Dark Days

The room was deathly silent. Nopony could believe what was just said, even Rumble was surprised that he admitted to it. The looks of shock on his Princesses face was devastating to him, and he did not want to look behind him and see Twilight and Spike’s reactions. Luna down the rest of her drink in a single gulp in a desperate attempt to stall for time while she thought of how to respond to this Stallion’s confession.

Luna had kept in touch of each of the original Cutie Mark Crusaders, knowing that they’d go to high places with or without guidance. That being said, Luna was more than happy to help them reach their full potential. Her contact with Apple Bloom was how she knew Rumble, though they had only ever meet in the Dreamscape. Luna liked to think she was quick to read Ponies, but she never would have thought that anypony like Rumble would ever knowingly cause all of the damage that the crashing of the Angel Wing caused.

“Rumble,” Twilight said in a soft voice, “You told Spike and me that you thought you knew what happened, why do you think that it’s your fault.”

“Because it is,” Rumble replied, not being able to face a Pony he respected and considered friend.

Rumble’s composure was breaking as tears leaked from his eyes, “I don’t know if R&D messed up or if something was wrong with the engines, but the Angel Wing was consuming fuel twice as quickly as it should have.”

Celestia used her magic to levitate a tissue box over to the young Stallion as he sobbed, “I-I knew how bad it would look for Equestria if we had to make an emergency landing. So, I gave the order to get fuel from storage and refuel midflight. These ships were only meant to refuel at dock, and the fuel storage was put on the far side of the ship away from the engines to prevent a catastrophe if a fire broke out or something.”

Rumble coughed and wiped tears out of his eyes, “The Deck Stabilizers died before the actual engines did, so it would have been impossible to keep balance and carry even a single fuel container. I couldn’t tell you if the crewpony lost his or her balance or banged the tank on something, but it wouldn’t be as secured as it should it have been if it was being moved mid-flight. I think the tank exploded and damaged one of the engines, the remaining fuel in the engine would have blown up with it.”

Rumble squeezed a few last tears out of his eyes before giving the Diarchs a determined, but fearful look, “It was my orders that caused the Angel Wing to crash, my orders that got so many Ponies hurt, my-my orders that… That...”

Rumble was interrupted by his own crying, unable to hold back the tears anymore. Rumble’s explanation made a disturbing amount of since. These passenger carriers were made for luxury cruises, not military missions. They would be less sturdy or armored than even scouting ships, not to mention that the fuel had Alchemical Agents in it, making it more volatile if proper care was not taken. Rumble could have kept this to himself and the Ponies under probably wouldn’t even think about it like this. And yet, here Rumble was, trying to take responsibility for something horrible he thought was his fault.

Twilight and Spike got on either side of the broken Stallion and hugged him. Rumble flinched for a moment, thinking it was an attack of some kind, but gladly welcomed the friendly embrace. Celestia and Luna looked at each other for moment and nodded at each other. Though Luna was gone a long time, she and Celestia had been Alicorns for centuries before Nightmare Moon. Their bond further strengthened by helping each other and Equestria through the disasters and monsters that attacked in the years following her return. The Diarchs’ ancient bound and magic allowed them to understand each the feelings behind each other’s immediate thoughts, almost like telepathy. And they both had just passed judgement on Rumble.

“Rumble, look at us,” Celestia ordered softly.

Rumble was able to look at the Princesses of Night and Day in the eye, but could not stop crying or keep the look of fear off of his face.

“You have confessed to a terrible crime,” Stated Luna, “But we do not find you guilty.”

Rumble had a complete look of shock on his face. So stunned was he that he could not talk, though his eyes conveyed his confusion.

Celestia took over again, “You were faced with a situation you could not have anticipated, gave orders despite whatever panic you felt, come here when and took responsibility when you did not have to. But most importantly: you did everything you could to save the lives of everypony aboard the Angel Wing.”

Luna nodded in agreement, “This was a tragedy, not a malicious attack on Equestria. We cannot even find you guilty of incompetence, we most certainly do not see as responsible for this disaster.”

“But if it wasn’t for my orders-”

Celestia interrupted Rumble, “The Angel Wing would still have crash landed in Northern Equestria.”

Rumble looked down at his hooves, not convinced this wasn’t his fault, “There would have been less damage and less death if I hadn’t done something so stupid.”

“My sister wouldn’t have been driven mad and banished to her own Moon if I hadn’t been too busy soaking up all of the praise I was getting, to see that she was being ignored,” Stated Celestia, “I alone took all of the credit for the things we did together and not even I, her own sister, showed her enough love back then.”

Celestia used one of her hooves to make Rumble look her in the eye, “I coined the phrase ‘Hindsight is Twenty-Twenty,’ because I realized how horrible the What-If game is to play. The only person who blames you here is yourself, anypony reasonable will not blame you for this.”

Luna sent for more refreshments as the small group tried to make Rumble feel better. Even Cpt. High Sky felt for the other Pegasus. Celestia knows how many things he blamed himself for. After a half hour of helping Rumble regain his composure, a Royal Guard Pony entered the room and whispered something in the Captain’s ear.

“Pardon your Highnesses, but there is a Mare here demanding to see a Pony of our guest’s description,” The Captain announced.

“Oh no,” Rumble said, “Does she have a yellow coat, and a red mane tied up in a ponytail with a pink ribbon by her ear?”

“That’s the one,” Confirmed High Sky, “Is she your marefriend?

“Fiancé,” Rumble corrected, “What am I supposed to tell her?”

“May I suggest something?” Asked Twilight, “For now, tell her nothing. But you need to tell her how you feel about this at some point, and you should probably tell her soon.”

“How can I face her after this?” Rumble asked with despair written on his face.

“You just had the Heralds of Night and Day tell you that you have done nothing wrong, and I’ve known Apple Bloom long enough to know that she really loves you,” Affirmed Twilight, “She won’t think it’s your fault.” Rumble nodded nervously and left the room with the guard.

“You did well consoling him Twilight,” Celestia stated, “But are you sure it was wise to tell him his Fiancé will be so understanding?”

“This is the Apple Bloom that started the Cutie Mark Crusaders,” Explained Twilight.

A look of understanding came to the Sun Princess’s face. Ever since she gifted the Apple family the land to start their first orchard, the whole family had started sending her letters of appreciation and thanks every Apple Family Reunion. There were only so many names relating to apples one could use, and at least a dozen Apple Blooms in particular. But she knew well the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

Luna gave a chuckle, “They are involved with so many property damage related accidents, that I almost sent myself back to the Moon when they opened their Canterlot chapter last year.”

Twilight remembered something important after a shared laugh, “There are some things we need to talk about.”

Celestia gave an inquisitive look, “Like what?”

“The guards outside the Throne Room said you had sent warrants of arrest,” Twilight clarified, “I want the Ponies who were arrested to be pardoned.”

“I will see to that,” Said Luna.

“Oooh,” Twilight said as she adopted a look of realization.

Spike caught it, but was still confused, “Can somepony explain?”

Luna nodded, “There are still Ponies who either don’t realize how much authority I actually have or don’t respect it. We have tried simply having me handle various political and governmental issues, but a lot of Ponies assume that Celestia is simply speaking through me when she can’t be there herself. But having me overturn one of her decisions should quell the notion that I am anything but Tia’s equal.”

“That reminds me,” Said Luna. She then proceeded to hit Celestia in the back of the head with her wing, “Stop telling people that Nightmare Moon was your fault. I thought we had agreed that we shared guilt over that.”

High Sky had to reign in the instinct to defend his Princess. Celestia and Luna were sisters, it was natural that they would argue or playfully hit each other in private. However, logic paled in the face of Basic and years of looking out for anything that dared not face Celestia directly.

“Sorry. It’s a force of habit from moping over you for the last millennia or so,” Admitted Celestia.

“There’s something else,” Twilight stated, “It’s about one of the survivors.”

That got the attention of both Diarchs and the Captain of the Royal Guard, “What’s wrong?” Asked Celestia.

“He’s a Foal, no older than ten,” Explained Twilight, “And both of his parents died in the crash.”

Both Diarchs gasped, “All of the passengers aboard the Angel Wing were residents Canterlot,” Pointed out High Sky, “It shouldn’t be too difficult to find out if he has family elsewhere.”

“I looked into it before the three of us came here,” Said Twilight, “Both Light Ray and Side Step were only children and the Colt’s only living grandparent resides in the Canterlot Retirement District. She has severe Alzheimer’s Disease.”

Luna and Celestia looked at each with deep concern, “That is troubling,” Said Luna.

“And there are no other relatives?” Asked High Sky.

“Not within Canterlot,” Replied the Princess of Friendship, “And the only Pony who could tell us about any outside of Canterlot has trouble remembering her own name.”

“What is the Colt’s name?” Asked Celestia.

“Sun Strider,” Twilight answered.

Luna gave her sister a discreet look as Twilight went on to describe Sun Strider’s appearance and answer the other questions Celestia had about him. This was undoubtably a horrible thing that has happened, especially to somepony so young, but Celestia’s interest was unusual. They both gave genuine sympathy in the few instances when something like this did happen, but Celestia had never launched an interrogation about the specifics of one of the victims like this.

What are you planning Tia?

Celestia next question concerned Luna for reasons she did not know, “Where is Sun Strider now?”

Even Twilight seemed to think that this was a strange question, “He should be in one of the camps surrounding the wreckage.”

Celestia nodded her head, “Have preparations been made to return the passengers to Canterlot?”

Twilight shook her head, “Originally, I was thinking we could just use SARS-G and Royal Guard Airships. But with how low capacity their Airships all have, it would take several hours even if we requisitioned all of them. And then I realized that nopony would want to set hoof on an Airship so soon after crash landing.”

“And yet,” Luna started, “If these maps are accurate, the closest railroad is over fifteen miles away,” Luna turned her head to the Captain of the Royal Guard, “Do we have enough chariots to make using them practical?”

Even while debating how best to get the survivors of the Angel Wing back home, Celestia could not stop thinking about the only Foal to be orphaned by the crash. There has to be something I can do for him, but what?

It was decided that the quickest way to get all of the passengers back to their home would be for the three Princesses to mass teleport whole families at a time. While each one of the Alicorn Princesses could, in theory, teleport dozens of Ponies with them at once, it was incredibly dangerous. Each additional person was another variable that needed to be accounted for to prevent Ponies being fused together in gruesome ways. This method still took a few hours to get everypony back home, especially after Twilight found she had exhausted her mana reserves before even half of the passengers were returned, but everypony was brought back to Canterlot without incident.

Fortunately, the panic of not knowing what the explosion earlier in the day was set in motion some of Canterlot’s emergency procedures. With the exception of select few media Ponies and city/government officials, city ordinance demanded that the citizenry hunker down in their homes until the government declared it safe to be outside. This meant that there was ample space to warp the passengers of the ruined Airship without needing to go through the hassle of closing roads and disrupting businesses.

The Royal Guard and officers of the Canterlot Police Department escorted Ponies to their houses, apartments, or anywhere else the survivors called home. A great deal of Ponies were being escorted to the Canterlot Palace, as having the option to live within its gilded halls was a benefit to working in the Royal Guard or the Palace Staff. In addition to the Ponies that lived and worked within the Canterlot Palace, Foals and elder Ponies who didn’t know how to get home from where they were teleported to and didn’t know their addresses were also being brought to the palace where their families and caretakers could find them. It was within this large group of Ponies that Sun Strider found himself, for reasons unknown.

The smaller Foals and Ponies with physical disabilities were either being carried by older members of their families or members of the Royal Guard and Canterlot Police. The brown Colt had his forelegs wrapped around the neck of the kind Royal Guard Pony who had offered to carry him.

Great Wall was more than happy to volunteer to help the survivors in any way he could, especially the Foals. It wasn’t fair for any creature as young as the Colt riding on his back to go through something so horrible. He winced as the more selfish part of him reminded him that getting to do something other than stand around all day might have been the best part of this. While that was nice, he would have done anything he was able for them, regardless of any ulterior motives his subconscious leaped at the chance to realize.

Great Wall had done his best to be friendly to the traumatized Colt, but he had yet to say a word to him. Great Wall couldn’t help but feel for the poor Colt. He was obviously still scared from the crash, but to be separated from his parents at same time? It was no wonder the Colt was holding onto his neck for dear life and shaking like a leaf in the wind.

Great Wall hoped that the powdered chalk rubbed into his coat wouldn’t rub off on the Colt’s own coat, by far everypony’s least favorite part of the Royal Guard uniform. But the smeared chalk would show clearly on the Colt’s dark brown coat, and he would have to wait for his coat to shed or to have it cut if the chalk set. While Great Wall understood the importance of uniform, he thought the use of magical chalk dust making all Royal Guard Ponies look like clones of each other was going a bit far. He most certainly didn’t like how it felt when it was coated on his horn. Some of his fellows in the Guard didn’t like how one of the enchantments in the helmets changed their eye color to baby-blue, but Great Wall personally thought it well with the rest of the uniform.

The naturally Autumn red Unicorn had relayed all of this to the Colt on his back in the hopes of getting him to talk, or at least to get his mind off of the Angel Wing. A lot of young Ponies did look up to the Royal Guard, but Great Wall suspected that his slapdash plan didn’t work on the Colt.

Sun Strider still hadn’t said anything to Great Wall by the time they had entered the palace. While the Foals and elder Ponies separated from their families counted for less than half of the survivors, there still was not enough room in the foyer alone to house all of them for even a short time. Foals and elders alike were being directed to different parts of the ground floor by Royal Guard Ponies. Great Wall was about to go into a hallway when a very familiar voice called for him.

“Guardspony with the brown Foal on his back!” Exclaimed the voice of the Sun Princess.

Great Wall turned around with a clear expression of surprise on his face. While protocol demanded that he salute his Princess, Great Wall could not. A proper salute required him to sit on his haunches and Great Wall wasn’t sure if the Colt on his back could hold on to him with how he was shaking should he suddenly find himself on a slope. The Royal Guard knew for certain that he wouldn’t be able to keep his balance if he saluted while standing, gilded armor and Foals being heavier than one would think.

Celestia approached the Royal Guard and the Colt. “Are you Sun Strider?” The Colt certainly matched the description Twilight had given her.

“Uh-huh,” The Colt replied, his eyes filled with wonder at meeting the Solar Sovereigness for the first time.

“Take him to one of the break rooms on the second floor,” Celestia ordered. She offered the Colt a soft smile before she turned and left to deal with the madness festering in the palace.

Great Wall turned to the nearest staircase and began walking again. While he was the picture of calm on the outside, he was troubled by his Princess’s orders. These survivors were supposed to be massed in the same place so it would be easier to track them down when their families came for them. Great Wall also suspected that Princess Celestia wanted them in the same place so she could apologize to everypony affect by the Angel Wing’s crash landing personally. Great Wall doubted the Colt on his back had anything to do with the crash, but then why keep him separate from the rest of the survivors?