kill him and or an entire population; needless to say, his opinion on them was not the most positive. “And put that away, you’re starting to scare me too.”

The dragon’s supplications slowly ceased as the sword was sheathed; he was clearly just as confused as the swordsman who stretched his hand out, declaring an unspoken truce. It eyed his hand with apprehension, tentatively raising its own before accepting the offer at last.

“Great! Now that we’re all settled…” the fairy chimed in, fluttering to the dragon’s side. “I’m Olivia, this is Link, he doesn’t get a word of what you say, sorry for attacking. Are we good?”

Way to make it awkward, Olivia.

“Huh, I… suppose?” the dragon spoke, his words lingering in the air for a moment; he could swear that the fairy was expecting something else from him. “I’m… Spike?”

“We’re all good then! No need to go around fighting, right? Right! Now if you’ll both excuse me, there’s a mare passed out on the ground!”

“I-I dunno what happened, she was just talking to me about some big breakthrough she made in… huh… what was the name… Light Force or something!” the young drake quickly spoke, running to meet Olivia next to the fainted mare. “Then I went to the kitchen for a moment and I heard something crash, and when I got here, she… she…”

“She’s still breathing,” the fairy observed. “Maybe she’s just tired. We’re all tired, and Celestia knows I still need some sleep. But she… she’s been running too much for too long.” Suddenly, Link felt proud of his endurance.

“I-I can go get the nurse Redheart! She’ll know what to do!”

“Do it, then. We’ll take care of her for now,” Olivia instructed. With a nearly imperceptible nod, Spike hurried out the house. “Major breakthroughs, huh?” Olivia echoed once the dragon was away, leaving Link to bend down and inspect the unicorn himself. “You think it’s got something to do with how we’ll take those two down? I’d like some sunshine just about now. Hey, what’s that in your hand?”

At first, the boy raised an eyebrow, questioning what the fairy could mean, until he noticed that the triangular birthmark on his left hand was, indeed, shimmering. He knew what it was, and what it meant – how could he not, with Ganon’s continuous boasting of his own.

But even from the Gerudo’s wicked bragging he could learn something. And if there was something that their encounters had taught him, was that every time these marks made their presence known…

“The Triforce parts are resonating,” he spoke, more to himself than to the sprite. “But I’m the only one with a part… right?”

“Seems that thing on your hand isn’t the only sparkly thing here,” Olivia commented from Twilight’s side. Link cast her a questioning look, moving closer to see what she was referring to.

Indeed, on the mare’s flank, the same star-shaped symbol he’d seen before emitted a bright yellow light, akin to the one he possessed. He felt tempted to touch it, but never had the chance as the pony started groaning right when his fingers were inches away from her coat.

“Huh… what… what happened?” she groggily asked, attempting to get back on her hooves only to be struck down again by a strong headache.

“According to your dragon friend, you passed out.”

“Really? Urgh… Must’ve hit something…”

“Spike said you discovered something about the Light Force.” Link winced at Olivia’s straightforwardness. “What did you find?”

“I… wait…” Twilight’s ears twitched as a distant rumbling shook the foundations of the tree. “Do you hear that?”

“Twilight!” the dragon’s voice called from outside, its owner running through the door instants later, panting heavily while a hand pointed to the sky outside. “There’s – huff – something – puff – you gotta see!”

This seemed to stir the mare up immediately, the three occupants of the library quickly joining the dragon at the doorstep to marvel at the spectacle that took place over the far off forests: a magnificent ring, one dyed with all the colors one could possibly imagine, claimed the skies with its glory, spreading apart the dark clouds that dared approach it. A single, rainbow streak shot from it, apparently directed at the woods bordering Ponyville: the Everfree Forest.

A sudden burp called their attention back to the ground, however, and while Olivia stared in what could only be assumed was disgust, Twilight was rendered speechless by the materialization of a white scroll from within the green fire the dragon spewed. It was sealed with a crimson lace and the unmistakable gilded seal of the Canterlot Royalty, and that detail alone filled her with indescribable happiness.

“A letter?” Olivia queried, fluttering closer to the object.

“Not just any letter,” Twilight fondly replied, unfurling the scroll with her magic. “It’s a letter from Princess Celestia.”

“C-Celestia? B-But… wasn’t she…”

“My faithful student,
I do not have much time, so I will be swift. As I am sure you are aware by now, you are in possession of a power that Nightmare Moon and her ally hungers for. It pains me that I have burdened you with such great responsibility, but the greater good so required. Please, accept my apologies.

I am waiting for a signal so that you may receive this letter. A signal of hope, one which you – all of you – recognize universally as the symbol of what brings you together. I have thus received it, should you be reading this.

In the final hours in which I may be of assistance, I can only provide so much help.

Find me where it all began. Find the three relics of Equestria.

Find HARMONY.”

The Ruins

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“Alright, let’s try this just one more time,” the mint green unicorn quietly spoke. Her gilded lyre was encased in a similarly colored glow before floating up in the air. She experimentally plucked all of the chords in a quick succession, the melodious tune it produced appearing to appease the mare. With the patience of a teacher, she trotted off the makeshift stage, boxes containing merchandise meant for tailoring composing its floor. “Are you ready?”

The light gray filly on the stage gave a faint nod, coughing twice to clear her throat. Then, the lyre’s strings were magically plucked once more. Slowly, the notes it created began to merge into a consistent, tuneful song, and when the filly thought she was fully emerged in the composition, she closed her eyes, and her mouth opened slightly, producing a faint hum very much attuned to the melody it accompanied.

The other mare closed her eyes as well, gradually raising a hoof. As if the filly was watching, her voice grew louder with the limb’s ascent, which brought a smile to the instrument’s owner. The foreleg was lowered, and the filly’s voice followed. This was their routine; no words or eyes were necessary for them to continue synched mutually. The player eventually allowed herself some more freedom, and instead of monotonous, up and down movements, her foreleg began to draw exquisite forms in the air.

Then her part ended, and the filly’s voice was the only sound that entertained the wax models around them, their magnificent attire the perfect garments for spectators of such a show. The older pony’s eyes remained closed, so that she could better experience the gentle voice of her student.

With an enthusiastic crescendo came the peak of the performance, and then her voice grew quiet. The lyre’s chords were plucked twice, and the instrument was lowered to the ground again.

“You’re getting better every day, Sweetie Belle!” the mare praised with a grin, walking closer to the stage.

The filly returned the gesture. “Thanks, Miss Heartstrings! You know you were a big help with this!”

“Please, just Lyra is good,” she quickly corrected, picking her instrument’s cover with her magic. “And trust me, Sweetie, it’s all you. I’m just guiding you, that’s all.”

“I’m just really glad my sister found you to do this! You’re the best musician ever!”

“Eheh, you flatter me,” the mare giggled. With the lyre in the bag, she opened the curtains. A frown scarred her features when she was met with the same downpour she’d endured on her way to the boutique. “I can’t believe it’s still raining… we haven’t seen the sun all day.”

Sweetie Belle hopped off the ‘stage’ and moved closer to her teacher. “Maybe Applejack asked the weather ponies to make it rain longer.”

Lyra didn’t reply; her attention was fixated on the ongoing rain. Something about it awakened her innate unicorn senses, as though the responsible one for the creation and durability of the storm was magic. This particular type of magic, however… it wasn’t the type she’d wanted to feel.

“Miss Heartstr- I mean, Lyra!” Sweetie’s voice broke her focus; she shook her head and searched for the unicorn filly, only to find her already at the door with a crimson cape on her back, a blue and yellow emblem adorning the place where her cutie mark would be. “I’m going out to meet Applebloom and Scootaloo! They said they had a new idea for us to try!”

“Oh, huh, yes,” the mare stammered, scrambling on her hooves towards the door with the lyre’s case floating beside her. “I shouldn’t stay much longer either. Bon-Bon’s gonna get her tail in a twist if I don’t get home soon.”

“I understand,” the filly giggled. “Rarity’s just like that, too.”

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The fatigue of their previous escapades across Equestria was beginning to take its toll on the purple mare. Galloping as fast as she could manage (luckily, Link didn’t seem to be nearly as fast as her), the trees and bushes on the sides of the road blurred past her. A rainbow-colored streak of light overhead served as their guide, stretching all the way from the fields around Ponyville to the ends of the Everfree Forest.

The pony’s mind continuously replayed the contents of the parchment in a continuous attempt to decipher its meaning. Why did the princess have to be so cryptic about something this urgent? Surely, whatever she had been told to find was crucial in their struggle against Ganondorf and Nightmare Moon’s alliance.

To find Harmony. To find three relics.

But above all, to find her where it had all begun.

“Where’s Rainbow headed?” she distractedly asked between gasps for air. Olivia took the cue and flew higher above; luckily, the pegasus’s signature move had cleared much of the fog that stood in her way, a hazard that would otherwise have kept the three grounded adventurers in the dark for much of the trip.

Having taken a glance, the fairy descended to their level again. “The Palace of the Sisters,” she quickly chimed.

The definition of place as a palace befuddled the Hylian boy. If it was such a prominent place that it was a palace, then why was the landscape nothing but trees and hills? “Palace?” he asked while he had the chance.

“Ruins,” the fairy briefly explained. “Princess Luna and her sister lived there about a thousand years ago. It was abandoned after an incident, and it’s been decaying in the forest since then.”

“I see,” the boy hummed in reply.

Not far ahead, a rather large gap on the ground separated them from the remainder of the forest. Twilight’s horn lit up immediately, and before they could object, the three were on the opposite side of the bottomless valley after a flash of light.

When the vegetation began to grow excessively tall, the dark green tones of the woods began to mingle with grayer shades that delicately hid themselves behind overgrown shrubbery. Link narrowed his eyes, and sure enough, a good look revealed that these abnormal colors were in fact the derelict walls of a much greater structure, one which’s towers loomed over them already. Long vines fell from their windows like the ropes of a thief, and several holes blemished the façade of the fortification.

The end of the rainbow was precisely within the castle grounds, much to Twilight’s relief; it spared them from a longer run, and she was unsure if she’d handle another mile galloping like that.

“Hey Twilight!” the fairy called from her side, a distraction from the chase that she welcomed. “About that Light Force thing you found…”

“Oh! Right! It’s actually a good thing that the princess sent that letter! There was a passage in the Sky Book that mentions that when Nightmare Moon attacked Equestria, the ponies repelled her armies with the power of three objects!”

Olivia stopped momentarily over the middle of the castle’s dried moat, flying back to Twilight’s side once both of her companions had jumped across. “The three relics?”

“Yes! And it was written in the Sky Book that the three relics had immense power when they were fused together!” her voice echoed throughout the empty halls. “So if we find these relics, we can fight back Ganondorf!”

“I don’t think it’ll be that simple,” Olivia deadpanned, and Link couldn’t help but nod in agreement. “They might have countered Nightmare Moon back then, but you’re dealing with her and Ganondorf now!”

“It’s our only choice! We need to find those things…” Twilight trailed off once the doors to the ancient courtyard came into sight.

Figuring the barriers were most likely deteriorated by time, both her and the boy made one last effort and rammed against them, effectively tearing through the wood as if it was paper and drenching the twosome in splinters, dust and foliage. With the rupture of the doors, however, came a rumbling noise from above; Olivia rushed forward as the ceiling began to collapse, its old support having been removed, and the fairy had barely made it out of harm’s way when the entirety of the arch crashed down, sending a thick cloud of dirt into the air.

When he thought the worst of the smoke was past, Link uncovered his face and looked around. Twilight was just next to him, while Olivia had apparently opted to take flight to a higher position.

“You two okay down there?” the sprite asked with a little more enthusiasm than she really intended.

“Dandy,” the boy coughed, slowly getting back on his feet.

The unicorn followed soon after, shaking the dust off her head. “I’m okay.”

Her gaze drifted towards the sky, from whence the rainbow streak of light descended upon the middle of the wild courtyard, where the otherwise messy vegetation was flattened, suggesting something had obviously crash-landed there.

“Okay, help me find her! She has to be somewhere around here!” she hurriedly instructed, beginning her search with Link and Olivia in tow.

The experience was short-lived, however, as the treasure at the end of the rainbow was, indeed, exactly where the streak of light faded to nothingness, the trail of crushed grass instead serving as their guide through the maze-like garden. The path was littered with all sorts of wooden boards, evidently pieces that had been torn off a larger object, and batches of familiar, sky-blue feathers occasionally decorated the foliage and the ground.

Their owner was found just ahead, beyond the meadow, at the foot of the garden’s delimiting walls. Of her, however, they could only see the multihued tail, which slithered from underneath the white unicorn who was lying on top of her and against the wall in a heap. A Stetson hat adorned the unicorn’s head while a pair of roughed up saddlebags rested on her back, thorns and leaves randomly sticking out of the dirty packs.

“Rarity?” Twilight gasped, practically galloping to her fellow unicorn’s aid. Once confirmed that she was still conscious, Twilight dug her head under Rarity’s body and pulled up, hoping to bring the unicorn back on her feet. “What happened? And why are you wearing Applejack’s hat?”

“Hey Twilight! There’s another one in here!” Olivia called from the air.

Seeing the unicorn was already busy, Link unsheathed his sword and took matters into his hands. Instinct told him to cut down the immense vegetation before him – something he almost did, only to be reminded of his weapon’s lack of sharpness and being forced to simply use it to set the blades of grass aside, grumbling all the way through the activity.

As per the fairy’s warning, an orange pony came into view a few steps into the foliage, and Link rushed to its aid immediately. From the fallen branches next to it and its position, he could only assume that, just like the pegasus, this mare had also fallen from the sky – a rather lengthy fall at that. Several twigs were stuck to her mane, and plunging through the tree had left quite a few scratches on most of her body. The boy was really starting to regret not paying better attention to Malon’s instructions about Epona.

Epona…

But now was not the time for regrets or longings; leaning in, he confirmed that at least she was still breathing before walking around to throw his arms beneath the pony. She was fairly bulkier than Twilight was, but that didn’t keep him from at least raising her head and promptly slapping the side of her muzzle in a light manner. For all intents and purposes, these creatures seemed more akin to men (or women, as it seemed) than to most others horses he’d seen before.

Luckily, this technique did provide positive results, as a groan escaped the pony soon after. Satisfied with his results, Link helped her get up, which the mare eventually managed, despite groggily so.

“Hoowee… some wild ride that was, RD…” she mumbled, rubbing her head with a hoof. When no answer came, her leg stopped moving and she experimentally opened an eye, opening both upon noticing that the creature before her was not a pony – or anything else she knew. “What manner’a curse d’you have for yer hair t’fall off like that? ‘N what’s with t’getup?”

Link was about to object, but the pony never gave him the chance, as she backpedalled away from him just instants after talking, as though he was the single most terrifying thing she’d ever seen.

“Y-You! Ya look like th’thing that had the Elements!” The boy’s grin immediately contorted into a frown. “Who’re you?! Whadda’ya think ye’re doin’ to Equestria?!”

“Whoa, whoa! Let’s all calm down here!”

The pony’s eyes went wide at the sight of the fairy’s descent. “’N ya got parasprites! ‘N a weapon! Get the hay’way from me, ya… ya… thing!”

Link’s quick placement of his shield that moment was what saved him from potential beat-up at the hooves of the mare, as she speedily turned and swung her back hooves at the boy, a kick powerful enough to throw the Hylian off his feet and possibly leave quite the mark on the protective gear.

The mare was far from done, however, as she readily leaped towards him, forelegs raised in anticipation to trample her foe under hoof. Link barely had time to gasp before rolling sideways, very narrowly avoiding the attack.

Then he did the next best thing – the same technique he’d been taught by the Lon Lon Ranch managers back when his steed refused to cooperate.

He jumped onto her back.

“Ya dogs sure have a likin’ for ridin’ ponies, don’t’cha?” the mare commented, and in those few seconds where she didn’t move, Link thought he’d conquered her.

She wasn’t about to give up, of course, and the boy held on for dear life when the mare started trashing as violently as possible for her stature, nearly hurling Link across the air in the several instances where her balance shifted from front to back.

The Hylian was just as relentless, though, and Epona had been a big contribution for his heightened perseverance. He couldn’t tell which of the two mares was the most aggressive when unwilling to cooperate, but he knew that this time, he had two ways to reason with her.

“Olivia!!” he exasperatedly called while the fairy danced around them, constantly attempting to approach the pony without getting hit.

“We’re trying to help, here! We know your friend, Twilight Sparkle!”

“Ya got Twilight?! Now ye’re really gettin’ it!” True to her word, the mare leaped and turned in the air, whipping Olivia with her tail before returning to dealing with her rider.

“Thanks for nothing!” Link satirized; he knew it was time to take another approach. Once the mare raised her forelegs in another attempt to rid herself of him, the boy rose to his feet and back flipped off her back, hand reaching into his pockets already.

The mare snorted and backed away ever so slightly, facing Link with her head lowered, ready to ram at him at any moment. When the boy’s hand left his pocket, the mare rushed forward – she was not about to let her opponent use a weapon of any kind.

What met her was not a blade, however; it was an instrument.

It could be a trick, she told herself. Just trying to fool me.

No matter how hard she tried, however, she couldn’t find it in her to carry on – the determination that propelled her had been inexplicably lost.

All because of that song. The melody that the boy was playing in the pale blue instrument he held in his hands, eyes closed as though it allowed him to become abstracted of the world around, from the impending threat she constituted.

It was such a simple tune… yet it had the power to soothe her. To prove, once and for all, that the Hylian did not mean any harm. The mare found herself walking towards him, taking short, quiet steps, her eyes shining in wonder. Even Olivia, who still tried to recover from the unexpected strike, fluttered closer out of curiosity.

And then it ended, and the boy opened his eyes and lowered the ocarina.

“Ye… How’d ya know that song?”

The fairy prepared to translate, but surprisingly, Link didn’t speak. Instead, he walked closer, raising his free hand with the clear intent of placing it on her head. She recoiled at first, moving her head away from the hand in a vague movement.

But Link’s hand remained in the air, palm opened in her direction. She eyed it hesitantly, occasionally shifting her gaze back at the boy. When instincts she didn’t even know she had kicked in, her head finally rested upon the hand, allowing it caress the side of her face. Link’s expression greatly softened, and he let out a long sigh.

This was close, he thought to himself. She really is just like Epona.

“That song ya played…” the mare spoke in a hushed tone. “Ah haven’t heard it in years… Ah dunno how ya got ta learn it, but… if ya know it, then Ah trust ya. Name’s-”

“Applejack! Link!” a different voice answered. Their moment completely ruined, the pair turned to find five other mares approaching from the shrubbery. Twilight was the first to emerge, watching the two with an awkward gaze. “Huh, I see you’re already acquainted.”

“T-Twilight! Huh, great ta see ya!” Applejack promptly replied, shaking Link’s hand off and heading to the unicorn’s side. “How’s RD?”

“Tsk! Like you need to ask!” The pegasus herself answered, descending next to them from within the foliage. “I’ve had bigger crashes! This was nothing!” She paused upon noticing Link’s presence, furling her wings. “So this is the hero guy?”

“Link,” Twilight corrected. “The fairy is Olivia.”

“Fairy, huh?” Rainbow echoed, walking closer. “You sure this isn’t a parasprite?”

“Pretty sure, Rainbow,” Twilight flatly replied, turning to Link afterwards. “There’s something here you’ve got to see. I think it’s in Hylian.”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow at her friend’s calm demeanor. “Twilight, but what about the-”

“I’ll get to that.” And with that, she disappeared in the middle of the tall grass.

Once Applejack and Rainbow followed her, Olivia slowly descended to Link’s side. “That song you played… that’s the song you played for your horse, isn’t it?” When Link simply nodded, the fairy seemed to sigh. “That was a bold move. Could’ve gotten you killed.”

“But it didn’t,” he swiftly replied with a smile, leaving Olivia to stare incredulously at his back while he moved away.

Their location wasn’t far away; in fact, it was precisely where they had found two of the ponies, just at the foot of the palace’s wall. While Twilight appeared to be focused on a particular spot on the wall, Applejack and Rainbow paid assistance to the other unicorn, who rested against the wall just steps away from the others.

“See here?” Twilight called. Indeed, the writing on that particular stone was in Hylian. “Can you read it?”

“Stand on the mark of the Royal Family and play the song that will prove your connection to them,” Olivia recited instead, receiving a frown of mock annoyance from Link.

“Royal Family?” Twilight repeated. Much to her surprise, Link wielded a confident smirk. “What?”

“Zelda’s Lullaby,” the Hylian said, suddenly bending towards the ground with his ocarina in hand. To the eyes of the others, it was as if he had suddenly lost his mind.

He was quick to prove them wrong, however, with the discovery of a triangular crest imprinted on the ground, beneath the thick foliage. Signaling the mare and the fairy to step back, he began playing the instrument.

’The song I just taught you has some mysterious power. Only Royal Family members are allowed to learn this song. Remember, it will help to prove your connection with the Royal Family.’

For a moment, he thought he’d already forgotten the song. With every note, instances of his past, his moments with the princess of Hyrule, flashed in his mind. Of all the times when this exact same tune had been all the proof he needed to demonstrate that he was the Messenger sent by the Royal Family.

But why is this here?

“Link!” Twilight’s voice broke his focus on the song. He realized he must have played it at least twice – but it had provided results.

Where the stone wall, overflowing with vines, used to be was now a massive, pristine arch. A gust of air rushed past them, allowing them to feel its millenary purity flow through their hair and manes.

And on either side of the arch, in both Equestrian and Hylian, was inscribed a name, from top to bottom.

One they could now say in unison.

“Temple of Time.”

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“Lyra! You’re back!”

The unicorn shook her head quickly, sprinkling the house’s entrance with the drops of rain caught in her mane. The pale cream earth pony giggled at her friend’s dog-like behavior before drawing closer and pecking her on the cheek.

“So, how was the lesson?”

“She’s getting really good!” Lyra cheerfully replied, accompanying Bon Bon to the living room. “Good thing Rarity hired me to do it; we really needed those bits.”

“Ah, yes… the… stylist…” the other pony’s voice was practically dripping with disgust. “Honestly, I don’t know if it’s a good idea that you hang around there too often.”

“Come on, Bonny, what’s the big deal?”

Find it…

Lyra’s ears twitched. “Did you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

The legacy must shine forth…

An ethereal, incorporeal voice – the unicorn was sure she could hear it. Bon Bon frowned, walking closer to touch her muzzle with a hoof.

“Lyra? Are you feeling alright?”

“I must find my heir,” The vagueness in her friend’s voice scared the earth pony. She began to tap Lyra’s face repeatedly, but the unicorn did not respond; instead, the lyre’s case was enveloped by a light green glow, and the mare turned to leave. Despite Bon Bon’s calls, Lyra only stopped at the door to absently stare back at her and utter something before leaving altogether. “I must awaken the heir of my Light Force.”

Mending Bonds

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“How are your quarters… majesty?”

Celestia’s head rose at the sound of that deep, scornful voice. It took her no longer than a few seconds for the memories of her waking hours to flash before her, the truth of her location striking her like a rock. She tried to adjust her wing’s position, but the cackling of the shackles made their presence and purpose clear.

She offered no reply to the demon-like human other than a bored snort. Her gaze drifted to the torches that decorated those walls of black stone around her, the strangely green fire that burned within them bathing the dungeon-like room with an emerald tone.

Surveillance flames, she realized. Concentrated dragon fire. He’s constantly watching me.

“Hm. I did offer the best of what I could find, Celestia,” Ganondorf continued, walking to the edge of a nearby wooden table. A rusted, iron chalice was placed over it, and the man took to inspecting it. “Of course, you understand that some… redecorations… were in order, do you not?”

Once more, the question fell on deaf ears. The thief snickered shortly, rising abruptly to his feet and tossing the mug against the wall, the small object becoming completely deformed with a loud clank.

“Where is the Light Force, Celestia? Spare yourself from this suffering and tell me where that wretched power is!!”

A giggle escaped Celestia, which caused the Gerudo to snarl increasingly loud. As if to hide its lack of self-control, he turned around and crossed his arms, remaining in this position until the noise faded entirely.

“The Elements…” Ganondorf spoke again, turning around. “Why could I not use them?”

“Because you ignore the fundamental reason for the Element’s existence,” Celestia finally spoke, much to the man’s surprise. “They are Harmony. They are what cleanses the land from all that threatens peace.”

“Ridiculous,” he simply replied, turning to walk away. “Useless.”

“Do not tire yourself with futile attempts to control what you cannot.” Celestia’s voice rose as Ganondorf distanced himself from her. “They are exactly that. Futile.”

The man stopped at the half-open door. “We shall see about that.”

The loud bang of the door announced his absence.

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They say that unicorns sensitive to changes in the environment can predict future events.

A chill crossed Rarity’s spine.

Perhaps it was the temperature of that dungeon of never-ending stairs, descending to the bowls of the earth at a snail’s pace. After all, the only thing that lit their way was Twilight’s horn, a ‘flashlight spell’, like she called it, and it provided no heat whatsoever. It was them and these desolate, dusty stairs.

Or perhaps it was the ‘hero’s’ outfit. She couldn’t quite put her hoof on it, but it fit him and it didn’t fit him at the same time. Somehow, she couldn’t quite picture the boy in another type of garment, and above all, a different color. Maybe green was just his color. Yet it simultaneously seemed like it was perhaps not his ideal clothing. As if it had been forced upon him.

Or it could be the temple itself. When you think about it, Temple of Time is a name with pretty heavy connotations. You can’t just name a temple after one of existence’s parameters; it has to have implications.

Link didn’t seem to mind it at all, though. In fact, he seemed pretty happy about it, eagerly walking by Twilight’s side, hands flex and relaxing constantly in anticipation.

“The entry chamber is just ahead.” Twilight announced to the ponies behind her. “Keep your eyes open.”

“Cool it, Twilight. We can deal with anything that pops up. Right, AJ?” Rainbow’s enthusiasm, however, was not returned by the cowpony, whose head had remained lowered since entering the temple. “What’s the matter?”

“Nothin’,” she simply replied. “Jus’… thinkin’.”

Rainbow couldn’t lose an opportunity to crack a joke. “Yeah, I can see smoke blowing from your ears.”

“Quit it, both of you,” Twilight chided, carefully taking the last step. She stopped momentarily, struck by a sudden headache that forced her to cancel her spell. After recovering, the flashlight returned, and a quick search revealed the existence of several torches on the walls, which the unicorn easily set aflame with magic.

The new compartment was a rather plain room, populated by four, pony-like statuettes, their big, perfectly circular eyes watching their every step while four other, lonesome pillars, arranged in a square, stood across them.

While Rarity marveled at its surprisingly pristine condition, with its marble-white walls reflecting the light from the flames as if it had just been built, Twilight focused on finding an origin for the obscene amounts of magic that flooded the room. The search yielded no results, however; it was as if the power that swarmed her mind and body was emanated by the very walls.

It was the next section of the temple that left the visitors’ jaws hanging in awe.

Unlike the entrance, this room was massive, a round segment with walls composed entirely of stained glass paintings, illuminated from behind by an unseen source. They stretched from the entry arch to the one directly across the room, and both Twilight and Link were overjoyed to spot the caricatures of beings just like the Hylian in these paintings, some of them hoisting glistening blades while others held small chests in their hands, obviously caught in the act of presenting them.

However, it was the fact that these boxes were being offered to a pair of tall, winged unicorns that drew their attention. Not just that, but in many other instances of the colorful windows, these men were shown amidst other ponies: atop hills to chart the Equestrian lands, alongside ingenious unicorns revising the process of building enormous, complex machines, even locked in festive combat with armed soldiers, both equine and human.

“It’s a repository…” Twilight mumbled, walking very slowly along the walls so as to take in each and every detail of the beautiful pictures. “This data must be thousands of years old… I’ve never seen a book in the library about it…”

“Hey, Twi…” The unicorn turned at Rainbow’s voice, finding the pegasus directly in the middle of the room with her other friends, casting an awed gaze at the ceiling. “You’re gonna want to see this…”

Intrigued, Twilight stood by their side and looked up. The moment her eyes settled on the spectacle above, her jaw nearly hit the ground.

The ceiling – which from afar was but a boring, pure-white mass of stone – revealed to possess a magnificent dome-like structure in its center. Just like the walls around it, the ceiling, too, was made entirely of stained glass, but unlike the rest of the room, it was a single, gigantic picture.

The most prominent figure in the depiction was a golden, triangular shape, from whence an almost sacred light radiated; it floated down from the heavens, and bathed the green lands and soaring mountains below it with its beauty.

On the right, with their glorified wings flared, were the unmistakable figures of the princesses, standing next to each other atop a mountain with their heads raised. Behind them was a large extension of forests; a palace rose majestically from its thick foliage under a sky blessed by both a crescent moon and a bright sun at least twice its counterpart’s size.

On the left was the most peculiar character, one who appeared from a mass of golden clouds as though it were a heavenly figure: what was a clearly a human female rode a winged equine, its windswept mane appearing to be the flames of a fire while its coat was as white as snow. The human, a stunning fair lady, wore a long, light pink tunic, and held a soft green sword in one hand while the other held a gilded lyre. A similar aureole surrounded her head like a crown, further accenting her blessed form.

“Could that be… the Light Force?” Twilight was the first to hypothesize, turning to Link for confirmation. The boy simply shrugged. “Princess Luna said that they were given the Light Force and that the Hylian were also given power… does that mean that… she… gave it?”

Olivia flew higher above, stopping next to the woman’s portrait. “There’s something written on the lyre… H-Y-L-I-A…”

Twilight’s eyes went wide. “…Hylia?”

“You know that name?” the fairy asked, evidently surprised.

“I… it was in the Sky Book… the Hylians worshipped this… Hylia,” the unicorn sought for Link’s eyes. “She’s… she’s a goddess, isn’t she?”

The boy gave a faint nod.

“Amazing… Hylia gave the Light Force to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna…”

“We all saw how that ended, though,” Olivia cut in, fluttering to Celestia’s position. “That thing got us in this mess.”

“So if that’s Hylia,” Twilight continued, seemingly ignoring the fairy’s words. “Then who is the pegasus she’s riding?”

“Hey, it’s Nightmare Moon!”

Everyone in the room turned at Rainbow’s exclamation; indeed, the stained glass she observed, one to the right of the entrance, depicted no less than the evil alicorn herself. In a storybook-like manner, the tale they had been taught since young about Luna unfolded, from the princess’s corruption to Celestia’s heroic act of banishing her foe to the moon.

Something was different this time, however. Where books sugarcoated the narrative by focusing on the lives of commoners, they concealed a much grimmer side of the struggle that these windows had no problem in exerting.

What was clearly a wide army of armored ponies marched under stormy night skies into a forest, their mission to reach the ruined castle seen with such splendor in the illustration above. Ominous clouds, stained with the darkest shade of blue, spiraled around this fortress, casting the anger of their thunders upon the lands, commanded by the silhouette that flew above all.

Yet not all was darkness. Three spheres of light guided the ponies to their fate, bathing the woods in a hallowed glow and shunning the nightmare’s malevolent creations away. These three spheres of light were consistently depicted in all of the subsequent panels, always shown as some sort of miraculous guide to the forces of Celestia.

One last picture showed three ponies of each of the three races, each of them holding one of these spheres in their hooves while the alicorn of the sun’s wings, spread wide behind them, protected the ponies from the sinister clouds that crept from either side of the panel.

Then… they simply ceased to exist.

The next portraits showed nothing they didn’t know: encircled by the Elements of Harmony, Celestia strode forward into the night sky, and when the two powerful entities met, the threat that was Nightmare Moon disappeared at last.

Twilight looked around frantically, searching for another hint on the three spheres; but they were nowhere to be seen anymore.

Without a word more, the unicorn dashed into the next room, theories about the truth of the triad of objects occupying her mind all the way. This had to be it; the relics that Celestia had mentioned.

Her disappointment was almost palpable when the contents of the new section revealed to be scarce; instead of inheriting the richly decorated aspect of its predecessor, it had returned to the sparseness of the entry one. It was a massive segment, no doubt; perhaps even bigger than the historical repository. However, all it contained was a gigantic stone statue set on a pedestal, big enough to contain two characters inside.

While she identified Princess Celestia standing next to an elaborately designed harp - one familiar to Twilight – she couldn’t recognize the other pony. Clearly a unicorn mare, she wore some sort of armor over a long robe, its breastplate taking on the aspect of five horizontal lines adorned with seven circles. From the position of a hoof on her chest and head directed upwards, she was in the act of singing, most likely accompanying the other pony.

“I was wondering what had happened to her.” The sound of Rarity’s crestfallen voice startled Twilight, prompting her to turn around in a short leap. Her fellow unicorn stood at the entrance, casting a forlorn gaze at the immortalized ponies. “Her… she’s Natural Scale.”

Twilight gave a sheepish grin. “Sorry, I’m not exactly versed in music…”

“It’s fine.” Rarity sympathetically smiled, walking closer to the librarian. “They used to have a statue of her in Canterlot, but they removed it. She was a student of Celestia’s once too, you know?” Though she didn’t expect an answer, Twilight nodded regardless. “She studied music. She was the first pony ever to study that with Celestia, so she sang with her every day and every night, every day of the week. I tell Sweetie Belle about her whenever she tells me that she doesn’t want to sing.”

“You want her to be like Natural Scale, right?”

Rarity nodded in reply, the sheer thought of having the sister she saw like a daughter making the fur in her coat stand on end. “I would be so proud.”

“There’s no exit from here.” Olivia declared from the other end of the room, where a stone slab made of a distinctively different material blocked the path ahead.

Link walked forth, taking the Ocarina of Time from his pocket. “Stand back, I’m gonna try something.”

“You know that not everything opens up with a song, right?”

“It’s the Temple of Time, the Master Sword is right there!”

“What’s going on?” Twilight piped in.

“He wants to play a song to the door,” the fairy deadpanned. “Says the ‘Master Sword’ is behind it.”

“The Master Sword?!”

A song echoed throughout the temple by now. Looking past Olivia, the unicorn found Link standing in front of the door, already playing the little musical instrument to the stone slab. She approached him silently, the rest of the ponies inching closer as well in the same quiet manner, should any noise they produce distract the Hylian from his performance.

When the music stopped, silence lingered in the room, the last few notes of the melody fading to silence in the far ends of the temple.

But nothing happened. Incredulity dawned on Twilight and Link’s features.

“That was anticlimactic,” Rainbow dully noted from the back of the room.

“I don’t get it,” the boy mumbled. “M-Maybe it’s another song. Maybe there’s another way in.”

“…It’s over…”

The depressiveness with which these words had been uttered surprised even the ponies, and even more when they realized just who had spoken them.

Rarity was the first to move forward. “Twilight? What do you mean?”

“We needed the Master Sword to defeat Ganondorf… Now we don’t have that, the princesses are gone, and all I have from her is that stupid scroll.”

“Still, I hardly think that-”

“Don’t you get it?! Discord’s back, Nightmare Moon is back, everything we fought to defeat returned! Hay, why doesn’t Chrysalis try to invade Canterlot again too?!” Olivia shrunk back at the mention of the unfortunate event. “And this time, we don’t even have the Elements of Harmony! We don’t have the princesses! We don’t have anything!”

“What about him?” Rainbow hazarded the question, only to reel back at the sight of a sobbing lavender mare.

“…He’s just as helpless as we are.” Twilight paused momentarily to look at the Hylian in the eyes, and her distraught stare in that brief silence hurt like the edge of a sword slicing his neck. “It was all about the sword.”

The pegasus was none the more convinced, however. “But we can’t just give up! We have the scroll! We have ourselves!”

But her words fell on deaf ears, as the unicorn was already walking away. She stopped next to Celestia’s statue and slowly rose to her backlegs to touch the sculpture with a hoof. The dim trail of a tear blemished the side of her snout, the speck of water shining faintly under the light of the torches. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

As Twilight made her way towards the temple’s exit, Olivia and Link exchanged worried looks (or, so he assumed she was feeling). Their thoughts were likely more or less the same: they had been declared useless at the eyes of the only mare that believed in them from the beginning.

The boy still searched for solace in the rest of the present, but between Rarity’s sad frown and the steady glare the pegasus punished him with, he had nowhere to turn. Even Applejack, who had remained quiet throughout the visit, chose not to face them in the eye.

He was left with the coldness of the stone obstacle. It taunted him, mocked him because he could not find the key to unveiling its secrets.

The experience he gathered from surpassing the obstacles placed to him by Ganondorf and even the Goddesses themselves had taught him one thing, however: there was always a way past a door. This one, in a place that ironically equaled his namesake, would be no exception.

They say that the Princess of the Sun once had a student she loved like a daughter.

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“I see you have plans of your own.”

Suddenly, he was no longer proceeding towards the royal throne.

The walls had disappeared, the floor and ceiling had collapsed, and everything became a great, infinite blanket of stars and darkness. Before him swirled the shape of an alicorn, its body entirely composed of a starry texture, its eyes bright spheres of light that threatened to blind those who looked into them. This was none other than the spirit of Nightmare Moon, the corruption bred from greed of a princess of the night.

Ganondorf, however, knew better than to be afraid of something like this. Quite on the contrary: he was utterly annoyed at the intrusion.

“Keep your doubts to yourself. You’re here because I allowed you to,” he ruthlessly replied.

“You seem to forget that I helped you escape centuries of imprisonment in the Twilight Realm.”

“I am starting to ponder whether or not that sentence would have been a lighter burden.”

The alicorn’s eyes narrowed, and it took a step forward. “We have a deal to honor.”

“Indeed we do. Perhaps another term to our contract is in order.”

“You realize I only intrude whenever it is necessary.”

“No, you do not. Should I ever feel the need for your ‘intrusion’, I shall request so myself. Otherwise… begone.”

“Hm. You seem rather distracted,” a foreign voice spoke, and just as abruptly, the world faded back to existence.

Ganondorf blinked several times and rubbed his head, the constant zapping between planes of existence beginning to take their toll. With every time Nightmare Moon would claim his body, it would be as if he ceased to exist momentarily, only to return soon after; not an entirely pleasant feeling. Once his vision was clear enough, a draconequus took shape before him, briefly startling him and earning a snigger from the chimera.

“What do you wish, Spirit of Chaos?” the thief spoke as nonchalantly as he could muster.

“Oh, please, what is the difficulty of simply calling me Discord?” the spirit answered, floating towards the throne. With a snap of his fingers, the place fitting only for an alicorn was quickly adjusted to a regular chair, where Discord quickly sat down. “You see, I have a question…”

The direction the conversation was beginning to assume did not please Ganondorf in the least, and he made his annoyance clear with his words. “…what manner of question?”

“You see, you seem to have destroyed the only thing that could possibly hold me back, so…” Another snap of his fingers created a glass cup filled with water. Taking a sip, the distinct odor of wine appeared confirmed that the purple liquid that took the water’s place was, indeed, wine. “What exactly still ties us together?”

“…Are you, perhaps, suggesting-”

“Oh no no no! I would never suggest anything!” The cup floated to Ganondorf’s side, and Discord beaconed for him to grab it. “I am simply asking myself why I should still abide to you.”

The moment the cup touched his lips, it exploded into droplets of water, effectively wasting the last of the man’s patience. He curled his hands into fists and willed himself into the air, a purple flame beginning to envelope his entire body. Discord allowed himself to raise an eyebrow, curious about this sudden display of magic.

“Perhaps you would prefer that I showed you exactly why you should bow before me,” he spoke, his voice surprisingly calm, a sharp contrast with the violent way with which he showed the back of his left hand to the chimera. “When you were shamefully defeated by those pitiful alicorns a thousand years ago, a goddess descended upon Equestria and granted them an incredible power. I, too, was blessed with such power.” As if to confirm his words, the triangular mark on the hand shone with a golden light. “This power was created with the express purpose of balancing your chaotic nature. Why do you think you had so little influence over this castle before?”

Discord truly gasped. “What the… that is impossible… you could not have known…”

“A… friend… has generously granted me with some knowledge of your kingdom.” Simply mentioning Nightmare Moon in those terms stung his tongue. “You see, Discord… I still hold all the cards.”

The chimera snarled audibly, slowly floating off the throne.

“Now then… you are to find the remaining parts of the Light Force,” Ganondorf instructed, setting down on the ground. “Find… and extract them by whatever means necessary.”

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“SUUUPRIIIIIIIISE!”

While Link was kept from falling to the ground by Rarity and Applejack as a cloud of confetti impacted his face directly, Twilight proceeded into the treehouse with the same excitement she’d carried from the Temple of Time, practically ignoring the heavily decorated library, the banners sprawled all over the walls, and simply heading up towards her room. The loud crashing of her door echoed throughout the house for some moments, with Pinkie regaining her momentum almost immediately.

“Oooh! You’re Link! You’re Link, right? You have to be Link, because that’s what the name of the Hero is!”

The Hylian’s eyes couldn’t grow any wider from the sudden bombardment of questions that ensued from the pink pony who assaulted him without a word of warning. It took Rarity to split the twosome, with Pinkie heading off to the other side of the library in a string of incomprehensibly fast statements.

“Excuse her. She’s… easily excitable,” the unicorn briefly explained, trotting ahead. “Pinkie, dear, this is hardly the time for a party.”

Pinkie was hardly detracted from her goals. “I know that! But it’s when you say that when you don’t need a party that you need a party the most!”

“I… see,” Rarity sighed, looking around; she really had set everything up in preparation for Link’s arrival. “Where is Fluttershy, dear?”

“Home! She was soooo tired when she got to Ponyville!”

“Hm. I see.”

“Hey, huh, Rarity…” Applejack spoke from the entrance. “Ah can’t stay. Applebloom’s pro’ly mighty worried.”

Rarity held a hoof to her head. “Oh, you are certainly right. Poor Sweetie Belle must be worried sick as well.”

Pinkie instantly deflated at the sound of those words. “Aw… no party?”

“We’d love ta, Pinkie, but… It’s jus’ not the time, ‘kay?”

“Link?” Olivia suddenly called out loud, flying anxiously from one side of the library to the other. “Where’s Link?”

Pinkie took a quick look around as well; her attention, however, settled on the lack of a certain decoration she’d set up specifically for this occasion.

“…where’s the bottle of cider?”

Midnight Talks

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‘They say that there is a pony in Equestria who travels through time,’ the voice spoke.

“Page 193… Gem cutting…”

Rarity scoured the page again for useful information. And just like before, the thick tome remained scarce regarding anything remotely similar to a ‘Gossip Stone’, as if Pinkie had made it up in the moment – which Rarity didn’t put beyond the party pony.

With an explosive sigh, she closed the book and turned to the lonesome eye etched upon the globular item.

‘They say that the male to female ratio in Equestria has an incalculable discrepancy,’ the voice spoke.

“This is simply impossible,” she decided. Her absentminded gaze drifted to the boutique’s windows. The rainstorm from earlier that night fell once again. “Sweetie Belle should have returned home by now…”

Her comment was followed by a knock on the door, and the unicorn rushed to answer the call. She opened it, and out in the cold of the night stood the shivering form of Fluttershy, her face half-hidden behind her soaking wet mane. She uttered a very quiet greeting. Despite her initial disappointment, Rarity quickly regained her composure and ushered the pegasus inside. “My my, look at your mane… why did you go outside during a storm like this?”

“I-I… I couldn’t sleep…”

“Yes, I suppose the weather really is dreadful…” the fashionista commented, leaving for her room and returning with a towel floating beside her. “Your animals must be giving you such a hard time right now.”

“N-No… it’s because of the… the…” She shrank back to the mane’s protection with a squeak.

Rarity momentarily stopped wrapping the towel around her friend’s head to smile grimly. Their encounter with the Stalponies was still fresh in her mind, and she was certain that the experience had been ten times worse for a pony as meek as her friend. “I understand.”

After she was done, the unicorn took a step back to appreciate her work. There was an eerie quietness, with Fluttershy averting her gaze and pawing at the floor while Rarity continued engrossed on the windows.

“Is, hum… everything alright?” the pegasus asked hesitantly, approaching her friend.

“Yes, yes, dear… I’m just… concerned about Sweetie Belle’s well-being,” Rarity sighed, gazing sadly at the floor. “I know Twilight said that Ponyville would be safe because Princess Luna promised it, but…”

“Don’t worry,” the pegasus reassured in a soft but surprisingly confident voice, placing a hoof on the unicorn’s shoulder. “Applejack is probably looking for Applebloom right now. They’ll be okay.”

“Yes, Applejack really is, ahem… competent, isn’t she?” Fluttershy gave a nod, and Rarity allowed herself a faint smile. “She was the one who helped me with Sweetie before…”

The silence that befell the two mares quickly wilted the moment of happiness. When Rarity began to stare down again, Fluttershy lowered her head as well to look at her friend in the eyes.

“Is that, hum, everything? You can tell me… I-I mean, if you, huh, want to.”

‘They say that each of the three kinds of pony was once assigned a great power,’ the voice spoke.

“I, huh…” Rarity’s mouth opened and closed several times, no words escaping her throat. Was there really anything bothering her? “It’s… silly. I am being silly. Perhaps I just need to calm down.”

“A-Are you sure? If you have a problem…”

“In fact, why don’t we stop by the spa? Maybe Lotus can let us in! Oh, I know a bath would do wonders to me!” she added with a tone of musicality as she trotted back into her room, leaving a baffled Fluttershy with a foreleg hanging in the air behind.

The pegasus smiled to herself; perhaps the most important thing was that she had regained some peppiness.

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“Tsc… hero…”

For the nth time since she arrived, Rainbow turned upside down on the bed, forcing her face against the pillow in hopes that sleep would come to take her soon. She hadn’t wasted any time at the library; the moment Twilight locked herself away, she took her leave and flew straight home.

Despite her efforts, she still couldn’t sleep. Her thoughts irremediably revolved around the swordsman that her librarian friend had deposited so much trust on. Sure, he made a giant archway appear on a wall out of thin air, and according to Twilight, he had also fought back many of the monsters that attacked them on the way to Ponyville.

“If you’re such a big ‘hero’, why can’t you just take down those creeps?” she muttered into the pillow, reversing her position again when her lungs begged for air. “What makes you a hero? I could be a hero too if I had a sword or something!”

Tossing the blanket adorned with her cutie mark away, Rainbow took off into the air, stopping to hover in the middle of the room and strike a heroic pose.

“In fact, I don't need a weapon! I'd be Rainbow Dash, Hero of Equestria!” she announced, proudly beating her chest with a hoof. “I’d be like Daring Do in ‘Daring Do and the Earth’s Essence’!”

She narrowed her eyes at the blue pillows on the bed. “I’d show you, Ganondorf!”

She let out a war cry and plummeted towards one of the cushions, grabbing and hurling it upwards before flying up and kicking it away while vocally mimicking the sound of the man crying in pain.

“That’ll teach ya! You’ll get no sympathy from me: Rainbow Dash! And you, Nightmare Moon! Prepare yourself!” The other pillow was quickly swiped off the bed, but Rainbow kept this one in her forehooves. She treated it with her most ferocious glare and proceeded to rapidly kick it with her back legs. When her strength began to waver, she knew it was time for the finishing blow, so remembering her weather pony training, she shouted with all her might, “Apply FORCE! BALANCE your wings! PUSH!”

The pillow rocketed across the room shortly before flopping helplessly to the ground, and Rainbow wasted no time in darting towards it.

"Another dungeon boss defeated by the-"

It was the distant sound of Rainbow's name that saved the cushion from being 'completely destroyed' by the pegasus's devices. She stopped halfway through her flight and looked around, seeking the origin of the call.

Maybe it was just the rain, she thought to herself, only now realizing her room's messy condition. It was curious, but her bed suddenly seemed more appealing. Cloud houses had these little perks: they were just the right temperature all the time, so her blanket was nearly obsolete. Taking the pillow she almost killed in her hooves, she set down on the mattress and closed her eyes. The little exercise really had been all she needed.

Of course, the world still plotted against her, even when the peacefulness of slumber was ever so closer, and it reminded her of one of the fundamental flaws of a cloud house: they barely filtered sound.

A powerful thunder cracked just outside her window, and once more her name echoed across the skies, this time in a very recognizable voice, "RAAAAAAAINBOOOW DAAAAASH!! ARE YOU THEEEEEEERE?"

"Oh, please... Why Derpy..." she grumbled in the most annoyed voice she could muster, tightly covering her ears with the pillow. "Why now..."

"PLEAAAASE! RAINBOOW DAASH!" the mailmare continued to call downstairs, knocking on the door so fiercely that not even the pillow could muffle the sound of her hooves. "I NEEED YOUR HEEEEELP!"

"When don't you?" the pegasus sighed; she knew that Derpy was a tough one to dissuade from her goals, so the sooner she had her way, the better.

Reluctantly, Rainbow leaped off the bed, grumbling under her breath about the mailmare's continuous pleas outside.

"WHAT, Derpy?" she impatiently demanded once the door was open. She instantly regretted the harshness of her demand when the other pegasus came into view.

From the way she lied on the cloudy floor, pawing desperately at the door, it was as though her legs couldn't handle the weight of her body. Soaked from prolonged exposure to the rain, her golden mane seemed to be the definition of chaos.

It was the drops that trailed down either side of her muzzle that got to Rainbow. They weren't regular raindrops, she could notice that just by looking at her bloodshot eyes, and she felt her ears droop at the sight of the other pegasus's condition. "A-Are you alright? What happened?"

"T-They took her, Rainbow Dash! They took my little muffin!"

Rainbow suddenly regretted having worried about it, and the urge to return to the warmth of her home surface. "Derpy, please, there's plenty of muffins at Pinkie's, and I'm really tired right now..."

"W-Wait! Rainbow Dash!"

The other pegasus continue to make her way inside. "Please, Derpy, not now. Go to sleep."

"No!" The wave of sobs that ensued this call nearly broke Rainbow's heart. She did seem to put a lot of importance in this thing. "You don't understand! Please! You're the only one who can help me!"

"Look, I'll ask Pinkie to bake some-"

"T-They took D-Dinky, Rainbow Dash!" The door bolted open. "I-I don't... Don't... Please..."

Rainbow's sense of urgency returned instantly. "Derpy... Who is... 'They'?"

"I don't know, I don't know... Pegasus ponies... They came from everywhere... We were just hiding in Cloudsdale..."

"...you flew all the way from Cloudsdale?" Derpy replied with a faint nod, earning a groan from Rainbow. "Why didn't you ask for help there?! Why didn't you ask the Wonderbolts or something?"

"I-I don't have anypony who can help me there... A-And the Wonderbolts are gone..." Derpy abruptly embraced her, catching Rainbow by surprise. "Please! You're the only one who can help me!"

An opportunity to be a hero...

"Lead the way!"

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"Urgh..."

The world turned and turned, around and around, in an increasingly sickening manner for the Hylian boy. His hand felt numb, and surely the bottle he had held had already rolled across the floor - that is, if it hadn't broken from the fall.

There had been only one other time when he felt like this: when Malon offered a cask of the finest Lon Lon Ranch alcoholic milk and left his mind soaring at the end of the second mug. Damn. Those Hylians did know how to do a beverage. The previous tries at the substance had turned out better; Link had managed to stay on his feet, even when a cluster of damned Cuckoos came flying through all the windows just because he had the unfortunate absence of mind to strike a chicken with his sword.

Wait, had that really happened?

Naturally, he knew he could hold his liquor this time. How much worse could Equestrian alcohol be, right?

Oh, how he regretted his ignorance.

What did Twilight keep in this basement anyways? He saw machines, books, all sorts of inventions and assorted items decorating the wood walls.

And it all spiraled around him. He wished the walls were bare; maybe then he wouldn't know whether or not they were spinning nauseously around him. It was all just a big, brown blur mocking him for ingenuously chugging down the contents of that bottle.

"Yippee ki-yay, I got an Empty Bottle."

"Come on, boy. Get up," a voice spoke from his side. With a point in space to focus, the world stopped its maddening trip, and Link was allowed to turn his head to the left - or rather, let it slump like deadweight on the floor.

"...no," he spoke despite knowing he was alone. "MY bottle."

"Sweet Apple Acres Cider? A whole bottle of it?"

"Well excuuuuuuse me, princess. I was thirsty."

"Urgh, you have Captain Degroot written all over you. Get up, kid. This is no way for a warrior to be."

"I don't care! HIC!" the boy hiccuped, raising a closed fist and slamming it on the ground beside him with the strength of a newborn. "Not even the Goddesses want to help me! It's me and those miniature horses up there against a demon! HIC! And just who are you, anyways? What's your game, barging into other people's houses in the dead of the night? Next thing you know, you're gonna be breaking POTS! ALL sorts of POTTERY!"

The incorporeal voice went quiet, and for the briefest moment, the world whirled before his eyes once more. There was a calm chatter in the air, and then some objects were heard scraping against the wood.

When the voice returned, it seemed to have distanced itself from Link. "There's something you can use in the drawer under to the stairs. Get it."

“If you found it,” The boy paused to hiccup. “Why can’t you bring it?”

“Because ghosts don’t have hooves to pick them up,” the voice deadpanned.

“Hey! HIC! That attitude isn’t getting you any friends!” Summoning the virtue he represented, the hero rolled over. A minor queasiness assaulted his being, but he prevailed in the fight against sickness. With both arms stuck firmly to the floor, he heaved his body off the ground. One immeasurably powerful push later, Link stood on both his feet. Wobbly, but standing!

Not willing to waste a moment more, he set foot forward, eyes locked on the wooden drawer just under the staircase. A deed worthy of a hero it was, to achieve such a feat in such a state. No status ailments would hold him back though!

Step by step, the stairs drew closer – but so did the ground. Was the floor crumbling beneath his feet?

“My kingdom for a - HICkshot!” he cried to the heavens, and the heavens replied with silence.

Suddenly, he lost his footing entirely, and was forced to crawl what remained of the way. He threw an arm forward and grabbed the knob, pulling it back with all his strength to reveal a sea of bottles extending as far as the eye could see.

“The blue one,” the voice said, and Link complied, grabbing the first bottle with blue contents he found. The boy removed the cork and hungrily swallowed the liquid. Though its taste was less than agreeable and too warm, he could feel whatever this medicine was working. “Let’s see if Zecora still has it in her.”

Surely enough, the numbness that had impeded his leg movement faded away, and the world no longer spun around him at crazy speeds. Even the exhaustion he had felt before taking the bottle of cider disappeared as that wave of comfort washed upon his body.

The potion’s effects wore off, and Link sighed happily. Nasty though it may be, Link had begun to miss this taste.

“You said you’re a ghost,” he spoke, rising to his feet again. He was sweating, he realized; the beverage really had done a number on him. “Who are you?”

“Before I can give you such information… I must ask a favor of you.” The ghost’s sudden change of attitude planted doubt in the boy’s mind, but he nodded regardless. “I wish… I wish only for a grave.”

“A grave?” Link echoed.

“Indeed. I was… killed… in combat. It is said among Equestrians that one’s soul may only find peace when their affairs in life have been accomplished. Our world has grown more complex over the years, and perhaps…” the voice turned gloomier. “Perhaps that is why so many souls wander aimlessly throughout this world…”

“Why come to me?”

“Because… you are part of my affairs,” the ghost spoke somewhat disappointedly.

Link ruminated on the information for some moments. He hadn’t been in Equestria for that long, nor had he met that many ponies…

Except for the Canterlot incident…

“I’ll do it,” he confidently replied. “Where do you want the grave?”

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The orange pegasus flared her tiny wings under the cape to make sure her annoyance reached her friend. "Took you long enough!"

"I'm sorry, but Miss Heartstrings insisted in practicing another song, and Rarity never wants me to sing around her while she's working," Sweetie Belle answered, approaching the two other crusaders before squeezing the rainwater out of her cape.

"It don't seem to matter, anyways," Applebloom added, lowering her forelegs from the window. "It's rainin' cats n’ dogs out there. Ah dunno if we should do any crusadin' today."

"Aw come on!" Scootaloo's complaint had been so expected that Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes. "What's a little rain going to hurt?"

"Miss Heartstrings says that this rain isn't normal, Scootaloo."

"Pfft, do you seriously believe in those things adults say? They're just trying to keep us from having fun!"

"Ah gotta agree with Sweetie Belle on this one, Scoots." Applebloom piped in, much to the pegasus's annoyance. "It's been rainin' somethin' fierce fer hours now. Ah don't think Ah've even seen the sun."

"So? Maybe Princess Celestia fell asleep!" Her suggestion earned her a pair of glares from her friends. "Fine! We can stay!"

Silence fell on the Crusader's headquarters, with Applebloom resuming her watch out the window while Scootaloo stared the door down and Sweetie Belle warmed herself next to the lantern that provided light to the house. The pegasus filly did hate rain because of things like this; for her friends, it was always a reason to spoil fun. For her, it was a reason to go out there and do whatever she wanted.

"Yer sister back yet, Sweetie Belle?" Applebloom spoke at last, breaking the silence. The unicorn filly shook her head, sending droplets flying at random, and returned her gaze to the lamp."Y'think... Somethin' happened?"

"Nah, they go out like that all the time, and nothing ever happens to them,” Scootaloo replied, waving a hoof dismissively.

Applebloom’s grimace confirmed that she wasn’t convinced by the answer, and she opened her mouth, only to have Sweetie Belle speak instead, “Hey, do you hear that?”

The two other ponies raised an eyebrow and perked their ears up. They heard it. It was a song, a tune that was mixed with the soothing sound of the rain clicking on the tiles on the house’s roof. Sweetie Belle’s trained ears were accustomed to this sound: it was the unmistakable melody of a lyre.

“Miss Heartstrings?” she gasped, running towards the window, pushing Applebloom aside. Indeed, walking towards the tree house in the cold of the night was the mint green unicorn, her signature lyre floating right beside her as she moved.

Sweetie Belle promptly took off the cape and ran out of the house, rushing to meet her mentor despite her friends’ calls.

“Miss Heart- Huh, Lyra! What are you doing here?!” she quickly asked, placing the crimson cape over the other unicorn’s head. “Come on, you’re going to catch a cold if you stay here.”

“Ah, hello, little filly,” the mare replied instead, her tone unusually calm. “The weather certainly is fierce tonight, is it not?”

“Hum… do you feel alright, Miss Heartstrings?”

“Hey Sweetie Belle!” Applebloom called from above, capturing both ponies’ attention. “Think ya could come up’ere? T’s a mite cold with th’door open.”

“I’ll be right there! Come on, Miss Heartstrings!” Sweetie Belle cheerfully hopped towards the stairs before adding with a hint of pride, “I’ll show you the house of the Cutie Mark Crusaders!”

“Please, Sweetie Belle…” Lyra spoke with a smile. “Just call me Natural Scale.”

The filly stopped on her tracks.

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“Thank you ever so much for letting us in at such late hours, Lotus.”

The light blue earth pony grinned. Though she was obviously off-duty, her mane retained its soft, pale rose glimmer. It was still pulled back, even without the white band she wore on her forehead and neck.

“It is my pleasure, Rarity,” she answered as the unicorn slowly entered the hot waters of the large, wooden tub. “I heard something terrible has happened in Canterlot,” she continued, trotting anxiously around the container.

Rarity’s ears drooped as soon as the name was spoken. “Yes… it was unfortunate…”

Fluttershy took note of the other pony's crestfallen voice. "What's the matter, Lotus?"

“Aloe was there…” The unicorn looked up to see Lotus covering her mouth with a hoof. “Oh, I hope nothing happened to her…”

Fluttershy and Rarity exchanged saddened looks, knowing that they were both thinking the same thing. They had been there. They had seen the extent of the damage, of the desolation that had taken over the capital city. Despite their greatest efforts to think otherwise, they knew that the promise of their friend's mere survival in that condemned place was a hollow one.

“She’s okay, Lotus,” Fluttershy softly spoke regardless, approaching Lotus with her forelegs spread out. "She'll come back."

Element of Kindness right there, Rarity fondly thought. She watched as Lotus accepted the pegasus's reassuring embrace, the first few tears she'd ever seen from the spa pony appearing in the corners of her eyes.

"Thank you," Lotus spoke, breaking the hug. "Perhaps I need to relax as well."

"Feel free to join us," the unicorn offered in her warmest voice. Lotus smiled at her.

"I'm afraid not even Princess Platinum's fountains could ease my anxiety," the spa pony added with a certain pride. "But I shall take on your offer." No sooner has she spoken than somepony knocked on the spa door, inciting a tiny giggle from Lotus. "Right after I answer the door! My, seems a lot of ponies like night baths!"

Just as they were about to close their eyes, shouts were heard from the lobby, followed by hooves clopping on the ground. The moment Applejack galloped into the room, the two other mares knew that the time for relaxation had come to an end.

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"So lemme get this straight," Applebloom rubbed her forehead with a hoof. "Ye're sayin' that yer teacher thinks she's somepony from real long ago?"

Sweetie Belle nodded, casting a concerned look at the mare in the back of the house. She still played the lyre, and it was always the exact same tune. "I-I think she has amnesia."

"Really?!" Scootaloo blurted out in sincere surprise. "Miss Heartstrings, did you get to that part where Daniel-"

"Ah thought they didn't let ya read that stuff?"

Scootaloo gave a sheepish smile. "I, huh, found it in Miss Cheerilee's trash can in school. Hey, how do you know who-"

"Girls! Amnesia's not a book, it's a medical condition! She lost her memory!"

"...Ah knew that," Applebloom quickly added, scrunching her nose.

"...you're a terrible liar, but that's not important right now! We need to help her!"

"Okay, so hold on jus' a minute, if she don't remember who she is, then why's she sayin' she's this Natural whatsit?"

"Natural Scale!" The look she got from Applebloom could only translate to 'Thanks, dictionary,'. "She was a singer many, many years ago, and she was Princess Celestia's student, just like Twilight is."

"...yer point?"

"Maybe all she remembers is Natural Scale's history and she thinks she's her!" The idea sounded better in her head.

"Very good. I see you are well acquainted with my past," Lyra's voice startled the three fillies and prompted them to sharply turn around. The song had ended, and the lyre was resting against her flank. "That is good."

"Should we, huh, play along?" Scootaloo suggested in what she thought was a discreet whisper. Sweetie Belle nodded and coughed to clear her throat.

"So, huh, Natural Scale," she started, stepping forward. "Why were you looking for us- me?"

"Quite simple, young one." A smile found its way back to the mare's features. "I have come to pass my legacy."

Sweetie Belle raised an eyebrow. "Legacy?"

"That which you deserve for your talent." The lyre was enveloped in a shimmering lime coat before floating up. "My place. My duty. My power."

“I-I don’t get it. What duty? What power?”

Lyra seemed genuinely surprised for a brief moment. Then, as though realization had struck, shock became sadness. “Ah. It truly must have been many years since I was last outside.”

The conversation was starting to deviate from the unicorn filly's knowledge. Rarity had never mentioned any of this in her stories about Natural Scale, and she was certain that her sister had effectively poured onto her every last bit of information she possessed about the first musical student of the princess herself; if anything, to boast about their similarities.

"W-What are you talking about?"

Lyra chuckled lightly and focused her gaze on the rain outside. "I do not know how much about me still remains in this day. Though the Temple of Time shelters my soul from the effects of time itself, it is like an impenetrable bubble. None can go in, but I cannot go out either. That is, of course, unless the temple's doors are opened."

"W-Wait, you're not making sense. What's the Temple of Time? What are you talking about?" And why do I feel afraid of it?

"It has taken different uses throughout the years, and no two ponies hold it in the same regard. Some will say it is a museum, a memorial to those like me. Others will think of it as our everlasting connection to those who bestowed the Light Force upon us. And others..." her tone became stained by sadness. "Others will think of it as the end and the beginning of lives. Its true purpose is only ever unveiled to those like us. Those worthy of becoming what my tutor called 'The Aides of the Sun and the Moon'."

“Aides?" the filly echoed. The sun and the moon… “Princess Celestia and Princess Luna?”

The mare smiled brightly. “You catch up quickly. I am certain that even a young filly like you is aware that Princess Celestia has been alone in the throne for many years.” Sweetie Belle repressed the wish that burned within her to correct her tutor. “I saw her banish Nightmare Moon with my own eyes. I was but your age when San Palomino was attacked. She arrived in the nick of time, shunning the shadow beings that had already devoured our forests.”

“But… San Palomino’s just a desert…”

Lyra halted completely at the sound of Scootaloo’s voice, slowly turning her head to face the pegasus filly. “A desert, you say?” Scootaloo nodded, and the mare acquired a heavy frown. “I should have known that nothing would ever grow again in those cursed fields.”

She remained silent for a few moments, as if to allow the fillies to digest the information. Lyra observed Sweetie Belle with satisfaction; she bore an intrigued look as she gazed out the window, frowning in reflection. The mare’s expression grew increasingly serious as she spoke, “That is why helping Celestia was so important. She was always so tired after all that had happened… I suppose one mare can only do so much. And to raise the sun and the moon, one needs incredible power. A power that Princess Celestia generously shared with me so that I could help her.”

“…You’re not Miss Heartstrings at all, are you?” Lyra’s smile widened exponentially at Sweetie Belle’s sudden question.

Scootaloo narrowed her eyes in incredulity. “Wait, you’re telling me that she’s the Natural Scale?”

“No,” the unicorn filly replied, shaking her head. “Miss Heartstrings is… being possessed by Natural Scale.” The other two fillies gasped, and Sweetie Belle turned around abruptly. “Don’t you see? I-It’s the only way she could know this much! I bet not even Miss Twilight knew about all this!”

“But… how do you know?” the pegasus filly asked again, to which Sweetie Belle responded by pointing a hoof at the window.

“There aren’t any clouds in the sky anymore,” she slowly spoke. “Just a while ago, there wasn’t any moon either.” Pausing, she turned to face Lyra. The mare was unsure whether the filly felt impressed or, for some reason, saddened. “She did it. Just like she did back then. She helped Celestia raise the sun and the moon. This time… she did raise the moon!”

Lyra closed her eyes and chuckled quietly. Her lyre floated to her side once more, and its chords were strummed. They knew this melody now: Lyra had played it while they argued on their own. “The rising sun will eventually set, a newborn’s life will fade,” she sang. “From sun to moon, moon to sun… give peaceful rest to the living dead.”

When she opened her eyes, she was once again satisfied for observing that Sweetie Belle’s mouth hung open, and that the filly’s horn was now enveloped in a soft gray light.

“Restless souls wander where they don’t belong,” Lyra spoke, this time without the aid of the song. She stepped forward, and leaned towards her. The two horns connected at the sound of the words, “Bring them calm with the Sun’s Song.”

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The grave wasn't the fanciest one Link had ever seen; that honor was reserved to the magnificent tomb of the Royal Family of Hyrule in Kakariko Village, haunted though its location may be. But it was surely the best one he had ever built.

Using a cache of marble white stones he had been led to by the ghost, Link had managed to construct a pile about his height. The rocks grew smaller the higher they got, giving it the impression of a pyramidical structure.

It stood before a lake, one not far from Ponyville, secluded beneath the dense treetops of the Everfree Forest. Barely any light reached the undergrowth of that grove, and whatever little did created round patches of luminescent blue shrubbery on the otherwise murky woods.

The ghost had shared the forest's silence throughout the process, leaving the details to the young boy's discretion. As a finishing touch, Link picked up the flattest stone he could find and placed it at the bottom of the grave, perching it against the stone structure. "I will write your name here."

Not a sound came from the incorporeal voice, as though it was analyzing the result of his work.

"I need you to write something else first," it said instead. Link took a sharp stone and prepared to etch the ghost's words. "'To my dearest son, so that you may find your way when darkness obscures your path'." The ghost waited for Link to finish the sentence before continuing. "That is enough. No graveyard in Trottingham will hold as much significance in the future as this singular lake. Thank you, Link, for granting this mere grave such a great meaning."

Despite his confusion, Link nodded slightly.

"I would like to thank you properly, however. I have something to offer you," the ghost then added. "Enter the lake's waters, and look closely at the water."

Abiding to the ghost's instructions, Link walked closer to the edge. The extremely cloudy skies were clearly reflected on the lake's crystalline surface, the rain causing ripples to distort this image wherever it fell.

"Enter the lake. Watch your step; those plants are dangerous," the ghost warned just before Link took his first step into the barrier of deep azure flowers that surrounded the lake.

Link kneeled to look at the glittering plants, taking care not to touch their light colored stems. "What are these?"

"They are called Poison Joke. They have mysterious effects on those who touch them. Seldom does it play the same trick in two different ponies," the voice explained. "Avoid them at all costs. Treating a Poison Joke infection is very difficult."

Link rose to his feet and stepped around the flowers, heeding the ghost's advice, before proceeding into the water. The boy was about knee deep when the ghost spoke again, "That is far enough. Look closely into the water."

With another quick nod, the boy bent down, carefully searching the ground underwater for anything besides rocks and soil. "I don't see any-" he was about to say when a dim light shone beneath the water. He dug his arms into it, the ice cold temperature stinging his skin.

What surfaced was a bow. It was about as long as his entire arm, and it had obviously been crafted by skillful hands - or hooves. He immediately recognized who the potential owner had been from the night blue shimmer it possessed, "The Night Guard?"

"One of their finest," the ghost spoke forlornly. "I suspect it was washed all the way down from the Canterlot Mountain rivers."

Link took a closer look at the bow, taking in the perfection of its two handles. He had seen the Night Guard use this weapon: their back hooves would be set here, pushing the bow away while the string was kept in place by their mouth. Luckily, a third grip was situated where the arrow would rest. "That's why you wanted to build the grave here."

"...Perhaps," the ghost's distracted tone left Link pondering about the answer's credibility. Before he could question it any further, the ghost spoke, "There is one more thing I must ask of you. Surely, you are already aware that Miss Sparkle has a brother. Captain Shining Armor."

The boy nodded, clearly recalling Twilight's argument with Olivia.

"He is currently off-duty, and spending his vacation in the city of Van Hoover. The problem is that…” Link could almost feel the ghost whispering the next words just next to his ears. "Van Hoover is about to be attacked. An army is headed to the city."

"How do you..."

"I saw it, just like I saw the potion, the bow, everything! I saw the army with my own eyes! Thousands upon thousands of those damned creatures! They've crossed the Unicorn Range already, all the way from Canterlot, and are headed to Van Hoover as we speak!" This time, Link was sure that the ghost was grabbing him by the arms. Had it any physical form, it would be shaking the boy off his feet. "Save my captain! Repay my life debt! Please! That is all I... I..." the ghost began to trail off. "Pray tell... Do you hear that?"

Link’s brow furrowed at the sudden change of attitude. The only thing he heard was the rustling of the leaves overhead, perhaps even the lake’s waters if he really focused.

“A… song…” the ghost continued. “A light… it is talking to me…”

“What is it saying?”

“…that it is time.”

Link’s head arched back in surprise. “But you still haven’t told me your name!”

If the ghost answered anything, the boy was unable to hear it, for the distinct shrillness of a howl invaded the forest’s otherwise peaceful atmosphere. Link stood petrified, eyes shifting left and right in an attempt to trace the sound’s origin.

His answer came in the form of a rising column of ugly, dark smoke. The scent of wood burning did not take long to reach him, just like the crown of a great flame peeked from above the treetops. It grew greater and greater; at one point, all of the sky in the horizon had acquired a bright orange aura.

When a strident cry for help echoed across the land, the hero knew he had all the reasons he needed to run headfirst into the moonlit woods.

Prelude

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‘Head to the Temple of Time in the Everfree Forest!’ Lyra had said just as the first howl pierced the profuse silence in the tree house. ‘You will be safe there! Leave!’

What ensued remained a foggy memory for Applebloom, despite the small amount of time that had passed since. In one moment, Lyra and Sweetie Belle's horns flared with life. In the other, the windows had been shattered by multiple lanterns, and the house had caught on fire. Flames hungrily consumed the wooden cottage wherever she looked, and before she knew it, the Cutie Mark Crusaders were running into the Everfree Forest thicket. They coughed as they fought to overcome the columns of dark smoke. But even when they got out of the hazy labyrinth, they weren’t given a moment to rest.

Silhouettes moved under the cover of the night, rampaging directly through the core of the woods. They were everywhere, just like the terrifying wails they unleashed with their passing. The earth pony’s eyes had remained closed for most of the trek; she wished only that no tree would cross her way. The tired wheezes in the air around told her that her friends were still close by.

Oddly, bells rang in the air, the type of sound she was familiar with from her farm's cattle. Could it be that there was a simple stampede going on?

That couldn't be it. The cries that tormented them were not those of scared animals. They were much fiercer, more devilish. They were vicious snarls, deep bellows she could only compare to those of a manticore, or even a dragon. She struggled to hold back her tears; she wasn't about to give in to this hardship.

"I-I'm tired..." Sweetie Belle weakly croaked from her side, her voice stained by exhaustion.

"Jus' h-hold on a while l-longer!" the earth pony replied, still unwilling to open her eyes. A decision she regretted the moment she crashed against their pegasus friend, effectively tossing both off their feet.

"What's the big idea, Applebloom?!" she immediately barked. The devious laughter that echoed the moment after doused any anger either of them possessed.

They instinctively huddled together, all three shivering violently. The flames of the little clubhouse spread like wildfire across the forest, granting the otherwise dark blue sky a vivid orange appearance. Shadows continued to populate the innards of the woods, filling the air with their screams.

There, in the middle of the Everfree Forest, they could only comfort themselves with each other’s presence. They didn’t know which way was back. Which of the trails led back to Ponyville. They could only cower into the shrubbery, and hope for the best. Surely, they would be found soon. Their sisters would know what to do. They would arrive. To save them.

But after several agonizing, restless moments, the stampede met an abrupt end. The quakes beneath their hooves suddenly stopped, and the cackles and bells were no more. Now, the only sound they heard was the quiet rustling of the leaves above, and the occasional snivels from either filly.

Scootaloo hesitantly raised her head, first just barely from its resting place, then slowly higher and higher. Head poking out of the top of a bush, she took a tentative look around. She was greeted only with the dark emptiness of the forest and the flaming crown of the fire in the distance. “I-I think… they’re gone…” Receiving no response from her friends, she dove back into the bush and shook the other two ponies. “Hey, it’s safe now! They’re all gone!”

"Ya... Ya sure?" Applebloom stuttered from under her hooves.

The pegasus sighed profusely and carefully peeked out the brush. The Everfree Forest's characteristic quietness had indeed returned. "Yeah, let's go before those things return!"

Though hesitance was still patent in her actions, Applebloom uncovered her head and slowly rose to her hooves while Scootaloo tried to call for Sweetie's attention with several anxious pokes. "C'mon, Sweetie Belle, we need to go!"

"I-I don't wanna..." she sobbed in reply, swatting her friend's foreleg away. "I-I wanna wait for Rarity... A-and Applejack..."

"They won't find us if we're hiding here, so come on!" With a fierce pull, Scootaloo managed to propel both ponies out of the bush, drawing a loud shriek from Sweetie Belle. The unicorn immediately shrank against the ground, curling herself into a ball. "Sweetie Belle, come on!"

"N-No! I-I don't wanna go!"

"Get up!"

The unicorn was practically squealing at this point. "NO!"

"Stop! Stop it, both a'ya!" a third voice desperately cried, immediately ceasing the argument between the other two ponies. Though Sweetie's head remained covered by her hooves, Applebloom succeeded in grabbing her other friend's attention. "We ain't goin' nowhere! We're waitin' for Applejack to save us!"

"Pfft! Yeah, right!" Scootaloo blurted back. "You all think your sisters rule, right?! Then you stay here!"

"We're not leavin' ya alone, Scoots. What's gotten into ya?"

"Nothing! What are you going on about?!" the pegasus turned around sharply, her cape fluttering behind her. When silence fell upon the crusaders and Scootaloo didn’t move, Applebloom tilted her head questioningly.

“…Scoots?” she quietly called; much to her surprise, a quiet whimper was the reply she got. The earth pony stepped closer, and the snivels grew louder. “What’s the mat-”

Her words died in her throat when the pegasus abruptly embraced her around the neck, burying her muzzle into Applebloom’s mane. Just moments later, the filly began to shiver violently, and she openly cried. “I-I’m scared…” she managed to stutter between every hiccup.

Applebloom tried to react, but every time she attempted to speak, the lump in her throat threatened to open the floodgates. She settled with placing a foreleg over her friend’s back, resting her head on the pegasus’s shoulder. The warmth of their embrace reminded the earth pony of just how cold it really was out there, in the forest. As if it was a cruel prank, a fire burned brightly in the distance, but this one, they couldn't get close to.

She felt tired, she realized. Both their capes were slightly tattered on the edges, and dirt blemished both their coat, mane and tails.

From the corner of her teary eyes, she spotted a new source of light amidst the shrubbery. She carefully placed her friend down, running a hoof through her back in a reassuring manner one last time before approaching the shimmering bush.

Pushing the branches aside, she spotted a broken, metallic lantern lying in the dirt. Orange glass shards lay scattered around it. They seemed to be part of the lantern, as the object of jagged edges still had some fragments of the cover. A blue flame escaped it, providing the filly a comfort she had longed for.

Without a second thought, she took the broken lantern in her mouth and left it near Scootaloo. She reacted immediately to this new source of heat, hurriedly cuddling next to it. Satisfied, she trotted over to Sweetie Belle's side and gently nudged her, guiding the unicorn to the lantern's side. It was a small fire, but it would have to suffice. With every pony settled, she lied down as well, gladly soaking in the flame's warmth.

The soft sound of weeping died down, and silence once more fell upon them. The murmur of a bell was carried to them by the wind.

"You think... You think they'll find us?" the pegasus asked in a hushed voice. Applebloom promptly gave a confident nod; if there was somepony who could venture into the forest and find them, it was her sister. "B-But... What if they return?"

Sweetie Belle shifted in place to raise her head. "What Miss Heartstrings- N-Natural Scale, I mean, said about the Temple of Time..."

"We ain't goin' nowhere," the earth pony readily spoke, causing her friend to wince slightly. "...sorry. Ah jus' dunno if Miss Heartstrings was in her right mind."

"She was. I-I know it."

"Ah find that kinda hard ta believe, Sweets," she answered with a raised eyebrow. "T'way she was jus' babblin' 'bout'em powers'n whatnot..."

"She did something. She gave me something. I can... f-feel it," the unicorn looked down at her hooves. "I don't know... I just... feel it..."

"Feelin' tired, more like."

"She knew what she was saying, Applebloom!" the unicorn's sudden mood shift surprised even the earth pony. "There's no way she could have known that stuff if she wasn't Natural Scale!"

"She could'a read 'bout it somewhere! Jus' ta pull our leg'n all!" The other filly opened her mouth to reply, but Applebloom readily denied that possibility. "We ain't foals, Sweetie Belle! Believin' she was bein' possessed by some ghost is like believin' in Santa Clops! They. Ain't. Real."

The filly wanted to answer, but no argument she imagined could top her friend's. Her eyes fell upon the azure flame between them in reflection. What reasons would Miss Heartstrings have to trick them? To trick her, her student?

It couldn't have been a prank. She felt something, when their horns touched. Magic. Incredible amounts of power. A gift.

She couldn't vouch for the existence of ghosts, or spirits, or zombies. But there was no doubt in her mind that that had been Natural Scale.

She blinked twice, hoping that it would clear her sight, as though it were the result of her exhaustion. When it didn't, the filly felt her legs tremble uncontrollably. Against her better judgment, she approached her muzzle to the flame, feeling the sudden increase in temperature.

There, amidst the deep blue flames, she could see three pitchdark blotches. Had she seen them separately, she wouldn't have paid them any mind.

Together, however, they took on the frightening appearance of a face that bore a mischievous expression. Its eyes, the two higher points of blackness, stared into hers as though they plotted a devilish scheme against her, while its mouth was curved in just as ill-meaning a grin.

Sweetie Belle slowly pulled her head back. Her mind tried to dismiss the image - it was likely a coincidence. Her imagination doing things.

Then she heard something giggle, and her ears shot up. Neither of her friends seemed to be in the mood for laughing: Scootaloo was curled up, next to the flame, the orange of her body hidden under her mane and tail, while Applebloom remained transfixed on her own hooves. And fire can't laugh, right?

"I see you, little pony..." a cold voice rang in her ear, causing her the fur on her coat to stand on end.

She sat up immediately, startling even the earth pony across the fire. "D-Did you hear that?"

"Consarnit, stop doin' that, Sweetie Belle!" Applebloom scolded instead. Before she could reprehend her friend again, the unicorn leaped over the lantern and huddled against her.

"I heard something this time! I know I did!"

"No, ya didn'." Applebloom slowly pushed her away, but Sweetie Belle was unrelenting. "T'was just you, so stop scarin' us!"

The sound of the rustling of a nearby bush made her swallow those words. Their heads immediately craned in the sound's direction, their fright reaching unprecedented levels. The two fillies held each other in a tight hug, only barely suppressing the desire to yell as loudly as they could muster.

The moonlit bush shook again. One by one, all other bushes around them began to shake as well, causing the silhouettes in the shadows to shift. Soon, it was as if the forest had a mind of its own, a twisted mind that was determined to shock the fillies into unconsciousness using only the clamor of its foliage.

Another giggle. The slightest breeze blew. It went cold. If they weren't shivering out of fear before, then the frosty air would force them to do so now. Sweetie Belle hazarded a look behind her back. Her heart skipped a beat when she noticed that there was no longer a flame, or even a lantern.

Or a Scootaloo.

"S-Scootaloo?" she hiccuped before squeezing Applebloom harder. Her voice was barely audible in the middle of the ruckus. "S-She's gone! S-Scootaloo's gone!"

The earth pony's pupils shrank to pinpricks. She knew her friend couldn't be lying, but she looked regardless. There was no pegasus filly there.

"I-If that's you, Scoots, y-ya can quit it! It ain't funny!" she called to the bushes. The forest paid her no mind; instead, a light blue layer of fog enveloped the grove, inspiring further panic in the fillies' minds. "S-Scoots, come on..."

A particularly violent movement to their right called their attention. There, a figure was emerging from the shadows: it was a pony, there was no doubt about that. It stepped out of the foggy barrier and into the moonlight, wings spread wide on its sides. It wore a sort of uniform, much like the one the two fillies were used to see from Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash's rambling about the Wonderbolts.

Save for the fundamental difference of the color. Where the Wonderbolts were garbed in a bright, colorful blue, this one had a deep purple color. An even darker shade of blue covered its head, hooves and neck like a hood, zigzagging down both sides of its chest. The typical winged thunder on the performers' flanks was here replaced by a white skull, one with wings, no less.

And those eyes... The two fillies could only imagine was what behind that mask, those glistening yellow goggles, their shape akin to the eyes of an insane pony. Combined with the twisted smirk it gave, they knew that the pony before them was anything but a famed rescuer.

"Oh, my..." from the sound of its voice, they could deduce it was a mare. This made her none the warmer to their eyes, as they took one step back with every step forward she took. "What do I see? Two lost foals in the middle of these dangerous woods?"

"S-stay back!" Applebloom cried, apparently to the mare's mirth.

"Watch out, we've got a rowdy filly over here!" the pegasus laughed.

In the blink of an eye, a single beat of her wings brought the mare to Applebloom's side. The two fillies froze in place, unintentionally allowing the mare to rub the sides of her uniform along their backs. An intense scent of dust filled the air. "So, what are you going to do," she began, whispering at Applebloom's ear. "if I get any closer?"

"A-Ah'll..." She gulped. She couldn't think, let alone act. She felt trapped, paralyzed.

"Thought as much," the mare answered after a prolonged silence. Smirking, she turned her head to Sweetie Belle and said, "Sleipnir, get the unicorn."

Before said filly could even realize what was going on, a pair of forelegs wrapped themselves tightly around her neck. She wasn't given the chance to scream; a dark blue wing promptly covered her mouth, completely suppressing the sound of her voice.

Applebloom only snapped out of her trance when Sweetie Belle's embrace broke. She instantly turned around to seek the other filly. All she could see around her was the same, all-encompassing layer of mist.

“So, you think you’re tough, huh?” Her anxiety grew with every second that passed. She turned back to the mare; the way she loomed was not making it any easier for the earth pony to think. Instinctively, she began to backpedal.

It took no more than a few steps for Applebloom to bump into something. Looking up, she was met with yet another azure muzzle, the corners of its mouth tilted upwards in a mischievous grin.

"What should we do with this naughty little pony, Val?" it asked in a melodically voice, inching closer to Applebloom. Another mare.

'Val' simply laughed. “This one’s tough, Hel.”

“Do you know what happens to the naughty ponies who go into dangerous forests alone?"

"A-Ah..."

"They might run into the wrong ponies!" Val gasped in fake shock, making her presence immediately next to the filly known. "Your friends found that out the hard way. But you... You can do something about it, right?"

The other pony's hoof prodded her flank, causing her to leap in surprise. "Yeah, blank flank. What are you going to do about it?"

Val watched with satisfaction as Applebloom struggled to find her words once more. The pegasus smirked and reared up, fully extending her wings before stomping the ground and yelling, "ANSWER THE QUESTION, BLANK FLANK!"

By the end of her demand, the mare’s snout was inches away from Applebloom’s own. The filly slowly pulled her head away, uttering nonsensical sounds. Val was the first to snort derisively, bursting into laughter shortly after.

“Cut her some slack, Val, she’s just a blank flank.” When Hel joined in, Applebloom’s eyes shifted nervously from one pony to the other. Diamond Tiara had accustomed her to this sort of comments, but she was just another filly. Them… they were full grown mares. She wanted to run. To escape this. “Aw, are you going to cry now?”

“What good is a pony if they can’t even talk?”

“You’d be better off as cockatrice fodder!”

“Not even Cerberus would want you in Tartatus!”

“Maybe that’s why you’re out here! Nopony wanted you!”

“A mute, blank flanked filly? Who would want that?”

“Bet her parents just dumped her in the forest!” Time slowed down that moment. That had been the last drop, the one blow that hit too close to home. She couldn’t hold her tears anymore, but she wasn’t about to give them the satisfaction of seeing her cry. She was given no resistance when she broke off in a mad dash towards the fog. The clouds presented no more of an obstacle than the tears that blurred her sight as she galloped.

Had she been able to see, then she would have noticed how the path ended abruptly just steps ahead, where the trees concealed the top of a steep hill. Once she lost her footing, stifled sobs became a full-blown cry for help, and the pony tumbled down the hill. Moments later, a loud splash echoed across the forest, and silence took its place.

Behind her, the two pegasi laughed louder than ever - a mirth that was short lived, as the imposing figure of a rather large, winged stallion emerged from the fog. Just like the mares, the coat underneath its uniform was dyed a dark blue color, but much unlike them, his expression was the exact opposite of merriment. "Valkyrie," he spoke, his quiet voice sounding as deep as a canyon. "Why did you let the filly go?"

"Relax, Sleipnir," the mare simply replied. "That one won't be bothering us. Couldn't even find the guts to stand up for her friends. We have to feed the sea serpents from time to time. But never mind that." Her expression darkened visibly. "What's Valhalla's plan?"

"He wants a host," the stallion spoke nonchalantly. His attention was clearly focused on the growing corona of fire above the trees. "Says he'll take what the Stalponies don't kill."

"San Palomino all over again, huh, Val?" Hel coolly asked; a tone of voice that seemed to disturb the stallion, judging from the disproving frown he shot her afterwards.

"We were unlucky that time. Damned princess popped up right when we were reaching the temple. This time, there's no princess." Valkyrie's gaze rested on the path Applebloom had taken. "It's like the best defense they have is a bunch of frightened fillies."

Sleipnir snorted and flapped his wings once in annoyance. "It's the quiet ones you have to look out for," he added, turning back. "Valhalla is calling every pony in. Don't slack off."

"Oy, Sleipnir, I'm the commander here in Valhalla's absence!" Valkyrie readily commented, earning another fearsome frown from the stallion.

"Best you start acting like one then."

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"H-Huh... Wake up... Please, wake up! Oh no, this is disastrous…"

Leaves and branches flying by. The roar of a fierce current down below. A never ending world of deep mist. Applebloom felt her body crashing through the surface of the water. The world twisted and turned around her, forcing gallons of that cold water down her throat.

Then, when all air had been vacated from her lungs, she blacked out.

"Y-You need to breathe, right? That's what ponies do when they're alive, right? So why won't you wake up?!" The panicked voice called from deep within the darkness. "Do you need mouth to mouth? I can do that too! ...no, that won't work. Think, Magnet, THINK!"

She felt something touch her chest, very carefully exerting pressure afterwards. The voice squeaked in delight as she spewed water from her mouth before breaking into a fit of coughs.

"Huzzah, you're awake! Steven Magnet strikes again! HOO yeah!" the voice instantly celebrated. Slowly, she opened her eyes. The moon was still high up in the sky, surrounded by the same, endless sea of clouds that covered Equestria. For some reason, it was a reassuring sight for the filly.

A sudden headache took her by surprise, forcing her to sit. While one hoof rubbed the side of her head, the other inspected her surroundings. Her head bolted to the right when the other hoof hit a hollow object.

And the filly screamed from the top of her lungs when the carapace turned out to be a skull. The cracked skull of a pony.

"Hey, hey, hey! Calm down, will you?" the voice hurriedly spoke. Applebloom faced forward immediately, nearly bumping into a long, purple snout that was too close for comfort. An orange mustache graced its sides, and two large, black eyes stared back at her with unease. Just as she was about to scream again, a giant finger forced her mouth shut. "Hey, not so loud! I-I don't want those things to come back! Okay?"

The cogs in the filly’s brain began to turn. This gigantic beast was… scared?

Her expression softened, and the being let out a long sigh. “Y-You won’t yell, right?”

Applebloom shook her head slowly, and the finger slid off her snout. The creature straightened itself, allowing the filly to see it in all of its glory: it was a massive, purple scaled serpent, countless times larger than the young pony, its head so high up that it seemed to touch the clouds. Most of its body was submerged in the lake before her. In the distance, she could see the old, ruined palace.

The serpent gave a contented grin and reached into the water with one of its hands. After a moment of searching, it dropped several items next to the filly, all of which covered in mud: some rocks, red cloth – which she immediately recognized as her ribbon and most importantly… a sword.

“Oh! Is it yours?" the serpent asked, noticing her wide-eyed stare. "You would not believe the amount of filth that gets washed down the river.” Something about the monster’s demeanor reminded her of Rarity. “It’s like the ponies up the stream don’t know what they’re doing to it! Pol-lu-tion!”

"A... sword..."

"Pray tell, my dear, what has happened to you? You were unconscious when I found you! You looked like you'd just been to Tartarus!" it paused momentarily, as if reflecting on its own words."If the sword is yours... Don't tell me you have been slaying these beasts as well!"

"W-What- no! It's not mine..." Yer darn close though...

She realized just how roughed up she should look. From being covered in soot to rolling down a cliff, her cape and her body had already been through tough times. It was a good thing that Sweetie Belle was such a good-

"Sweetie Belle! Scootaloo!" she suddenly yelled, somehow startling the serpent. "Ah... Ah forgot about them! They're still... Still..."

The serpent lowered its head, as if to hear better. "Still... what, dear?"

"They were taken away..."

"Oh, no..." the serpent gasped - a gesture that seemed completely uncharacteristic in Applebloom's opinion. "Did the monsters take them?"

She shook her head sadly, facing her hooves. "They were pegasi... Ah jus'... Wish I could do somethin'..."

"Oh, that is sad... Very sad. I, too, wish I could do something to help your cause..."

The filly’s eyes rested upon the sword. She studied it contemplatively. She had considered taking the weapon; its wooden handle and ruby-encrusted guard begged for her attention, the sharpened blade promising to deliver her revenge.

No. These couldn't be her thoughts. It was too extreme. A sword... killing... she'd never resort to something like it.

Maybe she could be like the heroes of old and rescue her friends. To use whatever she had at hoof and venture after those who had harmed her. Like a Cutie Mark Crusader... Crusader.

She shook her head again. Even she knew that handling a sword required knowledge. Skill. Skills she didn't have. Perhaps even skills she didn’t even want.

Deep down... she was just as helpless as the mares had led her to believe.

She was just a little filly. A blank flank.

"Dear?" the serpent called, breaking her concentration. She looked up to find the sea monster her, a strange look of concern marking its features. "Is something else the matter?"

Applebloom remained silent for a moment, choosing to regard the floor instead of the massive serpent. “They said Ah couldn’t do anythin’ to save’em.”

She didn’t see it, but the serpent tilted its head in puzzlement. “Why not?”

“’Cause Ah’m a blank flank! See?!” She abruptly rose to her hooves and turned the side of her flank to the monster. “No cutie mark! Nothin’! Ah should have it! But Ah don’t! Ya know what that means?!”

“I-”

“It means Ah ain’t good with nothin’!” Her voice cracked discreetly at the sound of the last word. “They’re gon’ do things to Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo! And Ah can’t do anythin’ ‘bout it!”

“But-”

“That’s why ma and pa left!” A lonesome tear escaped her eye, and she shut both to prevent any more from falling, only to be presented with the opposite result. “They didn’t want a foal who can’t even get’er cutie mark! A foal like M-HUFF!”

The serpent sighed. Apparently, sticking a finger in the filly’s mouth was the perfect way to keep her quiet. “Dear, please,” it spoke, using the other hand to carefully remove the tear from her snout. “I don’t know much about your pony cities, but I am fairly certain that parents do not just abandon their child at birth. And surely not a beautiful filly like you.” Applebloom tried to say something, but only muffled noises were heard. She felt her cheeks warm up. “Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”

Taking the red cloth in its hand, the serpent drenched it in the waters of the lake. After properly cleaning it, the beast blew it dry, and wrapped it around the top of the filly’s mane, tying it underneath to give it the impression of a bandana. Or a pointy hat, it considered.

After it was done, Applebloom approached the edge of the water. It wasn’t the ribbon she was used to seeing, but it was a nice change. Somehow… it fit her. “Thanks, mister.”

“I have to say, no matter how you put it, that will always look so *faaaabuloooooous* on you!” the serpent sang. “You are, of course, welcome! But, listen carefully, dear…” Its face grew gloomier. “I am unfortunately bound to this lake and the rivers it feeds, so there is little I can do to help you or your friends. But I can offer you this much. If you would give me your hooves…”

The serpent lowered its hand to her height, motioning with its fingers where she should place her legs. The filly hesitated at first; she was, after all, literally trusting her hooves to the hands of an aquatic beast.

In the end, she complied. Slowly, Applebloom raised her hooves and placed them on the palm of its hands.

“Long ago, when Equestria was still young, the gods created five guardians. Each of the guardians was in charge of protecting the waters that flowed upon their lands. One north, one west, one south, one east. One who would be the guidepost.” The serpent gave a smile and closed its hands, as well as its eyes. “So that you may save your friends…” it spoke. A bright light erupted from within its hands, forcing the filly to tightly shut her eyes if she didn’t want to be blinded. “I, the Guidepost of the Guardians, bestow upon you the gift of swordsponyship.”

When the light was at its brightest, Applebloom felt that her eyelids weren’t nearly enough to keep the violent brightness at bay. She tried to pull her hooves off the hands, but they were firmly clenched. She tried to scream, but the light itself would overpower her voice.

“Stare into the light,” the serpent commanded, its voice ethereal. “Receive the power.”

“A-Ah don’t…”

The filly never got to finish her thoughts. She couldn’t take it anymore, and her eyes snapped open. She cried out as loud as she could, hoping it would stop the searing pain in her eyes. The light engulfed her entire line of sight. She couldn’t not look at it. It demanded her attention, and was willing to engulf her if she didn’t obey.

So it did. Soon after, Applebloom no longer felt the earth under her hooves. There was no more serpent, no more lake, no more Equestria.

Just an endless expanse of whiteness.

And in the bright void, carrying with it a certain glee, a certain musicality, the serpent’s voice echoed, “Receive it now!”

Last Train Home

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The sun hadn't risen yet. The moon occupied its place in the sky, usurping the celestial body's role as the star of the day. Most inhabitants of Ponyville would attribute this to Princess Luna or Celestia forgetting to lower the moon or raise the sun, respectively.

Twilight wasn't like most ponyvillians. She knew that Celestia hadn't fallen asleep, however ironic that would have been. The reason for the never-ending night was much more complex than that. It haunted her still, chasing her to the safety of her home and into the pillow her head was buried in.

Above all, it made her angry. Angry that her mother figure had been slain in such a ridiculous manner by an extraterrestrial being. Angry that a creature had simply appeared out of nowhere to claim rulership of Equestria, submitting the kingdom to utter chaos.

It made her want to cry out of desperation. Desperation that there was just about nothing she could do about it now. She had no more leads. Nopony else to help her.

Those she thought were heroes... They had all failed her, one after the other. And now, cornered in her home, she had nobody to turn to.

"Twilight?"

I stand corrected. The unicorn drowsily groaned, her words incomprehensible sounds as they went through the pillow. "Go away, Spike. I'm not in the mood to talk."

"It's Olivia."

Figures, she thought. The door's locked.

"I don't care. I don't want to talk."

The quiet chime of the fairy as she fluttered over was heard even through the cushion. Twilight could feel the fairy floating right next to her forelegs. "This is important!"

"I. Don't. Care," Twilight hissed, pressing the pillow against her ears. "Unless somepony's dying, I'm not-"

She never got to finish that sentence. The room’s only window was completely smashed, allowing the unusually cold breeze to blow into the house. The cause flew directly against Twilight’s flank, effectively startling the unicorn out of her wits. The magic-encased pillow flew straight at it, leaving both objects at the bed’s feet.

Just as she was about to talk again, the cushion lit up in a bluish flame, revealing a dilapidated skull behind it. A swirling orb of red smoke occupied its eye sockets, and two bat-like wings sprouted from its sides while the entirety of the skull was enveloped by a deep cerulean flame.

Twilight wasn’t about to give it any chances, no matter if her action were fueled by fear or by rational thought. She picked up the pair of horseshoes just over the head of her bed with telekinesis as the winged skull floated into the air with its wings, and quickly flung the metallic objects directly at the top of the monster.

Much to her dismay (and, apparently, the monster’s surprise), the horseshoes didn't even strike bone: they just bounced harmlessly off the flame.

“It’s a Bubble! Just lobbing stuff at it isn’t enough!” Olivia immediately cried out from behind her ear, earning herself a glare from Twilight.

“You don’t say?!”

The Bubble let out a high-pitched roar and lunged towards Twilight, barely giving the unicorn enough time to crouch. She managed to do so though, and the foe crashed directly against the wall.

But this didn’t dissuade it from its goal - if anything, it heightened it's resolve, as the skull somehow began to snarl before turning sharply.

Twilight was faster this time: her horn acquired an intense purple aura, and a beam flew straight at her enemy, knocking the bone monster out of its flaming shield.

Without a moment to waste, Twilight planted her forelegs on the ground and kicked the Bubble as hard as she could. The sickening sound of bone cracking echoed across the room, and the monster exploded into pieces.

"Y-You... How did you..."

"Oh, huh, well, you know." Olivia didn't reply, so Twilight let out a long sigh and continued in a matter-of-factly tone, "If something deflects physical offense, then use magic. It was in an issue of Unicorn Power."

"Oh," Olivia deadpanned, shaking herself shortly after. “But that doesn't matter right now! Twilight, the Stalponies are here!"

As if to confirm her statement, the unison roar of countless monsters, their cries carried by the winds, pierced the nightly silence of Ponyville. A cold shiver ran through the unicorn's body - the sound itself was petrifying for her, and the creature that had howled it even more so.

"But... Princess Luna promised..." she found herself mumbling, facing her room's floor. "She promised we would be safe..."

"Forget what that pony said!" the fairy retorted, brusquely bumping against Twilight's snout. "She's worth as much as any of us right now!"

"That's not true! She said she'd protect-"

"Well she's not doing a very good job, is she?!" Her comeback had turned out a little louder than she'd initially wanted, but it seemed to have the desired effect. Twilight's ears flattened against her head as reality finally struck the unicorn. Olivia knew she was on a roll - she couldn't miss the chance. "You dealt with a Bubble all by yourself! I bet Link was clueless the first time he found one of these!" Somewhat overtaken by excitement, Olivia flew up to the side of Twilight's head. "If you did that... Imagine if you could save the whole town! Like you did before!"

"That... That was different... I had the Elements of Harmony..."

"But above all, you had your brain!"

Twilight was about to object, but found no arguments. She knew she had to concede that one to the fairy. In either case when Equestria - and, by extension, Ponyville - was in trouble, she'd solved the problem with her wits. Perhaps with some help along the way, but at the end of the day, she owed it to her genius.

In the back of her mind, a familiar spark came to life.

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To say that Link was lost was to claim that the Shadow Temple of Hyrule was just a grave: a massive understatement.

He gripped his new bow tighter, his mind running at a hundred miles per hour to make heads or tails out of his situation. Left and right, shadows moved, monsters that threatened to ambush him in his moment of weakness. The thick curtain of smoke that cloaked the skies above was of no help either, but about that, he couldn't do anything.

As if to mock him, the shadows literally laughed in a maniacal way, sometimes taking the chance of approaching the boy before quickly retreating to safety. His head ached, his arms were killing him - his entire body was begging for a rest that had been denied earlier. A particular itch in his legs bothered him, but once more, he couldn't be bothered to do anything about it. His mind was too focused on the events that unfolded all around.

Then, in the middle of the cacophony of devilish giggles, he heard something he never thought he'd be hearing soon.

A language he could understand.

Bow ready to use whatever was at hand, he set off into the brush. As he ran, he hesitated in pulling out the wooden sword on his back. The efficiency of either weapon in that situation was dubious. While just about any stick long enough to be thrown was a makeshift arrow, his sword would likely not handle a potential enemy. Deku Sticks also had that problem. He cursed the day he chose to challenge a Deku Baba with one.

The air was becoming unbreathable, and he was beginning to struggle to move as a result. Cough after cough, he pressed forward.

After trekking through a corridor of burning trees and bushes, what was possibly the source of the fire came into sight.

"H-Help! *cough* Please, s-somepony, help me!" The entity begged from the heart of the furnace. Amidst a flaming grove, a singular tree burned brighter than others. On its top rested the burning remains of a wooden house, flames billowing viciously from its ruined windows.

At the tree's base, a unicorn, its coat bleached by ashes and its mane charred on the edges, lay against the trunk. A saddlebag was tightly strapped to its body, adorned with a lock shaped like a lyre. He froze in confusion for a split second, but disregarded the reason why he understood the call; there were much more pressing matters at hand.

He rushed to its side. To his relief, the pony still breathed. "Hey, wake up! Don't fall asleep!"

"I-I... *cough* can't breathe..."

"Just stay with me!" He didn't know why he was talking, since odds were that the pony wasn't understanding any of it.

It was an issue for another time as well. He grabbed the unicorn by the legs and pulled it onto his back. The load was unexpectedly heavy for his frame, but extended use of a gift from the Goron, the friendly rock-eating creatures of Hyrule, had conceded him a share of extra strength.

By the time he reached the boundaries of the grove, Link could barely stand on his feet. The pony slumped off his shoulders, and the boy fell to the ground on his knees, wheezing violently.

The unicorn seemed no better for the wear. He hazarded a look at it (it was a mare, he noted), and despite the more glaring burn injuries, she appeared to be otherwise safe. He allowed himself a long, well-deserved sigh.

"What the- Link!"

As if the call of his name had cured his exhaustion, Link immediately perked up. The voice sounded far too familiar. "Applejack?"

He only needed to raise his head to find the orange earth pony running towards him with Rarity in tow. The end of a rope dangled from the farmer’s mouth, tied in a lasso knot, and the remainder of the long object was wrapped around the end of her tail. The boy appeared to be her first concern, while the fashionista chose to tend to the mare beside him. “T’hay did ya get yerself into?!”

Link tried to answer, but a cough was all that came out of his throat. Applejack groaned and helped him up before facing Rarity. “How’s Lyra?”

“Unconscious,” she answered while clearing the ashes off the fallen mare’s coat. Applejack stomped the ground in frustration, very narrowly missing Link’s foot in the process. “It would be for the best if Nurse Redheart could see her.”

“Dam’it!” she complained with another stomp. “Applebloom’s somewhere out there in the Everfree Forest! Ah can’t just leave her because of-”

“Applejack, darling, I’m just as worried as you.” Rarity flashed a sympathetic grin before resuming a gloomier expression. “But if what Bon-Bon said is true, then Lyra might be the best way to know where they are.”

"We can't waste time, Rares! If there's somethin' out there, then Ah don't want mah lil' sis wandering around!"

"I don't think - *cough* - that's a good idea..." Applejack nearly jumped out of fright when she heard Link's voice. It took her a moment to realize that it had indeed been the boy who had talked, but she wasn't about to argue that.

She had her opinion to defend, after all. "Why the hay not?!"

"Just look around you! You won't stand a chance out there on your own!"

Applejack's fuming snout was almost against his nose."This is MAH sister - OUR sisters - we're talkin' 'bout'ere, boy! Ah'm a grown mare, Ah can take care a'myself!"

She suddenly stopped. The traces of anger that had scarred her features began to fade away; those words were not strange to her. She had heard them before, perhaps worded differently.

'Ah AM a big pony!' the voice of a young filly cried from the back of her mind. She shook her head; Applebloom was just a filly. She couldn't get it, not yet. Just like Link. He couldn't know what she meant, what it meant to have somepony you need to protect at all costs.

"Ah'm goin' out lookin' for'er," she announced in a hushed tone, trotting in the fire's direction. Rarity and Link watched on as the mare disappeared from sight behind a bush.

"Is she - cough - always this stubborn?" the boy asked.

Rarity gave a faint nod, then sighed, "Applejack gets riled up rather easily, I'm afraid. Persuading her is no simple matter."

The high-pitched scream of a monster resonated throughout the forest, and neither one moved for a moment. It was a sound that brought too many bad memories of a certain zombie-infested Hylian well for the young swordsman. It reminded him of just how dangerous the skeletal fiends were.

The purpose of the forest fire eluded him. Stalfos embraced the darkness, to the point where Stalchildren only rose from the earth of Hyrule's fields under the moonlight. In fact, he had never seen a Stalfos in broad daylight.

Come to think of it... That didn't even sound like a Stalpony. Link narrowed his eyes in contemplation. Unless the screech had been caused by a native Equestrian creature, then there was only one other monster that could cry like that.

"HEEEEEEEEELP!!"

"ReDeads!" the boy shouted as he tossed the bow away and instinctively unsheathed his sword. He dashed head first into the bush with his teeth locked together, swinging the weapon at the first thing that stood in his way.

When it turned out to be another bush, he spun in place several times, hoping to track down the source of the zombie's characteristic moan. "Applejack!!"

A futile call, he realized. He prayed to Hylia that he was wrong and that the monsters was anything but a ReDead. With no reply to guide him, the faded orange corona in the sky became his goal.

Just hang in there, Applejack! he screamed in his mind, slashing through the Everfree shrubbery. He felt the creature's wails grow louder, and his resolve strengthened. He held his breath; the air was becoming intolerably filled with smoke.

One last bush was reduced to a branches and leaves. Link jumped forward with his sword raised, unleashed a war cry and completely shattered the wooden sword on the thick hide of an undead beast, effectively cracking its head. The ReDead craned its head up at him and moaned once, mouth wide open to flash all of its sharp, yellowed teeth, the hollow holes of its wooden, mask-like face appearing to stare into the boy's soul. The cracks widened, and the ReDead wobbled in place for a moment, then crumpled to the ground in a messy pile of bone and flesh. As it fell, it exhaled one last, echoing moan.

With his foe immobilized, Link discarded the sword and kneeled to tend to the mare at the monster's feet. There were no injuries he could see, save for the bruises around her barrel, where the ReDead had applied its vice-like grip. She was awake, he noted with relief. The boy took the back of her head with a hand, lightly hitting the side of her snout with the other. "Applejack? - Cough - Applejack!"

"Ah-Ah'm..." the mare only stuttered. Her entire body trembled violently as she struggled to stand. She cast a hesitant look at the downed beast, as though it would suddenly rise again to sink its teeth in her skin. "I-It jus' grabbed me a-and..."

"ReDeads are - cough - never alone! Where there's one, there are more close by! We need to go before they...oh no." The boy’s fears were confirmed as he looked onward. Several silhouettes, human in shape, plodded under the veil of smoke, lit from behind by the flames that continued to consume the woods. “Come on, let’s go.”

“T-They’re…”

“Come on!” With one strong push, Applejack finally budged.

Even so, she only took a few steps forward. She was still engrossed in the advancing zombies and the way they were clearly not targeting her or Link.

They stopped their march at the deceased ReDead’s side, and bent down, drawing their wooden heads closer to the unmoving corpse.

“Applejack!” She quickly turned her head away from whatever gruesome ritual was about to unfold, galloping away. The mourning whimpers of the undead beings she left behind would remain in her mind for a long, long time.

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"Engines?"

"All up and ready."

"Cars?"

"Mounted."

"How many, where to?"

"Two, one to Appleloosa and one to Los Pegasus, as per your request, miss Sparkle."

With a satisfied grin, Twilight magically willed the pencil to tick another item on the list. "That would be all then. Spike, get Mayor Mare to order the evacuation."

The young dragon gave a clumsy salute and ran off. Olivia took the chance and flew down to the unicorn's side. "You're evacuating everyone on trains?"

"It's our best shot," she simply replied, depositing the checklist in her saddlebags. She walked past the Ponyville train depot and stared off to the hills around the town.

There was no denying that there was a sense of foreboding over their heads. She sighed, "If the Stalponies are out to get Ponyville, then we had better be ready for them."

"If you say so..." the fairy's voice evidenced her absentmindedness. "I wonder where Link is..."

"A whole bottle of Sweet Apple Acres cider? That's gonna bite in the morning." She was about to say something more, but a strange vibration beneath her hooves kept the words in her throat. This wasn't right.

Soon after, the same clamor that had shaken the little settlement in its sleep resonated once more, effectively stirring up a considerably greater deal of panic among its inhabitants. Throughout the town, the cries of rudely awakened foals began to fill the air. Instantly, doors and windows flew open. Before long, all of Ponyville was in the streets.

"No... No no no no nooooo! This is too soon!" Another clipboard flew out the unicorn's bags, stopping before her eyes. Olivia only caught a glimpse of its contents, and she understood nothing of it. All over the page were scribbled graphic charts and equations that were simply too long to be solved by the common mathematician. "I-I calculated it! Based on the estimated intensity of the sound plus the intervals minus the overall distance of Ponyville to the Everfree Forest, they weren't supposed to-"

The fact that the pony's mane was somehow getting frizzled on its own was starting to scare the fairy.

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"Just run west as fast as you can, okay?" The pair of squirrels nodded in agreement, and Fluttershy grinned. "Good, now tell your friends and go!"

After another quick nod, the little animals dashed back into the brush. The pegasus sighed. That was the last of her animals.

West... They'd be safe there, she was certain. The Whitetail Woods and the grasslands beyond were sure to provide them the shelter they needed.

She grinned at the thought of how well her mission had gone. Even though leaving her 'pets' to the mercy of the elements left her mind in a wreck, Twilight had made it extremely clear that staying in Ponyville wasn't an option.

Those monsters... The sheer remembrance of the beasts sent a shiver coursing through her body, reflectively snapping her wings for the briefest moment. What kind of creature was so vile that it couldn't be reasoned with?

The bushes shuddered, derailing her train of thought. She faced them expectantly, lowering her head to the ground so as to receive the carriers of the mission's report.

At first, the mare thought she was still suffering a little from the unfortunate recalling of her experience with the Stalponies.

"Jump through?! Are you positively insane?!" Fluttershy's ears perked up, but she dismissed the voice as a product of her imagination. She inwardly promised herself to not think of the Stalponies again.

"Oh!" she exclaimed once the two squirrels she'd sent off appeared from within the shrubbery - and dashed right past her without a word more. "W-Where are you-"

"Ah said-" A muffled complaint was heard, and it was as if time had momentarily slowed down to an infinitesimal rate when two large bodies leaped right out of the bush and over the already frightened pegasus in a flurry of leaves and twigs, landing directly behind her with a loud thud. "JUMP!"

"A-Applejack?!" Fluttershy stuttered, slowly turning to face both the earth pony and Rarity, the latter carrying on her back the 'Hylian' boy. Beside her floated a bundle of sticks, all of which coupled with a rather sharp stone at the tip. Strings of grass held the head and the shaft together, creating what Fluttershy assumed to be arrows for the bow that Link carried in his hand. "W-What are those f-for?"

"It's them Stalponies, Fluttershy!" Applejack answered before the boy could, stepping forward. "And we need to get the hay outta here t-"

The pegasus gasped the moment she approached her. "O-Oh my!" Fluttershy rushed to Applejack's side, obviously to analyze the mare strapped to her back with a rope in a rather uncomfortable way. "S-She's barely breathing! Was she in the fire?!"

"Yup, Link over're saved'er, but never mind that! We gotta haul flank before-" An arrow zoomed right past the side of her head and into the darkness of the forest. A crunch echoed, and a head with that same arrow piercing its top rolled from under the bushes.

Rarity rolled her eyes and retrieved the projectile. "Honestly, why do you insist on gathering these back?"

As soon as the arrow was removed, the head jumped back to life. Applejack didn’t hesitate in leaping forward and cracking the monster in half with a kick, flinging it back to the forest. From the corner of her eye, she found another pair of eyes facing her in the darkness. Then another one. Then dozens of them at the same time. "C'mon!"

Fluttershy felt her body being propelled forward by a mighty headbutt against her back, and before she knew it, she found herself alongside Applejack and Rarity in a mad run in just about any direction but the forest behind her.

The screeching of Link’s bow had snagged her back to reality, and a look to the hill behind her was all the incentive she needed to keep running. She gulped hard, and focused on the path ahead, trying to rid her mind of the image.

Across the fields around her house and before the forest treaded a pack of hundreds upon hundreds of vicious skeletal monsters. From the distance, it was as if the green pastures were now blemished all over by a broad mantle of living white and black dots. No matter how many arrows crossed the air or how many were simply trampled by their own kind, more would always come to make up for the loss, often replacing a single monster with an extra four.

The Ponyville windmill rose from behind a hill, granting them a fleeting moment of relief – they were closing in at a much faster rate than they thought they would.

The village didn’t take much longer to appear, just down a path of beaten earth. It was alive with lights flickering in the streets and the houses, lighting the way for the ponies that frantically ran from one house to the other.

“What… the hay is… goin’ on… Flutters?” Applejack managed to ask between gasps for air.

“O-Oh, huh, Twilight is-”

“Louder, Flutters!”

“TWILIGHT IS EVACUATING EVERYPONY IN A TRAIN!”

Applejack’s expression contorted like the pegasus had never seen before, but whatever infuriated reply the mare wanted to give was denied by several trees fallen rather inconveniently over the trail. It was an obstacle that Applejack still overcame more easily than their unicorn despite the difference in weight. But it was also one the earth pony regretted once she landed from the last leap over the trunks, for her legs complained for the first time in their escape, threatening to collapse under her body.

“Whadda’ya mean, evacuate?! What about Applebloom?!” she finally yelled once they were on their way again. This minor hindrance had constituted an opportunity for the Stalponies to move in – one had managed to make it too close to them, forcing Link to expend one of the very few arrows left before it could touch a tread of his steed’s tail. The projectile hit the monster square between the eye sockets, and sensing that they wouldn’t be reusing that arrow, Rarity promptly crafted another one.

Fluttershy’s head retreated to the safety of her mane as though it was the shell of a turtle. “I-I don’t know, i-i-it’s Twilight’s p-plan…”

Applejack was glad that the pegasus decide to stay airborne after flying over the trees; she feared what could have happened otherwise. The farm pony sharply turned her head forward, galloping with renewed resoluteness. “Ah’m gonna find that mare and give’r a piece o’mah mind! We ain’t leavin’ ‘till Ah I find Applebloom!”

“Applejack! Wait!” Rarity still called, to no avail: the other mare was already far ahead of them, practically entering the town. She decided to solve another problem instead. “Would you please stop doing that with your feet?!”

Link shrugged her off and fired another arrow. He didn’t even get the chance to see if it hit the desired target, as the arrow was literally swallowed by the masses of Stalponies. He realized that fighting back was becoming useless – killing one off would just open way for a new one. Attaching the bow to the belt on his back, he bent closer to Rarity’s mane and held it with both hands – however hard that was, given the way her mane was styled.

“We need to pull back, they're too many-AARGH!!" Rarity very nearly tripped on her own hooves at the sound of the boy's sudden scream. She felt him shifting on her back, one hand tugging particularly hard at her mane, and tried to turn her head around. The Stalponies were relatively far away - they couldn't possibly have struck him.

That didn't stop the boy from unleashing another fearsome cry of pain. "Link! What is happening?!"

"My head... It hurts so bad..." he managed to grunt between clenched teeth. "Damn cider..."

Much to the unicorn's relief, her hooves now clacked on paved terrain. She was now faced with the unusually bustling crowds that occupied Ponyville this night. The cavernous roar of a train horn was occasionally heard over the almost deafening cries of the villagers, a firm reminder to Rarity of her goal as she trekked through the mass of ponies.

“Just… just hold on for a little longer, dear! Fluttershy, please!”

Link replied only with a wounded grunt. The pegasus flew down to his side, but did little more than offer a pat on his back. “He needs medical attention, Rarity!”

The fashionista was used to stressful situations, what with the business she ran. But never had she been confronted with something this grave – especially not with ponies run all around and pressuring her. The worst that had happened to Sweetie Belle had been a stomach ache from too many cupcakes, and even that hadn’t been worth that much concern.

Now, she felt like the boy on her back could topple to the ground at any second.

“R-Rarity… W-We…”

“Hush now, we must get to Miss Redheart, your condition does not please me at all!” Then, under her breath, “Oh dear, oh dear…”

She yelped when Link pulled her mane so he could sit mostly upright. “T-Twilight… It’s important…”

“What matters now is your health, darling! So please let me focus on the road!”

“Twilight’s… brother…” the boy groaned again. “He’s in trouble...”

Rarity shook her head disapprovingly. “Poor colt, what has cider done to you?”

“It’s not… cider!” Link wrapped an arm around her neck and pulled himself closer to her ear. “V-Van Hoover… Shining Armor is in Van Hoover!”

Rarity’s gallop slowed down to a trot. She looked up at Fluttershy to confirm that she had heard it right, only to find the same flabbergasted expression on her face. “What… how do you…”

“The Stalponies… are headed there next! We need to warn… Twilight!” Before he could say anything else, his head collapsed against the back of her neck, and his body went limp. Rarity’s heart raced.

“Fluttershy!” she yelled as she resumed her pacing, now with more urgency than ever. “Get Miss Redheart and meet me at the train station!”

The winged mare gave a quick nod, and Rarity hastened her pace.

Finding Twilight was the priority.

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And find her she would, at a platform not much farther ahead. Applejack seemed to have stayed true to her word – the two mares were engaged in conversation, albeit one too heated for Rarity’s liking. Making her way through the frenzied crowds that populated the station area, she arrived in time to hear a fragment of something Twilight was yelling, “…what’s important!”

She called their names, but apparently neither mare paid her mind. Applejack stomped a hoof on the ground hard enough to pull out one of tiles before shouting, “What in th’hay do ya mean, Twilight?! Ain’t mah sister important too?!”

Celestia help me, or I’ll do something I’ll regret, Twilight thought, grinding her teeth in an attempt to hold back her actions. “Applejack, look around you!” The cowpony didn’t move. “All these ponies are trying to get away from those things! We can’t wait much longer!”

“Ah don’t CARE! It’s Applebloom we’re talkin’ ‘bout’ere, Twi! ‘N she’s out there, alone, in that there forest filled with’em buckin’ monsters!” She lowered the brim of her hat; an action that Twilight was sure to be just a measure to hide the tears that formed in the corner of her eyes. “’N Ah ain’t leavin’ her fer nothin’!”

“We can’t risk Ponyville because one pony is lost!”

Applejack’s head twitched back. “ONE PONY?!”

“Applejack! Twilight!” Any reply the unicorn was about to offer was cut off by Rarity’s call from the other end of the platform. The latter nearly ran off when she became the receiving end of Applejack’s ferocious glare; one hefty gulp later, though, she trotted forth.

“Rarity? What’s that on your- LINK!” Twilight circled the mare in the blink of an eye to prod at Link’s side with a hoof. “W-What happened?!”

“I-I… he just passed out! He was fine, then he just… oh dear, oh dear…” Rarity’s gaze drifted away for the faintest moment before the mare suddenly raised her head and ‘grabbed’ Twilight by the shoulders. “Twilight! There’s something he told me! Something very important!”

Twilight shook her head slightly, taken aback by the other unicorn’s mood shifts. Surprise was slowly replaced by great apprehension when Rarity’s epiphanic appearance ebbed with sadness. “I’m not going to like this, am I?”

“It’s your brother, Twilight,” Rarity began, shaking her head in dejection. “The Stalponies are headed to Van Hoover right now.”

Twilight’s eyes widened to the size of saucers. She looked past Rarity to find Applejack who, despite her frown, had the evident glimmer of victorious revenge in her eyes. She knew what the earth pony was thinking – she didn’t like it one bit.

“T-That… how do you know? How can he know?!”

“I have no idea, darling, but… he already knew more than he was supposed to.” She turned her head towards the town, watching as the populace moved increasingly closer to the station.

Left and right, long, messy rows of ponies occupied the platform. Where the queues met the trains, other ponies struggled to keep the evacuation as orderly as they could – a feat that was evidently well beyond their skills, given the amount of angered hollers all over the place.

Lifting her gaze just slightly upwards, the hills beyond Ponyville came into sight…

And with it the impending army of monsters.

And… a really fast orb of light?

“Twilight!” The white unicorn wasn’t entirely familiarized with the voice, but it almost became painfully clear who it belonged to when a green fairy nearly crashed against her. She stopped just inches away from Rarity’s face to abruptly turn towards Twilight. “Get the shield up! They’re coming!”

The librarian immediately brushed Rarity’s hooves aside, taking cautious steps towards the end of the platform while Olivia kept the other unicorn busy with questions about Link. She relegated all of that to the importance of a background buzz.

Twilight was at loss for words. It was as if the Stalponies were approaching Ponyville from all possible directions. Wherever she looked, the hilltops seemed alive with movement. The skeletal monsters had occupied the entirety of the horizon, and were just now starting to take over the fields. Upon spotting the unusual movement in the terrains outside the town, any and all tranquility was removed from the hearts of the ponies. In just a fraction of a second, chaos reigned in Ponyville, now with greater power than ever.

They were many more than she’d ever imagined. Far, far too many.

She lowered her head and focused. Her horn erupted with a faint lavender aura, and so it remained for a moment. She gathered her thoughts – the spell had taken a lot out of her brother during the Canterlot invasion – and the luminescence grew more intense.

Then, with a confident thrust of her head, a magnificent purple flare burst from her horn towards the skies, leaving behind a sparkling trail. The villagers held their breath, their mouths agape as they watched the beacon rocket upward. Once it reached its highest point, it exploded in a blinding display of lights before spreading outwards, leaving sparks to rain down upon the settlement.

In that dark night, Ponyville stopped to watch as it was completely contained within a translucent purple dome. The Stalponies rushed towards the magical barrier with the hope of still trespassing it, only to find their efforts quashed by the energy field.

Contented with the results of her spell, Twilight stabilized the enchantment with a grunt and yelled out to the petrified crowds, "Everypony into the trains, NOW!!"

The call was all the crowd needed to jump-start into an uproar. Saddlebags and pouches were dropped to the ground in the ponies' haste, their primary instinct for survival kicking in to distinguish the fundamental luggage from the trivial.

She made out a particular shape in the crowd; Fluttershy, followed closely by Redheart, struggled to make her way through. There was a large, mush green bag on her back. A bright red cross adorned its front, granting it the distinct status of a medicinal utensil.

At least he'll be okay. I hope, she thought, watching the usually meek pegasus assume the role of the guide. Shining... If what he said is true...

The unicorn quickly devised a plan. If there was, in fact, an army on its way to Van Hoover, then experience told her that there was no time to lose. Looking back at the railroads for a moment, she spotted several unused locomotives. Worn down, rusty small ones but locomotives nonetheless.

One detail she was not too keen on, however, was the route that the train would necessarily take. They'd have to backtrack towards Canterlot Castle, and Luna had already proven that the area was off-limits. Going there was, without a doubt, risking one's life.

My brother’s life is also on the line. Her brow furrowed. She’d read enough about the steam powered contraptions to know how to drive one. I’ll do what Applejack couldn’t do. I’ll save you.

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“You’re telling me he just collapsed?! Just like that?!”

Olivia’s high-pitched shrieks weren’t helping Applejack’s already boiling mind, even if they weren’t directed at her. The nurse’s movements grew nervous with every moment that Link spent unconscious. Scattered around the floor were several white sack, some of them evidently ripped open.

Next to her was Lyra, who had yet to awaken from her sleep. Redheart had established that she was out of danger, and that there was little else she could do for the unicorn without the proper equipment. There was a strong, nauseating scent of alcohol in the air, further intensified by its mixture with sweat and the vestiges of charcoal. The farm pony felt like she could just run away, right there, right then. Like Fluttershy had. Celestia knew where that pegasus was by now.

I shouldn’t even be here. Darn you, Twilight, she cursed in her thoughts, stomping a hoof again. She’d done that too many times that night. To make matters worse, she couldn’t find Twilight in the depot anymore, as though the mare had decided to just give up and abandon the whole town.

At last, Redheart stood back on all fours. Everyone surrounding her fell silent, expecting the verdict. Her forlorn expression told them what they needed to know: she didn’t bring good news. “I don’t know what’s wrong with him,” she spoke, her voice dripping with exhaustion. “I’ve never even so much as treated a creature like him, so I don’t know.”

Olivia let out a frustrated groan. “Well, we already know it’s not lupus then, don’t we?”

“It could have been something he ate, o-or it could have been the smoke from the fire! He’s breathing normally, so that rules out the smoke theory! I don’t know! Why don’t you heal him if you’re so smart?!”

“Do I look like a Fairy Sprite to you?!”

“WILL YA BOTH STOP YER YAPPIN’?!” Both the fairy and the nurse settled down at Applejack’s sudden outburst. The farmer looked ready to beat the life out of someone.

Rarity raised an eyebrow at her friend, raising a hoof to touch her shoulder. “Applejack, please, calm d-”

“Like hay Ah’m calmin’ down!” the mare seethed back, swatting the unicorn’s hoof away. “’N why aren’t ya even the least bit concerned?! Yer lil’ sister is in that cursed Everfree Forest ‘n ye’re here helpin’ out somepony ya don’t even know!”

Rarity gasped – an honest gasp, as far as any of the present could tell. “Applejack! Are you implying-”

“Ya know darn well what Ah’m implyin’ here, Rarity!”

Even the ponies in the queues froze in their spot when Rarity’s hoof flew against Applejack’s face in the loudest slap they’d ever heard. The cowpony’s face twisted to the side upon impact, and she very nearly tripped on her own hooves.

“You,” the fashionista began, threateningly approaching Applejack with the same cold, poisonous gaze the earth pony previously possessed. “You don’t know the smallest, most insignificant thing about me and Sweetie Belle.” The tip of Rarity’s muzzle suddenly met Applejack’s. The latter could almost feel the fire that burned within the unicorn at that moment. “So don’t you dare claim such things! Never. Again.”

Rarity moved her head away, her eyes still fixated on the other, speechless mare. Then, just when the unicorn seemed ready to strike again, Applejack closed her eyes and braced for impact. She could have reacted; she could have easily thrown Rarity aside like a ragdoll and then claimed her revenge.

She could have done all that, but she wasn’t thrown to the ground.

Just embraced. Given a share of a warmth she had longed for more than she had realized.

“I know you’re worried,” Rarity’s voice whispered with unexpected calmness. Applejack’s eyes slowly opened when she felt a hoof running through her mane. “But it’s important that we don’t let ourselves get carried away. Besides…” Rarity allowed herself a short, genuine giggle. “Those three are such a strong group… they never give up!”

Applejack smiled too. She had to admit it; those fillies never did know the meaning of giving up.

“Ahem… excuse me?” a third version spoke from behind them. Olivia groaned in annoyance while Rarity softly undid the hug. She turned to find a fatigued Mayor Mare, her spectacles sitting at the very tip of her snout with scratches marking its lens. Rarity had to fight the urge to correct the disaster that was the mare’s unkempt mane. Tilting her head slightly, she could see a young, purple dragon resting on her back, and she felt a little smile tug at her lips. “Does anypony happen to know where Miss Twilight is?”

“I’m afraid not, Mayor. Though I do believe she was here just a moment ago.”

The mare only seemed to get more troubled by that answer, shifting her head left and right while clopping her hooves in quick succession. "This will not do, this will not do... The first train is full, and the second train is nearly... Nearly..." the chieftain acquired a dumbfounded look as she trailed off. "Is that... Miss Twilight?"

Weirded out by her reaction, Rarity turned around again. The whistling of a train brought her attention to a previously unoccupied track.

Head poking out the side of the cab, Twilight approached them inside an old-looking locomotive. Its wheels screeched loudly against the rails as they slid to a halt, sending sparks flying in all directions. After the tram exhaled a dense cloud of vapor, the unicorn emerged.

"Twilight, what is..." Rarity began as soon as her friend reached the platform. She paused a moment later to connect the dots. "Oh. Do not tell me you're planning on doing what I think you're planning."

"Shining is in danger," the other unicorn's voice bled with determination. She briefly glanced at Link. "and he doesn't even know it. I need to get to him."

"But... Whatever will you do?! Twilight, you'll be going against an army! Of monsters, no less!"

"I want to protect him!" she blurted out in a type of anger Rarity had yet to see from her. "If anything happens, I want to be there, by his side!"

"...Ya want t'save yer brother, huh?" Those words, croaked in such a frail, hurt manner, wrung her heart. In trying her best to hide their impact, Twilight gulped and faced Applejack directly. She could swear that the sadness in the cowpony's eyes could kill somepony by staring. "Guess he's somepony important, now."

"Applejack..." Please, don't do this to me...

"Ah get it, though. Guess we all gotta watch for our own, huh?"

"This isn't just about Shining Armor, Applejack... It's about saving the people in VanHoover..." It was a lie, and both of them knew it.

But Applejack, that pony had always had that way of seeing through a pony's words. "Yes it is, Twi." Something about the employment of her nickname was uplifting for the unicorn, though. Twilight hung her head, attempting to divert her gaze from the earth pony.

The sound of hoofsteps on wood proved that Applejack wasn't finished. She could feel that the mare was standing right in front of her. "So ya'll'll get if Ah don't join ya too, right?"

"W-What?!" Twilight immediately remarked, raising her head. Applejack didn't even bear a stern face - she sported a small, sincere smile. "N-No! Applejack, you can't stay!"

"But this ain't about Applebloom." Applejack briefly turned her to the side, seeking Rarity's attention. "It's 'bout savin' three lil' fillies lost in the woods."

“What ‘bout Applebloom?”

The sight of the immense red stallion stepping out of a nearby train car seemed to be all the mare needed for her confidence to be shattered to pieces. Her hat nearly flew off her head when she pounced at him, wrapping her forelegs around his neck before breaking into tears. His usually passive expression immediately turned sour. “She ain’t back yet, Big Mac! Sh-She’s still in the Everfree Forest!”

“Ye mean… ye mean ye didn’t f-find’er?!” The crack of his voice at the last word had probably been the highest pitched tone any of the present had ever heard from him. He carefully pushed Applejack back with a single foreleg to look at her in the eyes. She shook her head sadly. The mere sight of her tear-stained muzzle broke his normally strong heart.

“A-Ah tried, Ah really did…” She huddled in the fur of his chest, resting her head against the underside of his chin. “Ah couldn’t find’er…”

Big Macintosh raised a hoof and distractedly ran it through her back. His mind was obviously elsewhere, as his gaze was fixated on the floor tiles of the train station. The other two mares could only watch from the sidelines, each with a regret of their own filling their mind.

Ponies rushed right past them into the cars that remained available, completely ignorant of what was ensuing in the platform. With a column of thick, black smoke from the train’s chimney came the vehicles boisterous call for its passengers. Looking past the row of evacuees, they could see Pinkie and Fluttershy draw closer in a brisk gallop. They slowed to a halt once the two siblings came into sight. Both newcomers watched them in silence, occasionally searching for answers in the eyes of Twilight and Rarity.

They say that one of the founding mares of Equestria wore a hat made of Deku Nut butter.

The librarian's jaw nearly hit the ground when a sudden headache robbed her of all the strength on her legs. She held her head in her hooves. Her mind took no longer than a second to realize what the cause was: "The barrier spell is weakening! We need to go, NOW!"

“Ah’ll do it,” the red stallion finally spoke.

Applejack swiftly pulled her head back to look up with disbelief. “What in the hay is that s’pposed to mean?!”

The stallion simply smiled. “Don’t ya worry none, lil’ sis.”

Just as he took his first step forward, he felt Applejack tugging at his foreleg. “Big Macintosh, what do ya think yer doin’?!” His grin widened – she really was as stubborn as they come.

“Miss Twilight,” he spoke, his eyes still locked on Applejack’s own. The latter’s expression suddenly grew surprised as he continued, “do make sure ya keep mah sister safe.”

They say that truth is not synonymous with honesty.

“Don’t ya dare doin’ that, Big Macin-UFF!” No sooner was the warning hadn’t uttered than Big Macintosh locked his head against Applejack’s side. A quick flicker of his forelegs and neck later, the mare was tossed aside, and the stallion bolted off the platform in a brisk gallop into the town – and, by extension, the hordes of Stalponies that drew closer with every passing moment.

"BIG MAC! STOP HIM!" The cowpony shouted, scrambling back on her hooves. She was much too late; her brother had already covered much of Ponyville’s terrain, and there was nopony left in its streets to stop his progress. She tried to break into a gallop, but as soon as she raised her forelegs, her hind ones were held in place by her friends. "Let go'a me!! Can't ya see what he's doin'?!"

"Please, Applejack, stop!"

"NO! THAT'S MAH BROTHER!" The humid trails on her muzzle were freshened by new tears, and she struggled as hard as she could to break free, head shifting back and forth between the mares pinning her down and the shrinking red dot in the distance. "BIG MACINTOSH! DON'T DO THIS! DON'T DO THIS T'ME! Ple-e-ease... Stop..."

"Miss Twilight, the train to Appleloosa is full and about to leave!" Mayor Mare's voiced called from behind them.

"Good! Get out of here as soon as you can!" The chieftain nodded and leaped into the train carriage, slamming the door shut behind her. One whistle of its horn later, the train left the station, quickly picking up speed. It safely crossed the barrier, the Stalponies outside now posing no threat to the machine. Good luck...

She had more immediate problems to consider, however. "Fluttershy! Where's Rainbow Dash?"

"I-I couldn't find her! S-She wasn't home!"

Things just can’t go my way today, can they? Twilight thought, grinding her teeth. She approached the restless mare and hollered to the others, "Forget about Rainbow then! Everypony into the train! GO!"

"N-NO!” Applejack suddenly lunged forward, surprising the ponies who held her. It wasn’t enough to release herself from their bind, and the cowpony simply limped to the floor, desperately dragging her hooves on the tiles. “Big Mac! Applebloom! Ah-Ah'm not leavin' them! Can’t ya see what yer doin’ ’ere?!"

The sound of hooves tapping on wood brought her attention to her side. There, with her horn aglow, stood Twilight, bearing a merciful expression as she leaned down and spoke, “I’m sorry for this.”

Before Applejack could even protest, the tip of the horn touched her forehead. The resulting dizziness of the spell caused the mare’s head to bob for a moment. Ultimately, she fell to the ground with her eyes closed, allowing Twilight to take a calming breath. “I’m so sorry.”

She motioned towards the locomotive with her head, and Rarity and Fluttershy complied, picking their friend up on their backs. A quick glance around the depot revealed that Pinkie and Redheart had likely taken care of Lyra and Link, given their absence.

My plan worked, Twilight kept repeating in her mind as she walked into the train. I saved everypony I could. I saved everypony I could.

The distinctive chime Olivia produced in her flight broke the endless string of reassurances. She took one last tentative look at Ponyville. She wished she had discovered the town sooner. That she had discovered her friends sooner.

I’m sorry, everypony.

The train’s horn roared once again, and the wheels began their rhythmical sounds as they moved over the greasy rails. The lavender cupola overhead began to fade to nothingness, and the Stalponies roared in response.

They had already picked up speed when Twilight decided to stare through one of the machine’s windows. Having been granted permission to enter the town, the Stalponies hadn’t hesitated in spreading destruction like wildfire. While Ponyville disappeared behind the hills, light gray threads of smoke were born from an unseen blaze.

When their colors became darker, a flash filled the night skies and a single, massive column of smoke took their place. Twilight felt a lump in her throat as she beheld the burning end of Ponyville.

“You did all you could.” Fluttershy’s voice had never sounded so soft for the unicorn. She felt the pegasus caress her back with a hoof, which Twilight turned into a hug she readily accepted. “I-It’s alright… everything’s gonna turn out alright…”

Rarity flashed a bittersweet smile at the affectionate gesture. In another other occasion, she would have even joined the embrace, perhaps.

Now, as her gaze drifted away from the two mares and down towards the dirt amidst the patterns of the train’s floor panels, she couldn’t bring herself to such actions. Despite her words and deeds, she knew that she couldn’t hold the possible loss of her sister back forever.

Redheart yawned loudly and rested her head on her forelegs. Lyra and Pinkie were right next to her, with the earth pony lending her back for the unicorn to use as a pillow. A hefty bag of medical supplies rested against the wall, along with an extra pile of coal. The fashionista wasn’t about to question the nurse’s decisions in regards to hygiene.

Instead, Rarity found a distraction in Link. She had chosen to leave Applejack close to the boy, and by extension close to her. Olivia had long since perched herself on top of his pointy hat, while his head was carefully placed against Applejack’s mane. She didn’t know much about a Hylian’s body, but Fluttershy had assured it was a comfortable position for him. Once more, she wasn’t about to argue that.

"Poor dear... Look at you..." Almost inadvertently, Rarity began to pick at the boy's clothes with her magic. Their trek had been as kind to him as it had been to Lyra. Here and there, the green was marred by ugly, brown patches of dirt. Leaves and twigs stuck out of the tunic, which Rarity promptly removed.

They say that the gods will hear the cry of a phoenix.

That is, until she picked a particular type of stem that she hadn't noticed before, due to the way its branch shyly stuck out of his boot, even though it was one she dreaded with all her being: a gleaming, blue flower, with dark streaks running down its petals.

A stem of Poison Joke.

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Rainbow groaned mentally. They couldn't have chosen a better time or direction to fly off, could they? It HAD to have been in the exact same night when the sun would never rise, when a crazy powerful storm would torment Equestria, and towards the Frozen North. Droplets of the fierce rain coursed through her body. Her wings felt numb from the increasingly cold weather, but she pressed forward. "Derpy, you sure they went this way?"

She turned to face the grey pegasus mare flying right behind her. Derpy had hung on rather well thus far, at least in comparison to the tales that her weather reports told. She nodded at Rainbow, whipping the rain off her face with a hoof.

Rainbow wasn't too satisfied with the answer; she'd almost wished that Derpy would admit she'd gotten it wrong.

Alas, she hadn't. Rainbow shook her head and steeled herself for what was to come.

Admittedly, Rainbow wasn't the most cultured pony ever. She hadn't been tutored in the ways of physics or geology or any of the sorts like more dedicated ponies like Twilight had been.

But she had something she could brag about, and that was her sense of direction. She knew Equestria's geography like the underside of her hoof, and anypony could ask her the location of just about any Equestrian city or location; she'd know it. When you have a tendency to get carried by the erratic wind currents, you need to know your way back.

It was therefore with great displeasure that she realized that there weren't that many places in this section of the north for anypony with a grain of good sense to hide. In fact, she could only remember one place where any sort of shady business could be conducted.

And that was the massive agglomeration of clouds that was drawing nearer, standing strong against the violent storms of the north. It was a cloud among clouds, a tower of incalculable diameter that pierced the skies above, its top located in heights no sane pegasus dared reach.

Once called the Cloudsdale Temple due to its proximity to said city, the tower had served as a fortress in the days when Commander Hurricane still led the pegasi faction of the Equestrian armies. Rainbow remembered visiting it during her stay at Flight Camp, in a time when the temple was still considered a museum. Having since been closed, the temple was moved away from the city.

She vaguely remembered the aspect of its spiraling halls, filled with small windows and all sorts of traps to keep intruders from barging in. If Dinky had, indeed, been taken into it, then Rainbow didn't want to imagine what those pegasi could be up to.

"I hope this is worth it, Derpy," Rainbow commented, more to herself than to her companion. I really, really do...

Pets of Chaos

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The sound of a cello. It was the most beautiful sound in the world for the mare that stood in the middle of the studio. Her stance was one that required skill and balance, and one she executed with elegance, as was required by a pony of her ranks. Behind her, spread throughout the set of broad stairs, a plethora of ponies held their own instruments. All of them observed their lead player, patiently waiting for their cue in the song.

Her right hoof grasped the bow, and her left was wrapped around the cello's neck. She stood on her hind legs, a position rather infrequent in society. Alas, it was perfect for the purpose it currently served.

She had her eyes closed. More than an instinctual gesture, it was an artist's way of demonstrating entrancement in their works. A pony so enamored with their instrument like her was no exception.

Were any of the present capable of reading her mind, they would discover that today that wasn't the case. Her eyes were being forced shut - however discreetly. Try though she might, her mind was unable to focus on the song she played.

"Octavia?"

She shoved the producer's call to the back of her mind and continued to bow the cello. She knew she could concentrate without his warnings. If only she could ignore the stream of thoughts that kept breaking her focus.

Admittedly, playing for a machine that recorded your sound - and, if she was to be honest, a hooful of ponies - was simply not the same as standing on the stage of a prestigious theatre in front of a crowd of countless important - and regular alike - admirers of music. Perhaps that's what filled her mind.

The producer continued to call her name, oftentimes adding eloquent variants of warnings and curses to his cries.

It was cold outside. Almost exaggeratedly so. She had grown used to the moderate weather of Manehatten in the duration of her short stay. Perhaps it was the irregular climate that was confusing her.

"Octavia!" came the producer's voice in a louder than usual tone.

Or maybe she was truly preoccupied with the success of her business. She couldn't have said no to the invitation of such figures as The Manehattens, now could she?

Of course she could have, but her manager hadn't had the presence of mind to allow it.

The recording studio's door was thrown ajar, effectively snatching Octavia from her private little world. A pegasus stallion trotted in, his movement deliberately wobbly so as to make his skin-tight, tailed black suit flutter behind him as much as possible. His eyes were hidden behind a pair of solemn shades, in a way that heavily reminded Octavia of a certain other mare.

Unlike that certain pony's carefree nature, however, her producer was the definition of strictness. 'No bread for crazy people', as her manager had put it. She had never really understood that Trottuguese pony's expressions.

She lowered the bow as soon as their stares met, and promptly looked away. "Would Miss Octavia mind explaining what exactly is the problem today?"

Octavia chose not to reply. Not even she knew what was wrong.

Instead, she carefully set her treasured cello on its stand and moved directly towards the exit.

"Miss Octavia! I will have you know that you are violating the terms of our contract!" the producer threatened. The door closed behind her, and the stallion was no longer within earshot.

The studio's long, pristine white halls stretched ahead of her. A chilling breeze blowed, likely from a crack in one of the many windows that composed the wall to her left, allowing a perfect view of the streets below. There was a thin layer of snow accumulating on their sills, much like on the rooftops of the seaside metropolis. She shivered, immediately regretting having stormed out of the recording room without first picking up her winter coat. A ribbon was far from ideal for that frosty environment.

She sighed and pressed on through the halls. She needed a break. "...I need a coffee."

The sweet, saliva-inducing scent of the cafeteria greeted her no less than a few steps from the end of the corridor. Her stomach grumbled, manifesting its need for food. She wasn't sure what time it was, but after spending all night trapped inside a recording room, any time was good for a meal. Especially if it meant keeping her awake.

The area was mostly devoid of ponies. Save for the employee behind the counter (who's head bobbed forward occasionally, causing the light red aura that enveloped a delicate glass cup to flicker), she could see no pony else. At least, no ponies that were awake, given that some of the tables were actually occupied by snoring equines, often with drinks spilled over the tabletops.

She leisurely approached the clerk, taking her time to soak in the cafeteria's warmth. There was no rush; her producer could wait.

"Excuse me," she spoke, startling the stallion out of his near-slumbering state. "May I have a cup of coffee, please?"

He eyed her in confusion for a moment, his mind still trying to catch up. Then, with a firm shake of his head, he mouthed an apology and trotted off. Octavia sighed for what seemed the millionth time that night and sat on one of the pillows that surrounded a nearby table.

There was a murmur of a machine in the air. For a mare so used to composition and to the gentle sound of her cello almost constantly caressing her mind, this nightly silence bothered her. It wasn't the respectful quietness of a crowd that listened to the dying notes of a melody - it was a much more eerie, grave void.

Just like in her dreams, in the fantasies that accompanied her throughout the night ever since she arrived to the city. She always found herself in the same frozen wasteland, wielding her signature instrument to face a towering beast that hid in the dark clouds of the snowstorm. She felt fear eating away at her mind, but she somehow remained impassible. Standing on her hind legs to support the cello, she would face the ponies she didn't even know were next to her and wait for their signal. A wave of their hoof would tell her to start playing. When the monster was in front of her, the bow would strike the cello and-

"Octy! He-hey!" Octavia's head shot up at the voice's call. It was distinctively female, yet too guttural to be so. The unique mixture that made it sound so familiar, should the use of her nickname not be a dead giveaway.

"Should you not be recording as well, Vinyl?" she deadpanned at the white unicorn across the table.

"Yeah, well, one of the tables broke, and they're tryin' ta fix it." Octavia raised an eyebrow, inciting Vinyl to roll her eyes. "Fine, I broke it, whatever! Maybe they should get some better ones!" The earth pony added a frown to her features, to which the other mare replied with a groan. "You're a pain in the flank, Octy."

"You say that like it's a bad thing." A cup of steaming hot coffee was placed on the table, and Octavia gave a grateful nod to the dozy employee. In any other occasion, she would have considered the fact that he hadn't delivered it himself a lack of respect, but given both of their states, she turned a blind eye. As she'd witnessed in Canterlot, some earth ponies could get rather picky about how unicorns use their magic as an advantage that their psychic-less relatives would never have.

She found the whole thing pointless, and she couldn't argue, either. Especially not with how often she ran into a certain unicorn.

"How was your stay in Canterlot?" the earth pony asked, playing with the mug.

"It was... eventful." Octavia raised an eyebrow at the choice of word. "So, how're you liking Manehatten?"

Octavia sighed, carefully pulling the cup closer. She pulled her hoof back at the first touch with a quiet complaint, earning herself a much noisier laugh from Vinyl. "It's cold."

"Sure it is, Octy." A light blue glow enveloped the cup, and it floated closer to the cellist. "You just gotta get used to it."

Octavia felt her mouth curving downwards, but forced it back to a neutral expression. "Says the bat mare."

"'Sides, we've had worse. That little snowstorm's just a taste of how REALLY bad winter can be here."

"I would much rather have had it if this demonstration had happened while I was not around."

"Yeah, I tried to get the weather ponies to clear the skies just for you, but they said you were cursed with bad weather."

Octavia smirked, raising her forelegs to grab the cup. "What would my stay here be without you?"

"A totally boring one, I'll bet!"

So very true...

Silence fell upon them while Octavia sipped the drink as leisurely as possible. With the increasingly nervous producer breathing down her neck, Celestia knew when she would have another one of these.

She stole a glance at the DJ, whose gaze was directed at the windows across the dining area. For the first time, she considered the possibility that she had been the pony in her dreams.

That is silly, though. It's just a silly dream. She inadvertently shook her head. Heh... Monsters...

"Penny for your thoughts, Octy?" Focusing on what she was seeing again, she noticed that Vinyl's muzzle was just inches away from her own, sporting an amused smile. "Wait, you sell them for a bit, right?"

"I-I..." she stuttered, placing the empty cup down. Octavia took a moment to regain her composure and drove Vinyl's face away with a hoof. "I was just... enjoying the coffee."

"And I'm the Queen of Neigland. Octavia." The cellist raised her eyes towards the other mare. Much to her surprise, Vinyl bore a concerned frown. One of her hooves were outstretched to reach hers. "What's up? You have that look like when your chell thingy's chords don't agree with you."

Had this happened with somepony else, Octavia would have promptly dismissed her less-than-jovial manners as the effect of too many nights of barely any sleep.

This was Vinyl she was talking about, though. There was no dissuading this mare of her goals, she'd come to realize throughout the years. Right now, she knew that the eyes behind those large purple glasses were staring into hers in a grimace that begged for answers. With a defeated sigh, she reached out for the unicorn's hoof. "I have been having these... Dreams..."

Vinyl's brow furrowed much more than Octavia had expected. "Dreams?"

"Yes, it's... I am always in a snowy field, in the eye of a storm... There is something in the fog, and there is somepony else there too."

"Me?" Vinyl answered. The hopefulness in her tone was almost palpable.

"I am not sure..." The cellist gently stroked her pastern with her hoof. "But I wish it was you."

The unicorn smiled warmly in response, mimicking the gesture. "I'm sure they're just dreams, Octy. Besides," Her glasses floated from the bridge of her muzzle, allowing Octavia to see the purple irises they hid. "What kind of monster would face you?"

Octavia immediately smacked the hoof she'd been holding, causing Vinyl to pull it back in a pain as feigned as her regretful pout. The cellist giggled. She knew that deep down, there was no way she could ever get truly angry at the other mare.

"I must be going," she said with a tone of finality, rising to her four hooves. "The ensemble will want my neck if I don't show up."

"Sounds like ya got your hooves full," Vinyl commented, resting her head on the table.

"I'm afraid so." Octavia gave a tired sigh and turned to leave. Then, with the slightest stutter, she said, "Meet you - ahem - after the session?"

"You know it, Octy." Vinyl couldn't see it, but she was certain that her friend was blushing. Rather furiously, at that. The cellist gave a choked cough and started back to the studio.

Vinyl watched the mare leave. The way she assured that her face was visible from any angle but Vinyl's only made the jockey's grin grow broader. Once she was out of her sight, she sighed contentedly.

"Heh, Octy and her shenanigans..."

"Miss Scratch." The sheer presence of the voice completely robbed the mare of her happiness. Vinyl slowly turned around, conjuring what she hoped was an intimidating scowl. The business-suit-clad, tan-coated mare behind her remained as stoic as Vinyl remembered. "It has been a while. You have been creating relationships, I see."

"Yeah, well, not all of us are hollow shells. Kinda like you, Noc." The crimson-eyed unicorn didn't so much as frown in response. Her mouth remained a perfectly straight line at all times. Vinyl had the feeling that was the reason why she didn't like her.

"You understand, Vinyl, the danger of-"

"Yeah, yeah, compromise and duty." Vinyl sighed in exasperation. "Look, I know my boundaries, Nocturnal. You don't have to keep tabs on me like I'm a little filly."

"You, above all others, should know that I wholeheartedly trust you." Mother of Celestia, how can she say that without smiling?

Nocturnal circled the table and took Octavia's seat. Her graying blue mane, efficiently tied in a ponytail, bounced with her every step. "But with the cataclysm that Equestria is currently enduring, I cannot tolerate distractions."

"I want. To. Protect her."

Her voice grew more aggressive. "Your loyalties lie with the Princesses, Vinyl." Finally, some emotion! "One pony will not make the difference!"

"Exactly! So I won't make the difference either!"

Nocturnal's lips slowly formed a frown. She remained quiet, her eyes shifting in the slightest way possible, as though she were examining the mare facing her. Vinyl had crossed the line, and both knew it.

"Vinyl. Do you recall why I allowed you to leave Hollow Shades?"

Vinyl's brow furrowed. "Because my training was complete." Nocturnal continued to glance directly into her eyes. After sufficient time, Vinyl rolled her eyes and groaned, "Because I..." Her expression softened. "Wanted to study music."

"And what did I say?"

The jockey moaned in resignation. She hated when she couldn't have her way. "...so long as I wasn't needed."

"The façade is over now, Vinyl." Nocturnal rose to her hooves and walked to Vinyl's side. A soft red glow enveloped her horn, with which she touched the other mare's forehead before retreating. "Meet me at the pier after you are done. And Vinyl?" Vinyl's response was a barely audible grunt. "Do see Miss Octavia off safely."

Whatever the suited mare had meant with her parting statement, Vinyl never got the chance to ask. When she turned to talk, Nocturnal was already gone.

She let her head rest over her hooves, her snout just narrowly missing the tabletop as it fell. Noc has the worst times to pop up.

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For as far as the eye could see, Applebloom was faced with a low-hanging layer of golden white fog. That was, perhaps, the best way to describe that almost heavenly place. Everywhere she looked, the yellowish hue of the clouds was all that met her sight. Snow softly fell from the skies above.

"Hello?" she tentatively called. It wasn't her voice, she realized afterwards. In fact, there had been no sound whatsoever, no echo to be heard reverberating across that empty field of clouds. Despite this, she had to be persistent. "Is anypony there?"

"Where am I?" She paused. There was no accent to characterize her words, she realized. And hadn't she just thought that exact same question?

She wasn't afraid, though. As vast and desolated as this field was, fear was not one of the feelings it inspired in her.

In the blink of an eye - literally so - a shape appeared just in front of her. It was evidently an earth pony stallion, a bulky one at that. Aside from the glistening rubies for eyes and ghostly body of vibrant golden colors, he possessed no other features: there was no mane or tail to be seen, or even a trace of an expression on his muzzle. A glowing sphere occupied the center of his body, apparently giving the stallion a shape.

In his teeth was the hilt of a sword as long as the young Apple was from muzzle to tail. Its edges we're tattered in several points, and cracks ran across its blade, but the weapon lost none of its intimidating factor. With a flick of his head and neck, the blade quietly pierced the cloudy floor, freeing his mouth.

"Filly who dares face the forces of evil," he spoke as he marched forward. "Applebloom."

She felt her body straighten up almost reflexively at the sound of her name. In spite of the lack of proper irises in the stallion's eyes, it was clear to her that she was being studied.

Finally, the stallion's head lowered towards hers, and he spoke, "I sense... Great promise in you. But," he added as if to correct himself. "Also a great deal of... Sadness? Disappointment? I cannot rightfully tell..."

Applebloom released a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding when his head pulled away. His gaze turned to the clouds in the distance. "Their ways are unclear. Your arrival to my hooves should only serve to confirm that."

"They?"

"Spirits greater than any of us. Them who crafted the lands and the skies, breathing life to their servants. We are their playthings, yet we serve them without questioning. To them we are puppets, characters with a mark that symbolizes their role. But sometimes, even they cannot control everything. After all, you exist." Applebloom pointed a hoof at herself, and the stallion nodded. "Because of you, the gods are at loss. You are the variable they forgot. And because of that, your fate has yet to be determined. With this blade," The stallion illustrated his point by removing the sword from the ground. "I will help you forge that fate."

"I... But..." Applebloom managed to stutter. "I don't want to-"

"To fight?" the stallion cut in. "Then what purposhe do you plan on giving to the shword on your back?"

"Sword? But I didn't..." She stopped at the motion of the stallion's forelegs. The pressure of a belt that ran down her chest suddenly became noticeable. Something had been strapped against her back. It was a scabbard.

"What will you do with it?" he spoke, pointing at the wooden pommel that stuck out from under her cape. "You may try to delay it, but the time when you will be needed draws ever closer. You arrived here for a reashon."

“I just wanted help…” Applebloom forlornly confessed, studying what little she could see of the hilt.

The stallion raised an eyebrow in a questioning manner, looking down at the filly. “Help, you shay?”

Seeing an opportunity to get away, the young pony quickly exposed her situation. “My friends were taken away… I just asked for somepony’s help, not… not to learn how to kill!”

“I shee.”

Before Applebloom could say another word, the stallion’s head arched back and swung the sword forward with another flick. With no time to react, Applebloom closed her eyes.

“The foul beastsh in the Everfree Foresht,” the stallion spoke again as the cold edge of the blade touched the fur of her neck. She shivered at the contact. “would not have heshitated to carry thish move out.”

The sword slowly removed itself, and Applebloom mentally heaved a sigh. The high-pitched screech of the sword penetrating the ground made the filly cringe. “Your friends are with those fiends, now. They are being guarded by heartless, merciless carapaces with a thirst for naught but bloodshed. Should you not hurry, then it is very possible that they, too, will count themselves as one of them.” The stallion pushed his snout against hers and continued, “That is their fate unless you act.”

He gave a heavy snort and briskly pulled away. The stomp of a hoof prompted the filly to open her eyes. “So I ask again, Applebloom! Will you let such ill-mannered events take place?!”

“No!”

“Will you allow the gods to decide what becomes of you?! What becomes of your friends?!”

“No!”

“Will you do whatever it takes to protect them?”

“I… I will!”

“Then let teachings of old pass to you! Take sword in hoof and fight me!”

Fueled by some newfound courage, Applebloom tasted the wooden pommel and unsheathed the blade in a single, fluid movement. Without a moment’s hesitation, she leaped towards the stallion and swung.

Her ‘tutor’ easily caught it between his hooves, but she didn’t give up. Slash after slash, she felt that she was closer. One by one, the stallion successfully blocked her strikes. “I’m going to save Sweetie Belle. I’m going to save Scootaloo,” she kept muttering to herself as though those words were the source of her power.

“Find your enemy’s weaknesses!” the stallion’s voice reverberated across the fields. Applebloom had grown invulnerable to his booming warnings, however. The world was a massive white and yellow blur to her eyes. Only her target remained focused, clear as crystal. “Use your wits!”

His last words had barely left his lips when Applebloom ducked and ran right between the stallion’s legs. Once behind him, she unleashed her best impression of a war cry and jumped onto his broad back, rearing up and raising her sword to strike.

“A sword wields no strength unless the hoof that holds it has courage…” he managed to speak just as the sword dug straight through his back. Time itself slowed to an imperceptible pace as the edge of the blade pierced the specter’s core. The explosion of lights that followed left Applebloom in a world of empty whiteness, one where the stallion’s last breath echoed. “Remember those words…” they said…

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"And this, young pegasi, is an example of the armor that our ancestors wore when there was a problem in Equestria! Does anypony know when the pegasi started fabricating plate armor?"

"Oh! Oh!"

Rainbow rolled her eyes and groaned, tuning out of the conversation. There was always some egghead who knew all the answers. The filly wished they would just chill sometimes.

Trapped in a museum. Just the perfect way to spend a sunny day - one of the few that the weather ponies had allowed in the previous week. She began to study the expositions all around her, though absentmindedly so. She really couldn't care less for the year when somepony thought it was a good idea to melt steel and shape it like a foal playing with plasticine.

She had to admit, the Cloudsdale Temple was cool. It had all sorts of awesome stuff: cool armors, bows with wicked designs, and paintings of ponies striking epic poses with a stormy background. Cool ponies don't look at explosions! she used to say.

So why did the theoretical flight instructors have to make it look so boring?

"Caught the nerd syndrome, Dash?"

"You wish, G," she answered, glaring at the griffon beside her in mock anger. Ready to prove her point, she raised her small frame off the ground and hovered to the top of a glass cabinet. With a deep inhale, she puffed her chest and did her best impression of the pony in the painting behind her. "How's this?"

"Pfft, not nearly as cool as me!" Gilda called from a sumptuous chair on the other side of the hall. She sat down and dramatically turned her head upwards, as though she was the ruler of the two pegasus ponies that flanked the throne-like seat. "All bow before Queen Gilda!"

"Rainbow Dash! Gilda!" The prank-happy twosome cringed at the call. Their group was already at the end of the hall, while their instructor was storming towards them with her wings flared. "Come down here this instant!"

"Aw," Rainbow still moaned. Any attempts at dissuading the pegasus on the ground proved fruitless, as the mare's frown heightened. "You're no fun, miss Cloudstrider."

"Yeah, why do we have to stay cooped in this mushy old place?" Gilda added, joining The rainbow maned filly on the ground.

"Because," the mare began with the calmest tone she could manage. She was used to this kind of behavior, especially from two rowdy students like Rainbow and Gilda. It just took the right words to spur their motivation. "We want to learn about how the pegasi came to Equestria. AND," she added just before the twosome could open their mouths to complain. She gestured them to come closer to her, and then whispered, "Because we want to see if we can find Commander Hurricane's great secret treasure!"

She smiled as Rainbow's mouth formed a small circle. "Treasure?" When Cloudstrider gave a little nod, the filly began to ecstatically shake Gilda. "Did you hear that, G?! There's some real big treasure stashed here!"

The mare winced slightly at Gilda's passive response. "But we have to very, very quiet about it! We don't want every pony to go after it too!"

"You can count on me, miss Cloudstrider!" Rainbow spoke, giving her instructor a salute. "I won't tell anypony!"

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"Junior Speedsters are our lives, Sky-bound soars and daring dives..."

The sound of Rainbow's voice echoed briefly throughout the lifeless halls, ricocheting on their cloud walls before finally disappearing. A quiet whistle would then take its place, and very occasionally, the creaking of a structure in the floors above would accompany the wind's melody.

The once white mantles that had been thrown over the cupboards and expositions danced as the breeze reached them. They had long since grown stained by the forces of Nature.

Surrounding them were barriers composed of velvet rope, used to keep the tourists at bay. Not anymore; there was, after all, barely any pony who was still interested in this type of thing. Or, at least, so thought Rainbow. Yet she found herself here, offering absentminded stares at the yellowed covers and rusty armors.

Derpy had yet to speak up. The only guarantee that Rainbow had that she was still following was the sound of her breath. She would spread her wings sometimes, folding them afterwards and carrying on.

"Derpy," Rainbow quietly spoke after an emboldening sigh. Derpy answered with an inquisitive grunt. "How's... how's Cloudsdale?"

The gray pegasus uttered nonsensical sounds for a moment. There were many ways in which the question had taken her by surprise. She chose to temporarily choke back her concerns and give a proper answer.

"I-It's... Bad..." She heard Rainbow gulp, perhaps more loudly than the mare had wanted or expected. "These really bad ponies appeared and started doing bad things to everypony's house... Then they... They..."

Neither one spoke anymore. They soon reached the end of the hall, where the first shaft of upward-bound stairs had its entrance. The twosome easily trespassed the fine cord of royal colors, ignoring the obscene amount of papers plastered all over the walls, stating that the area was out of limits.

Rainbow idly wondered just how many of these shafts they would have to take until they reached Dinky or the top of the fortress, whichever came first. An estimate made on the spot told her that no less than fifty of them remained, a number that tired Rainbow for just thinking about it.

She got her answer when they reached the second floor. All traces the first one had of vague maintenance were completely gone here. Large bits of clouds were missing from the ceiling, and all sorts of old pamphlets and papers filled the floor. Almost all of the shelves were toppled over, along with every other part of the exposition.

It was the third floor - which both silently had agreed to access via the shortcut they'd been provided - that truly gave away for just how long the tower's doors hadn't been opened. There were no more fancy decorations meant to set the limits for the tourists, nor blankets thrown over fragile glass lockets. The wind blew more fiercely here, thanks both to its greater height and to the oval windows that dotted either side of the corridor.

"Rainbow Dash..." Derpy called in a hushed tone, head hanging low. "I-I don't like this place..."

"Don't like it anymore than you do, Derpy."

A quick look up revealed that there were many more holes in the ceilings of the following floors, most of them lined perfectly. Had Rainbow had to guess, she would have said that something had tumbled down the tower and through the floor. Something about twice as large as a pony. She gulped at the thought of such a beast wandering loose in the fortress.

"We'll go up," the pegasus decided, already taking off. "If Dinky's in any of these floors, we'll see her."

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"Ooookay, everypony, let's try this again. Miss Octavia, for heaven's sake, please focus this time." Octavia let the spiteful comment pass and gave a professional nod. The pegasus flexed his wings with a relived sigh.

Turning to the pony at the sound control, he received another nod. "Alright, let's do Cara Mia one more time. Casserole, you aren't stressing the word 'scienza' correctly. It's schi-EN-zah, not schien-ZAH." A light brown-maned mare in the ensemble bobbed her head in recognition, eliciting another sigh from the producer. "We're on a tight schedule as is, and our... benefactors... want this rehearsed and recorded before Hearth's Warming Eve."

The ensemble gave a more or less unison grunt of acknowledgement, and the producer stomped his hooves. "Perfect! Now, without further delay..."

One of the staff members signaled Casserole with both forelegs, lowering one, then the other in a timed fashion before hitting one of the console's many buttons.

All eyes turned to the five second countdown on a tiny screen just above the glass that separated the recording room from the production team. When it hit zero, Octavia closed her eyes and dutifully began to play her part. A voice chanted the lyrics of the song in her mind, assuring the cellist that she was on the right track. The cello's melody faded, and another harmonious sound took its place. The singing mare's voice was mesmerizing, she admitted to herself.

Casserole's voice faded with the delicacy of a dying flame. Her cue arrived again, and Octavia intently bowed the cello while the rest of the ensemble followed her lead.

A cold breeze that wafted over the studio prompted her to open her eyes. The producer was arguing with a fellow employee, who in turn was clearly yelling at a pony that was hidden by the room's open door. Her employer trembled visibly, picking his coat up with his wings to put it on.

Cold... A field of snow...

"...Addio..." Casserole's voice rang increasingly low. The entire orchestra stopped momentarily, as planned. When they resumed, the song had a whole new vibrance.

Their enthusiasm died shortly after. Octavia found herself playing on her own under the baffled gaze of the performers and their producer.

"Octavia, what are you doing?!" a fellow performer whispered in her ear.

"Urgh, not again..." somepony else groaned. The cellist frowned; why didn't they do their job instead of wasting time bothering her?

"Would you please focus on the song?" she scolded back.

"How're we gonna do that when somepony's not even playing the right one?!"

Octavia's ear twitched. Not playing the right one?

"Octavia!!"

The cellist shot her head forward and gasped. Though they were certainly not that different, what met her was not a fuming producer who could maim her right there and then.

It was a towering monster in the midst of a snowstorm. Its eyes shimmered in the darkness with a sickly yellow color, with a pair of disproportionate red circles for irises. Her song ceased with a screeching noise. She found herself staring up open mouthed.

"Octavia!" the monster bellowed, its voice so guttural that the very ground shook.

Desperate, she turned to her side. As always, the other pony was there to guide her. It waved a hoof and flared its wings at the monster - it was a pegasus this time?

Octavia wasted no time: immediately, the bow struck the cello's strings. This melody she recognized from her dreams. The monster reacted just as she'd expected. It unleashed a pained scream and reeled back to the tempestuous bowls of the storm.

"Octy!"

"Vinyl?"

"Who let that blasted mare in here again?!"

As if she had awoken from a dream, the snowstorm faded back to the warm interior of the studio. Vinyl was on the other side of the glass, pawing desperately at the door to try and pry it open.

Weirder still than that image was the way Vinyl was dressed. From shoulder to hoof, her legs were wrapped in bandages, and a thick coat hid the rest of her body, leaving only her head and vivid blue mane poking out.

"What is she wearing..." the cellist thought at the unusual garments.

Behind her, her producer was climbing the walls. Ponies ran from one side of the room to the other in a frenzy. Some attempted to remove Vinyl from her position, but the unicorn promptly kicked them back.

Seeing that all of her attempts had failed, Vinyl stepped back, and her horn lit up. The door was blasted apart by an explosion of light, and Vinyl galloped in. Octavia barely had time to realize what was going on when the jockey tackled her into a hug.

"Vinyl, what are you doing in here?!" The cellist found her efforts to push her friend away swatted. She really had more strength than she let on.

"Octy, we need to leave!"

"OCTAVIAAA!!" It was no beast calling her name this time. "Octavia, you are FIRED! I'm gonna make sure your sorry flank isn't hired ANYWHERE in Equestria EVER AGAIN!!" the pegasus stallion roared from the room. This time, Octavia managed to shove Vinyl off of her. She ran towards the room, but the producer was long gone into his office. "And will somepony do something about that damned window already?!"

"Sir, I-I..." she still stuttered, scraping at the door with her hooves. Vinyl quickly caught up to her, clenching her teeth around her friend's tail.

"Come on, Octy, we gotta go!"

Tired of the unicorn's now constant pushes, Octavia spun on her hind legs and summoned her inherently superior strength to shove Vinyl away. The latter recovered surprisingly well from the rather intense blow. "I am not going anywhere with you, Vinyl! Can you not see what you've done?! Of all the absurd things you've ever done, this is the most-"

"There's no time to explain! We just need to leave!"

"I said I am not leaving with you! Just go away and stay away, Vinyl!"

Something crashed. A bloodcurdling scream pierced right through the twosome's argument, calling their attention back to the office behind Octavia. The cellist only got to glance back at the door before leaping to Vinyl's side with a hushed 'Eep!'.

A thin layer of ice was rapidly spreading outwards from under the door like a pool of water, causing the room's red carpet to be encased in a mantle of whiteness. Vinyl's brow furrowed, and she turned to Octavia. "This is why we gotta leave!"

Octavia raised a trembling hoof to talk, but Vinyl readily stopped her by blocking her mouth with her leg. "We gotta go!"

"I am not leaving without a reasonable explanation!" the earth pony yelled back after wiping her hoof away. For the first time since she'd known Vinyl, the unicorn seemed to take offense at the gesture. There was no playful pout on her features; the hurt behind the frown was very real.

"Fine, you want the explanation? Well everypony's gonna die! There's a Celestia-damned snowstorm - hay, this ain't even a snowstorm! - that's destroying the city!" For some moments, the room was dead-silent. Vinyl knew what she'd done. She chose not to face the rest of the ponies; they were short on time as it was.

She jumped to action at the sound of a thump on the door, placing herself between the obstacle and Octavia with her teeth bared and horn alight. The beats became faster and more numerous.

Her horn burst with light when both doors were blasted open. Octavia found her legs wrapped around Vinyl as she held on against the ferocious gale that suddenly blew from the exits. Under the frightened cries of the ponies and the deafening roar of the snowstorm, she could hear the jockey pronouncing something in a strained voice.

Her ears perked up when she heard a neigh. Numerous neighs, from everywhere at the same time. No hooves to be heard, not even the faintest trace of movement.

"V-Vinyl..." she shakily asked. "What's g-going on?"

"The Windigos... Hnng... are attacking Manehatten!"

"Windigos?!" The creatures were well-known to any pony who was remotely familiar with Equestria's history. Octavia, once the prized student at the Canterlot University, easily recalled the typical foal tale of Hearth's Warming Eve and the sordid details she'd been taught regarding the creatures. How they only appeared in times of conflict, how they mercilessly froze everything they attacked.

She squinted as if it would allow her to see through the fog. All she could see was the silhouette of a pony rearing up. Unmoving. As if it had been... Petrified. "Why would Windigos attack us?!"

"I've got my guesses. Now hang on, I'm tryin' to get us outta here!"

"Get us out of here? Ho-" Another explosion of light from Vinyl's horn brought upon a drastic change of scenery. Octavia rubbed her forehead as though it had been the horn she didn't have that had cast the spell.

They stood on the frosted remains of one of the building's floors. The violence of the indoor storm in the higher floors caused the walls to shudder. Finally away from the Windigos, Octavia let Vinyl go. The cellist looked away, hoping - in vain - to hide the warmth that crept to her cheeks.

Something was different in Vinyl, though. She noticed this now that the mare turned to her, having chipped a large bit of her shades’ purple lenses. “Vinyl… your eyes…”

The jokey raised an eyebrow. “What about them?”

“They’re… they’re red…”

Vinyl remained still for a moment, until her pupils shrank in realization. She muttered something under her breath and sharply turned around. The spectacles floated up in the womb of a light blue cloud, and the glass began to regenerate itself.

“It’s… a family thing.”

“But… they weren’t like that before…”

"Octavia..." Part of her hoped that Vinyl's sudden stop and gaping mouth were attributed to some sort of romantic epiphany, given how she was looking in her direction.

She only realized that the jockey was focused on the window behind her when it was too late.

Bang bang BANG!

One by one, the windows were reduced to piles of broken glass, allowing the equine-like spirits of chaos to gallop inside. The ground was coated with a fresh layer of snow and ice. Before long, Vinyl found herself held down by icy cuffs.

Octavia fared no better; her panicked screams were swallowed entirely by the combination of the mutinous neighs of the Windigos with the storm's own bellows. Vinyl tried to call for her, and did capture her attention at some point, but she knew just as well as the cellist that there was little either one could do now. The ice casing crawled up the bodies of the two musicians, its unrelenting nature having already rendered Vinyl's legs motionless.

Its progress halted at the echo of a laugh. It was a deep, mischievous guffaw that the Windigos apparently took as a sign to stop. They simply stood, leaving their azure spectral bodies to float in the air. While Vinyl was relieved to see how little the ice had affected Octavia, the jockey mentally groaned at how much reduced her neck's freedom now was.

It was a very short-lived relief, she soon realized. The ice around Octavia's hooves cracked and shattered. The earth pony found herself floating in the air.

Immobilized by the invisible grip of magic, Octavia hastily squirmed to see who her kidnapper was. The hardships of her dreams rushed back to her mind when those same, shimmering yellow jewels met her gaze. She should have known that the uncannily devilish laugh could only belong to a draconequus like Discord.

"Well well! That was no fun!" he spoke, floating closer to her. “Running away from me? Those aren’t the rules of our game!”

Octavia felt her heart drop to her stomach when she noticed how far away from the Manehatten streets they were. It was a fall that not even a pegasus could withstand. She'd encountered the chimera, however indirectly, when he decided to turn Canterlot into a feast of flying bricks and sentient banners. Her body trembled at the remembrance of hopping from brick to brick just so she could get home.

Right now, pranks didn't seem to be what Discord was up to. Aside from the thick layer of ice and randomly distributed stalagmites, everything seemed to be in place in Manehatten. Aware as she was of Discord's potential, she knew better than to question his motives.

"Let go of her, Discord!" Vinyl’s voice broke through her focus.

Discord was less than unfazed by her demands, even resuming his fit of laugher. "Is that the best you can come up with? 'Let go of her'? That is so generic!"

"Why don't'cha let me go and I'll show you how generic I am?"

"Reverse psychology! Very good, miss Scratch!" Discord teleported to her side in a flash to reward the jokey with a pat on the head. Vinyl still tried to move her head away, but the ice won the struggle. "But, you see, I can't do that! My friends from the north are very hungry, and I would much rather let them have the meal they were denied years ago!" One of the Windigos approached the chimera and rubbed its head against his side with a contented neigh. "And let's not forget our friend here – even though we both know she’s a bit more than that, yes?” he added, moving a little closer to Vinyl’s ear, but speaking just loud enough for Octavia to hear. When he was done mentally elbowing her, he drifted back to the cellist. “It has been a great deal of time since I last heard a pony play that song!"

“I know not what you speak of!”

“Oh my, we have a fancy mare!” He snapped his lion-like fingers, and a golden monocle and wooden smoking pipe were summoned. Despite his initially pompous composure, Discord quickly lost control of his tone. “Do tell me more, miss Octavia. Tell me of that little ballad you so disrespectfully played in my PRESENCE!!”

“I know nothing about it! And as it seems, even if I did know anything, then perhaps it would be in my best interest to keep that information to myself!”

The tinniest smile tugged at Vinyl’s lips, much unlike Discord’s progressively angered frown. Throwing the accessories away without a care, he lounged toward the cellist as if to strike. All he managed to do was keep an eagle-like claw pinned to her chest. “I see foolishness runs with the song! Why not allow me to wipe that silly grin right off your snout?”

Another snap of his fingers, and the Windigos moved again. They formed a tight circle around the earth pony, and began to draw circles around her.

“Enjoy the sight while it lasts, Vinyl!” the draconequus triumphantly shouted. “Let us see how precious your marefriend’s smile looks when it’s trapped in ice!”

True to his word, the Windigos began to work their magic. It took only a matter of laps around her for the very fur of her coat to utterly ice over. “Vinyl!!” she still tried to call. Her cries were subdued by Discord’s own mirth.

“Let go of her, you monster!”

“Are you, by any chance, aware of how a Windigo’s power operates?” he asked nonchalantly, ignoring her question. Taking her moment of hesitation as an answer, he continued, “In times of conflict, the Windigos thrive! It is their bread of every day!”

“Vinyl!! Help me! Please!!”

“The greater the magnitude of said conflict, the more aggressive that clash becomes, the more powerful they become. The winter they cause, the ice that follows in their wake… it becomes stronger, more durable! And do you know who the best source of anarchy in all of Equestria – nay, the world! – is?” The Windigos finally spread out, and Discord lied down next to Vinyl as they waited for the storm clouds to clear. Vinyl’s ear twitched at the coldness of the spirit’s breath. “It’s me. Discord.”

As though it had been sculptured from a block of ice by the hooves of the most experienced of craftsponies, the likeness of Octavia came into sight. One of her forelegs was outstretched in Vinyl’s direction, and her eyes and mouth were wide open in a scream that never was. Minuscule icicles hung from her chin. Tiny beads still fell from their tips, salty droplets like the ones that coursed down Vinyl’s muzzle.

Never satisfied with mischief, Discord flew closer to the statuette and ran a finger down the side of its head. The resulting screech of his claws against the ice stung Vinyl’s heart like red-hot iron rods. “Beautiful, is it not?”

“H-How could you…”

“Aw… did I make the little filly cry?” Discord dramatically pressed his lower lip outward. “Wait, I have an idea!”

No commands were needed this time around. The Windigos flew down, preparing to initiate their spell while flying around the jockey.

“Why don’t you join her?” the draconequus completed his thoughts, grabbing the ice sculpture off the air and leaving it under his arm.

Not a sound was heard from Vinyl as the mythical horses finished what they had started. When they finally pulled away, the statue of a spectacled mare glancing distraughtly at the floor was all that was left. Discord allowed himself a quiet chuckle. This one isn’t going anywhere.

“You know your jobs! Freeze the entire eastern coast and return to the Frozen North!” Discord shouted down. The Windigos nodded with the unanimity of a machine and flew away in all directions. With them gone, Discord took a more careful look at his first prize. We shall see which one of us laughs last, Celestia.

He glanced back at Vinyl as a safety precaution. It had been rather fun for him to destroy her life in front of her eyes. It was the sort of chaos that always guaranteed his satisfaction.

No time to dilly-dally! he thought, casting a toothy grin at Octavia. There was a place in the mountaintops reserved just for this frosty gem. He giddily laughed at the thought of how good it would look. His flight back home would be filled with guesses on the best accessory to give it.

What he never got to see was the silent crumbling of the jockey’s statue.

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“By Celestia… what is this place…” Rainbow muttered in astonishment. Her eyes hadn’t left the ceilings since their arrival to the topmost floor of their shortcut.

The special stone that composed them – which she knew only as plumitite – was rich with drawings, not unlike the stained glass walls of the Temple of Time. In sharp contrast with the colorful windows, Cloudsdale Temple’s runes were depicted only in black and a dark shade of orange.

Aside from the heroic pegasi that wielded their bows and stood at the arrow slits to face their foes from within the fortress, the mare found one symbol that every single etching sported: the winged thunderbolt. The trademark of none other than the famous Wonderbolts.

There were no decorations at all in that floor. The tiles they stepped, just like the walls around them, were all composed of the same, pitch-black stone, granting the relatively dark hall an even eerier appearance. The moon outside was their only source of light. If they were half as high up as Rainbow had estimated, then the shortcut had been a godsend.

“Hey Rainbow Dash! Look at this!” Derpy called from above, pointing at one of the more crowded illustrations. Closer inspection from Rainbow revealed that there were more creatures than just ponies in the middle of the fray. In fact, these were much different from ponies: they were griffin. Rainbow felt a lump in her throat at the sight of a pegasus that was clearly shooting one of the chimeras down with an arrow.

She had never been the best student in her class at history lessons, but given how old the bonds between the pegasi and the griffin were, the fact that a war had been waged between the two sides surprised her more than it should. How ironic, she thought, lightly tracing the lines with a hoof.

“D’you think this is why they built the tower? Because, well…” Derpy paused to gulp. “They were f-fighting the griffin?”

“Maybe…” She found her gaze drifting away from the war. All sorts of gruesome events began to unfold in her mind. Theories of how these very same halls had once been splattered with the blood of their allies and ancestors, flooding her mind with memories she didn’t have of a dreadful scuffle. She could almost hear the imposing voices of the pegasi leaders, ordering their best bowponies to gallop into battle and defeat this menace. They were intertwined with the pained roars of a wounded griffon that would never fly again because of a damaged wing, or a fractured limb on which it would never be able to stand anymore. She shook her head to abandon the scenario, focusing on the moonlit hall ahead. “Let’s just find Dinky and split. I don’t want to stay in this place anymore.”

The moment she set down was the moment a crack echoed throughout the temple. She didn’t move for a second. How could she? After such imagery, the last thing she wanted was to find any unpleasant remains. A long breath later, she gathered the courage to carefully lift her hoof, all the while praying that the object she’d just crushed was simply a loose bit of rock. Her already unsettled heart almost stopped when it turned out to be a loose bone.

“D-Derpy…”

“Yeah Rainbow Dash?” Rainbow wasn’t entirely sure which was more disturbing: the bone, or the other pony’s overall passive response to the entire fortress. She decided on the latter, given how Derpy just giggled after Rainbow pointed the bone out. “Oooh! You found a bone!” Without a care in the world, the mailmare picked it up with a wing and examined it. “You think it’s a pegasus pony’s bone? Maybe it’s a griffon’s!”

“For Celestia’s sake, Derpy, it’s a bucking bone!! Some living thing lost that!” Rainbow suddenly snapped, raising her tone a little more than she wanted. The wall-eyed mare stared at her (or at the bone, she couldn’t tell) in confusion. “Just… just leave it here, okay? We gotta get out of here.”

“Come on, Rainbow! What are you afraid of? Ghosts? Spirits? Zombies?” The way Derpy just gleefully trotted alongside Rainbow was beginning to try the blue pony’s patience. “Maybe we could be like those ponies in ‘The Trotting Dead’ and just take one of these crossbows and-”

“Would you please be quiet, Derpy?! You’re starting to scare me and - wait, where did you get that crossbow?” Derpy looked down at the wooden crossbow in her hooves as if to make sure she knew what she was talking about, which Rainbow’s exasperated nod confirmed.

“I just got it from that little hole over there!” She simply answered, pointing a foreleg at a rather concealed crack in the wall. Given the color of the walls and the darkness that inhabited whatever was beyond that entrance, it was easy to miss the fissure. “There are lots more of them there, you know? Oh, oh! And bones! Really, really many bones!”

“B-Bones?”

“Yeah! Of griffin!”

The massive, walking skeletons on the other end of the hall, barely visible under the moonlight, never seemed so real.

Treason

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Claim the throne...

With your power and your intelligence, you will be unstoppable...

Let the power flow through you... Let it consume you...

Twilight could barely believe these thoughts existed in her mind. She tried to rid herself of them, reject them like a terrible idea.

Yet they returned. They always did.

Let the Light Force assume control...

The scream of a horn filled her head, dismissing all thoughts from her mind to leave behind a constant screech that drowned all other sounds.

When it faded, a rhythmical, metallic noise buzzed in Twilight's ears, mixed with the quiet crackling of the engine's flames. From the quiet taps of droplets on the locomotive's cover, she deduced that the rain had returned to moisten the land of Equestria. The rumble of the thunderstorm brewing outside the cart was deafened by the wheels.

Even though her eyes were already closed, she continued to force her eyelids together. She hadn't had even a moment of sleep since the train left Ponyville in a rush. Judging from the way Rarity fidgeted, Twilight guessed that the fashionista's slumber was not a very restful one either.

Frustrated with her lack of sleep, she opened her eyes, barely containing a groan. Redheart appeared to be the only one wide-awake in the wagon. She was diligently tending to Link, often whispering coos to the boy's ears.

"Is he any better?" the unicorn groggily asked.

The nurse's ears twitched, but her eyes didn't move away from her patient. The quietness of her voice just barely disguised her exhaustion. "He is suffering the last moments of the curse. Poison Joke operates in your sleep." The mare disposed herself of the wet tissue and sighed. "Your dreams become nightmares. You sleep, but you feel none the less tired than when you last closed your eyes."

Twilight only nodded. She clearly recalled how tough her night had been after stepping all over an entire field of those wretched flowers. The nightmares about Zecora, a wicked chanting and a twisted, otherworldly scenery serving as the background.

"Although," Redheart continued, snapping Twilight out of her thoughts. "His was perhaps too drastic a joke."

"What do you mean with-Oh, Celestia..."

As the nurse stepped aside, Twilight found any and all words escaping her grasp. There was no longer a young boy clad in green resting his head against the sleeping Applejack's side. In fact, those clothes now lay in a pile just next to Redheart.

All she could see now was a pony, bathed by the weak fire that burned in the train's furnace. She mentally commended herself for guessing his approximate age: he was, indeed, a school-age colt, perhaps just slightly older than any of her friends' sisters. There was no cutie mark adorning his chestnut coat, she also noticed with some disappointment. She had half-expected there to be a sword or shield of sorts.

“L-Link?” she stuttered, rising to her hooves. In spite of herself, Redheart smiled as she watched Twilight take shaky steps towards the colt. “The Poison Joke did this?”

The nurse hummed in agreement, moving away so that the librarian could get closer. The first thing she took notice of was the way in which Olivia was perched in his pale yellow mane, wings fluttering occasionally at the rhythm of Link’s irregular breaths. Her body’s color had faded significantly from its natural, olive green shade.

An earth pony, she thought, tentatively raising a hoof to softly stroke his mane. How fitting.

A thought crossed her mind. Their hero was now one of them, however temporarily. She evaluated the benefits and setbacks this would ultimately cause. The result led her soft smile to fade.

"Miss Redheart," she spoke. The other mare turned away from the new colt with a hum. "I'm... I'm scared."

There is no hope left...

"Scared?"

Twilight nodded sadly. "Princess Celestia's last words to me were a task, a mission. I tried to see to it, but... I ran out of leads, and then Princess Luna never showed up again...

"She trusted me to do something... and I couldn't." A droplet rolled down her cheek. "I must have disappointed her so badly..."

You are stronger than her...

"It's thanks to you that all these ponies were saved." Redheart readily cooed with a warm smile. "I don't know what the princess may have appointed you to do, but if you could save Ponyville, then surely you'll be able to do what you were told."

"But... what if it's too late?"

Yield to its call... it is too late...

"Twilight, y--" Redheart began. Her voice carried a certain worry that alarmed the unicorn. She turned once a hoof prodded her side, then her back, then her neck. The nurse did not look happy at all as she studied her body up close. "I don't like these white spots on your coat. Are you feeling alright?"

It was Twilight's turn to frown. Her heart began to race at the sight of a number of pure white patches staining the violet fur of her coat. She gingerly rubbed it with a hoof, hoping it was just some sort of remnant of flour that had somehow wound up on her. When it didn't go away, she began to rub it faster, and bit her lip in anxiety. A fur disease? Now of all times? No no no no no...

"Twilight!" Redheart's cry startled Rarity and Fluttershy awake. Twilight's hoof was whipped away, and the unicorn looked back at the nurse with a hurt expression. "Please, calm down. Do you feel dizzy or sick?"

"I-I feel fine, just... just a little tired."

Redheart frowned. "Even so, you might be coming down with something."

"Is something wrong, Miss Redheart?" Rarity asked, joining the nurse.

"I'm afraid Twilight might be ill."

"I feel fine!" the purple unicorn blurted out louder in perfect synch with a crack of thunder. The other ponies stepped away, as her horn had fizzled briefly. Embarrassed, Twilight turned away and resumed stroking Link's mane. "Just... I'm okay, really."

Rarity didn't seem convinced in the least. Her lips were pursed, and her brow formed a straight line. "Are you sure, dear?"

"Oh!" Fluttershy exclaimed, much to Twilight's relief. "Is-Is that Link?"

"Huh, yeah! That's--"

The usually meek pegasus nearly tackled Twilight aside to see the sleeping colt. "Aww! He's so adorable!"

"I must say, his mane certainly needs some fixing," Rarity quickly added, earning a few incredulous glances from the ponies. She entered self-defense mode almost immediately by appearing to be shocked. "What? It is important that he should know how to be a proper colt!"

"It's not his real body, and he's not trying to catch some filly's eye."

Like somepony doesn't seem to do with stallions, the knowing look Rarity threw at her fellow unicorn could be translated to.

Twilight looked away, hoping to ward off the message her friend was trying to send. Of all times to consider love and a relationship, this was definitely not one of them. And unless she was to suddenly develop a love interest for any of the present, there wasn't a stallion to be seen in a very wide radius.

Canterlot Mountain was looming closer. She didn't want to imagine how treacherous the path from there on out would be.

Alas, there was no other way to VanHoover. If crossing a cave brimming with Stalponies would get her to her brother, then Celestia be damned if she didn't cross it.

The chatter behind her died with the little light the sky had to offer once they entered the cavern. The rain had ceased. The locomotive's wheels produced the only sound that filled the hollow of stone. Not one of the ponies dared take a step, for fear it would trigger the ire of the Stalponies that hid under the cloak of darkness. The very air they breathed felt heavy, tinged by bloodshed and evil.

Fluttershy had inched towards the furnace like a bug seeks the light. Her wings snapped open when the train leaned slightly to take a turn, and then again to climb an elevated section of the route. Her face was hidden by her forehooves, and her whole body trembled violently.

All those who were awake could relate to this fear. It was as if the world ended beyond the small circle of light that the coal-powered engine provided. Rarity had stuck close to Link. She persistently scanned the area as though to protect the new colt.

Twilight considered summoning a very basic flashlight spell, but decided against it afterwards. The darkness spoke to her. It had the same voice as the one that had planted the wicked thoughts of betrayal in her subconscious.

Embrace its power... acknowledge your potential... they said. A vigorous shake of her head proved effective to keep them at bay.

As suddenly as it had disappeared, light assaulted their eyes again, this time with the intensity of a bright flame. Mist befell the carriage once they crossed the cave's mouth, signaling their arrival to the Unicorn Range.

Hills populated the landscape left and right for as far as the eye could see. The verdant mounds of earth would have seemed rather beautiful for the ponies aboard the train had it not been for how bleak the sky looked in comparison, contaminating the undulating expanse of scenery as though it was a disease. The very grass seemed grayer, and the journey more daunting.

Had Twilight not known any better, she would have attributed the messy state of the soil on either side of the tracks to the resulting of a herd of cattle gone wild. The real reason became more and more evident as the train pressed on through its rails. Rarity averted her eyes.

Abandoned carcasses of skeletal equines had begun to appear alongside the railroad. From the way they stuck out of the ground, buried in messy piles of dirt, they had evidently been trampled by their own kind as they rushed towards VanHoover.

Link was right all along, Twilight thought in face of the display of violence. They really were headed there.

"Is... is it safe now?" Fluttershy asked from the other end of the confined room, breaking the sepulchral silence that had settled upon the ponies.

"Quite alright, darling,” Rarity gently assured. “You can come out now."

“We might be too late.” Twilight’s words were uttered so firmly that Rarity frowned. VanHoover was closing in at a fast rate. The black clouds that filled the skies above the city meant nothing but trouble. “Wake Applejack and Pinkie up. Once we’re out there… there’s no stopping.”

Redheart frowned in concern. “What do you mean, Twilight?”

“I’ll cast a cloaking spell around me. They won’t even know we’re there unless we want them to.”

The shadows of VanHoover’s skyscrapers flashed over the train as it rode into the heart of the city, once more ceasing any and all conversation aboard the cart.

Once inside the underground station, the train’s wheels finally screeched to a halt. Not a soul to be seen. Silence reigned as they left the locomotive, one after the other. The scent of destruction, coupled with the occasional moan from the surface, was all they needed to know what to expect. Their legs felt unstable as they climbed up the stairs.

“Okay.” Twilight breathed in, then out. “Keep close to me. If you stray, they’ll find you.”

Twilight’s horn fizzled for a moment, summoning a bubble-like field to cover the group of ponies. With a protection in place, Twilight pushed the station doors open and took slow steps onto the pavement. Her friends stuck close to her, coats brushing with each other in an unspoken competition for safety.

“Are ya sure this’ll work, Twi?” Twilight signaled Applejack to be quiet with a hoof, but nodded afterwards. The swift answer would have to suffice.

Just like she had predicted, the city had not fared well against the destructive power of the Stalponies. Between the broken shop windows and the damaged doors that hung ajar, it was obvious that the enemies’ arrival had not been expected. The immense buildings of rustic architecture that had become synonymous with VanHoover stood abandoned, inflicting upon the travelers a sense of inferiority and hostility. The most livable city in Equestria had been reduced to less than a shadow of its glory.

Not just that, but they walked amidst the guilty party. Countless Stalponies roamed the streets at the building’s feet. One would think they were sentinels, patrolling the streets to keep the living away. Up close, Twilight could almost smell the likely repugnant odor their bare bones exuded. They reminded her that the foes were just husks, undead beings with no feelings, no rational thought.

“Just don’t look, darling," Rarity urged the canary pegasus by her side. The fashionista wasn't any keener on studying the beasts than her winged friend.

In looking for a place to hide, Twilight constantly studied the area. Any place that was high enough was good.

The elevators in the big buildings must be out of commission, she pondered, watching sparks fly off a loose wire that dangled from above. After what felt like an eternity of trudging through the hordes of skeletons, she found the ideal hideout in a generously sized building that harbored a shop. Since most of its windows remained intact, the Stalponies mustn’t have considered it worthy of attention.

“In here,” she whispered, carefully pushing the store’s door open. A nearby Stalpony raised its head and searched for the sound. Twilight’s shoulders slumped down when it decided to return to its idling.

A moment of searching through the room filled with useless trinkets resulted in the discovery of a set of stairs, and at the top of those, a large, iron door that led to the shaft of emergency stairs. One by one, the ponies climbed up. There were several yawns and complaints when the shaft was once again sealed from the ceiling.

“So we really are too late, Ah reckon," Applejack commented, lying down. She had been carrying the heaviest load - an unconscious Lyra – while Rarity carried Link on her back. The hastiness with which she had been roused back in the train hadn’t allowed her to take a proper look at the boy turned colt. Now that she had, she couldn’t peel her eyes off of him.

“Maybe not,” Twilight answered rather nonchalantly, heading for the edge of the roof.

Rarity felt the need to intervene. "So then where is everypony? Surely you don't believe the Stalponies… well... do you?"

"There's an old Griffon fort on the edge of the city that was used during the Independence War between the griffin and the pegasi," Twilight stated matter-of-factly, leaning against the railings to observe the ruins of the metropolis. "If the city was already attacked, then Shining must have taken the survivors to Fort Hoover."

"You are suggesting we just knock on their door then?"

Twilight shook her head. "They won't even hear us. They might take us for an enemy if we even come close to the walls. We need a messenger."

"Perhaps Fluttershy could deliver the--"

The pegasus reacted right upon the mention of her name by cowering behind Redheart and Link. "N-N-N-No! Not me! Please not me!"

Rarity frowned. "--Or not."

"It would be too risky. We need somepony discrete, and we'll still have to run if we don't want... them... to get us. We need somepony small." Twilight scanned the available candidates. Without Spike, sending a message would be impossible. Neither Applejack nor Pinkie could do much against the defenses, and teleporting into the fortress all of the sudden would stir the guards up.

They needed someone the guards wouldn't notice.

"Rarity, do you still have that stem of Poison Joke?"

"Hum, I believe I do. What do you need it for?"

"Applejack's going in." The cowpony's hat almost jumped off her head with the way she was startled. The plan suddenly became obvious. Needless to say, she didn't like it.

Luckily, she found an alternative rather quickly. She rushed over to Rarity's side and pulled Link's hat off with her teeth, revealing the slumbering green fairy underneath. Surprised to be the center of the attention without warning, she stretched her wings and fluttered out of his mane.

"Is, hum, something up?" Olivia asked in her confusion.

Twilight smiled mischievously. "We have our messenger."

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"'It's gonna be easy!' they said! 'Just tell Shining Armor!' they said!"

Olivia barely twitched. There was a loud shout of acknowledgement and her hideout was torn to pieces by a massive brown hoof, forcing the fairy to seek shelter elsewhere.

Her hunter didn't give up, though! He took a crossbow - A CROSSBOW!, he fired at the fairy. The arrow whistled through the air and just barely missed the head of a pony that patrolled the top of the palisade.

"Degroot! Put that gun down!" the sentinel shouted down.

"NO! There's a bloody Parasprite in here! 'N Ah'm gonna get the wee bugger! Ack! There he is! PARASPRITE IN HEEEEERRRREE!"

He had a surprisingly good aim for a pony with such a wobble in his step and a patch in his eye, Olivia observed before being forced out of her position again.

"I just want to talk to Shining Armor!" she tried to say.

Degroot burped and loaded another arrow. "All ya wanna do is eat me food and drink me scrumpy! 'N ya ain't gettin' any'a those!"

"Degroot!" The powerful voice of a white, well-armored unicorn across the battlements was enough to call Degroot back to his good sense. Olivia could almost hear the cogs in his brain whirring as he processed the command.

Or so it seemed for a while. "Oy! Cap'n Shinin'! There's a bloody parasprite here!"

"Degroot, there are no parasprites near the sea!" Shining Armor groaned. He looked around, just in case the armed pony wasn't imagining things, and found the place to be devoid of the nasty parasites. "Now drop that crossbow!"

"Shining Armor!"

“Who--” He was cut short by an overgrown firefly that bumped against his nose.

“There’s no time to explain! Your sister’s on her way here!”

“T-Twilight?” The unicorn shooed the fairy away with a hoof. “What are you saying? Who are you?”

“It doesn’t matter! Just--” Olivia looked around, searching for a vantage point. She found one in the watchtower that composed one of the fort’s vertices. “Just go up there and see for yourself!”

Shining still raised an eyebrow, but headed towards the watchtower anyways while Olivia gave (ineffective) pushes from behind. He motioned the sentinel to stand aside and peered through the telescope.

There was movement in the distance. He held his breath. "You mean--"

Olivia groaned loudly. "Your sister! Twilight Sparkle! Out there!"

"Open the gates! H-Hurry!" The guards obeyed posthaste. Shining was galloping his way up the half-open drawbridge with a wooden bow in his teeth and a quiver dangling by his side. "Twily!" he cried out. The lavender blur kept getting closer, but so did the gray and black mass just behind them. "I need some backup down here! ASAP!"

The ponies that were closest yelled a hurried chorus of acknowledgement and headed out of the fortification walls with a weapon of their own.

Hoisting an armed bow in the air with his magic, Shining Armor moved up. He didn't care what arrows actually hit a target or not once the group of mares caught up to him. The arrows were simply dispatched from his quiver at an impossible rate.

He cursed under his breath as he found his stock of ammunitions empty and spun around to run away.

"Captain! Behind you!"

"What the--"

The unicorn didn't have to turn around to realize that there was a Stalpony behind him. In that fraction of a second in which he could have reacted, he cursed his lack of a proper weapon. He soon discovered that, in the end, the weapon he carried would not have made the difference.

A thump and a sound as delicate as thin glass followed the little capsule that bounced past him. The Stalpony was reduced to dust in a brilliant explosion. Shining fell to the ground on his back unharmed, never mind the slightly singed tips of the unicorn's muzzle mane.

"HAHAHA! SAY 'ELLO TO CERBERUS FER ME, LADDIES!!" Degroot laughed out hysterically from atop the walls before taking a swig of his bottle. The muzzle of a peculiarly-shaped cannon stuck out of the tops of the palisades, likely operated by the Trottish pony.

"Same old Degroot," Shining Armor laughed, picking the bow up. He had to strain himself to catch up, but the smile Twilight offered as soon as he did made up for any exhaustion.

"Shining!"

He smiled back at his sister. "Didn't expect to find you here, Twily!"

"I do hate to kill the moment here," Rarity piped in from behind them. "But I would much rather have it if the moment was all that died!" Despite the situation, brother and sister shared a little good natured laugh.

After the drawbridge was raised again, the tension that previously took the fort by surprise slowly faded away. The sound of blasts outside the walls, often followed by Degroot’s maniacal cackle, seemed oddly comforting.

It wasn’t instants after the captain of the guard finally stopped running that he found himself being tackled to the ground again. For this pony, though, he'd let it pass anytime.

“Big Brother!" Twilight cried out, snuggling against the fur on the larger unicorn's neck. The cold, steel armor only exposed so little of his body. She gave a light lick to his cheek and giggled. "I'm so glad to see you!"

"I'm glad to see you too, sis." As he leaned towards Twilight, her coat's unusually colored patches caught his eye. He frowned. “What happened to your coat? Why is it all… white all over?”

"I... I don't know. But it's not important! What's important is that I found you." She rested her head against the underside of his chin. "And you're still alive."

If Shining wasn't satisfied with the answer, he didn't let it show. The least he could do now was allow his younger sister to enjoy their reunion in silence. One would think even Degroot had become self-conscious and stopped firing the cannon just for the two siblings.

Yet dark thoughts insisted on troubling the captain's mind. He slowly pulled away from his sister, pivoting her head with his hoof. "Twilight... What's going on out there?"

"Something evil," Twilight's voice was but a whisper. Her eyes sought for her brother's. "The Stalponies are everywhere. Canterlot's gone. Ponyville is gone."

"And mom? Dad?"

"I'm... I'm not sure." The corner of Shining's mouth twitched at the answer. His lips remained pursed, only softening when he felt the warmth of a tear on his coat. "I'm just glad you're okay."

"I'm here. Don't worry." He rid his sister's eyes of their tears and smiled. However sadly, she smiled back.

"But whatever will we do about those dreadful Stalponies?" Rarity inquired with a hint over drama. "They are all over that city. Are we not in danger?"

“Between me, Twilight and Cadance, we should be able to keep the ‘Stalponies’ at bay.” Shining turned thoughtful for a moment. “If that doesn’t work, well, we still have another advantage over them. Captain Degroot is an expert in fabricating explosives.”

Twilight's ears perked up. “Who’s captain Degroot?”

"AH'm Cap'n Degroot!" the eye-patched pony blurted out with the thickest Trottish accent any of the present had ever heard, appearing as if out of nowhere. He proceeded to burp, toss the rather large bottle aside and approach them in a more or less steadily straight line. "Fifth commander o'the Royal Equestrian Guard and twice Captain o' the Royal Navy at yer service, lassie!"

"Is he... drunk?" Twilight hesitantly questioned. The smell of alcohol in his breath made her pull her head back in disgust.

"That's Captain Degroot for you, I guess. Oy, Captain," Shining called out with a very poor Trottish accent. Twilight shot her brother a sidelong glance, to which he responded with a sheepish smile. "The 'Stalponies'', as Twilight calls them, are almost here. We need to ready the troops."

"Bloody brilliant idea, lad!" Twilight let out a sigh as soon as Degroot was away from her. His overconfident smile remained glue to his face until it faded all of the sudden, as though realization had struck him. "Oy, Shinin', what are the troops?"

Twilight's right eye twitched. She leaned closer to her brother and whispered, "Are you sure he can fight?"

While Degroot burped loudly yet again, Shining just shrugged. "They used to call him the demopony for a reason."

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"Get away! Go!"

A pull of the trigger later, the arrow zoomed across the hall and pierced right through the living skeleton's skull. The swirling red clouds that were its eyes faded like a candle in the wind. Rainbow allowed herself a quick, relieved sigh and took off after the mailmare she'd just sent away.

The halls now spiraled upwards, she noticed, granting the ground a slanted aspect. While a storm brewed outside the countless windows to her right, arches flew by to her left, entrances to rooms where the darkness was riddled with tiny red dots. She didn't even stop to check if they really were there or if her sanity was waning.

"Derpy!" she called out of desperation, barely able to keep hold of the crossbow. Her cries were drowned by the roars of the skeletal griffons behind her. She had dubbed them as Stalgriffin, and described them as the single biggest annoyance in that tower.

To her great relief, she spotted the grey pegasus just ahead.

To her great annoyance, all she caught was a glimpse of her tail as she took an unexpectedly sharp turn left. With a tired groan, she flew closer to the wall and strained her wings. As soon as her hooves landed on the surface, she leaped in hopes of propelling herself through the entryway, not even noticing the wooden planks that barred the entrance. An arrow cut through the air and nestled itself in her tail as she flew in, momentarily disorienting Rainbow.

With her flight route thrown astray, she full-bodily slammed through the barriers and then against Derpy, who sat just steps away from the entrance with her (good?) eye directed up.

"Derpy! What the hay?!" the rainbow-maned pegasus immediately protested, standing from over the mailmare while dusting the splinters off. The weather pony could barely believe her ears when a different voice rang in her ears.

"Rainbow Dash! Up here!"

Rainbow's head shot up, eyes wide and mouth open in disbelief. Numerous iron cages dangled from the ceiling, overflowing with moss and rust. Careful observation revealed that trapped in one of them was none other than the captain of the Wonderbolts herself. She was clad in the daredevil team's iconic suit, and her goggles were pulled up to reveal the mare's anxious eyes.

"Spitfire?!" Rainbow gasped as she flew up, past some of the lower-hanging cages. There was an almost uncontrollable desire to shiver when she saw that most of them contained the skeletal remains of their former prisoners. The face of the other pegasus - her role-model, no less - was enough to wash all those concerns away. "W-What are you doing here?!"

"I got caught but that doesn't matter! Dash, you need to-"

"H-Hold on," she replied instead, studying the cage in circles. "There's gotta be a lock to this thing somewhere!"

"Dash!"

"Maybe if I kick it'll-"

"DASH!" When it needed to, Spitfire's voice was much more imposing than Rainbow had ever expected. She was back in front of the captain in the blink of an eye. "You can't break this, it's made of equestrian crystal!"

"Then how-"

"Dash! Focus!" The slightest blush colored Rainbow's cheeks as Spitfire haphazardly grabbed her head with her hooves. "You need to deactivate the crystal!"

"H-Huh... Rainbow Dash..." Derpy called, directing their attention to the events that transpired down below. The mailmare was cornered against a wall by the Stalgriffin, their talons raised and ready to grab at her. "HEEEEEEELP!"

Spitfire's tug was all that kept Rainbow from being struck by an arrow. Instead, it bounced harmlessly against the roof and made them aware of several other Stalgriffin that stood at the room's entrance with their crossbows locked and loaded.

"You bucking-"

"You can't beat them all, Dash!" The Wonderbolt forced Rainbow's head down with a hoof, and another projectile flew through the grating. Spitfire held her breath as it scratched the side of her suit. "See those statues down there? I almost got them up, but you need to get them running!"

Rainbow looked down at the ground, searching for the object of her goal. She found three of the statues, disposed in a triangular fashion amidst the bones that populated the floor. The fact that there was no switch to be seen set off the alarms in Rainbow's head.

"B-But how do I do that?!"

"There are three crystals, one on the ground, the wall and the ceiling! You need to hit them with an arrow!"

"Crystals..." There it was: in the middle of the bone yard, the unique, crimson shimmer of a crystal beacon. She could see another one of them was close by, hanging overhead, while the other was across the room. Her eyes shifted quickly between the crossbow in her hooves and the switches.

Any hesitation was dispelled by a pair of arrows that flew right past her, this time around dangerously close to her head. She hastily nodded to Spitfire and sped off, intent on activating the ceiling switch first.

What at first seemed like a simple, straightforward flight quickly turned out to be a true obstacles course for the pony, one not unlike the prowesses of her favorite fictional character. Whereas only one or two arrows made it through when she was next to Spitfire, they now rained down on her from below. While Rainbow was all for a good stunt, the whistling of the projectiles and the way they stuck to the ceiling upon impact were heavy reminders that her situation wasn't fiction.

If that wasn't enough of a challenge, the cages didn't allow her to just fly straight at the switch. Turn after dive, the cages seemed to create some sort of maze for the pegasus, never allowing her to take a direct path. She didn't want to think about what would happen if she took the wrong turn.

At the last possible second, she spun on her nose to avoid a rather accurate arrow that would have otherwise struck her wing. She mentally congratulated herself for the move, and half-hoped Spitfire had seen it too.

Now take a left here and yeah! Score for Rainbow Dash! she thought as the crystal came into sight just above her. Leaning backwards, she bit down on the arrow in her tail and pulled it out. The crossbow was armed and the arrow hissed through the air before piercing the dull red crystal's surface.

The object erupted with light, but the shower of arrows Rainbow was enduring reminded her like a bucket of cold water that there was one more left. She swiftly scanned the room. Derpy had fortunately taken off to escape the Stalgriffin, most of whom's wings were nearly useless for flight.

Clamping her wings to her sides, Rainbow nosedove towards her target. Her eyes frantically searched the floor for arrows she could use as ammunition, but all she was met with were broken remains.

By the time she reached the floor, she still had no arrows to use. She stretched her wings and flew close to the ground, skidding to a halt a small distance away from the already active crystal.

She groaned in frustration when she noticed that she was now the target of all the Stalgriffin in the room. "Well if I can't find arrows, I'm takin'em by force!"

One of the skeletal griffin let out a deafening shriek and charged at her with an arm pulled back, baring its jagged claws. Rainbow was about to do the same when an arrow swished through the air right in front of her nose, forcing the mare to an abrupt halt.

The inbound enemy was quick to seize this opportunity. The sheer strength of its hand sent the crossbow flying in one direction and Rainbow rolling over the bones in another. She winced when she finally managed to regain her footing. An acute pain made her notice that the claws had left three sidelong gashes on her body, just below the neck.

Now that she was free from the crossbow, she began to plot her revenge against the unarmed Stalgriffin. She could hear Spitfire's cries in the background, though she could not understand what they said. It didn't matter; without arrows, the crossbow was useless. As long as too many of these nuisances were around, she would never find arrows. Her wings flared open as if to intimidate the undead foe, and a low snarl came from the pegasus.

Just as she was about to pounce, however, the familiar cracking of a crystal switch reached her ears. Had she blinked, she would have missed the massive gray blur that crashed against the Stalgriffon, utterly destroying the enemy in the process, before making its way to the archers. There was more than one, she noticed; three, to be exact, and all of them at least twice as large as her.

It was not until there were no more Stalgriffin in the room that the giants’ traits became discernible. Rainbow remembered their aspect: they were large, stone equines with brilliant rubies for eyes, just like the ones she had seen in the Temple of Time. With their duties accomplished, they returned to their place in the walls. Their eyes soon lost their shimmer, and they were, once again, statues in the middle of a wrecked bone yard.

“Hey Dash! Nice going, there!” Spitfire’s voice called her attention to the Wonderbolt who slowly descended to her side. Rainbow had to fight urge of squealing like a little filly when the other mare’s hoof landed on her back. “You really came through for me!”

“But… I didn’t…”

“Rainbow Daaaash!” Rainbow couldn’t have been happier to hear that sluggish way of pronouncing her name. Looking up, everything clicked into place.

Derpy flew close to the crystal on the wall with the crossbow in hoof, a broad smile plastered on her face. An arrow had struck the switch square in the middle. Many more arrows were stuck to the ceiling just above her, revealing why the archers had lost their interest in the weather pony after the Stalgriffon got her. As the mailmare approached the ground, she began to collect the arrows that their enemies had dropped.

“Your friend was pretty useful, too. Didn’t expect her to have such a sharp aim with only one eye.”

“Heh, well, that’s Derpy for ya.” Rainbow giggled softly, and Spitfire accompanied her. She let the moment drag on for a bit. It was the least she could have after facing a horde of skeletal foes. “Spitfire, what were you doing here?”

The Wonderbolt’s expression withered rapidly. She distractedly looked up at the cages. “I was going to activate the Equimos when those griffons caught me. Jammed me in a cage and kept me there so they could do as they pleased.”

“Equimos?”

“Yup,” Spitfire answered with the shadow of a smug grin dancing on her lips. “These are pretty outdated models, but they were the latest when the tower was built. They’re powered by crystals from the Frozen North. See their eyes? That’s their power source.”

Rainbow hesitantly approached one of the statues, which actually caused Spitfire to laugh shortly. “It’s okay, they won’t hurt you. They’re enhanced with unicorn magic, so they’re like sentries; they attack when they see a hostile target. And boy, do they pack a buck.” The mare kicked the fragment of a bone to demonstrate her point.

I bet Twilight would be all over one of these, the weather mare thought.

“Hey, Dash? We need to get moving. Soarin’s probably worrying his head off with how I haven’t shown up yet. Bet he’ll be real happy to know you’re around!”

Rainbow instantly spun in place. “Soarin’s here too?!”

“Yeah, the whole team – well, the main squad – is in the tower. We’re keeping a special pony safe up there.”

Rainbow frowned slightly at that. “A… special pony?”

“Yup, a lil’ unicorn. Cute as a button, that one. Although I… am a bit sorry for her mother. We kinda snatched her right off before something bad came up.”

By now, Rainbow had already figured out what was happening. She cast a pitiful glance at Derpy, who continued to bundle up the arrows in her blissful ignorance. “What do you mean… something bad?”

“Look, Dash,” Spitfire sighed, walking closer. “I’m not going to lie to you. There’s some really messed up shit going on in Equestria right now. We got our orders to protect this filly at all costs. I have no idea what’s coming, but if the boss says it’s bad, then I won’t take second chances.” She set her hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder, and a weak smile blessed her face. “It’s great to know you’re on our side.”

“Huh, girls?” Both mares turned at Derpy’s call. The mailmare was watching one of the statues in a frightened manner. Rainbow was about to laugh it off when she noticed something was indeed happening at the statues’ hooves. Spitfire’s hoof trembled slightly.

What appeared to be a sort of deep purple, cloudy mass was crawling up the statues’ legs. The three ponies watched, helpless, as the mass approached the rubies that were their eyes and began to emit sparks. Within moments, the gems, too, grew violet in color, a much grimmer, threatening color than their previous one.

“Dark magic... Oh Celestia,” Spitfire gasped. “It’s trying to corrupt the Equimos.”

“C-Corrupt?”

All at once, the statues began to riot, tossing their hooves and heads around in a frantic manner. Their uprising only ended once the dark clouds were fully absorbed by the crystals. Spitfire knew something was up when their heads moved in the ponies’ direction. She quickly tapped Rainbow’s shoulder and gave a light shove towards the entryway, which the weather pony fortunately consented to do almost immediately.

“Derpy, toss me a crossbow!” The mailmare obliged to Spitfire’s command and quickly threw one of the looted weapons towards the Wonderbolt. The Equimos set into action just as fast, their first action being the regrettably wise one – for the mares – of blocking the exit.

Wielding the crossbow with unexpected aptitude, Spitfire took aim at the first Equimos she spotted and fired. The arrow perched itself in the mechanical monster's eye and the small crystal within exploded into pieces, throwing the Equimos into a fit of rage. It reared up and swung its forelegs wildly, searching for its attacker with its only good eye. Spitfire made good use of her renowned flight ability to nab another arrow from Derpy and arm it.

The shot was perfect enough to leave the remaining crystal completely destroyed. With its power supply cut off, the Equimos shuddered and crumbled under the weight of its body.

Spitifre raised a hoof to pump it, only to find that celebration cut short by a piercing scream from Dash. She barely had time to turn and see the towering figure of an Equimos, ready to crush her underhoof, before she was pushed out of the way in the nick of time. Both her and her savior went rolling into a pile of bones at an unadvisable speed, something that Spitfire came to regret as something sharp was jabbed into her hind leg upon landing. Her agonized whimper was muffled by a multicolored tail.

She made haste in removing Dash off of her to check the wound. The blood-stained bone shard that stuck out of the side of her leg only served to confirm her fears. Despite the long list of protective qualities of the Wonderbolt outfit, durability against this type of weapons was not one of them. After all, what was there in the air that could hit you without downing you?

“Oh my gosh, Spitfire! A-Are you-”

Spitfire raised a hoof to request silence. “It’s just a flesh wound, Dash.” She grabbed the bone with her teeth and pulled. The first sting had her arching her head back in pain. "Buck, it hurts like hell..."

The Equimos cried out in rage. Dash, having long since predicted their next move, dug her head under Spitfire in spite of all her complaints and took to the air. The machine rammed against the wall just like she had expected, rattling the tower's structure with its sheer might.

"Huh, wow," Spitfire muttered from her back. "Guess I owe you thrice now."

Dash was giggling like a filly inside. "Eh, it was nothing." Her expression turned somber as she caught a glimpse of the red stain on her blue uniform. Right in the cutie mark... "But we gotta do something about that leg."

"I'll live. Don't worry about me."

Two crystals snapped down below, and another machine fell to the ground. Rainbow and Spitfire exchanged surprised looks. “You think--”

“AND LEAVE MY FRIENDS ALONE!” Although the mailmare’s threats fell on deaf ears, they still possessed the incredible intensity of a thunderclap. Wonderbolt and weather pony stared down to find the grey pegasus zigzagging around the room while the remaining Equimos waved its hooves in the air, desperate to catch its prey.

As soon as it stopped to take a better look around, Derpy beelined under its legs and appeared before its face. Right after shooting the first arrow, the mare dropped the crossbow and held an arrow between her fetlocks. A jerk of her leg was all it took for the hoofheld weapon to penetrate the last crystal, effectively shutting down the Equimos it powered.

Rainbow’s mouth only twitched as she searched for the right words to utter. Spitfire, on the other hoof, knew her priorities. She lightly tugged at Rainbow’s mane and pointed down.

Derpy joined them once they were close enough to the ground to help lower Spitfire’s frame to the floor. She winced when her (good?) eye caught sight of the bone fragment. “That doesn’t look so good.”

Spitfire swallowed back a snide response. She owed the mailmare that much. “And it isn’t.”

“Stop!” Derpy yelled before Spitfire could bite down on the bone again. “If you pull it out, you’ll start bleeding more.”

“And if I don’t, I can’t get the word to Soarin’,” the Wonderbolt replied, preparing to resume her treatment. Derpy’s hoof held her back. She tried to commence a staring contest with the wall-eyed mare. She soon discovered such a feat was nearly impossible with a pony like Derpy, be it for not locking eyes or for the pegasus’s stare being naturally intimidating.

Just like a mother’s, Spitfire mentally added.

“Fine,” she sighed. "If I can’t go, then you will, Dash. You need to get to Soarin' and the others and tell them to shut the Equimos down before it's too late."

She raised a leg to her chest and unzipped the uniform. Dash found herself blushing. "Spitfire, w-what are you doing?"

"I'm lending you my suit," the Wonderbolt deadpanned, slipping out with minimal effort. She winced when her injured leg slid out of its sleeve. Her voice was still coarse when she continued, "The tower defenses are most likely up now. There's no way you'll get through them without something on you."

"But--"

"Take it, Dash," Spitfire insisted, stretching the leg with the suit draped over it.

Rainbow eyed the uniform reluctantly. The irony of the moment struck her. She had been expecting for Spitfire to do for so long. It was perfect. The captain of the Wonderbolts was relinquishing her suit to a new captain.

Except those weren't the conditions. She wasn't about to commandeer a squad of daredevils, nor was she being given the suit for good. Right now, accepting the deal seemed to be the riskiest choice.

With a wavering hoof, she took the suit and unfolded it to take a good look. Just like she'd imagined… if she was to disregard the blood-stained hole where the Wonderbolt insignia should have been, that is.

She made haste in slipping into it. Under Spitfire’s watchful eye, Rainbow zipped the uniform to a close and stood, however uneasily, so that she could be admired in her fullest.

"It suits you," the yellow mare murmured, using a hoof to trace the lightning bolt pattern on Rainbow’s chest. "The filly you're looking for is with Soarin’. I'll catch up with you once the defenses are down."

“You can go, Rainbow Dash! I’ll take good care of her!”

“Heh, that’s what’s worrying me.” Rainbow smiled, and Derpy did too. “You can count on me, Spitfire.”

Spitfire’s smile brightened. “I know I can, Dash.”

Rainbow gave her idol one last nod before picking up the fallen crossbow and leaving. As she flew through the corridors, she could barely believe the suit on her body was real. Of course, she had only borrowed it; it would likely see its way back to its owner once that whole ordeal was done and through. That made wearing it all the more enjoyable.

But Spitfire hadn’t lent her the suit because Rainbow had longed for wearing it. She learned the real reason soon after leaving the prison. The trip had been a breeze up to that point.

Now, her path was obscured by dense, black thunderclouds, supplied by the immense barrier of clouds outside. The tower was breaching a cumulonimbus cloud, she realized, and from there on, it only got higher. She could feel the static in the air, straightening every single hair in her mane as it coursed through their fiber. Rainbow took a deep breath. The suit would protect her. She knew it. She had to trust Spitfire on that.

"Here goes nothing."

She flared her wings and set skyward with a powerful boost. The faster she got through that trap, the better.

The jolts of lightning felt like feathers tickling her body. She could no longer see the tower's walls. The world was but a swirling mass of black clouds. With no goggles of her own, seeing through the thunderstorm proved difficult. Sweet freedom was still within sight, however. She would never forget that pinprick of light at the end of the dark tunnel.

Something tapped her leg, then the drape of her neck, then her hoof. Before she knew it, a searing pain from her left foreleg nearly drove her out off course and against a wall.

An immense group of disfigured, long-fanged bats flocked around her. They appeared intermittently thanks to the flashes of light that the clouds produced, and Rainbow's heart was in her gut as she lost count of how many of these little critters there were.

One more daring bat dove towards her with its fangs bared, intent on biting down. The mare's hooves met its small body and sent it away, only to invoke two more to replace their lost one. Their number was so large it became impossible to keep track of them. Rainbow grunted with every blow their fangs delivered.

She was close, though. Extremely close. She could almost feel--

"A grate?!" she yelled as soon as she reached the top of the tunnel. A layer of crisscrossed bars blocked her path. She tried to think of a solution, something to open the obstacle with, but the bats weren't making that task any easier.

But she recognized this material. Equestrian Crystal.

You need to deactivate the crystal! Spitfire's words echoed in her mind.

She hastily scanned the area, searching for a crystal's telltale crimson glow. Though she could not find it, she found something else: a single window, through which the thunderclouds flowed.

It's risky, but...

Taking the time to whack another bat away, she shot through the window. The wind outside did to her what a foal would do to a rag-doll: bend her, squirm her, toss her back and forth. It exerted an immense pressure on her body. Each current was like a punch to her sides. A breeze that was set on throwing her flight path off entirely.

Her suspicions were confirmed: there was a crystal glowing faintly on the outer wall of the tower. After removing an arrow from the bundle and arming it, she took aim and fired. The wooden projectile followed its course for a while, but ultimately bounced against the wall, far away from the crystal.

A bat had taken the moment of distraction to jump in on her, which she promptly reacted to with a well placed buck. Another arrow, a more focused sight. She couldn't take much longer. The bats would be all over her if she lingered. Still she had to consider the influence of the wind, the arch...

It was with much satisfaction that she found her shot to be accurate. The crystal burst with light, just in time for the swarm of flying rodents to appear. With a new target to pursue, Rainbow successfully circumvented the swarm and shot upwards once again.

Just as she crossed the narrow entrance, the grating shut closed with the violence of a predator's jaw. Rainbow gently descended again, gasping for breath but grateful to be in one piece. So far, the tower had proven to be one big trial to her stamina and quickness of thought. She would rather not imagine what else the pegasi did to keep their loot safe.

The tingling of the thunderclouds was gone, as was the roar of the wind in her ears. She was fully surrounded by the tower’s walls again.

Where she was exactly, however, she could not ascertain. Just like the section she’d just been in, this room soared to an amazing height. The heads of unicorn Equimos decorated the walls from top to bottom. There was a single exception to this pattern: halfway through its height, three platforms branched out. She could barely see over them, but she was convinced that there was an entrance there.

Not willing to waste any more time marveling on the use of this chamber, she checked if she was fit to fly. Her wings didn’t complain (much), so Rainbow took off and landed on the middle section shortly after.

“Commander Hurricane…” she whispered, staring up at the arch that surrounded the entrance in the center. The ancient pegasus’s profile was etched upon the top, revealing the ever stern features of the leader. “His quarters must be beyond this door.”

“And they are strictly off-limits to one as vile as you!” a voice boomed across the chamber before her progress was once again hindered by the appearance of an iron grate. Rainbow hopped into the air, crossbow raised in a defensive position.

“Who’re you?!”

The Equimos whirred to life in response. Compelled to prevent any unneeded damage, Rainbow set out to put the machines to rest.

“A Shadowbolt. How predictable.” The sound of that voice was like a magnet that held Rainbow in place.

“Fleetfoot?” the weather pony spoke in disbelief. She turned quickly to find that two pegasus ponies stood on the previously vacant platforms, both garbed in the same outfit as her. A crossbow and a sheath dangled from their sides, connected by a belt. She felt like a bubble about to burst. “Oooh, boy! Am I glad to find you two!”

The silver-maned pegasus, Fleetfoot, frowned. "Rainbow Dash?"

"You know her?" the other pegasus asked.

"Yeah, from the Young Fliers Competition!"

“Hey, huh, Rapidfire, Fleetfoot? I really need help he--"

"But what is she--" Rapidfire began. He found his words escaping his grasp as he took his first good look at Rainbow. "Fleetfoot… She's wearing Spitfire's suit..."

"Guys, I need to get to Soarin'! Spitfire was injured--"

Rapidfire took a step forward. "Y-You hurt her?!"

"What?! No! An 'Equimos' or whatever you call it did it!"

"Lies!" Fleetfoot declared while stomping a hoof. "Equimos are programmed to identify hostile targets! They never would have injured Spitfire!"

"Fleetfoot, she has the eyes of a Sheikah..."

"And Spitfire's suit! And you know how the legend goes!" Fleetfoot readily shot back. "Seems to me like she betrayed Spitfire like that Shadowbolt did so many years ago!"

"Sheikah? What-- No! You've got it all wrong!"

"Yeah! And the Equimos don't lie! You destroyed them, and then you went for Spitfire!"

Fleetfoot stepped forward from her perch. "You were always so jealous, weren't you?! You wanted to be like her - to BE her so badly, that you couldn't resist the chance!"

"No! Guys! Wait!"

"We are going to make sure you never do that again, you filthy traitor!"

"You're gonna learn that you don't mess with the Wonderbolts!" The belts holding the crossbows were loosened, and the pegasi drew their swords. Rainbow could now hear the Equimos on the walls moving their heads about. "We will not allow you to get to the Bearer of Wisdom!"

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
~-~-~-~-~-~▼~-~-~-~-~-~

A twig lightly crunched under Applebloom's hoof. She cringed at the noise and looked around, hoping she hadn't called any unwanted attention. Her muzzle twitched towards the sword's pommel. There was a moment of stillness.

Steven had been nowhere to be seen when she woke up. She had woken up alone, lying on the lake's shore. She hadn't lingered, however. She knew her mission. The weight on her back was a constant reminder of it now.

There was a putrid scent in the air, and a somber cloud of smoke hung overhead. She followed it to where it was the most intense. It was her best lead to the pegasi. On occasion, she heard her name echo across the forest, as though it was calling for her.

When nothing jumped at her from the shadows of the forest, she breathed a sigh and moved on. Her mind was attempting to banish the fear that made her legs shake. So far, it was a battle it was barely winning.

It didn't help that the more she went, the more charred the landscape became. The verdant trees that composed the Everfree's core gradually darkened, exuding that same, nauseous smell. Not much farther ahead, the mush she stepped on burned under her hooves, disintegrating into ashes upon contact.

She would occasionally spot the scorched remains of a being that once lived, and quickly averted her eyes from the scene. Given her life at Sweet Apple Acres, she wasn't exactly revolted by the sight of flesh as much as she was by the thought of how much that being could have suffered before succumbing.

No time to think about that, Applebloom, she thought to herself with a gulp. You need to find Sweetie Belle and Scoots.

The stirring of the belt of bushes to her right caused her to hasten her pace. The prospect of being ambushed wasn't a pleasing one, even if she had a sword to fight with.

Her trot developed into a full-blown gallop. Whatever was in the bushes was following her. She closed her eyes and bit back the tears, unable to bring her mouth to the weapon's hilt. She knew she would run head-first into any obstacle that stood in her way, but if it drove the creature in the bushes away, it was worth it.

There was a low, guttural snarl, and the movement in the bushes stopped. Applebloom carried on for quite the distance, until exhaustion got the best of her and she slowed down. Once she stopped, she took a cautious look behind her back, scanning the forest for any sort of movement. The grumbling noise was heard again over her quickened breathing, and the sword left its scabbard. Its weight combined with her lack of strength nearly caused it to fall out of her mouth. Against her own condition, she held it firmly in her teeth.

The sudden appearance of a silhouette from within the shrubbery sent a surge of adrenaline coursing through her body. A whiff of the repugnant mush entered her nostrils as she rolled aside, leaving the foe to land on nothingness.

Her mind went into autopilot the moment she felt threatened. She dashed towards her target and slashed at it without a second thought. A pained grunt later, the enemy fell to the ground. Before Applebloom could take a good look at it, its remains burst into a cloud of darkness that was carried away by the wind.

The bushes chose that moment to shudder and prove she wasn't alone yet. Turning on her heels, Applebloom continued her run where she'd left off.

Her resolve strengthened at the sight of a flash of light amidst the woods. As though it fed her with energy, she ran towards it with renewed vigor. Any light in the Everfree Forest was welcome.

The path became narrower. The leaves of the bushes brushed against her sides. Before long, she was no longer stepping on any sort of road – she was journeying directly through the thicket, where the ground was uncertain and the darkness was greatest.

The snarls multiplied as soon as she abandoned the beaten earth, and the forest burst to life. Instead of the shriek she had been containing, a squeak was what escaped her throat when something sharp touched her leg. She swung the sword out of instinct, nearly losing her balance when it hit nothing. The growls continued to buzz in her head, as though they came from everywhere at the same time. A quick look around was all she needed to realize that such wasn't far from the truth.

Wherever she looked, a pair of devilish red eyes would meet hers. The increasingly perceptible sound of the monsters' steps made it clear they were approaching. She felt the world spin, and lowered her head believing it would help. She wanted to yell at them to stop.

Use your wits! her tutor's voice resonated in her mind.

What good are wits?! I'm surrounded and I can't take them all out and... and... wait. The spark of realization lit up Applebloom's eyes.

When they seemed to be just a step away from her, her determination peaked. She pulled her head back as much as she could before leaping into the air and swinging it towards the opposite side. The result was a twirling motion, effectively striking all of the foes that surrounded the young filly.

She ran off once the world was stable enough to move in a straight line. The effectiveness of her technique was the least of her interests. It had provided an escape route that led directly to the source of light.

In something of a childish joy, she jumped at the luminescent barrier, eager to take in the fresh air outside those woods. She had no such luck, however.

Here the air was filled with more pollution than ever. The origin of the light that had guided her became clear when she set her eyes on the burning remains of a town, situated at the bottom of the hill she stood upon. Everywhere she looked, she found destruction. The very ground she stepped on had been violently stirred by hoof steps.

A massive barrier of smoke dominated the landscape, fueled by the flames below. It granted the sky an even more ominous appearance, with shades of red intertwining with the natural blackness of the night.

Something moved among the wreckage in the dead of the night. From afar, she could only see the outlines of the creatures. They appeared to be ponies of brilliant blue coats who carried bright lanterns in their mouths. They wandered with no apparent aim, as though they were patrolling the area. It was yet another thought that didn't please the filly.

For a moment, Applebloom was certain that she'd taken a wrong turn somewhere, that this wrecked town was the Sunny Town that her grandmother consistently warned her of whenever the Everfree Forest was brought up.

But too many landmarks started appearing, spots that begged for her attention: the gingerbread house with a missing roof, the carousel-like building that was being consumed by a grandiose fire. There was no mistaking that this moonlit mess was once Ponyville. She felt her eyes tear up, her throat ready to openly cry to the seven winds.

She would have done so had she not noticed the imminent approach of one of those lantern-wielding ponies. All she needed to hear was a chime before diving into whatever shrubbery that was nearby. She recognized the sound. It was the same as the one that had haunted her mind in the forest.

Her breath almost stopped once the entity was passing right in front of the bush. Its look was unlike anything Applebloom had ever imagined.

What she thought was its shimmering azure fur turned out to be the natural glow of its ashen cloak. She could see very little of the pony itself; a large hood covered much of its head.

She traced the chime's origin to the lantern it carried. With every step it took, the metallic, very solid-looking apparatus creaked loudly, dragging along a flame that matched its color scheme.

Applebloom stared at its face from the safety of her hideout, doing her best not to shiver at its lack of any features. It reminded her all too well of some other tales that Scootaloo read and told them about regarding a tall, white stallion who chased foals.

There was a key difference between the two, however. Its skin was not solid. She nearly yelped when she noticed that its bones were very clear under the dark blue fur of its muzzle. Her eyes were locked on the being until it walked away, not seeming to have noticed her.

Now that the specter was past her, she poked her head out of the bush and double-checked. The ghost was far away. She allowed herself a sigh before fully exposing her body.

Looks like it's real dangerous out here... Her eyes wandered off to the blazing wasteland. Sis... Where are you? Where is everypony?

She found herself walking down the hill, each step tracing the marks on the beaten earth. The scent of burning wood was growing ever more intense. As she entered the town, she discovered that the cackling of the lanterns was like a guide to her, a forewarning that she should use all sorts of wreckage as a place to hide. She wasn't sure where she was going, or what her purpose in Ponyville was. All she knew was that there were two ponies she needed to find.

She turned at the sound of something crashing in the middle of the main plaza. As stealthily as she could, she approached the corner of the building and looked on.

A pegasus stallion, dressed just like the mares from the forest, was carrying a very heavy-looking box on his back towards what appeared to be a chariot. She could barely resist the urge to jump at him with her sword.

"How deep down is the temple?" The fur on Applebloom's coat stood on end, freezing the filly in place. It wasn't until she realized she wasn't being talked to that her heartbeat slowed down to regular rate. Looking on, she found that the stallion was no longer alone. Another outfitted mare had joined him.

"Not sure. It's probably way too deep for us to get to it in a day."

"I don't want chances, Valkyrie," the stallion groaned. The box on his back fell onto the chariot with a loud clatter. "I want concrete days."

"You talk like I can predict the future, Sleipnir. I dunno, a week, give or take. Maybe if somepony hadn't gone all out on the temple's entrance, we'd take less time. But noooo. Mister I-Can-Be-A-Giant had to destroy it. We still gotta get there anyway. Hope you like flying through the desert with a chariot on your back."

Sleipnir stuck his muzzle against hers and snorted through his nostrils. His voice was like a thousand drums beating at the same time. "You're lucky that Valhalla needs another pony back there with her."

Valkyrie smiled, completely unfazed. "Don't you have more mining equipment to load?"

"Hoo."

Applebloom instantly tuned out of the conversation, ears perked up in surprise. This sounded much closer. Too close to her ears to be comfortable.

"Hoo," it repeated. Very slowly, she craned her head towards the sound.

She found no monster waiting to ensnare her though. No creepily huge, shadowy figure with its talons out to lash at her. Just a small, innocent bird. An owl, to be precise, was perched on the tip of a pile of rubble.

"Ye're... Ye're Twilight's owl, aren't ya? Hum… Owlowicious?"

"Hoo." The owl turned around with a hop and pointed forward with a wing. "Hoo hoo."

"Ya want me to follow ya?"

"Hoo."

Well, can’t hurt. Maybe he knows where Twilight is, she thought, giving the owl a nod.

As it turned out, Owlowicious did know his way around Ponyville – even if the town stood in ruins. Her mind felt lighter as she trotted through the wreckage. The fact that there were no corpses to be seen was a massive weight off her shoulders. If anything, it meant the villagers had escaped.

The owl waited patiently across the street when one of the lantern-wielding ponies crossed their path. Hidden in the shadow of a building, Applebloom held her breath and prayed to not get caught. She left her hideout as soon as the lantern’s ringing was far enough.

She had been guided into an alley. A cloud of smoke billowed from the houses around it, of which only part of their walls had remained. The rest had been turned to piles of stone and wood. Wooden beams stuck out of the debris with no proper order. Applebloom proceeded carefully, as though something was about to jump at her from within the rubble.

Ahead of her was a cage, which Owlowicious had chosen as the perfect roost. Thick iron bars kept their prisoner secured should the collection of locks and chains keeping it in place not be enough.

And lying there, inside the foul cage, was none other than the sobbing form of her friend.

"Sweetie Belle!"

"A-Applebloom?!" Sweetie Belle rose to her hooves and gasped, perhaps a bit louder than she would have liked. Then, in a lower voice, "What are you-"

"C'mon, help out here, Sweets! Ah can't break this open on mah own!"

"No!" Applebloom felt herself get shoved away from the locks. The unicorn's force was not enough to overcome the earth pony's resilience, though. "Applebloom, please, you need to get out of here before they return!"

"Ah ain't leavin' without ya, Sweets!"

"They took Scootaloo already! Please, go away!"

"T-They... they took Scoots already?" Applebloom stopped momentarily, but shook her head to focus herself. "I-It don't matter! As long as Ah can get ya outta here, we can get back a-and get Scoots too!"

The fillies’ ears twitched. A step. Another step. “Applebloom, y-you have to go!”

“No! Ah won’t leave ya behind!” The Apple filly took the sword’s hilt with her mouth. “Shtand back!”

Taking her time to gather momentum, Applebloom swung the blade at the lock. The sword bounced back as soon as it hit the rusty object. Metallic shards were all that was left of it. After sheathing the sword, she reached up to open the cage. The dreadful clang of another lock was the only result she got. Afraid though she was, she searched for its origin.

“Go,” the unicorn spoke with a raspy voice as soon as Applebloom found the lock. It wasn’t just one; there were at least five other ones there, coupled with a thick, heavy looking chain. Applebloom couldn’t even find the will in her to complain. She was defenseless before her friend’s pleading eyes. A tear made its way to the earth pony’s eye. “Please. I’ll be okay.”

Applebloom gave one last push, just to make sure the devices weren’t pulling her leg. Her hoof slowly slid down the bar as defeat sunk in. “Ah-Ah’ll be back to g-get ya,” she stuttered, taking her first step back.

“I know you will.”

Sweetie Belle turned away, not willing to see her friend leave. Swallowing once to avoid breaking down, she assumed her most confident look. Her body shook like leaves blown by the wind. But she didn't cry. For once, she wouldn't cry.

Three figures rounded the corner and entered the alley. Two mares garbed in a dark purple flight uniform that followed a cloaked pony, its face obscured by an oversized hood. The mares bore a scornful smirk upon their features while their supposed leader walked on in utter silence.

“The preparations are complete,” the cloaked mare spoke. “This is your last chance before we forcefully remove the Light Force from you, foal.”

Sweetie Belle answered by turning away. She couldn’t see it, but she heard the mare stomp a hoof under the cloak. Her breathing rate accelerated, causing the hood to flutter a little and reveal a bit of the mare’s orange muzzle. The two other pegasi frowned noticeably at this. One of them sighed very quietly, as though she didn’t want to be heard, when her leader regained her posture.

“Valhalla, Sleipnir is waiting on us.”

“I am aware of that, Hel,” the cloaked pony bitterly hissed through clenched teeth. One of the mares shrunk back. Valhalla moved towards Sweetie Belle again. "When Nightmare Moon instructed me to search for the Light Force again, I thought it would be yet another difficult campaign not unlike the San Palomino raid," the hooded pony spoke almost dramatically. "It seems this was much, much easier than I ever imagined. For your sake, I would try not to make my work any harder, lest you wish to end up like the ponies of that sand city."

"San Palomino... the Light Force..." Sweetie echoed with her mouth hung slightly open in thought. She narrowed her eyes and accusingly spoke, "You're the ones who attacked Natural Scale. You helped Nightmare Moon attack the city."

"Who we are is not of your concern, foal!" The pony stomped a hoof to emphasize her status. "Relinquish the Light Force!"

"No!"

"Do as you are told, foal, or-"

SCHWING!

The sharp sound of a blade leaving its sheath cut through the air like a sword. Valhalla turned to find Applebloom standing behind their back with her weapon in her mouth. "Or what?!"

"Applebloom! I told you to go away!"

"Hey Valhalla! That's the filly we told you about!" Applebloom recognized that voice. It was definitely Hel, the mare that had started calling her a blank flank in the forest.

"Oh?" Valhalla uttered, her pose relaxing visibly. "This is the foal that tried to stop you?"

"Aw, and she has a little knife this time!" Hel's other henchmare, 'Val', joined in.

"What'cha gonna do with that, blank flank?"

"Do you really think you can hurt us with a knife?"

"Silence, both of you," Valhalla suddenly cut in. Her voice was surprisingly calm, but still had the sharpness of a needle to the other pegasi. They recoiled in silence. Applebloom's mind told her to do the same, but she stood her position. The mare walked forward, staring down at the filly with her head held high. When she was too close, Applebloom hoisted the sword, causing Valhalla to flinch and stop mid-step. "So, you are the brave little filly that stood up to Valkyrie and Hel. I assume you are here for your friends, hm?" She motioned towards Sweetie Belle with a hoof.

“Y-Y’can bet yer flank, ma’am!”

“Such language. Such uncouth manners. Your despicable behavior will be your doom. Have you any idea of who you are in the presence of?”

“A-Ah heard enough to know that you ain’t a good pony!”

“FOAL!” Valhalla’s sudden holler irradiated a sense of authority not unlike that of the Royal Canterlot tone. The way she unfolded her wings almost caused the cape to fly off her back. “We are Her Majesty’s most privileged militia! The only force that has kept the Wonderbolts from intervening!”

Valhalla had completely ignored the sword and, before Applebloom could notice, marched until they were standing snout to snout. She flared her nostrils as she bore into the filly. “We are the Shadowbolts. I am their leader. And you would do well in remembering that.

“Now… you have your friends here! You have me! What will you do now?!” Valhalla jerked her hoof to smack Applebloom on the side of the face. The unexpected blow carried enough strength to throw the filly back, consequently knocking the sword out of her mouth. Her jaw hurt. She tried to reach for it, but her hooves wouldn’t obey. She could see Valhalla stepping forth, no doubt preparing to lash at her again. Sweetie’s pleas to stop filled her ears. Applebloom clenched her teeth, steeling herself for the blow that was about to come.

“You wanted to save your friends? You wanted to play hero?” The coolness in Valhalla’s voice had faded entirely. Her words carried a cruelly triumphant spirit. Applebloom averted her eyes from the pegasus. Valhalla wasn’t having any of it. She stood over the filly’s fallen body and forced her to face the shadow of the Shadowbolt’s hood. “Playtime is over, foal! You are much too late to save any of your friends!”

Valhalla reached for the top of the hood and pulled it back with a single, swift movement. The cerise mane that flowed down her neck upon the removal of the hood nearly cracked Applebloom’s heart into half.

“Sc… Scoots?” She couldn’t believe her own eyes. Even if Valhalla wasn’t this much larger than her, she would never find her friend in the malevolent gaze that those purple irises cast upon her. The young pegasus filly she knew would never sport such a devious smile, or say such hurtful words. From the corner of her eye, she noticed that Sweetie Belle was just as incredulous.

Yet there she was. Valhalla’s smirk grew wider with Applebloom’s inability to understand the situation. “I had never thought that I would find the perfect candidate for my new body in a foal that was destined to be earthbound for life. In fact, I do believe I did her a favor.”

“W-What happened to’er?! Where’s Scootaloo?!”

“I am the ‘Scootaloo’ you speak of!” Valhalla shouted, raising her head proudly. “Because your unicorn friend possesses the same power that deprived me of my body, I could not take control of her. I condemn Celestia to the bowels of Tartarus for stripping me of a physical form!

“If I own a body, I owe it to Nightmare Moon! Her Majesty was ever so generous to lend me some of her power. With it, I was able to… mold… this foal’s body to that worthy of a mare of my caliber, to my former image. A true Shadowbolt!”

“N-No!” Applebloom cried, attempting to kick the mare’s chest but failing to even reach it. “No! No! Give’er back!”

Valhalla was lost in laughter. “This body belongs to me now, child! Valkyrie, Hel! Ready the unicorn! We leave this Tartarus-bound town at once!"

"No! Please, stop! Don't do-"

"And you," Valhalla quickly interrupted, sticking a hoof in Applebloom's mouth. The filly clung to the leg and tried to push it away, but Valhalla was stronger. "For your insolence, I will reap your very soul and carry it so that you may suffer the same imprisonment I did in Tartarus! You will be yet another soul that will strengthen me!"

Valhalla raised a hoof, and Applebloom braced for the blow. This was it. Her own friend’s hoof would dictate her death. No, it wasn’t her friend. It was a monster that pretended to be her. A monster worse than any Changeling could ever be.

There was a hoot. It was a cry so powerful, so piercing that it echoed across the town. She looked up to see that Valhalla herself had stopped her hoof in mid-air to check what was happening.

Something flew from the shadows and against Valhalla’s face, a blur of different shades of brown that kept flapping its wings against the orange pegasus. Applebloom’s eyes drifted to its talons: they held her sword.

It was not until Valhalla became tired of the onslaught and started swiping her legs at it that the bird dropped the weapon for the filly to catch before flying off. Valhalla considered chasing her attacker, but a matter of greater importance required her attention.

Applebloom was staring longingly into her eyes. She held the sword by its handle in her mouth. Valhalla could almost read the thoughts that clashed behind that sorrowful gaze. She was frightened. Valhalla was frightened too.

“Ah know ye’re scared, Scoots,” the earth pony whispered. Had she spoken any louder, her voice would have cracked like a dry twig. This didn’t leave Valhalla any less anxious. “But they’ll find us. Ah’ll find ya. Y’ll see.”

Valhalla shook her head almost imperceptibly in disbelief. “What are you…”

“Ah’m sorry, Scoots.”

A flick of her head was all Applebloom needed to swing the blade straight at the mare’s neck. Valhalla only snapped out of her trance in time to avoid losing her throat, opting for a much lesser cut on a forehoof. She remained airborne even when Applebloom got up, observing her carefully from her spot in the air, where she couldn’t be reached.

Those eyes. Those saffron pools, just barely visible in the moonlit, that bore into her very soul. They wanted their friend back. They tried to hide the betrayal that was that single swing of the blade. She felt sick.

“Your soul shall forever wander in Tartarus. That much I promise you. If not by my hoof, then by somepony else’s.” Valhalla would have preferred that to have her heart crossed with a sword than to have received the silence she did from the filly. She couldn’t bring herself to set down and outright murder her current opponent. After what felt like an eternity for the pegasus, Valhalla flew off, disappearing beyond the roofs shortly after. Applebloom could only watch her leave.

“Thanks, Scoots,” she muttered to herself. Owlowicious returned to remind her that there was still work to be done, prompting her to follow back to the plaza.

Every plea she heard from Sweetie Belle strengthened her resolve. It served to quicken her pace, to disregard the pain in her jaw and bite down on the handle even harder. Left and right, ghostly figures in snow-white cloaks appeared from the shadows of the alleys, as if to provide her guidance with their lanterns. She knew their true purpose, but ignored them altogether.

The airborne silhouette of Scootaloo -- no, Valhalla -- against a black background of swirling fiery clouds was the first thing she saw once she rounded the corner. The cage containing her friend had been loaded onto the chariot, and its harnesses had been placed around the necks of two pegasus ponies. As soon as Valhalla laid her eyes on Applebloom, she gasped out the command to take off. The other Shadowbolt in the carriage said something the filly couldn't quite understand, but Valhalla dismissed her with a louder hiss.

Hel and Sleipnir began to flap their wings in perfect synch, and the chariot soon took off. Applebloom didn’t hesitate in giving chase. The ruins of Ponyville were but a blur zooming past her as she ran with no regard to what was around. The chariot had her undivided attention, even as she ventured into the Everfree Forest again, where the monsters roamed free.

It wasn’t a monster that got her, though. It was the abrupt end of the world, a hill she hadn’t even seen. As soon as her footing escaped, she threw a leg up to try and ‘grab’ the edge.

Once more, it slipped her grasp. The air briefly roared in her ears before she hit the dirt on her side, eliciting a choked growl of pain from the filly. The tumble down the hill was not over yet. With the slow increase of the pain in her body came her sluggish plummet into a world of blackness.

Just before she slipped into unconsciousness, a whimper escaped her throat. It was a promise. She wasn’t sure if she would be able to keep it or not. But just in case she survived, Cross my heart, hope to fly.

“Ah’ll find ya.”

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“…rest so that she may recover best.”

Applebloom's mind stirred to the sound of a familiar voice. The air was hot and heavy with a disgusting scent, intertwined with the lighter aroma of the forest. She tried to open her eyes, her mouth, move her legs or her head, but found herself unable to do any of those.

“Her jaw looked really bad… are you sure it was fixed?”

Something was boiling. A wooden object hit a metallic one.

“Do you my skills disbelieve? It is because of them that you live.”

The heavy Zebrican drawl that oozed from those words was not strange to Applebloom's ears. She recognized the one who had vocalized them as Zecora.

A snort. “You don’t have to keep reminding me of that, you know. But her… she’s just a filly.”

“Though you are of a different kind, no older than a filly is your hide.” The sound of hoof steps drew closer. “This filly through a great ordeal has persevered. If what you claim is true, then never of her whereabouts did her family hear.”

“But the sword she had… it belonged to Link! She must know where he is!”

“Your claims are not unfounded, to be sure. But his connections to young Applebloom are unsure. Scoop the medicine from the cauldron and bring it to me. Another dose should suffice for her to be healthy.”

“Thish shmellsh like thoshe thingsh Link kept drinking. Shtill dishgushting.”

More hoof steps. The pop of a bottle cap. “Though their smell I do not commend, potions prevent your end.” Her mouth was gently pried opened, and a liquid streamed into her throat. She was right: it felt repulsive.

Surprisingly, she could cough just instants after the concoction reached her stomach. This seemed to prompt a gasp from the other individual. “She’s coming to!”

“Remember what you have been told. We do not know what story this filly’s wounds may hold.” Slowly but surely, Applebloom succeeded in opening her eyes. The light of a flame heating a caldron was the first thing she saw, and she closed her eyes in a reflex to avoid being blinded. She felt Zecora shift in place. A hoof began to caress the earth pony’s cheek. “I am here, young Applebloom. You are far away from your doom."

"Zecora?" she weakly muttered as she attempted to open her eyes again. The zebra had positioned herself in front of the light, and was presently facing her with a warm expression of a mother.

There was another pony in the room, she also noticed. It was a mare – or at least certainly the size of one – who was peering expectantly over Zecora’s shoulder, as if waiting for her turn to talk. Chestnut coat, pale yellow mane, a white patch of fur between the eyes, a well defined snout. The scent of the countryside, of farms and trees.

“H-how did Ah get here? Ah was runnin’ after Sweetie Belle and then… Ah think Ah fell…”

“Our friend found you badly hurt and asleep. It appears we were right to assume you had taken a tumble most deep.” Valhalla. Scootaloo. The two seemed to converge in her mind. “You carried a sword on your back. What is it that you intended to hack?”

Her goal at the time rushed back to her head. She'd engaged in a blind chase for the pegasi, a race she knew she would never win. They had escaped, after all.

"Where did you get it?" the other pony piped in. Zecora shot her a reproving glare.

"Whatever her reason, I'm certain it was valid," the zebra spoke before facing Applebloom again. "Tell us, Applebloom. What left your skin so pallid?"

No pressure, right? the filly thought as she felt the expectant gaze of both equines fall upon her. Breathing in, then out, she detailed her trip. The face of a grown Scootaloo who grinned devilishly refused to leave her mind’s eye throughout her report. She still struggled to accept that her friend was gone. To be honest, she doubted it. Valhalla had chosen to spare the filly for a reason -- and it hadn’t been compassion of any sort. Scootaloo was the only explanation.

That made Applebloom smile a little, even if neither Zecora nor her friend understood why she seemed mildly happy while describing how she was almost caught by ghosts. There was still hope.

When her tale ended, Zecora’s features turned thoughtful. “You talk of the Light Force and those who for it to the world’s end go. Do you know what this power is to have a reputation so?”

“Ah… Ah dunno. But it ain’t important.” The filly hopped off her bed and searched for her weapon. “Ah need to find Sweetie Belle and bring’er back! The sooner Ah leave, the faster Ah’ll get to’er!”

“Yours is a dangerous endeavor. What makes your confidence in victory last forever?”

“T’ain’t ‘bout confidence!” Applebloom objected, turning so sharply that Zecora winced. “It’s ‘bout savin’ a friend! Ya get that, Zecora? Sweetie Belle is mah friend, and Ah won’t stop ‘till Ah get’er back! Her ‘n--”

There’s still hope, remember? Don’t give up! she scolded herself. Finding the sword provided an excellent distraction from those thoughts, and she trotted over to collect it.

“If you so insist, then--”

“Hold on a second!” the other pony shouted as soon as Applebloom placed a hoof on the sword. The bigger filly swatted the hoof away with her own before claiming the sword. “She still hasn’t explained why she has the sword! And if you ask me, I think she stole it from Link!”

“Now listen’re, ma’am! Ah’m right thankful ya saved me, but Ah didn’t steal nothing from nopony!”

“Then how come you have his sword?”

“Ah dunno! Ah found it by the river!”

“Epona! That is enough!” Zecora intervened to Applebloom’s relief. “Do not simply accuse young Applebloom of a crime so rough!”

“But… but the sword!”

“She acquired the sword through honest means,” the zebra spoke more softly. “Surely you believe she had need of it to face such fiends!”

Epona seemed to want to press the subject, but her resigned groan seemed to dismiss those plans. “Okay, fine. I’m sorry.”

To her surprise, Applebloom smiled in response. “It’s okay. But Ah really need to get tootin’.”

“If you so insist on leaving, then allow us to come along. After all, it is dangerous to go alone.” Zecora looked around as if searching for something. Her smile broadened when she found what she looking for. “And I believe I have just what you can take to have some protection of your own.” Before Applebloom could even argue the possibility of receiving help, Zecora walked away.

“Guess that means we’re gonna be tagging along,” Epona spoke, circling the filly to study her.

“Ya really don’t have to.”

“Eh, you’re right, I don’t.” The mocking tone in Epona’s voice almost made it seem like she’d regretted the decision. “But hey, maybe I’ll find Link. I don’t have much to lead myself on. So, Applebloom, right?”

She extended a hoof, to which Applebloom stared for a moment. Then, shaking it, she completed the thought. “Yeah! Applebloom Apple! Ah never met somepony like you!”

Her new friend giggled. “That’s ‘cause I’m not a pony. I’m Epona, Hyrule's top racehorse!”

Courage

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“We are near,” Zecora spoke, voice as low as the whispers of the woods around them. As if she'd mistakenly spoken to the trees instead of her companions, she raised her volume and spoke again, “Gather your courage and keep your weapon close, Applebloom. If there is something you cannot have here, it is fear.”

Applebloom replied with a nod, unsure of what to answer. Time lost its importance when they left the zebra's hut and took for the Everfree Forest, and the striped equine hadn’t so much as breathed a word since their departure, leaving Applebloom and Epona to converse among them. To suddenly ask that she gather her courage was surprising at worst.

Zecora had imparted a gift to her as her last action prior to this trip. It was a wooden shield that was shaped like an eye, with the zebra’s cutie mark on its front. She had gone on to describe how it had been a family treasure in Zebrica, from the time when her tribe still waged war with its neighbors. It now rested on the earth pony's back, strapped to her cape with a strong rope. Two small bottles were tied to that same rope, dangling by her side. One bottle was filled to the brim with a red tonic, and the other with a blue tonic of sorts. Zecora hadn't told her much about them. Her parting words had been 'red for exhaustion, blue for the right time'. Applebloom had shrugged it off.

Her conversation with Epona had roused her curiosity, though. She had learned that the blade in her scabbard was called the ‘Kokiri Sword’. It had been Link’s first weapon, she had said, and one of the boy’s most treasured possessions, right after an ‘Ocarina of Time’ instrument. The Kokiri were a tribe of children of the forest - or human foals, as Epona had to put it - who never grew up, and lived long lives. Applebloom idly wondered if they also had to find their 'special talent'.

Of everything the Hylian horse had shared, however, the most recent developments in her life had been the most curious. Epona had only mentioned an endless fall and her luck in finding an exit from some sort of mine. Sure, that had cost her her owner, as she had wound up in the forest, where she had been alone and hurt.

But when the thought of giving up entered her mind at last and she collapsed under the weight of her body, the most regal winged unicorn, of plumage and coat as dark as the night, visited her dreams. She spoke words of encouragement, and promised to help her. When the night fell, Epona found the promise fulfilled. The stars had guided her to Zecora.

Their conversations were cut short by a cough from the zebra. She had stopped just ahead of them to observe the landscape from the top of a moss-covered rock. Beyond that point, the world met an abrupt descent. They had reached the Ghastly Gorge.

"You claim we have seven days at most. We must make do with that time if we wish to rescue your friends from their host." She stepped aside, allowing Applebloom to take her previous spot on the musty terrain. A fresh breeze was already there to welcome the filly, a breeze she knew she could only find in such places as the Everfree Forest. Maybe the Kokiri felt this every day. "Below is the Bog. I come here to meditate. It matters not where exactly. It is all the same. Atop the slippery surface of a rock, under the frigid waters of the waterfall or dependent of the balance of a log.

"There is more to this swamp than what meets the eye, however," she added cautiously. "A powerful deity slumbers in these waters, a spirit that swore to protect them forever."

A deity? Maybe it's the one Steven mentioned, Applebloom thought, glancing down at a river that slithered among the trees at the bottom of the cliff.

"What you described of these Shadowbolts is most distressing," Zecora continued. Her voice betrayed the concern that her eyes hid so well. "If you wish to have the upper hoof, then you must receive this spirit's blessing."

"W-Wait a minute," she quickly stuttered. The moment of distraction nearly caused her to lose her footing. "Ya mean Ah have to go all the way down there jus' to meet a snake?"

"She's too young, Zecora," Epona piped in, standing between the two.

Zecora immediately cast an annoyed glare at the horse. "Age does not matter. If the tales you told us of your master are true, then you should know better.

“Epona and I shall wait on the other side of the Everfree Forest, where we shall resume our journey. Tread carefully, young Applebloom, and do not hurry.” The zebra placed a hoof on the filly's shoulder in an unspoken request to see each other in the eye. “One miscalculated step in these woods may cost you your life. Although no evil roams down below, the guardians of the waterfall will not hesitate in causing strife.”

"A-Ah don't know..."

Zecora raised a hoof to hush the filly. When she obtained silence, she smiled. "I have faith in you. Despite Epona's words, she does, too."

Applebloom wasn't as happy. She sought for some confirmation of the zebra's words in Epona's eyes. Epona was struggling to keep a grin, perhaps thinking it would inspire the filly forward. It didn't.

Regardless, she knew that there was truth in what Zecora had said. The Shadowbolts were powerful, much more powerful than even the three equines combined. As she stared at the forest that spread into the horizon below, in the confines of a soaring canyon, she prayed that whatever was down there would grant her a proper advantage. She spotted a path she could follow to reach the bottom. She would barely be able to walk on it, but it appeared to be the only possibility.

"Have faith, young one."

Those were the last words Applebloom heard from the zebra before the roaring of the wind filled her ears. Epona just looked on. Without the filly, there was no need to try to smile.

"Come now, Epona, ours is still a long run."

But Epona didn't budge. She just stood there, boring into Zecora's back with a bothered look upon her.

"You didn't tell her."

Feigning shock, Zecora looked back and cocked an eyebrow. Then, with the same neutrality she'd always kept, "There was no need."

"You still should have told her! Zecora, her brother is just grasping at straws right now, but he'll find her!" Epona stomped a hoof, hoping to get the zebra's attention. She didn't get it. She continued nonetheless, her tone more pleading than imposing. "When he does, it'll be a matter of time before she knows. It'll be worse--"

"And when she does know," Zecora continued. Her voice had an unwavering calmness to it that annoyed Epona to no end. "From this body I will have been freed."

Not intending to carry the conversation on any further, the zebra turned and left. Epona followed her at a much slower, unconvinced pace. She mumbled curses and snarls under her breath.

"She still had the right to know..."

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Step after step, Applebloom slithered amongst the rocks of the cliff face. It was an incredibly sluggish pace, but the filly didn't want to take the risk of falling. Just looking down the very narrow ledge made her dizzy enough to require hugging the wall.

Through it all, she felt like she was being watched. The shrill cry of a bird echoed throughout the valley every so often, followed shortly by another, more guttural moan. Applebloom gulped, nudging the sword's hilt now and then to make sure it was still there.

The thought of turning tail crossed her mind more times than she could count. Epona had been right; she was too young to be facing such trials. She didn't have the smallest bit of experience with a sword, and whatever little she knew of it had been force-fed like a spoonful of fish.

Her resolve always strengthened, though. Every moment she doubted her skills was a moment lost in rescuing her friends. She trusted Zecora. If the zebra knew of something powerful in this valley and Applebloom could use it, then she would find it.

The end of the climb silenced those thoughts. Following the zebra's advice, Applebloom unsheathed the sword and gave it an experimental swing. The suffocating embrace of the forest started right there, at the base of the cliffs. The lowly grass that greeted her hooves at first immediately gave way to the loftier Everfree-grade trees. The shadow they cast filtered the nigh-nonexistent light of the night sky, shrouding the valley in absolute darkness. The darkness was her first enemy.

Her second enemy was flapping its wings under the cover of the night. Her ears swiveled left and right in a frenzy, hoping to trace the origin of the sounds.

That search led her to a large, rippling shadow that approached from within the forest. The realization that she couldn't run or hide struck her harder than any foe could ever hope to. Deprived of choice, she tightened her grip on the sword.

This unnatural screech almost escaped her throat when the shadow reached her. That single beating of a wing multiplied itself by a thousand, all around the young filly. She swung the blade wildly, but the enemies always evaded her attacks. Their wings felt like needles as they brushed against her coat. Their shrill cries felt just as sharp in her ears.

Despite her mind's continuous demands to react, she still found herself frozen in fear, curled on the musty ground. After all, she was still just a filly who was afraid of the dark and aware of the threatening monsters under her bed. Her efforts to fight back her fright were futile. She got closer and closer to crying with every close shave of the monsters' wings.

She would never dare to look up. She didn't to know how these monsters looked, because her imagination filled that gap very easily. Already she envisioned devilishly red eyes shimmering in the void with sharp, bloodstained blades sticking from their sides. She whimpered. What was she to do?

"Hoo," the darkness answered. The cry was familiar to her. From amidst the whistles of the razor-sharp wings of the monsters came a strong gust of air. It felt different, and inspired courage in Applebloom's heart once again.

The wave of winged enemies had stopped flowing against her. Perhaps Owlowiscious had found help. Perhaps a pegasus had agreed to look for and save her. Half-expecting to see some mighty stallion, she opened her eyes. Whatever was in front of her that the moonlight bathed in its weak light, it wasn't a stallion - or a pony - at all.

It was airborne, and it was just Owlowiscious.

"Y-Ye... how'd ya spook them off on yer own?"

"Hoo."

Not yet fully convinced, Applebloom took a moment to settle herself down. The initial panic had triggered the rush of adrenaline. Once she felt ready, she returned the sword to its scabbard and rose to her hooves. Mud matted her fur from sole to neck. She tried to shake it off. "Thought ya'd have flown off after yer owner."

"Hoo."

"Yer owner, Twilight Sparkle?" She tried to move. An itch on her sides led to the discovery of a collection of superficial cuts, marring the yellow of her coat with paper-thin lines of red. Her shield had likely taken the brunt of the attack, with her cape in a close second.

"Hoo."

"Consarnit, the unicorn ya live with in the-- ya know what, never mind. Jus' lemme be. The faster Ah run Zecora's errand, the sooner Ah'll be back on mah way to Sweetie Belle."

The owl didn't seem the least concerned. As she walked, Applebloom could still hear the beating of his wings beside her. Then the owl made his presence known again. "Hoo hoo."

"How'd ya find me, anyways? Ya been followin' me?"

"Hoo? Hoo hoo!" the owl almost sounded offended.

"Geez, fine." She paused. "Thanks fer... fer helpin' me out..."

"Hoo!"

"...but Ah really need to get tootin'. Zecora said Ah should look fer somethin' down'ere, and Ah jus' wanna find it 'n leave."

"Hoo."

The filly sighed internally. The owl's true intentions became apparent when the road clearly forked and she was pushed to the path to her right. She tried to resist but the owl displaying surprising strength.

It wasn't the first time that the owl did this to her; just the most noticeable one. By way of light nudges and calls for attention, the owl had effectively been leading her through the thick darkness. She didn't argue at first; after all, Owlowiscious had been responsible for leading her to Sweetie Belle.

This time, she'd been led to a dead end. There was only a wall of bushes to look at. She was smirking already.

"Look, Ah'm right thankful for leadin' me to'er earlier, but Ah really dun' think ya know yer way around... the bog..." The ability to speak properly escaped her as she stuck her head through the bushes. Had Owlowiscious been able to smile, then he would have. "...well, that Ah wasn't expectin'."

She was met with a small, round clearing, dimly lit by the bolts of lightning in the sky. It was a dead-end, she noted with some frustration, as the other side of the clearing was but one of the edges of the valley. There was enough light to see its inhabitant, though. It was a tall, slim creature whose only movement was the violent twitching of its limbs.

When the sky rumbled with thunder, she saw how its skin was akin to wood in more than just color. It appeared dry and rough, and the way it stuck to the bone gave the beast a sickly aspect. She sought for eyes, but found only the holes of a wooden mask for a face.

"What... what is that thing?" she stuttered, backing away from the bush.

She wasn't expecting the owl to have an answer, but he gave it anyway. "Hoo?"

"It looks real dangerous... why'd ya bring me here?!" Owlowiscious chose to fly down and pivot her head as an answer this time. He led her back to the bush, and pointed a wing at the other end of the clearing.

After a bit of squinting, Applebloom spotted what the owl had wanted her to find. Past the monster was a cage, partially covered with leaves and branches. Its contents drew a gasp from the filly. "Wait... is that a seahorse?"

"Hoo."

"So ya... ya mean Ah should rescue it?"

The owl nodded again. "Hoo."

Applebloom's mood shifted instantly. "What's gotten into all o'ya ponies' heads lately? Ah ain't no hero!" She only realized how futile it was to hope that Owlowiscious would reply when the owl gave her another long, motionless stare. Brow furrowed, she shifted her attention back to the clearing. The bipedal creature hadn't moved. "But... what about that there monster?"

"Hoo."

Owlowiscious left his perch to land by Applebloom's side. He stuck out a feather from the tip of his wing and held it close to his beak, as if demanding silence. Once he was sure he had Applebloom's attention, the owl took off towards the monster with skillful lightness. The filly staggered to reach him, but went no farther than what the safety of the bush allowed.

She just sat back and observed how the owl flew past the beast without a care in the world. The bird disappeared from sight momentarily, eclipsed by the shadows of the treetops. Applebloom's heart skipped a beat when the owl took just slightly more time than he should have.

But there he was, standing on the cage and eyeing her expectantly.

"Ye're crazy!"

"Hoo-hoo!"

The monster's head pivoted back at the owl surprisingly fast. Applebloom held her breath as though she was the one perched on top of the cage. They stood there, playing a staring game between beast and bird, neither one moving at all.

The monster moaned... then sluggishly moved its head to its original position. Owlowiscious didn't so much as blink, even after the whole ordeal. He spread his wings open and beckoned her to move.

"He did it... so it's safe."

She gulped. It had ignored Owlowiscious, right? Maybe it would ignore her as well. Besides, Zecora had said that there was no evil here. It was all just a test. "A-Ah hope."

She cowered and gulped one last time to steel herself. In the darkness, the bush shivered. Step by step, she dragged herself through the mud and the mold, eyes shifting nervously between the monster and the cage. The small clearing was suddenly much, much larger, and the barely lit ground that much more dangerous.

The last time she had snuck like this was still fresh in her mind. It had been some weeks, maybe months, since she snuck out of bed and down into the kitchen to nab one of her grandmother's bottles of Zap Apple jam.

Wonder how granny and Big Mac are...

Nearly bumping against the monster made her forget her idle wonders - if the rotten smell of its skin hadn't done that already. Surprised out of her mind, the fur of her coat standing on end, Applebloom slowly crawled away from its feet. Her presence had somehow remained unnoticed. She could bet that Owlowiscious would be laughing if he could.

Focus, AB! Ya don't want to get caught like this!

The incident was successful as an eye-opener, as Applebloom covered the remaining distance in no time. The cage was upon her, presenting a new enigma: how she would open it. A lock was her only obstacle. The golden seahorse, whose body glowed ever so softly, was watching her with its big, round eyes, but never getting close.

Ever the crafty one, Applebloom’s first try was with a twig. The sword’s blade was unfit for such a small lock, but the twig did wonders at breaking through it. It was aligned, she was ready to crack it, and the twig was holding in… until it snapped. Cursing her lack of skill at lockpicking – and after throwing a quick glance at her flank in search of a lockpicking cutie mark – she decided to switch tactics. Owlowiscious hooted, and a plan instantly came to be.

Said plan was subsequently killed, as the answer to all of her problems was once again with the owl. A small key plopped onto her mane from its beak, an object that she took with mild annoyance. The reason for the owl to hide it from her in the first place was beyond her.

Letting it slide down to the back of her hoof, she noticed it was a key. Convenient, she thought, biting down on the steel key and jamming it into the slot. The creaking of the lock was all it took to ruin her cover.

The monster's head swiveled her way, causing a surge of adrenaline to course through Applebloom. She threw open the cage's door and bit down on the seahorse's tail, subsequently dragging it out of the cage with her.

"Get away! Run!" she hollered at the small creature. It took her advice and attempted to flee, somehow managing to float just inches above the ground.

It was far too late, as somehow, the monster had already captured it again. The seahorse simply fell where it stood, completely immobile. Applebloom felt a pang of rage rise in her chest.

"Leave it alone! Why don't'cha mess with somepony yer size!" Surprisingly obedient, the monster spun around, and her anger subsided completely. She cowered before the emptiness of its mask’s gaze. "O-Oh, huh, 'cept with, y'know, me."

The undead monster turned a deaf ear to the filly's words. A pained scream, not unlike that of a doomed soul, escaped its bare mouth, letting Applebloom know that it was time to flee.

But she couldn't. She couldn't move her legs, or keep her eyes away from the pair of black circles on the creature's mask. Her tail could twitch at best, but that was it. She was completely powerless.

"Owlowiscious..."

Convinced that its prey was ensnared, the monster stepped forth, its steps creating a disgusting plish-plosh. Applebloom tried to shiver.

"Help..."

The monster wrapped its skinny arms around her, baring its sharp, disgusting teeth. Seeing itself unable to grasp her head, it chose to grip her by the neck with a single, skinny hand. The lump in the filly's throat gave way to deep fear and dread. A sob wracked her body.

"G-Git away..." she muttered weakly. The monster's jaws hovered over her foreleg and stopped there, as if to study it. Applebloom forced her eyes shut. "Dun' do it... p-please..."

The beast did not empathize with her pleas. Overcome by a ruthlessness rivaling that of a famished bear, it sank its jagged teeth in the filly's leg, then moaned loud enough to drown her wails. Not a second later, it pulled away, as though the first bite had been in a completely wrong spot. Another candidate was soon chosen, it seemed, as the monster grabbed her by a hind leg and raised her until they were eye-to-eye.

He wants the neck.

Just as it prepared to bite, Applebloom’s scream became unexpectedly louder. Mind set to cruise control and body on autopilot, she jerked away from the monster and kicked her foe as soon as the chance presented itself. Its wooden mask stood no chance against an Apple’s buck, and despite her young age, Applebloom’s was no exception.

There was nary a response from the monster. It moaned, this time in a clear display of pain, and let go of the filly. Applebloom stumbled to the ground, eyes brimming with tears. She didn’t stop for a second, nor did she hesitate: she pulled the sword out of its sheath and relentlessly hacked at the undead being. Not one of the blows she delivered missed. To her surprise, not one of them drew blood from her enemy. The creature was as dry as the bone her sword struck.

When exhaustion finally caught up with the filly, there wasn’t a mask on the monster’s face anymore. Although the darkness didn’t allow her to describe it accurately, the loose tendrils of flesh hanging from its chin made her wish she never would. Just as she took a step away from the monster, its husk slumped to the ground, lifeless. She watched it for a little longer to make sure it wouldn’t suddenly rise from the dead. It didn’t.

“A-Ah did it—HNNG!” Her moment of celebration was interrupted by a sting of pain on her leg. The monster had dug its teeth deep into her flesh. She fell to her haunches at the thought of some unknown infection in her body… or worse, of becoming a zombie. “N-Need to find that snake…”

Quickly scanning her surroundings, she found the seahorse in the exact same place it had been petrified. Owlowiscious stood next to it, patiently awaiting the earth pony’s arrival. He greeted her with a short hoot, one that almost suggested some regret, then pointed down at the seahorse and hooted again.

“Miss Seahorse…” the filly softly called, prodding the small creature with a hoof. The ‘spell’ seemed to have worn off, which was a plus in her book.

"Please… hear my plea," it cried with its shrill and childish voice. Applebloom’s eyes went wide when the seahorse rose to the air on its one. It was definitely not injured. "The evil Timberwolves have broken me apart and scattered my pieces…"

"The timberwolves?" But... Zecora said that there was no evil here...

The seahorse didn't even notice her words. It pressed the tip of its snout against Applebloom's to call her attention. "Please, find a way to return me to the base of the Ghastly Waterfall!"

"Look, hum, Ah'm kinda sorta real busy right now..." The seahorse deflated in front of her. Applebloom swallowed nervously. "But, huh, if ya wanna stick 'round, maybe we'll find yer place?"

"Oh, yes! Thank you so much!" Suddenly filled with joy again, the seahorse floated up to side with her. "I will be sure to thank you properly!"

"Aw, shucks, that's okay," Applebloom was quick to answer, resuming her trot. "'sides, Ah really didn't do anythin' much... Owlowiscious did most of the job."

"Hoo!"

The seahorse's chuckle was like tiny bells in light wind. "Courageous and modest! You are quite the filly."

Applebloom looked away to hide the little blush that had crept over her cheeks. "Let's jus' focus on findin' that waterfall so ya can find yer, huh, pieces. Ah really need to find that deity so Ah can go 'n save mah friends."

"Oh?" the seahorse said, tilting its head. "You are looking for the deity?"

"Sure am! Oh! Ya live down'ere, don't'cha, miss? Maybe ya know where Ah can find him!"

"Perhaps we can make a deal, then. Return me to the waterfall, and I will show you the way to the deity." The seahorse extended its tail. "Do we have a deal?"

Overjoyed, Applebloom readily bumped her hoof against the tail. "Deal!"

"Perfect! Let us be on our way th--" A howl. A cold chill ran throughout their bodies. "Oh my. That does not sound good."

"Hoo hoo!"

"Timberwolves," Applebloom gasped. The filly could recognize their howls from miles away. She smiled a little. Her grandmother always made a fuss about it. "Owlowiscious, take Miss Seahorse and try to find that waterfall! Ah'll be right behind ya!"

Applebloom gulped as soon as she issued those orders. The owl didn't seem to notice. He just nodded and took the seahorse in his talons. She was alone in the fight against the wilderness now.

It was in this time of uncertainty that her tutor's words echoed. A sword wields no strength unless the hoof that holds it has courage…

Her grip on the sword tightened.

Gather your courage, the zebra had spoken as well. The two entities mingled together in her mind. They were both right. Courage. That's what she needed.

If Owlowiscious can spook them monsters and see them square in the eyes, then Ah'll be darned if Ah can't!

"Alright, ya big monster!" she growled at the darkness with a newfound vigor. "Where are ya?!"

The thicket shivered. Senses on full alert, Applebloom spun on her heels. Just as their namesake would suggest, the creatures she sought for could easily blend with the forest.

She could run away, just like she had done before. She had run away from the pegasi, from the monsters of the forest and from the fire as it consumed the work she was proudest of. In all of those cases, she had lost someone or something. In all of those cases, she had been defenseless.

Not anymore. She'd have courage and stand up to the challenge.

Another shiver. Another snarl.

Somehow she predicted the first attack, but could do nothing more than jump haphazardly out of the way. The timberwolf was watching her now, eyes shimmering with a sickly green color. That didn't daunt her anymore. Applebloom no longer felt intimidated by the beast's guttural rumble.

She attempted her first strike, a wild swing of the sword. She heard the timberwolf's heavy body move out of the way, leaving a gust of putrid wind in its wake. The bushes shivered again, announcing the timberwolf's entry.

The obnoxious smell was disorienting. Having unwittingly caught a deep whiff of it, Applebloom bobbed in place for a moment. She was alone again, but she knew that the timberwolf wasn't done with her yet. She could still hear its steps behind the bushes. It was observing her, rounding their little arena, waiting for the chance to attempt a new move.

The natural stench was just as much of advantage as it was a disadvantage for the timberwolf, however. Applebloom had noticed that and had taken full profit of the downsides. Just as she stopped and the timberwolf leaped out of the bushes, ready to pounce onto the young filly, his target spun in place.

The wooden creature only noticed the sword in her mouth too late. With one well aimed swing, the blade pierced the wolf's stomach, tearing it open. Stripped of its torso, the timberwolf crumbled apart. Its fragments, all of them sticks and leaves, harmlessly rained down on Applebloom.

She didn't even get to breathe a sigh, though, as the scuffle had attracted more timberwolves. She could hear their growls already, and chose for the best not to stay. Her sole moment of stillness was spent trying to figure out where to run next. Luckily, the rumbling of a waterfall was there to provide guidance, which she gladly followed. The wolves were in hot pursuit, fangs and claws bared and ready to strike.

The filly was actually beginning to smirk triumphantly when she suddenly ran out of places to escape to. She had found the waterfall; rather, its top, as the basin was down below, hidden under a swirling barrier of mist. The waters that fed it disappeared just halfway down the fall.

The timberwolves arrived then. Their snarls and stench struck fear in the young pony's heart, but she persevered. She spun to face them, and all at once, her determination crumbled. She had expected to see a gang of a measly three, maybe four of the lupines. A pack of ten, maybe more hidden in the foliage, was waiting at the entrance to the woods.

"This... ain't good..." She was back to square one, she realized, reaching for her sword.

One of the wolves reacted immediately by pouncing on her. Applebloom was surprised by the suddenness of the attack, but didn't hold her sword back. The weapon reduced the timberwolf's head to pieces, ridding her of an enemy. Angered, the pack snarled in unison.

"Stay b-back! Ah'll do the same to all o'ya!" Applebloom's shouts only served to anger them further. A trio of wolves stepped forth.

Their attack came without warning, but they fell to the blade. Her swings lacked skill and often sliced only the air. Despite that, Applebloom carried on. Though she did not know how to properly wield a sword yet, craftiness had always been her specialty. She was learning through experience.

Be courageous. Be courageous. Be courageous.

She knew that she would never stand a chance against any other swordspony, for they would, unlike these feral beasts, find ways to counteract her. So long as the timberwolves only attempted to strike her with their claws, she would survive.

By the time little beads of sweat started rolling down her face, Applebloom had successfully exhausted quite the number of timberwolves. She wasn't without wounds on her end, and the little cuts across her face were her mementos of the battle. The shield on her back had been put to good use, too, if the claw marks on its front were any indication.

She had been pushed to the very edge of the cliff - and of herself - while the timberwolves showed no sign of ending. For the first time, she was growing fearful of the outcome. She tested the ground behind her with a hoof. There wasn't any. Every beat of her heart was coming in shorter intervals. As though they were capable of sniffing the fear in her, the timberwolves closed in. Applebloom felt her stomach aching with their nauseous scent.

One of them swung a claw at her, which she retaliated to with a swing of her own weapon. Both missed, though that seemed to have been the wolf's intent. They were mocking her. They took a step forward, and Applebloom stepped backward.

"They got me... Gotta jump..."

The courage that had fueled her had started to fade away. She tried to summon it again, to call upon her tutors' advice and scour it for useful information in that situation.

"Jump, AB," she found herself whispering.

Just one more moment. One more second, and Owlowiscious would surely swoop down on the timberwolves, granting her just one more moment to act. Whatever hope she had of that vanished the moment her enemies struck.

Shamefully, she was caught off-guard. She resorted to the shield, which had endured so many of the hits until then. It was both her salvation and her doom, for what the timberwolves' claws didn't accomplish, the lengthy fall she was thrusted into did.

She yelled, watching the cliff wall race beside her as she plummeted through the haze. The wind roared in her ears, bringing tears to her eyes. The growling of the water crashing upon the rocky base of the waterfall became louder. Not once did she let go of the sword.

In the blink of an eye, she was submerged. A flash of pain clouded her head for a split second, stripping her of her sense of orientation. When the icy touch of the water finally reached her and she came to, Applebloom paddled towards the surface like she never had before, not even stopping to wonder why there was such bright light outside.

She broke the water with a deep, raspy inhale. The golden light was still there, within the mist that floated just above the water. She thought it enough to be thankful for the guidance it provided, and rushed towards the shore.

Dripping wet and exhausted, Applebloom fell to the gravel, coughing the excess water out of her lungs. The Kokiri Sword clanked to the ground.

In retrospect, she had done well. She had survived. All by herself, she had survived against an entire pack of timberwolves. If only she could tell everyone, they would all be proud of her achievement.

The anesthetic effect of the cold water wore off, and her real concerns surfaced. Even the collection of cuts all over her body had nothing on her foreleg. Where the undead monster had bitten her before was now a large gash that bled abundantly, and Applebloom didn't want to even imagine what other injuries were beneath the skin. She tried to touch it, but the pain drove her hoof away.

"Owlowiscious! Where are ya?!"

Nothing. No response from anyone. Just the murmur of the waters coursing through the rocks. She let out a sigh that more closely resembled a sob.

"Owlowiscious! Miss Seahorse!" Another distraught sigh, another dangerously raspy cough. "Anyone... p-please..."

"So, it is true." Applebloom's ears perked up at once. She raised her head. The seahorse she had rescued was right there, floating overhead.

"Miss Seahorse!"

"When I was told of a filly that sought the Light Force, I thought the Guidepost had lost his mind - for good, I might add." The chimes of its voice were barely noticeable in this low, serious tone. "I was about to confirm these rumors... but the timberwolves bested me."

"Urgh... help..." she coughed exhaustedly, raising a forehoof to try and reach for the seahorse. "M-Miss Seahorse... please..."

To her surprise, the seahorse turned away and headed towards the waterfall. The filly’s young heart shattered. She had risked her life to save the seahorse, and they had made a promise to each other. Applebloom had honored her part, so why wasn't it doing the same?

"What... what're ya doin'..."

“Oh courageous one!" the seahorse answered once it was within the mist. It was strange; its shrill voice had suddenly become clear, booming even. It was no longer fitting of a creature that was so small.

So unfitting that, as it turned out, it wasn't the seahorse talking. Rather, an entire community of small seahorses that floated above the waters was talking at the same time, producing the louder voice that reached her ears. The one she had rescued huddled with its brethren, and the waters were suddenly filled with a golden light. Applebloom shielded her eyes from the glow.

She could barely believe what she was seeing when she lowered her hoof. A giant sea serpent, just like Steven, was now rising out of the water. Its gaze was much more elderly and serious than that of the stylish serpent she had encountered, and its scales were dark green in color, just like the surrounding brush. A Guardian.

"I am the Keeper of the Ghastly Waterfall. I thank you for returning my broken and shattered body to normal. I feared the worst when I was ensnared by the vicious Timberwolves, and then held captive by the living dead... but you saved me. Thank you, once again."

Applebloom took a bow from the serpent, and for a very short moment, she smiled. The strain of standing on her injured leg soon caught up to the filly, however, stealing her breath and her balance. Still she managed to stutter, "The Keeper... ya were the deity all along..."

"You appear wounded..." it cooed, lowering its massive head towards Applebloom. The filly stared down at her injured foreleg and covered it with her good one in embarrassment. The snake held out an arm and beckoned her to move closer. "Come hither. Allow me to ease your weariness..."

Applebloom hesitated at first. Her heart, childish in nature, still raced, troubled with the way the luminescent seahorse had strayed away in her time of need. Even as she started to move, Applebloom's mind kept screaming to turn back. The water, cold as it felt, was like a blessing for her tired, wounded body.

The deity assumed control there, where the waters were deeper and the filly could no longer move. The serpent clamped its hands together, then just a moment later, parted them again. A flock of light pink sprites had magically taken shape between them.

They flew down towards Applebloom, allowing one to inspect the other. Marvel overcame shock when the filly realized that these were not parasprites. These boasted no massive mouth or adorable eyes, but their bodies emitted a glow about as intense as that of a small candle.

Then suddenly, one of the fairies behaved differently. Tailed by a trail of glittering specks, it began to describe circles around the filly. The touch of the dust was reinvigorating, as if she'd been offered cool water after craving it for days.

But then, after the last grain of sparkly dust touched her body, the fairy simply disappeared. One by one, the other fairies did the same. Little by little, the pain that assailed her leg and body diminished. When all but one fairy was left, she felt as though her trial had never happened. A tentative nudge at her leg led her to the same conclusion; no bite marks, no scars, it didn’t even feel broken anymore. She had been healed. Not a single scratch was left on her body.

The last fairy, noticing that the filly was fit to leave again, did not follow her brethren's steps. Instead, she fluttered back to the serpent, and contented herself with circling the deity like butterflies flock around flowers. Applebloom looked on, confused.

"W-What happened t'them?"

"When a fairy's purpose is fulfilled, they simply... disappear. The dust which they release is their legacy, and a new fairy is one day born from it."

"Y'mean... like a phoenix?"

"That is correct. As a Great Fairy, it is my duty to watch over them. I am one of the four Guardians of Equestria. Ours is a benevolent magic, and mine is only for those courageous enough to receive it."

"M-Me? Courageous?"

The snake nodded sagely. “As it would seem, I was right to deposit my faith in you. You demonstrated a feat of bravery beyond what most ponies would.” It carefully brought its frame closer to Applebloom. “You are, without a doubt, the one we have been waiting for.”

Such was her confusion that the filly's tone lowered to that of a whisper. "Yer... waitin'? Fer me?"

"There is no way for us to know who it is exactly. We know once we've met them. Just as I have met you.

“As I had promised, I wish to reward you. Raise your hooves, young one, and accept this power."

"Like this--AAH!!" the filly immediately cried, biting back tears. No sooner had her hooves left the ground than a searing pain washed over them. The water had become inexplicably hot.

A thread of boiling hot water slithered upward, to where her forehooves were, and gently enveloped them. The heat was not unbearable now. It felt good, like a warm bath in a cold night. The filly was so lost in pleasure that she truly felt disappointed when it was over. Her hooves felt slightly heavier now, and for a good reason: a pair of horseshoes adorned their underside, their bright grey surface glittering faintly under the fountain’s light.

"The shoes you wear will unlock the magic that all Earth ponies possess, but are unable to use to its full potential. Stomp the earth with them and make your foes tremble.

"There is one more thing I wish for you to carry. Please accept this parting gift." The serpent cupped its hands, and an intense shimmer erupted within its palms. The light was as blue as the morning sky this time, but just as powerful.

When the hands parted again, a stone grey orb with a single, darker gem incrusted on its face was revealed. It gently floated down towards the filly, leaving the guardian to continue its wish. "Protect that gem well. The day will come when the power imbued within is unleashed. You, Applebloom, will be the precursor."

Applebloom inched closer to the floating relic. It irradiated an indescribable feeling of power and presence; the type of feeling that would lead one to fall to their knees and bow. There was certainly a great power locked away inside it.

As soon as her hoof touched the stone, however, it vanished. She still felt its presence. It took her only a moment to understand what had just happened. Just like Natural Scale and Sweetie Belle, the power had been stored inside her.

Still, Natural Scale had given her best friend a mission. Applebloom only had a hint that something would happen. She had to clear it while she had the chance. "A-Ah'm not sure if Ah understand."

The serpent was not about to grant her that satisfaction, though. "You will understand when the time comes. Protect the gem, and all will turn out well.

"Your task is a trying one. It will not be easy, Applebloom. Should you wish to grow stronger, seek the springs of my fellow guardians, West, North and East of here. I am sure they will be willing to help you in your quest.

"Bear this in mind, however." The serpent's tone grew somber. "This is but a test. It is your first trial. We are confident that you will pass with brilliance." The guardian spread its arms open in a welcoming manner. They were easily the span of three houses. "Return here if you grow weary. I will tend to your wounds."

“Ah’ll… Ah’ll keep that in mind.”

Applebloom was still hesitant when she thanked the guardian and started walking away from the fountain. She felt a strange happiness, bordering on giddiness. It wasn't that she'd just received the blessing of a guardian, or been granted a new power to save Sweetie Belle.

And the truth was what kept her smile from showing up. She was happy because, just like her friend, she had a mission of greater importance. She didn't know the details of her mission like Sweetie Belle did of hers. It felt encouraging nonetheless.

She picked up her pace. There was work to be done. There was the face of a cliff to climb, a zebra to meet, and a desert to be crossed. She would find the pegasus, and she would rescue her friends.

Behind her, the guardian watched in silence. Half-truths and hints were the way of the higher beings. Applebloom was but a child that lacked the right incentive to act. There was much, very much that the serpent could have told the filly, centuries of knowledge. There had been no need for it, for they would not have served any purpose.

When Applebloom finally disappeared from its sight, the guardian’s caring expression withered to that of a stern frown. They would meet again. Given time, the filly would grow stronger. The guardian’s only wish was that she would have the strength to make the right decision.

"Have faith..." it whispered, sinking back into the waters of the basin. "Hero chosen by the Elements..."

Author's Note

Looks short for such a long delay, eh? That's because this is just one part of a nearly 20k word chapter (20k written already, I mean) that I decided to piece apart after spending so much time hopping between parts. As soon as I was done with Applebloom's part, I got to correcting it, and decided to post it by parts. This is a two-parter - hopefully - so the next one should be the rest of the chapter. Really, when you have to design and write 5 or 6 boss+miniboss battles in the same chapter, it gets tiring. xD

Alas, here you have it. The next part shouldn't take too long now that this one is out of my head. I really should make longer chapters based on a single set of characters. I think the story will allow for that.

King of the Hill

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"Why did you do it, Rainbow Dash? Who made you kill Spitfire?"

Rainbow couldn't catch enough breath to answer. A sharp blade, aimed at her throat, was slicing through the air, skillfully maneuvered by one of the Wonderbolts. Dodging it wasn't a problem for the weathermare. The problem was that she couldn't tell which one of the Wonderbolts was attacking her anymore, nor could she afford spending time to figure it out. Their speed, coordination and fighting skills constituted no surprise for Rainbow; these were the Wonderbolts, after all.

They acted as if they were a single pegasus, combining their moves as they drew closer for the hit, then going separate ways whenever Rainbow managed to evade the attack. The weathermare already had quite the number of cuts and bruises of which to speak of, and only the suit she wore had prevented many, many more.

She had tried reasoning, but the other pegasi had always found a way to misinterpret her words as lies. She was running out of options and of breath to word them. She couldn't escape them forever. Rainbow was proud of her stamina, but she knew that by the time she was too tired to fly, they wouldn't have broken a sweat.

I don't want to hurt anypony, but... you're not making this any easier for me, she thought with every strike she received. It was becoming dreadfully clear that there would be no way out of the situation through words alone.

"She seems tired, Rapid," Fleetfoot scorned from across the room. Rapidfire joined her chortle. As if to startle his enemy, he jerked the thin blade of his sword at Rainbow. She gasped and jerked back accordingly, drawing another guffaw from the other pegasi.

"Yeah, maybe we should just finish her up." A devious smile broke across Rapidfire's face. "I'm getting tired of playing games!"

"Hear that, Rainbow? We're gonna make sure it's nice and painless!"

"Unlike some ponies, we still have morals, ya know?"

Any chance of replying was taken from Rainbow when the Wonderbolts let out a thunderous cry. Swords pointed forward, they took off at blinding speeds in opposite directions, circling Rainbow. The confused weathermare, armed crossbow in hooves, watched as they gained speed with every circle they described. She didn't want to shoot. Not yet.

Their intentions suddenly became clear when they became but a blur to her eyes. The wind had died, and with it, every other sound. Such was their speed that even some of the storm clouds from the shaft below were being sucked into the room, creating a twirling barrier of clouds around her.

They're trying to create a tornado! she realized with a startle. She couldn't see them anymore. Against her better judgment, she attempted to cross the tornado. The winds proved to be unrelenting, however, leaving Rainbow to almost be sucked into the vortex. At the expense of a lot of energy, she managed to pull out just before she could be dominated.

The walls were closing in. She had to act before they could reach her, lest her body be twisted like a rag-doll. Her mane whipped wildly against her neck, as if to warn her of the impending danger. The suit was the only thing between her and the bolts of lightning that shot out of the whirlwind's walls. She had to be grateful that Spitfire--

The suit!

The arrow barely got through Spitfire's suit back there... Her hoof twitched towards the trigger. As much as she didn't want to hurt them, she couldn't let them hurt her. Her pride wouldn't allow it either.

She looked up from the crossbow, eyes scanning the insides of the windstorm in a desperate search for the pegasi. If she could strike one, as she knew from experience, the whole thing would collapse on itself.

It was without a moment of hesitation that she fired upon sighting one of the Wonderbolts. The arrow flew quick and true, and surely enough, a piercing scream of pain was heard. The wind died down at once, shrouding the shaft in the darkness of the storm clouds.

Darkness was not all they brought. From the depths of the shaft below came a flock of winged monsters. Rainbow cursed her lack of foresight. She should have exterminated them when she had the chance.

"Ah! The Shadowbolt reveals her strategy!" Fleetfoot's distinctively female voice barked from within the veil of clouds. "Coward! You need these petty creatures to protect you from us?"

"They're not on my side!"

Fleetfoot ignored her completely. "Rapid, get the Equimos! I've got these guys!"

The Equimos...

'You need to get to Soarin' and the others and tell them to shut the Equimos down before it's too late.'

Rainbow's eyes went wide. There was a flash that was uncanny for a thunderbolt, and just seconds later, a beam of energy scraped the tip of her right wing, leaving a scorched mark in the place of a feather. She had to take it down. Now.

She didn't have to search for the machines. Their glittering crystal eyes guided her to them, as well as her arrows. She had to remember to thank Derpy for collecting the bunch.

With her signature speed by her side, she made quick work of most of the Equimos. Her only concern rested on the ones that Rapidfire was commanding. Sat atop their heads, one by one, he controlled the mechanical unicorns with a deadly precision. Rainbow was somewhat relieved to know that they hadn't been corrupted.

She was quickly proven wrong. The first clue was Rapidfire's increasingly bad shots, and the other clues were the demands he mouthed at the machines so they could work properly.

"Fleetfoot! These damn things aren't doing what I tell them to!"

"This has something to do with you, doesn't it, Rainbow?"

"I told you already! I have nothing to do with--"

"F-Fleetfoot!"

"Then how do you explain all of this?!"

"I'm just trying to tell you to stop the Equimos! Spitfire tried to stop them and couldn't!"

"Fleetfoot!"

The cry this time was so desperate that even Rainbow felt compelled to shout, "Fleetfoot, get outta the way!"

"Wha--" the mare gasped, turning around just before being blasted in the chest by a beam. Rapidfire looked on, speechless, as Rainbow, led by the sound of Fleetfoot's pained cries, set to rescuing the mare. She heeded no attention to the shrill noises of the bat-like monsters that stood in her way, swatting them aside as though they were flies on her goggles.

She finally spotted the pony she had been looking for - and saw, to her dread, that she hadn't been the only one. Flying and climbing the walls under the cover of the thunderclouds, a horde of Stalgriffin had made its way to the shaft. They eyed Fleetfoot like a hungry manticore watches a tasty meal, and crawled towards her with just as much ferocity. The wounded mare was writhing in pain, unaware of the danger that lurked nearby.

The shaft felt impossibly deep as Rainbow sped towards the bottom. She had to get there on time, just like she had when she saved her friend - and the Wonderbolts. She just had to repeat that endeavor.

When Fleetfoot was finally able to focus, she screamed. Rainbow felt her eyes well up in tears as the realization that she wouldn't get there on time sunk in. Still she kept going. She did it even as Fleetfoot saw her and tried to cry for help, as though it would bring Rainbow closer.

Rainbow only stopped at the very end, where she could no longer get through the horde of enemies in her way. Rapidfire's wails resonated throughout the tower. Although it broke Rainbow's heart to hear it, she had to be happy that he was still there.

Rapidfire knew just how to ruin her happiness. He didn't stand still. He dove right after his wingmate, lost in cries and tears. Rainbow dashed after him, managing to save at least one of the pair of Wonderbolt ponies by steadily biting down on his tail.

"Hold on!" Rainbow called out to him. He wasn't as strong as she had expected, but keeping him in place proved difficult for her. "They're gonna kill you if you--"

"Let me go, you damned Shadowbolt!"

She didn't. Rainbow's grip strengthened. "You want to die? Is that what you want?" If Rapidfire replied, Rainbow didn't hear it. From the shadows of the shaft below came the gaping skeleton of a griffon, and Rainbow wasted no time in assuring her - and Rapidfire's - safety by driving a bolt through the monster's skull. The skeleton fell apart, and its bones returned to the darkness it had come from.

"Now do you believe me?" Rainbow practically shouted in Rapidfire's face. "I'm not trying to get you guys killed! If you don't let me through, then the real bad guys are gonna show up!

"Do you want that, Rapidfire?"

The stallion was not yet convinced. For a moment, Rainbow actually thought he would take the chance of catching her off-guard and finish her there and then.

He didn't. He just shook his head sadly. The unavoidable truth was that she was right; he wanted no such thing to happen. If suspension of disbelief was what he needed to make sure it didn't... then he would give it a try. She had saved his life after all.

Rainbow almost sighed, holding it in at the last possible moment. She couldn't show hesitation. "Where's the switch?"

"Hurricane's quarters," Rapidfire answered half-heartedly. Rainbow was headed up when the sound of his voice held her back. "But you'll need both of our swords!"

Brain on autopilot, she quickly processed that information. No further instructions were needed: she would have to fly down and get the sword herself.

"Damn it!"

That was all she was allowed to say before the darkness enveloped her and the roars of the wind drowned her voice. The lower shaft was much darker than she remembered; the absence of storm clouds to light the way was definitely throwing her off, as was the inexistence of monsters to hinder her progress. Not like I can complain, though… The longer they’re off me, the better.

The most disturbing part about this pitch-blackness, however, was the absence of a cry of any sort. Rainbow gulped, praying to the gods that the worst hadn't come to pass. She held the crossbow as steadily as her shaky hooves allowed.

"Fleetfoot!” she tried to call. There was no answer. “Fleetfoot, please… are you there?”

The feeling of setting foot on the bottom of the shaft sent shivers through the pegasus’s body. The first thing she stepped on was a bone, which broke in half with the lightest of pressures. Around her was a whole collection of those, with the skulls trespassed by an arrow or just too mangled to be identifiable. Rainbow treaded cautiously here, as though any false step would awaken the skeletons again.

The darkness only allowed her to see so much of the shaft. She was almost blind, relying on the sound of her steps to guide herself. Her blood ran cold when her hooves touched something that was far softer than a bone, sending her mind in a race for all possibilities. Another step told her she was stepping on a puddle. She had to summon all of her strength to keep herself from throwing up. Unless the monsters had captured some other pony, then she had found what she had been looking for.

"Fleetfoot?" she quietly called, giving the object a light shake. She sought for the chest in hopes of finding a heartbeat. Nothing.

I’m too late, she thought, incapable of articulating the words to say it out loud. I couldn’t save her. She’s… she’s gone.

Her only wish now was that the mare was still whole. The thought of the skeletal monsters performing such cannibalistic deeds was indescribably scary.

“I’m sorry…” Rainbow spoke, her voice small. The condition of Fleetfoot’s remains suddenly became unimportant to her. She just wrapped her forehooves around the lifeless body, because she owed the former Wonderbolt that much. It still felt warm. Against the bitter cold wind, the body of the former Wonderbolt somehow retained its warmth.

"Rest in peace..." she whispered to the corpse as she lowered it to the ground.

Peace was not something Rainbow was about to have. Her name reverberated across the shaft despite the wind's power, and the way it had been uttered left no space for doubt: Rapidfire was in trouble.

She found Fleetfoot's sword relatively close to the corpse, fortunately. After one last apology to the mare, Rainbow took off at lightning speed.

The perpetual darkness of the shaft gave way to the intermittent light of the thunderstorm above. Even though her ears were being blasted by the crack of thunder, the shaft felt disturbingly silent. The Equimos were not attacking, and the Stalgriffin were nowhere to be seen.

"Rapidfire?"

Rainbow's mind began to piece everything together. She had been called, and the Equimos weren't attacking. They had likely gotten what they had wanted.

"Rapidfire!" she tried to call louder. "Come on, man! Can you hear me?"

Something answered, and that something made Rainbow shudder. It was no living being's voice. A succession of flashes from within the clouds prevented her from seeing anything, but one thing was for certain: as soon as the first flash was gone, another one, purple in color, came to take its place. She assumed that the sharp pain in her side had been caused by the beam of an Equimos.

When she hit the floor and something fell on top of her like deadweight, she realized that she was far from the truth. Sword and crossbow alike flew off to parts unknown, leaving her to deal with this creature with her own hooves. She quickly tossed it aside, ready to pull out an arrow bolt from her quiver and impale the monster.

"Alright ya big lug, time to get ya--" Her best line to finish this enemy off was ready, but was never delivered. She was about to attack a pony, and stopped just in time to injure it even further. "Rapidfire?"

She swung her head up. "You buckin' machi--!" The Equimos promptly interrupted her with an energy beam. That was the last drop for Rainbow.

No words were exchanged in her rendezvous with the machine. Not that there had been time either, as Rainbow, true to her skills, was up and in front of her assailant before even she could bat an eyelid.

"This one's for Fleetfoot!" she yelled at the unicorn head as though it could hear her. She stabbed the first bolt into the crystal eye, then raised another hoof holding another bolt. "And this one's for Rapidfire!"

She had no fear for her life, not even when the Equimos's horn lit up to charge another shot. Rainbow's hoof was faster in delivering the finishing blow. It was blind rage, the one that burned behind her eyes, and the Equimos had just been the receiver of her revenge. Deprived of its power source, the machine billowed a puff of smoke, then slowly descended to inactivity.

With the last of her foes down, she made haste in returning to Rapidfire's side. He was breathing irregular, and she didn't dare looking over his wing to check the wound; the smell of charred fur told her everything she needed to know. If it had knocked Fleetfoot out of the air, it should have incapacitated her wingmate completely.

Yet he lived. Within an inch of his life, but he lived.

"R-Rainbow..." he coughed out, tugging lightly at her hoof. "Where's... did you get..."

"I-I did. I-It's somewhere over there, but I did."

No crying, Rainbow. No. Crying.

She held his hoof up. "Why? Why didn't you just let me--"

"Because... W-Wonderbolts gotta look out f-for each other, right?"

Rainbow spaced out. Did he just...?

"You were right. We... should have trusted you. When you destroyed the Equimos, stopped me from going down there... you were right. Spitfire is okay too... isn't she?" Rainbow nodded meekly. "Then keep her safe... please."

"I-I'll..." Her tongue ran faster than her mind. The answer just rolled off before she even fully understood the question. "I-I'll do it! I won't let you down!"

"Heh heh..." he laughed knowingly before bursting into a fit of coughs. The pegasus took a deep, ragged inhale. Raising a trembling hoof to caress Rainbow's cheek, he smiled and whispered through wheezes, "Take my goggles. Should help you out with the Equimos... but Rainbow?

"G-Go easy on... on Soarin'."

The petrified Rainbow only touched the hoof with one of her own. Considering his last task successfully accomplished, Rapidfire closed his eyes. He would join his wing-mate soon, he thought, and despite the implications, that brought a smile to his lips. His heritage - the Wonderbolts' heritage - was in good hooves.

The last of his breath left his lungs, and the hoof fell limply against Rainbow's. Another pony of the Wonderbolts lay lifeless in her arms. As gently as she could, Rainbow unstrapped the goggles from the pegasus's head and put them on. They looked no different, but just knowing who their original owner had been sent chills down her spine.

Who the original owner had been. Who it wasn't anymore.

Rainbow sat just as motionless for a moment. She needed to gather her thoughts. She wouldn't cry. With all the care in the world, she rested the deceased Wonderbolt's body on the ground. She heaved, but she didn't break a tear.

She could have said so many things, apologized so many times and hoped for forgiveness. It should have been her, she kept screaming inwardly. Even as she stood and prepared to fly up to Commander Hurricane's quarters, the feeling of failure lingered. She landed on the balcony with a soft thud, then made her way into the chamber.

A blood-red crystal ball, sat upon a pale plumitite pedestal, occupied the center of the room. The way its core grew and contracted the way a heart would felt like it called for her.

Fleetfoot's sword was the first to pierce the object. Rapidfire's followed, and the ball grew brighter. The weathermare briefly expected it to explode, even going as far as inching away very slightly, but the orb did no such thing.

Instead, a voice was heard.

"Rapidfire, Fleetfoot, come in."

Soarin'.

"The Equimos in the main storm shaft just went down. What is going on in there? I repeat, what in Tartarus is going on down there?"

"Soarin'! Listen to me! Spitfire's down there and--"

"Rainbow Dash." Somehow, Rainbow didn't like the way her name had been pronounced. She sensed such a mixture of shock and fright. The brief silence on the other end was punctuated with a defeated sigh. "Of course. How could I have been so blind?"

Rainbow gulped. "W-What do you mean?"

"I never thought that you were the traitor. The one who would ultimately corrupt and destroy the Wonderbolts, just like the Shadowbolts of legend." "Spitfire was right about keeping you away from us. I see it now. You would have brought upon our ruin."

"What?" Rainbow gasped, incredulous. She was supposed to be kept... out?

But Spitfire never said... I... The weathermare shook her head vigorously. Focus! There won't be any Wonderbolts if you don't do this!

"No! Soarin'! You don't understand! Spitfire's--"

"DON'T. SAY. HER NAME! Curse you! C-Curse you to Tartarus!" From the crystal ball came a choked hiccup, something Rainbow could barely believe. He was crying. Soarin' had actually been reduced to tears. "If it wasn't for you, Spitfire would still be here! Fleetfoot and Rapidfire would still be alive!"

"N-No... No!" Rainbow pounded the pedestal with a hoof repeatedly, causing the ball to waver. "That's not true! You have to listen!"

"Stop telling lies, Rainbow Dash, and face yourself! Admit what you really are, you accursed Sheikah! If you are even HALF the pegasus you claim to be, then you'll allow me to redeem your punishment for your deeds!

"I await at the top of the tower. May the gods have the mercy I will not have."

"No! Soarin'! Wait! Don't--" She attempted to reach for the ball, but in her haste, tackled the pedestal to the ground. The fragile sphere shattered irreparably once it crashed, scattering millions of fragments all around. Rainbow, fallen to the ground in just as messy a way, gazed upon the thin veil of smoke that billowed from the broken remains. Her mind had just caught up to reality.

She had been challenged by one of her greatest idols. Soarin', Spitfire's wingpony, had just dared her to face him. Rainbow Dash, never one to turn down a challenge, found herself at a crossroads. She was well aware of what reaching the top of the tower meant. No matter what, only one pegasus would come out of there alive.

"I have to reason with him... I... I can't--" A shiver shook her being. To kill her idol would mean to kill her dream - forever. Spitfire would never forgive her. If news got out that she'd murdered the Wonderbolts - which she hadn't - then her life as she knew it would be over. She would never be able to show her face anywhere again.

These were desperate times, however. She had more than just Spitfire's trust on the line; Dinky herself could be in danger. Nothing was there to assure her that Soarin' hadn't succumbed to the corruptive power of that shady mist.

Spitfire asked that I met him. Derpy is counting on me to get her filly back.

The weathermare shakily rose to her hooves again. The ball's remains had been exhausted of their contents, much like her time for waiting had ended. She had been tasked with an important mission, and she would fulfill it, no matter the cost.

She lowered the flight goggles to her face with a single, confident gesture. Who knew? Maybe Soarin' could still be saved. She'd do anything in her power to achieve that goal.

The entrance to the Commander's quarters was her next destination. She completely ignored the shards on the ground, allowing them to be shattered further under hoof with several loud cracks. She had other concerns now. Crossbow in hoof, she took off skyward, straight into the thundercloud.

If her sense of direction was to be trusted, then there was nary a stop on the way to the top. There were plenty of beasts to keep her entertained on the way, though. She made quick work of them. After fighting the Wonderbolt siblings, anything short of a Wonderbolt leader would not present a challenge.

Some of the words she had heard were still bothering her. Even as she zoomed past bolts of lightning and hordes of electrified bats, being called a Shadowbolt had her undivided attention.

More than that, she had been called a Sheikah twice. The name was not even remotely familiar to her, much unlike the fiendish Shadowbolts. Even if she knew them, how could the color of her eyes be an indication of her heritage?

"That's stupid," she commented to herself. Her words were swallowed whole by the booming of the storm around. "I'm gonna find Soarin' and clear this up once and for all!"

The top of the tower was already in her sights, a little trapdoor on the ceiling, just like before. Rainbow struggled to create stronger beats of her wings, shooting her upwards like an arrow. She held on tighter to the crossbow in her forelegs, bracing for impact.

The wooden cover didn't stand a chance. Her body had been made too resilient by the weathermare's stunts and crashes to even leave a bruise. Her arrival and descent was welcomed with a shower of wooden splinters and dust.

She had planned to catch Soarin' by surprise, maybe even threaten to shoot so as to avoid further scuffle and deaths. It was with relative relief that she realized that there was no pegasus in sight.

There were also Equimos. Those lay in a pile across the room, knocked over with their crystal eyes missing. The ground was uneven and tarnished with big, deep hoofprints. Soarin' had definitely fought them.

That was one less concern for her. Provided they didn't suddenly rise from the dead - if that was even possible for a machine - then she was actually glad.

The ceiling of this last chamber of the tower was much lower than others, and just like before, riddled with cages that hung loosely from a chain. From the missing patch of roof she deduced that something had crashed into the room. There was no furniture here. Only more cages, more bones, and more abandoned weapons.

"Soarin'!" she called. The echo of her voice answered her. She insisted; the Wonderbolt had to be in there somewhere. "Show yourself! I don't want to hurt you!"

"Rainbow Dash!"

"Hush, kid!"

An infant's voice had called her name while an older, male voice had silenced it, bringing forth the realization that she had forgotten an important task in favor of finding Soarin'. She had yet to find Dinky.

Rainbow whipped her head left and right in search of the filly. Amidst the cages, the pile of derelict robots, in the shadows... but she found nothing.

They were outside. They had to. She shot like an arrow through the hole in the ceiling. The gales of the skies where no pegasus dared go were there to greet her. Rainbow just shrugged the wind off as a minor inconvenience, as she had found what she had been searching for.

And there was Dinky, trapped inside a cage - asleep. Soarin' was just a few steps ahead, glaring daggers at her. A sword rested in the sheathe that dangled by his side.

"Dinky!" The filly didn't as much as twitch. Rainbow faced the stallion and flared her nostrils like an enraged bull. Surprisingly, Soarin' hesitated. "What have you done to her?!"

"She's just asleep! Keeping herself from falling into the Shadowbolts' hooves was too tiring for her."

Rainbow wasn't convinced, and flared her wings to prove it. "If you did anything to her--"

"Tsc! Like you're actually concerned!" He left the ground, hoping to appear more intimidating. "But enough of that! I was starting to think you'd never come. At least you still have some honor, Shadowbolt."

"I am NOT a Shadowbolt, Soarin'."

"Keep your lies to yourself. You killed ponies, and on top of that, you betrayed us. That's something a Shadowbolt like yourself would do. Do you remember your dream, Rainbow Dash?" Rainbow's expression went black for a moment. Just the reaction Soarin' had expected. "Yes, Rainbow. We all knew. We spent days and nights debating on what good you would do for the Wonderbolts.

"You had talent. You were the best flyer I - any of us - had ever seen. What became of that dream, Rainbow Dash?" Because he was not facing her, Rainbow wasn't sure if the tinge of sadness that had slipped into his words had been genuine or not. He was fixated on the turbulent storms that surrounded the top of the tower. "Was it because you couldn't join? Were you greedy to the point where if you couldn't have it, nopony else could?"

Rainbow offered silence in return, facing the floor. Slowly but surely, the real pony under that uniform unveiled itself to the weathermare. Was she seen as that shallow a pony by the Wonderbolts?

"Answer me, Rainbow Dash!"

No. He's just saying that. He doesn't mean it like that.

"That's a load of horse-apples and you know it."

"Of course you deny it. You don't want to face the facts even though they're right in front of you." Her idol drew his sword. "I'm gonna make sure you see them."

Rainbow had no chance to object this time. Soarin' flew straight at her, aptly swinging the blade just inches from touching her. As she ducked to avoid losing her head, she could feel his accelerated breath on her mane. He had been waiting for this. It was his chance to just let loose all of his rage.

She had been outnumbered when fighting Fleetfoot and Rapidfire, but Soarin' had far greater dexterity with the weapon. Each swing was fast and potentially deadly. Rainbow still had speed: Soarin' was bulkier than her.

She took as much advantage of that as she could. She took a shot at head-butting him in the chest, a plan that would have worked had Soarin' not seen it coming. Rainbow's vision blurred with tears as she jumped right past him and was punished with a slash on the back. Her landing was awkward, what with her chin absorbing most of the impact with the ground. She didn't remember clouds being this rough.

"Really? This is all Nightmare Moon taught you?" he snickered. "How to flail yourselves and faceplant."

The mare, lost in her own world of pain, didn't register his words. Every time she tried to rise to her hooves, her progress was hindered by an acute sting in her back. In her own, blurry way of seeing the world, she saw the crossbow just steps away from her.

"Remember that time when we shared a dance?" She heard him this time. Her eyes went gone wide. She was no surprised at what he had said - she was scared to death because he was right behind her. "It was at the wedding of the captain of the guard and the Princess's niece. Aah... if only I had known what a lie you were."

Her makeshift quiver was still in place, and she still felt her wings and hooves. Soarin's aim was not as good as she thought it was.

"Unthinkable, really. The Element of Loyalty is the backstabber." The thin steel of the blade touching her back acted like an incentive for her to act. "Have a taste of your own medicine."

The screams of the two pegasi merged with the wind. The small time that Soarin' took to gain momentum before attempting to drive the sword into her back allowed Rainbow to roll out of harm's way and retrieve a weapon of her own from the quiver. She swung the hoof holding it at the stallion, hoping to strike a hoof or a wing.

She got neither. She let Soarin' stumble away with an arrow bolt stuck in his left leg before attempting to get up herself. The crossbow was in her sights, and Soarin' couldn't stop her.

"You damn Shadowbolt," he cursed as he tried to remove the bolt. "You're gonna pay."

"We don't have to do this!"

Soarin's response was a prolonged snarl. He bit down on the visible end of the bolt and pulled it out without a second thought. Rainbow winced; he really was out to get her.

"I'm starting to get tired of you."

The opportunity to talk was once again removed with Soarin's attempt at charging at her. Rainbow was prepared this time, taking off into the air as soon as he was close at the cost of suffering from the wound on her back. She had the crossbow, but did she want to use it?

She let Soarin' answer that question. The second effort he made to get her was enough proof that she had no choice - it was her, or him.

Her first shot may as well have been blind for the result would have been the same. Soarin' flew out of the way long before the arrow was even close to him, and almost managed to land a hit on the mare. Rainbow tried to convince herself that the bolt stuck in his leg had saved her.

She had to take proper aim. She didn't want to kill anypony - just disable him for enough time to make a point. There were no Stalgriffin or Equimos to harm them this time.

That's when she thought of baiting him. Dragging him to a sufficiently high altitude and surprise him. There were many things that could go wrong with her plan; Rainbow ignored all of them.

The stronger winds were the first thing that went wrong. Just entering such great heights caused her to lose her balance for a moment. Soarin' had likely assumed she was escaping.

That was the second thing she oversaw. Up there, where his bulk was an advantage, Soarin' was headed straight at her.

Ever the improviser, however, Rainbow quickly took advantage of the situation. He was coming in at great speeds. Hitting him was unlikely. She would count herself lucky for years to come if that one shot was successful.

She dodged him by allowing the wind to carry her, then turned quickly in the air and took aim with the crossbow.

"Oh no."

Jackpot.

The shot was as precise as Rainbow had hoped. Soarin' unleashed a piercing scream. Heart aching with sorrow, Rainbow watched the Wonderbolt attempt to clutch at his wing as he spiraled downwards. She had done it.

The landing was rough on him. Unable to get up or use his wings, Soarin' still tried to crawl towards the sword, but Rainbow got to it first. The stallion, finding himself defenseless, pounded the cloud with a hoof and buried his face in the floor.

As Rainbow walked closer, she contemplated all of the possible outcomes. A single strike to the heart and it would all be over. That was all it would take to finish the pegasus. It would release Dinky and end the Wonderbolts, her idol, her dream.

Her dream.

Taking care not to injure the stallion any further, Rainbow rolled Soarin' until he was lying on his back. She needed to see his face for this. Despite lacking a weapon, Soarin' still struggled against her grip.

"Go on, Rainbow. Do it! Kill me like you killed everypony else! Stain that uniform with t-the blood of its rightful owner's l-lover...!"

Lover? Rainbow suddenly regretted her lack of tact. She should have started with that: assuring Soarin' about Spitfire's safety.

"Would you just listen to me?! Spitfire's not dead! She's hurt, but she's safe and waiting for us downstairs!"

"Lies! All of them! You killed Fleetfloot! Rapidfire!"

Or perhaps not.

"They died to save me!!" Rainbow couldn't help the cracks in her voice as she thumped the stallion's tearstained chest. "Don't you get it?! I didn't kill anypony!"

"SOARIN'!"

"...Spitfire?" Soarin' echoed, glancing past Rainbow. A yellow blur was rocketing down towards him. He pushed Rainbow aside and took to the air as fast as he could muster, catching up with Spitfire long before she could hit the cloud. His injured wing did him no favors, though, and soon after they were plummeting back to the clouds.

Soarin' ignored it with an almost tearful laugh. "You're... you're alive! You're alive! I-I--"

A yellow-furred hoof sealed his mouth shut. It kept his words inside, but couldn't keep a bright smile away from his face. Spitfire returned the gesture and pushed him closer and closer, until the tip of their muzzles met. "It'll take a better war to kill a mare like me."

"Guess I should've trusted you, then."

Spitfire giggled softly, her hoof tracing a small cut on her fellow Wonderbolt's suit. "Yes. Yes, you should have."

Despite herself, Rainbow smiled at the scene. The two Wonderbolts, injured, roughed up and oblivious to the cold and to everyone else, threw caution to the wind and locked lips with each other. Derpy and Dinky, both of whom had arrived shortly after Spitfire, observed them with a certain glint in their eyes, with the pegasus's hooves laced around the filly so that she could be close to her chest. She was sure that the only reason for the young unicorn to be squirming slightly was the way Derpy's grip tightened.

Unlike all of them, Rainbow had nopony to share some warmth with. The realization weighed especially heavy on her mind with the passage of a bone-chilling breeze that shook her being. Detaining a frown had never felt so complicated for the weathermare. Not even the suit she wore could protect her from emotional gales.

Yet the actual wind carried more than just cold air with it. It carried cheers, laughter and the sound of clapping. For a brief moment, Rainbow thought that the rest of the Wonderbolts had miraculously returned to help their leader. Her concerns waned enough to replace her frown with a curt smile. There was hope.

But fate had never been generous to her. When she turned around, ready to greet a flock of uniformed pegasi, only the threatening visage of a storm cloud was there for her to see. Rainbow had seen plenty of clouds in her life, vaporous masses of all shapes, sizes and tones of whiteness. None of them could compare itself to the gargantuan draconequus head that was etched upon the cloud with the precision of a professional craftspony.

"Bravo! Bravo, I say!" it finally spoke. Its jaws didn't move, but its eyes traced every flap of her wings. There was no need for introductions, not even for the mailmare. This was Discord they were seeing and hearing, through and through. "Just as I was about to give up making my way up that temple, Rainbow Dash, of all ponies, lures them out! I owe you an apology, Rainbow. I clearly never understood how awesome you really are!"

Rainbow didn't waste time arguing. The wide-eyed ponies behind her tore their attention away from the sculpture when the weathermare turned around, wings flared by her sides. "Soarin', get Spitfire and Derpy out of here!"

"We're not leaving you here alone, Rainbow!" Spitfire's words were punctuated by an almost otherworldly neigh. Everyone was staring at her, but saw her mouth closed.

The Discord cloud cackled curtly, then became frighteningly serious. "No, you're not."

Although Rainbow knew such a thing wasn't possible, she felt the cloud's eyes target her. She didn't stop. She couldn't; the powers of the Windigos were legendary, and she didn't want to find to what extent legends could become true. "She is."

"I ain't going anywhere, Discord!"

"Trust me, Rainbow Dash. I know what I'm saying. Now, if you'll excuse me, I believe you have something to give me that is long overdue. Oh, that's right, you can't move. I'll just collect it myself."

A snap of his fingers - no matter if such was even possible with a cloud - and the young unicorn vanished from Derpy's embrace, leaving behind a cloud statuette with the exact same shape. The mailmare, mouth agape, squeezed the statue, hoping to find her child inside. Her world crumbled with the statue. "M-Muffin?"

"What did you do to her, Discord?!"

"Now now, let's not get hasty. She is in a much better place than this, you see."

Oh, if only she could punch clouds, Rainbow thought. "Give her back! She's just a filly!"

"Oh, stop being a worrywart. I'll take good care of the precious little child."

Rainbow's voice grew louder with every word. "I told you to give. Her. Back!!"

"Ah-ah-ah. I wouldn't do that if I was you." Discord gave a twirl with his eagle finger and pointed at what was behind Rainbow's back. "I wonder if frozen pegasi can still stand on clouds."

"What--" N-No! It can't be! "Spitfire! Soarin'! Derpy!!"

She cursed herself for forgetting about them. It was too late now. The Windigos already circled them like a pack of hungry wolves. She could feel the chilling effect of their spell bite at her bones, even though she was so far away from the monsters. She could only imagine what the three pegasi in the middle of them were going through.

"Get away from here, Dash!" she heard Spitfire shout. "We'll keep him busy!"

"Hm, no, you won't," Discord spoke nonchalantly. "But yes, please be on your way, Rainbow Dash. Just remember to look back."

"Don't listen to him! Just get outta here!" Spitfire insisted, desperately waving her hoof every time a Windigo dared approach.

Rainbow was not convinced yet. The play back in Canterlot had taught her that a mystical fire could repel these creatures. Was the Wonderbolts' love not enough to generate that flame?

"But--"

"GO!"

In the end, it was the Windigos that made the decision for her. As she turned away and the legendary beasts performed their duties, even the tears that leaked from her eyes became solid globes of ice. A race had started between her and the wave of cold that the Windigos had created.

She knew she could turn up as the winner, for nothing could ever out-speed her signature skill. Only this time, there was no prize for winning. Any prizes she could collect had already been collected. Of the Wonderbolts she would only keep a sword, a suit and a pair of goggles. Her hooves cradled the last belongings of the legendary pegasi.

She'd been told to go away, to fly off. The winter spell was catching up to her, and for the first time, she considered the benefits of letting herself get caught by it. Her dreams had been destroyed by her own hooves. There was nowhere else to go, nothing else to aim for. She got what she dreamed of... and now she had no use for it. No beacon to guide her way through life.

Or at least not a figurative one, for upon looking ahead, she could see a shining column of light shooting from the ground. It was a pure shade of white, a color that did wonders in soothing the pegasus's wounded mind. It was a beacon not unlike the one that had brought all of her friends, the Elements of Harmony, together.

It was a sign, and it told her that it wasn't the end. All of a sudden, she was reminded of what she had left in Ponyville: her friends, her family, they were all waiting for her help. There was much to do, and little time to do it. In her hooves she held not the remains but the strengths of the Wonderbolts. The endurance of Spitfire, the raw power of Soarin', and the dexterity of Fleetfoot and Rapidfire. She was the Wonderbolts.

And she had her orders. She had her orders to fly. To fly in search of those who needed her help, just like a Wonderbolt would.

And she flew.

Celestia be damned, she flew.

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A light sleeper by nature, Fluttershy awoke to the first sign of movement. It was underneath one of her wings, which surprised her somewhat. She had preened recently, and no animal had followed her to...

Wait. She wasn't in Ponyville. The memories of the recent past washed upon her with the devastation of a tidal wave. Living in a tree didn't make her any more familiar with the scent of wood, and especially not with the particularly intense one she felt in the comfort of the captain's room. It felt almost primeval.

So if she wasn't in Ponyville, and no animals had followed her, then who - or what - was under her wing?

The discovery drew a gasp from the mare - and the tiniest of blushes as well. She didn't remember falling asleep, let alone draping her wing over the Hylian-turned-pony that slept soundly by her side.

He was in a much better condition, she noted as she folded her wing back. There were no scratches or bruises of any sort. Maybe Nurse Redheart had come in without her realizing it to tend to his wounds.

She had only done so much for his physical injuries, though. Fluttershy watched his brow furrow in his sleep with a frown of her own. The Poison Joke's curse was still taking its toll on him. If her experience with animals had taught her anything, it was that they always slept better in the company of someone. The same was probably true for little ponies. With that in mind, she drew her head closer and gently nudged his cheek with her snout.

When Link's eyes snapped open at the gesture, Fluttershy practically jumped away like a frightened cat, chugging out apologies. He just watched, confused and still half-asleep, as the pegasus tried to catch her breath again.

"Huh... hey," he spoke in hopes of striking a conversation. "Oh... right. You don't understand me."

The mare suddenly stopped hyperventilating to behold him with a shocked expression. It only took Link a moment to understand why. "Y-You understood me?"

"I did! I-I heard you!"

"But... how? Is Olivia here? Is she..." In his excitement, he rose to his feet. At first, he disregarded the fact that he was no longer able to look her in the eye. Stranger even was the fact that he heard more than a pair of steps as he walked, and even so, he heard clops. A certain feeling of lightheadedness attacked his senses as he began to realize the reason for this. In a land of mystical ponies where magic ran wild and the world always seemed to conspire against him, imagining what had happened was simple.

He'd been reduced to a pony, and all he could say about it was gibberish.

Fluttershy was there to offer her shoulder more than just metaphorically, as the colt's dizziness had become so unbearable that he could no longer stand.

"It's okay... it's okay..."

The pegasus wasn't sure if he was about to cry or simply faint. He was completely immobile there, underneath her wing. She had thought of him as threatening before. Now he seemed as defenseless as many of the critters she took care of.

"T-There's a cure..." she whispered. "This pon-zebra, Zecora, in Ponyville, can help you."

"If she's alive..."

Fluttershy's brow furrowed in contemplation.

"I'm sure she is. She knows her way around the forest."

"You don't know those things..." he readily replied. "The ReDeads... the Stalf-ponies... they don't care who you are or what you know. You're just food."

"That sounds a lot like the Everfree Forest."

Link looked out her strangely. The reply was almost too relaxed to have been uttered by this pony.

"Fluttershy?" he asked after a short silence.

"Hm?"

"What's a zebra?"

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They say that Loyalty will not be corrupted.

They say that concern always gets the best of anyone, regardless of their species. It is such a powerful feeling that it becomes a force to reckoned, be it in the short or in the long run. The weary Ponyvillians that arrived at Fort Vanhoover had already witnessed just how strongly one could be affected by worry over a loved one's welfare. No matter how strong their spirit, they crumbled beneath its overwhelming power. No matter how many barriers she put up or how many masks she wore to hide her true feelings, the patience of a certain unicorn mare had already begun to grow thin.

The musty scent of the fort's cabins assaulted Rarity's nostrils with a feeling that was just as unpleasant. The air was heavy with moist wood and sweat, as was to be expected from a room as confined as this. Just being there was repulsive for the otherwise picky mare. Not that she had the right to complain, as she very well knew. A look back revealed that she was just as bad for the wear as any of the ponies that lay on the dirty sheets of the beds of the medical ward. She had to be glad that the fort even owned an infirmary. Regardless of their conditions, Redheart had, no doubt, been a welcome addition to the medical staff.

Out of all those ponies, only one mattered to her at that moment. The object of her interest was lying on one of the few beds that the nurses had had to spare following their sudden arrival. Lyra.

The fashionista had never been more satisfied with enrolling Sweetie Belle in her lessons. It meant that the mint-green unicorn would likely know of her sister's whereabouts. Because unlike certain ponies, she thought with a frown, Rarity was confident about her sister's welfare.

A little leather bag dangled over Rarity's chest as she took careful steps around the beds. Pinkie had given it to her shortly after arriving. She could feel the Gossip Stone within rocking with her every step.

The things it said were still an utter mystery to the mare. They were detached words with no sense to them, loose phrases with no particular thematic to bind them together. Their lack of sense was not an issue for Rarity. She remembered each and every one of them so well that she could recite them if she was asked to do so. She was also aware that claiming that a stone was imbuing thoughts into her mind would grant her a prolonged stay at Ponyville's psychiatry, had it survived the attack of the Stalponies.

Attempting to shun the stone's presence away from her mind caused her to become suddenly aware of her surroundings again. She hastened her pace to reach Lyra's bedside. Redheart met her halfway, carrying a little notepad in her mouth. A visual once-over of the visitor later, the nurse from Ponyville set the papers down and nudged the fashionista's shoulder.

"You don't seem to be hurt. Why are you here?" she chided in a whisper. Rarity cringed momentarily at the lack of subtlety, which she deemed as unnecessary until the piercing cry of a patient tore her gaze away from Redheart's muzzle. The nurse wasn't having any of it though, and pivoted the other mare's face with a hoof. Her tone was not as harsh when she spoke this time, "Please, Rarity, if there is nothing I can do for you, then I must ask you to leave."

"I am simply here to see Lyra Heartstrings," the fashionista answered as brusquely as she'd been welcomed, jerking a hoof towards the sleeping unicorn. Redheart didn't argue. A gesture of the head later, the two mares were walking again, side by side. "How is she?"

"She sleeps still."

"Would it be possible to wake her?" Rarity quickly asked. Redheart wrinkled her nose.

"Possible, but not advisable."

"Then do it, please. There is a matter of extreme importance that I must discuss with her."

"I can't do that. She needs to rest."

"You can, and you will do it."

"I think I wasn't clear enough." Redheart's tone grew stricter. "I will not wake a patient up. Especially not when they are in dire need of proper rest."

"I'm sure Miss Heartstrings would much rather have a simple nausea than allow a filly to roam the Everfree Forest on her own account." She was raising her voice, but the discussion at hoof kept her from realizing it. How dare this simple nurse? Lives were at stake. "Do you accept the responsibility should a disaster come to pass?"

They say that one of the Founding Mares of Equestria spoke the language of the stones.

"I’m very sure that whatever Miss Heartstrings may have to tell you will do nothing but give you peace of mind.” Rarity was almost grinding her teeth. As if the nurse’s gibberish wasn’t enough, the Gossip Stone had decided to speak up again. “Unfortunately, I would rather have you be troubled for a little longer than to have Miss Heartstring’s condition worsen. So, if you would please leave--”

“I will not leave this spot until I get what I came here for.”

“Then I’m afraid I can’t help you.”

“Why, I should—”

"Rarity!" Both mares turned at the call of the name. A pale green fairy was headed their way at a fast pace. Saved by the bell, the fashionista thought. "Twilight wants to have a word with you."

Seeing her chance to escape, Redheart lightly pushed Rarity out of the way. "Ah, Olivia, excellent timing. If you find Twilight, tell her to meet me here at once. I don't like the way her coat is looking."

"I'll, uh, deliver the message. Rarity, come on."

The unicorn started walking, and for a moment, Olivia thought she wouldn't have to deal with any more troubles. The fairy chose not to intervene when Rarity suddenly turned to Redheart and hissed, "We are not done yet."

They crossed the fort in relative silence. The recent drizzle had called a layer of haze to befall upon the grounds, further drowning the sounds from the battlements. It was far from the type of quietness either one would have preferred.

Rarity was still fuming from her encounter with the nurse, leaving Olivia in a situation where she couldn't fly too close to or too far from the unicorn. The captain's quarters had never seemed so far away, and when the fairy's wing beat acquired a certain nervous twitch, she decided to break the ice.

"Any luck with your, uh, sister?"

"I'm afraid not," Rarity harrumphed. Her voice carried such finality that Olivia didn't even touch the subject again.

She was in luck, though. They were presented with the door, which Rarity kicked open with her magic. The way she sped up her pace was enough of a hint for Olivia to give her some space. So while the unicorn trotted over to Twilight and her brother in one corner of the quarters, Olivia beelined towards a half-open door across them.

"You called, Twilight?" Rarity spoke as soon as she was near them. Twilight gaped for a second, taken aback by the rather violent greeting.

"I did, Rarity," Shining answered instead, offering an apologetic smile. Rarity raised an eyebrow, but didn't argue. The captain treated himself to a mental pat on the back. "I've just received word from the sentries. Sounds like you really stirred up the hive, back in VanHoover."

"Yeah, I suppose we did..."

Shining gave a soft chuckle. "I'm just glad you made it here okay. All of you."

"Are we done, then?" Rarity suddenly piped up. "There are matters of greater importance that require my attention."

They say that once she enters, she will never leave the Temple of Time.

"No, there's more. Your arrival got the Stalponies riled up. They chased you all the way up to Fort VanHoover - that's where they'll look for you next."

"So bottom-line is...?"

"Um, excuse me..."

"We're trapped, Twily," Shining sighed. "There's only one way for us to get out of this mess. We'll need to hold the fort."

"Y-You mean... we have to fight?"

"We won't fight. That's why I need you and Rarity. We're going to set up a force field. It'll be our first line of defense. If that fails, well, we charge."

"MEEEEEDIIIII-hic!"

"Oh for Celestia's sake, Degroot, when will you be quiet?"

Shining offered a defeated sigh. Twilight could tell in his eyes that the option pleased him just as much as it pleased her. He employed his older sibling skills and comforted with a hoof on the shoulder. "I'm afraid it's the only way."

"Um, Twilight..."

Memories of the recent past were resurfacing in Twilight's mind. She'd witnessed the Stalponies's resilience firsthand. They had been like snakes: they only died when they lost their heads. A force field could only keep them back for so long. The fact that they would have to fight the skeletal fiends again wasn't pleasing in the least. "But... but we barely held up against them in Ponyville! We were lucky that the trains were still working!"

"Twilight?"

This time, her brother smiled. It was small, but it was there. "Well, if what you told me is true, then you brought somepony along who can deal very well with these 'Stalponies'."

"Hum, yeah, about that..."

"TWILIGHT!" Both Sparkle siblings' head shot to the left in surprise. Fluttershy stood at the entrance to the captain's quarters, wings flared to match her uncharacteristically serious glare. She quickly reversed back to her typical persona when she realized just how loud she had yelled. "I'm, um, sorry for shouting. But he's, um, awake."

"'He'? You mean..." Twilight had subconsciously stepped toward her friend. When the pegasus folded her wings, she noticed that there was another pony behind her. It was a colt, whose chestnut-colored coat was mussed up by what she imagined had been a restless sleep. He was calm, she noted with some surprise. She tried her best not to sound patronizing, but she couldn't help it. "Hey... how are you feeling?"

"He had a rough night, Twilight," Fluttershy piped in as though the unicorn had accused him of something. "Maybe the Poison Joke did it for him, but, hum, he just... knew how to walk like a pony. Hum... he also hasn't said much."

"Pony of few words, eh?" Shining Armor spoke. Link's eyes lit up at the sight of the bulky unicorn, something that didn't go unnoticed. "Do you know who I am?"

Link nodded then croaked, "Her brother, a captain..."

"Link was the one who warned us of the danger in VanHoover," Rarity spoke, siding with the colt. "How he knew about it is beyond me."

Olivia fluttered her wings gently. "Yeah, how did you know?"

"I--" Link stilled his tongue. To tell them that a ghost had revealed this information sounded about as sane as anything else he'd done while under the effects of cider. Even more so when he didn't know its name.

That was when he realized something. The more he thought back to it, the more familiar that voice had sounded. The ghost had claimed to have unfinished business, and had, in life, served the Equestrian Royal Guard. Above all, the ghost had met him.

He would have slapped a hand across his face if he still had a hand to do so. All the pieces fit together, and nothing could have portrayed his surprise better than the disbelieving tone of his voice.

"Shiro told me."

"Shiro?" both Sparkle siblings gasped.

Twilight was the first to continue. "A ghost told you?"

"Ghost?" Shining Armor repeated, this time directing himself at his sister. The librarian's expression wilted drastically. The captain braced for the news. No matter to whom or how often it happened, the loss a fellow guard was never to be dealt with lightly.

"I'm - we're - only alive because of him," Twilight muttered, lowering her head. "We were almost out of the castle, but the Stalponies got us."

"He stayed behind, didn't he?" Shining's expression remained firm, even after Twilight - and even Link - answered with tiny nods. The colt could feel Olivia's wings resting limply against the top of his head. "Damn it, Shiro..."

"You saved his life once, didn't you?" The confidence that Link's words carried took everyone by surprise. Twilight was about say something - most likely chide at him - but Shining took the cue by nodding.

"He paid his debts, then..." Olivia spoke. "Lost his life fighting. More importantly, to save your sister."

"An end worthy of a warrior," Link added.

Worthy of a warrior. Ganondorf's invasion of Hyrule Castle suddenly flashed before Link's eyes. Nobody had expected his attack. Not Zelda, not Impa, not the king, not the guards. As he ran to Hyrule Market as fast as his little legs could carry him, he was confronted with Zelda and Impa, and just instants later, with Ganondorf himself.

In the alleys on the way to the Temple of Time, where he would meet his fate, he met a gravely wounded soldier. His dying words were never forgotten by the boy.

And now, Shiro was burned into his mind like words on a gravestone.

The amused grunt that escaped Shining's throat directed Link's attention back to the stallion, sparing the colt of his thoughts. Despite his grin, there was a tinge of sadness in the captain's voice as he spoke, "He was a good stallion. Had a kid, you know? A lil' pinto colt about your age..." Rarity's eyes went wide, and she muffled as gasp with a hoof.

"A... pinto colt, you say?" she repeated. Once Shining offered a firmer nod, Rarity felt her eyes water. "F-From Trottingham, p-perhaps?"

"Well, huh, yeah. Shiro used to say his kid wanted to be a swordspony someday t--" Shining stilled his tongue when a quiet sob reached his ears.

"Oh, the poor pony..."

"I-I..." Shining coughed in an attempt to regain his composure. "Do you know him?"

He was left with an unintelligible answer, as Rarity was already running to the back of the quarters. Shining and Twilight exchanged glances, confused and worried. “W-Was it something I said?”

Twilight shook her head sadly. “She’s shaken up pretty bad. Don’t take it personally.”

Shining was about to offer his apologies when repeated knocks at the door caught everyone's attention. The stallion shouted the permission to enter, and the door flew ajar. A breathless stallion practically rolled into the room, his dark blue coat dripping wet from the drizzle.

"Captain Armor!" he spoke between long wheezes. He was barely capable of standing. "The Stalponies are... on the move, sir. Something... something coaxed them out of the city! Hundreds of them, on their way!"

The captain's expression changed completely. Twilight had only seen him assume such a stern look a couple of times in her life. She'd been on the receiving end once, and didn't want to imagine what would happen if she was now. "Get Degroot and prepare to engage the enemy!" he hollered, donning his helmet with magic. "Twilight, follow me. We need to set the shield up."

“And Rarity?”

“If she’s not well, it’s for the best that she doesn’t come too. You know these spells, and we can’t afford mistakes.” Twilight’s nod was far from convinced, but she prepared to follow him out the door regardless.

Just as they stepped out the door, the call of a young voice stopped them in their tracks. "Wait! What can I do to help?"

Shining blinked a few times to make sure he'd heard right. He stared Link down for a while, but the colt didn't even move. "Look, I'm sure you were a great fighter when you were, well, whatever you were before, but--"

"Shining."

Rarity had called him this time. She stood at the entrance to the room, muzzle fur matted by a stream of tears. A bow was floating beside her, enveloped by a soft blue aura, as she walked up to Link’s side again. "He was carrying this when we found him." She flashed the colt a smug grin. "I am certain he is a fast learner."

"Captain Armor!" the guard insisted, to Shining's distaste.

The dilemma in his mind was evident to everyone. He trusted his sister's judgement, and all of her friends' for that matter, but to take a young colt to the front-lines had an obvious problem attached. There were other colts and fillies in the fort, hidden in the basements until trouble cleared; why couldn't this one be like them? Because he's not a pony, I suppose...

"Fine," he sighed at last. "Private, accompany Link to the top of the palisades and get Black Arrow to teach him how to hold a bow properly." As he finished the command, he faced the colt. His eyes told the stallion that he wouldn't disappoint anyone. He smiled. "Link can figure the rest out. Now, we need to go!"

"Yes, sir!" the mares and stallion both answered.

"Wait!" Olivia rang in Fluttershy's ears. The pegasus cringed momentarily in surprise. "How do you do that?"

Her eyes shifted nervously. "Hum? W-What do you mean? A-Am I doing something wrong?"

"Fluttershy, you pretty much nursed Link back to health on your own! He was really roughed up, and now he doesn't have a scratch on him! Not even fairies can do that unless they're, well, really powerful!"

Like a turtle confirming the safety of its surroundings, Fluttershy slowly poked her head from behind the mane. "Oh, huh, that. It's just something I learned, hum..." The pegasus mare's brow wrinkled as she thought about it. The ability to heal another's wounds instantly was not unheard of, but very rare indeed. Maybe her family had had a unicorn at some point? Or even a phoenix-- no, that was impossible.

"That's not the kind of thing you 'learn', Fluttershy!" Olivia quickly chided, causing the pony to retreat to the safety of her mane again.

"Maybe I, um, had it, then? Like the, um, the sea ponies of Baltimare?"

"The sea ponies of Baltimare? You mean that little backwater port in the east with the-- oh," Olivia detained herself. "Ooooh. I see."

~-~-~-~-~-~▲~-~-~-~-~-~
~-~-~-~-~-~▲▼▲~-~-~-~-~-~

The sentinels hadn't lied.

Link wasn't big on mathematics, but he knew how to count. The monsters that stormed up the hill, throwing dust and mud everywhere, easily clocked in at a thousand in units. They were all as disfigured as a ruined painting, shadows of their aspect when they still lived.

Because no light penetrated the clouds in the sky, the field of battle would be nearly pitch black. Only Shining Armor and Degroot's combined wisdom had allowed them to remember the use of arrows with flaming heads, which dotted the fields in front of the fort. They didn't provide a lot of light, but any help in detecting the monsters was good.

Thanks to the torches at the top of the palisades, Link could see the lines of archers that would be his mates for the upcoming battle. All of them were lying on a slanted board. Their forehooves rested beside them, close to small levers, while their hindhooves pushed the bow away. Degroot approached him, with Shiro's bow - and, as always, a big bottle of cider - floating along.

"Black Arrow's too busy preppin' for the battle. Yer with me, lad," the unicorn said.

The lesson was short, to both ponies's relief. He instructed Link to lie on his back as well, at which point Link requested that he could find the rest out on his own. Olivia gave a contented flap of her wings when the colt discovered how to maneuver the small platform with his forelegs.

"Good thing those bows o'the Night Guard're smaller," Degroot noted, giving the bow a tap. "Should pack th'same punch of a regular one, tho! Them Night Guard ponies always did have the darnedest aim."

Pleased with the results of his lessons, the unicorn turned to face the black fields in front of the fort. Shadows already moved amidst the beacon fires. A regular commander would have frowned in concern. Their chances of victory were slim, given their primordial equipment and the fort's lackluster condition. Any direct strike to the palisades that composed most of the facade would bring it down.

But Degroot wasn't just any soldier. He smirked mischievously. He would win, or die trying.

With that in mind, he spun around and yelled down at the courtyard, "They're comin', Shinin'! Ya ready back there'r what?!"

"We're ready, captain!"

"At'a boy, Shinin'! Ah'm gonna make sure ya get a raise fer this, lad!" Shining just rubbed the back of his neck. Degroot was almost bursting with excitement.

He went on to the next line of defense: the catapults. Aged and long since out of commission, they had dug these out of the fort's storage and tweaked them however they could. Though the way Pinkie was bouncing around one of them was grinding at the captain's nerves, he surprisingly managed to keep his cool.

"Ah hope ya Earth Ponies know how ta work with that thing! Ah dun' want duds down there!"

"Ye stick to yer bomb thingamajig!" Applejack shouted back from a catapult's side. "If Applebloom... if Applebloom and'er friends can fire one'a these things, then buck me if Ah can't!"

Degroot took a celebratory swig of his bottle. "Haha! Tha's what Ah like to hear! Now there be a pony Ah'll have ta meet sometime!"

He scanned the rows of archers quickly. Finding none out of place, he smirked and took another, much longer gulp from the bottle. After releasing an extravagant burp, he looked down at the colt to his left. "'Bout you, lad? Ready ta crack some skull?"

Link just gave a short nod. He wasn't afraid of being more expressive, but the handling required by the bow only allowed him so much space to maneuver his mouth and head. Olivia, on the other hand, didn't hold any emotions in.

"Aye, captain!"

"Hoho, we've got an excited parasprite here! Gobble'em bastards up, will ya?"

All at once, any enthusiasm the fairy might have had crumbled like a house of cards in the wind. She flew back to the top of Link's head, not even bothering to reply.

"Hope to the goddess he loses the other eye," she muttered. Despite himself, Link giggled quietly.

"Aight, lads! Ya'll ready?!" Degroot screamed at the courtyard. The ponies there all responded with a unison 'Yes, sir!', which seemed to please the unicorn extremely. "Ah've served this kingdom fer five years now, 'n Ah ain't tasted defeat even once out there! Ah don't care if yer from Manehatten or from Ponyville, Ah'm expectin' some proper fightin' out there!

"Ya hear me lads?! Ya got ponies t'protect and families t'go back to! Either ye come back alive or Ah'll throw meself into the pits o'Tartarus and get ya outta there meself!"

The deafening hurrah that followed his words allowed him to chug down the contents of the bottle. Once it was empty, he sighed contentedly and suddenly smashed the bottom of the bottle against the walls. With the broken half of the bottle hoisted like a flag, he declared, "We're killin' us some skeletons, lads!!

"T'night, we fight FER EQUESTRIA!!"

"AIM!!" The voice of the leading archer nabbed the spotlight from the unicorn. It had come so suddenly and violently that it startled the ponies in the courtyard into readying themselves; the inspirational speech was over. Even Degroot had turned away and taken his weapon in his magic's grasp. His only visible eye shone with an almost devilish determination.

For the eyes of those who did not face the dangers of Equestria on an almost daily basis, the fields between the fort and VanHoover were a truly frightening sight. Under the cover of the night, the Stalponies moved like shadows amidst the fiery wards that dotted the landscape, their glowing red eyes creating a mass that moved towards the ponies. Absolute silence reigned in the fort.

The ponies' blood boiled with excitement the moment a Stalpony drew close enough and the leading archer gave the order to fire. The very fort exploded with life just as the first wave of arrows rained down upon the monsters, drowning their horrified moans in outcries of celebration. The catapults complained about their fragility and age as they were loaded with boulders. The ponies all but attended to those complaints, as more and more boulders were loaded before they flew across the night skies.

Ponies ran in frenzy all around Twilight. Shining had chosen the exact center of the fort as his, Twilight, Cadence and Rarity's post. The few minutes prior to the surge of action had been spent teaching Rarity about how to cast a spell. Shining had walked away at that time to supervise the battle, and his return filled Twilight and Rarity's stomach with butterflies.

"Are you ready, Twily?" he readily asked, horn alight.

"Even in the thick of battle, eh, Shining?"

The stallion's smirk proved sufficient an answer for the mare. Once their horns were fully lit up, the four unicorns lowered their heads, to the point where their horns would cross.

“Back in there,” Twilight whispered to Rarity. “You changed your mind so quickly. What happened?”

“Well,” the unicorn answered, clearing her throat. The lump in her throat that she felt when Shining spoke to her was still there. “I just discovered that some things are still worth fighting for.”

“Get ready.”

After a very brief mental countdown, they cast the spell.

For the Stalponies that rushed up the hill, the world seemed to have burst with light when the power of the four ponies united. The result was a lavender orb, akin to a bubble, that expanded from the center of the fort until it encompassed all of it. Even the warriors within it cringed when the shield touched them. A fleeting tingling in their skin was all they felt, as if something had brushed their coat very lightly.

The skeletal fiends, however, were not as lucky. They had only been visible when their stampede's course met the flames of the burning arrowheads, and any Stalponies that hadn't been pushed back by the force field were now exposed by its light. The fort had become a beacon, its glow reaching as far as the city of VanHoover, and the monsters were ready to respond. The aura around Degroot's bottle wavered for just a moment when he saw just how many of these beasts had been hiding in the ruins.

Once the shield was at its full length, they began to tackle and toss anything they could find - including parts of themselves. Although Degroot's voice grew raspier with every command to fire that he gave, the archers didn't need any verbal command to know when the enemy was too close. The creaking of the boards they lay on filled their ears, drowning even the whistling of the arrows as they rained down on the Stalponies.

On the other end of the palisades was Link. Olivia proved to be an able guide for the Hylian boy-turned-colt. He had grown used to allowing Navi to provide guidance to his aim, to the point where his most accurate shots were the ones aimed at her. His initial plans of murdering the Changeling fairy suddenly crawled out of the depths of his mind. A slightly misplaced arrow would be enough to end her life.

The cry of a Stalpony shocked him back to reality. Such a misplaced arrow did happen, just not because he wanted. He ushered those thoughts away immediately. Olivia was already complaining; their connection allowed him to know that. He drew another arrow from the quiver with his mouth while his eyes sought for the fairy again. The shot was precise and deadly - another Stalpony had been downed.

It seemed like they could actually win this battle. The Stalponies kept arriving, one after the other, but they fell just as quickly. The expertise of the bowponies around him was sure to grant them a victory, as long as the barrier stayed strong. After all, how many more Stalponies could one hide in a city?

"Set!" someone cried from the battlements. "Aim!"

The command to fire was completely muffled by the creaking of a catapult. Another flaming boulder arched over the palisades and towards the enemy. The blast that ensued upon landing guaranteed that not even the skeletons would survive.

"Hooowee! Nice one, Pinkie!" The characteristically southern accent in that celebratory cry could never be mistaken. "Hit'em square in the face! Bet'cha got some target practice in thanks t'that party cannon a'yers, eh?"

Pinkie giggled. By now, Link had realized that that was her most common voice: cheerful and happy, without a trace of malice. The Hylian, who seldom found himself smiling, couldn't help but to crack a grin. "Of course not, you silly filly! I learned from the best!"

"Whatever ya say, Pinks! Load another boulder!"

"Set!"

"Aim!" Another boulder flew before the command was even heard. An excited chortle had echoed instead.

At the origin of the barrier, not all was well. After outputting so much of her magic into a spell she seldom used, Rarity heeded her body's warnings and ceased casting it. Just as she did, she realized just how much the spell had tired her. She fell to the mud in a loud splash.

The other three unicorns suffered with it as well. Without the unicorn, the burden of casting the spell was redistributed. All three grunted as the spell suddenly demanded more of their power.

"Rarity!" Twilight gasped. "W-We need a medic here! Fast!"

The infirmary sprung to life upon being summoned. There was a moment of fuss inside the tent, after which a pair of ponies in heavy trench coats ran outside, stretcher on their backs. To Twilight's relief, they were swift about the procedure.

"I-I cannot carry on any longer..." Rarity still gasped for air as she was lowered onto the device. "I'm sorry... so, so very sorry..."

"You did your best. Don't worry." Her voice low, Twilight added to the rescuers, "Take good care of her."

The disappearance of the barrier did not go unnoticed. The most dramatic reaction belonged, again, to Degroot, who somehow managed to jump all the way from the top of the palisades to the ground without even cringing. It was time to take matters into his own hooves.

"Y'want somethin' done," he grumbled angrily as he slipped into the armor. "Y'do it yerself! Oy! Gimme yer dagger!"

"It's a sw--"

"It's a bloody blade fer Faust's sake!" The dark brown aura that surrounded Degroot's horn ripped the sword right out of the soldier's mouth. "Shinin', git that bloody shield up already!"

Shining just grunted under the pressure of the spell. Spewing words caused the light of his horn to waver. "We're trying... captain!"

"Well tryin' ain't good 'nough! We lose even a wee bit more territory, 'n we're all as good as DEAD!"

"We can do this, brother!" Twilight chirped, exuding confidence. He truly wanted to share her enthusiasm, but he couldn't. A quick look at Cadence told a story of exhaustion and pain, and even the Element of Magic had seen better days.

"I know," he answered regardless. He feigned a confident look. The worst thing he could do was show weakness. "Hang in there, Twily, Cadence. We're almost done."

While Cadence's nod did not convey certainty, Twilight's clearly contained the faint glimmer of hope. Using her last ace was risky, but in light of their current situation, it was also their last possibility should they hope to win. Against her better judgment, with no plan to back her up, she did exactly what she had done in Ponyville.

She tapped into the Light Force's power reserves.

The barrier shot forth from the ground, returning the advantage of defense to the ponies. For a moment, she thought she was safe. No delusions of power, no voices attempting to control her.

Their return brought a chill to her body.

Celestia could not handle the power of the Light Force... but you can.

"I won't give in..."

Of course you will. Luna did it. Celestia was about to.

"No... that's not... not true!"

You saw it. When she attacked Ganondorf, you saw her rage.

"She was just protecting me!"

"Are you alright, Twilight?"

"I-I'm fine, but..."

The power is at your disposal... Every single one of these ponies will obey you!

"I-I won't do it!"

"Do... what? Twilight, you don't look so good..."

The power of the Light Force is not for the weak of mind, foal! Do its bidding, or live long enough to be destroyed by it!

"No... no!! Get out of my head!"

"T-Twilight?" Shining asked this time. His sister's body rocked like a house of cards with his every touch. His own legs were beginning to buckle with worry. "Twilight, what's going on?"

But that didn't spook the voice out of her head. It was still there. It demanded that she obeyed. She knew she could and would never do such treacherous acts, and yet she felt the control of her body slowly slip out of her grasp.

You are the chosen to control the Light Force! Bend ALL BEINGS to YOUR WILL!!

"NOOOO!!"

It was with that powerful, almost intolerably loud howl that she was forced to relinquish any and all control. The strength of the entity in her head had succeeded in overpowering her. Already her magical abilities were lifting her in the air, her eyes like beacons of a lighthouse in the cold, dark night. Everyone she knew was being pushed away by whatever spell another was casting with her body, and even the Stalponies had ceased their rebellion to watch the mare ascend. No more arrows whistled through the air, no catapults creaked as they were loaded.

"Twilight!" Shining still called, aware as he was of the uselessness of such act.

"Shining! Her coat!" Cadence gasped, only then realizing that she had been stepping away from her sister-in-law. Shining did a double-take on his sister. The whiteness that rapidly washed over her lavender coat confirmed his wife's words - and worsened his concern.

"Twilight!" Shining stumbled forward, hoping to reach his sister. The sheer power of the spell that surrounded her kept him away. He tried to fight it. He employed any and all spells he could think of, hoping they would grant him passage. When they didn't and he slumped resignedly to the floor, his only choice was to call her. "Twilight! Please, stop that! You're hurting yourself!"

"I-I can't... h-help... me..."

While almost all eyes in the fort were set on the unicorn, a pair in particular was entirely focused on something else. From atop the palisades, Link watched as the Stalponies resumed their march. Olivia desperately flew from one guardspony to the other, yelling out warnings of the Stalponies's approach. Caught off-guard, the soldiers rushed back to their posts and tried to make up for the distraction.

But it was much too late. Without a shield to protect the fort, the monsters would easily take down the wooden walls and both overpower and outnumber the ponies.

He wasn't having any of that.

"Link? Link, where are you going?" Olivia quickly inquired when the boy hopped off of the turntable and dashed for the courtyard.

He had a plan. It wasn't the most thought out one he had ever concocted, but without Twilight or Shining Armor, it was the fort's only shot at offering some resistance.

He hopped down the wall and ran for the drawbridge, stopping only to nab a sword from a soldier's scabbard. The ropes keeping the bridge in place were luckily old and fragile, giving away without the smallest from the colt. The fort awoke from its trance just as the bridge banged against across the moat. When the ponies turned, Link was long gone in the dark.

The Stalponies had no such problem with seeing him. Believing he was just some pathetic pony offspring who had wandered too far away from the protection of his parents, the Stalponies is rushed to meet him. In less than nothing, he was surrounded by the monsters.

The remembrance of how to summon the spell was quickly returning to his mind. He couldn't perform the same movements he could as a human, but he could try and mimic them. The power was within him; he just had to use it.

With a mighty swing of his head, the sword was stuck into the ground.

He reared back. The war cry he unleashed was just as intense as the fire burning in his eyes. By mere coincidence or not, Twilight chose that moment to create her own explosion of light.

The very earth beneath his forehooves was carbonized as he stomped the ground. A ring of fire erupted from the grass and enveloped him, then spread out to engulf his enemies in flames. The burning Stalponies let out unnatural hisses, their behavior frenetic as they tried to put out the flames. They could not, for the wrath of Din's Fire spared no-one.

By the time the flames around him were out, the skeletal fiends had been reduced to piles of ash. A tiny ember, a remnant of the spell, still burned bright underneath his left hoof. Satisfied, he blew it out.

The Stalponies clearly hadn't expected the sudden display of magic. The boldest of the few monsters that were left still tried to close in for the hit, and Link readied himself for the fight. The sword slid out of the ground, its blade stained by dirt.

Even those monsters realized that their ends were nigh when they saw what was happening past the young pony. Degroot was running across the drawbridge with sword in mouth and pike mounted on his side, and behind were even more of the ponies of the fort.

"GET'AAAM!!" Degroot roared from the front of the herd.

As the entire platoon rushed across the drawbridge, weapons held aloft, the soldiers roared in their thirst for victory. The Stalponies met them headfirst, but found themselves powerless before the might of the ponies. Steel finally met bone in the field of battle, with the latter inevitably conceding defeat to the former. The ponies were plowing through the monsters as though they were farmers in a wheat field.

Link had merged with the battalion sometime when it rushed past him. What he lacked in bulk, he had in agility. With the sword in his mouth and an aptitude he never thought he had for holding it as a pony, he hopped straight onto the backs of his fellow combatants and practically skid through the battle unseen. Whenever a Stalpony crossed his way, he would drive the blade into their necks and in a swift motion, decapitating the skeleton.

He felt strangely at home there, in the middle of the action, with a weapon and people to fight by his side. His had always been a lonely path, and Navi's departure had only made it even lonelier. When he had someone by his side, he felt stronger. The second battalion’s arrival, led by Shining Armor himself, strengthened his resolve even further.

A Stalpony somehow crept up to him, but was felled by the colt’s blade. He instantly spun around when he caught the glimpse of a shadow of another one right behind him. His sword met not bone, but steel. Just the intense scent of alcohol that followed their encounter was enough for Link to identify the other sword’s owner as Degroot.

They didn’t get to meet each other in the eye, as the Stalponies demanded their undivided attention. Fighting back-to-back, they made sure the skeletal foes got their just-deserts. Both were pleasantly surprised about their partner’s skills, and at one point decided to try their luck with synchronizing their movements. The attempt was executed flawlessly, with Link sliding right beneath the larger stallion, effectively allowing them to switch places and surprise their enemy.

Being the box full of surprises he was, Link wasn’t finished. Just as Degroot gripped the sword’s handle to swing at an approaching Stalpony, Link hopped onto his back, then his head, until he was finally airborne. With a quick spin in the air to gain momentum, he delivered a fatal blow on the enemy by plunging the weapon into the top of its head, trapping the foe against the ground until it no longer moved. Degroot just looked on with an amused smile.

"That was one hell of a trick ya pulled off there, lad!" he complimented, giving the colt a strong push on the side with a hoof. "Ah can see why that Fluttershy lass has her eyes on ya! Haha! Should'a seen'er, almost bawlin' her eyes out when ya just ran out front!"

“I-I—"

“Degroot!” Shining Armor called from among the soldiers, just in time to divert attention away from the little blush that had sneaked up to Link’s face. “We’re pulling back. We’ve exhausted their immediate number. I sent some ponies to scout the city, but I doubt we’ll find anything there.”

“Well whadda’ya know, eh? The dead fear the livin’ after all! Drove’em right back to Tartarus, we did!” He kicked the broken skull of a Stalpony to prove his point. He suddenly turned and laced a leg around Link, startling both of the stallions. “Shinin’, lad, lemme tell ya, ya found yerself one fine stallion right’ere. Ye’re gonna go places, lad!”

Shining winced at the power Degroot was unknowingly putting in the embrace. With a pat on the other stallion’s back, he spared Link from the choking grip. “We should head back. Twilight will want to know what happened."

"Ah'll be right with ya, lad! Ah'm gonna help the boys downtown look for more'a these devils!"

Shining nodded, then left with Link by his side. The colt was still gasping, his neck sore from the bear-hug he'd been subjected to. "How is she?" he asked once he found enough air to speak.

"Tired," the stallion sighed. "It's a good thing we had you around. Saved us a headache."

And got one myself... Link added in his thoughts. It had been worth it, though. He had distracted them long enough for Degroot to rush to the field, and even cleared a few of them on his own. The ponies of VanHoover just needed motivation, because none of them was really a soldier. They were just citizens who, by a twist of fate, had been plunged into a war.

They were welcomed back to the fort by a crowd of enthusiastic ponies. While some would just salute at Shining Armor's passage, other more excited ponies disregarded any such formalities and promptly elbowed him. Link, too, took part of the celebrations, receiving his fair share of compliments and hoorays. Most of them expressed great surprise at his abilities. He'd grown used to receiving these in Hyrule, but smiled regardless.

By Shining's command, the festive air sagged a little. They had reached the center, where Cadence cradled her sister-in-law between her forelegs. Link barely recognized her: the unicorn's purple coat had turned completely white, and her mane had grown ashen. Twilight had taken the brunt of battle.

Despite that, she still tried to get up on her own to meet her brother. Cadence was about to object, but thought better of it. The way Shining received his sister with a tired smile warmed her heart.

"Is it... is it really over?"

"Sir," a soldier called before Shining could begin to nod. "The haze won't let us see, sir. We have magically scanned the area and found no signals, vital or otherwise."

"Then we... we did it..." Twilight wheezed, shuffling tiredly on her hooves. "We... we won..."

"Whoa there!" Shining exclaimed as he placed himself by Twilight's side once she lost her balance. Just as she touched his coat, she slumped to the ground, splashing mud around.

Her brother scanned the fort's population for a doctor. Finding none, he ushered the closest soldier to do it for him. The pony gave a very quick salutation and ran off, crying for help.

"She is just tired," Cadence cooed into the captain's ear. One of her wings was draped over her husband's back; the other shielded the pony she'd been a nanny to once. "A good night rest and she will be as good as new."

"I know," Shining replied. Taking notice of the almost imperceptible smile on the stallion's face was enough for the alicorn to believe his words. "You did well, Twily. You did really, really well."

To his relief, Twilight did react to the warm touch of his hoof on her white coat. She struggled to look up at his face, a battle like no other she had ever fought. She raised a hoof and caressed her brother’s cheek. "I wouldn't have done it without you."

"Stand back!" Redheart's voice bellowed from within the crowd. The Ponyvillian nurse had to push her way through, subjecting herself to the elements. A steady trek through the mud later, she was by their side, first aid kit already half open in her mouth.

Her jaw nearly hit the ground when she saw the pure white color that had taken over Twilight's coat. She did her best to not say 'I told you so', and opted to quickly analyze her patient as a distraction.

"She seems alright. Just tired... very tired." She emphasized her report with a heavy frown directed at Twilight. "You've had enough excitement for one day, young mare. I want you inside right now, where it's warm and safe."

"That... that actually sounds like a good idea," she wheezed, smiling a little. Redheart did the same. They could rest easy now; the threat to VanHoover was no more than a pile of shattered bones. The nurse offered her back, and Shining helped his sister up.

He squeezed his sister's hoof one last time, allowing the nurse to be on her way to the medical quarters. Then, looking back, he called out to a guard, "Get Captain Degroot and organize a sweep of VanHoover. We can't take chances. And get me a report on casualties, stat."

A nearby soldier confirmed his orders and fled to perform his duties. Degroot would be relatively easy to find. It was the metropolitan region of VanHoover that concerned the white unicorn. For all they knew, these Stalponies were just watching from inside the buildings, patiently awaiting the moment to attack.

He was proven completely wrong when the same soldier he'd just dispatched came running back to him. His ragged breaths were barely audible over the racket that had begun to take over the battlements.

"S-Sir, something... something is happening outside!"

This day just keeps getting better and better... Shining thought. "Be clearer, private! What is happening?"

"Y-You should see for yourself, sir!" The pony appeared genuinely frightened. Shining's frown grew deeper. Already he was following his underling towards the walls.

What he saw when he reached the watchtower was an event unlike any he had ever seen.

The broken bones of the Stalponies were literally disintegrating into smaller clouds of charcoal dust. In a matter of minutes, there was not a single bone left on the field. Instead, dark clouds populated the otherwise verdant territory.

"What are they doing...?” Shining muttered. As a unicorn, he could sense what other races couldn't. As a royal captain, those senses had been thoroughly heightened. He wished he could see this as a good omen. He wished he could think that the creatures were just returning to where they had come from.

Unfortunately, he knew this was just the beginning of the real battle. Already beads of sweat rolled down the side of his head.

"They appear to be gathering, sir!"

"What the--A-Archers, fire at will!!" he roared. "Fire! Fire! Take those things down!!"

All of the available archers answered the call to duty at once. The hail of arrows had switched direction like the winds of a fierce storm. Try though they might, their arrows harmlessly flew through the cloud. It crossed the skies above the fort without a care in the world, completely indifferent to the projectiles that assailed it. When it finally reached the darkness of the ocean, it simply plummeted towards the waters. By the time the ponies got to there, there was no cloud to be seen. They were met with the raging seas at the bottom of a ragged cliff.

Only those with the sharpest sight could detect the difference between the ocean and… this. The ocean did not spout foam the way this did, or at least not so far away from the shore. The ocean did not have the massive shadow of something that lurked beneath the water, nor did it house creatures at least twice the size of the fort.

Shining Armor was one such pony with great eyesight. Not a second too soon, he screamed the order to move away from the edge. The urgency of his tone startled even the bravest of the soldiers, but nothing struck as much fear in their hearts as the beast that broke the waters and stretched its long necks to observe the fort with its slit eyes. There wasn’t a single pony in that fort that didn’t find themselves at a loss for words when they looked back and saw, when the crack of a lightning bolt allowed, a three headed monster. Fort VanHoover was being targeted by no less than a hydra.

Despite their shock, the archers quickly attempted to remedy the situation. Their target was clear and solid, but that didn’t make the arrows any more effective. The hydra’s hide was too resilient to be affected by such small weapons, and any arrows that made it through had little impact. The catapults too joined the attack, and while the giant boulders provided results, they also angered the monster.

The guttural roar that all of the heads unleashed was the only warning that the ponies had to move. The hydra’s leftmost head leaned back and then fell chin-first upon the fort and its occupants, crushing everything underneath it. Shining’s heart almost stopped; the head had just narrowly missed the infirmary.

The hydra was ready to correct that mistake. Its middle, much larger head shivered this time, then leisurely leaned back, like its ‘sibling’. As the captain of the guard took off towards the medical quarters against his colleagues’ cries, penetrating the steady line of ponies that ran out of it, he pondered what exactly he would do now. The hydra itself loomed above him like a tower that prepared to crumble on him. He wanted to save everypony, but in truth, only his sister mattered. Maybe, by some artifact of luck, they would survive the megaton head’s attack.

He closed his eyes. For a very short moment, he thought his death had been painless. He heard a crash, a deafening explosion, but felt no pain. Everything was so bright, so… colorful. He was still running, but nopony ran past him. Like every single pony had realized it was hopeless and had stopped. He heard ponies mumbling around him, gasps, not of fear, but of awe.

“Is that--?”

“…a rainboom!”

That word echoed in his mind like a record on repeat. He turned, and his eyes were blasted with color like never before.

Even the storm clouds had parted, as if their gloomy appearance had been spooked by the bright rings that painted the night-sky with all the colors of a rainbow. A polychromatic trail shot out of their center, and at its tip was undoubtedly a pony.

It flew over the fort at almost breakneck speed. If any of the ponies on the ground had blinked, they would have missed it. The target of that pony was clear, the strike, clean. Just as the hydra's head plummeted towards the ground, the pony flew straight against the monster. Every single creature on that hill felt the tremor of the impact, and again when the hydra, pushed by a force comparable only to that of a speeding cannonball, fell on its back in the ocean.

The distant echo of the sonic rainboom was all that was heard for a few moments. The pony, a pegasus with a unique rainbow mane and azure suit crisscrossed by yellow thunderbolts, descended once it made sure the hydra was down for good.

“Daaaaaaashieeeeeee!!” was the cry that welcomed her to VanHoover, and a pink blur was the first thing she saw as soon as her hooves touched the ground. She had missed Pinkie's receptions more than she would ever admit. "Oh we were so worried about you! You just disappeared and then the skeletons came and everypony was just pushed into a train and Ponyville..."

"Well Ah'll be. Back to grace us with yer presence, Rainbow Dash?"

"Missed ya too, AJ." Rainbow stuck her tongue out at the other mare. "Looks like I get here in the nick of time, eh?"

"Can't argue 'bout that one."

Rainbow looked around quickly. A lot of ponies had already made it out of the infirmary. She smirked smugly. She deserved some credit, this time. A lot of it.

"By Celestia... Rainbow Dash!"

The pegasus barely had time to turn around before she found herself in the middle of another bear-hug, this time by a white pony with a distinctive fragrance to her. Rainbow wasn't usually one for this sort of display of affection. Given the situation, she would let it slide. For once.

"Hey Rares."

"Oh, we were so worried... where have you been?! A-And this suit..."

"Yeah, where'd ya get the uniform, Rainbow?" Whatever curiosity both ponies had died right there, with Rainbow's suddenly downcast gaze. Applejack, being the first to understand the implications behind owning the suit, was the first to gasp. "No... ya don't mean..."

"They did it for me." She took the sword in her mouth and stuck it to the ground. Rarity backed away from it in surprise. "I'm gonna do them justice."

The ground shook, and what started as a low grumble in the distance quickly became a thunderous roar. The ponies knew what to expect this time: the hydra had recovered.

"Looks like ya got yer chance to prove it right'ere," Applejack noted with a frown. "Ya still got any more'a those rainbooms in yer pocket?"

"Fresh out." She took the sword's handle in her mouth and grinned mischievously. "But I've got plenty of these to share."

"Evacuate the fort!" Shining Armor was heard shouting to his underlings. "I don't want any pony that can't operate a bow standing on this ground!"

"Hey, Shining!" Rainbow called. The absence of a certain egghead left her puzzled. "Where's Twilight?"

The stallion finished hollering his orders before galloping over to the mares' side. "With Fluttershy and Link. They're out for this one."

Rainbow frowned slightly at the mention of the boy's name. "Hm. Alright. Looks like we're alone against this thing."

As if aware that it was being mentioned, the hydra's massive figure rose in the darkness. Its three heads appeared far less threatening now that it had been knocked away once; it wasn't invincible, and the ponies relished in the knowledge that they still had a chance.

"Applejack, Pinkie, I want both of you back to the catapults." To Shining's relief, the mares obeyed immediately. "Rarity... can you cast any spells that might help?"

The fashionista nodded. "I am aware of a few. I will try."

"Good enough. Rainbow--"

"Yeah yeah, quit bossing us around and get to it." With that, she took off to the sky. Shining Armor wasn't exactly pleased with this, but he had little choice. She was the only hope of a direct hit.

"Archers!" he hollered, hopefully loud enough for the cowering stallions in the back of the fort to hear. Most of his best troops were with Degroot, and Celestia knew they would take too long to reach the fort. "FIR--"

"Hey Shining!" Rainbow called from above. His reply was once again cut short by the pegasus. She was pointing in the city's direction with a grin that was too smug to suggest anything good. "You've got a visitor."

He was intrigued, nonetheless. Curiosity quickly became horror as he saw Twilight, accompanied by Link and a rather reluctant Fluttershy, galloping up the hill to meet him.

Damn these nurses!

"Twilight! What are you doing here?!"

"I'm staying."

"U-um, we can still go back if--"

"Twilight, you're still weak from--"

"No... I can do this..." She walked past him to meet Rarity. Fluttershy and Rainbow followed suit, and even Pinkie and Applejack had left their posts just to greet the unicorn again. "As long as we stick together... we'll always figure something out."

The gathering had Olivia leaving her perch on the top of Link's mane. She flew down to his side, and the colt could feel her bubbling with life and excitement.

"And we're all together again." As if to prove her point, her horn flared to life. The hydra’s three heads snorted in return, releasing a jet of smoke from its nostrils. "We won't fail."

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Equestria. That was the name of the land that stretched to the horizon. All of it at the feet of the Gerudo man. Ganondorf grunted in annoyance. He unwrapped his cape from around his arms, where the wind had trapped it. There were particularly strong gusts here, at the top of 'Canterlot Mountain'. Ever since Nightmare Moon first called it by name that Ganondorf winced merely thinking about the name.

The walking board he stood on appeared to be a takeoff platform. He could only imagine that the strong winds at such great heights were useful for the winged unicorns to fly straight for the southern region of their kingdom. He wouldn't know. He didn't care, either. His mouth curled into a mischievous smile as he imagined the moonlit grasslands in front of him bursting into flames.

He owed nothing to Nightmare Moon, nor did he owe anything to the ponies that lived here. His interest rested in the power that the Hero of Time possessed, and nothing else. The 'Elements of Harmony' and all of the other ancient relics Nightmare Moon had mentioned were bonuses he didn't want. She sought for them through him, and it displeased him. He was the puppeteer. Not the puppet.

Once they were through, he would be sure to remind her of that. He'd remind every single being on this land that he could not be controlled by anyone.

Right on cue, the balloon of his fantasies was rudely popped by the call of someone behind him. The violence with which his hand curled into a fist would have shattered even diamonds in the rough. "My liege!"

Ganondorf emitted a deep, prolonged snarl. He did indeed hate being interrupted, especially by people - or rather, ponies - of the likes of Nightmare Moon's underlings. He looked down at the diminutive horse and frowned. The black suit it wore was beyond unacceptable as a war uniform, as was the frilly cravat around its neck. Ganondorf admonished such triviality. The petty servant was so frail he struggled against the winds.

"I sincerely hope you are worth my time," he spat with clear distaste. They could be working together, but these... slaves... would get no more sympathy from him than any of his other servants.

"I have received news from Discord, sire," the pony spoke, bowing at his feet. "He claims to have captured the Bearer of Wisdom, and wishes to know how your endeavors in regards to the Crystal Princess fare."

"I see. Tell him it is not of his concern; her capture is well in hand." The Gerudo didn't even try to appear interested in the tidbit of information. There was another matter that needed to be attended. "And Nightmare Moon?"

"She has yet to report back, sire."

"Then leave my presence. Be gone."

"But there is more, sire. You will be pleased to know this." This he had to hear. The pony knew of something that would please him? Perhaps these equines were not as stupid as he took them to be.

Or perhaps they were. The servant just stood there, looking expectantly at him. He was trying too hard to grin.

"Out with it!"

"The Stalponies have located the Light Force!"

Ganondorf's lips parted for the briefest moment. Those were good news, indeed. Very, very good news. The pony had indeed succeeded in appealing to Ganondorf’s interest. "Where is it, then? Speak, Equestrian!"

"It is in the Temple of Time, sire."

Author's Note

Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan you don't know what a RELIEF it is to have this finished. I hope you'll understand why it's so long; if I had cut it down to Rainbow's part and the VanHoover part, then we would have ended up with a very short part, and a very long one. I'll admit Cloudsdale Temple was not my magnum opus, but I'm quite glad to be finished with that dungeon!

In my travels, I found this:

( http://fav.me/d6536df )
Apparently, the requester asked that the bow was done akin to the bow used here, so if you need a reference because you didn't quite get it, well, here's your reference, because it's spot on.

A great big thanks to FlyingChurro for proof-reading the chapter, and Sage Wolf as well.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to fall on my bed.

The Heist

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The weight of the new horseshoes, while not unfamiliar to Applebloom, did not go unnoticed for the young pony. Every step she took produced a metallic clacking against the rocky ground - and every single sound reminded her of the power now stored deep within her being.

You don't scare me anymore, she thought to herself, as though the forest would hear. She faced the path ahead with a fierce look about her features, eyes trained on the moon in the sky, marking her destination. Her stride was a confident one, her sword no longer a burden. It was her tool for survival.

Despite the deity's return, monsters still lurked about in the dark. The twinkle of numerous eyes among the brush watched her run by, eager to strike the filly that had compromised their mission, until one group of wolves in particular tried its luck. Applebloom skid to a halt as soon as they jumped out of the bushes, all contestants baring their teeth at one another.

"Back for seconds?" she taunted, lowering her head like a cat ready to pounce.

A foul smell escaped the timber monsters' maws as they howled. All three of them pounced at her at once, seeking to give the filly as little time to breathe as possible. Applebloom quickly spun on her hind legs, rearing back just as one of the Timberwolves swung its claws. The wooden shield took the blow, and Applebloom, fast as a hare, spun again and struck the surprised wolf with her sword.

The two remaining wolves growled to get her attention, allowing their injured partner to scamper behind them. Having been forced to split her attention between her enemies, the filly tasted fear again. A Timberwolf went for the kill, but earned nothing more than the steel of the sword. The other wolf attacked then, its claws scraping strands of hair and earning a gasp from Applebloom.

"This ain't good..." she muttered, backing away. "These wolves recover awful quick..."

The wolves nudged the most injured one's head in concern, while the latter pushed them away and resumed its stance. Applebloom had only grown more anxious, yet the wolves stood as if nothing had happened.

"N-No, I gotta be brave." Her words rang empty even to herself. All of it resembled her last encounter with the timberwolves far too much. This time, however, there was nowhere to run. Wherever she looked, she found a wolf circling her.

Then her ears perked up. There was one last thing she could try. She had been rewarded for her courage - she'd put that reward to good use.

The wolves didn't wait for the filly to make her mind up. The first one jumped just as she turned her back to them and raised her hindlegs. The kick she delivered was as brutal as she'd hoped, tearing straight through the Timberwolf and showering the filly with splinters as the monster's head was smashed open. What remained of its body fell limp, limbs scattering across the ground as what magic held them together faded.

This small victory filled her with energy. Anxiety gave way to a confident grin, and against all odds, she thought she heard the wolves whimper. As she raised her forelegs in the air, they knew what was coming, and all they could do was brace themselves.

Hooves met mud to create an unexpectedly powerful explosion of dirt and water, surprising even the filly. The shockwave that followed cut into even the bark of surrounding trees. Applebloom herself was unable to stand up when the floor collapsed on itself, sending pony and wolves alike plummeting into the debris.

The moment of adrenaline ended quickly as she became submerged in water. She reached the surface shortly after, much to her surprise, as if the world had suddenly turned upside down. Struggling out of the water, Applebloom caught her breath and looked back at the rubble. Everything above her was pitch black, and the little light that shone down was reflected by a small lake barely the size of her room. Every chunk of stone that entered it was projected soon after, as though the lake was rejecting it to retain its pure, crystalline state.

With no sign of the wolves, the only life forms to keep her company were bioluminescent mushrooms and plants, granting the grove a bluish hue. Faintly lit vines crawled up the walls, their light guiding her eyes towards a path out of the cave, right across the lake.

"Nothin' but trouble..." she murmured.

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Applebloom’s ears drooped at the sight of a light at the end of the maze of trees, right at the top of a small incline. She hastened her pace despite the exhaustion that gripped her, hoping to bath in the moonlight as soon as possible. The drops of fresh rain that caressed her upon leaving the shroud felt reinvigorating for the young pony. Looking back at the forest and the waterfall beyond it, she was reminded of how much she’d accomplished in such a short time.

Time… her smile faded. She had less than six days to rescue her friends. The gift bestowed upon her by the Great Fairy brought her one step closer to that goal, but if her first confrontation with Valhalla held any lessons to teach, it was that one step would not be enough. Her next challenge was clear: she would have to cross the desert - and somehow, along the way, grow strong enough.

“Applebloom!” she heard someone call. She spotted Epona in the foliage, approaching her with a distinctly concerned look upon her features. “Y-You’re alive! You actually made it out of there alive!”

“Heh, ya sound surprised…”

Epona pretended to ignore her statement and simply pulled her into a hug. “After all the trouble we went through to get here, I was starting to get worried it would be too much for you.”

“But… ya just barely met me.”

Epona stammered for a bit. “Well, yeah, but we both want the same thing, I mean, we both want to save our friends and I…” The Hylian filly looked away. “I’m kind of sorry that I called you a thief.”

Applebloom’s immediate reaction was to amusedly raise an eyebrow, which eventually developed into a poorly contained surge of giggles. Epona just looked on, confused as to what it meant.

“It’s okay, I figure I shouldn’t have snapped when you did.”

“I see you have grown in more ways than one, young Applebloom,” Zecora piped in as she walked past them. The filly’s eyes traced the lines that marred her striped coat, sullied here and there by poorly cleaned smudges of blood. Epona's words were clearly no exaggeration, for they seemed to have gone through some tough trials of their own. Zecora dropped a piece of cloth over the worst of the injuries, as if to call Applebloom’s attention to the gentle smile she sported. “I trust you will tell us of your adventures soon?”

“Hey, yeah! What happened in there? Did you meet the guardian?”

Applebloom stared down at the mud, flattered. Then slowly, raising her hooves, she showed the newly acquired horseshoes. “I got these, but I’m not too sure how to use them yet.”

“Yes, the guardians are never too precise in the information they provide. But they are wise beyond belief, and if such power was yours to take,” she carefully set her hoof on Applebloom’s. “Then I, too, believe that good use of it you will make.”

“I... I ain’t no hero, but… I’ll try.”

With Zecora’s consent in the form of a nod, the three turned to face the desert. A set of train tracks slithered to the far reaches of the desert, where a tendril of smoke rose. The way was as barren as they had expected: aside from the occasional cactus or bush, they would be travelling in open fields all the way to their destination.

Epona snickered. “X marks the spot, right?”

“‘Tis indeed. I suggest we travel swiftly, lest we fall prey to evil’s creed.”

"Heh, we have Applebloom here if we run into trouble." Applebloom squeaked when Epona suddenly poked her side. "After going through that place, I bet she's ready for anything!"

Hoping for an optimistic response from either of her companions, Epona sought for their eyes. Zecora didn't even look back, and Applebloom turned away, as if to shrug off the compliment. With a snort and a hefty frown, Epona gave up.

But then, just as the silence of the desert was starting to get to the Hylian horse, the young filly beside her spoke up, her voice riddled with uncertainty. "Epona, how's... the place where ya come from like?"

"It's... not much different from Equestria." She saw Applebloom half-heartedly mouth an 'oh' and internally kicked herself. More than just company in that desert, she was a filly with a desire for discovery that she couldn't hide. To tell her that some far-off land looked like her own didn't seem right. "Except we don't have, hum, ponies in charge. We're not in charge at all, actually."

That seemed to have roused her curiosity. "Then who is?"

"The humans. Like Link and... Ganondorf." Applebloom tilted her head, noticing Epona's expression had wilted into a frown. "I never really saw him, but Link used to say he was scary enough to make you pass out."

"Sounds like Nightmare Moon t'me," Applebloom piped in.

Epona just nodded. "Looks like there's always someone who wants to see the world burn. Link said that Ganondorf would have destroyed Hyrule completely if he hadn't done anything. That he would've killed thousands, and let monsters loose."

"Nightmare Moon was very much the same, but, I dare say, much more tame." Both fillies looked on to Zecora. "She wished for eternal night, yet I fear her plans would not have stopped at vanquishing the light."

"Those two would make one heck of a pair, then," Epona joked. Once again, it fell on deaf ears.

"In the forest," Appebloom began, very quietly. "the Shadowbolts said that they were loyal t'Nightmare Moon. And then all these monsters, and you..." she pointed at Epona.

"The time will come when that becomes of your concern, young one. You have but begun your journey," Zecora coldly reminded, staring back at Applebloom from the corner of the eye. "Leave such matters for those who can worry."

"I think that time's already here, Zecora." Estranged by the unusual reply, the zebra turned to face Epona. She had stopped several steps behind them, her gaze fixated on the horizon before them. As the other two travelers traced her eyes, a silhouette in the distance became clear. It was clearly an equine that faced their way, its moonlit frame much bulkier than the average pony.

"I don't like the sound'a this..."

Epona's voice trembled. "You shouldn't. That's... that's Ganondorf's horse." Applebloom's brow rose. Even Zecora's stoic stance had been broken. The horse drew closer, the desire for destruction clear in the malicious red glow of its eyes. "That armor and mane... he's just like Link described him."

To Epona's surprise, a pair of wings flared from its sides, lined with feathers as dark as the night. Their hearts raced ever faster as a guttural voice spoke to them, "Weary travelers crossing this desert, heed my warning. Your hooves take you through accursed lands, and your backs carry forbidden belongings. Should you not wish to be swallowed by the sands, relinquish these items... And I may yet show mercy."

"Don't," Zecora chided when Epona prepared to riposte. "He will carry out his dare if we do not take care."

Epona snorted, then spoke in a hushed voice, "Then what are we supposed to do? It's three to one, Zecora! We can take this guy down!"

"It is not us he desires." She rummaged through one of her bags with her snout. There was a smooth, stone sphere decorated a single gray gem in her mouth as she pulled away. "It is that which Applebloom requires."

The young Apple was about to argue when Zecora suddenly turned and roared to the great dark horse, "You seek me, dark one! Allow those who do not matter to run!"

"It would seem I did not make myself clear. I did not allow you to bargain, let alone dare suggest, my course of action!" The mere stomp of its hoof caused the ground to tremble. "This is your last chance. Relinquish your belongings, step forth... and kneel."

As Zecora picked up the sphere again and took the first step, both Epona and Applebloom lunged forward to grab her. She shook herself out of the embrace and continued, until the stallion demanded she stop. In a simple, very ungraceful movement, she bowed down before him. Satisfied, the stallion moved closer.

"For every inch of worthlessness in you, there is at least some obedience," he uttered, leaning closer. “What have you, a bug at my hooves, to offer me?”

She heard Applebloom call her name, and the stallion snorted impatiently. The dark one flicked his head, causing a barrier of flames to erupt between the pairs of equines. Satisfied, he turned to Zecora with a grin. “Now that we are… alone...” His breath tickled her ear. “You have something that belongs to me.”

Slowly, the zebra dropped the stone on the barren ground. The pressure of the stallion’s gaze fell upon the object, which he gingerly rolled closer with a hoof. Even the flames surrounding them withered, such was his fixation on that which he had claimed from those he deemed unworthy.

“The power is never lost… it simply changes its residence. It remains shattered, for as a whole it cannot exist. With this…” he spoke as the stone became enveloped in a deep red mist, floating up to his eye level. “Equestria stands another step away from salvation.”

“You have that which you craved for,” Zecora muttered. “Your presence is required, no more.”

The stallion’s brow furrowed. “Is that so? Perhaps I should oblige, just this once.” He raised a hoof. “You shall lay eyes on me, no more.”

Applebloom’s shrill cry for her friend’s name was just steps away, and the clopping of her hoofs grew louder and louder. Both the zebra and the stallion turn to see a filly run at them with a sword in her mouth, eager to strike. Their foe was about to reach when Zecora leaped and stole the stone from its magical embrace, tossing it away.

She called for Applebloom to touch it, shortly before reaching into her own saddlebags and retrieving a golden plated arrowhead, which she promptly stabbed the stallion’s naked neck with. He staggered back for a moment, attempting - and failing - to pull out the sharp object with his hooves. When it finally dislodged itself after being held by his magic, it disintegrated into ashes as dark as the night, a scorch mark the only indication of where it had struck the neck.

His magic wavered as he picked the zebra up by her neck. Amidst grunts of pain he muttered curses, somehow encasing his prisoner in a veil of clouds. Zecora didn’t utter a single word, not even as she was finally cloaked entirely… and then disappeared in the haze.

“Curse this body… I was promised a stallion of immense strength, not a weakling.” He shifted his gaze to the two remaining fillies, and his breath left him. “Do. Not. Touch that!!”

It was too late. He tried to pull the stone away with his magic, but there was no response. Applebloom’s hoof made contact with dull gem, and the object's form disappeared in a flash of faint light, drawn towards the filly.

The stallion’s mouth quivered, his wings twitched. There were a million words crossing his mind at that moment, and he couldn’t use a single one to verbalize his feelings. The result was incoherent mumbling, the likes of which he never thought he would ever do. Everything was falling apart.

He summoned his magic again, this time to no avail. He couldn’t so much as pick up the filly anymore. Whatever the zebra had done to him… it had worked. And it filled with him with such an incalculable rage that the earth trembled. This was no over, he repeated to himself, again and again. The filly’s squeaks at that moment felt like a needle piercing his ears, and he wished only to fill his mind with his own voice. But she didn’t stop. She just kept talking… and talking...

“What did ye do to my friend?!” Applebloom was shouting after rising to her hooves and picked up her sword again.

“Your friend… oooh, your friend…” his voice shivered with his body. “I have something special planned for her… oooh, yes…”

There would have been nothing left of the area had his magic not been drained. No filly, no stone, no sound. Just utter silence.

Yet there she was, as if expressly to drive him to madness.

“But you… you’re more important to me now, little filly... You think you’re a ‘hero’, don’t you? Eheheheh, you do...” He pawed at the ground. “But heroes have to die… that is how stories go."

Epona and Applebloom both turned tail as the stallion reared up, wings flared up and a devilish glare in his crimson eyes. When he finally stomped the ground, the shockwave kicked dirt and equines into the air, knocking the lights out of the fillies.

Even after enduring the blast, however, the youngest of the Apples had a glimpse of consciousness. She felt a presence nearby, one that drew closer at a progressively faster rate. She heard cries for help, shouts that confirming she was still alive. More presences stepped in, but one in particular stood out.

She saw nothing but the darkness, but she could feel how concerned it was. When her cheek was nudged and a leg draped over her back, whispers of relief filled her ears. She recognized its scent, the sound of the hushed voice. She knew it was finally safe to fall asleep.

After all, she was back in her brother’s hooves.

Author's Note

What? I said it was nearly finished. *shrug*

I KNOW IT'S SHORT OKAY
BUT IT'S ALL I COULD MUSTER FOR THIS PARTICULAR PART ;^;

Trouble in your Wake

'In the land of Hyrule, there echoes a legend. A legend held dearly by the Royal Family that tells of a boy...

A boy who, after battling evil and saving Hyrule, crept away from the land that had made him a legend...

Done with the battles he once waged across time, he embarked on a journey. A secret and personal journey...

A journey in search of a beloved and invaluable friend...

A friend with whom he parted ways when he finally fulfilled his heroic destiny and took his place among legends...

But as he would soon come to realize, such a place is not always desirable, for when one enemy falls, two more rise in their place...

And for harmony to be kept, the fall of one hero must bring forth the birth of seven more...’
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Head hung low, the boy clad in green shuddered.

He needn't hold on to the steed that carried him across the ever-thickening haze. The layer of clouds granted the woods where the people do not wander the rightful adjective that was its namesake: the Lost Woods. Trees sprouted from the ground in a sort of organized chaos, as if their owner had simply scattered their seeds across the land without the least of concerns for where they would fall.

Man and horse, neither one had a destination, and neither one knew for how long they had been journeying. Days, weeks, months… it didn’t seem to matter. Step by step, the filly continued to trek through the overgrown vegetation, the slightest breeze agitating unseen foliage high above.

Why had they ventured into this forest, forsaken by the Hylian and feared by the Kokiri, to begin with?

'They say that when non-fairy folk enter the Lost Woods, they become monsters!’

The melodious whisper of a song echoed in the back of his mind, drawn from memories of a place gone by. Memories of the hollow tree his house had been built on. Memories of the deity who, prior to his death, kept safe the forest they inhabited. But above all, memories of… her.

The gentle wind that caressed the woods suddenly stopped. An eerie stillness flooded the atmosphere around them. They had stopped. Something was moving under the cover of the mist.

Then a chime to which the boy had grown attached: the signature sound of a fairy's flight.

“HEEAH!” the boy swiftly cried, prompting the horse forward with a quick whip of his legs. Epona complied and galloped into the heart of the haze without a moment’s hesitation.

Certainty, however, was not in the rider’s mind. Should he draw his sword and confront this potential danger? He would be utterly unguarded if this concealed enemy were to ambush him. He had learned throughout his life that this was not something he could afford.

Eyes set on the path ahead, he unsheathed the weapon. Its golden hilt shimmered faintly under the little light that shone through the treetops.

The Kokiri Sword had been by his side through all sorts of dangers, and had been his weapon of choice when he forced the swordsmen at a Hylian training ground to swallow their scorn. He had defeated them one by one, thus obtaining the title of knight he so desired from Hyrule's court. If he could take on these mighty warriors and still rise victorious, then surely he would be able to defeat anything that crossed his path.

He had, after all, been dubbed ‘The Hero of Time’.

“Easy, Epona,” he muttered, lowering his head towards his steed’s mane. The filly slowed down, eventually coming to a complete halt just a step away from what appeared to be the abrupt end of the path. A quick hop later, he was walking towards what he was tempted to call the edge of the world.

He couldn’t judge just how steep the cliff he stood upon was – the same persistent layer of clouds that had surrounded him now blocked his sight to the bottom of the lengthy fall. He didn’t plan to find out either.

Taking a step away from the unstable edge, he began to analyze his surroundings. He no longer felt the presence of the unidentified sprite, but on the other hand, he had been driven off-course.

Was I even following a course? he paused to ponder.

The familiar buzzing of a fairy's was the answer of the woods. His eyes hastily shifted from one end of the foggy barrier to the other. He scanned it for any trace of the sprite, be it the glittering trail it always left behind or the tiny orb of light that was its body.

“N-Navi?” he stuttered, daring to take a step towards the dimly lit maze. “Is that you?”

He could feel the fairy closing in at an almost frustratingly slow pace. It was barely noticeable, but he could see the powder they emanated from their tiny, glowing bodies flutter away, carried by a light waft of air. He remained still, carefully prodding the mist for any source of light he could use as a hint.

The tiniest flicker of radiance in the dark of the woods was enough to spur the boy back on his saddle. Epona was once more racing past the immeasurably tall trees, hurdling over their exposed roots and the pits they concealed in a wild pursuit.

Please, don’t go away again.

With every crack of the whip, the incandescent dot in the distance grew bigger and brighter. His heart skipped a beat as the realization that he would finally be together with his friend struck.

Why are you going away?

Epona’s nearly deafening neighs went completely unnoticed. The fairy owned his undivided attention. It had stopped less than a second’s gallop away from them, idly floating up and down. He knew this was his only chance.

Then suddenly, propelled by a powerful force beneath him, he soared through the air. His arms were outstretched. It was an insane attempt to reach the fairy, grab her and drag her down with him.

But he didn't make it.

It was in the peak of this ascent, when he was inches away from her, that he managed to properly observe the fairy. His young heart was shattered into a thousand pieces when he found that this sprite had nothing to do with the one he had been searching.

There was no silver core to a blue radiance in its body - only a faded green color that grew darker towards its center. What should be a pure white to azure gradient in her wings was not but a constant, glass-like cerulean.

He struggled for words. Time had stopped. Whether to help or to further torture him, Link couldn't tell. “Who…”

“Wait... You're... Link," the thing spoke. Time resumed its flow. He was falling.

All it took was a moment before everything faded to the deepest shade of black. He didn't dare to look down. His only wish was that this fall did not have an end.

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It was as if the world bent and distorted itself in the oddest of ways. That was possibly the best description Link could offer of his current location, despite not being able to see anything beyond the pit's veil of darkness.

Though his sight was of no obvious use, it still felt like he could see all the ways in which the world contorted and became something entirely new, something completely strange to him.

As if it was the work of a foe mighty enough to destroy the Goddesses. It was, after all, destroying their work. No weapon could defeat this enemy; no shield could defend him from this fall.

A foe… in the midst of the darkness fluttered white little specks of dust. There was a multitude of them, just like the ones that dotted the skies in the clearest nights.

Unlike the starry night sky, this pattern of lights had nothing remotely soothing about it. Such was the hostility that was patent in this collection of scintillating dots that Link could almost touch it.

‘I’ll get to you… in time…’ its ominous voice seemed to threaten, preparing to fade into the sinister nothingness of the fall once again and leave the boy to his own devises.

The demise of the Hero of Time would be a depressing pit that ridiculed him. Because of his lack of attention to his faithful steed’s pleas. Yes, this would be a suitable end. To disappear without a trace in a forest, whereabouts unknown to everyone in Hyrule.

Everyone… save for that fairy.

But he had seen her. When one shares as much time as he did with a person – or, in this case, a fairy – one becomes fairly able to recognize them. And when it came to a fairy like Navi, Link knew he could recognize her a mile away.

Then why had he chased this fairy? Why had her color not been a telltale sign that this was not his former companion?

Questions began to flood his mind, but he disregarded them. As long as he was plunging to his death, he had all the time in the world. He was surprisingly aware: he could feel the weight of the Ocarina in his pocket, the comfort of the handmade scabbard that held his sword, the cold metal of the shield strapped against his back.

On that note, the temperature was dropping. Was the center of the world an icy cavern? He had no good memories of ice and caves – the time when Zora’s Domain froze over was enough to imprint a lasting hatred of cold in his mind.

No, that couldn’t be it. Though the air was definitely growing colder the longer he fell, it definitely didn't feel like there was ice down below.

The murmur of a roar reached his ears, causing his curiosity to peak. The possibility that there was a waterfall at the bottom of the pit rekindled the flame of hope in his heart. It was his only chance of survival.

Light was starting to tear through the haze that surrounded him, and he welcomed it with open arms. This confirmed his suspicions: he was getting close to the end. Not long after the first hint of radiance appeared, the pit was flooded with a pale blue light. The sound was growing louder. His face was pelted by droplets of cold water, cueing him to get ready.

A quick adjustment to his position was enough to guarantee the perfect dive. He could only pray to the Goddesses that the massive lake beneath him was deep enough to safely cushion his fall.

He broke straight through the lake's serene waters.

His mind had barely had time to recover when his lungs begged for air. Several powerful kicks and arm strokes later, he breached the surface and gasped loudly. Only then did the water's cold temperature get to him.

Not wasting a moment, he paddled towards the closest shore he could find. Link still tried to stand once he reached land, but found himself unable to. With an exhausted sigh, he fell on the rocky floor on his back, slowly taking in the view of the immense cave while the echo of his shield's metallic clang faded away. It was indeed an immense cave. An immensely desolate cave.

“Ep-Epona?” he called between wheezes. He tried again, then one more time, just to make sure.

His calls remained unanswered. It was time for a new plan.

He took the deep blue ocarina out of a pocket and shakily raised it to his mouth. Merely three blows escaped his mouth, ones barely resembling his steed's summoning tune. Giving up altogether, he brought the instrument close his chest and grasped it as tightly as he could.

There has to be a way out of here… I need to go, and I need to do it now.

It only took an attempt at rising to his feet to discover that he was still too tired. He managed nothing but a poorly executed sit-up before his back hit the rocky floor like a dead weight. The shield cushioned the fall for what it was worth. The resulting clank of steel against stone echoed throughout the cavern.

Okay… I’ll take five…

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As soon as time for resting elapsed, Link continued his trip. The Goddesses had smiled on him, this time around. He had found a path to follow.

It was an uphill tunnel that dug into the cave. Navy blue crystals sprouted from the walls in an disorganized fashion, illuminating his way with their pale glow. Mining equipment was strewn across the ground here and there, often bundled with piles of boulders. Just looking at the place made memories of Hyrule's own ice caves surface.

Link shivered at the thought and grasped the sword's hilt tighter. His green tunic and hat were still partially damp from his earlier dive into the lake.

His ears twitched at the sound of a pebble that rolled down its pile. A quick look around revealed there weren't any threats.

Good thing, too, he thought. At this point, the sword weighed more than a sledgehammer. An enemy to fight was the last thing he needed.

His mind drifted back to Epona and her well being. Play her favorite tune though he might, she would not answer. The possibility that the fairy, the root of all of his problems, could be behind her disappearance crossed his mind. He started to grind his teeth. There would be hell to pay. There was a thousand and one ways to torture a fairy, and he'd resort to all of them. His frown became a devious grimace.

The bubble that contained his machinations burst when a gust of freshness snapped him back to reality. It felt different. It didn't smell like coal or rust. It was a breeze that carried pure, breathable air. A smile was already tugging at his lips.

I must be getting close! He thought, barely containing an excited squeal as he broke into a frenzied run. Voices began to reverberate across the tunnels, even the air appeared to be hinting at how close he was.

After rounding a corner, he spotted a weak source of light. One last trek up this new slanted tunnel, alongside the rails that sprouted from the ground, was all he needed to do.

Or so he thought. As soon as he arrived to the top, he found that a crisscrossed barricade of wooden planks covered the exit. Very little light made it through the gaps. Peeking through them, he caught a glimpse of a staircase, and beyond that, the sun, the sky and the rooftops of a town.

Motivated by this discovery, he unsheathed his sword and lashed out at the obstacle. Just as he had predicted, the old, musty boards didn't stand a chance against the might of his blade. With several satisfying cracks, they were reduced to splinters.

The sword returned to its scabbard once there was enough space for the boy to crawl through. His naked knees left the soft sand of the cave and entered the coldness of a stone floor. Still gasping, he ran up the stairs, eager to bathe in the sunlight.

The feeling had been as glorious as he had imagined. The touch of the sun's rays on his skin was a blessing from above. He basked at the top of the stairs, arms wide open so as to collect as much heat as possible. The clamor of the crowd was reduced to an imperceptible buzz in his ears. A broad, toothy smile spread across his features.

He heard hooves clopping on stone. Finally prying his eyes from the circle of light, Link looked around with a hopeful gaze.

His smile died right then.

There was not one man or woman, child or otherwise, to be seen in those streets. Amidst the elegant gray buildings strolled not humans, but equines. Ponies with coats and manes dyed with every color he could imagine. They talked, they wore clothes, they sat at tables and sipped drinks from porcelain cups. They behaved exactly like human beings.

Surely, not being with Epona was getting the better of him. His mind replaced anything resembling a human with a horse. Yes, that would explain why they behaved just like humans!

He had subconsciously stepped away from the stairs. His step was slow, befitting the awestruck expression he wore. The ponies that took notice of him raised their eyebrows as they passed, sometimes dropping a comment in a language he couldn't understand.

A pony in particular approached him. The way its eyes were half-lidded made him realize how expressive they were. Something told him this was a mare. If anything, because of the way she flicked her tail at his face as they came across each other. It had a strange fragrance, like the morning mist mixed with sweat's revolting scent. He jerked his head back. The mare winked before disappearing back into the crowd.

Link pondered briefly if he was still asleep. He touched the side of his face with a hand, where the tail had hit him hardest. The slap had felt very real. The fleeting sting had, too.

Someone was calling him. Or so it felt to him. He spun on one foot to find that a pony at a stall's door was, indeed, eyeing him with a mischievous smile. It was rubbing its hooves together, and ushering him closer to its store. While an aged sign was hung above the door, a curtain concealed the shop's window display.

All sorts of trinkets decorated the walls of the shady building. Paintings, little statuettes and paintings of ponies in dramatic poses, the sorts of items nobody wanted.

A little bell announced the door's closing. The pony scooted behind the dusty counter as soon as Link entered. It said something and tapped its hoof. Getting nothing of the equine's blabber, Link pointed at an old-looking armor.

He hadn't thought it through, but now that he thought about it, the armor was the perfect size for Epona. The shopkeeper laughed. It retrieved an abacus from under the counter and began to fiddle with its beads. Once it was finished, it announced the result and extended a hoof for Link to place his money.

The boy reached into the bag of Rupees that was strapped to his... belt...

His hand was grasping at nothing. The bag of Rupees wasn't there. His whole wallet was gone. He could feel his heartbeat increasing its pace. How could he have been so careless?

With a glimmer of hope in his eyes, he remembered he still had one last hope. Taking off his hat, Link felt inside it and pulled his hand out as soon as he found what he was looking for. A purple Rupee, one much bigger than his hand. Fifty Rupees, right there.

The shopkeeper just laughed again, leaving Link frowning in confusion. A hoof pushed his hand away, and a golden coin fell on the counter with a few clinks. Link didn't need a translation to know what this meant.

As he put his money away, the pony pointed at his shield, and then raised a bag full of the golden coins. It spoke a few words, and then flashed the mischievous smirk Link had become used to seeing in the past minutes.

The boy instinctively glanced back and placed a hand on the shield, as though the pony was about to steal it. Not much time was needed to come up with an answer. After offering a curt shake of his head, Link turned to exit the shop.

There was a shout, and something very nearly struck the back of the boy's head. The shield ended up taking the damage with a loud clatter.

That was all Link needed to know that he had to go away. He didn't look back as he stormed out of the store. The little bell almost flew out of its place when the door underneath it was shut close.

He found himself lost again in the chaotic mess that was the city of equines. It began to feel the same as tying a rope around his neck. He was struggling for air, spinning wildly on his feet in search of a way out.

It was in the midst of this action that he found a glorious sight. A castle that greatly overshadowed the town with both its complex architecture and sheer size. It was built into the mountain, which soared even higher than the palace itself, and made him realize just how far away from home he was.

This was not Hyrule, and this was not a dream. He had concluded that much.

Before he could process any of these thoughts, something - or some pony - bumped against his back. The boy fell to his knees, given how unexpected the push had been. Even more unexpected than that was the frightened shriek the pony that had pushed him gave. He barely had time to look at the guilty party, as he rolled to the side just in time to avoid being hit by a pair of hooves.

The crowd had stopped to watch. The pony was taller than him by at least a head. Its mane and tail were golden, with a lock of hair straying from the others to dangle over an eye.

What surprised Link the most was the horn on its forehead. Unicorns were the stuff of legend in Hyrule - though, admittedly, so had been the Master Sword. If said legends were to be trusted, then this pony could use magic. What was more, this was a white unicorn. The purest of breeds.

From the way it backpedaled away from him, however, Link questioned how much of a threat the pony really was. It kept yelling desperately, flicking its head from one side of the street to the other.

It was crying for help, Link soon realized.

To his great relief, the locals barely seemed to care. They simply laughed or traded quiet, snide remarks. Either way, they ended up turning to leave. Link breathed a relieved sigh; trouble was the last thing he needed at that moment.

Any and all hopes of peace were shattered the moment an imposing bellow sounded from both ends of the street. The crowd of ponies moved aside, revealing what Link didn't want to see: armored ponies running in his direction with weapons hoisted. He could guess what they were based on the heavy, gilded armors they sported.

For some reason, their step faltered when they saw the boy. Some of the bulkier stallions even smiled. The frightful unicorn behind him gave another demanding shout, and the guards' expressions changed completely. Their eyes were set on Link's sword.

Before the boy could react, the guards surrounded him. He caught a glimpse of the white unicorn's eyes as it stepped away. All he saw in them was lust. They bore the same look he'd seen so many times in the eyes of the Hylian nobles. Suddenly, he lost any semblance of fondness for this place.

One of the guards snarled something at him. His spear was suspended by magic, Link noticed. They did know how to use magic then.

He had no idea of what to do. The only punishment for getting caught by the watchmen of Hyrule Castle's courtyard was being thrown out of the castle grounds. In this unknown land, he could only imagine what they would do to him.

So he did what he knew best. He reached for his sword.

The guards reacted almost immediately. The end of a spear flew against him, forcing Link to block the strike with his own blade. Despite the events that had transpired, he managed to push the spear away, thus creating an opening in the guard's defense. He ducked under the spear and leaped at the guard, ready to strike the sturdiest point in its helmet. The last thing he wanted to do was blemish his record with murder.

The blow had the effect he intended: the stallion was stunned, allowing Link to jump over its head and begin his run down the street.

He didn't go far. Just steps away from his starting point, he felt his body grow lighter. Moments later, his feet left the ground. He was being manipulated by their magic.

Struggle though he might to escape, a force field held him in the air. The guards rushed to surround him again, aiming the sharp ends of their spears directly at the boy's face. Link still repelled some of these with his own weapon, but he was stripped of even that by the overpowering pull of magic.

By now, the ponies who had disregarded the scene had returned to admire their guardians' handiwork. He realized he was being held aloft like a prize, so all the ponies could see that he had been neutralized. There were gasps, curious gazes were cast upon him, ponies murmured among themselves. Even the guards were laughing at him, as if to pretend that he hadn't been that difficult to capture.

Then, when it seemed long enough, an incisive pain flooded the back of his head. The world stumbled to darkness shortly after.

Author's Note

(20-12-12) Phew! Finally managed to rewrite this chapter! I didn't change it COMPLETELY, but I made sure to edit all of it, be it to modify how a scene carried out, or the flow of the scene itself. Hopefully, it's been changed for the better.

In the Dark

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The familiar aroma of the forest that wafted in the cool air, freshened by the loud downpour in the distance, stirred Twilight back to consciousness. Her eyes, barely even open, were caught by surprise by an unexpected radiance that was too close for comfort. The unicorn grunted at the fleeting pain in her eyes and pulled her head away. A quiet crackling, associated with the warmth on her muzzle, denounced the presence of a flame burning in front of her.

Slowly, Twilight raised her head, rubbing her temples with a hoof before attempting to focus on her surroundings. She had definitely been lying on the cold, hard surface of a cave, and the latent headache she felt further confirmed that.

The events that had led to her slumber, especially in a cave, were hazy in her mind. She vaguely recalled earthquakes tearing a castle apart, leaving her involved in a wild-goose chase for the exit while the halls crumbled behind her, and upon reaching the exit, she met not the door to freedom, but the imposing figure of a dark demon. She remembered feeling lighter not a moment later, and the monster unsheathed its sword. Just before it fell on her, however, there was a flash… and everything disappeared.

Could it really have been just a dream? she pondered, gazing past the blaze before her at the mouth of the cave. It was clearly nighttime. A stormy, foreboding one at that. The occasional thunder startled her out of a trance. It didn't feel natural to the unicorn. Only once or twice had she experienced this sort of storm, and neither occasion had been pleasant.

Just then, something touched her back, putting the fur of the mare’s coat standing on end. Was there something else in the cave? Had she been abducted by some foul manticore and dragged to this cave? Who had started the fire, then?

With all the care she could muster, she began turning around, hoping to catch a glimpse of her companion without upsetting it.

Reality became painfully obvious when the green clothing of the creature sleeping beside her came into view, its shield and empty scabbard left standing against the wall while a book lied on the floor at their side. It had been no dream; Canterlot really had been attacked, and she really had escaped the clutches of evil. The ambush at the archives flashed before her eyes, reminiscing more vividly than she would have liked the fall of the provisory captain of the Royal Guard, leading to their escape and this creature’s attempt to defend both from the tall demon.

She frowned. Despite herself, it was at this young being that she felt angry. ’Hero of Time’… Big hero, can’t even defend himself…

The unusual sound of lumber plummeting against rock brought her attention back to the entrance, where a mound of small sticks now was. Throwing caution to the billowing wind outside, Twilight rushed forth, instantly feeling the full force of the rain the moment she stepped away from the grotto.

She narrowed her eyes and struggled to identify anything that could be exposed to such a rainstorm. The heap had obviously been carried by somepony before being dropped there, and it was likely that such individual was related to their situation.

It was at the verge of desistance that she spotted a figure far, far away. Its silhouette was conveniently made clear by a thunder that punished the earth beyond the hill where it stood. A cape fluttered in the wind behind it, and it was evident that, just like she observed it, so did the obscure character observe her.

When a powerful gale washed upon them, it unfurled its wings and fluttered away, blending with the ominous clouds that populated the sky. Twilight, still wrapped in an attempt to piece everything together – but finding the jigsaw much too difficult to complete – leisurely turned and left, her body begging for the comfort of the campfire.

As she lied down again, the Hylian shifted in its sleep, but did not wake up. She was unsure if she should be relieved or not; on one hoof, it was much more experienced in combat than she was. On the other…

“I need to do something else,” she muttered in a brusque effort to stop her train of thought.

We can’t leave while this storm is out there… we wouldn’t last the first mile without coming down with a cold…

Incapable of getting up again, she summoned her magic to bring the book to her side. The Hylian had promised to take care of it when they left the archives, and take care of it it had. Here was the book, in the same pristine condition she had found it.

A page was marked, and she commenced her reading there, where Equestrian was luckily the dominant language of the manuscript. The author went on to describe something the Hylians once called ‘Loftwings’, a rough sketch of an oversized pelican, ridden by a creature, following suit. The report dragged on and on, meeting its climax with the description of somepony they called ‘Hylia’, who had given birth to their realm of ‘Hyrule’. The librarian mare found herself chuckling at the etymology.

But there was also something that was consistently spoken of throughout the document. It was a weapon, persistently labeled ‘Blade of Evil’s Bane’ – what a romantic name – that was mentioned over and over again as the sword that the hero of legend carried in its journey to purge evil from the land.

Her will to read any further was suddenly lost as the remembrance of the rendezvous with the demon – Ganondorf, it said? – surfaced again. That was not what had affected her so greatly. Rather, it had been a particular element of one of the guards’ report to White Castle that she was chastising herself for ever even forgetting.

The remaining Elements of Harmony are on their way to Canterlot!

Twilight found her head resting over the closed tome, absently staring at the flames.

“I hope you’re safe…” she murmured, closing her eyes. They had been heading to Canterlot. Into Canterlot. Where it wasn’t safe. Where monsters crept. Where their likely master was. “Please be safe…”

Exhaustion soon caught up to her for the second time that night.

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The dream always started in the same way…

When her eyes opened again, she would find herself lost in the immensity of a circular chamber, its ceiling so tall not even the clouds seemed to reach it. Large as it was, though, the room itself was rather plain: four lonesome banners adorned the walls north, south, east and west, the fine tissue that composed them illustrating the silhouettes of a pony, a dragon, a griffon and another, stranger being she could not recognize, while the ground was simply devoid of any decorations. She had learned from previous ‘visits’ to this place that, from a bird’s eye view, the colorful tiles beneath her hooves revealed the same design found on compasses: a rose.

Behind her towered an incredible stone door of immense complexity in design, the variety of symbols etched upon it simply too much for one pony to take in at once. Two icons stood out from the rest. They were a pair of insignias that she had seen her entire life and recognized very well. They were the cutie marks of Equestria’s sovereigns, rationally placed at the top of the twin entryway, high above all the others, representing the royal house of their territory.

But the thing about this place that she was always amazed by was not something she could see – it was something she could hear.

It was the melodious sound of an instrument that she could not even see (was that a cello she heard in the foreground?), the same pleasant tune she knew since she was a foal and often whistled to the animals she took care of as a lullaby, a harmonious ballad apparently conducted by the pony who stood at the exact center of the rose. The untrained eye would have considered the constant waving of its hoof to be a random gesture, perhaps even madness, seeing as there was nothing else in that enormous location but the two of them.

Fluttershy knew better than that.

This pony was conducting an unseen orchestra.

“Hum… excuse me…” she murmured, but the pegasus stallion in front of her paid no mind. “Ahem… would you, hum… could you tell me where I am?”

Once more, her silent squeaking did not produce any results.

She would stand there for what felt like an eternity, in the shade of the stallion’s ignorance, her location still unknown to her. The song would carry on; the maestro would continue to guide its ensemble and their instruments in the correct direction, and she would just sit there, her innate patience apparently everlasting. Occasionally, he would rise in the air, as though taken away by excitement.

He was perhaps a prototype of the ideal stallion all mares wished for, with the flowing tailed coat on his back and faded red mane and tail over a pure white coat, strong looking wings spread out in the midst of its vocation. She knew that though she shouldn’t, she still eyeballed him enthusiastically, and the time that had passed no longer mattered.

Then, when the composition began to fade to perfect quietness, the stallion would speak, not once locking eyes with her. Instead, he would turn his head north, and stay there for the duration of his speech.

“It is the will of harmony that our legacy must shine forth.”

The monstrous roar of a train cabin scraping its way down a rocky hill muffled her shriek of panic and prompted her to violently turn her head to the left, as if to avoid witnessing a gruesome view she could not even perceive. Forelegs over a chest that rose and lowered in quick succession, she inched back from the only light source of the tight spot she had been confined to. A shadow obscured the gap soon after, and the pegasus mare held her breath.

She could barely make out what exactly that thing that dutifully patrolled the smoking rubble was. Its features whizzed by her one very thin line at a time, the bone-chilling clatter it produced with its every movement reverberating in her lowered ears.

Her heart yelled at her that she shouldn’t open the makeshift doors that secluded her from these beings, but her brain so demanded it; even if they were out there looking for her, they would never succeed if she remained hidden.

With a trembling hoof she reached for the couple of metallic surfaces. She drew her head closer to the fissure between the two surfaces to discreetly peer at her surroundings. She was still in the caves beneath Canterlot, a solid black haze still surrounded the wreckage that was once a train, and these creatures still rummaged the debris.

I-I… I can’t do it… she thought, slowly pulling away from the metal plates. T-They’ll catch me for sure…

A yelp escaped her throat when a loud, cracking noise reached her from all around. Mouth kept shut tightly by a hoof, she noticed just how much the air had stilled, and how not even the slightest hum was heard. Her body tensed and her breathing stalled. Uncertainty clung to her mind like a heavy weight in the brief moments where not a single shadow crossed her path.

A-Are… are they gone?

Her question did not remain unanswered as a simple movement in her prison was enough to summon the howls of the creatures outside, the two metal plates protecting her suddenly being ripped apart to reveal the disfigured, skeletal visages of her invaders. Their long, cadaverous arms reached out for her all at once in a cannibalistic endeavor for the pony. She froze as she stared into the glowing orbs that were once their eyes, their remainders flickering like the dying blaze of a candle. She felt herself shrinking further and further against the seat mattress that had kept her comfort. The situation reminded her too much of a coffin to not yell her lungs out:

“H-HELP! S-SOMEPONY! P-PLEASE!”

It had been in vain, she would realize when a fang latched onto the coat of her foreleg and attempted to pull the rest of the member with it, succeeding only in removing a patch of fur that it immediately spat away to resume its assault. She knew she could not reason with them, for they were anything but animals – she could not stare into their eyes and almost telepathically guess what cruel twist of fate had provoked them into this aggressive behavior. The inevitability of the situation simply served as an incentive to further crying. When her voice grew tired, she simply rested her head back, and fell into a quiet prayer.

And as if those had been answered, one of the demoniacal beings’ head flew off, causing its body to crumble to a pile of bones. An entire arm casually slid into her hideout, and she attempted to kick it away with her hind legs. Soon after, the beasts began to fall one by one as a flurry of pebbles flew in front of her.

The creatures were quick to ignore the canary colored pegasus and instinctively turn to their new enemies. The creaking of their bones at their every step was becoming as unbearable as a claw scratching a chalkboard, so much that Fluttershy covered her ears and ducked in her characteristic manner. The fright that she had managed to keep inside during the incursion was only now finding its way out of her system. She could feel the ground tremble with the on-going fight. Nevertheless, her hooves never left her ears, the idea of confronting the beasts being repulsive enough on its own.

The moment something touched her leg was the moment she unfurled her wings and slammed against the mattress as hard as she could. No matter how much she tried, she would not go through the object, and the poking continued until her legs were forced off her ears.

“…please don’t hurt me please don’t hurt me please don’t hurt me please--”

“Thank heavens, she’s alright…” the pony holding her spoke. Fluttershy instantly curled her forelegs against the pony, not even granting it the chance to sigh. She didn’t need to open her eyes, for the voice she’d heard was proof enough. “It is safe now, dear… they’re all gone…”

“T-They were s-so many, Rarity…” she sobbed, searching the unicorn mare’s eyes. Rarity’s worried frown soon melted into a warm smile. She embraced the pegasus as well, consenting to this ephemeral moment of relief. “W-Where are the others?”

“Waiting for us,” she whispered. “Rainbow and I were looking for you, so she’s probably gone off to find Applejack as well.”

Feeling her friend had calmed down, Rarity slowly pulled away, carefully lifting her chin so that they could look into each other’s eyes.

“Listen, dear; there are more of these foul creatures in here. Celestia knows what they’ve done to my mane… But I need you to stay strong and focused.”

Fluttershy’s attention, however, was elsewhere. She was nervously observing the cave, her mind beginning to wander back to before any of this happened. Taking note of her spiritual absence, Rarity sighed once more.

“What h-happened?” the pegasus finally spoke, a trail of tears still fresh on either side of her muzzle. “All I remember is somepony shouting a-and…”

“I don’t know…” Rarity replied. Her expression grew apprehensive. She remembered it very clearly. Looking out the window and spotting something running at the vehicle’s side… it had the appearance of a beast she was sure she would only see (or rather, imagine!) in the most horrifying tales of Nightmare Night…

To think that she would be forced to fight these beasts was something she had never dreamed of.

Then again… When did we ever have it easy as Elements of Harmony?

“R-Rarity…” Fluttershy sniffed. The unicorn hummed in reply. “C-Can we just… wait here? For them?”

She didn’t know what was going through her head when she accepted the proposal.

For her sake, was the only justification she found.

Interlude to War

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"Applejack?"

Pinkie.

The cowpony just sighed, unwilling to face the pink pony that was sure to be behind her. She longed to return to the diligent watch she'd kept on the sea since their arrival. Everyone had gone separate ways; she'd only helped carry Link to the medical quarters before leaving.

She had found solace across the fort, up at the top of a stone watchtower, past the point where the palisades at the front of the settlement merged with its ancient marble walls. Beyond that point was an endless drop, and further beyond was the western sea, spreading out for as far as the maritime fog allowed her to see. The clouds that obscured the sky, combined with Nightmare Moon's curse of eternal night, only served to further accentuate the darkness that shrouded the ocean.

Not all was hopeless, however. Just as there were bits of the night sky peeking through the clouds, so was there hope in their quest. The Apples were like that. They were strong, never gave up. It was just their way to live. Her grandmother had survived the perils of journeying away to seek some other place to call home, and had succeeded. Ponyville was there to prove. Her parents, too, despite everything, had accomplished their goals. For that, there was Applejack, her big brother, and her little sister...

"Applebloom..."

Pinkie found here an opportunity to speak. "Applejack, it's really cold here... you might get sick..."

"Ah'm fine," she promptly replied. Pinkie got the underlying dismissal in her words, but stood her ground. Not hearing the hoof steps she desired, Applejack craned her head around. She only faced the other earth pony for as long as it took to deliver the message. "Y'can go inside. Ah'll be right there."

"You don't seem alright..." Her voice sounded uncharacteristically sad, the way a very quiet, very uncertain whisper would feel. It caused Applejack to double her efforts in controlling herself. Celestia knew how fragile the party pony's feelings were. After all they had been through, losing her temper would do nothing more than open a freshly healed wound.

"Well, Ah am." The lie wouldn't have been more obvious if she tried. "Ah was jus'... thinkin', is all."

Unbeknown to her, a tiny smile appeared on Pinkie's face. The usually cheerful pony stepped closer, until they were side-by-side, facing the shifting sea of clouds. She tentatively raised hoof and placed it on the cowpony's shoulder, hoping she would accept the small gesture.

Applejack's shoulders did become rigid as soon as the hoof touched them, but she didn't dare object against her friend. With a profuse sigh, her shoulders slumped down, and the mare hung her head low.

But Pinkie wasn't completely satisfied just yet. This had only been a small victory. To win the war, she would need to press forward. She'd have to pick at the heart of the problem.

"You're worried about Applebloom, aren't you?" In hindsight, the question had perhaps been redundant, or obvious, at least. Pinkie pondered briefly on going back in her words, apologizing and praying she hadn't lost the battle. All of these concerns vanished when Applejack's head bobbed up and down in a disheartened motion.

"She was jus' a lil' filly, Pinkie... an'... an' they still took'er away..."

"Hey, now! You're talking like she's, well, gone! Forever!"

The chipper tone Pinkie had adopted hadn't produced the desired effects, however. The earth pony was glad that Applejack's eyes were barely visible in the dark, because they were most likely staring daggers at her.

"Ya been asleep lately, Pinkie Pie?! Did them darn Stalponies not catch yer eye?!" She had raised her voice, but Pinkie had brought it upon her. She deserved to know some truths.

"I-I know, but--"

"Once one's those things gets ya, yer as good as dead!"

"But Applejack--"

"'But' what? Yer gonna tell me everythin's fine 'n dandy? That she's still alive?" The cowpony prodded at Pinkie's chest with a hoof. "Well guess what! It's too late! We had one chance, Pinkie, one chance! 'N we wasted it so that Twilight could have her way! 'Cause of her, Ah lost mah only brother and sister!

"If it were up t'me, Ah'd rather if Twilight was--"

"Don't. Say it," Pinkie cut in, her voice sharp like a needle. She had silenced the cowpony with the same hoof she'd offered. She didn't wait for any consent before covering her mouth this time. "Don't say something you'll regret later. Don't do something you'll regret later."

Applejack tried to talk, but the hoof remained in place. She'd regarded Pinkie's way of acting so far as nothing more than something she'd expect of Pinkie: fluctuating mood, always trying to cheer her friends up, appearing at the most inappropriate times. The list could go on.

She only realized how serious her friend really was when their eyes met. Pinkie was actually frowning at her, eyes like polished sapphires under what little moonlight shone through the clouds.

"She's out there. Applebloom is somewhere in Equestria. She's alive, and she has her own duty to fulfill." This was more than just a hollow promise to make her feel better. She had never heard Pinkie speak more earnestly, as though she actually believed in her words, or better yet, knew they were true. Feeling that her words had hit home, Pinkie eased her hoof down to the ground.

"Ya... ya can't know..."

Pinkie's expression softened to a smile. She replied by reaching into her own tail, from which she produced a small, round object. She brought it closer to the light, so that Applejack could see it.

The other mare narrowed her eyes. "A stone?" she deadpanned.

Pinkie giggled like she'd just been told a joke. "No, silly. A Gossip Stone! I call her Miss I!"

"Gossip Stone?" Applejack pondered on whether or not Pinkie had lost whatever inch of sanity she still had. "What does--"

"Gee, Applejack, I was getting to that! Don't be so impatient!" She didn't sound irritated. Just... cheerful. Applejack could learn to appreciate it. "My mother gave it to me before I left the farm, so that I could always remember her, and dad, and Inkie, and Blinkie, and-- Oh, right, the stone." She brought the object closer to Applejack's face. "This is a special stone! It talks!"

"It... talks?" the cowpony repeated. Pinkie just nodded excitedly. The possibility that the pony had finally snapped suddenly became plausible again.

Applejack had to admit that she had taken very good care of the round pebble. The millions of specks of dust that covered its surface granted it a silvery glitter, exposing only the crude engraving of an eye. Applejack could barely see it, still it bore into her mind.

‘They say that there is a pony in Equestria who travels through time,' it said. She had to touch the stone. It was calling for her, wishing to share its knowledge with her. All at once, her conscience was invaded by the stone's featureless voice.

‘They say that the male to female ratio in Equestria has an incalculable discrepancy,' it said.

"Applejack?"

'They say that Loyalty... corrupted.'

'They say that once she... leave... Temple of Time.'

"Snap out of it!"

She couldn't. She had to know everything the stone had to say. It was an oracle. She could know what happened to her sister. She could discover where those relics were, or even a way to... to get her parents back. She could use it.

'They... Laughter is the...'

"APPLEJACK!!"

She would know the future, thus being able to control it.

'...Tartarus forever...'

When the cowpony blinked, it felt like waking from a dream. Her heart was racing, her breath, ragged. Her hoof felt sore, but she quickly discovered the reason for that. Pinkie had struck it. She had pulled the stone away from Applejack's grasp. The mare could figure out what had happened.

"It... talks," she finally gasped. The desire to take the stone in her hooves was still there, trying to dominate her to do its bidding. Applejack had to still her leg with another one lest it escape her control.

"You should never touch a Gossip Stone. Ever," Pinkie scolded, her tone as dark as the sea. She faced the stone and caressed it with her other hoof, clearing some of the brilliant dots. "Once you do... you can never let go. You stay with it forever."

"Pinkie Pie, what... what is that thing?"

"Gossip Stones are unique. I have looked for another one, high and low, near and far, and never found one. Mother always told me that it was a family treasure, and that the Pie family has always been devoted to stones and rocks because of it.

"But it always helped me. It tells me what will happen, but not how or when. They're just... hints. Like a game." A smile suddenly returned to her face. "And I love games!"

Leaving Applejack to figure out her meaning, she placed the stone back in the fluff of her tail and placed both forehooves on Applejack's shoulders. The cowpony, startled by the sudden display of affection, stared wide-eyed at her friend. She was still smiling, still giggling, as though nothing had happened. "That's why I know Applebloom's safe! She has a big, big task ahead of her, but she's an Apple! Just like you and Big Mac!"

"But if ya had this fer so long... why didn't ya say anything? M-Maybe Twilight can help ya with getting that stone away!"

Pinkie shook her head, and for the briefest moment, she frowned again. "I'm sorry. But that's not how it works. Besides, Twilight... she has a bigger role, too, like you. All of you." The pony pulled Applejack closer, wrapping her in a hug. Behind her back, the cowpony's face contorted with doubt. "Don't worry, though. I'll always be there to help you out."

"What do you mean with--"

"Captain Armor!" the call of a breathless stallion echoed across the fort. The two ponies turned to face the fort, and found it to be unusually bustling with life. Torches had been lit over the palisades, granting at least some field of view for the warriors. There was a short pause, but he continued, "The Stalponies are... on the move, sir. Something... something coaxed them out of the city! Hundreds of them, on their way!"

They heard Shining Armor say something, but couldn't make out the actual words. With their embrace broken and the moment spoiled, the mares just faced each other, a pregnant silence in the air as Applejack waited for enlightenment. She lost all hope of getting that when Pinkie started walking away.

"Come on, Applejack! We'll be late for the party!"

"Party? Pinkie, ya still haven't told me what ya mean!"

Pinkie offered an amused chuckle instead. "I thought you knew me better, Applejack!"

The orange mare frowned in mild annoyance. "'N what's that s'pposed t'mean?"

"Well, I'm Pinkie Pie!" The smile splashed across her face grew wider. "I don't need explaining!"

Author's Note

OH GOD PLEASE DON'T KILL ME

In all seriousness, though; the next chapter is giving me a lot of headaches. Nothing I write seems to be appropriate enough, and I've been owing an update for a very, veeeery long time. So have an interlude filled with all sorts of food for thought. You have all the pieces now; just put them together.

There's also the fact that I felt that some characters had very big mood shifts in the next chapter; I needed to fix that. Namely Applejack and Pinkie, the latter of whom has yet to receive more attention. I needed to explain why they were acting the way they were without resorting to making it implicit.

So yeah. I know it's very, very short, but I promise it's juicy enough to keep you entertained for a while.

Oh, and I might also update Chapter 2 and I believe Chapter 3 very soon. I'm nearly done fixing up the grammar and all the mistakes I left behind, so keep an eye out for that too. No email updates this time, I promise. |D

~~Also shipping~~

P.S.: Rarity never touched it.