Rising Fire

Chapters

Chapter 1 - Twilight
Chapter 2 - Rarity
Chapter 3 - Starlight
Chapter 4 - Starlight
Chapter 5 - Rainbow
Chapter 6 - Storm
Chapter 7 - Twilight
Rising Fire 8 - Rising
Epilogue
Prologue

Chapter 1 - Twilight

There were times when I really hated court day.

At first it had been a pretty informal thing. Ponies have a problem or are arguing about something? Well, Princess Twilight Sparkle would be happy to mediate and help find a solution! Like a lot of little casual things I’d started doing just to be nice, once word had gotten out I’d wound up needing to hold court more often and take more cases.

Since becoming princess, I’d developed a certain—‘respect’ probably wasn’t the right word for it, maybe ‘insight’—for what I had learned from dealing with multiple cases where farmers sued one another for subjectively important reasons. Inevitably, the debates wound up boiling down to where property lines were, since many of the deeds were as old as Ponyville itself. While digging through the archives to find the old paperwork was fun, dealing with the inevitable fallout when one or both ponies found out the property line wasn’t what they wanted was trouble I could’ve done without. Which lead to the matter currently occupying far too much of my time.

“It's mah pig!” declared Corn Cob. “Ah'm the one who bought and paid for it!”

Sweet Turnip stomped a hoof. “Well it's been on mah land, eatin’ mah feed and shelterin' in mah barn!”

The Ponyville farmers glared at one another from their respective stands while I watched from atop my throne. I suppressed a sigh. “How long as the pig been on your land, Sweet Turnip?”

“Over a year now.”

Corn Cob slammed his hoof on the railing. “You're a damn liar!”

Sweet Turnip shot him a glare of pure spite. “No, you is!”

“You just want to steal mah prize truffle pig, you thief!”

“Ah did no such thing you!” Sweet Turnip shot back. “You’s as crooked as a dog’s hind legs!”

“‘You are’,” I muttered under my breath. I try not to be too pedantic about grammar, but there’s a right way and a wrong way to speak Equish. There are entire books of rules about it.

Having heard more than enough of their arguing, I started smacking the gavel until both of them stopped yelling at each other. “I’m going to have to insist that you two stop interrupting and insulting one another.” I smiled in a way that flashed more teeth than was technically necessary. “I'd hate to have to hold anypony in contempt of court and make a decision based on anything other than the facts of the case.”

Rather than take a hint that they were at serious risk of experiencing royal displeasure, Corn Cob jabbed a hoof in his opposite’s direction. “Well Ah can't just sit here listenin' while he's lyin' and tellin' tales!”

“Ah ain't lying! That pig’s been on mah farm for over a year!”

I was sorely tempted to have Captain Storm Kicker and the rest of my guard escort the both of them out of the palace. Being hauled out by armed guards would send a very clear message that I was not going to put up with them hurling insults at one another all day. Of course, then I’d have to put up with them some other day. Finding a solution now would be a lot better. That’s when a rather clever idea for how to solve the current argument popped into my head. “Would it be possible for us to ask the pig where it has been for the last year?”

Corn Cob face stared up at me incredulously. “Pigs can't talk.”

I grinned. “No, but I know a very good animal handler who can talk to animals, including pigs.”

Sweet Turnip’s eyes sparkled. “Right, Fluttershy! She'll back me up!”

Fluttershy has a pretty good reputation with the farmers in Ponyville, considering she often helped them with one animal problem or another. As long as I could get them to go along with me getting Fluttershy’s help with this case then I might be able to shut this down quickly and without the headache of listening to them throw barbs at one another.

“So if you are both okay with adjourning for now, I can get Fluttershy to ask the pig,” I said. “Once I have her report, I'll give each of you my judgement.”

Sweet Turnip nodded. “Sounds fair to me.”

Corn Cob shrugged. “If a pig can even keep track of time.”

“If need be, we'll reconvene if Fluttershy's report to the court isn't decisive.” I was confident Fluttershy would, at the very least, give me an honest report of what the pig knew. There was a chance the pig wouldn’t know anything helpful, but I was more than willing to give this a shot. Especially if it could spare me from more of their pointless back and forth debating that had long since devolved into argumentum ad equinum. “In the meantime, court is adjourned.”

I put my gavel to good use to end the session. The farmers gave each other one more dirty look before leaving the stands. I checked the clock and grimaced when I saw just how much of my time the case had taken up. It was already nearly noon. I couldn’t decide which was worse: that they’d consumed three hours of my time, or that it felt like it had been twice that long. In either case, I wasn’t in the mood to risk the next set of petitioners being more of the same. I addressed the rest of the ponies gathered in my court. “Considering the time, we’ll be taking a one hour recess.” I banged the gavel again to make it official.

I stood and stretched before leaving the courtroom. Spike and Storm flanking me as we headed towards the dining room. Once we were out of the public eye, I let out a sigh of relief and my shoulders slumped. “I really hope Fluttershy can help me figure out where that pig should go.”

Storm nodded. “Yes, that would make resolving the matter much simpler.”

I shook my head. “I never knew ponies could get so worked up about something like a single pig.”

“You know, before you started having open court, I never knew farmers argued about pigs so much,” Spike commented. “This is your ... what? Seventh case this month involving pigs?”

I groaned and headed for the dining room, already looking forward to the moment when I could flop back into one of my comfortable chairs. “I don't want to think about it. Though I’m pretty sure Fluttershy can help. I'll ask her during lunch, since we were going to be meeting here in a bit anyways—and at this rate, I'm sure I can offer her some bits as a consulting fee for her time.”

“At least it is not another divorce case,” Storm observed.

I shivered in revulsion. “You just had to remind me that I'm going to be dealing with a couple of those after lunch.”

Spike grimaced. Considering he was the one taking all the notes for my cases, he knew all too well exactly what we were in for. “I think the divorces are even worse than the times we’ve had to deal with actual criminals.”

“Yes.” The corner of Storm’s mouth twitched. “The toaster couple is back again.”

“Seriously?!” I threw my hooves up in exasperation. “I just don't understand that case! Follow me here: the husband is willing to give up the house, the cart, half his income, half of his retirement—half of everything, and all he wants are his clothes and the toaster. But the wife refuses to give up the toaster, when the husband promises to fight for everything if she won’t give him what he wants. Now they’re threatening to tie up the courts fighting one another for months or even years over that stupid toaster, paying who-knows-how-many bits in lawyer fees that they could instead use to buy an entirely new toaster. It's insane, absolutely insane.”

Spike sighed and shook his head. “No wonder the local judge begged you to take this case.”

“Why are they still fighting over the toaster?” Storm asked.

We entered the dining room and I sat down at the table with a sigh. “I don't know. When they came to court about all they did was scream at one another about the stupid toaster and about what he or she did at one time or another and how awful the other one is.” My eyes narrowed.

“Either way, I'm putting an end to it. I already have enough to deal with, I'm not having an argument over a toaster tie up my court.”

Spike grinned as he started setting the plates and eating utensils. “So you gonna cut the toaster in half to teach them a lesson?”

“Lengthwise or breadthwise?” I might have imagined it, but I swore I saw a brief, mischievous smirk on Storm’s lips.

I rubbed my chin as I considered the practical applications of this decision. “Lengthwise would still technically allow the toaster to function with some jerryrigging.”

Storm considered this problem with all due seriousness it deserved. “Breadthwise then.”

I frowned, realizing I was seriously considering doing something that could be construed as kinda mean. “Would it make me petty to do that?”

Spike shook his head as he put out some hotpads. “Some people deserve it, Twilight. They’re wasting everypony’s time, including a princess’s, because they can’t compromise over a toaster. Really, I’d say you’re just making a point about not bringing frivolous cases to court by chopping their toaster in half.”

Storm nodded in agreement. “Yes.”

I considered the idea, and it didn’t seem like the worst way to deal with the case. “They do say the mark of a good compromise is that nopony’s happy. Might as well give the both of them a generous helping of compromise to chew on.”

“At this point, they deserve it just to make up for all the needless trouble they've caused.” Storm brought out a wing and showed off wingblade. “If you wish, I will personally carry out the sentence on the toaster.”

“Thanks Storm.” I couldn’t help but grin. “I do get some leeway with my royal prerogative.”

A small smile showed itself on Storm’s lips. “Indeed you do. That is why they often send the difficult cases to you.”

One of the advantages of being a princess was that I could cut through a lot of red tape to quickly bring cases to a close that might otherwise clog up the court system for an undue period of time. Naturally, judges were expected to follow the law fairly strictly for the cases that came to them. Princesses technically didn’t have to follow the laws since we were the ones who made them, though it was still generally prudent to stick to established laws and precedents as closely as possible. Trying to dump cases at the hooves of a princess wasn’t something judges normally liked to do, if only because nobody wanted to be seen as admitting defeat and possibly wasting a princess’s time, but every once in a while you got a case like this that could use a bit of a royal prerogative. Princess Celestia was known to sometimes come up with inventive solutions when dealing with especially troublesome legal battles or needlessly stubborn litigants.

“You don't get to deal with the easy stuff as a princess.” I grimaced slightly. “I guess I’m finally starting to understand what the other princesses have been dealing with all these years. There’s a lot more to it than pretty wings and a fancy title.”

“You're doing great.” Spike plopped down a big bowl of hot spaghetti onto the table. “Everypony is better off with you helping out.”

“Yes, you have done a very good job of clearing the legal queue,” Storm agreed. “I’m sure you remember the nice letter the judges sent you last Hearths Warming.”

“That was nice of them.” I frowned as I looked around. “By the way, has anyone seen Fluttershy? She should be here by now. We scheduled lunch a week ago.”

“Hopefully she gets here soon.” Spike placed some bread down. “It’d be a shame if all of this got cold because she was late.”

Storm shook her head. “She has not shown up yet. Should I ask Cloud?”

Cloud and Fluttershy did live together, so Cloud should have a good idea of what Fluttershy was up to. “If you wouldn’t mind. Normally Fluttershy’s pretty good about being on time.” Certainly a lot better than Pinkie’s tendency to show up more or less at random, regardless of any plans I’d carefully laid months in advance.

“Cloud should be in her office. Give me a couple of minutes, Highness.” Storm headed out, and a minute later she came back with her cousin.

“Hey Purple Smart,” Cloud said with a note of apology. “Found a note from Eepy this morning. Apparently something came up with her animals that she needed to check out.”

“Oh.” My ears wilted a bit. “So that's probably keeping her from showing up for lunch?”

Cloud shrugged. “Probably. It's hard to say how long she’ll be when there's something going on with her animals. Could be five minutes, could be all day.”

I sighed. “Right, this wouldn't be the first time she's missed something because her animal caretaker duties held her up.”

Probably sensing my disappointment, Cloud grinned and stepped up to the table. “You could always have lunch with me instead.” She sniffed the aromas in the dining room. “Waste not, and this smells pretty good.”

I smiled back at her. “Sounds great to me.”

It was disappointing that Fluttershy hadn’t showed up, but she had a job to do. I’d had to miss plenty of social occasions with the girls because of my royal duties. It was one of the reasons I’d gotten into the habit of always inviting at least one my friends over for lunch every day. Just because we all had jobs and other things filling up our time was no excuse for letting our friendships lapse. I’d be a pretty poor Princess of Friendship if I didn’t stay in touch with my friends.

Not to say that my lunch would be completely lonely. There was still Spike, Storm, and Cloud; Storm and Spike were always reliable company, and I liked spending time with Cloud. Especially when ... well, things were a mite bit complicated between us. Not in an unpleasant way by any means, but still complicated. We were exploring exactly where we were these days.

“Hope you like spaghetti,” Spike said as he started filling bowls, “because we’ve got plenty.”

“I can always work with that.” Cloud took the seat next to me.

Storm cleared her throat. “If there is enough for all of us...”

“Sure is!” Spike laid out another bowl. “The nice thing about spaghetti is that you can easily make a lot of it.”

They both thanked Spike, and everyone got settled in. Once everyone had gotten a good start on their meal, I decided to spark up some conversation. “So, it’s nice to get a break from open court. Ugh, especially when I’m hitting up the divorce cases next.”

Cloud finished chewing before saying, “I bet. From what I've heard, that's a huge headache. Guess I should be glad I'm not married.”

Storm arched her eyebrows. “Did you not tell Blossomforth and Fluttershy that the three of you would get married once Aurora was born?”

Cloud momentarily froze. “Well … yeah.”

Storm pressed her point. “And how old is she now?” From her tone, I could tell Storm wasn’t exactly happy with her cousin. Small surprise, Storm took things like propriety very seriously, and Cloud ... well I still haven’t decided if Cloud doesn’t even know how to be proper or if she does know but just doesn’t care about things like conforming to societal norms and expectations. I suppose the end result is the same either way.

“She’s six mon—look, I'll get to it, okay?” Cloud’s wings flickered. “It’s just weddings are expensive and take forever to get set up, and there are a million and one things we have to do before we get hitched.”

I knew Cloud well enough that I could tell she was just making excuses. One of the things I’d figured out about Cloud in the years I’d know her was that she wasn’t very good at handling most of her major life choices. Not to say that she made bad decisions like a certain apprentice of mine, more that she tried very hard to avoid making a choice at all when she could just settle into a relatively comfortable status quo. However, I was pretty sure Blossomforth and Fluttershy wouldn’t let her put off the wedding indefinitely. I tossed my two bits into the conversation to try and nudge her in the right direction. “If you need a wedding planner, you know somepony with a bit of experience at that. Either me, or I’m sure Pinkie would love to help. At the very least, Pinkie can have you covered for the reception.”

Cloud didn’t quite meet my gaze. “I'll keep that in mind and get back to you when we start wedding planning.”

“So never?” There was more than a hint of reproach in Storm’s tone.

Cloud hesitated before answering. “Eventually.”

Spike grinned and pointed a fork in Cloud’s direction. “I have a feeling Blossomforth and Fluttershy might have something to say about that.”

Cloud coughed awkwardly.

Much as I wanted to nudge Cloud in the right direction, I knew she wouldn’t respond well if she felt like everyone was badgering her. I decided to steer the conversation back to safer topics. “Anyways, you seem to have gotten back on your hooves with your job now you're back from maternity leave, Cloud.”

The change in topic caused Cloud’s smile to return. “Yeah, nice to slowly be getting back to normal life. Getting to stay home with everypony was nice, but after a while I was starting to go stir-crazy.”

“I can imagine,” I said. “Any problems now that you’re back?”

Cloud shook her head. “Nothing beyond the normal stuff you get when coming back to work for the first time in a while, and we’ve already talked about anything else.” She shot me a grin. “Helps that you’re a pretty easy boss to work for and the hours are flexible. This was a pretty good switch for me from working the weather.”

I smiled. “That's good to hear. You’ve gone through a whole bunch of big changes in your life as of late, between getting a new job and having a kid.”

“Yeah, it's been pretty huge,” Cloud confirmed. “Aurora’s pretty much changed everything. We have to build our schedules around her as much as possible since me, Blossom, and Flutters have to trade off foal-watching duties.”

“Good thing we've set up the daycare here at the castle too,” I said. Creating a castle staff and my personal guard had made it necessary to add such services as a daycare for everypony working under me.

“That is handy as a backup.” Cloud spread some parmesan on her spaghetti. “Even if we prefer for one of Aurora’s moms to watch her whenever possible.”

“Or one of her aunts.” Storm’s normally stoic features broke as she smiled and her wings fluttered.

“Yeah, Aurora loves it when you visit.” Cloud nudged Storm with a wing. “Not to mention it’s nice to have you around to be a foalsitter. Between you and Rainbow, we’re pretty well covered whenever we need a break.” She smirked and waggled her eyebrows. “Or need some private time for some good old bonding.”

Storm rolled her eyes at her cousin’s antics. “You say that, but the last time I watched over Aurora all you wanted to do was go to bed and have a nice long nap.”

There was a twinkle in Cloud eyes that I’d come to know meant she was about to say something mischievous, and I pressed a hoof to her mouth before she could speak. “Let’s keep things clean at the lunch table?” I moved my eyes meaningfully to Spike for Cloud’s benefit. Spike was a bit wiser to the world than I sometimes like to think, but I still felt the need to protect my little brother from some of Cloud’s more perverse quirks. She was usually pretty good about watching her mouth around impressionable youngsters, but I didn’t want to take a chance with Spike’s innocence. Or what innocence he had left.

Cloud paused and then nodded. “Sure thing. So Purple Smart, since we’re talking about changes, how’s princesshood treating you?”

I tapped my fork on my plate before I answered. “Not too bad. It’s certainly taken a lot of adjusting. What with needing to grow used to the castle, getting my own guard and staff, having open court, and oh my goodness, ponies actually listening to me and doing what I say all the time.”

“And you've been doing great at it.” Cloud rubbed my back. “Ponies are lucky to have you as a princess.”

“So they are,” Storm agreed. “It is a difficult matter to become royalty, but you have adjusted well.”

Spike filled another plate for himself. “Right, you need to stop worrying so much. You're doing great. Definitely a whole lot better than how most ponies would do if thrown in your shoes.”

My cheeks started to flush. “Okay, you can all stop complimenting me now. You’re starting to embarrass me.”

Cloud smirked mischievously. “I dunno, you can be kind of cute when you're embarrassed.”

A chuckle escaped my lips and I slapped her on the chest with a wing. “Oh stop, you.”

Storm huffed. “Must you, cousin?”

Cloud continued to smirk shamelessly. “Yeah.”

“You've known her longer than I have, you know this is what she does,” I pointed out.

Storm sighed. “Yes, it is.”

“So, what are you two up to?” I asked, shifting the conversation again. “Any plans coming up?”

Cloud scooped another mouthful of spaghetti. “Eeps, Blossom, and I were gonna go see a play this weekend.”

“I was hoping to head up to Canterlot to see the opera and check in with family,” Storm said.

I nodded. “All of that sounds nice.”

Spike shot a sideways grin my way. “As you can probably guess, Twilight's going to be reading books.”

I raised an eyebrow. “You almost make that sound like a bad thing.”

“It's a ‘you’ thing.” Cloud grinned. “You’re known as Princess Books for a reason.”

“Wait, I am?”

“Sometimes ponies like to joke about it,” Spike confirmed. “I wouldn’t worry about it. You know how all the princesses have nicknames.”

“I guess...” I suppose it shouldn’t be a surprise that ponies had caught on that I like books. Really, if that was the worst that was being said about me then I could hardly complain. “And what about you, Spike? Do you have anything planned for this weekend?”

“Not really.” Spike shrugged. “Maybe I'll find a comic or two to read, or make the rounds around Ponyville.”

“What about you?” Cloud asked me. “Quiet weekend at home with a book?”

“That and I was invited to dinner with Applejack and Rarity, and Pinkie wanted to show Spike and me a recipe.” I gave Cloud a knowing grin. “Maybe I’ll find some time to spend with some other ponies I know, and have some fun with them.”

“Sounds fun.” Cloud grinned back. “I’d recommend seeing if there might be some ponies interested in hanging out for a while. It can certainly make for a relaxing or interesting evening.”

Storm sighed and rolled her eyes. “Though first we have to get through the work week.”

“Ugh, you just had to remind me.” I put any potential bookish or romantic ideas to the side as I pulled up my schedule. “So much to do, so little time. I would do just about anything to get out of having to deal with these divorce cases...”

Cloud tsked and waggled her hoof. “Don't say things like that. We don't want to tempt fate.”

I groaned and wanted to press my forehead to the table. “It feels like everything I say tempts fate these days.”

Spike snorted as he spread some butter on a slice of bread. “I’d say that comes with being a princess, but that was true before you became a princess. Really, ever since you came to Ponyville you’ve just been a non-stop parade of madness.”

I huffed. “And ponies wonder why I like to have quiet weekends with just my books and no crazy monsters, ponies, or responsibilities to deal with. Though at this point, I’ve pretty much just accepted that I’m doomed to live an abnormal life.”

Spike momentarily froze before turning to face me. “Speaking about things not being normal, there’s something I’ve been meaning to talk with you about. You know all those scrolls you wanted me to send to Celestia? I didn’t want to bother you with this earlier because you were in court, but there’s a bit of a problem....”

From the way Spike said it, this wasn’t just a little problem. “What’s going on?”

I usually had a couple things for Spike to send Celestia’s way every morning. The one thing I liked about holding court was all the paperwork it generated, and some of it had to go to the royal archives in Canterlot. Then there was all the normal stuff, like any reports or letters I wanted to send to Celestia. I normally kept anything that needed to go to Celestia in an outbox on my desk. One that I now kept well away from the outbox for all the letters that needed to go to the post office, thanks to the last incident. At least Derpy eventually managed to figure it all out and get the letters where they belonged.

Spike pulled out a scroll out of his bag. “When I tried to send everything to Celestia, the spell didn't work.”

“It didn't work?” I frowned. “What do you mean? You got the spell right, didn’t you?”

From the slight frown on his face, I must’ve wounded his pride. “I’ve been using that spell since before we moved to Ponyville, I know how to do it.”

“Right, of course you do.” I gave him a quick pat on the back. “But spells just ... they don’t suddenly stop working for no reason. And I’m sure you remember what the first step is in Star Swirl’s Guide to Spectacular Spellwork.”

“Yes, yes, make sure you’re casting the spell right.” Spike sighed. “But I am! Here, let me show you.” Spike held up the scroll and breathed fire at it, but instead of magically sending the scroll to Celestia, nothing happened. At least the scroll itself survived.

“That’s weird.” I frowned and started carefully looking him over. “You’re not doing anything differently as far as I can tell. You feeling okay? You haven’t come down with anything? Experienced allergies? Molting? You’ve been eating gems regularly?”

Spike shrugged. “I'm fine. I don’t feel weird, and I haven’t been doing anything different. It's just not working for some reason.”

“But that doesn’t make any sense!” I rubbed my chin and stared at the scroll. “Spells don’t just stop working for no reason, something has to be causing it. Maybe Celestia’s out of range, or just doesn’t want to receive any mail?”

Spike shook his head. “Last time that happened, the scroll still went away, it just came back to me a couple seconds later.”

“How does the spell work?” Storm asked.

I frowned and got a few scanning and analysis spells ready to try and get to the bottom of this mystery. “Celestia created a special bond with Spike that lets him use the magic inherent to his dragonfire to send a message to her instead instead of just burning whatever it hits. She can send scrolls back the other way, too.”

Spike crossed his arms over his chest. “And I've never had trouble with it before.”

Cloud pressed her lips together. “Hm, maybe try some sort of detection spell on him while he tries it again?”

I nodded. “Exactly what I was going to do next.” I made sure all my spells were ready, and prepared a scroll and quill so I could jot down the results. “Now try it again, Spike.”

“Can do.” He blew out another burst of flame to the same impotent results.

I blinked as my analysis spells fed me information, quickly getting it all down in writing. “Nothing's wrong with Spike or the spell; there's some sort of magic in place blocking the sending. Something powerful, and it would have to be a specific counterspell. But that doesn’t make any sense unless ... unless someone is deliberately cutting off my line of communication to Princess Celestia.”

Cloud scowled and took to her hooves. “I told you not to jinx it.”

“Because that’s the biggest thing we need to worry about right now.” I grumbled something not exactly Mom-approved under my breath before focusing my thoughts on more practical matters. “What I want to know is who’s blocking me from getting in touch with Celestia, and why.”

Storm’s wings flicked. “If there's a hostile force threatening Ponyville or you directly, cutting any line of communication to Celestia would be a logical first step.”

Now wasn’t that a worrying idea? “But why would anyone want to threaten Ponyville? Okay, I realize that’s was a dumb question as soon as it came out of my mouth. Between the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony, the Tree of Harmony, and everything else, there’s plenty of targets to choose from. So that brings us back to who and why.” I frowned and tapped the table. “Especially the who. It would have to be someone who knows a lot about how Celestia’s magic works to be able to make a counterspell like this.”

Storm moved to asking practical questions. “Who do we know of that would be capable of casting such a spell?”

I crossed my forelegs over my chest as I thought, and tried a couple more spells to see if I could pick up any more information. “It’d have to be someone good, really good. At bare minimum, we’re talking about someone with the spellcasting capabilities of an archmagus. Celestia’s the one who set up the initial spell, and it was intended to be a foolproof and unbreakable line of communication. Not even Discord could cut it off. That’s not even getting into the fact that on top of the raw power, they’d need to know how to do it.” I frowned as I tried to form a list of people who met all those requirements. “Chrysalis could do it, but this doesn’t feel like changeling magic. Still, she could always be using some sort of magical item or be mind controlling somepony else to help with it.”

There was another possible culprit I really didn’t want to bring up. Luna was intimately familiar with her sister’s spells, and would have the raw power to pull it off. I didn’t want to bring that possibility up, but ... well part of conducting a responsible investigation was accounting for every possible answer, no matter how uncomfortable.

Speaking of which ... Archon Shimmer would have to go on the suspect list too. A former student of Celestia’s would know her magic well enough to pull this off, and from what I had been able to tell during her visit, she was more or less on par with me in terms of raw power. Last I’d heard, though, she was still in Freeport. Plus there was no reason for her to attack me, we’d actually gotten along pretty well the last time she visited. Well enough for Celestia to send me a very embarrassing letter about how she thought we’d make a cute couple.

“Is there anything that could help us locate the source?” Storm asked.

Cloud nodded. “Or just break the spell?”

“Yes to both.” I levitated Spike onto my back and started towards my lab. “Or at least, I hope so. I’ll have to head down to my lab and see what I can come up with. I’ll know a lot more once I have some idea of what I’m dealing with.”

“I'll put the guards on alert,” Storm said as she followed me. “I’ll send out some fresh patrols to see if we can spot anything. It might also be a good idea for the rest of your friends to come to the castle, just in case we need them. Also, I’m keeping guards on you, Highness.”

I sighed but couldn’t really argue the point. I hated having bodyguards following me around; I was supposed to be the Princess of Friendship, and having a squad of heavily armed ponies making sure nobody got too close to me made that hard. Still, I couldn’t really argue against it when we might have a threat incoming.

Cloud fell in alongside us. “Always a good idea to have the rainbow-friendship-blast powers in reserve. I better let the mayor and other officials know we might have trouble incoming. No need to go into crisis mode yet, but it might not be a bad idea to at least be ready in case things heat up.“

“Good idea.” I stepped into my lab and tried my first magical probe. The good news was that I managed to find the spell draped over Ponyville, blocking any communication with Celestia. The bad news was that my probe got noticed.

“CITIZENS OF PONYVILLE!” The words were so loud they hit us like a physical force, and I wound up putting a hoof on the table just to steady myself. It sounded like a mare’s voice, but there was an odd resonance to it.

“What in the world is that?!” I turned around and headed towards the nearest window, which was still rattling from the aftereffects of the voice. It felt like the sound had come from outside. “Was that somepony using the Royal Canterlot Voice?”

“It sure sounded like it,” Spike groaned, rubbing his ears.

For a moment I wondered if maybe I’d been right about it being Luna, except that voice hadn’t sounded anything like her or Nightmare Moon.

We arrived at the window just in time for a flash of green light to temporarily blind us. After I blinked the afterimage from my eyes, I saw a crackling dome of green fire large enough to surround all of Ponyville spring up around the city, completely cutting the town off from the outside world. I was reminded of the time Trixie had done something similar while under the influence of the Alicorn Amulet, though something felt even more threatening about this situation. It took someone really powerful to put up a shield on that caliber. My brother could do a spell like that, but he was an Alpha unicorn and has a special talent in defense magic. A team of magi could pull it off too, but not that quickly.

Before any of us said anything, the voice boomed across Ponyville once again. “DO NOT BE AFRAID, WE MEAN YOU NO HARM. THERE ARE TWO MURDERERS WHO HAVE LONG ESCAPED PUNISHMENT FOR THEIR CRIMES CURRENTLY WITHIN YOUR CITY. WE HAVE COME TO BRING THEM TO JUSTICE ONCE AND FOR ALL.”

Storm scowled. “There have been no crime reports of anything like that.”

“And you’d think we’d be the first to hear about that,” I agreed. “Who do they think they are, just barging into Ponyville and putting the entire city on lockdown? Whoever it is it’s not Celestia, Luna, or Cadance, so I outrank them.”

Cloud’s gaze swept over the dome shield, searching for any holes or weak points and coming up empty. “Any of the Archmagi would want to ask you for permission, and this doesn’t look like any of the other princesses’ magic. Plus they’d still give you at least a courtesy call.”

Down below, I could see ponies talking in small clusters, and more than a few running around. Whoever was doing this was going to set off a panic at this rate. They were going to get a piece of my mind once I figured out what was going on. The final echoes of the last announcement faded away as the voice continued.

“THE CITY OF PONYVILLE IS HEREBY ON LOCKDOWN UNTIL THE CRIMINALS HAVE BEEN APPREHENDED. ALL INNOCENT CIVILIANS WHO REPORT TO THE OUTER EDGE OF THE BARRIER WILL BE INSPECTED AND BRIEFLY DETAINED UNTIL THE CRIMINALS HAVE BEEN APPREHENDED. I ASK YOU TO EVACUATE QUICKLY, BECAUSE IN AN HOUR'S TIME WE WILL MOVE INTO THE CITY TO APPREHEND THE CRIMINALS. I APOLOGIZE FOR NOT BEING ABLE TO DELAY THE ASSAULT FURTHER, BUT WE CANNOT RISK THE KILLERS FINDING A WAY TO ESCAPE JUSTICE ONCE MORE. THESE MURDERERS WILL ALMOST CERTAINLY RESIST ARREST, AND HAVE SHOWN UTTER DISREGARD FOR THE SANCTITY OF LIFE OR INNOCENT BYSTANDERS.

“IF YOU CANNOT EVACUATE, PLEASE REMAIN IN YOUR HOMES IN A SECURE AREA. WE WILL ATTEMPT TO BRING THE CRIMINALS TO JUSTICE AS SWIFTLY AND SAFELY AS POSSIBLE. AND FINALLY ... TWILIGHT SPARKLE AND STARLIGHT GLIMMER. YOU MAY HAVE THOUGHT YOU COULD ESCAPE JUSTICE FOR THE LIVES YOU ENDED, BUT YOU WERE WRONG. IF THERE IS ANY SHRED OF DECENCY LEFT WITHIN YOU, TURN YOURSELVES IN SO WE CAN AVOID ANY NEEDLESS DEATH OR DESTRUCTION. IF YOU RESIST, KNOW THAT YOU WILL FAIL, AND JUSTICE WILL FINALLY BE DONE. THE ARMY OF YOUR VICTIMS HAS COME FOR ITS REVENGE.”

I blinked and my jaw dropped. “Wait, what?! Did I hear that right?!”

Spike’s mouth was also open in utter disbelief. “What is she talking about? When has Twilight ever killed anyone?”

Cloud shook her head. “That can't be right. Something’s up.”

Storm glared and her teeth flashed in a snarl. “What madness is this? It seems our villain has decided to attempt to convince the world that you are the monster here.”

Spike nodded. “Right, whoever this is they must just be trying to trick ponies. Or they're just crazy.” He crossed his arms. “Anypony whose met Twilight would know she isn't evil.”

I probably should’ve been offended I’d just been publicly called out as a murderer, but I was too confused to care about that. I had no idea what this pony was even talking about. I hadn’t murdered anyone, and I was damn sure I would remember if I did something like that. This was insane. This pony had just closed off the entire town and was threatening to arrest me and Starlight. What made them think they had this kind of authority? If someone sincerely thought I was guilty of such a heinous crime, they should have gone right to at least one of the other princesses. It only really made sense if they were just lying to try and trick everypony or just outright crazy. Something wasn’t right here—a lot of things weren’t right at the moment. Was my home really going to be attacked?

“We got incoming.” Cloud pointed down to the street where Rainbow, Rarity, Pinkie, and Applejack were running towards the castle. It was good to see that they were okay, but I couldn’t help but note that Fluttershy wasn’t among them. If she was still out helping animals in the countryside, she would have been caught outside of that shield. Though given the circumstances, I couldn’t help but worry if something worse might have happened.

“What should we do, Highness?” Storm’s question snapped me out of my ruminations.

Right, we needed a plan. A knot of worry built up within me at Fluttershy’s absence, but there wasn’t time to panic about that. Everypony needed me to make decisions, and that meant focusing on what I could control instead of fretting over what I couldn’t. The town was going to be attacked inside of an hour, we didn’t know who we were dealing with, and they wanted me and Starlight. Those facts at least gave me something to start with.

I turned to the others. “Storm, have someone escort my friends to the Map Room. I’ll meet them there as soon as I’m done here. Find Starlight and have her escorted to there too. Maybe she knows something about what’s going on, and I want her protected in any event. Next, send out some scouts to see what you can find out, prepare the castle defenses, and send out an order for everypony to take shelter. Finally, prep the castle shield to be activated at a moment’s notice. They’ve said we have an hour before they attack, but I’m not inclined to trust them.”

“On it, Highness.” Storm trotted out to carry out my orders.

“I better get my armor.” Cloud frowned down at the street as ponies started panicking. “There are gonna be a lot of scared and confused ponies out there. What should we tell them?”

There was a very good question. I had only the vaguest idea about what was going on, and that was a whole lot better than everypony else in Ponyville. They needed leadership, or else blind panic would end up taking over. I needed to be that pony, no matter how scared or unsure I was. If they saw that I was just as terrified and uncertain as they were, I’d have rioting in the streets. Or worse, they’d all do what our strange attacker wanted them to do. I wasn’t sure why they wanted all the civilians to go to the outer edge of the city, but it couldn’t be anything good.

I did my best to sound confident and carry myself with regal grace. “Tell them we're going to deal with this, and to get someplace safe.”

Cloud nodded. “You better get your own armor as well. Things could get real crazy real quick, and Storm will be cranky if you get hurt. And princess or not, I will spank your cute purple plot if you don’t take your own safety seriously. Got it?”

I took a deep breath. “Right, I’ll go do that.”

We both parted company, and I used my magic to summon my armor. One of those things Storm had insisted on, I’d gone with something that was basically just a fancier version of the purple and gold full-plate armor my guards used. Naturally I’d done all the enchantments on it myself. Hopefully I wouldn’t need it, but considering the circumstances it seemed like a good idea to put it on.

Once I was ready, I headed to the Map Room. My friends were already waiting for me, and the instant I stepped into the room each of them asked what sounded like five different questions in about as many seconds. I held up a hoof to cut them off. “Girls, one at a time! But to start off with all the obvious questions: I don't know whose doing this or why, I'm sending out scouts to figure out what's going on, I'm telling everypony to seek shelter, and we're mustering the Guard.”

As was her way, Rainbow was the first to get in a question. “What about Starlight? They said they wanted to arrest her too.”

“Storm should have sent somepony to get her,” I said. “I don't know why this person wants me and Starlight, but she might know something. At the very least, we need to make sure she’s somewhere safe.”

To my relief, I saw Starlight galloping down the hallway. “Starlight! It’s good to—” Starlight galloped right past the doorway to the Map Room. I was momentarily taken aback by her actions. “Starlight?! Starlight! Come back!”

“Whoa there!” Rainbow streaked out of the room and cut Starlight off. Starlight skidded to a halt to keep from running into Rainbow. “Where do you think you’re running? Didn’t you hear Twilight calling you?”

The rest of us trotted out into the hallway. Starlight turned her head to face us and she froze. Her eyes were wide with obvious terror, and her breathing came in ragged gasps. She also had her saddlebags, each bulging with stuff quickly shoved into them. One of them hadn’t even been closed properly, and a couple of picture frames stuck out. It wasn’t hard to figure out what she was up to.

Applejack frowned as she looked her up and down. “She’s makin’ a break fer it.”

I would have asked Starlight if she was okay, but it was pretty obvious she wasn’t. “Starlight, do you know what's going on here?”

Starlight’s eyes darted around, desperately looking around for some kind of escape. She trembled as her words came falling out in a tumble. “That's Rising Fire! She's this crazy lich who tried to kill me once! But she's supposed to be dead!” She took a couple of hasty breaths while we all stared at her. “Well, you know what I mean! I saw her body get destroyed! That was supposed to be the end of it, but she’s here!”

That was something, but those answers just left me with a whole bunch of other questions. “When did a lich start wanting to kill you? Why does she think I've killed a bunch of people?”

“It sounds like you have quite a tale to tell,” Rarity chimed in. “Perhaps you should start from the beginning?”

Starlight started pacing back and forth. “Ugh, fine. It was over a decade ago, back when I lived in Freeport. I spent a while living on a commune because of a stupid misunderstanding with a bank. And then that crazy lich came to kill me with a bunch of undead. Did I mention she’s crazy? Because she was going on and on about how I’d killed a whole world. Insane.”

Rainbow zipped up to her. “Wait, this Rising Fire thinks you murdered a whole world? How?!”

“Like I said, she’s a crazy lich.” Starlight snorted derisively. “She said Twilight did too, and that was back when Twilight was still an unmarked filly, so you can tell how crazy she is.”

“Well, I can hardly imagine Twilight doing something so horrible.” Rarity wrinkled her nose. “Honestly, I can’t imagine Twilight ever wanting to seriously hurt or kill someone.” After a pause that dragged on just a bit too long, she turned to Starlight. “I can't really imagine you would do something like that either. You hardly have any motive to destroy an entire world.”

Starlight scowled at her. “Gee, thanks for the hesitation and qualifying your statement by saying I’d need to have a motive first.”

Pinkie jumped into the conversation with her usual diplomatic grace. “She’s probably just thinking about the time you nearly destroyed all of Equestria because you were mad we wouldn’t let you keep an entire town full of innocent ponies enslaved. Or how you tried to strip away all the individual personality and magical talent of the ponies you enslaved, just because you were sad about your friend moving away years and years ago.” She paused and frowned. “Wait ... is Trixie moving away?! Is that why you tried to destroy the world again?! I thought you knew that destroying the world isn’t a good way to solve problems! That shouldn’t even count anyway, Trixie’s a travelling magician! She’s always moving!”

Rainbow snorted and crossed her forelegs over her chest. “Let’s hope that lesson took better than the one about mind control. Remember how you mind-controlled us just so you could make one of Twilight's assignments go faster? Or the time you nearly destroyed Thorax's hive by drawing a big monster to it?”

“Not to mention all that stuff she got up to in the North before we even met her,” Applejack added in. “Was awful awkward when my cider and Rarity’s dresses near got boycotted in Northmarch just because they found out we were acquaintances with Starlight.”

“Yes, yes, thank you all for reminding me of my checkered past,” Starlight grumbled not quite under her breath. “I certainly wouldn’t have remembered all the horrible things I’ve done without you all reminding me about it every five minutes.”

I stepped in to try and push the conversation back into more productive territory. “So what’s going on with this Rising Fire?”

Starlight shrugged. “No idea, I’d never even heard of her until she tried to kill me. Her brain has probably rotted away and she’s just gone crazy from being around forever. All I know about her is that she’s convinced I did something I never did, and that she’s a crazy powerful lich. Last time I ran into her, I was pretty sure I’d dealt with her for good.” After several seconds she sighed and reluctantly amended. “Well, Archon Shimmer and her crew helped with that.” She hesitated a bit more. “It was a team effort.” After a couple more seconds she downgraded to, “I contributed. Anyway, the point is that Rising Fire was supposed to be gone.”

Pinkie’s head tilted to the side. “Uuum, shouldn't you have told us about this sometime before now? You know, when liches are kinda super undead-y and keep coming back over and over and over again because they just refuse to stay down unless you get their file-factory?”

“Phylactery,” I corrected. “And yeah, your typical lich will eventually rebuild their body as long as their soul is safely stored in a phylactery. You should have told me about this before now.”

Starlight snarled as she shook her head from side to side. “Well she seemed pretty gone to me and I never saw her again since then, so forgive me if I thought she was gone for good.” She sighed and shook her head. “Or maybe that’s just what I wanted to believe.”

Wonderful. Apparently this was another case where Starlight hadn’t thought things all the way through before she acted. Starlight had a really bad habit of making snap decisions in the heat of the moment without really thinking about all the implications, or little things like ethics and morality. It was something we’d been working on, and I liked to think we were making some good progress. After all, she hadn’t acted out in a destructive way for months. However, sometimes I couldn’t help but wonder if I was just treating the symptoms without really getting into the root cause of all her problems.

Yes, she no longer did things like time travel to change our pasts without thinking about what would happen when you destroy the friendship of ponies whose friendship has repeatedly saved Equestria. However, deciding that a problem must have sorted itself out when it didn’t bother her for a couple years fit the pattern of impulsiveness and poor decisions. Not to mention Starlight didn’t like talking about her past, so it’s no surprise Rising Fire hadn’t come up.

From what I had been able to get out of her and dig up from other sources, her life was a long series of failures, exiles, and serious crimes. The last time I’d gone to Crystal Empire, our train made a stop in Coldharbor in Northmarch. Finding out my apprentice had been involved in the city getting burned down a decade ago and was exiled on pain of death had been a nasty surprise. It took quite a bit of frantic negotiating and Starlight agreeing not to leave the train to keep that from turning into a major incident.

From what I’d actually been able to get out of Starlight about her past, there were probably more fun surprises like that waiting for me. Apparently nothing had really gone right for her since Sunburst got his cutie mark.

Still, reflecting on Starlight’s emotional problems wouldn’t do any good. “Let’s concentrate on the big picture, everypony. We've got less than an hour before this Rising Fire attacks and we need to figure out how we’re going to deal with her. If she’s attacked Starlight before, we have to take it for granted that she’s serious about her threat.”

“Yeah, she is.” Starlight started heading towards the door. “So, um, good luck with all the planning. I’ve got a couple things to—”

Applejack blinked as though she’d been slapped. “Whoa nelly, you ain't runnin' out on us!”

Starlight started slowing down, but didn’t stop heading for the exit. “I was just going to go make sure Trixie would be okay. She’s out there, and I don’t want Rising or her stupid army of undead hurting her.”

While normally I would have praised Starlight for thinking about a friend during a crisis like this, I knew she was lying. Especially since Trixie wasn’t even in Ponyville; last I heard she was doing a show in the Baltimare area. It wasn’t hard to guess what she was really up to—she wanted to try and run away before Rising launched her attack on Ponyville.

While running and leaving us to clean up the mess was bad enough, I was also pretty sure Starlight hadn’t told me the whole truth about her history with Rising. Her account had been so threadbare that there almost certainly had to be more going on, or at least a few details that might help me understand more. Not to mention I didn’t think her plan to run was going to work given the circumstances. Rising had already cut the city off, and any halfway decent plan would include contingencies for if we tried to run for it. At least here in the castle she could be protected by the castle defenses and my guard.

And at the end of the day, Starlight was my responsibility. She might have made mistakes in the past ... and the near past. And if trends were any indication, she would continue making mistakes, but she’d come a long way from where I’d found her. Most importantly, she was trying to be a good pony, and as long as she was trying to improve I was going to help her. That meant I wasn’t about to let Rising have her if I could help it.

“Starlight...” I stepped up to her and placed a hoof on her shoulder. “Remember what we discussed about always trying to run away from your problems?”

There was an ugly flash behind Starlight’s eyes and her lips twisted into a snarl. “I don't think that applies to not running away from the crazy evil lich that wants to kill me!”

I met her growing anger with calm serenity. “And how do you plan on getting through the shield?”

She shook her head and started pacing. “I'll figure something out when I get there! It's better than just sitting here and waiting for her!”

I frowned as I watched her pace back and forth. Starlight had a bad habit of not quite thinking things through, and if she did that in a situation like this it would probably end with her getting captured by this Rising Fire. Or worse. “It'll probably be safer here in the castle. We’ve got my guard, each other, and the castle’s defenses. Given time, I think I can break the spell that’s keeping us from sending messages to Princess Celestia and call for help.”

Rainbow slammed her hooves together. “Yeah, teamwork and strength in numbers. There’s nothing we can’t beat together.”

Rarity cleared her throat. “If I may suggest something, it might also be worth trying a bit of diplomacy. If nothing else, we might find out something about who we're dealing with. Maybe we could even negotiate more time before they attack?”

That wasn’t a bad idea. There were some risks, but if we could somehow avoid anyone getting hurt... “That would be great if you can pull it off. See what you can do.”

Starlight, however, wasn’t so convinced. “Excuse me, remember the part where I said she was crazy? You can’t negotiate with crazy. Likely she’ll just blast you when you try and talk to her and leave nothing left but a crater.”

Rarity tossed her mane. “Yes. But what do you think this lich will do to Twilight and you if she captures both of you?”

Starlight shivered.

Starlight had a point about this being dangerous, but there were ways we could at least mitigate the risks involved. “I'll have a guard escort Rarity. It's not perfect, but it's something.“ I gave Rarity a serious look. “But if you think you’re in danger, get out of there and back into the castle, Rarity. I don't want you getting hurt. Understand?”

Rarity nodded. “Of course. Just put the time we do have to good use.” She smiled, looking every bit the confident mare I knew her to be. “Who knows, perhaps I can charm whoever it is into calling all this madness off?”

“If you can pull that off...” I thought about all the ponies that could get hurt if this came to some sort of battle and winced. “Well, I'm not sure there's a big enough reward I could give you if you can successfully negotiate with Rising.”

“Oh, you don't need to worry about that darling.” Rarity waved it off. “Just knowing everypony is going to be safe will be reward enough.”

Applejack bit her lip. “Be careful, Rares.” She hugged her, and Rarity returned the embrace. “Don’t go doin’ anything... Well, maybe Ah wouldn’t be the best example, but you know what Ah mean.”

“You too.” Rarity pecked Applejack on the cheek before breaking the hug. “Be safe, everypony.”

Rarity departed, leaving the rest of us to plan and prepare for what would happen if the worst should come to pass.

Author's Note

As always, thanks to my pre-reading and editing team for all their hard work. Also, I would like to thank all my dedicated Patreon supporters. You guys are awesome.

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Chapter 2 - Rarity

Actually arranging a parley took quite a bit of work. I don’t know if Twilight never learned the spell to unleash the Royal Canterlot voice or if she simply considered it undignified for her and Rising to shout at each other from across Ponyville, but just because the town was under siege didn’t mean we had to completely put aside basic social conventions. If anything, they were more important now than ever. The more polite and reasonable we were, the better our chances of finding a diplomatic solution to this madness.

Running up a white flag was a simple enough matter, even if we had to take a minute to explain to Rainbow that a white flag didn’t signal surrender so much as a desire to negotiate. Not that I could fault her for the misunderstanding when quite a few films had made the same mistake—and I suspect that Rainbow, like far too many ponies, derived most of her knowledge of history and culture from the cinema. To be quite fair, wartime negotiations often included hammering out terms of surrender. However, if this Rising Fire thought we would be handing Twilight and Starlight over to her as part of the negotiations, she was quite mistaken.

While putting up the flag had been simple enough, that left us at a loss for how Rising would answer. Thankfully she didn’t leave us waiting for long; after a few minutes, I saw an all-too-familiar trail of smoke shooting towards the flagpole, and when it arrived it transformed into a scroll. I’d never seen one of the letters Spike sent off arriving in front of Celestia, but I rather strongly suspected the process was much the same.

I caught the scroll before it could fall off the tower and roll off to who knows where. The message was short and to the point, though at least it was all written in flowing, precise penmareship. Rising Fire would send an envoy to speak with us, though the location the lich had selected for talks caught me by surprise. Perhaps that had been the point, picking somewhere unexpected so we couldn’t set up an ambush. Whatever the case might be, I would hardly turn down the chance to speak with Rising’s envoy just because we were negotiating in an ice cream parlour instead of town hall.

Twilight insisted I bring along a squad of guardponies, and I couldn’t really fault her considering the circumstances. The walk through my hometown was nowhere near as pleasant as I was accustomed to. Where normally there would be happy ponies going about their business and stopping to chat with friends as they passed on the street, a palpable shadow now hung over the entire town. The streets were close to deserted, and the few ponies out on them were rushing about, presumably heading to our civil shelter or trying to get back home. The tension was thick in the air, like we were on the verge of a mass panic waiting for something to set it off.

I could only hope my parents and Sweetie had gotten to the castle or the shelter by now. Normally I would prefer they come to Twilight’s castle, but considering it would be the main target for Rising perhaps the shelter would be safer. While I still hoped I’d be able to negotiate with Rising’s envoy to keep things from escalating out of control, I would feel much better if I knew they were safe. Though I suppose my own family being safe really didn’t make very much difference. Everypony else I had ever known in Ponyville would still be in danger. It was the type of thing that could make a mare faint with worry, and while I sometimes like to indulge on my emotional whims this was hardly the time for unnecessary theatrics.

It wasn’t long before I neared my destination: Ponyville’s local ice cream parlor, the same one I loved to take Sweetie Belle to. It was probably a very concerning sign that there were more ponies on the street as I approached, and every last one of them was running in the opposite direction. Clearly Rising’s envoy had made an impression.

Once I finally arrived, I saw exactly why so many ponies had been fleeing the scene. Rising Fire’s envoy had brought an escort as well: a group of skeletal undead soldiers standing guard outside. Each of them was wearing wearing black and gold trimmed armor that was no doubt intended to appear intimidating, but it lacked a certain artistic flair. There weren’t any plumes on their helmets or other decorations that could liven up their appearance.

They didn’t react as we approached, though Twilight’s guardponies tensed up at the prospect of facing undead. However, someone had planted a white flag on the roof of the parlour, and I certainly didn’t have any intention of violating the parley. While it was entirely possible this was some sort of trap, I intended to be an unimpeachable diplomat so long as Rising’s forces also abided by the truce. She had already tried to claim the moral high ground over Twilight despite besieging the city with an undead army, so the last thing I needed to do was give her anything she could use against my friend.

I strode into the parlour with the same confidence I used whenever I was about to meet with an important customer, pretending the skeletons weren’t even there. There were more of the armored skeletons inside the ice cream parlor, covering the front and back doors as well as every single window. An extremely nervous-looking server—a lanky youth who was probably doing their first job—stood behind the bar, his hooves trembling slightly as he scooped up ice cream to make a banana split. But everyone else in the parlor fell away at the sight of who was waiting for me.

It was me.

Or, somepony that looked like me sitting on a stool at the bar. Despite my best efforts to keep a cool head, I found myself staring, my mouth half-agape in an undignified manner that I quickly corrected. My thoughts whirled as I tried to regathered them. It wouldn’t be the first time I’d run afoul of changelings, but this didn’t seem like something Chrysalis would have set up.

Was this some sort of ploy on the envoy’s part to throw me off? Perhaps they were trying to hide their identity? Could they even be planning on replacing me with this doppelganger so as to sneak an agent into the castle?

But wait—we’d never told Rising I would be the envoy. How could she have known to tell her agent to assume my form? Perhaps the skeletons had passed word along to their master? A changeling could shapeshift in a matter of seconds, after all.

Whatever the truth might be, I intended to get to the bottom of it along with everything else. I straightened myself back into a dignified and fully controlled pose, then sat next to my opposite as though nothing were amiss. I had seen a great many strange things over my life, and at least the past encounters with changelings had prepared me somewhat for facing an exact duplicate of myself. It wasn’t that hard to recover and regain my composure, and I took the opportunity to study the pony that must be Rising’s envoy.

My eyes caught several details about her that confirmed that she didn’t look exactly like myself, even if the resemblance was utterly uncanny. The softness in my frame was gone in hers, replaced by hard muscle in many places. Her coat seemed faded in comparison to my own: it wasn’t the normal type of fading that came with age, but ... more like what came with a wig, more than anything else. The same went with her mane; something seemed eerily artificial with it, and it lacked my own mane’s vibrancy.

The mirror behind the bar allowed me to get a good look at her face as I settled into place next to her. Despite the same uncanny resemblance she shared with me in every other regard, her features were much sharper than mine, almost as if she were a carved statue rather than a living pony. Her face had hints of the unnatural perfection that came with cosmetic surgery or illusion spells, yet so far as I could tell she had received neither.

One thing I could credit her for, she still had my impeccable sense of taste in clothing, though a black cloak with a deep red lining draped over her shoulders portrayed a slightly more morbid and martial vein than my usual fare. Underneath that was a finely wrought breastplate of a black metal I suspected might be adamantine, though that would make it a fabulously expensive piece of armor. I didn’t recognize the design on it: a curiously skeletal-looking phoenix in green flame. Presumably some symbol of Rising Fire and her army.

There was something familiar about the sword at her side, though I couldn’t place it. Though I was no blacksmith, the blade itself seemed finely wrought, a deep black with curious silver ripples running up its length. It had a curious sort of almost sickle-like forward-curving shape, quite unlike anything I’d seen before. My doppleganger also had a necklace or amulet of some sort around her neck, though the cloak and armor hid most of it from view.

However, for all her good dress sense, one look at this pony’s eyes convinced me that she was so very different from me. Her eyes were ... cold. Hard, even, like staring at unforgiving steel.

That succinctly described my entire feeling about her. Even her movements seemed unnaturally smooth and calculated, like a machine.

Regardless of the circumstances, I wasn’t about to let myself seem intimidated by whoever this was. “I hope this isn’t some kind of ghastly joke, because I assure you it isn’t funny.”

My doppleganger glanced at me out of the corner of those steely eyes. “My my, what a coincidence.” Her eyes flicked over me, evaluating me like I was nothing more than a cold calculation to be taken in and filed away. All the oddities and tiny points of incongruence made it all the more unsettling when the next thing she did was let out a faint huff of mild disapproval, the same one I used whenever something didn’t quite measure up to my rigorous standards. “Is that really what my mane used to look like?”

Despite the utter absurdity of the situation, I felt my hackles rising. “Excuse me? I’ll have you know my mane looks quite ravishing. And really, yours could stand to get a bit more care. You really must condition more often, darling. Regardless, I can't help but notice that you look almost exactly like me. Or close enough to be in bad taste, given the circumstances.”

Only the furthest corner of her mouth twitched with something that was almost a smile. “I assure you, after several centuries you would beg to look as good as I do. And where I come from, we make do with what we can.”

So she was from someplace else, and she was several centuries old. That probably meant she wasn’t anything like a normal equine. That was something to work off of. After all, part of the reason I was here was to gather information. “So you’re not from around here, I take it?”

“That depends on how you define ‘from here’.” She turned her gaze on the server. “I do hope you're almost done now that negotiations are about to start? I would hate it if my appetite were ruined before I could even get in a bite.” She smiled at the server, and I realized she had a pair of sharp elongated fangs mixed in with the rest of her teeth. I was hardly an expert on monsters, but even I knew what those meant.

The server must have seen her fangs as well, because he nervously swallowed and picked up the pace as much as he could without turning it into a frantic scramble. “O-of course, ma'am. I’m sorry it’s taking so long, but normally Soft Serve does these and—” While he was talking he twitched nervously and the ice cream fell out of his scooper, landing on the floor with a wet splat. “O-oh no! I’m so sorry ma’am! It was an accident!” He dropped down to his knees. “Please don’t kill me, I’ll fix it!”

“Oh, honestly.” My double let out an aggravated sigh. “Stop groveling. You’re making a spectacle of yourself and being a complete drama queen. Considering the circumstances I won’t even have this reflect badly on your tip.”

“Thank you,” the server whimpered before rushing back to his task.

My vampiric counterpart shifted her attention back to me. “In any case, we didn't come here to discuss fashion, though I think I must take the last word by pointing out that you certainly won’t look as good as I do when you’re over five hundred years old.”

That naturally aroused quite a bit of curiosity on my part. “Are you saying you’re five hundred years old?” I frowned at her. “Are you some sort of distant ancestor of mine, then? I suppose that could explain the uncanny resemblance.”

“Oh nothing that simple,” she murmured. “It's a very long and dreary story.”

I simply raised an eyebrow. “Well, I didn’t have anything else planned for the day. If need be, I’m sure you could convince this Rising Fire of yours to extend her deadline so we could carry on with the negotiations.”

The other Rarity let out a cold chuckle. “I think not. We set such an unforgiving timeline for very good reasons. Even if your Twilight Sparkle doesn’t find a way to contact this world’s Celestia, someone’s bound to notice that Ponyville’s under siege rather quickly. We would much prefer to be done with our business before Canterlot sends a relief force, not to mention the risk of Celestia coming directly.”

She frowned and rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “Well, to reduce our long and tragic tale to the bare minimum, your world's Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer unleashed a temporal catastrophe upon my world, ultimately leading to the extinction of all intelligent life.” She glanced down at herself and shrugged. “At least, if one restricts oneself to traditional definitions of life. We’ve come to bring the two of them to justice for their crimes.”

“I ... see.” That did match Starlight’s account of it, but there was quite the difference between her dismissive summary of the ‘crazy’ story and hearing it delivered with such conviction. Especially when the one speaking was almost a perfect duplicate of myself. “And what proof do you have that Twilight and Starlight did this? You have to admit that it’s quite a wild tale, what with alternate worlds and time travel. Even if we accepted that, how can you say for certain that it was our Twilight and Starlight who did it? It could be some other dimension where ... I don’t know, some strange mirror universe where Twilight’s a conniving monster instead of the Princess of Friendship and Starlight is ... ah ... even worse?”

My counterpart shrugged. “Their magical signatures on the temporal spells that caused all this, for one. For the other, so far as we’ve been able to determine, there are not in fact an infinite number of parallel worlds as certain individuals thought—merely ourselves, you, and a few traces of what must have been other worlds. We have every reason to believe that your Twilight and Starlight are responsible for those as well, but sadly mass genocide and dimensional annihilation is a very effective way to eliminate evidence and witnesses.”

It all sounded quite mad to me, but she was so certain of her words I knew there was no point in trying to argue with her. If she truly was mad ... well, one can’t use reason to dissuade someone from an irrational belief. Or as Applejack once put it, ‘Don’t argue with crazy or stupid—they drag you down to their level an’ beat you with experience.’

Still, that didn’t mean there was no hope for a least trying to keep the discussion going. Perhaps if we began at the periphery instead of striking straight at the heart of the matter? “If that is the case, why didn't you come to us to talk about this instead of showing up outside of Ponyville with an army and placing the whole town under siege?”

The other Rarity chuckled. “We are talking, darling. Don’t you recognize a civilized conversation when you hear one? We just also took appropriate precautions to make sure the culprits wouldn’t get away from us if, say, these negotiations are a farce designed to distract us while Twilight and Starlight try to escape.”

“You could have presented the matter to Celestia,” I pointed out. “Equestria does have laws and procedures for handling criminal accusations.”

“And how fair of a hearing do you expect a lich, a vampire, and revenant would be received when accusing Princess Celestia’s protégé of mass murder?”

That was ... not an easy point to argue against. A trio of undead would have a hard time even getting an audience to see any high-ranking officials, and an accusation against Twilight would probably have to go all the way up to Celestia herself. And ... well I don’t think Celestia would be unjust if the matter reached her, but it would certainly take a great deal to convince her that Twilight was guilty of the things of which she was accused.

The server placed the banana sundae in front of the envoy. “Here... Here you go. Is-Is everything okay?” His eyes flicked between her and the skeletons placed about the parlor.

“Oh yes, that looks perfect.” She placed a few odd-looking coins on the counter. “There you go, I take it this will suffice for pay.”

“S-sure.” The server swallowed as he slowly reached out to take the bits, probably worried that the envoy would suddenly reach out and snatch his hoof. “That’s more than enough.”

The envoy smiled cooly. “Good, keep the rest as a tip. My apologies once again, but it really has been a long time since I’ve gotten to enjoy a good bowl of ice cream.”

“I do hope you’ll allow him to return to his home and family now,” I pressed. “He hardly needs to be here for these negotiations.” In truth, I wanted him out of the parlor and well away from any potential danger. So far this alternate version of myself seemed to be acting perfectly calm and reasonable aside from the mad accusations, but if she was crazy, then who could say what might trigger her into violence. Not to mention that even a perfectly sane vampire wasn’t exactly safe to be around.

Best if the server got to a shelter in any event, because I wasn’t optimistic about convincing this strange doppelganger of myself to stand down. Crazy or not, she clearly believed in her story.

“Of course he can go.” The envoy casually flicked a hoof, and the skeletons covering the door stood aside. The server looked between us, worried this might be some sort of trick, but when nobody stopped him he cautiously made his way out of the parlor. Once he was clear of the skeletons, he immediately broke into a terrified gallop.

While he fled, my counterpart idly ran her spoon across the sundae, taking her time enjoying the sight of it. She spoke up only after she had finished indulging herself. “So then, you know why we have taken drastic measures to secure the culprits. Don’t misunderstand, I’m sure that your Ponyville is filled with wonderful ponies who just want to go about their normal lives, and we regret the disruption and potential danger our presence represents. However, we simply can’t allow Twilight and Starlight to use them or Celestia as a shield. For all we know, it’s only a matter of time before they unleash some catastrophe upon this world as well. And even if their monstrous days are behind them, there is a significant risk they will flee.”

I immediately thought back to Starlight’s ill-conceived attempt to do exactly that and wisely said nothing as my not-quite-doppelganger continued. “Considering they have demonstrated the capacity to travel to different times and worlds, there are a near infinite number places they could try to hide. Although we would be able to find them eventually, we’re not about to risk them escaping justice because they managed to avoid us until they died of old age—or far worse, unleashing another catastrophe because we failed to stop them.”

“I’m afraid I have to point out once again that we only have your word about all of this.” I swiveled the barstool to face her. “I would have you know that I’ve known Twilight for years. She’s one of my best friends and is one of the sweetest, most innocent ponies I’ve ever known. The idea that she would destroy entire worlds and murder countless innocents is contrary to everything I know about her.”

The envoy’s eyes narrowed darkly. “I think the key to that statement is ‘everything I know’. Do you honestly think she would tell you all about how she came to a world locked in the midst of war against a returned Sombra? Or about how she and Starlight decided that our world didn't live up to whatever standard they set, and so wiped it away to make one they found more pleasing?”

I did my best to maintain my calm in the face of these accusations, but it was becoming increasingly difficult. The type of crimes she was accusing my friends of committing were nearly mind boggling in scope, and while it was theoretically possible Twilight might be capable of doing such a thing, I couldn’t pull myself into seriously considering the notion. “But why would she do something so horrible?” I demanded. “By the sounds of things you did nothing wrong. What’s the motive?”

The envoy shrugged. “To be honest, we don’t know. It all ... happened so suddenly. Only a few witnesses met either of them, and none of those survived the event. Rising only heard the reports third-hoof. The first we knew of the problem was when Canterlot got hit by a temporal storm, and we were still trying to come to terms with what we faced when the final catastrophe annihilated us all. Rising was at the epicenter of the event. As for myself ... one minute I was designing a new line of standard combat uniforms for our troops, then after a bright flash of light, I awoke in my current state in the wasteland that had once been our world.”

She let out a long sight. “And I was one of the very, very small hooffull of lucky ones, if you can consider this existence lucky. Only Rising and Sombra survived the initial event. Sombra became even madder afterwards, and we saw to him once we learned he was still alive. Rising ... well her survival was ultimately temporary.” She slowly scooped up a spoonful of her sundae and stared at it. “It’s been so long since it happened that the world we used to know almost seems like a dream. So no, we don’t know why they murdered our world. To be quite honest, learning why they did it is part of what drove us to come here in the first place. We want justice and we will have it, but I also want to know what kind of monster could do such a thing. It would at least provide a measure of closure to it all. Before the executioner’s axe falls upon their heads, I intend to look each of them in the eyes and ask them why.”

She delivered those words with a terrible sort of finality. If she was telling the truth, she’d had hundreds of years worth of bitterness, hate, and pain. She certainly spoke those words with the sort of utter conviction and iron determination I would expect from someone who’d been through all she claimed to have suffered. Unless she was a master actress, she was being honest.

“And what sort of justice do you intend on meeting out?” I frowned as I considered the possibilities. “Given the scope of the crime, I can’t imagine it would be anything good.”

The envoy scoffed. “What sort of punishment would come remotely close to matching the scale of the crimes they committed? We will do our best to have a fair and just trial for them, as well as a punishment for when they’re found guilty.”

“I hope I don’t have to point out how fair and just a trial can be when you’ve already determined they’re guilty and clearly plan to act as judge, jury, and executioners.”

The envoy rolled her eyes. “Darling, we wouldn’t have gone to the lengths we have if we weren’t absolutely certain they’re guilty. We’ll go through the motions of a trial and allow them to defend themselves, but what possible defense could there be for slaughter on such a massive scale? We will have justice for our dead world, and for all the other worlds they murdered.”

There was obviously no point in continuing to point out that Twilight would never do something like that, so I opted for a different approach. “So what are we supposed to do? You can’t honestly expect us to hand over two of our friends purely on your say-so, especially with such a fantastical story. It will be a fight, and I can assure you we are hardly defenseless. Maybe we can’t stop your army indefinitely, but all we have to do is hold out until Celestia and Luna will arrive to relieve us.”

The other Rarity lifted a single eyebrow and broke out the tone I usually reserved for when my friends or customers wanted an especially appalling outfit. “And you think we haven’t accounted for that? I assure you, we have planned every last detail of this operation. Make no mistake, if it comes to a battle, we are more than capable of taking Twilight and Starlight by force.”

My doppleganger ate a spoonful of ice cream, but frowned as soon as it hit her tongue. After a few seconds, she slowly swallowed it. “Still, we were hoping that we could avoid as much violence as possible. We expected Twilight and Starlight to put up a fight no matter what happens, but we had hoped to convince the rest of you to hand them over to us or help us arrest them. Always a bit of an overoptimistic best case scenario, I’m afraid, but we would prefer to avoid collateral damage as much as practicable while taking them into custody. Once we have them we’ll be more than happy to leave your world in peace.”

“And then what?” I snapped. It was a bit hard to keep up a polite and diplomatic mask when she spoke as if everything would be fine once she had she wanted. “What happens to my friends once you’re done kidnapping them and killing anyone who gets in your way? You’ll have your kangaroo court and execute them? Do you really think we’ll let you get away with that?”

The envoy took a stared unblinkingly at her sundae for several seconds before taking another bite. “If it’s justice you’re concerned about, then I have been authorized by my empress to allow your Equestria to send representatives to our trial.”

“Your empress?” I repeated incredulously.

“Rising Fire, Princess of the United Realms of Equestria and Archon of Freeport. Though I have had a time convincing her to actually use those titles. Still, at least she did go along with my suggestion of taking a regnal name. It seemed fitting, considering that was also when Sunset discarded the last remnants of her mortality to become what she is now.”

Well at least that explained one thing. Considering she’d just called Rising Fire ‘Sunset’ and the current Archon of Freeport was Sunset Shimmer ... well I suppose that cleared up just who this Rising Fire was. Or at least, it clarified that to the same extent that I understood the identity of the strange vampire who to all appearances and her own claims was me.

My duplicate cleared her throat. “As I was saying, Rising is prepared to allow you to send along observers to Twilight and Starlight’s trial, and even aid in their legal defense. Of course, that’s on the condition that you fully cooperate with turning her over to our custody.” She lifted her head to look at me out of the corner of her eye. “Though naturally the trial will be conducted on our world and in accordance with our laws, and we maintain the right to review the list of visitors you wish to send and refuse entry to any or all of them. We’re not about to risk you sneaking in a rescue party, after all.”

“Naturally.” I couldn’t help but throw more than a little bit of scorn into the word. She tried to make herself sound nice and reasonable with her proposal, but it was quite plain that she wasn’t going to extend cooperation to the point of actually making a difference. We could send a group of observers and a legal team—assuming Rising approved them—but they would all be going to a show trial whose verdict had already been decided before anyone presented a single piece of evidence. All we’d be doing is rubber-stamping her execution of Twilight and Starlight. “I’m sorry to say that we have no intention of cooperating with an invasion of our home and the capture and execution of one of my closest friends, especially when all we have is your word that Twilight and Starlight have committed these crimes. Equestria isn’t accustomed to giving ponies away under duress.”

My counterpart let out a long sigh and listlessly poked the spoon at her sundae. “I was afraid that would be your answer. It seems the two of them have covered up their crimes so well that none of you will believe they’re capable of performing them. A pity it came to this; I really had hoped we could find a way to resolve this peacefully.”

“You don’t have to go through with this,” I insisted. I knew there was no real hope of convincing her, but I had to at least try. “Call off your army. Show us proof that Twilight and Starlight are guilty of the crimes you accuse them and we can bring the matter to Celestia for justice. I know you don’t believe it, but Equestria does have a fair and impartial justice system.”

The envoy shook her head. “Darling, I think you forget that long ago I used to live in an Equestria that was quite similar to yours. The undead products of dark necromancy would be destroyed on sight by the Equestrian Magus Corps. Is your world any different?” When I didn’t immediately deny it, she scoffed. “Do you honestly expect us to believe we’d get a fair hearing from you? We both know you don’t believe a word I’ve said, and I can’t imagine this world’s Celestia would feel differently. All diplomacy would accomplish is surrendering every advantage we currently hold.” She stood from her seat, taking her sundae with her. I noticed that her magic was a dark bloody red, rather than the gentle blue glow of mine. That had to be significant, Twilight said a pony’s magic only changed color if there were magical artifacts involved or something major happened to them. “We simply can’t take the chance our world’s murderers will escape, and that’s my final word on the matter.”

She started towards the door, but stopped at the exit to look back at me with those steely eyes of hers. “For what it’s worth, I do think you’ve been fooled by Twilight and Starlight rather than being knowingly complicit. If you don’t listen to anything else I have to say, take this one piece of advice: take your parents and sister and seek shelter. So long as you stay far away from the castle, it should be relatively safe. It would be best if you and everypony else evacuated Ponyville entirely. Tell everypony to come to the edge of the barrier so we can help escort all of them to safety. We've already interned everyone we could find outside the city, and you have my word that as soon as this matter is settled, we will be happy to let you return to your homes unmolested.”

I certainly wasn’t going to let myself and my family be imprisoned by an invading army of the dead. “You’re asking me to extend quite a bit more trust than you’ve earned from us. You will have to pardon me if I’m somewhat suspicious that you might take the opportunity to use everypony who seeks sanctuary outside the barrier as hostages to force Twilight’s surrender or keep Celestia and her relief force at bay.” That didn’t even get into the positively ghastly possibility that they might be aiming to gather up a bunch of ponies for some other nefarious purpose. These ponies clearly had access to necromancy, and I was talking to an honest-to-goodness vampire. I wasn’t about to hand over my precious Sweetie Belle to their tender mercies regardless of how kindly they asked and how just they insisted their intentions were.

The envoy sighed and shrugged. “I suppose I should’ve known you wouldn’t start believing me now. I do hope you at least took them to one of the civilian shelters instead of the castle. However, if you don't trust my word, then perhaps one of your friends will be able to persuade you.”

The envoy reached into her cloak and withdrew a letter. I immediately noticed that it had been signed with Fluttershy’s butterfly cutie mark. I quickly tore it open and read it through. It looked like her writing and there weren’t any obvious signs of tampering, but even if it wasn’t a forgery I could hardly presume she’d written the letter of her own free will.

A quick read-through didn’t really tell me anything I hadn’t already known, or suspected as soon as I saw the letter was from her. Evidently she’d fallen afoul of Rising’s army while helping some of her animals, and now she was in one of the internment camps along with several others like Zecora. She made it clear that none of them were being mistreated, and she wasn’t in any danger or feeling threatened by her captors.

That last was almost certainly a lie. I would feel quite mistreated and threatened if I were being held against my will, no matter how polite the kidnappers were. Fluttershy ... well she’d gotten a great deal braver than she’d been when I first met her, but even the bravest pony would be terrified in her circumstances.

Still, it was at least a relief to know that Fluttershy and everypony else was okay. Or at least, they were if the letter in my hooves could be trusted. I certainly wanted to believe that was the case, but considering the circumstances, I could hardly do so. The letter could be a forgery, or she could have been coerced into writing it. Or ... well if there was a vampire duplicate of me, why not one of Fluttershy too? It wouldn’t be the maddest thing I’d seen today.

Still, so long as she wanted to play at diplomacy I would do the same. “Everything seems to be in order,” I stated, “but I’m sorry to say that while it’s a personal relief to know that Fluttershy is well, this letter changes nothing. To be quite blunt, a letter written by someone who by your own admission you’re holding prisoner is hardly trustworthy. Perhaps if you gave us time to check to make sure everypony under your ... protection is unharmed and well, I could more easily believe you. Or if you simply withdrew your armies and allowed our civilians to fully evacuate rather than holding them in camps.”

My counterpart chuckled shook her head. “I think you have to know that we can’t allow that when we have less than an hour to work with. You don’t actually want to cooperate with us—you’re just trying to find excuses to drag things out until Canterlot can muster a response.”

“I am offended by the very suggestion,” I lied as smoothly as I did when insisting to some of my less comely customers that they looked simply ravishing. Not that my dresses couldn’t bring out the natural beauty in anypony, but ... well, a dress can only do so much.

Still, knowing some of my friends and associates were already Rising’s prisoners was quite the cause for concern. She didn’t seem to be hinting at using them as hostages against us, but just letting us know they had the prisoners at all could be an implied threat. Not to mention they were probably still hoping to catch flies with honey. Perhaps the threats would come later if we still refused to cooperate with them. For now though, I would continue to play nice. If it was a threat, escalating the matter was not in my interests at all. “I will speak with the others about this, but I doubt very many of Ponyville’s citizens will want to voluntarily surrender to your army.”

“A pity.” The other Rarity made her way out the door, and after a moment I followed. The sun was still high in the sky, and evidently some of the novels I’d read about vampires had been quite mistaken as she neither burst into flames nor began sparkling when the sun’s rays hit her. “I hoped we would be able to evacuate the town before the battle began. The more civilians there are rushing about in a panic, the more likely it is that we all suffer an unfortunate and utterly preventable tragedy. Enough innocents have already died on Twilight and Starlight’s account.” Her eyes narrowed. “If you’re worried about us using the civilians as hostages, you’re concerning yourself with the wrong side in this conflict. Twilight and Starlight murdered whole worlds, so I doubt they would hesitate to threaten a few innocents to escape justice. It’s not as if they could get more blood on their hooves than they have already.”

“I see.” I took a deep breath. “I hate to say it, but it seems we’ve reached something of an impasse. There’s no way you could possibly convince anyone in Ponyville to hand Twilight and Starlight over to you, and I doubt there’s anything I could say to convince you or Rising to stop this.”

“They’re murderers, and we’ve come a very long way to bring them to justice,” my counterpart answered. “We will not be denied in this matter.”

“You seem quite obsessed with destroying them,” I pointed out. “That can’t be healthy.”

“‘Healthy’ is a very relative term in my current condition, darling.” She frowned at me. “You really have no way to even conceive of how much we suffered on account of your dear friends. I spent decades as a horrible rotting zombie before Rising and I found a way to remake me into this more accommodating form. Decades spent trying to find some way to undo all the damage our world had suffered. Rising held off on transforming herself until she was so old she could barely get out of bed just because giving up on the last bit of intelligent equine life in the world felt too much like surrendering to the final death of our world.”

She was right: I couldn’t imagine what that would be like. It was simply to alien to everything I’d known and experienced in my own life. At this point, I questioned if we could even be considered the same pony anymore, given how radically our lives differed. I hated to say it, but I had no idea how to negotiate with people who had suffered so much, not when they were so determined to press ahead whatever the consequences. Obsession could be a very ugly thing, and it had warped my counterpart into an individual much scarier and more dangerous than myself.

Her eyes narrowed, and I could see the cold fury burning within them. “Your friends took everything away from us—our lives, our friends, our families, our entire world. Despite all our efforts, we never managed to rebuild more than a shallow mockery of the world we once had. As if putting drapes over the windows in Canterlot Castle and dressing up our skeletons and calling them castle staff somehow made everything fine. Our world is ... not a fit place to live. All we have left now is to claim justice against the monsters responsible for it.”

There was a rather obvious solution to their problem, though I was rather hesitant to offer it. I was doubtless exceeding my authority by a hair. Still, if it could stop this from ending in battle... “If your world is truly so awful, I’m sure we could offer you sanctuary here. Perhaps with Princesses Celestia, Luna, Cadance, Twilight, and the Magus Corps all applying their talents to the matter, we could even find a way to reverse the damage to your world. I know you spent decades on it, but fresh minds and new perspectives might be able to—”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, darling.” Her eyes dropped down to the slowly melting sundae still hovering along at her side. “Do you know why I got this? I thought it would remind me of better times. It tastes like ash, and the memories of those innocent days with my sister are like a dagger in my heart. You think living in your world would let us forget what was done to us when every single sight and sound is just another reminder of how much your Twilight stole away from us?”

I sighed and shook my head. “I’m not sure what you expect from me, then. I’ve done everything I can to try and find a reasonable solution, but it seems you won’t be content with anything less than our immediate surrender.”

“Then I suggest you get out of our way,” my counterpart snapped back. “Twilight and Starlight will face justice.”

“You know I can’t do that.” I scowled at her. “I may not be a trained soldier like her guards, but I’m no shrinking violet either. I stood by her side against the likes of Nightmare Moon, Discord and Sombra—and if need be, I will stand against you and your Rising Fire as well.

“And you will fail.” The other Rarity tossed the sundae into a trashcan. “You can’t beat us. You’re me, or at least quite similar to how I was before the death of my world. I know what you’re capable of, and to be quite honest darling you don’t belong on the battlefield. You certainly can’t hope to measure up to what I can do.”

My eyes narrowed. I didn’t appreciate being threatened, and I wasn’t about to take that remark lying down. “Plenty of others have underestimated both myself and my friends in the past. And yes, sometimes I even surprised myself with how much I could achieve when I put my mind to it. I’m afraid your threats are falling on deaf ears.”

My counterpart tossed her mane and stepped next to a street light. “Admittedly, words are cheap. Perhaps a slightly more practical demonstration, then?” She casually bumped her hip against the street light. With a screech of protesting metal it bent in half and I instinctively flinched away as the lamp crashed to the ground and sprayed broken glass in all directions. That pole had been made of almost solid metal and had to have been a good twenty centimeters thick, and she’d just bent it in half without trying particularly hard.

My vampire double smirked, seeming quite smug at the fear I evidently hadn’t managed to hide. “You’re in over your head, darling. Do the smart thing and go with your family into the shelters. Rising hesitated to hurt her alternate self and her old friends the last time she came to this world, and because of that, our mission failed and Starlight escaped justice. I took an important lesson away from that: my world is the only one that matters.”

“Is it, though?” I demanded, doing my best to regain my composure despite how fast my heart was racing. Evidently one of the things all my light reading about vampires hadn’t gotten wrong or exaggerated was their superequine strength. “You’ve talked a big game about seeking justice, but how does hurting the innocent ponies of my world make things right? Do you really think murdering innocents will do anything to help avenge your world? Is it what all the dead would want you to do? I think they would much prefer for you to make peace with what happened and move on with your lives.”

“We’ll never know, will we? After all, your Twilight killed them all.” The envoy stared up at the Friendship Castle, taking her time to answer me. “If someone killed your Sweetie Belle—your parents, your friends, everyone you knew and loved—would you let anything stop you from bringing them to justice?”

I scowled at her. “Is that a threat?”

She fixed me with her cold, calculating gaze. “Nothing of the sort, darling. Merely a question.”

I smiled back at her, though to be quite honest a predator might have mistaken it for me baring my teeth. “I’m sure you know exactly what I would do if anything happened to them. And right now, the one threatening my friends, family, and everything I care about—is you. Darling.”

The Rarity of a dead world said nothing for several seconds, remaining unnervingly still and staring at me with her cold, lifeless eyes. Then her head twitched in a small, barely perceptible nod. “So be it. We gave you the chance to stop this without bloodshed. What happens next is on your hooves.”

Author's Note

As always, thanks to my pre-reading and editing team for all their hard work. Also, I would like to thank all my dedicated Patreon supporters. You guys are awesome.

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Chapter 3 - Starlight

I suppose I’d always known that Rising Fire would come for me eventually. After all, even Pinkie Pie knew that the only way to take down a lich for good was to destroy their phylactery. I’d spent years dreading Rising’s return; it was the whole reason I’d gone along with that stupid plan to raid Blackfyre’s old lair, which wound up just getting me in even more trouble, not to mention being exiled from two nations and the scars on my back.

Still, as the years had gone by with no sign of Rising Fire, I eventually dropped my guard. After all, it had been years since I’d seen any sign of the crazy lich, and considering how obsessed she’d been with getting revenge on me for my supposed crimes I figured the only thing that could have stopped her from trying to kill me again was if she couldn’t. Maybe whatever spell Shimmer had used to destroy the lich’s body had followed the connection back to its phylactery and destroyed that as well. I’d heard about spells that could do that, though none of the books I’d read ever confirmed those spells existed.

Then again, if anyone could pull a ridiculously super-powered spell out of her plot to win a fight, it would be Sunset bucking Shimmer. She’d done it to me plenty of times.

Anyone would’ve wanted to believe Rising Fire wouldn’t be coming back. To be honest, most of that night had faded away into a vague blur of pain and bad memories. The hospital stay after the fight was a lot clearer for me—a hospital visit that wouldn’t have been as long if Strumming hadn’t drugged me to get me back in the fight, which probably hadn’t done my memory any favors. At least I’d survived, despite Rising’s best efforts.

I suppose it had just been stupid wishful thinking to believe I’d never have to deal with that crazy lich. But really, who could blame me? I had a lot of ugly stuff in my past, and dwelling on it never did me any good. The last time I’d gotten too stressed over Rising Fire, it ended with me getting locked into that stupid deal with Blackfyre. Not that trying to move past her had put an end to my troubles either, especially now that Rising was back.

It wasn’t fair! I already had enough people angry at me for all the things I had done. I didn’t need some crazy obsessed lich coming after me for something I was completely innocent of! I knew I hadn’t blown up Rising’s world, but there were times I wish I had done it. Nothing less than the crazy monster deserved for—

No. A nagging little voice in the back of my mind that sounded a lot like Twilight spoke up to say that I wasn’t that pony anymore. The one who became a crazy revenge-obsessed monster, or who was willing to throw her lot in with Blackfyre as long as it kept her own hide safe. I was in a better place now, and I was going to stay there by not letting myself fall back into old habits.

It would help if I had more to do than pace around the map room as Twilight frantically worked to try and break whatever spell was keeping us from calling for help. You would think the big gigantic shield keeping anyone like me from running away would have been a pretty good sign to anyone from Canterlot or the surrounding communities that something was up. That was probably why Rising planned to attack us so soon: she wanted to finish us off before Canterlot could organize a response. Knowing my luck, the relief force from Canterlot would show up just in time to see Rising finish me off.

Ugh, why did my life have to be so unfair? I hadn’t done anything to deserve this. Sure, I’d made some really bad mistakes, but none warranted a crazy lich trying to kill me. You’d think I would’ve suffered enough without adding that on top of all my other problems.

Twilight let out a loud groan and crumpled up her notes, tossing them aside. I guess whatever she’d just tried hadn’t worked out. I sighed. “Why are you even bothering with that? Celestia can see the barrier over Ponyville just by looking out her window. I’m pretty sure sending her a letter is a moot point by now.”

“Yes, she’ll know something is going on,” Twilight grumbled while pulling out a fresh sheet of parchment and starting over. “At least, she will assuming Rising isn’t doing something to hide what she’s done to Ponyville—and we can’t assume that. But yes, if Celestia can tell what’s going on, she's probably trying to get a message to Spike right now. When she finds the spell is blocked, she’ll send someone to investigate, because right now she has no idea what’s going on. If we can get a message to her, she’ll be able to organize a response a lot faster and be much better prepared.”

I scoffed. “Why send scouts when she can just teleport straight to Ponyville herself?”

Twilight let out a long-suffering sigh and counted off on her feathers. “First, because teleporting blind into an unknown and potentially hazardous situation is really, really, really dangerous. Second, the spell Rising has over Ponyville includes a dimensional lock, so she couldn’t teleport here anyway. Third, if Rising can cast a dimensional lock, she might also have teleportation traps set up to catch anyone trying to come here. Fourth, because her place is managing the front-line response in Canterlot and not running off all by herself and leaving the city and army leaderless in the process.”

“Fine, forget I asked.” I went back to pacing, muttering under my breath. “I was just trying to help.” I didn’t say it loud enough for Twilight to hear me, or maybe she’d just gotten back to work and ignored me. For a moment, I wanted to increase the volume of my complaints until she couldn’t ignore me. I stopped and took a couple deep breaths, trying to think back to Twilight’s lessons about staying in control of my emotions.

I wasn’t mad at Twilight, I was scared. Who wouldn’t be in my shoes? But if I didn’t keep that under control I’d end up lashing out at one of the ponies trying to help me, and then I’d be stuck in a stupid and pointless argument that just wasted all our time. And considering Rising’s one hour ultimatum was almost over, we really didn’t have any time to waste.

“Starlight, I require a report from you.”

I blinked as Storm’s voice pulled me out of my brooding. I’d been so wrapped up in my own thoughts that I hadn’t even noticed Storm walking up on me. But then, I mostly tried to ignore the captain of Twilight’s guard most of the time anyways. Given my rather colorful history with Twilight, it wasn’t much of a surprise that Storm didn’t like me. I was pretty sure Storm had argued vehemently against me becoming Twilight’s student and getting to live in the castle. Probably something about security risks and my criminal record.

It didn’t help that a nagging part in the back of my mind kept saying that I wouldn’t have let someone like me into the castle either. Letting a former enemy of yours into your home to live with you like a normal pony was just asking for trouble. But Twilight had done just that, and if she hadn’t... It was probably best not thinking about that too hard.

I did my best to ignore those unpleasant thoughts to concentrate on Storm. “Um, what kind of report?”

“About Rising and her forces,” Storm stated with her typical brand of bland stoicism. “I need to learn everything you know about them and their capabilities.”

That made sense. Given it was going to be her fellow guardponies that were going to have to do the bulk of fighting against Rising’s forces, she was going to want to know everything she could. “Oh, right. Of course. Well...” I frowned as I shifted through fuzzy memories from over a decade ago. Everything had happened so quickly and confusingly. It wasn’t helping that it had been dark or that I’d been injured, or that I didn’t want to remember anything from that nightmarish night to start with. “She uses lots of skeletal undead, but I think those are mostly just fodder. They all seemed like your basic undead minion: dumb, slow, and only able to follow simple directions. Though she had some kind of pegasus that was way stronger, and she's apparently a really good spellcaster.”

“What can you tell me about this pegasus?”

I shrugged, my memories of the fight with the pegasus undead being a blur. “She was really fast and hit hard. She was also intelligent, capable of communicating, strategizing, and was autonomous. If I had to guess, I’d say she was some sort of revenant, though I didn’t get to study her before she was destroyed. I’d be more worried about how tough she was than what exact type of undead she is—I barely beat her, and she pretty much took me out in exchange.”

I decided not to add that I got some help from Sunset to win that fight. I probably could have beaten the revenant if I’d known what I was going up against. Up to that point we’d just been going up against simple undead. The revenant had been an unpleasant surprise; revenants could be pretty nasty given they were usually obsessed with getting revenge for something that happened to them while they were still living.

Storm frowned as she considered what I’d told her. “How did you defeat it?”

“She was really fast, so I couldn’t hit her with any of my spells,” I told her. “I basically had to dupe her into grabbing me and then blasting her at point-blank.”

“I see.” Storm’s eyes briefly flickered to her princess, who was busy jotting down notes as she cast a spell. “And just how powerful of a spellcaster is Rising?”

“Really strong. Like, alicorn strong, and really skilled. She was in an entirely different class from me or Sunset and it showed.” I shook my head as distorted images of that nightmare flashed through my memory. “It took me and all of Sunset’s group to beat her, and we barely pulled it off.”

“And how did you beat her?”

“Honestly...” I rubbed my forehead as I tried to organize my jumbled memories. “I don't know. I ... kind of passed out before the fight was over.”

Storm frowned and shook her head. She had probably hoped that I had some sort of secret to defeating Rising, some hidden weakness the lich had, but if Rising had one I didn’t know about it. “Bothersome. Do you remember anything else, anything that might be useful in a fight?”

I thought hard. Considering Storm and her fellow guards were about the only thing standing between me and Rising, it seemed like a good idea to tell her anything she could use to keep the crazy undead away from me. “Um ... the pegasus revenant seemed hyper-focused on me. Like, the one or two times Sunset or her friends got involved, it just yelled at them to stay out of the fight and then got back to me.”

“Rising did say she wanted to arrest you and Her Highness,” Storm pointed out.

“Yeah, I guess she really has a beef with me.” I frowned and rubbed my chin. Something was nagging me, but I couldn’t quite put my hoof on it. “Well, me and Twilight now.”

Storm’s wings flickered. “I do not know what possible crimes this Rising thinks Her Highness could be responsible for.”

I ignored the fact that she hadn’t included me in that statement. I mean, really—sure, I’d done a few bad things, usually because I miscalculated something I couldn’t have foreseen, but I wasn’t about to go and destroy a world like Rising said. That was just insane. “Maybe Rarity can help explain it.”

Though I expected Rarity to come up with the same conclusion I had. Unless everyone rolled over and gave me and Twilight to Rising, I severely doubted there would be any kind of agreement. I certainly wasn’t going to turn myself in to some crazy lich so she could do something horrible to me, and while Twilight might be tempted to do something noble and stupid like sacrifice herself to try and keep anyone from getting hurt, I couldn’t see everypony letting her, me included. Storm, Rainbow, and Spike would definitely be against the idea of Twilight turning herself over, and I was pretty sure I could convince the others that it would be a stupid idea.

Storm she stared at me with her best Royal Guard disapproval frown. I always hated when she looked at me that way. “What?”

She kept staring at me with that intent gaze. “I am deeply concerned with protecting my princess, whose life is in danger from an undead army.”

She hadn’t said it out loud, but I could hear her thinking that I’d somehow brought Rising here. “Well maybe she shouldn't have done whatever she did to set Rising off then,” I snapped off.

Storm’s frown became an outright scowl. “I assure you, Her Highness has done nothing to warrant her arrest. What is more, I would have hoped you would be appreciative for everything Her Highness has done for you since you became her student.”

“I am,” I growled as I got real tired of this conversation. Storm was probably just holding a grudge against me for beating the palace’s security... Well, I had snuck in when everypony was away, including most of the guards, but that had been the smart way to go about it.

Somehow, Storm became even more stiff and she turned away from me. “Unless you have something else important to add about the undead horde that is going to try and batter down the gates in a matter of minutes, I need to return to Her Highness and finish what preparations we can before Rising’s deadline.”

Finally, I was about done with Ms. Stick-Up-Her-Plot. “I don’t have anything else to add other than I've got a few new spells that should help out once Rising and crew show up.”

Storm stopped and raised an eyebrow. “What are they?”

I thought I might have heard a note of wariness in Storm’s tone, but I was probably just jumping to conclusions. Everyone was pretty stressed at the moment, and the last thing we needed was to start snapping at each other. “Let's just say I've learned a lot since the last time I ran into Rising Fire.” I couldn’t help but smirk as I thought of the nasty tricks I’d learned over the years. “I'd like to see how she deals with teleporting and Blightfire.”

Storm considered me for a long moment with an unreadably stoic expression. “I see. I believe you are going to get your chance to try. The number of undead our scouts have spotted are ... considerable.”

I rolled my neck as I tried to concentrate. If I couldn’t run from Rising, then it was going to come down to a fight, and I wasn’t about to let myself be taken. “I'll look forward to showing what I can do, then.”

Storm stared at me with an inscrutable gaze. “Technically, you are not a soldier. You do not have to fight alongside us and are within your rights to hide along with the other civilians.”

I met her gaze with my own. “Are you really gonna turn down getting help from an Alpha-Plus unicorn?”

Storm frowned contemplatively. It was always frowns with this mare. The only difference was what sort of frown she was giving me at any given moment. Still, she showed she was reasonable when she said, “No.”

I smirked, feeling just a tiny bit smug that for all of Storm’s dislike of me, she still wanted my help. “Well then...” I glanced out the window to see a familiar pony approaching the castle. “Looks like Rarity's coming back.”

Storm stepped up to the window to look down at Rarity and her escorting guards. Though even with this she sounded stoic rather than showing any kind of relief or happiness like a normal pony would. “Yes, she seems to be fine. That will make Her Highness happy. She was nervous.” She glanced back at Twilight, who was frantically jotting down notes on one of the half dozen blackboards that had been set up in the Map Room while Spike delivered a fresh set of scrolls and writing instruments.

I recognized the look Twilight was getting in her eyes and knew where that was leading if we didn’t head it off. “Twilight, you can stop panicking. Rarity's coming back and she looks fine.”

“Panicking? Who said I was panicking?!” Twilight awkwardly laughed in a manner that told me we had reached a seven out of ten on the Twilighting Scale. “I'm only failing to break Rising’s spell that’s preventing us from asking for assistance while an undead army threatens to invade my hometown and attack everyone here I love and care about! What’s there to panic about when we’ve only got a matter of minutes until all Tartarus breaks loose and I haven’t made any serious progress?!” One of her ears flicked, and her right eye twitched a bit.

Seven point five, then.

Storm grimaced. She knew how bad Twilight getting overstressed could be, especially at a time like this. “Defensive preparations are going as well as could be expected.”

“Right, defensive preparations.” Twilight started pacing around as she grabbed up another scroll, talking to herself all the while. “Shield ready, guards should all be at station by now, and castle lockdown ready at a moment’s notice. Civilian evacuation? Accounting for the time it normally takes for a full evacuation, time lost due to panic and confusion...” She mumbled off a bunch of numbers to herself. “There isn't going to be enough time to make sure everyone is in a shelter!”

Twilight started hyperventilating, and I stepped in and started rubbing her back to try and get her to calm down while Spike quickly started brewing a pot of her favorite tea. The last thing we needed right now was Twilight falling apart on us. The idea that everypony might not be in a shelter in time was obviously going to distress her, and it didn’t exactly make the rest of us feel great either. There had to be something we could do to give everypony time to do just that?

An idea hit me and I laid it out on the table. “We could always sally out to buy time for evacuation. Rising’s forces could hardly ignore it if a bunch of guardponies went out there and started smashing up her undead.”

Storm frowned, this one being of the disapproving variety. “We could, but that would stretch what limited forces we already have when we are already significantly outnumbered. Not to mention any sallying force we send out would be vulnerable. Here in the palace we have a fortified position and means to limit how many undead we’re fighting at any given moment. Out in the open we would lose that advantage.”

I wasn’t about to let her win the argument that easily. There were ponies out there I liked, and I didn’t want to see any of them hurt. “And what happens if we stay safe and secure in the palace and don't let all the common ponies get to safety?” Storm didn’t immediately produce a counter argument to that point. Part of the oath she had made upon joining the Royal Guard was to protect the people of Equestria, so she couldn’t argue against a sally without breaking that oath.

Or at least, that’s how I’d hoped she would see things. Too bad she found a way around it. “If our forces get surrounded and cut off, the palace and shelters will be left defenceless. Getting the civilians to shelters will do no good if the shelters themselves are not secure. Not only would we still lose the ones outside, but we would endanger everyone who’s already made it to safety.”

“Only if everything goes wrong,” I countered. “I thought your guards were fast enough to not get outrun and surrounded by a bunch of shambling zombies.”

Storm scowled at me. “The battlefield is unpredictable, and we are facing a powerful lich and other threats alongside the basic frontline troops.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “So you’re going to leave a bunch of ponies out there just because something might go wrong?!”

Twilight jumped into the conversation before Storm could answer. “I understand we’re taking a big risk, but Starlight is right.” She set a hoof on Storm’s shoulder. “I’d rather try to save everypony and fail than give up on some of the civilians and be right.”

Storm didn’t say anything for a couple seconds, then slowly nodded. “Very well, Your Highness. It is going to be difficult to delay our enemy, if not impossible.” She went to look over the map of Ponyville and its surroundings she had placed on the Map Table, and carefully studied it. “We only need to distract them for a bit. Assuming our enemy does not have fine control over the bulk of the undead, a small force would have significantly more maneuverability and initiative. We could lay an ambush. If all goes well, we might even be able to draw in one of their leaders as they try and see what is disrupting their advance and eliminate them.”

I smiled, liking the sound of this idea. “Exactly. Of course, for a good ambush we'd need something to draw them in...” My eyes turned to Twilight as a plan started forming.

Rising seemed to be as obsessed with Twilight as me. If that was the case then she’d make a bee line right to Twilight if she showed herself, perhaps even divert her entire army towards her. That definitely qualified as a distraction, and in a pinch Twilight could teleport. It wasn’t like she was helpless in a fight. She was definitely better off than most of the ponies just trying to get to safety. She might even be able to kill Rising, perhaps for good this time, especially if her friends and guards got involved. Rising was scary, but no more so than the likes of Nightmare Moon, Discord, or Sombra.

Pity a certain somepony was completely against the idea. Storm was fixing me with possibly the unhappiest scowl she had given me yet, and for once her perpetually stoic and proper tone had an edge of venom to it. “Do you have a suggestion on just who we would use for bait for this plan? This is your idea, after all.”

Uh-oh. I just saw the critical flaw in my suggestion. Ideally, the bait for an ambush should be something that could be sacrificed. Twilight was a princess, and I was ... decidedly not. Considering Rising was equally obsessed about both of us, it wasn’t hard to see who most ponies would see as the more acceptable bait, especially the princess-worshiping Storm. And as Storm was all too willing to point out, this was my plan. Ponies had a way of thinking that just because you came up with the plan you should also be a central part of it.

Before I could backtrack on my suggestion and come up with some other plan that wouldn’t involve putting my rear into the fire, Twilight’s eyes twinkled and she took my hoof into her own. “Would you be willing to do this, Starlight? I know it's incredibly dangerous, so I could never tell you to do this, but a lot of ponies are in danger. If you could help them...”

“Uh...” I tried to think of a good way to get out of this crazy plan. I’d kind of been hoping Twilight would volunteer to do it and nobly insist on taking the risk while I made a token effort to dissuade her. There wasn’t any way I could ask her to do it without coming across as really self-serving, horrible, and cowardly. Honestly, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that maybe asking Twilight to risk her life while I stayed safe back in the castle probably wasn’t one of my more moral plans.

Worse still, Twilight was hitting me full force with that hopeful, idealistic smile she usually got when she just knew everything was going to be alright because she had her friends around to help. It was the type of smile I couldn’t bring myself to kill by shattering her illusions. Not after all she had done for me since taking me on as her student. It made me want to be a better mare, so I’d actually deserve all the hope she had for me.

The last thing I wanted to do was expose myself to Rising. The Friendship Castle wasn’t perfect, but it was the safest place in Ponyville, and it had the entire Twilight Guard standing between me and Rising. Shame I couldn’t come up with any good excuses to get out of this.

I guess I’d been wrong then. There was one thing I wanted to do even less than face Rising: let Twilight down. Despite my newfound determination, the smile I gave her still felt extremely brittle along the edges. “Right. Of course. And I’m happy to do whatever I can to help”

Storm nodded approvingly. “I will see to setting up the ambush then. Considering Starlight is being used as bait, I think there is a significant chance Rising will show up. I can bring a unit of skirmishers, and in the event Rising or one of the stronger forms of undead show up we will also be bringing along a Long Patrol hunter-killer team as well.”

“And where will you be?” I asked as my heart started to beat faster. My legs were almost quivering with anxiety, and I hated the feeling. It made me want to lash out at something to make the feeling go away.

“I will be coming as well.” Storm tapped the chestpiece of her armor. “If Rising does show up, then Shadow’s Armor should be a good counter to her spellcasting. It was made to defeat enemies like her.”

While I wasn’t wild about the idea of having to depend on Storm for this plan, she did have a good point there. Shadow’s Armor was designed to absorb any spell thrown at its wielder and let her throw it right back at their opponent. It had several other nifty tricks, but that was arguably the biggest one. The Armor was a big reason why I’d waited until Storm was away to try and infiltrate the palace. With how dependent I was on magic, the armor was a hard counter to me, and I had a good feeling it’d be the same for Rising.

I felt my confidence start to rise. “That might just work. If we can take Rising out, then her whole army might fall apart.” Simplistic forms of undead depended pretty heavily on the necromancer using them to be of any kind of use. Without anyone in charge of them, they might even fall apart right on the spot.

“It would be great if you can pull that off,” Twilight said. “Where are you—”

Twilight got cut off when Rarity trotted into the room. Her glower could match anything Storm could produce, and the indignant huff she spoke in told me pretty quickly the talks had gone about as well as I expected them to. “Hello everypony. We don’t have much time, so I’ll be brief: I'm sorry to say that my talk with Rising's envoy didn't go as well as we could have hoped. They rejected any attempt to negotiate or to slow things down. The only terms they were willing to discuss are what terms we’ll turn Starlight and Twilight over to them.”

“There's a big surprise,” I said with maximum sarcasm. “It’s like the crazy unreasonable lich is completely unreasonable and crazy.”

Rarity tossed her mane with a huff. “It was still worth a try, and I did learn a few things.”

“Any good news is welcome at this point,” Twilight said as she returned to her work to break Rising’s spell.

Storm nodded. “Anything might be useful.”

“To keep it short, Rising and her followers claim to be from another world. Another timeline specifically, one similar to our own.” For some reason, Rarity’s gaze shifted to me. “And their envoy claimed Twilight and Starlight destroyed their world.”

Twilight jerked and dropped the piece of chalk she had been using. “Wait, what?! They're from another world?!” She shifted her head from side to side as her thoughts raced. “Why would they think I destroyed their world? I would never do that. Still, it's fascinating they’re from another world. That has so many—“

Spike pressed a claw to Twilight’s muzzle before she ran off onto a tangent that would lead to Celestia-only-knew-where. “Twilight, concentrate. No going off on tangents. We don’t have time for you to go into quantum and interdimensional mechanics right now.” Twilight frowned down at her assistant, but she didn’t argue with him either.

Though Rarity mentioning the other world stuff did jog my memory. “Oh yeah, I think I remember something about that. It was all pretty weird and crazy.”

Twilight’s ear twitched as she frowned. “Why didn't you mention this earlier?! This is a pretty big deal if it’s true.”

I shrugged. “I didn't really remember it until she jogged my memory. It was over a decade ago, and I had a pretty long hospital stay after the fight. Plus I was out of it for a lot of the fight with Rising, so I probably had a concussion or something.”

“Right, right.” Twilight didn’t sound entirely happy with my perfectly reasonable explanation. Maybe she suspected that I was holding back something that would make me look bad, or just the truth that I’d worked really hard to forget as much as I could about that night. Whatever was on her mind, she returned to jotting notes down on the chalkboard and casting the odd spell. “Anyways, I certainly don’t remember destroying any worlds, and global genocide isn’t the kind of thing I would forget.”

I shrugged. “Like I said, Rising and her crew are crazies who believe their own craziness.”

“Whatever the truth is, she seemed quite convinced that you did it,” Rarity said. “And they're serious about their attack; of that I'm certain. Unfortunately, they're also completely unwilling to delay so we can have more time to negotiate. I tried to convince them to give us time to substantiate their claims, but they wouldn’t bite.”

“It would have been nice to have dragged negotiations out long enough for reinforcements,” Storm said. “Though I imagine they suspected we would try to do so.”

Rarity sighed. “I tried, but their envoy was very aware that any delay would make it that much more likely help would arrive in time to stop them. It’s a big part of why they only gave us an hour to react. And the bad news doesn’t end there.”

“Might as well pull in another train into Bad News Station,” Spike grumbled as he tried to organize the scrolls filled with Twilight’s notes. “Not like the bad news is going to get any better anytime soon.”

Rarity grimaced and looked around the room. “Where is Cloud Kicker?”

“In one of the civilian shelters, trying to keep order and calm everypony down,” Storm answered. “Why do you ask? Do you need her?”

“She’ll want to hear about this, but there’s no time to wait for her.” Rarity took a deep breath and laid it out. “Rising has probably taken a number of ponies outside of the shield as prisoners, including Fluttershy.”

“WHAT?!” Twilight ripped the scroll she had been writing on in half. “W-we have to do something! Storm, can we organize a rescue operation?!”

Storm took a few seconds before answering. “Highness, we do not know what it will take to get through that shield, and we do not know where they are keeping the prisoners. Without more information we would not even know where to start with a rescue. Furthermore, our forces are already badly outnumbered as is. If we are not careful, we could end up stretching our forces so thin they will not be able to accomplish any of their missions, which includes protecting the palace and everyone inside.”

Storm didn’t state it specifically, but it wasn’t hard to imply that the list of ponies being protected within the palace included Twilight. Twilight probably wouldn’t be as easily convinced if it was just her safety being considered, but there was also the flood of refugees coming into the palace to think about. Objectively speaking, it was pretty hard to argue with Storm’s logic. Yeah, I didn’t want Fluttershy or any of the others to get hurt, but as my time as mayor of my own village had taught me: when you have limited resources, you have to spend them carefully to get the most bang for your buck.

Twilight stiffened as she considered the same logical problems for the situation we were facing. “Okay then. We’ll ... postpone any plans for a rescue for now.”

Storm nodded slightly. “I am sorry, Highness. I will watch the situation closely and let you know if we find out anything that could be used to help return Fluttershy.”

Not wanting to get the conversation hung up on something we couldn't do anything about, I asked, “What about the attackers? Was the envoy a pegasus with a metal wing? Or a big metallic lich with a lot of green fire?”

Rarity shook her head. “No, I didn’t see anything like that. They sent someone else as their envoy.” She shuffled, visibly reluctant to continue. “I know this next part will sound crazy, but you’re going to have to believe me. The envoy was … myself, or their world's version myself at least. And I know this will sound even crazier, but she was a vampire of all things. It was a ghastly thing to have to speak with her, let me tell you.”

“There being a vampire version of you from another dimension does sound pretty crazy,” Spike agreed. “That sounds like the plot for some of my comic books. Not that I don’t believe you!” he was quick to add when he drew a modest scowl from Rarity.

“It is theoretically possible if we’re dealing with alternate realities.” Twilight jotted down some more equations onto a chalkboard. “It is fascinating though. I wonder if that means—” She vigorously shook her head. “Concentrate, Twilight. Multidimensional mechanics can wait until later.”

I snorted. “That’s assuming they’re even telling the truth. They could be lying about everything, and are probably just playing mind games with us. Which seems more likely: that some insane lich is yanking our chains with some convoluted scheme intended to throw us off our game, or that we’re dealing with extra-dimensional doppelgangers who are seeking revenge for their destroyed world?”

“Well...” Spike made a so-so motion with his claw. “We’ve been through some pretty crazy things in the past. I mean, there was that time where we got sucked into a comic book and turned into the superheroes inside of it. After that, I’d say all sorts of crazy things are possible. I don’t believe that Twilight could do what they claimed she did for a moment, but the rest of the stuff? Maybe.”

“I guess you’ve got a point.” My life had become really crazy since moving to Ponyville. Well, it hadn’t exactly been normal before becoming Twilight’s student, but the level of weirdness in my daily life had definitely shot up afterwards. Though the mention of there being a double of Rarity did jostle another memory. “Come to think of it, that pegasus revenant did kind look like Rainbow.”

Spike crossed his arms over his chest. “And you just now thought to mention this?”

I was starting to get real tired of everyone getting on my case. It wasn’t like any of this was my fault! “Remember the part where it was over a decade ago and I got beaten up, drugged, and hospitalized? It was before you were even born! Also, it was dark, that thing was partially decayed, and Rainbow doesn’t exactly have a monopoly on having a rainbow mane and blue coat. Excuse me if I don’t have a perfect memory of every last detail!”

Thankfully, Rarity piped in to get the pressure off of me. “Let's try and concentrate on what's important right now: we don't have much time. If it was their intention to throw me off my game, then it worked.” A shiver ran up Rarity’s spine. “That other Rarity gave me quite a fright. She looked almost just like me, but she was just so ... cold.”

“Whatever their origins, we can add a vampire to the list of enemies we have,” Storm said, focusing on the tactical side of things for the upcoming battle. “That is at least three powerful undead creatures we will have to deal with.”

“I certainly wouldn’t take my double lightly.” Rarity straightened herself. “Just from what I saw, she is supernaturally strong. She wasn’t even affected by sunlight.”

Twilight tapped a piece of chalk against her lips. “Assuming she isn’t using some form of magic to protect herself from sunlight, that means she’s probably an elder vampire. Vampires have a tendency of shedding many of their weaknesses as they age, even sunlight. Though usually they have to be at least centuries old for that to happen.” She pressed her lips together. “And an elder vampire is going to be even stronger and faster than a normal vampire.”

“That's ... messy,” I commented. I wasn’t a scholar, but I’d read through the Bestiary of Common Monsters in Equestria, and that book had made it very clear that vampires weren’t a joke even when you could use their more common weaknesses against them.

Great, just another problem to have to worry about. And here I thought I had more than enough trouble as it was.

Twilight cast another spell and winced as she got hit with some feedback. “It’s a whole lot messier than I like to think about. In fact—Storm, can you have Spike escorted to the saferoom? That’s going to be about as safe as anywhere.”

That much was true. As part of general defense preparations, a saferoom had been set up in the castle. It had all the amenities and supplies a pony (or a baby dragon) would need for weeks. What’s more, it was reinforced with an adamantine exterior and enough defensive wards to give anyone that tried to break in a very, very bad day. If it wasn’t for the fact that I’d gotten myself drawn into a crazy ambush plan by Storm, that’s probably where I would have been heading—and if I wasn’t using it, Spike might as well. Spike had always been nice to me, and I didn’t want him to get hurt just because some insane lich was hunting me down for completely crazy reasons.

But Spike didn’t feel the same way as he jerked in surprise. “What?! No!” He grasped onto Twilight’s leg and looked up to her with pleading eyes. “I'm not going anywhere! I'm sticking right here with you.”

“Spike, no,” Twilight declared with her best parental voice. “Rising is after me and Starlight. I don't want you getting hurt because you're near me.”

“I don't care!” Spike squeezed Twilight’s leg like he was going to lose her forever if he let go. “I'm not going to let anything happen to you!”

I placed a hoof on Spike to try as I tried to convince him to go to the saferoom. “Spike, I really think Twilight has the right idea. You’re just a baby dragon, and Rising is ... well, she’s really bad news. I’d feel a lot better if you were someplace safe.”

“And what about all of you?!” Spike shrieked. “You’re not going to be safe, and I can help! I’m still a dragon, you know! Remember all the times I’ve helped you with stuff like this?”

Before we could get stuck in an endless cycle of argument with him, Rarity’s eyes twinkled and she stepped into the conversation. “If I might suggest something, perhaps Spike can go down to the bunker where everypony else is going for safety?” She smiled as she nuzzled Spike. “I’m sure the guards there would appreciate having such a brave dragon such as you. I’m sure if those horrid undead try and break through you could use your dragonfire to clear the whole hallway leading into the bunker.”

Spike bit his lip. “I don’t know...”

It was pretty obvious that Rarity was manipulating Spike to try and get him to safety, and I couldn't fault her for it. The battlefield was no place for a baby dragon, and ... I’d feel pretty guilty if he got hurt on my behalf. The bunker, being in the basement of the palace, might not have been as secure as the saferoom, but it at least had a nice set of magically reinforced doors intended to keep invaders out, and there would be guards there to keep it safe. It was a whole lot better than nothing, or standing near Twilight.

“I think it’s a good idea,” I said. “I’m sure you could do a lot of good in the bunker, and everypony would probably feel a lot safer with Spike the Hero there to protect them.”

Twilight tipped up Spike’s chin with a hoof so that they could look face-to-face. “Spike, can you do this for me? Please?”

Spike’s claws tightened before he slowly let Twilight go. His shoulders slumped as his gaze fell to the floor. “Okay, if that’s what you really want.” He sniffed and rubbed his nose. “Just take care of yourselves. Okay? I ... I just want everypony to be okay when this is over.”

Twilight gave him a quick hug. “I understand. We’ll do our best to make sure nopony gets hurt.” She slowly broke her embrace before nodding to Storm. The captain of her bodyguard spoke with a couple of guardponies who escorted the downcast baby dragon out of the Map Room. Twilight’s ears wilted as she returned to her scrolls, her movements now without the vigor they had previously.

Once Spike was gone Rarity let out a long sigh. “I trust the other preparations have been going better while I was gone?”

Storm nodded. “As well as could be expected.”

Twilight cast another spell and winced as violent sparks flashed from her horn. She rubbed her horn as she mumbled curses under her breath.

Curious how the progress was going with Rising’s spell, I asked, “What're you trying to do?”

“What I’m trying to do is figure out a way to break Rising’s spell.” Twilight growled. “The problem is that it’s a complicated piece of work. In addition to a range of defensive wards keeping anypony from disabling it, the spell has several redundancies built into it to keep it from being easily disabled. If I try and disable any of the strands, there are several more ready to take over, and Rising can just reinforce and recast elements of the spell to make sure it stays up. So it’s an utter pain to get at, and Rising can fix any damage I do to it as quickly as I can cause it. Rising must be a first-class caster to have set this thing up and make sure it has enough juice to keep going. Under different circumstances I would have loved to study this thing. It’s ... if this Rising is from another world, she must’ve known a lot about the communication spells Celestia uses. I wonder if she was a student of Celestia’s in this alternate dimension? Or maybe even ... an alternate-dimension version of Celestia.”

Rarity cleared her throat. “Actually, I believe my counterpart mentioned that this Rising Fire used to be Sunset Shimmer. Apparently she took over after their version of Celestia perished.”

Sunset Shimmer. Well that’s just ... typical. I probably should’ve guessed it was her. Who else would go that far to ruin my life? The version of her that wasn’t an evil insane lich had caused me plenty of trouble already. Just a month after I moved in with Twilight she and Argentium filed a diplomatic protest with Celestia because ... well because Celestia hadn’t cut my head off or added me to her statue garden or whatever it was they wanted. As far as they were concerned, I didn’t deserve a second chance to turn my life around.

Twilight grimaced. “Well, an alternate version of Sunset Shimmer isn’t as bad as an evil Celestia, at least. Though that does explain how she knows how to block the spells we’d normally use to get in touch with Celestia.” She rubbed her chin, and I could tell she was already trying to figure out how to use this new information.

“Anything I can do to help crack the communication blackout?” I asked. “I’d really prefer to have those reinforcements coming in sooner rather than later.”

“Mind reviewing my notes?” Twilight levitated a scroll over to me. “Maybe there’s something I’m missing here.”

After about ten seconds of reviewing the arcane runes and formula on the scroll, it felt like my eyeballs were about to start bleeding. Some of the runes hurt my brain just looking at them. Give me a few hours and I might be able to make sense of it, but as it was all of this went right over my head. I’d never really been into the high-level theory side of magic like Twilight—it was part of why I’d had trouble at the School for Gifted Unicorns. Why waste time reading a bunch of dense complicated spell formulae to tell me how to cast a spell when I could just cast the spell?

Of course, trying to smash my way through Rising’s wards would probably be an exercise in futility. I sighed and put down the scroll. “I’ll think about this and get back to you.” I clenched my teeth as I noted the perpetually frowning Storm. “In the meantime, I have an ambush to take part in.”

Author's Note

As always, thanks to my pre-reading and editing team for all their hard work. Also, I would like to thank all my dedicated Patreon supporters. You guys are awesome.

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Chapter 4 - Starlight

I was not happy about getting used as bait. What was I thinking when I came up with this stupid plan? At the time it seemed like a good way to protect the innocent ponies of Ponyville. After all, the whole reason they were in danger was because some lich had an insane grudge against me. Plus, I didn't want to disappoint Twilight. Again. Those were the kind of things a good and noble pony was supposed to do and care about, and Twilight had spent a lot of time trying to help me become one of those.

Ugh! Being a good pony would be a lot easier if this whole situation wasn’t so unfair! Why couldn’t it just be a friendship lesson?! Why did I have to be the one that Rising had developed a crazy obsession with? Hadn’t I gone through enough already without getting some crazy undead monster developing a random murderous obsession with me?

I wouldn’t have even needed to come out here as bait if ponies had gone straight to the shelters like they were supposed to during an emergency like this. An hour—a full stupid hour everypony had to get to someplace safe, but even as the last minutes of Rising’s deadline ticked away I could still see ponies milling about. A couple of Storm’s guards had even caught Snips and Snails trying to find somewhere to watch the battle because they thought it would be cool to see a big battle between the Twilight Guard and an undead army. Applejack also had a lot of trouble getting Granny Smith to the shelter. Apparently she’d gotten stubborn about how she’d been at that farm all her life and no ‘Gosh-durn skellingtons’ were going to make her leave it now. Idiots.

Then there were the ponies who tried loading up carts full of their personal possessions to take to the shelters. Did they honestly think they would be able to fit all that crap into an underground bunker? The most anypony was allowed to bring with them into the shelters were the essentials they could pack into their saddlebags. We had a practice drill at least once a year for this type of thing for pony’s sake! Not that everypony even needed the drills in Ponyville; monsters attacked so regularly that everypony got plenty of experience doing the real thing, so it wasn’t like everypony was ignorant about what they were supposed to do.

So you would think everypony would be a pro at this by now, but nope! There was still the same hooffull of stragglers that always delayed the closing of the shelters. Oh sure, most everypony was somewhere safe by now, but it was always a few jerks that had to ruin everything for everypony. And it was because of them that I was going to have to put my neck on the line instead of being nicely secure inside of a castle protected by some of the best wards I’d ever seen. I could’ve been standing besides an alicorn princess with a full company of the Royal Guard between me and danger, but instead I was out here practically inviting one of my worst nightmares to come get me. Perfect, just perfect.

This kind of thing never would’ve happened at my old village. When I gave the orders there, everyone jumped to getting it done with a smile.

I sighed and shook my head. Of course they’d have leapt to obey me, I’d enslaved them all. What I’d done to them was a lot worse than a few ponies taking too long to get to safety. It made me wonder ... everypony here was sticking by me when Rising Fire had come for my head. Would it have been the same if all the ponies from my old village had wanted to kill me instead of eventually being willing to forgive me? For that matter, had they actually forgiven me on their own, or was that just lingering effects of the brainwashing and stable syndrome?

I was so sick of making mistakes and regretting them. Every time I’d tried to get my life back on track, I’d gone wrong with it sooner or later and I wound up in jail, or exiled, or on basically lifelong probation. Being Twilight’s personal student sounded nice and all, but I didn’t have any illusions about what it actually meant. As long as I kept doing the right things and learning friendship lessons it was fine, but we both knew part of her job was to slap me down and report me to the authorities if I started falling back into old habits.

Oh well. At least if I died heroically it would prove I’d reformed myself.

At least Twilight had given me a set of armor the two of us had worked together to enchant. It was full plate in the Royal Guard style, and it’d been painted in a purple-and-teal trim similar in color to my mane and coat. While it was a long way from being safely inside the palace, it was a whole lot better than nothing. I’d been in enough fights to know just how important armor was to keeping your hide intact.

Storm lead the way to Sweet Apple Acres. We stopped at some fallow field flanking one of Applejack’s apple orchards, and Storm looked around as she studied her battlefield of choice. Beyond the farm was the emerald shield—the only thing standing between me or anypony else from running away. Behind us were a dozen Royal Guard scouts, and another dozen ponies of the Long Patrol. All of their armor had been enchanted to blend in with the environment, slowly shifting colors as they walked.

“The open fields will give us plenty of time to see them coming.” Storm pointed to the Apple orchards and one of the Apples’ many barns sitting next to the trees. “Applejack agreed to let us use her orchards and barn for cover. We’ll lie in hiding while you go out into that field and try and draw Rising’s attention.”

I let out a huff. “Greeeat, I can't wait to see the hundreds of undead slowly walk towards me.”

Storm arched an eyebrow. “Would you prefer not being able to see them?”

My ears flattened as my irritation grew. “No. I'd prefer not having to fight them to start with.”

“As would I, but since that does not appear to be an option...”

I kicked a rock sitting alongside the rock to vent some of my frustration. “I really hate the undead, you know that?”

Storm watched me with one of her inscrutable frowns. “I would be worried if you did not.”

I grunted in reply. It wasn’t hard to hear what was unsaid: ‘Not that I would be surprised if you’ve made some undead in the past.’ Sure, I broke some of the laws of magic, but practicing necromancy wasn’t one of them. After my run-in with Rising and her minions, the idea of using necromancy made me queasy.

But instead of getting into an argument about it, I followed one of Twilight’s bits of advice and just let it go to focus on more productive things. “You sure that armor of yours is up for taking on Rising?”

Storm waved for her soldiers to start moving towards the orchard and barn. “I believe it will be if everything you told me is accurate. It is possible that Rising will have sort of counter to Shadow’s Armor, but there is only one way to know for sure.”

I frowned at Storm. “You fill me with so much confidence.”

Storm’s wings flicked. “I am doing the best I can with what I have available. I am sorry if putting my life on the line with a set of magic armor whose abilities cannot be fully trusted is not good enough for you.”

“Hey, my life is on the line too here!” I waved emphatically at the field where I was supposed to stand for everyone to see. “I just don't like you always being on my case, and convincing Twilight to use me as bait!”

“Do you not recall?” Storm asked with an upraised eyebrow. “You volunteered.”

I stomped a hoof. “Well I don't want everyone in town getting hurt! I don’t want anypony getting hurt! I didn’t ask for this! I don’t deserve to be hunted by Rising! I just...”

I took several deep breaths as I tried to rein in my temper. “Rising scares me, okay? I was just living a normal life on one of the Freeport islands. At the time my biggest concern was making sure we grew enough food so that we wouldn’t go hungry, and maybe even have enough to sell at the market so that we could buy a little something. Then some big scary lich leading a bunch of zombies came after me, and only me. I don't even know why. I didn't do anything. Sure, I broke a couple of laws in Freeport, but nothing big! Nothing that meant I should be murdered! That encounter messed up my whole life! I went on the run hoping I could get far enough that Rising wouldn’t be able to find me.”

Storm grunted. “Do not worry. I might not care for you, but I will not let Rising have you. Her Highness would be ... hurt if something were to happen to you.”

I wasn’t sure how to take that. Did she only want to protect me because of Twilight, or because it was her duty? Was there more to it? Still, it was good to hear that she would be there for me. I had to admit, more than a little of me was worried that Storm was secretly planning on leaving me to hang out to dry when Rising showed up. As Storm said, she didn’t care for me, and this would be a great way to get rid of me for good while maintaining plausible deniability. After all, all sorts of unpleasant possibilities could happen on a battlefield.

What would Twilight say to do in a situation like this? Probably something about trusting Storm to do the right thing. Ugh, being a good pony was so hard.

“Thanks for that,” I said, trying my best to sound sincere. “And I don't want Twilight to get hurt either. She's... I know I have a bit of a spotted history, but I don't know why anyone would think Twilight has destroyed a world. I mean, it's Twilight—she’s a big adorkable goof, not some crazy genocidal monster.”

Storm nodded. “I do not think she is even capable of violence outside of defending herself and her loved ones.”

I shook my head, hardly being able to believe this whole situation. “Like I said, Rising is crazy, and I think I'm more than justified to be scared of a crazy lich trying to kill me.”

Storm puffed out her chest and her wingblade covered wings twitched. “We will stop her, here and now. You know what part you play in the plan?”

I took a deep breath and nodded. “It’s not that hard to figure out: be as big and obvious as possible and call Rising out, then hope and pray Rising is as crazy obsessed with me as we think she is so that the two of us can take her out.” I looked to Storm, as I was still a long way from being convinced this plan was the best idea in the world. “You've got my back, right?”

“Just stay close by. We can’t keep up with you if you start teleporting.” A slight frown tugged at her lips. “What do we do if Rising sends one of her lieutenants instead of coming herself?”

“I can handle those without your help,” I answered. “Just keep an eye out for Rising, she’s the real threat.”

“I see.” Storm glanced in the direction of the Friendship Castle. “Are you sure you are ready for this? You do not have to go through with this if you do not wish to. I made my oaths to fight for Her Highness when I joined the Guard. You have not.”

It was sorely tempting to take this opportunity to get the hay out of there. Nearly everything about this was a nightmare scenario, and that safe room back at the palace was a siren’s call to me. But... “No, I’m good. If I start running now... I don’t think I’ll ever stop running. I’ve spent most of my life running, and I’m tired of it.” I also looked at the palace, thinking of all who was there. “And I don’t want to disappoint Twilight. She’s done so much for me, turned my whole life around.” My teeth clenched. “And I’m not about to let that damned lich hurt her or anypony else I care about. So yeah, I’m sick of running. Time to fight.”

To my surprise, Storm smiled. It wasn’t a big smile, but it was there. I had seen that happen maybe a couple of times since moving to the palace. “For Equestria.”

At that she departed to join her troops, leaving me alone to do my part in the plan. I took a breath to steady myself before heading out into the middle of the fallow field. The seconds ticked by. I knew it couldn’t be long until Rising’s deadline ended, but it still felt like forever. Years had passed, but somehow that minute seemed to last longer than the last few years.

Then the minute passed, and the horde of the dead advanced. There were flickers of green flames as rank upon rank of skeletons advanced through the shield. Each was wearing black armor with gold trim, and they marched in perfect lockstepped ranks. There were hundreds upon hundreds of the things, all making their way towards the Friendship Castle.

The only thing that kept the advance from being perfectly uniform was the fact that the undead had to move through uneven terrain and through obstacles. They weren’t too smart, so they had some trouble compensating for such things, but they did eventually manage to get through whatever was causing them trouble and got their lines back in order.

As they approached, despite being neither from Canterlot nor any sort of royalty, I unleashed a pretty good imitation of the Royal Canterlot Voice. “HEY RISING FIRE, YOU STUPID CRAZY LICH! YOU WANT ME?! HERE I AM! COME ON! LET'S THROW DOWN, HERE AND NOW! COME AND GET ME IF YOU WANT ME SO BAD!”

Barely a second after I was done speaking, the skeletons collectively stopped. They paused for several long seconds before they started moving again, only this time they opened a large gap in their formation to go around me.

Okay, that was a bit confusing... And frustrating. They started passing on either side of me, ignoring me completely. My anger flashed and my horn lighted. “Hey! Don't ignore me! You’re here for me, you stupid undead!”

A burst of Blightfire shot from my horn, and a column of black flames ran down the length of the formation to my right. The skeletons unceremoniously fell, their bones cracking and breaking, and their armor warping from the magical flames. A few seconds later, I did the same to the column on my left. Dozens and dozens of the things were destroyed, and it felt good. After so many years of being afraid of Rising show up again, I was getting to lash out at my persecutor. Sure, it was only against some mindless minions, and I’d only barely dented their numbers, but I’d take it. It felt a whole lot better than being afraid.

But that moment of euphoria was cut off when a voice that I remembered from my nightmares spoke up from above me. “They're not ignoring you. They're just staying out of my way.”

I momentarily froze as the nightmares of a pegasus moving so fast she was little more than a blur, and of a long fall in darkness that ended with me hitting the ground flashed in front of my vision. Eventually, I managed to force myself to look up as my heart threatened to burst out of my chest.

The revenant hovered over me and was smirking down at me. In the daylight I could confirm that she did indeed look like Rainbow Dash, though this Rainbow’s coat and mane looked faded compared to her living counterpart’s vibrant hues. The monster still had a metal wing, but unlike last time she was wearing a set of familiar-looking antiquated armor painted in the same black with gold trim that seemed to be the fashion with Rising’s forces, and she had a sword sheathed at her side. Where there’d been exposed bone on her face before, now there was gleaming silvery metal. I guess she’d gotten some upgrades.

When I didn’t give her an immediate response, the revenant mocked me. “Sorry, Rising's too busy with the big picture to deal with small fry like you.” Her smirk grew. “She assigned me to capture you and Twilight, and you’d better believe that I’m going to enjoy this.”

“S-small fry?!” I seized upon my anger to push through my fear. Being angry I could deal with; anger was something I was used to, something I could use in a fight. Fear would just paralyze me. So buck fear, I was getting mad, and I was going to blow that smug smirk off that stupid revenant’s face. “I'm not a small fry! I'm the entire reason you're here, you stupid undead!”

The revenant snorted. “Of course you’re a small fry. It’s obvious that you’re out here trying to stop us from attacking the palace while Twilight’s inside protected by all her guards and stuff. That means you’re the minion and she’s the boss, duuuh.”

I ground my teeth together and tried to keep my temper under control. “Hey! You can’t just dismiss me when you’ve gone through all of this just to get me. This is your second shot at me, if you’ll remember.”

The revenant rolled its eyes. “Okay, so that makes you a boss, but you’re still not the final boss. You’re just a challenge for me to overcome to get to the one really behind destroying my world.”

I was a little offended she kept dismissing me as a small fry, but in all honesty I had bigger concerns than a bruised ego. It’s not like I wanted to convince her to bring Rising into this. Still, if I could get under her skin ... well Rainbow was a bit impulsive and emotional. I’d take any advantage I could get. “Funny that you think I’m so unimportant when you’re also completely obsessed with getting revenge on me. Oh, and just so we’re clear, I had nothing to do with blowing up any worlds. I wouldn’t even know how to do that!”

The undead parody of Rainbow Dash landed in front of me, glaring as she drew her blade. “Stop lying. We already know you did it, and nothing you say is going to change that.”

Now that she was right in front of me and I could get a better look at her, there was something vaguely familiar about her armor. However, I stopped worrying about that as soon as I got a good look at the sword. I’d recognize that sword anywhere—rippling pattern than ran up the lengths of the long, single-edged blade was pretty distinctive. I knew the sword well. After all, I had a scar on my back from it. “Wait, you stole Chainbreaker?!”

“I didn't steal it!” Rainbow snapped. “It’s mine! Rising gave it to me after we checked the ruins of what was left of Freeport.”

Honestly, the whole alternate world thing was starting to freak me out a bit. It had been easy to dismiss the whole thing as some crazy lich’s fantasy years ago, back when there hadn’t been anything to back it up beyond Rising’s word. Now ... well seeing an uncannily perfect duplicate of Rainbow Dash and Chainbreaker, and knowing there was one of Rarity as well made it a lot more complicated. I’d first met this version of Rainbow Dash back when the real one was an unmarked foal I didn’t even know existed. Not to mention that Rising being some sort of undead version of Sunset Shimmer did explain a couple things. Honestly, I was struggling to come up with an explanation that didn’t sound about as crazy as alternate universe time travel.

If she was actually from another world and there was time travel going on ... what did that mean for the rest of her story? What if all this madness ended with everyone I cared about dead, and I decided to go back and destroy their world to punish them? It’s not like it would be the first time I used time travel to try and destroy everything somepony cared about just to get payback.

No.

I wasn’t that pony anymore, and I never would be. Besides, that kind of ridiculous scenario went against basic cause and effect. I wasn’t the monster here, they were. “Why would I destroy your stupid world?! I didn’t even know it existed until you told me!”

“I don’t care why you did it!” Rainbow snarled, hefting Chainbreaker. “We can do this the easy way where you surrender and we’ll give you a fair trial, or we can do it the hard way where I beat you to a pulp and drag you back. Rising wants you alive so you can stand trial for your crimes, but if push comes to shove ... well we already know you’re guilty, so nobody’s gonna shed any tears if you get killed resisting arrest.”

I scoffed. “Yeah, that’s not gonna happen. Have you forgotten who won the last time we fought? I kicked your plot last time, and I’ve gotten a lot stronger since then!”

The revenant snorted. “You only ‘won’ because the other Sunset bailed your sorry plot out. You never could’ve touched me if it was a fair fight. And guess what? No Sunset here to help you this time! It’s just you. And. Me.”

“You talk a lot better than you fight,” I shot back. Plus I did have backup: Storm. She would be looking out for Rising, but she wouldn’t leave me hanging if I was having trouble. Not that I would need her help to beat this up-jumped zombie, but it was nice to know it was there just in case something crazy happened.

“Fine then, enough talk!” The revenant charged in, Chainbreaker held high. I instinctively tossed up one of my dome-shaped shields, but a second later I realized I’d screwed up. When I’d fought against Sunset, she’d been able to use Chainbreaker to carve straight through all my defensive spells. The sword even cut straight through Blackfyre’s hide, and an elder dragon’s hide was one of the toughest things around. There was no time to cast a different spell. Rainbow was so fast I’d barely had time to manage the first barrier. The only thing I had time to do was close my eyes and brace for the end.

But instead of the all-too familiar sensation of Chainbreaker’s blade cutting into my flesh, there was the ringing tone of steel hitting a solid barrier. I slowly opened my eyes to see Revenant Rainbow glaring at me, Chainbreaker partially embedded into my shield and small cracks surrounding the cut. Rainbow yanked the blade out a second later, before I could even figure out what had just happened. I needed a bit of time and space to figure this out, so I teleported to the other side of the fallow field. I fired off a quick blast of magic in the hopes it might catch Rainbow off guard, but she deftly dodged to the side and charged me again.

That was definitely Chainbreaker. I’d just gotten a good look at it up close and personal. But it should have cut right through my shield. Unless...

Rainbow hit my shield again and didn’t have any more luck. The pieces finally fell into place and I smirked at her. “Wait a minute, you’re not bonded with Chainbreaker are you?”

The glare Rainbow shot at me confirmed I was right. “What do you know?!” She yanked her blade free again, taking to the air and flying back and forth to add extra momentum to her slashes. More cracks formed, but all I had to do was pour a bit more energy into the shield to keep it from breaking.

“I know that Chainbreaker can cut through any bond, including any shield I put up,” I explained as Rainbow continued her relentless assault. “Trust me, I’ve experienced that first hoof, but you can’t touch me. So that means one thing.” I smirked as I caught her gaze with my own. “You’re not bonded with Chainbreaker. In other words, you can’t use its full abilities. And you know why that is? It’s because you’re a slave.”

“I'm no slave!” That statement threw Rainbow’s game off enough that I teleported away from the field. I tossed a firefall into the field as fast as I could, setting everything on fire. For a moment I dared to I might have gotten her, but then a familiar rainbow contrail shot up into the air. Guess I should’ve known it wouldn’t be that easy.

Though my fireball had failed to kill the revenant, that didn’t mean I couldn’t keep working to throw Rainbow off with the facts. “Oh but you are. You’re some undead minion Rising summoned up to do her bidding, right? That makes you nothing more than her slave. That, and I doubt Chainbreaker likes your master all that much, being a mad lich.”

I couldn’t help but be a bit bitter when I said those words. Years ago, I had stolen Chainbreaker to try and free myself from the geas Blackfyre had put on me to turn me into his slave. It hadn’t worked. You’d think a sword that was all about freeing slaves would want to help out somepony who’d been enslaved, but apparently it didn’t work that way. From what Sunset said during all her moralizing, the sword apparently decided I was Blackfyre’s collaborator rather than one of his victims. What did it know? It was just a big stupid hunk of metal. Even if...

“Shut up!” Rainbow charged me again, darting left and right as I fired a series of blasts to try and take her out of the sky. “I’m no one's slave! You don’t know anything, you monster!”

Once again she hit my shield to no practical effect. “Here’s a little bit of advice for you: if you were Chainbreaker’s wielder, I wouldn’t be able to do this.” I cast a magnetism spell and yanked Chainbreaker from Rainbow’s grasp. I created a brief hole in my shield to let the sword pass through and I snatched it from the air.

Rainbow blinked in surprise at how easily I took her weapon from her, and I took a moment to admire it. Once again, Chainbreaker was mine. Or, at least, a Chainbreaker was mine. I studied the blade, and as far as I could tell it was functionally the same as my world’s Chainbreaker. It was Chainbreaker, and it was mine again. Who cared about it’s exact origins?

The moment of triumph didn’t last. The blade rested in my hooves, and nothing happened. There was no profound sensation, no glowing lights, no sudden flash of insight. Nothing. It was just an inert piece of sharp metal in my hooves. I still wasn’t bonded to it.

Dammit! I’d come so far, worked so hard to improve myself, done so much to prove that Twilight had been right making me her student. But despite everything I’d achieved, Chainbreaker still wouldn’t bond to me. That was ... it just didn’t make sense! I wanted to be a good pony, to be a hero. I was here putting my neck on the line to save everypony, for Celestia’s sake! Sunset hadn’t done anything like that when she got the sword. She just grabbed it from me, and suddenly it liked her. I’d done a lot more than she had, so why wouldn’t Chainbreaker recognize me as its wielder? I deserved it!

I didn’t have any time to study the sword or have an existential crisis over what it meant that Chainbreaker still wouldn’t accept me. Rainbow’s voice cracking like a whip reminded me that I needed to focus on short-term survival. “Hey, give that back! “She snarled and slammed a hoof into my shield, hard enough to send cracks rippling through it.

I glowered at Rainbow. I could feel the rage bubbling up within me, but thankfully I had something I could take that anger out on without needing to feel an ounce of guilt. I teleported again, all the way out to the edge of Sweet Apple Acres to get some space. I’d replayed the first fight with the revenant a million times in my head. Comparing our strengths and weaknesses; thinking about what I could do differently. Trying to figure out what it would take to win.

I fired off several tracking bolts that curved and altered course to home in on Rainbow. The theory had been sound, but alternate universe mare proved to be every bit as fast and dexterous as my universe’s Rainbow. She shot into the air, nimbly dodging through the bolts to come right at me.

I threw up a solid wall of flames right in front of the revenant, but she somehow managed to pull off a perfect ninety-degree turn despite how fast she was moving. The g-forces from that turn should’ve snapped her neck or made her black out, but I guess those things aren’t problems for the undead. Her hooves blurred as she threw at least a half dozen hoof-sized objects at me. I created another domed-shield to intercept them, and fire consumed my entire world as the fire gems exploded against my shield.

I couldn’t risk Rainbow pulling off some other nasty trick while the fires blinded me, so I teleported to someplace I was familiar with. I popped back into existence next to Applejack’s house, and immediately started casting my next spell. Rainbow was already darting straight at me; it was like she always knew exactly where I was. Maybe it was some revenant ability, or magic Rising had given her. Either way, I fired off several fireballs in an arc right at Rainbow. Great explosions rocked Sweet Apple Acres, blowing up dirt, crops, and fence fragments as Applejack’s home turned into a warzone.

But Rainbow dodged it all. Nothing seemed to touch her as she used her freakish speed and agility to close the distance between us. I misjudged the casting time for my next spell, and Rainbow slammed into my shield with enough force to make cracks run across half the dome.

Worse than the damage, she’d somehow punted me into the air. My shield was still holding, but I couldn’t win against Rainbow in the air. The revenant didn’t waste any time intensifying her assault, zipping by and repeatedly slamming into my shield. Each impact sent the sphere rolling wildly, and I couldn’t spare a moment’s thought to worry about anything beyond surviving the next few seconds. With each impact the cracks in my shield got worse, and I didn’t have the time or energy to spare to reinforce it.

With an almost feral howl of glee, one of her hooves smashed right through my shield and came to within inches of my face. Just when I thought I was safe, something metallic shot out of her hoof. I jerked my head to the side out of pure instinct, and it saved my life: instead of going into my eye the attack just sliced open my cheek.

I unleashed a wave of pure kinetic force out, too frightened and hurt to think about anything other than getting her away from me. Even Rainbow couldn’t dodge a point-blank blast, and I enjoyed the few precious seconds of breathing room I’d bought as she was thrown back like she’d been hit by a train. I immediately teleported back to ground level, heading for the cover of Applejack’s trees. Rainbow would probably find me pretty quickly, but I needed all the time I could get.

My hoof flew to my injured cheek, quickly taking stock of my wound. Painful bleeding a lot, but not too horrible. I threw out a quick spell to slow down the bleeding, but that was about all the healing magic I knew. At least I’d dodged in time. Rainbow had nearly taken out the same eye I’d lost in one of my fights with Sunset, and this time Blackfyre wasn’t around to give me a new one. Of course, it was his fault I’d lost that eye to begin with...

Rainbow burst through through the treetops, and I barely had time to teleport clear before she slammed into the ground where I’d been standing seconds before. The impact sent out a shockwave that blasted apart dozens of apple trees, and I silently apologized to Applejack. Between the damage to her orchard and the fires I’d started in her fields, Sweet Apple Acres was going to have a rough time. Good thing she had insurance. Or at least, I was pretty sure she did.

I fired off some more energy bolts at Rainbow Dash’s back, but she somehow dodged them all despite the fact that there was no way she could’ve seen them coming. I guess she must have been cheating. “Figures Rising gave you some tricks. That’s okay, I’ve got my own.” I fired off another set of bolts, trying to box her in between the two sets of spells.

Rainbow zig-zagged and my bolts scattered in a wider and wider pattern as they tried to compensate for her dodges. Despite her efforts, my spells closed in on her, but at the last moment, Rainbow twisted and twirled between the bolts, with a couple of them only barely missing her. Some bolts collided with one another or the surrounding trees, and while I could swear one of them hit her, nothing came of it. Considering it would have blown a hole in her chest if it connected, I must have been mistaken.

After breaking through my spells, Rainbow came streaking towards me. I teleported to a different part of the orchard before she could close with me, but it was hard not to feel like I was just delaying the inevitable. I was certain I could eventually connect with her if I got enough chances to sling spells at her, but she wasn’t likely to keep trying the same thing over and over. Still, all the crazy dodges she’d been pulling off couldn’t have been easy, and she needed to get them perfect every single time. I only needed to get lucky once to do serious damage.

She must have reached the same conclusion, because instead of charging me again, I saw her rainbow contrail shoot up into the sky. I ran to where I could see through the tree canopy. Whatever she was up to, I needed to see it coming in time to stop it. As soon as I found a break in the trees that gave me a clear line of sight, I knew I’d made the right call.

The revenant had started gathering clouds, and it didn’t take her long to pack them into a really ugly-looking black thundercloud. I quickly put up a spell to protect myself from the inevitable lightning bolts, then hurled a fireball up at her. Rainbow was once again quick on the uptake, dodging away before my fireball got even close to connecting. However, I hadn’t been aiming for the pegasus this time. When my fireball detonated, it did a very good job of disrupting the thundercloud she’d put so much effort into building.

Despite the disruption I’d caused, there was still more than enough of a cloud to cause some damage, especially now that I’d given away my position. Rainbow slammed her hooves down on the cloud, and I brought up a fresh shield just in time to catch the lightning bolt that came hammering towards me. It struck the shield with a blinding flash and deafening roar, but the shield held.

That’s when I realized that getting hit by the lightning bolt was only part of the danger. As it turns out, a point-blank hit from a thunderbolt is pretty similar to getting hit by a thunderflash stone.

I quickly teleported away to buy time to recover, but like Twilight said: teleporting blind was really dangerous. I wound up stumbling and falling flat on my face when my hooves hit uneven ground. Maybe that was a blessing in disguise, because a moment later something whooshed over my head.

I blinked several times and rubbed my eyes, and the world started to come back into focus—just in time to see Rainbow barreling right at me with a lightning cloud on each hoof. I tried to get another shield up, but an instant later she was on top of me. My head rocked back as her hoof slammed home, but before I even had time to register the punch, white-hot agony shot through my body as electricity coursed through it. I collapsed to the ground, my muscles spasming as I vainly struggled to bring them back under control. I didn’t have time to lie on the ground twitching. Rainbow was already winding up to hit me again.

I didn’t have the time or mental focus to use a spell, so instead I quickly grabbed Chainbreaker and put it between myself and Rainbow. For once, she didn’t manage to pull off one of her impossible dodges and her own momentum carried her into my attack. The sword’s tip skittered over her chest plate until it found a gap near her shoulder guard and slipped in. Unfortunately it didn’t get very far before the curved blade got caught against Rainbow’s armor.

The attack might not have done much damage, but it did at least halt her forward momentum. She took another swing at me, but I managed to keep her at bay for the moment. I didn’t trust the sword to stop her from getting at me for very long, so I quickly teleported clear to buy a little more breathing room to shake off the effects of the lightning bolt. I couldn’t get very far after the hits I’d taken, and within moments, Rainbow was on me again. I teleported again, and then again and again as I tried to shake Rainbow and find somewhere I could recover.

“Is running away the only thing you can do?!” Rainbow screamed as she continued coming at me like an unstoppable train. “You can’t keep teleporting forever! You’re gonna wear yourself out eventually, and unlike you I don’t get tired. I’ll never give up! Even if I have to chase you to the end of the world! Not that you’ll ever get that far!”

She was right: I couldn’t keep running. I had to go on the offensive if I was ever going to win. Good thing I had an ace in the hole I’d been saving for this fight. I threw up another shield, heavily reinforcing it this time. Four aetherial chains shot into the ground near me and then wrapped around the shield, making sure I wouldn’t be popped up into the air again as I started getting to work on the main event. “Oh don’t worry, I’m done running away. I’ve got the perfect spell to swat an annoying little gnat like you.”

After my first fight with the revenant, I hit the books to try and find a spell that could deal with the monster if she ever showed up again. Eventually I had come across something that was exactly what I needed. It had its drawbacks, namely needing a lot of magical power and time to cast, but if I could get it off, it would be more than worth it.

The revenant smirked. “Good luck. You’re way too slow to ever hit me.”

I smirked right back at her. “But that’s the thing, Rainbow: I don’t need to be fast. I just need to use a fast spell.”

I put another layer on my shield just to be safe, then got to work on my attack. I poured magic into my horn until it started to strain from the effort, and the light became so intense that I had to squint my eyes. I fired the spell, and a dozen beams of bright teal energy shot out of my horn, crackling through the air as they headed straight for Rainbow Dash. Judging by the smell that assaulted my nostrils a second later and the wisps of blue vapor trailing after my spell, it was powerful enough to ionize the air around it. The beams passed through my shield with no trouble; my dome shield only kept hostile magic out, it didn’t trap mine inside.

Rainbow immediately shot up into the air, easily going over my beams. “Seriously, was that it? I was expecting something a bit less lame.”

“Oh, I’m just getting started!” The dozen beams I unleashed shot up after Rainbow Dash, spreading out as they went. I kept the movements jagged and full of sharp angles, making them almost impossible to predict. It didn’t matter how fast she could move if she didn’t know what she needed to dodge in. Not that dodging would do anything but delay the inevitable.

To the revenant’s credit, it managed to survive a full fifteen seconds by streaking in between gaps, zipping through clouds, and whatever else she could do to try and lose the spells or break line of sight with me. When she ducked down below the tree line against my beams chased after her, carving chunks out of Applejack’s orchard and clearing the terrain until she had nowhere left to hide.

Since dodging and hiding clearly wasn’t going to work, Rainbow shifted tactics and charged me. I knew what she was trying. I’d practiced this spell with my universe’s Rainbow—albeit a much less lethal version—and she’d also tried to trick me into hitting myself with my own spell. Okay, my Rainbow might actually have tricked me into doing that once, but that’s why I was practicing it in the first place. Now I knew exactly how to counter that particular strategy. Two of the beams shot in and cut the revenant off, forcing her to change directions, and then more beams streaked in and forced her to abandon the plan altogether.

Rainbow picked up speed again as she focused on ducking, dodging, and weaving her way through my spells. Then the moment I’d been waiting for arrived: Rainbow shot up, but had to do a quick loop to avoid a beam the nearly took her head off. She rolled in place to barely get around another beam, but then her momentum halted as her flight stalled from her repeated dodges. I smirked as all the beams converge on Rainbow at once. There was nowhere to dodge this time. Anywhere she went was just another path to oncoming destruction.

It might have been a trick of the light, but I could have sworn that the revenant was smirking as the spell converged on her. Maybe in the end she wanted death, or was so enthralled with pushing herself to her limit and beyond that she was fine with her fate. Whatever the truth was, the dozen beams struck her simultaneously. The blast of light was so bright I had to cover my eyes as Rainbow disintegrated.

I let out a relieved groan and sat down. All the effort and tension left me gasping for breath, and my horn throbbed from all the spellcasting. Considering I’d been beaten and electrocuted, I was probably going to be sore as hay once the adrenaline wore off. But all that faded to insignificance stacked up against the fact that I’d done it, I’d won. The revenant was gone.

I stood up to the monster that had been in my nightmares almost as many times as Rising herself. It had taken way more magic than I wanted, especially with Rising waiting in the wings, but a victory was a victory. I could return to the palace with my head held high.

“No seriously, was that your best shot?”

My jaw dropped as the smoke cleared, revealing a completely unharmed Rainbow Dash. She slowly clapped her hooves together, sarcastically applauding my efforts. I stared at her, trying to make sense of it. “B-but how?! That should have disintegrated you!”

Rainbow smirked, polishing her armor with a hoof. “Like you said: Rising gave me a few toys.”

I stared at the armor, and suddenly the pieces fell into place. I hadn’t recognized it before with the new paint job, and Chainbreaker had captured my attention right away. “That’s ... but how did you...?”

“We had plenty of time for Rising to crack the security spells on the armor,” Rainbow announced with a smug grin. “And after that ... well, let’s just say Shadow’s spirit was plenty pissed when she found out you’d wiped out her entire clan.” She shrugged. “I wanted to beat you without the Armor, but a win’s a win, and there’s way more than my pride at stake here.”

She jabbed a hoof at me, and my own spell came shooting out right back at me. I poured extra energy into my shield, putting everything I could into holding off the attack. Time seemed to slow to almost a crawl as the attack closed in. That’s when I realized I’d made a terrible mistake. Well, another one.

When the spell hit, it passed straight through my shield. It was still my magic, and my shield didn’t block my own spells.

Oh. Oh horseapples.

I tried to throw up a different sort of barrier, teleport clear, anything, but before I could manage it, the world vanished in a flash of white-hot agony.

Author's Note

As always, thanks to my pre-reading and editing team for all their hard work. Also, I would like to thank all my dedicated Patreon supporters. You guys are awesome.

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Chapter 5 - Rainbow

It had been a long time since I felt much of anything. Ever since I’d changed, everything felt kind of ... flat, and colorless. Big shock, turning into a zombie changed a lot of things. It’s not like my eyes and other senses weren’t working, but all of it just felt ... I dunno, not as real. Kind of like I’d had a big mug of cider, and now everything was just a little bit fuzzy and not quite there, except not in a fun way like what happened with actual cider.

I missed cider. And lots of other stuff. After the world ended, I’d spent decades searching the wastelands for anything to help me feel alive again. I hadn’t found anything—just lots of ruins that didn’t do anything but remind me of how much I’d lost. That didn’t change until I found out about Sombra, and later Starlight and Twilight.

Revenge wasn’t much to live for, but at least it was something. Taking down Starlight had been just about the most satisfying thing I’d felt since ... well, since we took out Sombra. There was something about fighting Starlight and the idea of taking down Twilight that filled my limbs with fresh energy and almost made me feel alive again.

I quickly checked the murderer over to make sure she hadn’t killed herself off with her own spell. Would’ve been no less than she deserved, but just killing her wasn’t enough. Rising wanted everyone to know just how monstrous Starlight and Twilight were. If we just killed them off and left it’d be justice, but with all the lies the two of them spread around, everyone in this world would probably think they were martyrs and we were the bad guys. Everyone needed to know just how evil the two of them were—otherwise it would be almost as bad as if they got away with it completely.

Plus there was the other reason we needed them alive: answers. We knew what they’d done, but we still didn’t know how, or more importantly, why. Why would anyone wipe out an entire planet full of life? It wasn’t like they’d wanted to conquer or plunder us. They’d just ... come to our world, decided it was worthless, and destroyed it. It didn’t make any sense. Maybe they really were just crazy monsters, and the only reason they’d done it was for some kind of sick thrill.

Still, I wanted to look them in the eye and ask.

Before I could do that, I needed to get Starlight back to base. She was alive, but she had a bunch of scorched patches on her coat where the spell had hit her. Probably a lot of other damage that wasn’t immediately obvious, considering how long she’d been out cold. I might need to have Rising patch her up once we got back to base; I wasn’t gonna let her get off easy by dying of internal bleeding. She didn’t get to die until we were done with her.

Not to mention the other more practical reasons I needed to get her back to our camp. A squad of Twilight’s guards were headed my way, and I had a high-value prisoner to secure. The last thing I needed to do was let a bunch of guards bog me down. I grabbed the murderer and took the skies to get as much of a head start as I could. Normally I was just about the fastest flier around, but hauling a pony’s worth of dead weight wasn’t helping.

Good thing I had a lot of advantages to make up for that. While there were a lot of things that sucked about being undead, one of the nice things about it was never getting tired. Sure, I couldn’t enjoy a good nap, but on the other hoof I never needed to sleep. Back when I’d been alive, I couldn’t go all out for more than a couple minutes. Now I could pretty much do it as long as my wings didn’t fall off or something.

Well, maybe it wasn’t quite that simple. That was the huge pain about—well, pain. It sucked, but it was useful for telling you when you were about to hurt yourself. Oh well. If I tore something flying to base, Rising could just fix it back up. Not that there was that much left; I liked to try and keep my skin and mane intact, but if Rising could replace the inside bits with metal that was lighter, stronger, and worked better than my old bone and muscle...

Sure enough, it didn’t take long for me to leave the guards in the dust. I’d been pretty much the fastest pegasus in Equestria, and now I had close to unlimited endurance on top of that. If my heart still pumped blood it would’ve been pounding. It reminded me of how much I used to love racing and flying, back before the war. It was only a pale echo of what I vaguely remembered, but I seized on that little flame and did everything I could to keep it alive. It had been so long since I’d felt this way; not anything close to my old self, but it was like for the first time in who knows how long I could remember what it had been like to be that mare. Brave to the point of recklessness, always ready to face a new challenge, and utterly convinced of my own immortality.

Well, I guess in a way I’d been right about that last one. Sure, I’d died, but it’s not like it had really stuck.

For a couple of minutes, I thought the getaway would be nice and easy. I was over the Everfree Forest and most of the way back to our base camp when it got complicated. Something exploded behind me, and when I looked back I saw a huge ring of rainbow light over Twilight’s castle. For a moment I thought it might be something crazy like a Sonic Rainboom, but everypony knew that was just an old mare’s tale.

Whatever it was, it looked like trouble. That suspicion got confirmation when I saw a streak of rainbow light heading right for me, faster than I’d ever seen something move. That was almost certainly a bad sign. Was this some form of magic Twilight had cooked up? Maybe some kind of spell to swat me out of the sky? Whatever it was, it was coming this way. If it was some kind of attack spell, Shadow’s Armor could probably handle it, but I wasn’t eager to put that to the test if I didn’t have to.

Whatever it was, I really shouldn’t stick around to watch the light show. I poured on as much speed as I could manage. I risked a quick look back to see if the streak of light was following me.

Sure enough, it turned to intercept, and a couple more maneuvers confirmed that it was matching my movements. Even worse, it was closing on me.

That was impossible. I was the fastest pony in Equestria! Sure, I was being slowed down by carrying Starlight’s fat rear, but I’d still left all the guards eating my dust. Not to mention that whatever was closing on me was moving way too fast—faster than anything I’d ever seen in all my centuries of life and un-life.

Since I couldn’t outrun it, all I could do was aim for the shield and hope I got there before whatever was chasing me caught up. There was no point in worrying, so I just focused on what I could do and poured on every last bit of speed I could. Nothing was going to stop me from making sure Starlight got what she deserved, nothing.

I put everything I had into doing just that, but it wasn’t enough. The rainbow blur of light shot ahead of me and finally stopped in between me and the wall of fire surrounding Ponyville. That’s when I realized it wasn’t some crazy spell. It was a pony.

I recognized her right away, considering it was the same face I’d seen for years whenever I looked in the mirror. She still had both her wings, which I guess meant this universe never had a big war against Sombra. That, or she’d dodged a bit better while fighting that freak Heritor Amber. She didn’t have much in the way of armor, just a padded gambeson and a helmet. Figured, I never liked to take heavy armor until I got high-ranked enough to get stuff custom-fitted. Otherwise it slowed me down too much.

My counterpart glared at me, crossing her forelegs over her chest. “Not so fast, you big fake!”

“I'm not a fake!” I really didn’t have time for this. Not to mention fighting her was going to be a real pain while carrying Starlight. Maybe I could talk her into letting me go?

Oh right, me. Nobody could ever talk me out of something when I was absolutely certain I was in the right.

Probably the most frustrating thing about this mission was that all the ponies of this dimension seemed convinced that Starlight and Twilight weren’t monsters. This would have been so much cooler if those two were evil overlords oppressing everypony with an iron hoof. Then we could have swept in as heroes and saved the day, tossed down the tyrants, and then … I don’t know, set up a new government?

Okay, maybe not that last part. Still, it was a lot easier to take down the bad guys when everyone could tell they were bad.

My counterpart wasn’t budging. “Uh, yeah, of course you’re a fake. You're a second rate copy of me.” She smirked and tossed her mane. “You want proof I’m the real thing? I’m faster.”

Despite the absurdity of the situation, that got to me just a bit. Being dead had changed a lot of things, but I still had my pride. “Yeah, sure, it’s easy for you to say you’re faster when I’ve got this much dead weight holding me back.” I gave Starlight’s unconscious body a shake to emphasize my point.

The living version of me snorted. “Well if she’s bugging you that much, you can always let her go. Tell you what: how about you do put her down somewhere and we have a race? If you win, I won’t get in your way and you can do whatever you want to her. If I win, you gotta give her back. Sounds fair to me.”

My grip tightened on Starlight. “No way, you have no idea what we've gone through to get her!” My eyes narrowed. “Besides, you can’t fool me. I know all your tricks; I bet as soon as I put her down and get distracted, you’d try to have one of your friends grab her.”

The living version of me snorted and didn’t deny it, which was just as good as a confession. “Fine then, I’ll just beat you up and take her.” She looked me over. “Guess it figures you wouldn’t want a race with all that metal weighing you down anyway.”

Maybe the armor did slow me down a bit, but the protection was more than worth it. Beating Starlight would’ve been a lot harder if I didn’t have the ability to reflect her own spells back at her. Besides, there were ways to make up for the extra weight. I shot her a cocky grin. “I cut out all my internal organs to lighten the load. Replaced a lot of my bones with mithril too, since it’s tougher and lighter.”

The other me’s face screwed up and she stuck out her tongue. “Ew, gross.”

I shrugged. “What? It’s not like I need them anymore. If I can drop a lot of kilos of useless body weight, why not do it?”

“Ugh, why is it that when I finally meet an alternate universe version of myself she’s a gross undead wierdo instead of being awesome?” She zipped at me, reaching out for Starlight. “Enough talk! Let. Her. Go!”

A particularly nasty idea for how to get rid of my dead weight problem sprang to mind. “You know, you really could've worded that better.” I dropped the murderous nag.

The other me’s eyes shot wide open. “Starlight!” Just like I knew she would, she zoomed down after her poorly chosen friend.

It didn’t take the other Rainbow long to catch up, but once she grabbed Starlight she had to strain to halt their descent. It didn’t take her long to stabilize the fall, but it was more than enough time for me to make my move. I dived after them, and there was no way the other Rainbow could dodge without dropping Starlight. She braced for me to hit her and instinctively curled to protect Starlight, but instead of kicking or punching, I did something much sneakier: I tossed a container of tanglehoof.

She had just enough time to realize what I’d done before it was too late. “Oh bucking ponyfeath—” The tanglehoof hit her right between the shoulder blades and promptly exploded. My aim had been perfect, and the fast-acting adhesive splattered all over my counterpart’s wings. For a couple seconds, she struggled to stay airborne, but once the adhesive started curing her wings were close to useless, and soon she was in freefall.

It would have been easy to let gravity solve my problems for me, but I didn’t want to kill the other me. It’s not like she was an evil pony or anything; she’d been duped like everyone else. Besides, we needed to keep Starlight for the trial.

I flew down after them, catching up with the freefalling duo pretty quickly and pulling up alongside the other version of myself. “Okay, here’s how it’s gonna go: I’m going to grab you both, and once we get down to ground level I’ll drop you off. I leave with Starlight and you get to walk home, or more likely spend a couple hours cleaning up your wings. Do the smart thing and take the deal, because I’d rather not watch you splatter on the ground.”

The other Rainbow glared at me, and I remembered just how stubbornly determined I could be when my blood was up. “More proof you're just a bad copy if you think I'd go for that!” She snagged me with one of her forelegs and yanked me into her side. Her wings slammed into mine, and while the Tanglehoof had mostly dried out, enough of it transferred over to my wings to get them thoroughly gunked up.

I couldn’t believe I would do something so suicidaly stupid. I can be a bit stubborn once a fight gets started, but come on! Now instead of averting a crash, she’d dragged me into it. “You idiot! Are you trying to get us all killed?!”

Judging by the grin on her face, she still thought she had a way to come out of this on top. “I’ll be fine if I have something to break my fall!” She grabbed onto me and pulled a quick spin to put herself on top and me on bottom.

That crazy ... me. I fought back, and soon both of us were spinning through the air as we struggled to control the fall. Despite the back-and-forth wrestling match, the tanglehoof held us together. If anything, all the fighting was just getting us more and more stuck to each other.

The ground started getting uncomfortably close, and for a moment I met the other Rainbow’s eyes. We reached some kind of unspoken agreement, and we both stopped fighting and held onto Starlight while spreading out our gunked up wings and doing everything we could to try and avert the oncoming crash. We kind of succeeded.

We blasted through the forest canopy, and the next several seconds were a jumble of snapping branches and snagging vines before it all came to a sudden halt as we hit the ground. The impact finally knocked us loose, though judging by the sharp tug on my wing, it hadn’t exactly been clean. Probably would’ve hurt like crazy if I still felt pain.

Once the crash was over, I laid back for a moment; my body not responding to any commands. Pain might not be an issue for me, but I could still get rattled and shaken up. For a while, some foggy part of the back of my mind wondered if my body had been destroyed again, or at least so smashed that it was as good as useless. Everything around me felt wet and squishy, and after a couple seconds, I realized we’d crashed into a mudpit.

I groaned and pushed myself up out of the mud. I quickly took stock of the condition of my body. Without any pain to warn me about damage, it would be easy to miss something. A quick look at my non-prosthetic wing confirmed that it was dangling uselessly at my side, and there was a nasty looking lump near the socket. Probably dislocated.

Dammit, I was groundbound.

Otherwise my body seemed to be in decent shape, but things were still a little fuzzy. Probably something to do with my brain getting knocked around inside my skull. Brain damage was just about the only soft tissue injury I still needed to worry about, and even then it was nothing Rising or Rarity couldn’t fix up with a quick spell. Still, it was not what I needed right now.

Because my life wasn’t complicated enough already, my living counterpart hauled herself out of the mudpit as well. She was covered nearly head to hoof in mud, and from the look of things she’d been rattled by the crash as much as I had. It didn’t look like either of her wings had been dislocated like mine, but one of them was missing a huge chunk of feathers. A quick look at my bad wing confirmed that I’d ripped out most of them in the crash.

On one hoof, it was good to see that the other me hadn’t been seriously hurt. On the other, if she was healthy enough to still be up and moving, she probably wasn’t going to quit. I’d never let a little brush with death stop me from fighting for what I believed in. Feathers, I’d died hundreds of years ago and I was still fighting to bring Starlight and Twilight to justice.

The living Rainbow coughed several times and leaned against a tree slowly stretching her limbs. “Okay, ow.” She blinked a few times, then shook her head and looked around the clearing, spotting Starlight. The murderess had landed in the mud between us, still unconscious, and thankfully still breathing. Oh, and her leg was pretty obviously broken, but screw her. As long as that didn’t send her into shock I didn’t particularly care if the world-murdering bitch got hurt. The other me winced at the sight of the injury.

“You know, this is all your fault.” I started testing out my own limbs like she was. “If you hadn’t grabbed me, this would all be over by now.”

Rainbow pushed off the tree and spread her wings, her teeth clenched. “What was I supposed to do, just let you kill one of my friends?! If you hadn’t attacked us, none of this would have happened! You’re the ones who started it and you can stop it whenever you want by just backing off!”

Rage cut through the last mental fog from the crash and focused my world once more. “No, she did!” I jabbed a hoof in Starlight’s direction. “Her and Twilight! They destroyed my world. Why are you defending those monsters?!”

Something softened in Rainbow’s eyes but the determination in them didn’t fade. “Look, I know she did some bad stuff, but that's ancient history! She's my friend, and I'm not letting some evil creep like you take her!”

I let out an exasperated groan. “You're such an idiot. You don't even know what you're talking about! She destroyed my whole world! Why don't you understand that?! Millions are dead, and they have to pay for that!”

Rainbow snorted and tossed her mud-caked mane. “If she could blow up an entire world, why couldn't she take you in a fight?”

“I don't know. That’s one of the things we wanted to find out by coming here.” I started walking to make sure that my legs were still working. It would be nice if I could talk her down, but this was almost certainly going to turn into a fight “They probably just used some big ritual or artifact or something to do it. Rising said there’s a big old leyline running right through that palace of theirs, and the whole thing’s throbbing with latent power. Who knows what they’re doing with that.”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about!” the other me shot back. “You're just nuts, you bad fake!” Diplomacy ended when she kicked a glob of mud right into my face.

“Gah! That does it, now you’re gonna—” The other Rainbow interrupted me with a full-body tackle. The both of us slid through the mud, and soon we were a near blind whirl of punches and kicks as we wrestled in the mud.

Rainbow got on top of me during the wild scuffle and she slammed a hoof down into my face. Too bad for her my skull was made out of solid mithril. She winced and hopped back, shaking her hoof. “Owowow!”

I took advantage of the opening and slugged her in the jaw. Her head was pretty hard, but it wasn’t made of metal and I had gauntlets on anyway. Her head snapped to the side with a spray of blood as she collapsed into the mud. I put a quick kick into her ribs to keep her down, not to mention venting a little frustration. “Who’s a fake now?! That's what you get for messing with me! Now I just need to—”

The world started spinning, and it was all I could do to keep from falling as I staggered in place. Okay, something was definitely messed up inside of me.

The other me took the opportunity to recover, and her leg snapped out to kick a leg out from under me. I fell down into the mud, and Rainbow was back on top of me in a blur of hooves and shouts. Eventually I managed a plant a hoof in her belly and shove her back, and the two of us took a moment to circle each other and take stock.

My counterpart made the first move. That suited me just fine, I’d learned a little patience during all the Guard training and centuries since then. The mud slowed her down enough to take away any momentum from her charge, and once she closed in, I broke out another one of my tricks. I tapped into Shadow’s Armor and unleashed a bright flash of blinding light.

Rainbow clamped her eyes shut, but now she was blind and off-balance from the mud. I used the opening to slam another punch into her face, and got a couple more hits in before she recovered. From there it turned into a pure slugging match. The mud slowed us down too much to try anything fancy, so all we could do is trade hits. I was fine with that, considering I was the one in heavy armor and with all the endurance advantages of being undead. Outside of getting hit in the face, it barely even mattered if she punched me. I didn’t bruise, and she couldn’t hit hard enough to break mithril bones.

The same didn’t apply to her, and before long I was getting more hits in and taking fewer in return. I slugged her in the face, sending her staggering back. “What's the matter? Can't keep up?” Another combo of snapping jabs and then a hoof to her jaw sent her helmet flying off her head as she went spinning to the mud. “Ready to give up now?”

“No.” Rainbow’s hooves started shifting through the mud for something. There was a glint of metal in the mud, and then she whipped Chainbreaker right at my face. Now the mud was working against me, and I couldn’t dodge the attack in time. It was a good thing I had a helmet on because even with a mithril skull, that sword would’ve done a lot of damage.

Rainbow stood up, Chainbreaker now in her hooves. She grinned as she took a couple of practice swings with it. “Nice. I think I'll keep it.”

“Gah!” Why did everypony keep stealing that stupid sword from me? Was something wrong with it? I was seriously going to need to talk with Rising about that later. Maybe Starlight hadn’t been completely off-base when she said the sword hadn’t bonded to me. It certainly seemed to be winding up in somepony else’s hooves way too often. “Give it back!”

“Nah, I just said I’m keeping it.” Rainbow waved the sword around, clearly trying to figure out the best way to hold it. “Does it have any cool abilities?”

I groaned. “Oh come on, can you seriously not recognize Chainbreaker? Torch Charger’s sword? If I can still remember the time we learned about Torch in history class you must have.”

“Oooh, right, now I remember. That was one of the few awesome things we actually learned about.” Her grin widened as she looked the sword over. “This is Chainbreaker? Huh. Figured it would be bigger. So how do I make it do all the cool stuff?”

While losing Chainbreaker was a pain, there was one bit of good news: from the way she was swinging it around like a cleaver, this Rainbow clearly had no idea how to use it. If her life was anything like mine had been before the war, she’d taken martial arts classes as a kid and kept up on the exercises as an adult, but I’d never taken any swordsmareship classes. Even after the war against Sombra started, I’d stuck with spears and lances—Cloud was the one who’d messed around with wing blades and swords. I’d only really started getting into swords when Rising had given me Chainbreaker.

A particularly wild swing confirmed my theory. “You don't even know how to use a sword, do you?” I smirked. “Careful, or you’ll chop your own hoof off.”

Rainbow growled. “Shut up!”

She charged in and swung Chainbreaker in a wild arc. She telegraphed the attack so much I saw it coming a mile away, and even with the mud slowing me down, I had no trouble getting inside of her swing. I remembered a move I’d learned from Kicker, and my metal wing wrapped around Rainbow’s foreleg. I turned her own momentum against her and sent her flipping over into the mud. With a precise twist against her pastern, I pulled Chainbreaker from her grasp.

My left foreleg was acting stiff and dumb, and I had to fumble to bring Chainbreaker to bear. By the time I had it ready to swing, my nimble counterpart had already rolled out of the way and was back on her hooves.

Still, Chainbreaker was mine again, and without the sword, she had nothing to level the playing field. I brought the sword into a ready position and spoke with the same commanding voice I’d learned in the Guard. “You done fooling around? Because you can't beat me, and I've got a job to do. So surrender already so that I can get this murderer to Rising.”

The other me planted her hooves, getting ready to change me again. “I’m not even close to done.”

I growled and inched toward her. “Last chance: Get. Out. Of. The. Way. I don't want to hurt you, but you're not going to stop me either.”

Rainbow wiped the blood and mud off her face. “Bring it.”

“Fine then, you’ve asked for it.” We both charged. I went for her legs to try and put her down without doing too much damage. She tried to dodge, but with the mud slowing her down, she couldn’t manage a clean dodge. She still had her gambeson on, but Chainbreaker was easily sharp enough to cut through all the layers of padding and into her skin.

To my surprise, she kept on coming. Her speed robbed my blow of a lot of its power, so all I got out of it was a really long, shallow cut. She was inside of Chainbreaker’s reach before I could bring it to bear for another swing. I was about to try smacking her with the pommel when she did just about the last thing I’d been expecting: she headbutted me. My head rocked back, and my hooves threatened to slip out from under me in the muck.

I stared at her, blinking in shock. “Did you just ... I have a metal skull!”

“Like I care!” Just to punctuate that, she slammed her head into mine again. She didn’t stop there. She kept going at it like a berserker, screaming at me in between each hit. “Get! Away! From! My! Friend!”

The blows kept hammering in, and somehow it was actually working. My brain was one of the few parts of my body that still followed some of the rules of living tissue, and all those headbutts were rattling it pretty bad. When she headbutted me for the tenth time, there was a loud crack, and for a moment I wondered if she’d somehow managed to actually break through solid mithril.

She finally let me go, and a second later I felt something scrape against my armor. When my vision finally cleared, I saw she was on top of me, trying to slip Chainbreaker between the plates of my armor. I quickly kicked her back, silently thanking Celestia for making such a nice suit of armor and Rising for giving it to me.

Rainbow staggered back from my kick, struggling to stay on her hooves. Blood poured down her face from all the damage she’d done to herself in the headbutt contest, and judging by how shaky her stance was, it had obviously messed her up. Big shock—I know my friends always said I was hard-headed, but even I couldn’t slam my head into solid metal a dozen times without getting hurt. It was a miracle she hadn’t killed herself with that ridiculous stunt.

“Why do I have to be so damn stubborn?!” I screamed at her. “Do you have some have some kind of death wish?! Do you want me to make me kill you?!”

Rainbow’s breath came in ragged gasps, her face all but dyed crimson from all the blood. Despite that, her eyes blazed defiantly. “You really are a big fake. The real Rainbow Dash would never ask why I’m going this far to help my friends.”

I snarled and charged her. Everything about this other version of myself was really pissing me off. Had I really been this pig-headedly stubborn when I was alive?

The living version of me tried to dodge to the side, but her hooves didn’t cooperate. Probably because the stubborn idiot had messed herself up by getting into a headbutt contest with someone who had a skull made of solid mithril. She managed to dodge the worst of it, but Chainbreaker bit into her rear leg, just below her cutie mark. Rainbow screamed and fell into the mud as her leg went out from under her.

I let out a relieved sigh when she went down. With a wound like that, she wasn’t going to be able to stand and fight, and with her wings messed up she couldn’t fly either. I’d won.

Didn’t feel like much of a victory. When I’d beaten Sombra or Starlight, it almost felt like I was alive again. This was just ... depressing. Then again, literally beating yourself up was the kind of thing that was hard to get pumped over. It’s not like this was some evil version of me with a goatee and an eyepatch. It was just me, except she’d picked the wrong ponies to be friends with. She didn’t even know how bad Starlight and Twilight were. I’d probably be doing the exact same things she was in her place.

Well, maybe not headbutting solid metal. Stubborn idiot.

At least she was still alive. I was probably gonna have enough issues from this fight without killing myself. Shame Rising couldn’t bring back a psychologist along with me and Rarity.

I looked my living counterpart over to make sure I hadn’t done too much damage. It wasn’t a deep cut, so it should clot pretty quick. I’d learned a little bit of improvised first aid during the war. Hard not to with how often ponies were getting hurt. I took one of her hooves and placed on top of the cut I’d put in her gambeson. Good thing cloth armor could double as a bandage. “Keep the pressure on and the bleeding will stop pretty quick. Do yourself a favor and stay down.”

I made a mental note to send out some skeleton to take her prisoner and get her some proper treatment. I didn’t like the idea of leaving the other me alone in the Everfree Forest while wounded, but I couldn’t carry both her and Starlight with how messed up I was. My left foreleg was still feeling pretty sluggish, and I didn’t trust it to do any heavy lifting.

Maybe I should call for backup instead of carrying Starlight on my own? I had a couple signal gems to let me do that. Probably should’ve tried to learn some necromancy so I could call for backup on my own instead of needing to use gems, but the one or two times I’d tried to learn it I hadn’t gotten very far. Learning magic like that took a lot of work, especially since I didn’t have a horn.

I thought it over for a bit and decided to take another look at Starlight first. She might be so messed up by this point that it’d be dumb for me to even try to drag her through the forest on my back. Or she could be starting to come back around.

As soon as I took a step towards her, I felt something latch onto my rear leg and hold me back. I let out an exasperated groan, because I knew exactly what it was before I even turned around to look. Sure enough, the living Rainbow had grabbed my leg and was holding onto it for all she was worth. Despite how beaten up she was, the fire was still burning in her eyes. She’d even taken the hoof off her wound to get a better grip.

For a moment, I wondered if Rising and Rarity ever got this fed up with me. “Seriously?! Are you still trying to stop me?! You can’t even stand!”

Rainbow just tightened her grip. “I told you, I’m never gonna let you take my friend.”

“Don’t let your mouth make promises you can’t keep.” For a moment I wanted to kick out with my back leg, but considering how badly she’d already messed up her face, I didn’t want to risk caving her skull in. Instead, I turned around and smacked her upside the head, well away from the mess she’d made of her forehead. When she still wouldn’t let go, something snapped inside me, and I leveled Chainbreaker against her neck. “Are you trying to make me kill you?! Because I'll do it if I have to! Don’t think I won’t!”

The other me growled and looked up at me with her one open eye. Her other one had swollen shut, and her face was caked with blood and mud, but instead of backing down, she clenched her teeth and hit me with a one-eyed glare. “You’re gonna have to, because as long as I’m alive I'll never let you take one of my friends!”

Stupid! Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid stupid stupidstupidstupid! Everything about this was stupid! She didn’t know what kind of monsters she was defending. Starlight and Twilight didn’t deserve any friends, especially not one this loyal and willing to put her life on the line protecting them. The living Rainbow and most of the others were good ponies, and they should be helping us. But no, this other version of me was so pig-headed and stubborn she’d rather make me kill her than take five minutes to listen to the facts and realize she was on the wrong side.

Fine! My parents, Kicker, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Maud, Derpy, Dinky, and so many others were gone because of Twilight and Starlight. I couldn’t bring them back. Rising spent pretty much her entire life after the apocalypse trying. The only thing I could do for them now was to make sure the ones who’d killed them faced justice. Maybe revenge wasn’t much to live for, but it kept moving forward instead of binding my wings and throwing myself off the highest mountain I could find.

After everything I’d suffered through, I wasn’t going to let one stupidly stubborn mare stop me, even if she was an alternate universe version of me. Maybe she looked like me and we had pretty similar personalities, but she wasn’t me. She had her nice, safe perfect little life in a peaceful Equestria where she’d never known pain or sacrifice. She’d never had to watch her friends die in battle, never lost a wing defending Equestria, and she didn’t have to live with not even getting to say goodbye to all the loved ones Starlight and Twilight had deleted.

I raised Chainbreaker above my head and took a deep breath, mentally preparing to end this. Hitting the other Rainbow while she was down felt wrong, but I couldn’t let her stop me. Maybe if I just—

“NOOOOOO!” A pink blur slammed into my side, knocking me off my hooves and sending me sprawling into the mud. It took a moment for me to get my bearings after the ambush, but then I recognized the pony standing over me. Her hair was all big and puffy now instead of being at regulation length, but there was no mistaking Pinkie Pie. Her lips quivered, and tears threatened to burst from her eyes as she looked down at me. “Please, don't be evil, other-Dashie! I know you’re still good inside!”

“Sergeant Pie?!” I stared up at her, having trouble believing what I was seeing. Sure, I’d known she was around from scouting, but knowing she was around was very different from seeing her face to face. Pinkie had been part of the second wave of recruits, once we realized the fight against Sombra was gonna be a long and nasty war. She’d always managed to keep everypony’s spirits up no matter how bad things got with the war. It was part of what let her climb up the ranks, even though she wasn’t anyone’s idea of traditional leadership material.

She’d been one of my best friends. Now she was back.

Pinkie snickered as she smiled that big, wide, loveable smile of hers. “I'm not a sergeant, I'm Pinkie Pie.” The smile vanished a second later, replaced with a very upset frown. “Now stop fighting my Dashie, Dashie!”

Right, I needed to remember that this wasn’t the real Pinkie Pie, just like the other version of Rainbow wasn’t me. Just because she looked and sounded exactly the same didn’t mean she was the pony who’d stuck with me through years of war. “Hey, don't blame me for this! She's the one that won't stop fighting. I’m just trying to stop those monsters!”

“You’re the ones who came here and started the fight—we’re just trying to keep our friends safe!” Pinkie planted her hooves on my legs to pin me down and got right up in my face. “Now stop beating up my marefriend! It’s making me really really really angry, and you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry!”

“Get off of me!” I managed to free one of my hind legs and tried to kick her off, but Pinkie shifted gears and pulled me into a big rib-crushing bear hug.

“Nuh-uh! You may may not be my Dashie, but you're still a Rainbow Dash! And there’s no way any Rainbow Dash could ever, ever, ever, ever be a bad pony!”

“I'm not a bad pony!” I tried to pull myself out of the hug, but one thing this Pinkie definitely had in common with mine was the completely inescapable hugs. “I’m the hero here! I’m bringing a pair of genocidal mass-murderers to justice!”

“You're doing bad things right now!” Pinkie shot back. She grimaced and her ears went flat against her head. “You’ve scared everypony, and you really hurt Dashie and Starlight. Maybe you think you’re the good guy, but right now you’re acting like a big meanie!”

I was getting really sick of being judged by ponies who had no idea what was really going on and refused to listen when we told them. “You don’t know what you’re talking about! You’re all so stupid, so let go before I beat you up too!” I finally managed to get a bit of leverage and break out of Pinkie’s hug, shoving her away as hard as I could.

She bounced away and landed in front of Rainbow, dropping into a defensive stance and baring her teeth. She probably figured I was going to try and go after her again, since everyone in this stupid world seemed convinced we were monsters. Fine, if all she cared about was protecting the other Rainbow, I had no reason to fight her. In all honesty, it would be a load off my mind if she took Rainbow to hospital to get patched up. As long as she wasn’t trying to stop me from taking Starlight or Twilight, she could do whatever she wanted.

I started heading for Starlight, but I should’ve known it wouldn’t be that easy. Pinkie leapt over my head and flipped in mid-aid, landing in between me and Starlight. “Nope, you can’t hurt her either. You’re done, missy. Now sit down and think about what you’ve done.”

I didn’t want to fight Pinkie, even if she wasn’t my Pinkie, but I couldn’t stop now, so close to finally getting justice. “Pinkie, I’m warning you: get outta my way. We don’t have to fight. Just go away and take the other Rainbow to a doctor.”

Pinkie shook her head. “Nope! Not gonna happen.” Her lips started quivering again. “Please, you don’t have to do this. Can’t we just talk? That has to be a whole lot better than fighting and hurting one another.”

I snarled and brought Chainbreaker back into a ready position. “Talking isn’t gonna bring back my dead world! We already told you what was going on, and none of you listened to us! Last chance, get out of the way or—”

I cut myself off when I heard something rustling in the trees. A second later, a pegasus in red armor dropped down through the canopy and landed next to Pinkie Pie. She spread out her wings, revealing a pair of wing blades as she took up an eerily familiar stance.

I growled and shifted my pose to account for a second opponent. “You didn’t want to talk!” I snapped at Pinkie. “You were just trying to distract me so that you could get reinforcements!”

“No, I was trying to get through to you!” A moment later, she added, “But yeah, giving Cloud time to catch up was a bonus.”

“Cloud?” Chainbreaker dropped slightly as I took a second look at the pony in red armor. I recognized her. How couldn’t I? “Kicker?”

Kicker’s wing-blade shifted, as though she wasn’t sure what position to hold them in. “Dash? Is that you?”

I hesitated, I knew I shouldn’t be, but... “I’m not your Rainbow, and you’re not my Cloud. My Cloud is dead—has been for a long time.” Painfully long. So damn long. I missed her. I missed them all. If I could just...

No, they were gone, and these weren’t those ponies. Just stupidly similar ponies to the ones I lost.

Cloud glanced down at Rainbow as Pinkie helped dress her wounds. “I don't know anything about your Cloud, but is this what she'd really want you to do?”

“Yes! Of course she would. She’d...” All the bittersweet memories of Kicker came crashing back on me. I remembered Flight Camp, where I’d met her, Fluttershy, and Derpy. We’d always stood to bullies then, so of course we joined the Guard together to take the fight to Sombra, the biggest bully of all. Cloud wound up technically being my CO, since she had actual military education and training before the war. We’d been there through all the battles, fighting back-to-back against Sombra’s hordes. She’d been there for me when I lost my wing, and I’d been there for her after her cousin died in Vanhoover. The two of us had stuck together from the start of the war to the end, through every single battle.

Plus ... well we hadn’t exactly been a couple or anything, but there’d been a couple nights when we’d done stuff. After spending weeks crawling through blood-soaked trenches or burying ponies we’d fought alongside for years, sometimes you just needed to do anything to remember there was more to life than war. Would’ve been nice to have something like that in the wasteland after the war too, but I’d never managed to find Cloud’s body. Even if I had, Rising probably wouldn’t have been able to bring her back as anything more than another brainless skeleton.

Chainbreaker trembled in my hooves as I tried to keep it in a guard position. “Don’t mess with my head! I know what I need to do!”

Kicker looked me in the eyes, but instead of the hard look of a pony ready for battle, there was ... something else. Something softer that made my throat tighten up, and my stupid knees started shaking. Probably because of the concussions I’d suffered. At least, I sure hoped that was what it was. Brain damage was a lot easier to deal with than—

No. I needed to focus on the mission. Nothing else mattered. I couldn’t let myself...

Pinkie’s head tilted to the side. “She looks like she needs a hug.”

“What I need is justice!” I forced myself to say despite my throat tightening up. The words wound up sounding a lot weaker than they should’ve. I was a soldier, Rising’s righthoof mare. I wasn’t going to fail in my mission. I couldn’t fail. I wasn’t going to let myself fail. Bringing justice to my dead world was my entire purpose for existing. Even if ... even if...

Kicker and I stood there in silence, each of us waiting for the other to make the first move and start the fight. She took a deep breath, then nodded to herself. “We'll see about that.” To my surprise, she tucked in her wing-blades and approached me. Not charging in or anything, just a slow and steady walk.

“H-hey! What’re you doing?! Stop!” Chainbreaker continued quivering in my hooves, probably because my left foreleg was so messed up. Why couldn’t I make it stop shaking?! This wasn’t the time for it! “I’m telling you, I’ll hurt you if you don’t stop!”

Kicker kept walking towards me. She wasn’t even trying to protect herself. “I’m not going to hurt you, Dash. And I’m hoping that you won’t hurt me either.”

“Don’t try and trick me, I won’t fall for it!”

Kicker had to be up to something. She had always been the one who came up with the really sneaky plans and tactics during the war. Any moment she was going to pull out one of those sick moves her mom had taught her, and try and take my head off. Part of me hoped she would do just that. It’d be okay if she were the one to put me down. It felt right.

I shoved those thoughts aside. I was a soldier, and soldiers didn’t quit just because things got tough. I had to shove all the emotions and trauma to the side and keep focused on what really mattered: the mission. Considering the damage I’d taken and the fact that it was two-against-one, I needed to hit hard and fast. Kicker was so close, and she wasn’t even trying to defend herself. If I attacked now, I could take her down before she could react. It’d be so easy.

Then Kicker finished closing in and opened up her forelegs. For a second I thought she was going to try and grapple with me or something, but then I realized it was way too soft and gentle for that. “W-what are you doing?” I demanded, my voice shaking.

Kicker put her head on my shoulder as she kept hugging me. “I won't pretend that everything's okay, but I know Rainbow well enough to know when she's hurting. I know I'm not your Cloud and you’re not my Rainbow, but ... if this helps...”

“D-dummy!” I sniffed. “I could’ve hurt you! Don’t you know that?”

“But you didn’t.” Kicker nuzzled me. I’d never thought about how long it had been since somepony had touched me like that. Not since ... since...

Chainbreaker fell into the mud. “I-I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to hurt anypony.” Sobs wracking my body as I started to blather. “I didn’t want to hurt your Rainbow, Kicker, I promise. It ... Rainbow didn’t give me any choice! She wouldn’t let me go as long as I wanted Starlight. She didn’t understand, none of you do. The other Rainbow made me fight her. I didn’t want to do any of this. I didn’t want my world to die, or to attack Ponyville. I didn’t ask to become some undead thing.”

The sobs overcame me, and Cloud gently shushed me as she stroked my mane. “It’s okay. Nopony has to hurt anyone else now. I’m here for you.”

I probably would have cried if I still could have, as stupid as that was. But I needed Kicker. It’d been too long since I could be with my best pal. I’d missed Kicker, missed Pinkie, missed so many ponies I’d known. “You don’t understand what we’ve been through. My world... They murdered our world. They killed you two, everypony we knew, everyone. Our world is so awful I can’t even describe it. Starlight and Twilight are the ones responsible for it all, and they need to be stopped. Please, they have to pay for what they did.”

“Not like this.” Kicker continued to stroke my mane. “This isn’t the right way to do this.”

“We don’t want to fight you either.” Pinkie squeezed me. “But hurting others just because you’re hurting isn’t how you fix things.”

A pitiful whine escaped my throat. “Then how? There wasn’t any other way. We talked about it, over and over and over again. So many times it made my head hurt. It had to be this way. We didn’t want to attack Ponyville, but it was the only way for us to get justice. If I’m not here to stop them, then what’s the point of me existing?”

“Oh Dashie...” Pinkie nuzzled me gently.

Cloud wiped some of the grime off my forehead. “It's okay, Rainbow. We've got you.”

“You believe me, right?” Sobs rocked my body. “Please say you believe me. I need to hear it.”

Kicker cupped my cheeks in her hooves so that we stared each other eye-to-eye. “I believe you’re badly hurting and need a very good friend right now.”

I wrapped my forelegs around both of them, and held onto them tight. I never wanted to let friends go, not ever. I’d lost them before, and I wasn’t going to again. I was done with fighting.

The other Rainbow cleared her throat loudly enough to be heard all around the forest clearing. She’d managed to get herself back to her hooves, using a tree as support. “So, um, I hate to break up the moment you guys are having right now, but I’m pretty banged up over here, and Starlight’s probably even worse off than I am.”

Pinkie gasped and ran over to the other Rainbow. “Ohmygosh, I’m so sorry! Things were just so crazy with you fighting yourself. She’d hurt you, but she was also hurting, and we needed to get everypony to stop fighting one another so that we could—”

“Pinkie!” Rainbow yelled to get Pinkie to stop rambling. “I get it. Just help us out and it’ll be fine.”

“Oh right! Sorry, again.” Pinkie started doing what she could for Rainbow and Starlight. She made sure Rainbow’s wounds were properly dressed, and, well, Starlight probably needed a doctor more than just some pony giving her first aid.

As for me, I was just so tired. It wasn’t because of how beat up I was or all the fights I’d just been in, it was something way deeper that those things. All I wanted to do was fade away into nothingness. I slumped down to sit in the mud, my head bowed. I was so done with it all.

Kicker stayed by my side and wrapped a wing around me. “Hey, hang in there. We’ll call for some help and be out of here in no time. It’s all over now.”

A dozen glowing green chains came shooting out of the darkness and showed just how wrong Cloud was about that. The chains wrapped themselves around Cloud and Rainbow before they could do anything. They both let out surprised shouts as they struggled against their bonds, but it was all for nothing.

Pinkie managed to dodge several of them as she hopped, ducked, and jumped with her freakish agility. For a moment it looked like she might even be able to escape the magical chains, but then a dozen more darted out of the forest. They cut off any retreat, and just like everyone else, wrapped themselves around Pinkie. The chains lifted the three of them into the air, completely helpless.

I knew exactly who was responsible for the chains, I bolted to my hooves and cried out. “Sunset, no! Please, don’t hurt them!”

“Relax Rainbow.” The air rippled as her invisibility spell faded, revealing Rising to everyone in the clearing. “Nopony’s going to get hurt. Once we get them back to camp, I’ll have Zecora and Fluttershy see to their wounds.”

“Oh.” I’d gotten so wrapped up in ... everything that for a moment I’d almost forgotten the mission. “Sorry, I was...”

Rising set one of her adamantine hooves on my shoulder. A second later I could feel cold and almost sickeningly sweet fire pouring into me, repairing the damage I’d taken during the fight. “It’s alright, Rainbow. It’s ... hard to see the reminders of what we lost.”

A second later, I felt her send a pulse of energy into my counterpart—probably something to make sure she’d be okay until she got back to camp. All the damage she’d done to her own head couldn’t be healthy. One of the handy little side applications of necromancy most folks didn’t think about: Rising could do a lot to keep anypony who was even a tiny bit alive from crossing the line into outright dead. Shame me and Rarity had been thoroughly corpse-y by the time she’d found us.

I wanted to cry, but somewhere along the line of becoming a half-metallic zombie my tear ducts had stopped working. My shoulders hunched as I shrunk down into myself. “I just... I just want everything back the way it was.”

Rising gave my shoulder a quick squeeze. “I do too. If there were any way to restore our world...” She sighed and shook her head. “But we tried that for so long and nothing came of it. We couldn’t even fix the time-locked oceans. All we can do now is bring the ones who destroyed everything to justice.”

“I know! I...” My gaze dropped to the ground. “I know. It's just ... it’s so hard. Seeing them after all this time, and then we have to fight them because they don’t understand...”

Rising nodded. “It was the same for me, years ago in Freeport.” Her big flaming skull didn’t do facial expressions, but I could hear the kindness in her voice. “Take them to the camps. Have their wounds seen to, and Starlight secured. Rarity and I can handle it from here.”

That snapped me out of my funk right away. “But I’m supposed to be the one leading the charge against the castle!” I slapped my breastplate. “It’s why you gave me this armor!”

“Plans change,” Rising answered, sounding infuriatingly calm. “You did very well capturing Starlight and securing her. Take as long as you need to recover and re-center yourself.”

I scoffed. “Look, I just got a little … I don’t need a break beac—”

She cut me off, her voice sounding surprisingly gentle considering it was coming from a huge flaming lich with adamantine bones. “Yes you do.”

I wanted to argue with her, but ... well the problem was she was right. My head wasn’t in the game. I was barely keeping it together, and if I saw another familiar face I’d probably lose it completely. If Pinkie was here that probably meant Maud and Limestone were around too, and I knew Cloud’s cousin was here. Getting to Twilight would almost certainly mean going through Storm, and just thinking about her reminded me of when I helped Cloud get through her memorial service after Vanhoover. There was no way I could fight any of them.

I trudged back to camp with my prisoners, feeling utterly miserable. I’d always thought finally bringing Starlight to justice would be just about the best thing I had left to look forward to, but after everything else it felt like a hollow victory.

Author's Note

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Chapter 6 - Storm

While the sally out against Rising’s forces had come at considerable cost, I could at least take some comfort in the fact that we had accomplished our primary objective of buying time for the last civilians to make it to safety. Though I would have felt much better about the operation if we had managed to defeat Rising, or at least one of her more powerful undead minions.

As it was, we only managed to destroy a small portion of the undead army before withdrawing back to the palace. Overall, not the best start to the battle we could have hoped for. Still, the last of the civilians were being escorted into the palace or were already inside the other shelters in Ponyville, and soon we would be able to close the gates and activate the wards. Then the real fighting could start.

I hovered over the last civilians seeking refuge inside the palace and waved for them to keep moving. “Keep moving, everypony. Clear the gates. You will be safe in the castle.”

Instead of making his way to the basement bunker as instructed, a pony I recognized as Mud Briar stopped to look up at me. “Technically, it's a palace, not a castle. While both serve as residences to royalty or nobility, a castle is a fortified structure while a palace is a grand residence. Considering the lack of a curtain wall, moat, battlements, and other fortifications, this building is clearly a palace.”

Irritating as the interjection was, I could hardly deny that he was right. As he had said, the palace lacked any real fortifications to beat back attackers. In fact, the palace had several features that would make it more difficult to defend: it was extremely top-heavy, and crystal was far too brittle to withstand bombardment by siege engines. I was quite concerned the palace would topple over if it took any significant structural damage. On top of that, due to the castle’s substantial overhang with no machicolations, we had no way to fire at any skeletons that made it to the base of the trunk

Considering I could already hear the low rumble of the approaching army of the dead, the lack of proper defenses was most concerning. Really, in the event of an attack of this scale, Her Highness was supposed to be evacuated to Canterlot or another heavily fortified location. But that assumed an entire invading army consisting of thousands didn’t suddenly appear in the center of Equestria without any warning, and that Her Highness wouldn’t be trapped inside of Ponyville. Not that we hadn’t made plans in the event the worst happened, but the thing about worst-case scenarios was that nopony wanted to implement them.

Knight-Magus Twinkleshine spotted the holdup in the line and stepped over, barking out orders in her best parade ground voice. “Stop blocking traffic!” She pointed Mud Briar towards the stairs leading into the basement. “Get to safety and let everypony else do the same!”

Thankfully, Mud Briar didn’t argue the point and got moving again. Once everyone was inside, I signalled the guards to close the gates. They snapped me salutes and slammed the doors shut, dropping the locking bar in place and quickly bracing it with additional timbers. While they worked, I turned my attention to the Knight-Magus. “Magus Twinkleshine, you have the gate. I need to update Her Highness on the course of the battle.”

She snapped off a quick salute. “Yes, Captain.”

Now that Twinkleshine had things well in hoof, at least until the undead started a full-fledged assault, I headed to the Map Room. Her Highness had been quite busy while we’d sallied out. She’d covered half a dozen chalkboards with complex arcane formula, piles of discarded scrolls and open books filled all the tables, and empty cups of coffee littered the room. Her Highness was scribbling away on the only chalkboard that wasn’t completely covered in formulae, casting spells one after another.

I saluted Princess Twilight and announced myself. “Highness, I have a report.”

“Storm!” Judging by her surprised jump, she’d been so absorbed in her work she hadn’t even noticed me enter the room. She glanced over at me for a moment before turning back to her work. While I normally might have been mildly irked by her obvious distraction, in this case I couldn’t fault her for remaining focused on her work. Breaking Rising’s spell and sending out a message to Canterlot was one of our top priorities, and while I wanted to keep her up to date on the course of the battle, she was hardly a general. When it came to the battlefield tactics, she would likely to defer to my judgement on all matters outside of spellcasting.

Despite that, she still needed to be kept up to date. Thankfully, my natural tendency towards stoicism made it much easier to remain calm and in control despite the worrying news. “The battle has not developed entirely in our favor.”

Her Highness’ frantic scribbling slowed. “What happened?”

We hardly had time to beat around the bush, so I got straight to it. “Starlight has been captured.”

Her Highness dropped the chalk and spun to face me. “What?! How?!”

I kept my voice steady. Her Highness needed to keep calm and focused on what was most important; the last thing she needed was for me to say or do anything that would make her feel more stressed. If not for the problems that would have caused, I might have been tempted to withhold the bad news from her. “Near as we can tell, she encountered the undead version of Rainbow, met her in battle, and lost.”

“Where was Starlight's backup? I thought you were supporting her.” Her Highness tried not to sound make it sound like an accusation, but it still felt like one. It hurt to feel like I had failed her when I had promised I would protect her student. She valued her friends. so the idea that Starlight had been captured by Rising, after she had asked her to go, had to sting her.

I owed her answers for what happened, and I was going to give them to her. “Starlight said we should hang back until Rising showed herself so she would be better bait. Starlight seemed confident in her ability to defeat any of the undead by herself except for Rising, and if Rising saw us she might not have shown herself or ambushed us in turn, thus ruining the plan. So we let her fight Rain—the Revenant. Unfortunately, during the fight she teleported several times and ended up outside of our support range. Before we could catch up with her, the Revenant defeated Starlight and made off with her new prisoner. We were unable to catch up with her, and units of undead intercepted us and they forced us to retreat.”

Her Highness grimaced as she digested all of that. “Anything else?”

I swallowed as I steeled myself to give her yet more bad news. “I am afraid so. Our Rainbow launched a rescue mission, along with Pinkie and Cloud.”

She blinked. “But I didn’t order any rescue mission.”

I shook my head. “No, Highness. I suspect that Rainbow took the rescue mission upon herself, and the others followed her.”

“That sounds right.” Her Highness frowned at me. “Please tell me it went well, they’re on their way back with Starlight, and everypony’s okay.”

I grimaced and took a deep breath to make sure I had a lid on my own emotions. “They have yet to return.” I felt a sickening twist of fear deep in my gut. Was Cloud hurt, captured, or worse? That knot in my stomach grew worse as I thought about the others. Rainbow was a longtime friend of the family, and Pinkie had worked hard to make the Guard feel welcome in Ponyville. She was a favorite among the rank-and-file after how many parties she had thrown for them.

Why did they have to go running off after Starlight without permission? Well, I knew why they had done it. No doubt Rainbow thought she would be able to save Starlight and make it back unharmed. She was never one to abandon someone she cared about, and the others followed her because they wanted to help her and make sure she did not get hurt. I understood entirely, and might have been tempted to join them in other circumstances.

However, just because they had good reasons for their actions did not negate all the trouble they had caused. Running off on an impulsive unplanned rescue mission in the middle of a siege was the sort of thing that could end very badly. They had no support, no exit strategy, and there was no way I could send them backup or make sure they had a way to get back to the palace. We all needed to be on the same page, not have everypony running around like chickens with our heads cut off. Now they were all off someplace only Shadow knew, and there wasn’t anything I could do about it.

Cloud should have known all of that, she had gone to West Hoof just as I had.

Her Highness bit her lip, and I could see her struggling with many of the same problems I was. She probably wanted to send another rescue mission, but that would be unwise given the circumstances. We were about to be assaulted by thousands of undead monsters, and we needed every soldier manning the defenses if we were going to survive this. It was four lives weighed against everypony taking sanctuary inside of the palace, not to mention we had no idea where to even begin with a rescue mission. All we could do was send a rescue party in the same direction Rainbow had flown off in and hope they happened to cross her path.

Part of me worried she might press for a rescue mission despite all reason. No one wanted to abandon their friends, and Her Highness was the Princess of Friendship. Not to mention she was already feeling guilty over not launching a rescue mission for Fluttershy. How long could she stand doing nothing while her friends were in peril? Even if she knew on an intellectual level that rushing into action would be unwise, her heart might demand it.

Those worries disappeared when Her Highness’s eyes hardened. “We’ll see what we can do for them after we’ve beaten back Rising’s army. Hopefully they’re fine, but we can’t go running off after them right now when we have to protect everypony in Ponyville.” Her wings drooped as she returned to her notes. I could tell that decision hurt her, but it had been the right one. “How has the evacuation gone? Is everypony safe?”

Finally, I could give her some good news. “We were able to complete the evacuation before Rising's forces pushed us back. We have barred the gates and prepared the defenses. We will hold the line for as long as we must.”

She let out a relieved sigh. “At least we don’t have to worry about that. Are Applejack and Rarity still with the civilians then?” Her Highness’s eye twitched. “No sudden crazy missions that nopony approved or even told me about ahead of time? Nothing that’s going to make me have to worry myself sick about whether or not my friends got themselves killed?”

“No Highness.” I stepped forward and rested a hoof on her shoulder for a moment, offering what small comfort I could. “Last I heard, they were seeing to their families.” Thankfully, their desires to be with their families helped keep the two of them out of trouble. There were already too many Bearers of the Elements of Harmony captured or MIA right now.

Her Highness closed her eyes, her shoulders slumping as she whispered something under her breath. “Thank goodness.” She turned her attention back to me. “What about the advance of Rising’s army?”

“They will be outside the castle walls shortly.” I flew up to one of the windows to look outside, and confirmed the undead army was getting closer. “It would be best if we activated the palace defenses, Highness.”

“You’re sure there’s nopony left to get to safety?” Her Highness waited for me confirm it, then closed her eyes and started casting the spell. There was a flash of violet light from her horn that quickly spread to encompass the entire room, and a prismatic bubble-shield formed around the palace. Even inside the palace, I could feel the hum of power from the barrier.

Shadow’s spirit murmured approval within my mind. “Once again Princess Twilight proves she has the power and skill of her ancestors. Sunbeam would likely be proud of her descendant, even if I suspect Her Highness would also vex her at the same time.”

When we were planning for the palace’s defenses, creating a shield we could fall behind seemed wise. The palace itself would be all but impossible to secure, so we would have to hold them away from it. Her Highness had designed an incredibly complicated and multilayered defensive ward to protect the palace and anyone inside. The Archmagus of Canterlot herself had looked over the defensive spells and offered some minor suggestions for improvement. From what Her Highness had told me, the shield was extremely strong and would protect the palace from any variety of physical or magical attacks while drawing power from the leyline running through the palace to continually regenerate itself. We could only hope it would be enough.

Still, there was no sense in lingering upon such worries. Either the shield would hold or it would not. For now it was more important to steady morale, starting with Her Highness. “Very good. That should allow us to hold the line until you get word to Celestia.”

“I'm starting to make progress.” Her Highness frowned as she attempted yet another analysis spell and jotted down more notes. “I've managed to figure out how most of it works, and I think I’m zeroing in on a weakness. There's the...” She hesitated before continuing. “We probably don’t have time for me to go into multilayered alternating arcane frequency waves, do we?”

In truth, despite my off-hours study of magical theory to try and keep up with Her Highness, I did not even know what those were. Twilight Sparkle was a nearly peerless genius when it came to magic, and despite my best efforts to keep up with her much of what she discussed went completely over my head. Thanks to my classes in West Hoof I had a basic understanding of magic, but most of that pertained to the practical applications of magic, not advanced magic theory. When it came to things like the shield protecting the palace or Rising’s anti-communication spell, I was out of my depth beyond knowing what those magics did.

But my time with Her Highness had given me plenty of experience at knowing what to concentrate on when she was in danger of going on a tangent at an inopportune time. “It would probably be best to wait until the battle is over to publish your findings.”

In turn, Her Highness has learned that I prefer it if she sticks to the practical side of her considerable knowledge. “I think I can break this with another half an hour of work.”

“Then we will have to hold the line for that long.” I did not honestly know if we could last for half an hour. The army of the dead would be assaulting the palace in a matter of minutes, and that was not even accounting for Rising, the revenant, and the vampire. The skeletons were at least a predictable and straightforward threat. The higher undead were a much larger and more importantly asymmetric threat. If what Starlight told us about her was true, Rising was a magical peer to Her Highness. Rarity’s account of her vampiric counterpart was equally concerning, and the revenant had somehow managed to defeat Starlight in single combat.

A half an hour could be a very long time in a battle, especially when we didn’t know the full capacity of our enemy and their plans. But it would not do to worry my princess overmuch about that. It was far more important to focus our time and effort on goals we could actually make positive progress towards. Either we could hold Rising’s forces back long enough for Her Highness to send a message or we would not.

Her Highness pressed her lips together as she concentrated on her work. “I’ll be here working on countering Rising’s spell unless there’s anything I need to see to.”

We could perhaps use Her Highness’ considerable magical ability to help throw back the undead host, but I was against the idea of her exposing herself to Rising and her forces. While she might help us in driving off an enemy probe, getting support from Canterlot was far more important for delivering a true victory. No, best if she was safe doing what she was doing, or at least as safe as she could be given the circumstances.

“Just focus on getting word to Canterlot, Highness,” I told her. “I will see to the defenses. Do you require anything else?”

She shook her head. “No, I think I’m good for now.” I turned to go, but Her Highness’ voice stopped me. “Storm, wait.” I stopped, and Her Highness approached me. “Stay safe. Okay?”

I hesitated as I tried to think of the best reply. “You too, Highness.” It felt like a terribly insufficient statement, considering the circumstances.

Her Highness hesitated for a moment, then galloped over and latched onto me. The hug was a surprisingly hard and tight one, and for a moment I could almost swear I heard a sniffle from her. She pulled back a hair, shooting me a shaky but determined smile. “Show them what the Twilight Guard can do.”

I hugged her in return for what I prayed wouldn’t be for the last time. “Of course, Highness.”

I returned to the balcony just in time to see Rising’s army making its final approach towards the palace. Unit after unit of skeletons marched through Ponyville’s streets in perfectly uniform ranks, their black armor and spears glistening in the sun. Ponyville was utterly silent aside from the sound of marching hooves and the clatter of arms and armor. It was strange to see the idyllic peaceful village so transformed—to look along city streets and see avenues of approach, choke points, and firing lanes instead of ponies walking about and enjoying the day.

Once the undead reached the effective range of our crossbows, sergeants barked orders, and the crossbowponies opened fire. We had plenty of ammunition stored up, and we needed to thin out the undead ranks as quickly as possible. Against a normal army it might be more advisable to wait until an enemy got closer and fire in volleys, so as to best damage enemy morale when holes were suddenly and viciously punched into their ranks. Against an army of mindless undead, morale was irrelevant. All we could do was try and destroy them as quickly and efficiently as possible, unless we saw an opportunity to kill whoever was in control of the undead.

While crossbows weren’t ideal against undead, the heavy blunted tips we’d set upon our bolts struck with enough force to shatter bone. Catapults or other weapons that inflicted massive blunt trauma would have been ideal, but we had none of those on hoof. Her Highness had not wanted us to turn the palace into an armed fortress, especially when all those weapons would normally be pointed towards the peaceful small town. Considering the troubles we had with the locals when first expanding the Guard, it seemed best not to do anything that might make them uneasy. Now that Ponyville was under attack, I suspected many of the locals wished we had ignored their concerns and brought in heavy weapons.

As the first round of bolts hammered into their ranks the undead shifted from a steady walk to a charge. There were not shout or battlecries, no fanfare of drums or horns as would be tradition with a flesh and blood army; just a sudden shift into a headlong run as they threw themselves at the palace’s defenses.

The magi opened up next. Ponyville’s streets funneled the skeletons, making them easy targets for fireballs, lightning bolts, and whatever other spells the magi favored. Spells blew great swaths of the undead away as there was nowhere to dodge, not that the skeletons even bothered with trying. On and on they came as spells and crossbow bolts hammered into them. We thinned their ranks, but they vastly outnumbered the Twilight Guard. There was no possible way we could have stopped such an army from reaching the palace.

The skeletons threw themselves at the prismatic shield, but the magical barrier utterly disintegrated them upon impact. The shield annihilated dozens and then hundreds of them as its magic reacted violently to the necromantic energy animating the skeletons. Ripples ran along the surface of the shield as the undead swarmed against it, and arcs of magical discharge crackled as the undead attempted to overwhelm the shield by sheer force of numbers.

A continual thrum of bolts being released hummed in the air as the crossbowponies kept up a steady rate of fire, though the spells from the magi slackened as they saved strength for larger clusters of undead. The first stage of the siege was well under way, and a fresh set of orders ran through the palace. Our engineers brought out the only proper artillery we had: a number of small pony-portable ballistae. Firegem-tipped bolts flew through the air and landed amongst the next wave of undead. Explosions blasted whole skeleton formations flat, creating a momentary reprieve against the undead advance.

The two-pony ballista crews rushed to reload fresh fire gems for the next volley. The ballistae played a key role in our defenses. Each would hopefully disrupt the undead ranks for a few critical seconds, giving the shield to time to recover and allowing our crossbowponies a bit of breathing room to reload.

From my vantage point on the balcony I had a grand view of the battlefield as the fight proceeded. I had confidence in my subordinates to follow their orders. We had gone over the drills countless times, so everypony should know what to do. With all the little details seen to, I was free to focus on the big picture as a proper commander should. Even though Shadow’s spirit seemed nonplussed by my leading from the rear, being in the frontlines made it hard to focus on anything beyond my immediate surroundings.

Lieutenant Speedy Tracker watched the battle at my side. The hippogryph and I served together in the Long Patrol, and when building up the Twilight Guard, he had been among my first choices to fill out our ranks. One advantage of commanding a princess’ personal guard: getting the officers I wanted had usually been a simple matter of asking. I trusted his judgement, and wanted him close by should I need a sounding board or second opinion. Not to mention it would be quite useful to have an officer on hoof whom I could direct to handle any emergencies that would inevitably come up during the battle.

For the moment, things seemed to be going well. Though the undead horde continued its inexorable advance, the shield held them at bay, and many hundreds of the undead had been destroyed. However, the longer the battle continued with no change, the more ill at ease I felt. I put my thoughts into words. “They have been hurling themselves at our walls, but to what end?”

Speedy quickly scanned the battlefield with his binoculars. “They have rams out there, but they’re not deploying them to the fight yet. If they’ve got anything heavier like towers or trebuchets, I don’t see them. Odd. So far they’ve been ready for the fight. You’d think they would have known they’d need to break through our defenses too. Maybe undead are too stupid to manage something more complicated than a battering ram?”

“Possible, but that doesn’t feel like the right answer.” I examined the battlefield with my own set of binoculars. “If they did bring siege artillery then it would have been simple to have some pegasi with invisibility spells and fire gems sally out to destroy them. Any trebuchets would need to either be well enough defended to survive our counterattack, or so powerful they would shatter our defenses before we could muster a response.”

“True.” Speedy scratched his chin. “Maybe they underestimated our defenses? The palace itself isn’t anything to write home about, but the shield is a real piece of work. It’s possible they weren’t expecting that.”

“Perhaps, but I doubt it is anything that rosy.” For that matter, I sensed Speedy didn’t particularly believe that explanation himself. While history was full of incompetent generals, assuming your enemy didn’t know what they were doing was a good way to set yourself up for a nasty surprise. “Considering the resources they have available and the capabilities they have displayed thus far, this current attack feels ... insufficient.”

“Remember how the minds of necromancers work, my descendant,” the spirit within Shadow’s Armor whispered into my ear. “Necromancers frequently use their hordes of simple undead as a distraction or holding force while the true blow comes from elsewhere. The current force seems to be less than they can muster, and none of their leaders are here. Thou rememberest the Battle of Two Magnuses, aye?”

I did. A force of clanponies lead by Magnus Charger the necromancer invaded Equestria in a mad attempt to resurrect Pegasopolis. The crushing defeat Magnus Kicker inflicted on the clan force was due in no small part to their failure to properly implement many of the standard necromancer tactics. Several young hotheads among the clan ranks insisted on charging the first Equestrian forces they saw rather than waiting in reserve and only striking once the undead chaff tied the Equestrian forces down and either exposed a weak point in their defenses or provided the mobile clan forces an opportunity to outflank the Equestrian lines.

Ironically, that very failure had made the battle an interesting case study at West Hoof. If nothing else, it made for a pointed lesson on the importance of maintaining discipline in the ranks. Pity Cloud had forgotten that lesson, or at least allowed her friendship with Rainbow to override her good sense. Even if my cousin was a civilian, having another pony with proper officer training would have been a boon.

If all sense and precedent said the skeletons were nothing but a distraction, that begged the question of where the true blow would come from. My gaze swept over the battlefield and I couldn’t find what I was looking for. “Have you spotted Rising or any other type of undead besides skeletons?”

Speedy frowned as he once again put his binoculars to work. “No, I haven’t. That’s ... concerning.”

“Agreed.” My battlefield instincts were screaming that something was amiss. “Lieutenant, send out some scouts and tell them to report anything suspicious or if they spot any—”

Whatever I was about to say next became completely moot a moment later. A deafening crack resounded through the air, and with a scream of shattering crystal the palace hurled me off my hooves as it lurched to the side. I scrambled to get back up on a now tilted floor. The incline was not so steep as I first feared, but the fact that it existed at all was concerning.

Speedy groaned and picked himself off the slanted floor. “I don’t know what that was, but I think we just found the nasty twist you were looking for.”

He was right. There was no time to lament the enemy outmaneuvering us. I needed to focus on what we could do to salvage the situation. “Speedy, get to the reserves and get them ready to go. If I signal you, I want you to bring all of them to my location. Put the engineers on damage control as soon as we know where we got hit. We can’t afford to have the entire palace topple over if they hit us again.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He snapped off a quick salute and galloped off as fast as he could on the now tilted floor.

For my part I leapt out the window and took flight, getting a little distance so I could take stock. Whatever dim hope I’d held that the damage had been localized to my area quickly faded as I confirmed that the entire palace looked like a tree in the process of getting chopped down. If not for the railings along the balcony we likely would have lost many of our archers to falling over the side, and as it was the Twilight Guard’s fire had all but ceased as everypony recovered from the explosion. Even worse, several of our portable ballistae had gone over the side, and judging by the impromptu bonfire at the base of the castle, we had lost quite a bit of ammunition as well.

The cause of the trouble wasn’t hard to spot. Part of the palace’s trunk had been blown away, and massive chunks of crystal were scattered about the field around the gaping wound. Skeletons were moving about among the ruins. The explosion had already destroyed several of them and their remains were strewn about alongside the chunks of crystal, but half a dozen of them still remained.

How had they gotten there? The shield should have been impenetrable! Was there a weakness we did not know about? Had they somehow snuck inside the shield before it got put up? Finding answers to that question would have to wait, as the remaining undead were at the base of the palace, doing something that almost certainly boded ill. I dove as close as I dared to get a better look. A couple of them were drilling into the crystalline trunk of the palace, while the others carried a crate that, judging by what had just happened, presumably contained some sort of explosive.

It was not hard to guess what they were up to: they were trying to collapse the whole palace in on itself. I had to wonder if their first attempt had simply failed to achieve the desired results, or if they had accidently set off the explosion prematurely. This type of work was dangerous for highly trained ponies who knew what they were doing, much less clunky, mindless undead. Whatever the truth was, I had to stop them from planting any more explosives. The first attempt had already done severe damage, and second might actually achieve their objective.

I activated a gem signaling Speedy to bring the reserves to me immediately. I charged straight into their ranks, wing blades outstretched. Dangerous as it was to rush in alone and unsupported, I couldn’t afford to wait for reinforcements. Another blast, even an accidental one, might cause the whole palace to collapse.

The flash of a wing blade removed the head of the skeleton holding the drill, and another swing did the same to the one doing the drilling. The remaining skeletons dropped the crate and raised their spears, doing their best to encircle me. With a mental command my wing blades began burning red hot, and I removed the speartips with a quick swipe.

With my foes disarmed I stepped in, and my weapons sliced through armor and bone like a hot knife through butter. The surviving two skeletons stood stock still, either having been told to stand there or too stupid to react to an unexpected situation. Either way, I wasn’t about to let them regain their bearings, I started towards them, only to pull up short when I heard the barest whisper of hooves on the ground.

“So you're the Captain of the Twilight Guard?” At the sound of that voice I activated the Armor’s ability to penetrate illusions. The vampiric version of Rarity sprang into sight. She regarded me with a cool, bored frown as she looked me over. “At least you're as tall as I imagined.”

I carefully watched the vampire for any sudden movements. Though she did not seem inclined to attack at the moment, I doubted this encounter would end peacefully. “You would be the other Rarity, then.”

“Indeed. And you're Captain Storm Kicker. I'm sorry if I caught you in the middle of doing something heroic, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to stop you. This ugly castle simply needs to come down.” Rarity turned her red eyes up on the palace and sneered, letting out a disdainful scoff. “I mean really, have you seen this hideous thing? Look at those uninviting cool colors with that ugly shade of mustard to highlight it that just makes it look like it’s mocking the color gold. And ugh, the spikes. Honestly, how has no one caught on that Twilight is a villain with a palace like that? And it simply does not go with the town's aesthetics. You're walking into a nice homey, rustic little town, and then bam, giant evil looking spiky tree palace to ruin the view. It's simply atrocious,darling. Even if it wasn’t the fortress of one of the foulest ponies to ever exist, I’d be doing everyone a favor by destroying this eyesore for being a crime against good taste.”

My eyes narrowed. Regardless of her artistic critique of the palace, there were a lot of ponies taking refuge inside of it, including Her Highness. I wasn’t about to let this monster hurt them by knocking the building down. “You know I cannot let you destroy the palace.”

Rarity held a hoof up to her mouth and let out a faintly mocking laugh, like a high society lady from Canterlot. “You won’t let me do it, will you? Darling, what makes you think you could do anything to stop me?”

I clenched my teeth. “There are hundreds of innocent ponies taking shelter there.”

She fixed me with a cold, distant look. “Yes, your mistress assembled quite the force of equine shields to hold us at bay. We will, of course, do what we can to minimize collateral damage. However, with how many she’s murdered and how many more will die if we don’t stop her, we cannot allow her to escape justice for her crimes by threatening yet more innocent lives.”

I was sorely tempted to argue that she was grossly misrepresenting Her Highness’ actions, but there would be no point to it. The time for negotiation had long since passed. “I will end your wretched existence. Both to save everyone within the palace, and because I must for the sake of my princess.”

I activated my armor and unleashed a blinding flash of light. The vampire let out a startled shout and covered her eyes. I rushed her, intent on ending this fight before it even got started. However, despite the element of surprise the vampire was quick to react. Despite being blinded, she leapt clean into the air, far higher and farther than any normal pony could have, and dodged out of the way of my wing blades.

Before I could close on her again, the amulet hanging around her neck glowed a menacing red, and a wave of reddish-black lightning swept over me. The blast of necromantic energy would easily have stolen the life force from my body and left me little more than a withered husk, but the Armor easily absorbed the attack. While the spell didn’t harm me, it did hold me back for a precious pair of seconds that the vampire used to recover. My advantage lost, I quickly blasted the negative energy harmlessly to the side. The spell would not be of any use against the undead, and I wanted to be able to absorb any other spells the vampire might throw at me.

Rarity smirked as she unsheathed her sword, a blade as black as night with ripples of silver along its length. The blade initially ran straight for about half its length before shifting into a sickle-like curve. I recognized the design as a khopesh. They had been quite popular in ancient Selerika, but had long since faded from popularity.

“Beware!” Shadow cried within my mind. “That blade is the Nightmare's work, and she uses an Alicorn Amulet!”

Shadow’s warning confirmed my suspicions that the sword she was using was Nightfall. Though I had not seen Luna’s sword myself, the blade matched Star’s description of it. If that blade had been made by Princess Luna, then it might well be able to penetrate the Armor. There was also a good possibility it had at least one unique ability that could cause me all sorts of trouble. It’s twin Chainbreaker had certainly caused Her Highness problems, and Archon Shimmer was not an extremely powerful vampire.

The Alicorn Amulet also presented a major threat. The Armor provided me with an all but impenetrable defense against direct spellcasting, but when I’d faced Tirek in battle he found ways to injure me regardless. Perhaps the Amulet explained how Rarity and her forces had managed to penetrate the shield. The Amulet was supposed to give its wielder magical power equivalent to that of an alicorn, which might be enough to allow her to bypass the barrier in some manner.

Rarity seemed to be assessing me as I had her, a knowing smile tugging at her lips. “Ah, as I thought, you wear Shadow's Armor. I know it quite well, considering Rainbow uses our version of it. Unfortunately for you, I know its weaknesses.” Her smile widened, showing off her fangs. “As with any tool, it is only as good as the one who wields it. Tell me, how many of the ponies who took that armor up have died in it?”

More than I cared to think about. Until recently the Armor had been kept locked away in a vault until our need was dire. Thankfully Her Highness had helped convince the clan to loosen those restrictions, especially now that Shadow judged me worthy. However, in times past many a wearer had died while still trying to learn the Armor’s abilities on the battlefield, not to mention some of the Armor’s abilities could allow a pony to continue to fight well past their limits. Shadow herself had straddled the line between living and dead for a time while wearing it.

Not that I was about to let this creature intimidate me. “I see you are using Nightfall. How well do you know how to wield a blade?”

“I could tell you, but it would be much more effective to show you.” Rarity angled the blade towards me, and I could feel an almost palpable wave of menace coming off of her. Perhaps one of her vampiric abilities. “Now don't blink or you'll miss the show.”

The vampire launched forward like a released crossbow bolt. She was on me and swinging her blade so quickly that if it hadn’t been for a lifetime of training I might very well have lost my head. As it was, my wing shot up to block the swipe, and the collision was hard enough to cause a shock of pain to shoot through my wing and into my shoulder. Not only was she fast, she was unnaturally strong.

After the first strike failed to hit me, Rarity’s blade danced into a lightning fast series of slashes that struck at a variety of angles. It took all my skill and speed to keep up with her, and even then I was almost completely on the defensive. Rarity’s blade moved with supernatural speed, and while I was among the best duelists in Equestria and Shadow’s Armor elevated me even further, I was still an ordinary pony. Eventually one of my parries was not fast enough, Nightfall hammered into my breastplate. Thankfully it didn’t penetrate, but the blow still carried enough force to to send me staggering back. When I glanced down, I saw a considerable dent in the armor, right over my heart.

“Thou hast three bruised ribs and microfractures in thy sternum,” Shadow warned me. Not that I felt the pain of those wounds thanks to the Armor. Still, I could not help but wonder if the Spirit in the Armor had taken to warning its bearers of their injuries because of how many had remained unaware of their wounds until they died of them.

Though Rarity could have pressed her advantage, she instead chuckled and took a moment to admire Nightfall. “Now then, I suppose Rising would be tiffed with me if I didn't give you one chance to surrender. You hardly need to die for that dreadful monster you call a princess, and I promise that you will be treated in accordance to the rules of war.”

My eyes narrowed. “I do not know what madness has taken you, vampire, but I will not yield. I will defend my princess until my last dying breath.”

Rarity sighed in a way that uncannily reminded me of our own Rarity, usually the sort of sigh she let out when she learned someone had to cancel an appointment at her boutique. As if this battle to the death was nothing but a mere inconvenience to her. “I thought as much. Still, a lady must try to do as her queen commands.”

The Alicorn Amulet lit up once again, and Rarity slammed a hoof against the earth. Black crystals shot out of the ground and hurled towards me, and I threw myself to the side. The Armor could only absorb direct magical attacks, and these crystals were very real and physical objects merely being propelled by magical force. One of the crystals skimmed off the side of the Armor, and another passed by my wing so closely I felt the wind off of it.

No sooner had I dodged the attack than Rarity was on top of me, swinging Nightfall at my head. I had no time to block or dodge, but thankfully the Armor had other abilities. With a mental command I turned insubstantial as the shadows themselves, and Nightfall passed harmlessly through me. A moment after the blade passed through me, I remembered that the blade had belonged to the Princess of the Night, a mistress of shadow and darkness. Using that particular ability had perhaps been a risk, but fortunately one I survived.

Rarity blinked in shock as she overextended after her blow met no opposing force, and I bolted forward to get behind her. I became substantial again and slashed at her head from behind. Only supernatural reflexes kept Rarity from losing her head, as she bent her knees and ducked down so that my blade swished over her head.

I pressed the advantage now that dodging had forced her body into an unnatural position. I slashed with my other wing in a downward-sweeping blow that Rarity managed to block with her blade. With Nightfall locked against one of my wing blades I pressed the attack, swinging for her neck with my free blade. Once again, Rarity’s unnatural speed saved her, allowing her to somehow slip away from what should have been a killing blow. She disengaged Nightfall from my wing blade and scrambled away, using that impossible speed to withdraw and buy herself a moment to recenter herself.

Nearly losing her head had at least erased the confident smirk from her face. “Impressive. I see you've truly mastered all aspects of your armor. Pity we couldn’t get Rainbow to do the same with her copy of it. A little too much pride in depending on her own abilities, and only two sparring partners to practice with.”

“Practicing with it seemed prudent.” I fell back as well to give myself as much reaction time as I could manage. Rarity’s unnatural speed had repeatedly proved to be a threat. If I could buy even a fraction of a second longer to react, it could be the difference between life and death.

Rarity tossed her mane; the fang-filled smirk slowly working its way back onto her lips. “A nice little trick, but I’m afraid I have you outclassed in the spellcasting department.” She tapped the Alicorn Amulet. “As long as I’m careful what spells I use, there won’t be any magic for your armor to absorb. And honestly, I don’t really need spellcasting to win this.”

Rarity charged me once again, but this time I was ready for her supernatural speed. I took to the air and unleashed a spell Twilight had stored in the Armor. A web of sticky entangling threads shot straight down, covering Rarity and the area around her.

Rarity let out an undignified squak as the goo splattered all over her, struggling to free herself from it. When she made no progress after several moments of effort, she closed her eyes and cast a spell. She turned into a shadow and simply flowed out of the web, reforming beyond its edge before fixing me with a baleful glower. I grimaced at the failure. So much for pinning her down and denying her the advantage of speed.

As dangerous as it was, my best chance to win this was locking blades with her. I flew down at her, using the dive to focus as much power as possible into my first strike. Rarity was ready for me, and our blades clashed against each other. Despite all the momentum behind my attack, her hideous strength was enough to block my blow head-on.

While that turn of events was from ideal, it was not unexpected. I brought my other wing blade around, catching Nightfall in a cross-block. I forced Nightfall down with both my wing blades twisting the other sword as I went to gain as much of a leverage advantage as possible. Against any normal foe, the gambit might have worked, but Rarity’s supernatural strength was so great that it overcame my superior position with force to spare. I staggered back as she freed her blade from my grip.

I flapped my wings as I struggled to retain my balance. Rarity gave me no time to recover, rushing forward with a perfect dance of rapid-fire slashes that easily flowed into one another. I had no choice but to continually give ground in a desperate attempt to stave off the inevitable. The last exchange had set a dangerous precedent. Once she had freedom to attack as she wished, it was only a matter of time before one of her perfect strikes pierced my defenses.

In fact, as the clash continued I slowly began to realize that her strikes were too perfect. I hadn’t noticed it at first due to the vampire’s dangerous speed, but her attacks were all just a touch ... off. The truth came to me in a sudden flash of insight: she wasn’t used to fighting other opponents. Her movements were like a well rehearsed dance. Technically excellent, but they lacked any of the personal flair that could only come from years of experience in actual battle against a range of opponents.

Perhaps it should not have been a surprise. From all that she had claimed the only living beings with any degree of intelligence left in her world were herself, their Rainbow Dash, and Rising Fire. Mindless skeletons would hardly make the best sparring partners. The vampire might have read through technical manuals and practiced the moves within them to perfection, but when it came to actual experience she had none. Training and practice were vitally important, but no amount of it could entirely substitute for actual battle experience.

Now that I had caught onto my opponent’s patterns, it was much easier to predict her attacks and block them despite her impossible speed. The longer the battle continued, the more I realized just how inflexible her swordwork was. While each attack flowed perfectly into the next, the same speed that had initially made her so dangerous also made it impossible for her to improvise from moment to moment.

Within thirty seconds I had begun blocking attacks before she started swinging, and soon after that, I could anticipate when there would be holes in her defenses. Knowing a diagonal sweep was coming, I took a step back, caught her blade with my own, and used its own momentum to force her blade far aside to leave her open. Rarity’s eyes widened, and she threw herself backwards to keep me from taking her head off with my next swipe.

The vampire scowled at me, the confident smirk she had worn for most of the battle now notable by its absence. “What was that? How are you faster than me?! You’re just an ordinary mortal pony! Are you using some sort of magic? Some kind of precognitive or speed-boosting spell?” Her horn lit up as she tried several different spells to counteract whatever she thought I might be doing, but of course none of them had any effect.

The corner of my mouth turned up in a faintly mocking smile. “The only magic here is what comes from countless hours of hard work. Training. Skill. Discipline.” I went on the attack, and if anything, her defense was even more lacking than her offense had been. Small surprise. How could she learn to defend herself with no opponents to attack her?

A feint at her head made her bring up her blade to block, but that left her left side vulnerable. My other wing blade slipped into the gap and hit her armor, leaving behind a scorched dent.

The vampire quickly pulled back to try and buy a bit of breathing room to recover from the sudden turn in her fortunes. I was not about to give her time to think and recover. I dashed after her and then threw several feints. Rarity’s lack of experience fighting living opponents worked against her as she tried to guess which blow was the real one. Her increasingly wild swings into different blocks caused her to wrong-hoof herself, and in that moment I struck.

My wing blade flashed through a gap in her defenses, and this time I struck true. Her decision to eschew a helmet, likely born out of the same mild vanity our own Rarity possessed, proved to be her undoing. Though a last-minute flinch saved her from the worst I could have done, my blade cut a line across her cheek before continuing to remove a lock of her mane with its red-hot edge.

She screamed and leapt into the air, landing well away from me. I was tempted to pursue once more, but this time I held back. If this Rarity was anything like the one I knew, seeing the damage to her appearance might well unbalance her further.

Rarity held a hoof to her cheek as she levitated a chunk of crystal and quickly carved it into a basic mirror. She gasped as she saw the burnt ends of her mane. “My mane! Do you have any idea how much work I have to put into my mane it make it presentable?! Once you’re undead, hair doesn’t grow anything like it used to!” Somehow, I could not feel sympathy for the vampire’s mane when she had been attempting to kill me just a minute ago. She tentatively withdrew her hoof from her face and her eyes bulged at the sight of the ugly burned gash across her cheek. “And my face! My beautiful face! This will take forever to heal! It might even scar!”

I could not help but goad the vampire. “Oh yes, you just attempted to kill everyone in the palace, but you might get a scar out of this. How terrible.” As was the case with most undead, fire tended to damage them more permanently than other wounds. Vampires could usually heal any wounds that didn’t destroy them quite quickly, especially if they had a plentiful supply of fresh blood to feast upon, but fire was quite a bit harder for them. Not impossible, but not easy.

Rarity’s red eyes burned with hate as they fixed themselves upon me. She tossed the mirror against a chunk of rubble, and she let out an utterly inequine shriek. “How could you?! You horrid vicious beast! I will destroy you!”

Her mouth opened in a feral fang-filled snarl as she launched herself at me. Her blade was little more than a barely visible blur, and she struck with such power that even when I blocked the blow it nearly knocked me over. Evidently rage had pushed her to new heights.

She flew at me blade-first. Forgotten was the beautiful dancing whirl. Now all that remained was primal ferocity unleashed. If anything she was faster and stronger than before, and without a predictable technique to counter, I quickly found myself overwhelmed by the furious assault. It was all I could do just to hold her at bay, and even that did not last long.

Rarity batted my blades aside with a single massive sweep of Nightfall, then caught me off guard when she rammed her hoof straight into my chest. Normally punching somepony in the thickest part of their armor would have little effect, but between her rage and her enhanced vampiric strength, she hit with enough force to send me flying. My back slammed into the trunk of the palace, hitting it hard enough to crack the crystal, and for a moment, the world vanished into a haze of white-hot pain.

For a time I could scarcely recall where I was and what had just happened, with only a distant part of my brain registering that I was on the ground and that was probably not a good thing. I wondered why until Shadow’s spirit shouted into my mind. Get up! End this quickly, for that blow opened wounds within thee.

I grunted in reply, my mind snapping back into focus. I forced myself onto shaky hooves as the Armor blocked away the pain that must be wracking my body. Rarity stomped her way towards me. Her features had shifted into harsh and angular, her fangs showing themselves as the beast within her took over. Rarity swept Nightfall at my head, and I barely ducked out of the way. The sword sliced right into the crystal of palace trunk. A brief kick to the tree freed the blade, and she immediately returned to stalking to me.

I continued falling back to try and let the vampire’s fury wear her out, but the Spirit quickly pointed out the flaw in that plan. “She is undead. She will not tire. Thine only options are to destroy her or flee to safety.”

I cursed under my breath as I realized she was right. That last hit must have rattled me if I had forgotten that fact. I triggered another blast of light to buy a bit of time and space to recover. However, this time the vampire was ready for me, and Rarity swept Nightfall in front of her, the blade creating a sheet of pure darkness in its wake. The darkness shielded the vampire from the light, and Rarity was free to continue her attack. Shadows trailed behind Nightfall as she closed on me.

If there was any hope of winning I needed to do something to change the nature of the battle. I seized upon my most obvious advantage and spread my wings, taking to the sky.

Rarity was not about to let me have my way, and she leapt into the air after me. Once more her supernatural vigor caught me by surprise as she performed a mid-air flip and landed on my back. The addition of an extra pony’s worth of weight nearly drove me from the sky, and likely would have done so if her next moves had not given me even worse problems. Her legs wrapped around my barrel in a vice-like grip, then with a sudden violent jerk she pulled my head to the side. For a moment I wondered if she intended to snap my neck, but then I remembered the precise nature of my opponent.

A second later I felt her fangs against my throat, and sharp flash of pain as they pierced my skin. I had expected to feel a mixture of pain and revulsion, but instead a sort of dull haze settled over my mind. I dimly recalled reading that a vampire’s bite dulled the senses of their victim so they would not resist, but it was a struggle to remember exactly why that particular fact was relevant to my current situation. A sort of pleasant numbness spread through my body, and not even the rapid approach of the ground and we plummeted towards it seemed like cause for concern.

“DESCENDANT!” Shadow’s voice roared in my ears. “Do not let the vampire win!”

My mind snapped back into focus, but my body still felt weak and sluggish. How much of that was on account of blood loss and how much from the pacifying effect of the bite was hard to say, and not important in any case. I could not break the vampire’s hold in my weakened state, but she was quite focused upon her meal and paid me no mind beyond holding me in place. As we plummeted towards the ground I shifted one of my blades until it lay against the weaker chainmail covering her belly, and shifted the angle of our fall to ensure that she would hit first.

We slammed into the ground, and despite the fact that Rarity took the brunt of the impact, my whole body spasmed with pain. With the extra momentum from our impact the red-hot blade cut through the chainmail covering her belly, and then bit deep into the flesh beneath it. The stench of burning flesh assaulted my nostrils, followed by a screech of pain from the vampire.

As quickly as she could manage, she wrenched herself free of the burning wing blade and scrambled away from me like a wounded animal. The vampire lay on the ground, whimpering pathetically as she clutched her forelegs over her belly. Bright red blood that was almost certainly mine leaked out between her limbs. Evidently my aim had been true, and I had pierced her belly.

I fumbled with a weak and unresponsive hoof until I finally managed to get it to my neck to check the wound. Between the power of the Armor and the dulling effects of the vampire’s venom the world was little more than a haze. My hoof came away bloodied, but not quite as much as I had expected. That was either a great relief, or extremely worrying.

Thou hast lost quite a bit more blood than thou canst see, and thy reflexes are still dulled, Shadow informed me. See thyself to a medicae quickly once the battle is done. I will do what I can to give thee enough strength for that.

“I cannot let her win.” I growled to myself as I tried to force myself to my hooves, but despite my best efforts and whatever Shadow’s spirit was doing to help me, I could not manage the task. Perhaps I could have if there was time to recover from the aftereffects of my crash landing and the vampire’s bite, but time was a precious resource.

That became all the clearer as Rarity hissed and slowly pushed herself up on shaky legs. The gaping slash across her belly would have disabled any living foe, if not slain them outright. As it was, her face was tight with pain and her mane was badly disheveled. At least I could take some comfort in the fact that she looked nearly as bad as I felt.

Her eyes flicked to where Nightfall had fallen, mixed in amongst the rubble from her attempted demolition of Twilight’s castle. She took a step towards her weapon, only to cry out and collapse to the ground. It seemed even elder vampires had limits to what their bodies could take. The loss of the blood she had taken from me doubtless played a key role in that. At least both of us were too badly wounded to continue

Rarity lifted up a single shaky hoof and waved at her skeleton minions. For a moment I feared she would have them finish me off out of sheer spite, but instead they tended to their mistress. She let out another shriek as the two skeletons lifted her up and started walking towards the shield. As she retreated she tried to scream in defiance, but came out as a pathetic wheeze. “D-Don't think th-this is over! We're not—” She gasped as her skeletons jostled her while crossing the rough terrain. “N-not done yet!”

The last thing I wanted to do was let her escape, but I was in no position to do anything to stop her. It was all I could manage just to finally clamp a hoof down over the bite mark on my neck and apply enough pressure to stem any further blood loss. Eventually the vampire managed to recover enough to cast an invisibility spell over herself and her escorts. I could have pierced it using the Armor’s power, but to what end? I could hardly chase after her, and it might have distracted the spirit and drawn energy away from whatever she was doing to sustain me.

Thankfully my reinforcements finally arrived a minute later. Dozens of guards flew down to both of us and put a protective cordon around me and establish a perimeter around the hole blown into the side of the palace. I turned my head to the side and saw Speedy standing over me, his face tight with concern as he looked me over. “Medic! Captain, how bad are you hurt?”

“Internal bleeding, blood loss,” I rasped.

Speedy tried to hide it, but I could tell he was worried. “What the feather is taking you so long?!” he cried out as he waved the medics over. The two of them quickly began examining me, their technical jargon sounding like nothing but background noise. One of them removed my hoof and got to work treating the bite, while another tipped my head back before pouring a potion down my throat.

“Hang in there, Captain.” Speedy took my hoof in a claw and squeezed it. “You beat them back, and the palace is safe. We just need to get you to a doc and you’ll be fine, promise.”

He was right. Even if the vampire had escaped, her wounds would keep her out of the battle. I’d managed to stop her sappers before they could do any more damage to the palace, and our engineers were already hard at work bracing and stabilizing the damaged area. A distant part of me saw that the Twilight Guard had already gotten back to putting down a steady rate of fire, if not as thick as before, and the shield was holding. The other Rarity’s gambit had failed.

I could take some pride in that. I had done my duty. I smiled, feeling surprisingly content for a badly wounded mare who had very nearly bled out on the battlefield. “At least we—”

As if to mock my victory, a massive beam of green light hammered into the shield. There was a painful burst of light and with a deafening roar, the shield shattered completely. In the distant sky I saw a burning green figure hovering in the air: Rising Fire. The shield must have been weakened by all the skeletons throwing themselves at it, and Rising had given it the finishing blow. Doubtless helped by the fact that we had thrown all our reinforcements into stopping Rarity’s sneak attack.

Had that been her plan all along? If Rarity’s attack succeeded, the palace would fall. If it failed, we would be so busy stopping her we would neglect our frontal defenses. It made a sickening amount of sense.

Speedy stared at the empty space the shield had occupied as the undead began surging towards us. Thankfully training overcame shock within moments. “Fall back! Fall back to the palace! Protect the breach!” He stood and began frantically waving ponies into position. “Don’t stand around gawking! Get the Captain onto a stretcher and back into the palace! Move move move!”

My vision swirled as the medics lifted me onto a stretcher. We needed to get moving and fast. The undead were coming, and I was not sure we could stop them.

Author's Note

As always, thanks to my pre-reading and editing team for all their hard work. Also, I would like to thank all my dedicated Patreon supporters. You guys are awesome.

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Chapter 7 - Twilight

I tried to keep working as the sounds of battle echoed through the palace. It wasn’t easy to concentrate as weapons clashed and ponies shouted, and the periodic explosion caused the floor to tremble. I desperately wanted to drop trying to break Rising’s spell and go help my guard fight off the invaders, but Storm and everyone else insisted that my current work was the most important thing for me to be doing.

Getting a call to Canterlot would definitely help, but part of me wondered if my guards were using that excuse to keep me out of the fighting. Right from the start it had been terribly tempting to go out and confront Rising, and that temptation had only grown as my friends had been hurt or captured by Rising’s forces. Now the invader was in my home, threatening everypony here that I knew. These were not the best conditions for concentrating on highly complex arcane formula to say the least.

Despite the less-than ideal-circumstances, I did my best to break Rising’s spell. If we could just get word to Celestia, she could rush to Ponyville with a rapid response force and stop this.

I was in the middle of hammering out one of the finer details of my counterspell when Twinkleshine came running into the Map Room. Soot marred her normally normally pristine appearance, and her coat glistened with sweat. “Twilight! Storm’s hurt!”

The chalk fell from my grip, the arcane formula I’d been in the middle of working out completely forgotten. I spun around to face her. “What happened?!”

The words came out fast and frantic. “There was a fight with a vampire leading Rising's forces. The vampire tried to set up some explosives to collapse the palace in on itself and they nearly succeeded.” Twinkleshine pulled her helmet over to wipe some of the sweat from her brow. “The captain drove the vampire off, but she got pretty seriously hurt doing it. She’s being taken to the medics right now. It’s...” She took a deep breath and seemed to swallow a lump in her throat. “It doesn’t look good.”

“Where is she?” I needed to see Storm. “Take me to her.”

Twinkleshine hesitated. “Very well, Your Highness. But we need to make this quick. There isn’t much time left.” As if to punctuate her point, another explosion rocked the palace, making the both of us wince.

The both of us galloped through the palace halls until we arrived at the medical room. My guard had set up the room when they first moved into the palace with beds, medical equipment, cabinets, and other items spread around the room to deal with a variety of medical needs. Today, it was to help treat the wounded from the battle. We passed at least a dozen ponies bandaged up from wounds sustained and a dozen more waiting to be treated or being given basic treatment until they could be properly triaged. It felt like I should stop and do something to help them, but they were already being attended to. There was a system in place to help the wounded, and I would probably end up messing with it if I interfered. So I just kept focused on finding Storm.

It was pretty easy to find Storm, since she was surrounded by several medics urgently tending to her. Her neck was heavily bandaged, which instantly caught my attention considering she’d been fighting a vampire. Had she been bitten? Was she going to be okay?

The medics were in the middle of carefully removing the Armor, and Storm jerked slightly as they removed each section. She seemed to be a bit disoriented, so I stepped in to do what I could to help. The medics gave me a sour glower as I interrupted their work, but I ignored them as I took Storm’s hoof and squeezed it. “It’s okay. I’m here, Storm.”

It seemed to at least calm her down a bit so the medics could do their work. I cast a medical analysis spell to see if I could find out anything to help them. The information that came back felt like a kick to the stomach: Storm was suffering from internal bleeding, broken bones, and severe blood loss.

Blood loss ... so she had been bitten.

I wasn’t a doctor, but I’d studied biology and anatomy along with everything else. Storm ... wasn’t doing good. With something that felt like the world crashing down around me, I realized why Twinkleshine pulled me away from working on the spell to come to the infirmary.

She wanted to make sure I would have a chance to say goodbye.

I felt like I was going to throw up. None of this would have happened to her if she hadn’t been trying to protect me. I should’ve tried negotiating with Rising directly instead of just sending out Rarity to meet her envoy. I should have stuck with Storm and helped with the battle instead of hanging back and working on a spell. Would that have kept Storm or anypony else from getting hurt, or would that just have made the situation worse? Not that hypotheticals mattered now. Storm was dying, and that had been a result in no small part due to my decisions.

Maybe I should’ve just gone out and faced this Rising Fire all by myself. We probably could have avoided the whole battle if I just challenged her to single combat. Everyone said it would’ve been stupid to do something like that, and I knew they were right. But ... it was a lot harder to think about all the logical reasons I should let the others do the fighting when I stayed safe in the palace while my friends were getting hurt or captured.

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and tried to blink away the tears threatening to form at the corners of my eyes. Storm opened her mouth to speak but one of the medics interrupted her. “Don't speak, Captain. It could reopen the wound on your neck.”

“It's okay Storm, I'm here.” I continued holding Storm’s hoof with my own, and she squeezed back. I desperately wanted to do something, but what could I do that the medics weren’t already doing? Likely I was just going to get in their way. I was a princess; I was supposed to be capable of doing anything. Except I didn’t know any spells that could make this better, all I could do was stand by and watch helplessly as the medics worked to help my friend. Maybe it wasn’t as bad as it looked. Sure, my spells said I would probably lose her, but doctors who’d spent their whole lives training probably knew things I didn’t. There had to be a chance they could save her, right?

I felt somepony squeeze my shoulder, and I jumped in shock before I realized that it was Twinkleshine. She was grimacing and she leaned in to try and keep the conversation between us. “Twilight, about the evacuation plans...”

“I can't just abandon everyone, Twinkleshine!” I realized belatedly that I had shouted that, and everypony was staring at me. I could feel shame twisting inside my stomach when I realized I was making a scene in the middle of a hospital. I was supposed to be an inspiration to everypony, and instead I was crying and screaming at my advisors about evacuation plans. That couldn’t be good for morale.

Painfully slowly, everypony in the room turned their attention from me and pretended to be very busy with something else. One of the medics cleared his throat and addressed me with that patient but firm tone all doctors used when dealing with difficult ponies. “Princess, sorry, but we need room to work.”

My ears wilted. He hadn’t rebuked me for my outburst out loud, but it was still there. Twinkleshine spoke quietly to me again. “Perhaps we should speak outside?”

“Right, sorry.” I forced myself to let go of Storm and let the medics do their work. It felt like I was betraying Storm somehow by leaving her. I knew it was foolish. There was nothing I could do for her, and if she was capable of speaking she’d tell it was my duty as a princess to look at the big picture instead of spending all my time worrying about her. Shame those perfectly logical arguments didn’t do much to make me feel better.

It was all I could do not to run out of there as tears welled up in my eyes. Twinkleshine lead me away and to one of the offices that had been set up in this wing of the palace. There was nopony there, since all non-essential staff in the palace had taken shelter in the palace’s basement. The stillness in the office was made all the worse by the sounds of battle no more than a few floors below us.

Twinkleshine closed the door behind us to make sure we wouldn’t be overheard. She took a deep breath to gather herself. “Twilight, we seriously need to think about evacuating the palace. If we don’t do it soon, we’ll lose too much ground and we won’t be able to do it at all. With the shield down we can’t hold the palace against so many undead. They’re about to overwhelm the breach, and they’ve pushed through the gate.”

I couldn’t bring myself to look Twinkleshine directly in the eye. I didn’t want to think about the idea of evacuating the palace, not after everything that had happened, but I had a duty to protect everypony. So I forced myself to push aside my emotions and everything else on my mind and look at it logically. Everypony was depending on me to make the right decision.

Twinkleshine was right: the palace had never been intended to fight off an army like this. The shield had been intended to hold off any attacker long enough for relief to arrive, but with it gone the chances of holding off an entire army with what we had wasn’t good. Unless Celestia got here with a relief force soon we were going to be overrun, and as far as we could tell, Canterlot didn’t even know we were under attack. If the palace was going to fall then we needed to get everypony out of here.

“Are the tunnels under the palace still clear?” I asked, my throat tightening as I spoke the words. There were several tunnels running under the palace that we could use from the basement. We had been slowly exploring the tunnels and at least one of them led outside. It was just about the only viable way to actually evacuate everyone now that Rising’s army had the palace surrounded.

Twinkleshine nodded. “Everything seems good so far. None of the alarms have gone off, and the patrol we sent down there didn’t spot any of Rising’s forces.”

“Oh. Well ... that’s good.” It still felt wrong to talk about just abandoning my palace. This was my home. Running away and letting Rising Fire steal it from me when I’d never run away from any of the other monsters who’d threatened myself and my friends felt like giving up. But at the same time, I couldn’t ignore all the civilians who’d fled to the palace for safety. If the palace wasn’t safe anymore, I owed it to them to help them get somewhere else.

Of course, that brought another issue to mind. I know Twinkleshine and the rest of my guards wanted me to evacuate along with all the civilians. I was a princess. Keeping me safe was their job. However, would they be safe if I evacuated with the civilians? Everything Rising said and Starlight confirmed indicated that the lich was only after me. If I fled the palace along with everyone else, wouldn’t I be painting a huge target on the refugee column?

I took a deep breath. “We’d better get started. Do you think we can get everyone out before it’s too late?”

Twinkleshine nodded, determination burning in her eyes. “I’d like to see them stop us. We’ll start with the children, families, and wounded. I’ll see if we can get any of the able-bodied civilians to form up for basic militia work. I don’t want to throw armed civilians onto the front lines unless we have no choice, but if we can have them organizing and escorting the others we’ll have more troops up front. We’ll hold the line for as long as it takes.”

She took a deep breath, and I could tell she was steeling herself for something she knew I wouldn’t like. “It would probably help if you went with the first group out, to help keep things orderly and provide some leadership. Not to mention keeping you safe is our top priority. Did you want to pick your guardians, or should I handle it?”

I scowled and shook my head. “Don’t be ridiculous!” Twinkleshine flinched, and I realized just how mad I must have sounded. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, trying to at least calm down a little bit. “I’m not going to be the first one to run away from my own palace. How will it look to everyone if I put myself ahead families and kids? What will everyone think if I say my safety is more important than theirs?”

Twinkleshine grimaced. “Twilight ... it is. You’re a princess. I know you don’t like to think of things in those terms, but you are objectively the most important pony here. We’ll be putting Applejack and Rarity at the front of the line too. We need to keep all the Element-Bearers we have safe and secure.”

She had a point. I didn’t like the idea of placing myself ahead of anypony, but I couldn’t discount my importance as a princess. Thought there were several facts I felt needed addressing. “What about morale?” I pressed. “How will everyone feel if I run away?”

Twinkleshine met my eyes. “We’re your guards, Twilight. Keeping you safe is the most important thing for all of us. I can’t think of many things that would help our morale more than knowing you’re going to be alright.”

“And as a princess, it's my duty to make sure everypony else is safe.” I slapped a hoof to my chest. “Rising is after me. If I evacuate with everypony else then I put all of them in danger.”

“Then we get you out of the palace and separate from everypony else as quickly as we can,” Twinkleshine countered. “We give you a pegasi guard, and once you’re through the tunnels you make a run for the shield. If anypony can break through that thing it’s you. Once you’re out you can run to Canterlot and get a relief force to Ponyville.”

I shook my head. “Rising’s bound to be ready for that. I know I would be if I were her.”

“You still might be able to break past her.” Twinkleshine stepped closer to me as she pleaded with me to see things her way. “And if not, then you can always hide. You should know plenty of spells to keep yourself hidden. All we need to do is buy time. As soon as Celestia arrives with a relief force she’ll ruin Rising’s plans. Rising knows this—it’s why she’s been acting so fast.”

“I understand that.” My ears wilted as I felt a great weight press down on my heart. “But I’m not comfortable just abandoning everypony.”

“I know that.” Twinkleshine placed a hoof on my shoulder, her face tight with worry. “You’re important to everypony too. You need to think about how your safety affects everypony else. Please, evacuate the palace. There isn’t much time.”

So these were my choices: stay here and wait for the undead to overrun the palace, run for it to try and get reinforcements, or flee and hide. This is what it meant to be a princess: that I would have to make the big decisions that might determine the fates of everypony around me. Spike, Applejack, Rarity, and so many others needed me to make the right decision, whatever I felt about myself.

I took a deep breath as I made my decision. “Proceed with the evacuation. Get everypony out as fast as we can. I’ll be staying until we finish the evacuation.”

Twinkleshine stiffened. “Your Highness, I must insist—”

“I’ve made my decision,” I snapped. I hated taking that tone of voice with a friend, but I needed her to do as I said. There wasn’t time to waste. Ponies lives were on the line. “Rising’s after me. As long as I’m in the palace, she’ll keep her attention focused here. If it comes to it, I can fly and teleport. Those options can let me move a whole lot faster than the walking speed of a column of refugees. If I have to, I can lead Rising away from everypony else. That seems a whole lot better than having me escape with everypony else and drawing Rising’s forces to them.”

Twinkleshine lips thinned in disapproval. “Running would work a whole lot better if you were the first to go.”

“We can’t say what Rising will do once she’s no longer focused on the palace. Once I leave she might do anything, including attack the civilians. As long as she’s tied down attacking the palace, we know what she will be doing.” We couldn’t afford to debate this any longer. The sounds of battle still rang out, and it was only a matter of time until my guard got swamped. “Begin the evacuation. I’ll evacuate once everypony else is safe. You’ve got your orders, Magus. Go.”

Twinkleshine didn’t immediately go. I wondered if she might keep arguing with me, but then she snapped a stiff salute. “Yes, Your Highness. Right away.”

She moved swiftly to begin the evacuation, and I could only hope that I had made the right decision.

With the evacuation underway, I returned to my work to try and counter Rising’s spell. I couldn’t help but chastise myself for letting my work get interrupted, but I needed to see Storm to keep focused. Or at least that’s what I told myself.

No, that had been a mistake given the circumstances. Only I could break Rising’s spell, while there were medics perfectly qualified to treat Storm. Valuable time had been wasted. Not that I had been making any progress before Twinkleshine interrupted me.

To get my mind back on track and off the battle raging within my home, I reviewed my work. Maybe the break had been the right call, because within two minutes I saw something that I had missed for the last hour. My mind started racing as I grabbed a fresh scroll. “Of course! I need to modulate the transharmonic frequency of the sending spell! Why didn't I see that earlier?! If I trick Rising’s spell into thinking my message is just a part of its own spell matrix by using the shield’s frequency as a carrier wave...”

I scrambled to work out the spell formula as quickly as I could. Complex arcane formulae flowed into one another as I imbued the paper with magic. Another explosion rocked the palace, nearly ruining my work, and one of the Map Room walls cracked. I kept at it. I couldn’t afford to let anything stop me when I was so close. Before long I had a scroll ready to send to Princess Celestia. I cast a spell and the scroll disappeared with a flash as I sent it to Spike. He would know what to do with it, and if everything worked the way I thought it would, a message should get to Celestia in a matter of minutes. I had done it. I had gotten the call for help out.

The cracked wall exploded, showering the room with crystal shards that pounded against my hastily erected shield. Undead soldiers marched through the rubble to enter the Map Room. I lit my horn, and my heart started racing as the skeletons spread out to cover the room. Had they penetrated the castle so deeply already? The sounds of battle hadn’t felt that close yet. But as I looked behind the skeletons I saw that multiple holes had been blasted through the walls of the palace, and sunlight showed through the hole.

The cause of those holes made itself apparent as the skeletons parted for their master. Rising Fire strode forward, presenting herself to me in all her glory. She towered over me as she stared down at me with her green flame eyes. “Twilight Sparkle. At last, we meet. If you have any shred of decency left in you, surrender and put an end to—”

I didn’t care about whatever villainous speech Rising wanted to start blathering. I shot a blast of pure destructive energy at the monster who had hurt my friends. The beam struck Rising in the chest, the shockwave from the impact shattering the skeletons near her. Rising went flying out of the room. I teleported above her as she flew and blasted her again, not holding anything back. This time I blew her through the floor, and she disappeared beneath a cloud of shattered crystal and dust thrown up by the impact.

I glowered down into the dust and debris, ready to cast another spell the instant Rising showed herself. As soon as I saw a hint of green fire showing through the dust I struck again, but this time the lich somehow managed to deflect my attack. When the dust cleared I finally got a good look at her. There were large dents and several small cracks on her chest and back where my blasts had hit her.

I suppose it was too much to hope I could’ve taken down the lich with my first strike. She probably had a ton of passive defensive spells up. I know I’d cast several on myself as soon as the battle started. Still, I’d damaged her. If I could hurt her, I could beat her.

The lich stared up at me with her metallic visage. “So much for diplomacy, then.” She had said it so casually, as though bored by everything. My breath started becoming heavier and faster as I thought about the type of being who could be so casual about the devastation they caused. Was this all a game to her? After all the ponies she had terrified and hurt, was I just some trophy for her to scoop up? Did she think she had a right to be so calm and collected after all she had done?

“Diplomacy? Diplomacy?!”My body trembled as I thought about everything this monster had done to the ponies I card about. “I gave you the chance for diplomacy when I sent Rarity out to talk with you! You gave us an hour to surrender unconditionally! Then when we weren’t willing to just roll over for a lich we hadn’t even known existed just a few hours ago, you invaded my hometown, assaulted my palace, captured and hurt several of my friends, attacked my guards, and threatened the rest of my friends and family! Your revenant assaulted my student, and your vampire nearly killed the captain of my guard! And now you have the gall to chastise me over diplomacy?! After everything you’ve done?!”

Rising opened her mouth to reply, but I didn’t care what she had to say. I fired another blast, though this time she got up a shimmering green shield in time to block my attack. Still, the blast was powerful enough to smash the floor around her, and she spread her bat-like wings to keep from falling into the fresh hole.

I wasn’t going to give her a chance to recover. I transformed the crystal under my hooves into a dozen spikes and threw them at Rising. They shot through the air with a sharp, almost deafening crack that hurt my ears.

Rising flapped her wings and dodged to the side with surprising deftness for a creature as large as she was, and the crystal spikes flew harmlessly past. “Did you think you would get away with your crimes forever?!” the lich demanded as green fire began flowing around her. “Today justice comes for you!”

“Justice?!” I snapped at her, scarcely believing my own ears. “You attacked Ponyville! You hurt my friends!” I fired off another blast of raw kinetic force.

Rising smacked the attack aside with a hoof wreathed in power. There was something oddly familiar about the gesture. “Yes, I did. Your friend Starlight is every bit as foul as you are, and the others chose to stand beside you despite your crimes. I have healed the ones my forces captured and I will restore the others once the battle is done. If you truly care so much for them, surrender and put an end to this.”

I wasn’t going to play her game. “Oh yes, you’d like that wouldn’t you? Do you really expect me to give up? You're hurting innocent ponies!”

Rising scoffed. “Oh, you have no right to lament innocents coming to harm with the oceans of blood on your hooves. If you truly cared for them, you would have surrendered to spare them this battle rather than send them out to fight for you.”

That got to me more than it should have. “How could you possibly think any of this is my fault?! You’re the one who came here and attacked us! None of this would have happened if you’d just left us alone! You tried to collapse my entire palace! Do you know how many innocent ponies are in the underground shelter?”

“Who put them there?” Rising shot back. “You knew your palace would be the epicenter of the battle, and you grabbed as many innocent equine shields as you could to try and stop us. Not that it would have worked. We were only going to collapse the top levels. Your basement was quite safe. Even if it wasn’t ... billions are dead by your hooves, and who knows how many more will die if you aren’t stopped?”

She somehow thought I’d murdered billions? Starlight was right: Rising Fire really was completely insane. “I don’t know who you think I am, but I haven’t murdered anyone, let alone billions!” I snarled and fired off a lightning bolt at the crazy lich.

Rising conjured up a solid wall of ice to intercept my attack. When my lightning bolt struck the wall it exploded, filling the area with hot misty fog. “I know who and what you are. Your days of hiding behind a fantasy of your own making is over!”

Rising threw a wave of green fire up at me that instantly vaporized the mist around her. Once again I morphed the crystal around me and turned it into a shield that intercepted the fire. But then a layer of frost formed on the inside of my shield, and then a dozen razor-shards of ice shot at me. It was all I could do to teleport out of there before they skewered me. No more than a couple seconds passed before I saw a fireball coming right at me, and I needed to teleport again. The fireball exploded and sickly green flames began consuming the supply room I’d just been in.

Rising was casting pyromancy and cryomancy at a speed I’d only seen one other pony do. It was a difficult trick to pull off, where the caster manipulated heat energy to allow them to easily create fire and ice in a continual cycle. I’d only read of a couple of other ponies ever being able to pull the technique off, so the fact Rising was able to do it was another fact in favor of some of the things I had been told about the lich. Though more practically, I was going to need to counter that ability if I was going to win this fight. Getting into an evocation brawl against an opponent who could fling energy faster and more efficiently wouldn’t end well for me.

Rising rose up from the hole I’d blasted her into and threw several ice javelins right at me. I could’ve gone for a straight block or dodge, but doing that would let her keep her offensive momentum going. I’d learned exactly how badly that could go the last time I’d faced a spellcaster who used that style, and this time I wasn’t in a friendly mock-battle.

I took advantage of all that fire stirring up the air in the supply room to make it a bit easier to pull off some aeromancy. I created a blast of air that tossed the javelins away from me, shattering them against the walls. I didn’t want to get caught within the confined spaces of the palace when Rising was bound to blow up every room I was in, so I made for the hole Rising had created in my palace. I was sure I could beat Rising, but it wasn’t going to be easy to pull off.

Rising flew after me and shot a burst of flame at my back. I’d known the attack was coming, and I shot through the opening in the side palace before casting a spell to seal the hole up behind me with more crystal. The flames hit the newly formed crystal wall with an audible thump. I knew that wouldn’t hold Rising back for long, so I flew up and quickly cast a series of spells. I created a crystal shield from the crystal of the palace, and cast several wards of protection and resilience on it, as well as a couple spells to protect myself from Rising’s flames. My duel with Sunset had given me a pretty good idea of what I needed to be ready for.

My time ran out as Rising blew a fresh hole into the palace and came out after me. I immediately fired a lightning bolt at her. Rising saw the attack coming and conjured up another ice shield in time to catch the attack. The lightning shattered the shield, but it had borne the brunt of the attack. Rising was quick to go back on the offensive as she launched another fireball at me. I flew to the side, only to find that Rising had set me up for her next attack, sending all the shards from her broken ice barrier flying at me. I brought my shield up, and it deflected the shards.

Rising’s mixing of pyromancy and cryomancy had it advantages, but there was a drawback—or more accurately a consequence to its use that I could take advantage of. The constant moving of hot and cold air around build up static electricity, and I could use that against Rising. I seized upon the electricity in the air and turned it into an even more powerful lightning bolt. Instead of making another shield to try and block it, Rising teleported out of the way to dodge the attack.

Okay, that almost certainly proved it. Teleportation was a spell only a student of Celestia would know. Well, I’d taught it to Starlight too, but I’d learned it from Celestia. The point being, given the abilities Rising Fire was showing off, I could pretty confidently confirm who she was.

“So you are Sunset Shimmer!”

Rising’s burning eyes narrowed in hate. “That's a name I haven't held for a long time. Not since you destroyed everything that made me Sunset Shimmer. My friends, my family, my nation... All of it lost, and all because of you!”

I groaned at what felt like bashing my head against a metaphorical wall. “For the love of—how many times do I have to tell you, I didn't do anything like that! Alternate realities are the sort of thing that only shows up in science fiction, I had no idea they were even real until you showed up! I’m friends with the Sunset from this reality! Why would I want to do anything like that to you? It doesn’t make sense! Nothing like that ever happened!”

Rising snarled and lashed out with a dozen whips of bright green flame. “Stop lying! Don’t tell me it didn’t happen! I was there the day our world burned! I spoke to witnesses who saw you do it! Have you destroyed so many worlds you forgot about ours?!”

“I haven’t destroyed any worlds!” I screamed back at her. “How many times do I have to tell you that before you listen?!”

“ENOUGH LIES!” Rising roared out in a pretty good equivalent to the Royal Canterlot Voice. Flowing greenish-gold light started flowing out of her to one side, while rippling black fire left the other.

I knew that spell intimately, considering my world’s Sunset used it to beat me during our little sparring match. Naturally, I’d studied the spell feverishly after I’d lost to it. Combining anima and anti-anima, then channeling their mutual annihilation into a blast of raw destructive force made for a horrifyingly dangerous and powerful spell.

Once I’d figured out what Sunset did, I’d been amazed she would even dare to use a spell like that, let alone have enough control to use it safely in a mock battle. She must have come up with that spell on the fly, because if she’d done the math on it first she would’ve realized how easy it would be to blow herself up if she got the slightest thing wrong. It was probably one of the only non-dark magic spells I’d ever come across that I never wanted to try casting myself.

The good news was since I knew exactly how dangerous that spell was, I also had a pretty good idea of how to mess with it. I summoned my own anima, its golden light gathering in front of me as I prepared my counter. I waited carefully until I saw Rising start to move her masses of anima and anti-anima together. I shot my anima at her, hitting her gathered anima and causing them to merge. The reaction knocked the careful balance of the spell out of equilibrium.

Rising blinked in surprise as she saw her spell start catastrophically unraveling. Despite the fact she effectively had a bomb right in front of her face, she kept a cool head and got to work siphoning off energy from her spell and separating the anima and anti-anima so that they would harmlessly dissipate. It was an amazing display of magical skill. While a corner of my mind told me I should attack her while she was distracted, I couldn’t help but watch on as she broke down her spell. There were but a hooffull of ponies near that level of skill in all the world, and watching Rising really drove home just how good of a spellcaster she was.

Once she was done, Rising narrowed her eyes at me. Her horn lit up, but she didn’t cast another spell. Or at least, not one I could see. “How did you know to do that?”

“Like I said, I know the Sunset of my world. She's a friend of mine.” Technically this monster was Sunset too, but I reminded myself that this lich was nothing but an insane, twisted mockery of the Archon of Freeport. She might have been a fantastic spellcaster, but that was just because she’d unnaturally lengthened her lifespan. “She showed me the spell herself, and once you know what you’re dealing with it isn’t that hard to figure out how to counter it. Really, I’d say the spell is too dangerous to even use.”

Rising started at me for several seconds. Her metal skull was completely expressionless, and made it difficult to tell what she might be thinking. “I suppose I should've known the other Sunset wouldn't believe me. It seems that even she has been fooled by your lies.”

“Or maybe because you're wrong,” I countered. “Have you ever considered even once that you might have gotten your facts wrong?”

Rising snarled and shook her head. “No, they just can't accept how horrible you are! Maybe it shouldn't be so surprising. Your crimes are simply too monstrous, the scale of them too inconceivable.”

I shot the lich a flat look. Despite Starlight’s warnings, I’d only just started grasping how insane Rising must be. “That’s your rationalization? That seems like a pretty big stretch to explain how I’ve somehow managed to trick everyone into overlooking a crime this big. I mean, do you even know me? I’m not that good at lying and manipulating ponies. Have you even thought about how ridiculously huge and complicated the conspiracy to cover up a global genocide would have to be?!”

Rising still refused to see reason. “Nobody but you and Starlight know what you did. You’ve duped everyone in this world. Tell me, how many worlds did you purge before you finally came across one where you were a universally beloved princess? Small surprise you decided that was the world that you would allow to keep existing.”

“What are you even talking about?!” This entire conversation felt like I was bashing my head against a brick wall. I should’ve known it would go that way, there was no point trying to reason with crazy ponies. Facts and logic don’t work against someone who makes up their own facts and doesn’t even pretend to follow any kind of internally consistent logic.

Judging by what Rising said next, that was just about the only thing we agreed on. “I grow tired of this pointless blather.”

“Then why do you keep doing it?” I snapped back.

“A dim hope that you might see reason. Failing that, to buy time.”

I took a closer look at the lich, and realized that the damage I’d done to her earlier in the battle didn’t look as bad as I remembered. So that was what she’d been up to! The whole time we’d been talking she’d been repairing herself. Okay, even trying to talk to this monster in good faith was just a losing proposition if those were the type of games she was going to play.

I teleported above her and fired a beam of magic at Rising, but she flew forward and away from the shot. I took advantage of her distraction to get a head start on flying away from her, but before long she was right on my tail, screaming after me. “You won't get away, murderer!”

“You’re starting to sound like a broken record!” Drawing on a bit of pegasi magic in addition to my unicorn magic, I created a gale-like wind that I launched at Rising. Not having anywhere to dodge to this time, the violent wind buffeted the lich and sent her tumbling. Rising tucked in her wings to protect them from the wind and teleported beyond the spell before I could capitalize on her distress.

“Impressive.” Rising unleashed a dozen reddish-black tendrils of energy that whipped out at me. I dived to the side, twisting and turning to avoid the tendrils in a maneuver Rainbow had taught me. I avoided the worst of it, but one of the tendrils grazed my back-leg. I cried in shock as the spell sapped a portion of my life-force right out of me. For all of Rising’s talk of wanting to capture me, she sure was doing her best to try and kill me.

I tucked my wings and dived faster to try and give myself a moment’s respite to recover. I cast another ward on myself to protect myself against similar life-draining spells. I had a feeling Rising was going to switch tactics now that I had turned her heat manipulation and anima and anti-anima spell against her.

That guess proved right when Rising teleported right next to me and unleashed a blast of raw kinetic force. There wasn’t any time to dodge, and a sledgehammer-like force slammed into me and sent me tumbling towards the ground. Before I could recover, I smashed through the side of a house, through its floor, and then into its basement.

I groaned in pain as I rolled on the floor, the world still rolling in my vision despite the fact I’d come to a sudden and very painful stop. I knew I needed to get up, and I worked to get my hooves under me despite what I really wanted was a good lie-down. Then I heard a sound I really didn’t want to hear.

A child near me spoke up. “Momma, what’s happening? Why’s the princess destroying our home?”

I turned my head to see a mother and father holding their little colt as they huddled in the corner. Oh no, this was not something I needed to be dealing with right now. Didn’t they hear the evacuation order?

A burst of green magic announced that things were about to get much, much worse, and Rising teleported in front of us, her eyes burning fiercely as she lit the basement. As I feared, she started casting a spell, leaving but a brief moment to do anything. I cast a shield over the family, consigning myself to what would no doubt be a world of hurt Rising was going to inflict on me.

Only Rising didn’t cast an offensive spell like I’d expected. A second shield formed around the family in the green of Rising’s magic. That ... wasn’t what I expected.

Rising snarled and took an aggressive step towards me. “Leave them out of this!”

“Me?! I'm not trying to hurt them!” I shot back. “You’re the one that blasted me into their home!”

“What’s happening?!” cried the mother, hugging her child so close that he started groaning in protest. “Why are you in our home?!”

I jabbed a hoof in their direction. “Why are you even here?! You were supposed to have evacuated to a shelter!”

The father winced, and somehow managed to curl tighter into the corner they were in. “W-we didn't want anyone to loot our house during the evacuation. My stamp collection is—”

The mother glowered at her husband. “I told you this was a bad idea! But did you listen to me? Nooo! This is just like that time in Manehattan! Now we're going to get into trouble for not evacuating. I heard it was a hundred bit fine!”

The father narrowed his eyes as his wife, and I got the sense that these two had been arguing about this and other things for some time. “We would have lost a lot more than that if our house had been looted! And will you please stop bringing Manehattan up! It was ten years ago!”

My eye started twitching. “Your lives are in danger! You’ve put your son’s life in danger!”

“Am I gonna get grounded?” asked the son, his lip quivering.

“Stop threatening them!” Rising placed herself between me and the family.

The twitching in my eye intensified. “Oh, you’re one to talk! You’re the one that attacked the town and started this entire situation!”

“If you’d let them evacuate to my refugee camp instead of using them as equine shields they would all be perfectly safe!” Rising shot back.

“Oh yes, I can’t imagine why I didn’t tell everypony to trust the blood-sucking vampire and the evil insane lich that wants to kill me!” I rolled my eyes. “How thoughtless of me.”

“Could you two please take this fight someplace else?!” the father demanded. “You’re scaring my family, thank you.”

The mother stroked her son’s mane. “Yes, our son is probably going to have nightmares for weeks after this thanks to you.”

The son blinked owlishly as he looked between his parents. “Momma, Dadda, can we watch the fight when they leave?”

I shuffled in place as I felt more than a little guilty at that moment. Sure, they should have evacuated to start with, but I still didn’t feel good about bringing a fight to their home. I felt pretty rotten about the damage done to my own home, and the ponies that had been hurt there.

A low growl rolled out from deep within Rising’s throat. “Are we going to move this fight voluntarily, or do I have to make you move?”

I frowned up at her. “Moving sounds good.” Wondering if an opportunity was presenting itself, I asked, “You want to take this outside of town?” That would work a whole hay of a lot better for me for several reasons. First and foremost I would feel a lot better being someplace where the two of us weren’t liable to hurt anypony else slinging around spells. Then if I could just get to the right place to fight Rising...

Thankfully, Rising surprised me by silently nodding her agreement.

So the two of us carefully, and more than a little awkwardly given neither one of us wanted to take an eye of each other, climbed out of the basement and headed outside. We both took flight, and I guided us towards the Everfree Forest. I wasn’t sure how far Rising would let us go, but the longer the unofficial truce held, the better for me. Of course, she’d probably start repairing the damage to herself as well...

The two of us flew in silence for a time, each of us keeping a wary eye on the other. Trust was in short supply, to say the least. It had to be terribly tempting on Rising’s part to suddenly attack me, especially once we flew past Ponyville’s border, but I wanted to keep this flight going as long as possible. To stall for time, I decided to start a conversation. As long as we were talking we weren’t fighting.

“Where are you keeping my friends captive?” Even if I managed to defeat Rising, or at least drive her off, we would still need to rescue everypony. The vampire was still around, as well as the revenant, and they probably wouldn’t take it well if their master was defeated. Knowing where we needed to go to rescue everypony would be a big bonus if I could get it out of Rising.

“In a secure location far from the battlefield,” Rising said extremely unhelpfully. “Their wounds are being treated.”

My teeth clenched together. “How generous, considering you’re the one who hurt them.”

Rising tilted her head. “They chose to fight for you instead of staying out of the fight. If you cared so much for them, why did you send them to fight your battles for you?”

I couldn’t help but wince at the question, and my ears wilted as I looked down at Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack’s farm looked like a warzone. The fight that had taken place there had pockmarked the fields, and fences and farm equipment lay in ruin all about the farm. How many ponies had been hurt trying to protect me? Too many, it felt like. I never asked for this, I didn’t want ponies fighting and getting hurt because they thought I was that important.

“Well? Are you going to answer?” Rising demanded.

“They wanted me to stay back. They said I was too important to just throw myself into the middle of everything. So I worked on trying to counter your spell, trying to make myself at least a little bit useful while everypony was fighting.” The excuse felt weak and rehearsed. I’d gone over that discussion with my guards half a dozen times in the time since Rising showed up. I knew all the reasons why I needed to stay off the front lines, all of which were perfectly logical. That still didn’t make it feel right. I sighed. “I don’t like hanging back while others fight for me.”

Rising stared at me for several seconds. “Surrender. End this before anyone else gets hurt.”

The words caught me off guard. I guess I should’ve known, she was just trying to talk me into giving up. “You know that’s not happening. You’ve already made it pretty clear you want me and Starlight dead, and I have no idea what your other plans are.”

“My only plan is that the two of you will be put on trial of your crimes,” Rising answered. “You will face justice for everything you’ve done.”

I scowled. “I don’t have a great deal of confidence that I’ll get any sort of justice from whatever court you set up. After all, you’ve already decided I’m guilty, and you’re going to be judge, jury, and executioner.”

Rising shrugged. “I would love to have enough ponies left alive to turn into a jury. Pity you didn’t leave us that much.”

I wanted to argue the point, but that would just lead to more back and forth about whether or not I’d done any of the things Rising seemed absolutely certain I was guilty of. I opened my mouth to tell her just that, but she spoke over me before I could say anything.

“Why did you do it?” Rising cast a heavy duty privacy spell over us. “It’s just the two of us. Nopony can overhear us. I don’t have any recording device on me, no tricks. All I want to know is why you and Starlight did it, and to hear it from your lips. I don’t want to risk you dying before I’ve heard the truth with my own ears, and you owe me this much after all you’ve done to us.”

I shook my head. “I can’t help you there, because. I. Didn’t. Do. It.”

Rising’s eyes narrowed. “Fine then. I've given you plenty of chances to do the right thing. I suppose I was a fool to even try. Let's end this.”

So much for the cease-fire. At least we had gotten about as far away from Ponyville as I could have hoped for. We were flying over the outer edges of the Everfree Forest. That placed us a long way from any civilians, and a lot closer to where I wanted to be. I’d promised Twinkleshine that I would run when the time came, but if I’m being honest, that was a lie. With Storm and Starlight out of action, I was the only one left who stood a chance against Rising. I wasn’t going to run away and leave everypony to Rising’s mercy. I was taking her down, whatever it took.

“Fine, let’s do this.” I fired a thunderflash spell at Rising, but she teleported out of the way of the blinding and deafening blast. The only warning I got about her location was the was the sudden shadow that fell over me. A metallic foreleg wrapped around my chest, and a hoof wreathed in reddish-black magic hammered into the side of my head.

Getting punched with a hoof made out of solid adamantine hurt a lot, but that paled in comparison to the spell. It must have been some sort of necromancy, because it felt as though it was tearing my soul out of my body piece by piece.

I struggled against Rising’s adamantine grip, trying to break free. There was no way I could break her hold, but she was so focused on keeping me from doing so that she didn’t notice when I managed to tuck my horn under her chin. A kinetic blast shot from my horn, and Rising’s head snapped back as though the heavyweight boxing champion had just hit her with an uppercut. Rising’s grip loosened, and I put my rear legs between us and kicked off of her to free myself.

I pivoted midair and sent a raw blast of magic right into Rising’s center. The purple beam sent Rising twirling uncontrollably through the air. I moved to capitalize on my advantage, but then the world started spinning. That spell must have hurt a lot more than I’d realized—not to mention getting punched in the head couldn’t have been healthy for me.

The good news was that Rising needed a moment to recover from what I’d hit her with as well. I tucked in my wings and dove, partly to dodge whatever spell she was about to send my way and partly because if I was going to fall I might as well be in control of it. I managed to shake off the vertigo in time to pull out of my dive and slip beneath the trees.

I’d hoped I would be able to lose her in the trees long enough to double back and catch her by surprise, but the lich was hot on my tail. I tried a spell I’d learned from Zecora, making tree branches spring to life and go after her.

Her counter surprised me, because instead of using fire or necromancy she countered with the same sort of spell I’d used, except better. “You’re no dendromancer!” Rising called after me. “But one of my ancestors was, and I’ve had a lot of time to go over her old books!”

Normally I would’ve been excited to hear about Evergreen Shimmer’s old journals considering the major role she played in Equestria’s campaign against the Necrocrats, but it was hard to appreciate ancient spellbooks when they were being used against me. After the third time I got smacked in the face by a tree branch, I would’ve been perfectly happy if nopony ever got the chance to read that particular book

“Well as long as we’re using our ancestor’s spells...” Midnight Sparkle had come up with something that was just perfect for my current situation. My horn lit and unleashed a wave of dark shadowy tendrils that latched onto the branches, making them all slowly wither and die. As an added bonus, some of the energy being drained out of those blighted plants transferred back into me. It didn’t heal my injuries, but they were bothering me a lot less than they had been.

Rising snarled and unleashed a blast of bright green fire. Considering I’d just drained all the water out of the trees along with everything else, all the nearby wood was about to go up like a tinderbox. I teleported clear of the impending firestorm, but Rising must have been expecting that, because as soon as I popped back into existence she formed a sphere of razor sharp ice shards around me.

A minute ago that might have been a problem, but I felt refreshed after my last spell. A quick kinetic blast scattered her sphere, and then I had a great idea. My current position had me almost perfectly placed between Rising and sun, which made it all to easy to tap into the sun’s power for my next spell. “Since we do have Sunbeam Sparkle as a common ancestor, this just feels so wonderfully appropriate!”

I unleashed a beam of pure concentrated sunlight at the undead abomination. I must have caught her off guard, because she didn’t manage to put up any defenses before my attack struck home. The blast of pure sunlight hammered into the lich, and she let out a startled shout as she went crashing down into the trees below.

I had to admit, that had been very satisfying. Normally I didn’t like hurting anyone no matter how much they deserved it, but Rising had really gotten under my skin. I gathered up more sunlight and started preparing another blast. “Well well well, looks like I found out what you’re weak against.” I unleashed a second beam at her.

Rising snarled and conjured up a wall of darkness to intercept the blast. “Congratulations. You can hurt me with concentrated sunlight. I can hurt you with fire, ice, lightning, necromancy shadows, dendromancy, kinetic basts, and ... need I go on?”

“Let’s try bigger and better!” I conjured up several crystals around Rising, then fired off more sun blasts, bouncing them off the crystals to get around her shadow field. I managed to land one more hit, but after that she teleported clear.

I quickly put up a bubble shield, but a second later I felt an adamantine hoof slam into my back. I’d been so busy preparing for a magical attack I hadn’t expected her to get point-blank and smack me with her bare hooves. The hit smacked me out the sky, my wings flailing as I tried to stabilize myself before I hit the ground. I’d gotten a lot better at flying over the years, but recovering from getting hit in mid air was hard. I wound up crashing into the trees, but luckily I only hit the lighter branches that cushioned my fall instead of slamming into a trunk.

I didn’t have very long to enjoy my survival, because a second later Rising sent a huge Blightfire blast towards me. I didn’t want to test my luck trying to block an entropic anti-anima attack like that, so instead I teleported clear. I stole a page from Rising’s book and put myself right behind her. A normal punch wouldn’t have done much good considering she was made out of solid metal, so I quickly gathered up some sunlight and infused it into my hooves.

Rising turned around just in time to catch one of my hooves slamming into her face. Hitting her still stung, but from the way the lich’s head snapped back, it hurt her a lot more. I followed up with a couple more hits Shiny taught me years ago, finishing up by slamming both hooves down onto the top of her head.

As satisfying as that was, I’d made one big mistake. I’d been so focused on hitting her that I hadn’t been paying attention to where her horn was. Right before I spiked her down to the ground she fired a blast of energy straight into my chest from point-blank range. Even if I’d seen it coming, I wouldn’t have had time to stop her.

As Rising spiralled towards the trees, my vision blurred and every muscle in my body clenched up. I didn’t know what exactly it hit me with, but I felt more exhausted than the time Rainbow Dash talked me into trying to keep up with her daily exercise routine. Probably an energy draining spell of some sort.

That wasn’t good. Rising was undead and made out of solid metal. She wouldn’t get tired like I would. I’d landed some good hits, but so had she. I needed to do something big and dramatic to really change the course of the battle. Otherwise she was going to wear me down.

I took a deep breath as I centered myself and focused my magic. I thought of my friends, everypony Rising was threatening, and how I wanted to protect them. The Magic of Friendship flowed through me, and I weaved it into a spell. A prismatic bubble formed around me, the warmth coursing around me felt as inviting as a cabin fire in the middle of a blizzard. I finished the spell, the rainbow barrier was fully in place, and I was ready.

Rising hadn’t been idle either. More Blightfire gathered around Rising’s horn, and malevolent power radiated from the lich. Aiming myself, I flew to the side and then shot up right at Rising. The lich launched a great torrent of Blightfire down at me, and the black fire slammed into my shield. Magic cracked as the two forces collided, and my shield shook as the Blightfire tried to push me back. But I pressed up and forward, pumping my wings and pouring on more magic as the Blightfire rolled over the shield. Rising thought she could get away with hurting my friends, and I was going to show her why she was wrong.

I broke through Rising’s ceaseless wave of Blightfire and I slammed into her like a locomotive. Magic sparks shot off in every direction as my shield drilled into Rising, the friendship magic of my shield and the necromantic magic coursing through Rising’s body interacted violently. Rising’s scream was like twisting metal, and her metal body started cracking as my magic tore at her. I kept it up, determined to destroy this lich for good.

I grinned as we hurtled towards the shield surrounding Ponyville. I flapped my wings as hard as I could, and then we slammed into the sickly green shield. Rising cried again as I sandwiched her between the two magical forces, and more cracks split along her frame. Rising’s shield pulsed and then shattered around us as we continued plowing forward.

I did it—I broke Rising’s shield, and had her against the ropes. Then Rising’s eyes burned all the brighter, and her hoof once again became wreathed in blackish-red fire. Rising smashed her hoof into the shield, causing magical sparks to fly at the impact. She did it again and then again as the shield started flickering. I realized that between hitting Rising and the shield my friendship shield had weakened, and then Rising’s hoof smashed through the shield. The momentum carried her hoof, and she struck my horn. My world flashed with pain as my magic reverberated through my body.

I blinked as I tried to get the spots out of my vision. But before I could recover, Rising wrapped her legs around me, and a black and red-tinged aura and black fire surrounded her. I screamed as unbearable pain wracked my very being as she started draining the life from me, and the flames cover her burned me.

“You’re mine now you monster!” Rising yelled.

I thrashed about as I desperately tried to get out of her steel grip. I attempted to cast a spell, but Rising merely swatted my horn again to disrupt my spell. My body was in so much pain I almost didn’t register the hit. Then I spotted Rising’s own horn, and decided to give her some of her own treatment. My hoof shot up and hit her horn. Rising jerked in pain, and her grip loosened. I needed to escape or Rising was going to kill me. So I cast the quickest and messiest teleport I could pull off.

The world became nothing more than a tumble that very swiftly ended in a sudden and violent stop as I slammed into something. I coughed in pain as I lay on the ground as the world refused to stop spinning. My stomach revolted on me, and a moment later I lost my lunch. I don’t know how much time passed before I was able to concentrate on my surroundings again. One of the Everfree Forest’s trees stood over me, and the bark had been smashed off where I had hit it. A quick look at myself told me I was a mess. Scorch marks covered my armor and coat, and several of my feathers were damaged or outright missing.

A corner of my mind told me it had been profoundly stupid to do a blind teleport like that. That had probably been the cause of my nausea, as well as some of the burns I was suffering from. But while the cool and rational part of my mind was busy chastising me, the rest of my mind was a chorus of ‘ow.’ And really, it wasn’t like I had any better options.

And then my extremely terrible day got a little bit worse when I heard Rising’s voice. “Are you quite done now? As much as I’ve enjoyed giving you a start on your well-deserved punishment, I am on a schedule.”

“I... I’m not...” I tried to force myself to my hooves but I merely collapsed back to the ground, my chest heaving to try and catch my breath.

Rising slowly and methodically stepped towards me. “What you are is done. You can’t stand, I’m pretty sure you’ve lost some of your primary flight feathers, and even your magic should be mostly drained by now. Give up.” She cocked her head to the side as she glowered down at me. “Or do you think you can actually accomplish something in your current state?”

Panic welled up in me, but I closed my eyes as I pushed it back down again. I needed to think, to concentrate. Rising was right: I wasn’t in any condition to continue this fight. I’d given as good as I got, but she didn’t get tired or feel pain, and I was pretty sure she’d used the time while I was recovering from my teleport to repair herself again. The difference in endurance between our bodies was too much for a protracted fight. But then, I hadn’t gone into this planning to beat Rising in a contest of endurance.

“Actually, I do have one little thing I wanted to show you.” Now that we were on the other side of Rising’s shield, I concentrated and felt out with my magical senses. Then I sensed what I had been searching for: a deep, powerful source of magic. The Tree of Harmony glowed with power within my senses, and I knew if I could get to the Tree I could end this fight. Despite everything hurting, I smirked up at Rising. Before Rising could stop me, I teleported again, following that source of magic, but then I popped back into existence exactly where I had started.

Something like a scoff echoed out of Rising’s throat. “Did you really think I wouldn't cast a dimensional lock on you after the last time you teleported? I learned that spell from Celestia too.”

My body groaned with pain as I pushed myself up onto shaky legs. “Well considering you’ve been teleporting all over the place too...”

“It is a useful spell.” Rising stepped close enough to loom over me. “But I don't need you running away right now.”

I breathed in ragged gasps as I tried to think of a way out of this situation. My plan had failed, Rising wasn’t going to let me get to the Tree of Harmony, I couldn’t teleport, and I was hurt and exhausted. Still, I couldn’t just give up. “I'm not going to let you hurt my friends, no matter what happens.”

Rising raised her chin. “Your friends, other than Starlight, are of no interest to me. I’ve healed their wounds, and even saved your version of Rainbow Dash from a close brush with death. In the future, tell her that headbutting solid mithril is a terrible idea.”

It was good to hear they were okay, though finding out Rainbow almost died because of this monster... I hadn’t known it was possible to be even angrier at her than I already was. The worst part was that not only was she hurting and nearly killing my friends, but she still seemed convinced she had the moral high ground. “And what about Storm? The captain of my guard? She was badly hurt by your vampire.”

“She chose to fight us,” Rising said, slowly stretching out her leathery wings. “But if you truly care so much about her, let me offer you a bargain: surrender. Turn yourself in, and order your forces to stand down. I will see to the wounded.”

I wobbled in place as my legs trembled beneath me, but I planted my hooves and refused to show any weakness. “You honestly think I can trust you after everything that’s happened?”

“I could ask you the same question.” Rising’s horn lit up. I tried to do the same, but my horn only shot off sparks for a couple seconds instead of lighting right up. She got her spell off first. I winced as a psychic static made my head fuzzy, and it suddenly became very difficult to concentrate on casting any kind of spell.

I tried to bring a spell together anyways, but the process was painfully slow due to my exhaustion and pain. “You have to know that spell isn't going to make it easy for you to cast spells either.”

“True. But then, without magic you're just a feeble little false alicorn while I am made out of solid adamantine.” Rising charged me to close the distance in but a moment, and her hoof lashed out at my head. I’d learned a few self-defense moves from Storm, but my body responded sluggishly to my commands. I managed to block the first hit, but against a hoof made of solid metal even a block hurt a lot. I tried to counter, but I think the punch wound up hurting myself a lot more than it did her.

Rising’s next attack got through my defenses. An adamantine hoof slammed into my cheek and sent me staggering. I stumbled, but I hadn’t even had time to recover before Rising’s other hoof struck me across the jaw. Stars flashed over my vision and the blow sent me sprawling down into the dirt.

Before I could rise, Rising planted a hoof on my back, crushing me down into the ground. She released the psychic static spell, and her horn started glowing as a sleep spell formed. I took the brief window of opportunity to fire off a quick blast of magic into her chest. It was enough to knock her off of me, though it wasn’t enough to do more than enough to scorch her adamantine shell.

Rising tossed her head, her fiery mane shooting off green embers. “You have nothing left.”

I tried to get up, but my body wouldn’t respond. I was nearly done, but I couldn’t lose either. My options nearly gone, I could only think of one other way to stop Rising and save everyone I cared about. I really didn’t like it, but I liked the idea of leaving my friends at the mercy of this monster even less. “I still... have one option... left.”

Rising snorted and flicked her hoof for me to continue. “By all means...”

I gathered up what power remained within me, all my magic, my life force, even my soul. All of it went into a new spell intended to stop Rising for good.

Rising saw that I was in the middle of casting a death curse, and her eyes flashed with green flames. “No!” she cried as she rushed forward. She was on me before I could complete the spell and she slapped my horn. My vision flashed as I lost my grip on the spell.

Rising’s hoof came down on my head as she ground my head into the dirt. She started casting a fresh sleep spell as she growled down at me. “Clever. A death curse might have been enough, and even if you didn’t destroy my body I doubt I would be in any state to prevent your death. But no, you won't get out of this that easily.”

I tried to get up, cast another spell, but I couldn’t actually do anything. I was just exhausted, and my body ached so terribly. Was this really the end? “Why are you so determined to capture me?”

“To make you pay for your crimes.” Rising unleashed her spell, and the world slowly drifted into nothing.

Author's Note

As always, thanks to my pre-reading and editing team for all their hard work. Also, I would like to thank all my dedicated Patreon supporters. You guys are awesome.

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Rising Fire 8 - Rising

After seeing the lush forests and green fields of the other world, our own grey wasteland seemed far more depressing. Not that the remnants of our homes had ever been heartening, but the reminder of how much we’d lost had reopened the wound. The two worlds mirrored one another: theirs was vibrant, in-motion, and alive; ours was faded, still, and dead. The wasteland that was our home was like a perfectly preserved corpse, and now after so much time and effort we had brought our world’s murders back to face justice.

At least now we finally had something to bring us a measure of comfort. I turned my gaze to the captured villains, still bound within my sleeping spell. Rainbow had seen to binding their hooves, and the rings of layered adamantine and cold iron on their horns should do the same for their magic. Healing their wounds had been simple enough, though it felt strange to do so when they’d soon be executed.

After all the time we’d spent trying to capture Twilight and Starlight, I would have thought I would have felt ... happier? It was hard to describe.

I was to some degree satisfied with having completed our objectives. The battle had been a bit messier than I would have liked—the defenders had put up a harder fight than we expected, but well within acceptable parameters. But I didn’t think that was bothering me. I’d experienced my share of messy fights back when I’d been alive, but after many of those fights I’d still felt ... something that was missing here. Euphoria perhaps? The rush that came with facing death while fighting a dangerous opponent and coming out on top. Back when I’d been alive, defeating an opponent like Twilight Sparkle would have given me a massive adrenaline rush, like when I’d beaten Heritor Azurite or Chrysalis. But I hadn’t gotten that in my current form.

Maybe that feeling that came with triumph had been lost alongside so many other things upon becoming a lich. I no longer had the range of chemical reactions in my brain that came with being a flesh-and-blood pony. No adrenaline, endorphins, or dopamine to make my blood pump to give me the rush of combat. There were a great many sensations I missed from when I’d been alive: the warmth of the morning sun on my skin, the taste from the first sip of a hot cup of coffee, the comfort of a warm embrace from someone that cares about you... All lost to me.

Knowing what I would lose was among the reasons why I had been so reluctant to transform myself into my current form. I was now a soul within a shell, now missing many of the things that had made me a pony. But I had turned myself into a lich, borne the weight of my continued, unceasing existence to make sure my world got justice, and that its murderers paid for what they did. And the day of reckoning had finally, at long last, arrived.

I meditated on these thoughts and others as we followed a path along Mt. Avalon. We were making our way to a very specific spot for our guests. We had been planning for this moment for a very long time, and we weren't about to waste it.

Rarity floated up to me on a magic disk shaped in the form of a sunburst. She had suffered significant injuries during the battle, and she was using the disk until I could fully heal her. My magic had been badly depleted by the battle, and I needed time to recover before I could properly heal something as complicated as the burn wounds Rarity had suffered.

A small, pleased smile creased Rarity’s lips as she half talked to herself. “I simply can’t wait for the trial. We’ve just been planning for it for so long. We’ll get you all cleaned up and make you look fabulous, Your Majesty. Oooh, now comes the hard decisions: what to have you wear for the trial? I was never able to decide which dress you should wear, and then there's all the jewelry that I've collected to go with all of them. So many tough choices, and you simply must look stunning for the big day.”

We must have discussed what I was going to wear for the trial thousands of times by now. This included me going through the process of measuring, looking through different designs, and watching the sewing of the outfit itself. I had gone through the process so many times by this point I was pretty sure I could do it all by myself. But such things were important to Rarity, and with there not being much to do, I went along with it without complaint.

“Something regal and dignified,” I answered, knowing she wanted a response. In truth, I had already picked out the exact outfit I wanted to wear a long time ago, but no sense denying Rarity her moment to shine. It was something I could give her, even if it felt far too little for the pony that had stood by my side for all this time. Forever loyal, always attending me, one of my eternal companions. There were times I wondered if her devotion was more than mere friendship, but I doubted either of us still were still capable of such feelings.

A spark of concern flashed inside of me, and I cast a spell to examine Rarity. With my magic having recovered a little bit, I repaired some of the damage to Rarity’s body. It wasn’t as much as I would have liked to do, but it was a start. “I'm working on repairs,” I told her, “but it's going to take time. The damage is extensive, and fire wounds are the hardest to heal for an undead.”

It probably said something that Rarity’s hoof went to her bandaged cheek instead of the mass of bandages wrapped around her barrel. “Just as long as we can keep these wounds from scarring. I don't want to endure eternity disfigured.”

Rainbow’s ear flicked and she shot an annoyed look Rarity’s way. “Yeah, because that's the biggest thing we need to worry about right now. Never mind that we’re dead, our whole world is dead, and we’ve finally brought the ones responsible to justice—but yikes and goodness me, Rarity might get a scar!”

Rarity scoffed. “Well some of us think our appearance is important. I’ve lost almost everything else I ever loved, Rainbow, I can at least keep this one small thing.” She let out a slightly haughty sniff. “Really, you could stand to do a bit more with your own looks.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Seems kinda dumb with me being a super zombie.”

“Hardly so.” Rarity tossed her mane as best she could under the circumstances—the effect was somewhat lost when part of her mane had been severed, with the ends being charred. “It might not be much, but looking good is an important step along the path to feeling good. Besides, now that we've got Starlight and Twilight, we could always have Rising change you from your current form into something a bit less ... utilitarian.”

Rainbow shrugged and mumbled something noncommittal under her breath.

“There are many possibilities that we can explore,” I responded. “Though that all depends on whether or not Rainbow wants to change.”

After a long enough silence to feel awkward, Rainbow shrugged again. “Maybe.” She didn’t say anything else for a while, and considering she’d barely even bothered with token bickering with Rarity, I suspected there was something on her mind. A moment later she confirmed it. “Hey, the ponies we left back at the castle are gonna be okay right? The other Rainbow was really hurt, and we left Cloud, Pinkie, Fluttershy, and everyone else at the castle in the middle of a big dangerous forest. Doesn’t seem all that safe.”

Ah, so that was what she was worried about. “They’ll be fine. We stabilized the wounded, and had plenty of uninjured internees who could help get them back to town, not to mention I set up a spell to signal their location once we left.”

“Okay then. Because...” Rainbow struggled before putting her thoughts into words. “Could we... could we go back there someday? Once we’ve gotten Twilight and Starlight to spill the beans on what they did, everypony is bound to believe we’re the good guys. I mean, we’ve got all that evidence around that proves they did it. We can give that to them, too.”

I took a moment to carefully consider my response. “I doubt any of them would believe any confession Twilight and Starlight gave after they'd been in our custody. Everypony back there was convinced that these two were innocent, and were willing to fight for them. Most likely if we ever go back they'll attack us regardless of whatever proof we might have.”

It was probably worse than that, if I was being honest. There were several ponies in the other world who might come to rescue our prisoners, and failing that, seek vengeance for what we had done. If I knew myself, it was only a matter of time until I looked into this incident and probably did something about it. Celestia would almost certainly launch a rescue mission or retaliatory strike as well. If there was one thing Mom—the other world’s Celestia always took seriously, it was the protection of her subjects. She wouldn’t let some foreign enemy attack her ponies without some kind of reprisal.

And if they did come... I could never raise my hoof against Celestia. The same went for Kukri, and from there the list seemed to keep growing. Even my alternate self ... I’d fought her before, but I could never kill her. After all, what did I have to fight for once my murdered world had its justice? I would give all the evidence of Twilight and Starlight’s crimes to whoever showed up, and they would believe me ... or they would not. Then what would come would come.

“Oh.” Rainbow’s ears wilted. “That sucks. I was kinda hoping...” She kicked a rock on the path. “Forget it.”

I winced. Rainbow was one of my only two companions in this wasteland, and had been an ever loyal friend through these long, hopeless years. She deserved so much better than she had gotten. I wished I could do more for her, give her the opportunity to be with her friends and family again, to show everypony how amazing she was.

But I couldn’t. All I could do was give her a sliver of the justice she deserved by punishing the ones responsible for all her pain.

“Rainbow...” Rarity floated over to her and placed a hoof on her shoulder. “It'll be okay. With Twilight and Starlight about to be taken care of, Rising will be able to concentrate on fixing our world. Just give it some time, and everything will get better. Isn't that right, Rising?”

“Of course.” That lie came so easily and automatically that it sickened me to my core. I’d given up on fixing our world while I was still alive. It was no small part of why I’d been willing to die until I learned about Sombra, and then Starlight and Twilight. There were just too many hurdles to overcome: the oceans being time-locked, all the wildlife being dead, almost no plant life outside of what little we’d preserved near Canterlot—the list went on and on and on. Too many insurmountable problems with too few resources.

I hadn’t been able to bring myself to tell my companions the truth, though I was pretty sure they both knew deep down. There were just two fragile hopes that kept us going: that we would make those who murdered our world pay and that someday we would fix our world. What type of life would I give my friends if all they had to live for was vengeance? What if the knowledge that our world could never be reforged made them reckless during the battle to capture Twilight and Starlight? Not to mention what it meant for our future, now that we had finally brought the murderers to justice. I could never carry on without them.

Back before we’d learned about Sombra, Rainbow and Rarity had been about as close to suicidal as an undead could get. And ... well I had plenty of magical knowledge I could have used to stave off death, but hadn’t been in any hurry to use it. Then we’d found that thin little thread of hope, purpose, and meaning in our lives. I couldn’t take that away from them now.

Perhaps the enemies we’d made capturing Twilight and Starlight would make the whole issue moot. If we didn’t have anything left to live for, was it really that bad if we ended up finally dying? It would be nice to see Celestia again, even if it was only long enough for her to finally deliver my long-delayed death.

A wistful smile tugged at Rainbow’s lips. “It was so nice to be someplace with actual wind and weather, where I could smell the flowers and freshly mowed grass, hear the birds singing, and ... I miss those things. Everything here is just so ... Grey.”

“‘Still’ might be the word you're searching for,” Rarity murmured.

“Yeah. It was ... nice to see a living world again.” Though it had also been a painful reminder of just how much we had lost. After so many years I’d almost forgotten. “At least now we have finally brought the ones responsible for all this death to justice.”

Rainbow finally managed a smile at that. “This has been a long time coming.”

“Too right it has,” Rarity agreed. “It took us a long time and they put up quite the fight, but time was the one thing we possessed in abundance. So many years of planning ... and now at last we can put an end to it.”

I nodded as we reached our destination, a cliffside overlooking the land of what had once been Equestria. “Now let us wake up our criminals.” I cast a spell to cancel the sleep spell over Twilight and Starlight. They both slowly stirred, and their eyes fluttered as they started taking in the sights around them.

Starlight groaned as she looked up at me. “I'm not sure which is worse: the nightmare I was just in or the one I woke up into.”

“Welcome to the ruins you created.” I motioned to the frozen wasteland stretched out below us, its dead landscape with frozen waters and forests and a still sky extending out to the whole world.

Twilight stared out at the wasteland of her making. “This is horrible!”

Starlight blinked as she stared before she pulled her gaze from the wasteland with a shake of her head. “Don't believe them Twilight, they're just crazy undead monsters. Whatever happened here didn't have anything to do with us.”

“Oh, but it did. While we attacked your palace we even found the means you used to achieve it.” I conjured up an illusion of the crystalline map that sat at the center of Twilight’s palace. “The missing piece of the puzzle that let you break the laws of space and time to destroy our world. It's a touch of irony that it was our world's Twilight Sparkle who found the first evidence of your visit. To be honest, when I heard reports from the local apple farm about a time traveling alicorn we assumed it was just a crazy story, probably from a pony that had enjoyed her own cider a little too much one night. We were just looking for something simple to help boost our Twilight's confidence up so she could start serving on the front lines against Sombra, but she gave us our first clue to find you.”

Starlight scoffed and rolled her eyes. “What are you even talking about? That doesn’t make any sense at all! Just more of the same insane rambling because your brains are all rotted away. In order to make the Map dangerous you would have to do something it wasn’t even intended for like use it as a source of magic to do a powerful time travel spell so that you can change the past for revenge against an enemy.” She blinked a couple of times. “Which has nothing to do with what we’re talking about.”

Twilight stared at her accomplice as her eyes slowly widened. “Oh no, it couldn’t be...”

Starlight raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“When you tried to use time travel to change the past, could it be that... Argh!” Twilight rubbed her temple. “No, it couldn’t have worked that way, could it? When you tried to change the past it was only supposed to change our world's timeline—it couldn't have split off entirely different dimensions. Or it shouldn’t have. That's...” Her head whipped from side to side as though to clear her thoughts. “But how?! I studied Starswirl’s spell and how you modified it, it shouldn't have done ... this!” She waved at the wasteland below us.

“Now do you realize what you've done?” I demanded.

Starlight narrowed her eyes at me, though I could hear a note of panic in her voice. “No, no, nonono. We couldn't have done something this big. I was only trying to change our timeline, not create entirely different dimensions. I did time travel, what does that have to do with other dimensions? This has to be a lie, or a mistake. You’re crazy, all of you!I can’t be responsible for any of this! This is too big to be my fault!”

Twilight's eyes flicked back and forth, and I could see the gears turning in her head. “How did you figure out we were responsible? You must have collected data if you’re so sure. Where is it?”

What were they up to? Twilight had refused to admit to her crimes, even when it had just been between the two of us. It was possible those two had come up with a cover story for their crimes that would make them seem innocent of what they had done. They might even hope to use our evidence against us to try and confuse us. Why else would they want to examine our proof? Well I wasn’t about to fall for their tricks.

“All of that will be covered during your trial,” I informed them. “Don’t worry, you won’t have to wait long.”

“Please.” Twilight struggled against her bonds to get closer to me. “I need to see your evidence. I need to figure out what happened.”

Rarity snorted. “As Her Majesty said: at the trial.”

Twilight’s frowned, but a second later her ears perked up. “Wait! If this is an honest trial, then we have to go through discovery! I’ve handled enough legal matters to know it’s a vital part of the trial process. If you want this to be a fair trial, you have to turn all your evidence over to me, and give me time to examine it and make my own case.”

“And I'd like a lawyer.” Starlight glowered at me. “And a judge who isn't biased against me. It’s not exactly a fair trial if one of my accusers is also the judge.”

Rainbow frowned before looking up at me. “We did tell everypony we’d give them a fair trial.”

If my face had been capable of grimacing, it would have. We had told everyone that. It was one of the ways we’d hoped would convince the people of the other world to give Twilight and Starlight over. Besides, I wanted to show these two the full breadth of their crimes. Let them try and argue against the iron clad proof we had. They might just be trying to play for time, but it would be in vain in the end.

“Very well, we'll let you review the evidence against you.” I turned my gaze to Starlight. “As for a lawyer or judge, due to exceptional circumstances we have a limited selection of both.” I raised my hoof and slowly moved it as though to present my companions. “What you have before you is the population of our world, and I don’t think either of them are going to give you the vigorous defense you desire.”

Rarity’s smirk showed her fangs. “I’m going to be the prosecuting attorney.”

Rainbow crossed her legs over her chest. “And I’m not gonna defend you, so forget it.”

I swore I could hear Starlight grind her teeth together. “You kidnapped us, you can kidnap a good lawyer and judge. Or hay, just ask! Somepony from our world will want to defend us.”

If I could have rolled my eyes I would have. I wasn’t going to be playing their games. “None of them are licensed to practice law here.” I narrowed my eyes. “Not to mention I’m sure you’re just hoping to use that as an excuse to get a rescue party to follow you here. Don't test my patience.”

Twilight rubbed her chin, then looked up. “Then I request a special exemption given the unique circumstances of our case. If you're a judge and the local ruler, under Article XXXVI of the Equestrian Law Code, you can grant an exemption to allow a lawyer to practice law even when they don’t have a license. Especially in circumstances when a public defender is unavailable.”

I vaguely remembered that being the case under Equestrian law, even if I didn’t remember the exact law code Twilight referred to. But I wasn’t about to make myself look foolish in front of her by having to look it up. Besides, it didn’t change anything. “Granted.” Twilight and Starlight smiled and some do the tension left their shoulders, but then I announced, “And since Twilight seems so knowledgeable about the law, she can serve as your defense attorney.”

“Oh.” Starlight’s ears wilted.

Twilight scowled at her. “Thanks for the vote of confidence, Starlight.”

Starlight blinked and then put on a smile that was strained at the edges. “I mean—great! I couldn't ask for a better lawyer given the circumstances.”

Twilight sighed and shook her head. “At least we’ll have some time for discovery.”

“You'll have time to review the evidence, yes,” I said. “Not too long, though. We require a speedy trial, in case your friends try anything to rescue you.”

Twilight glowered at me. “Alright then, the sooner you get me the evidence the better.”

I summoned up mounds of paperwork—the stacks and stacks of evidence we had gathered of their crimes were piled in front of the criminals. “Twenty four hours.”

Twilight blinked as her gaze swept over everything she had to go through. “I have to go through all of this and you’re only giving me a day? And I have to build a case?! You’re not even giving me the time and resources to corroborate this evidence or do my own investigation!”

Rarity let out a lady-like sniff. “It’s more than you gave your victims.”

Twilight groaned buried her face in her hooves. “That’s not how the justice system is supposed to work! You’re not supposed to just go in with the assumption of guilt, and you’re giving yourself a massively unfair advantage by having given yourself all the time in the world to go over this stuff while I’ve only got a day.”

I tired of her complaining. “I’ve made my decree and it is final. Twenty four hours, and then we proceed with the trial.”

Twilight sighed and her ears wilted as she stared at all the material she had to go through. “I don't suppose you have any coffee here?”

Rarity flashed her a smile intended to mock her. “But darling, what need have the dead for coffee?”

“Maybe just to enjoy the taste?” Twilight grumbled.

Rainbow frowned and slowly shook her head. “Seems like we oughta at least give them enough time and energy to come up with something. This is supposed to be as fair of a trial as we can make it, right?”

She wasn’t wrong. Very well then, If they were so worried that they were going to sleep away their last remaining hours I could do something about that. So I cast a spell that infused them with an extra burst of necromantic energy. “That should keep you going.”

Starlight shivered and shied away from me. “Thanks...”

Twilight frowned as she fumbled with some of the papers. “Um, could we get a little help with this? I'm not used to only using my hooves for work like this.”

With another spell I sent away the evidence. “We'll be heading back to the palace. Rarity's staff will take you to your cells, and you can prepare your case there.”

Starlight let out a huff. “Great, more time sitting in a dungeon. Exactly what I wanted. So are these actually nice dungeons, or the wet, moldy, only furnishings is a rusty bucket dungeon?”

“Canterlot's dungeons,” I announced. I wanted them close, after all, and the Canterlot dungeons had long ago been prepped for their arrival.

“At least the Canterlot dungeons are nice.” Starlight pressed her lips together as she thought those words over. “I've seen way too many dungeons in my life.”

“Look at the bright side then, darlings,” Rarity said in a cheery voice. “It’s the last dungeon you’ll ever have to see.”

We hadn’t used Canterlot’s throne room since ... actually, I don’t think I’d ever really used it. I’d never wanted to inherit Equestria, and once I had there wasn’t really much of an Equestria left to rule over. I’d wrecked it at some point after the apocalypse drove me crazy, before I met Rarity and Rainbow. Fixing it up had been one of the very first projects Rarity had insisted on taking up, and she’d done an amazing job of it.

With all the work she’d put in, it actually looked better than it had in Celestia’s age. Of course, she did have the advantages of unlimited resources and a staff of tireless undead workers. Not to mention it was a lot easier to preserve everything in pristine condition when the room wasn’t being actively used. It’s a lot easier to keep the floors spotless if nobody ever walks on them. Aside from the few rooms we actively used, the palace felt more like a tomb than a royal residence.

Still, it was the best place to hold the trial, and Rarity had outdone herself with the fine outfit she had made for the occasion. A flowing dress in dazzling reds, oranges, and yellows, it looked like something that would have belonged to the Gala, and some of Mom’s jewelry only enhanced its beauty. Add to that my crown, and I looked every bit the Equestrian monarch if you could ignore the part where I was a flaming metal skeleton. If only this wasn’t all a great mockery of what I had wanted as a child. For so long I wanted to become an alicorn—to become a princess, and sit by Mom’s side in this very throne room. Now that dream felt so hollow.

But whatever I personally felt about everything, I still had one last duty to accomplish before I could think about resting. Rarity was already in the throne room, outfitted in her own smart business suit. She had debated endlessly between wearing something appropriate for a prosecutor or a more elaborate outfit, but in the end she had decided to go with something professional. She could always wear one of her more dazzling dresses during the execution after all, and she was determined to play her part as prosecutor to the point of excellence.

As I approached my throne, Rarity cleared her throat and spoke loud enough that her voice echoed through the nearly empty throne room. “The Honorable Empress of Equestria and Freeport and Avenger of the Fallen, Rising Fire! Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye! All ponies having business before her supreme majesty are admonished to draw near and give their attention, for our Empress now sits in judgment!”

Rainbow shot Rarity a flat glower from the side. “It's just us, Rarity.”

Rarity huffed and tossed her mane. “We've been preparing for this moment for goodness knows how long, there's no sense in making it drab. Now then, bring in the accused.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes and darted out of the room. Soon she escorted Twilight and Starlight into the throne room alongside a column of skeleton warriors. Starlight tried to appear defiant, with her head held high and a determined flame in her eyes. But I could see the fear in those eyes as well, and her steps were stilted instead of resolute like the murderer had probably intended. Twilight was far less resolute in appearance than her accomplice, with her ears were wilted, her gaze never lifting from the floor. Her eyes had heavy bags under them, and they looked puffy, probably from tears. Fear of her upcoming execution must have broken her.

Rainbow and the skeletons escorted the two of them to the defendant’s table, and Rarity took position as the other table next to it. In addition to prosecutor, Rarity took it upon herself to make all the court announcements. I had encouraged Rainbow to take a greater role in the proceedings, but she had little interest in the minutiae of court proceedings, and only wanted to deal with the practicalities of keeping the prisoners under control. So it fell upon Rarity to do most of the other tasks that didn’t fall on the judge.

“Court is now in session,” Rarity called out and then looked to accused. “How do you plead?”

Starlight snorted. “This trial is a farce and you know it. This is all just to make all of you feel better about executing us.” Starlight walked around the desk and entered the well. “If this was really a fair trial we'd—”

Rainbow tackled Starlight, getting a scream out of her when they landed on her recently-broken leg. Repairing the damage had been quite simple for me, but it was no doubt still quite tender. Rainbow lifted her back up from the floor and roughly escorted her back to behind her desk. My companion probably enjoyed punishing Starlight for the breach of courtroom decorum a bit too much. Not that either of us minded seeing the murderer get roughed up.

“Don't enter the well while court is in session,” Rarity warned the prisoners. “It's impolite, and the bailiff will tackle you.”

Starlight gave Rarity a poisonous smile. “Oh yes, we were being so polite before now, what with the kidnapping and threat of arbitrary execution. Funny how all the rules about giving us a fair trial don’t apply, but you enforce the one about where I’m allowed to walk.”

Rarity replied with an poisonously sweet tone. “Don't violate the laws of courtroom decorum again, darling.”

“Or what, you'll execute us?” Starlight groused. “And how about you stop saying ‘darling’ all the time? Seriously, did that verbal tic take over your sentences after all this time? Next, how about you—”

Twilight interrupted Starlight by placing a hoof on her shoulder. “Starlight, please sit down. This isn’t helping:”

Starlight opened her mouth to reply, but for once she closed it again before she said something she’d regret. “Fine.” She sat and contented herself with glowering at Rarity.

I motioned at Rarity. “Rarity, if you are ready, can you give your opening statement?”

“Of course, Your Majesty.” Rarity stood and took a moment to straightened her jacket. “Now then, we shall begin with a thorough review of all evidence against the accused, starting with—“

“Seriously?!” Rainbow groaned and buried her face in her hooves. “We've gone over it a hundred times, and they just spent all day reading it! Do we really need to waste time going through it all again?! It’ll take forever!”

Rarity cleared her throat in lady-like fashion. “We should do this properly, Rainbow.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes, her wings flicking in irritation. “And what if we're only halfway through doing things 'properly' when the rescue mission shows up?”

“We are doing this correctly,” I told Rainbow. “That includes going through the whole process.” Besides, I doubted Celestia and the others would be able to respond to our attack quickly enough to interrupt our trial. That said, I had no intention of allowing the defense to drag things out in the hopes they would be rescued. While I could almost certainly foil any attack on me in my own place of power, even one from Celestia herself, I was not about to take needless risks. Not after how far we’d come to bring the killers to justice.

Really, I just wanted to have it all over with. I’d thought that finally bringing the killers to justice and putting them on trial for their actions would feel more satisfying.

Now that we actually had them here, and we were ready to begin the grand trial ... it felt almost like a farce. Maybe we should just cut their heads off and be done with it.

No. Even an imperfect show trial was better than no trial. If nothing else, it would give us a tiny bit of closure on this whole disaster.

Twilight stood and spoke up, her voice hoarse. “Actually, I still haven't had the chance to make my own plea to the charges.”

That was true. Starlight’s attempt at a speech before Rainbow tackled her was probably good enough to count as a declaration of innocence, but why not let Twilight have her turn as long as we were going through with the farce? “Proceed.”

Twilight took a deep breath, and it was several seconds before she finally managed to speak. “I would like an opportunity to make a plea deal with the prosecution.”

“What?!” Starlight bolted to her hooves. “Are you insane?! We can't make a deal with these monsters, they’re going to kill us!”

Twilight replies to Starlight’s hysterics with a calm and even tone. “Starlight, please. Let me deal with this.”

Starlight shook her head. “Oh no, not if you’re going to just throw in the towel without a fight. When you became our lawyer I didn't think you would be ‘taking care’ of this by admitting we're guilty of something we didn't even do!” She looked to me. “You know what—can I represent myself instead of having her speak for me? Because if she wants to give up and beg for mercy, then I’m firing her!”

Twilight’s response was to sigh and rub her face. “That's really not a good idea, Starlight.”

“It’s a whole lot better than whatever you have planned!” Starlight countered. “I’ve been on trial before, I know how to defend myself!”

“As you will,” I announced. “I presume you intend to plead not guilty?”

“Yes, because I'm. Not. Guilty.”

“Very well.” I flicked my hoof for her to continue. “In the interests of time and a speedy trial, offer your defense.”

“Where do I even start?!” Starlight glared at me so that our eyes locked onto one another. “This whole trial is a miscarriage of justice. It's not a fair trial for you to be our judge, not when you claim to be one of our victims. Not to mention you’re also the jury and executioner! Having one pony in all of those roles is literally the most clihéd unfair court ever!”

She started pacing around, though she had the good sense to not get too close to the bench this time. “Let’s not even get into the fact that you denied us legal council, and gave us one day while locked up in the dungeons to come up with our defense. We weren’t allowed to gather any of our own evidence or interview or even call any witnesses. Just because it’s inconvenient for the prosecution doesn’t mean we don’t get the time we need to examine the evidence.”

Starlight moved on to her next point. “Oh, and you've kidnapped us and shipped us illegally across national borders, so add that to the pile of issues to this trial. I mean, how can we know you didn't pick up the wrong Twilight and Starlight? There could potentially be infinite numbers of us if you claim there are multiple dimensions out there. Even then, there's no way my time traveling created a bunch of other dimensions. All I did was affect our timeline, nothing more. If we did somehow create other dimensions, how do you still exist? Especially when all the other dimensions are supposed to be gone. That doesn't make any sense.”

“So you admit you traveled through time?” Rarity asked once Starlight needed to catch her breath.

Starlight scowled at Rarity. “Since when could you ask me questions during my opening statement?”

Starlight technically had a point, but I really didn’t care. “Given this is a royal court, I can waive the usual rules if I so will it. And I do. Answer her question.”

Starlight’s ear flicked. “Yes, but that has nothing to do with alternate dimensions. Time travel and dimensional travel are totally different things!”

“But it does,” I informed her. “So far as we've been able to determine, it was your time traveling that created this division. If not for you constantly rewriting the past as part of a mad quest to create a perfect world for yourselves, none of this would have happened. There was one single unified timeline, until your time travel and our efforts to preserve our own existence changed that. Did you think you could discard dozens of worlds with no consequences?”

“Then why is it still here while the others are gone?” Starlight asked. “That doesn't make any sense. You're just blaming us because we're still around. The destruction of your dimension could have been a completely unrelated accident.”

Rarity’s head tilted to the side as she watched Starlight. “You didn't read the reports, did you?”

“Well we didn’t give them a lot of time to go over everything,” Rainbow pointed out. “There was a lot of it, and it was really boring to read. I only read it because there’s not a whole lot else to do around here.”

Starlight nodded at Rainbow. “Thank you for pointing that out. And no, I didn’t, that's what my attorney is for. Though that was before I learned that Twilight was going to just throw in the towel without a fight.” She turned to face me. “By the way, can I get another lawyer? I don’t feel confident in my current one to give me the defense I desire.”

It was an effort not to sigh as Starlight once again pushed to get herself a lawyer, like that was actually going to change anything. “As we’ve already told you, the pool of people available to defend you is vanishingly small. If you don’t want Twilight to serve as your defense then you can do it for yourself. It’s not as though we’re following every last little rule of normal courtroom decorum.”

Starlight’s scowl showed teeth as she glared at me. “Then can I be given the opportunity to examine your evidence?”

“No,” I said. “We gave you a full day to look over the evidence, and you wasted it. We’re not going to let you pull any delaying tactics.”

“Oh right, this is a kangaroo court. I almost forgot,” Starlight sniped back.

Rainbow sighed. “To answer your question, our version of Celestia sacrificed herself to save Sunset and our world.”

Starlight let out a huff. “Fine, your Celestia died so that Sunset could live. Not that she did a particularly good job with the rest of the world.”

I felt a growl roll through my throat. “Think very carefully about you speak of Celestia, or you will be removed from the room for contempt of court.”

Starlight rolled her eyes. “Not much of a threat given the circumstances. Hay, looking back at things, none of this would have happened if you hadn’t traveled in the past and attacked me. So you’re at least partially responsible for setting into motion a chain of events that resulted in the death of your world.”

“Is that so?” Rarity shot back. “Consider the following: a time traveller confronted you and attempted to kill you while saying that your own attempt at time travel resulted in a catastrophe that caused countless deaths. Somehow, that knowledge did nothing to deter you from engaging in time travel at a later date. Most ponies would have refrained from time travel and reevaluated their life choices after an event like that.”

“I barely even remember most of what happened that night after the beating she gave me.” Starlight shot a pointed glare at Rainbow Dash. “Besides, there was over a decade between when we had that fight and when I finally decided to mess with time. Anyways, you do realize that by your own argument your dimension wouldn't even have existed if not for me, right?”

“And what does that have to do with anything?” Rarity demanded. “If not for parents children wouldn't exist, yet we still call it murder if they kill that child later. They don’t get to argue that it’s okay for them to dispose of their offspring because they made them. In fact, that’s morally reprehensible, in addition to illegal.”

Starlight frowned at Rarity. “So I'm responsible for the creation of every timeline I allegedly accidentally created? That's not fair when I didn't even known that would be a consequence of my actions. Literally nopony on my entire world knew that could happen. Because believe me, that would have come up during my trial if anypony thought that. You can't slam me for the law of unintended consequences when I had no reason to know what would happen.”

Rarity puff up her mane with a hoof. “Actually, I believe that your Equestria does have laws regarding mareslaughter, not that this would apply for you. Not only did the temporal event create this divergence, but then you both made the decision to eliminate our world. That is murder.”

“Actually, I didn't make that decision. That was technically all Twilight.” Twilight glowered at her, and Starlight turned to face her. “What? It's true! You decided to keep going back in time to try and stop me and allegedly destroyed all those other timelines. I just wanted to make the one alternate timeline where I destroyed Twilight’s friendships.”

“Wait, what?!” Rainbow bolted to hover over Starlight. “You were time traveling to do what?!”

Starlight grimaced and rubbed the back of her neck. “It was a huge mistake. Twilight messed up this little experimental commune I’d set up where I ... kind of enslaved an entire village with mind control magic and cult brainwashing. I wanted to make her pay for that. She’d taken away my ... well I considered them my friends, albeit under a really twisted and self-serving definition of the term. So I figured the best revenge would be to take away her friends, change the past so that they never even met.”

A flash of different emotions flew across Rainbow’s face before she settled on snarling. “You’re telling me our world was destroyed because Twilight stopped you from enslaving a village?!”

Starlight wince and hunched her shoulders. “It wasn’t exactly my best move. Still, I stopped when Twilight convinced me it was a bad idea.”

“I ... I can’t believe this.” Rainbow groaned and ran her hooved down her face. “This is so stupid! This can’t be a lie, because nopony would try and sell a lie this stupid!”

I wasn’t sure what to make of this myself. All this time I thought Twilight and Starlight had been working together. It was almost impossible to believe that this whole mess had been started because the two of them had been fighting. It was all the more unbelievable due to the utter pettiness of it all. Commiting genocide because they were utter self-interested monsters might honestly have been less horrifying than finding out we were just the collateral damage of Starlight’s petty revenge against the one who brought her to justice.

Starlight’s lips spread in a brittle smile. “Still, my point stands. I'm off the hook for wanting to eliminate other timelines.”

Rarity raised an eyebrow. “And what about the fact that you destroyed your original timeline by traveling through time in the first place? Not to mention all the other worlds that burned every time you went back again because it didn’t turn out perfectly enough for you.”

Starlight blinked a couple of times as she was confronted with the fatal flaw in her argument. “I wasn't trying to destroy anything, I was trying to modify our timeline to something I preferred.”

“And every time you changed the past, you effectively destroyed the world in the process of creating a new timeline.” I countered. “The unique individuals, their memories, and all that made them who they were perished to let you have the world you wanted.”

Starlight grimaced, but quickly came back with a new argument. “I learned what I did was wrong and worked with Twilight to put things back to the way they were. And in the end, I learned a valuable lesson about friendship and that changing the timeline for revenge is wrong. Besides, I'm already being punished for that crime right now. So what this is right here is me being put under double jeopardy, which is illegal.”

“Double jeopardy doesn't apply in our jurisdiction,” Rarity countered with a smile. “Not to mention the crimes you are charged with are quite different, even if they ultimately stem from the same acts.”

Starlight’s ear flicked. “That sounds pretty questionable to me. And I have to ask if three undead monsters really count as a whole nation capable of putting a pony on trial. Three individuals wouldn’t count as a village, much less a whole nation.”

“Then consider us the custodians of the dead nation you murdered,” Rarity countered. “We’re representing their will, and are determined to see that their murderers are punished for their crimes.”

Rainbow was next to speak. “Besides, you getting to live rent-free in a palace isn't much of a punishment for genocide.”

“It’s a lot more complicated than that.” Starlight scoffed and shook her head. “If I’d really been going around changing the past to try and make a perfect world for myself, I picked a really bad place to stop.”

“Twilight, please state for the court how Starlight is being punished for her crimes?” I asked.

Twilight slowly stood and spoke in a sedate manner that reminded me of my world’s Twilight when she had been in one of her depressed moods. “After hearing Starlight’s case, my fellow princesses and I decided that we only had three choices for how to deal with her. Either one of us would need to personally watch over her and try and rehabilitate her, execute her, or turn her to stone.”

Twilight sighed. “Considering her magical power and history, she probably would’ve worked out some way to escape and cause a lot of damage in the process. I wasn’t comfortable with turning her into stone or executing her when she was repentant, so I volunteered to take her in for rehabilitation. She would be on permanent parole, have to do regular community service, and follow my lessons to help her become a better pony.”

This was not the story I expected to hear going into this trial. In truth I thought they would try and deny they had done anything wrong, or make some sort of villainous speech about some nonsense like how they had a right to destroy worlds for some insane reason. I was curious to see where this was going. “And how has her rehabilitation gone?”

Twilight’s eyes flickered between me and Starlight. “It’s a work in progress. She’s come a long way from where she was, but she could still stand to improve in some areas. She’s doing her community service and my lessons to the best of her ability. She’s done a lot of good since she changed her ways. There’ve been one or two ... incidents, but I felt like it was better to treat those as learning experiences.”

Intriguing. It made me wonder exactly how similar this Starlight was to the one I’d known. The two of us had gotten off to a rocky start, to say the least. I’d arrested her for robbing a bank, and she’d been exiled to the out-islands. Years later when I started up the Freeport Magic Academy she’d put in an application, and despite Strumming’s protests I’d given her a chance.

It had certainly been an interesting experience. Starlight had very strong opinions and politics and economics, and a bad habit of arguing about them. Between that and her less-than-stellar impulse control, she’d come close to losing her job several times. However, she’d also been a capable and brave battle magus, and when the war with Sombra started up, I’d felt pretty good about making her the captain of Phoenix Guard. She’d never stopped being a bit of a pain in my flank, but her skills made up for it.

However, what my version of Starlight had done made no more difference than the fact that the Twilight I had known was a meek and depressed former student of Celestia rather than an almost universally beloved princess. The Twilight and Starlight in front of me were the only ones mattered now. “Is all of this true, Starlight?”.

Starlight bit her lip before nodding. “It is. I’ve ... made some mistakes in my life. A lot of them, in fact. But Twilight’s been putting in a lot of work to help me with all of that. It’s not always easy, but it is helping me become a better pony.”

“And yet, such a punishment hardly seems sufficient for the gravity of your crimes,” Rarity interjected. “And even if we accepted that you’re being punished for your crimes, there’s still the fact that Twilight has yet to be punished.”

“Oh come on!” Starlight groaned and rubbed the bridge of her muzzle. “Twilight shouldn’t even be here! All she was doing was trying to fix the damage I was causing. If her decisions weren’t the best, it was because she was acting on incomplete information in the heat of the moment. I attacked her pretty much out of the gate, and then she had to react to a situation she only half understood. Anything that happened is my fault since I was the one who instigated everything.”

Twilight smiled slightly as Starlight defended her, and Rarity hummed to herself as she absorbed that information. “I see. And then she made a choice to destroy those worlds, correct?”

“She was trying to save her world,” Starlight countered. “You're mischaracterizing her actions. Besides, all those futures were terrible. Like the one where Sombra came back and conquered half the world. Who would want to live in that world?”

Rainbow snarled and shot an especially hateful glare at Starlight. Rarity kept a better poker face, and I couldn’t really have facial expressions anymore. “We would,” Rainbow growled. “That was our world, and we were starting to turn the tide against him before you blew everything up!”

Starlight glared right back at Rainbow. “And what if you never had to fight that war to start with? We didn’t in our timeline, and from the sounds of things everything is a lot better off.”

The corner of Rarity’s mouth smirked. “So you made a conscious choice to destroy our world to create your better one?”

“Our world already existed, we were just trying to save it.” Starlight grimaced and slowly shook her head. “Twilight was trying to save it, technically. I helped at the end when she made me realize I was wrong.”

“But your old world vanished the instant you changed the past,” Rarity pointed out. “There was nothing left to save. You managed to recreate what is to all appearances a perfect duplicate of it, but that came at the cost of destroying the new timeline you created.”

Starlight growled. “That wasn't our intention! I didn't want to destroy anyone!”

I rubbed my chin as the picture of events formed in front of me. “But did you make decisions that lead to that happening?”

Starlight let out a long sight and her ears flattened. “Okay, yes, I did. If you’re not lying to us about everything, my actions ended up causing the destruction of your world. Happy?”

I sat back on my throne to mull over the admission of guilt. “So did you know, or should you have known, that our world would cease to exist as a direct result of your actions?”

Twilight’s firm words echoed through the court. “Yes, we did know.”

Starlight blinked as her head swiveled to Twilight. “Twilight, what're you—“

“Trying to do the right thing.” Twilight looked up at me, and I saw something of the fire from our battle return to her eyes. “Can I address the court?”

I nodded. I was interested in hearing what she had to say. “Of course.”

Twilight's ears wilted. “I wanted to say that ... I'm sorry.”

An apology was the last thing I expected to hear. Was this some sort of trick?

She sniffed and wiped her eyes before she continued. “I'm sorry for what I did to your world, and the suffering you’ve gone through. I’ve examined your evidence, and if everything is correct then I’m forced to come to the conclusion that Starlight and I are in large part responsible for what happened here. I thought that by reversing the damage Starlight had caused, everything would be reset to normal. Well, I suppose it did, we just never really thought about the fact that the previous timeline vanished when a new one appeared.”

She sighed and shuffled through her papers. “If not for your Celestia, we might never have even known. Reading through the available data, I’ve determined that her spell to keep Sunset alive prevented your splinter timeline from being erased. It’s a big part of why you experienced the time storms near the end. It was the effects of the spell trying to keep your dimension together. I suppose it’s weird that you saw the effects of Celestia’s spell before she even cast it, but ... well, we are dealing with temporal mechanics. However, not even she had enough power to preserve everything, which is why there were so many anomalies like the temporal storms or all the oceans being locked in stasis.”

Twilight grimaced, slumping down in her seat. “In the heat of the moment I didn’t consider the full consequences of my actions. The only thing I thought about was getting things back to the way they were before Starlight changed everything. I knew it would be wrong for me to go back and change the past to try to make the world better, but at the time I just thought of it as going back to undo Starlight’s changes. But ... once Starlight changed history, your world existed, and it had the right to continue existing as mine did. Erasing it just because my world was better than yours ... that’s not a call I think anyone has the right to make. While it was never my intention to hurt you my actions destroyed your world, and ... I know it’s not enough, but I’m sorry for all the pain I caused you.”

The courtroom became deathly silent as my companions and I stared at Twilight.

She was ... apologizing? Sincerely? I hadn’t seen anything to show she was a good enough actress to fake that level of genuine remorse.

Still, none of this was right. This wasn’t how things were supposed to go. We were supposed to have a quick trial for a pair of monsters who needed to be stopped and brought to justice. They were supposed to be cackling madmares, or evil megalomaniacs determined to bend the universe to their wills. Twilight wasn’t supposed to just admit her guilt and apologize with tears in her eyes.

And yet ... there she was.

Twilight spoke once again when none of us broke the silence for several seconds. “So that is why I want to see what I can do to help you.”

For a moment I wondered if I had misheard her. “Help us?”

She nodded. “I hurt you, and ... I’m not sure what all I can do for you, but I want to do what I can to make this better. I understand that there’s probably nothing I can do to make everything the way it once was but I want to do what I can. There has to be something I can do for you.”

I sat there in silence as I tried to understand what was happening. Twilight had just completely destroyed everything we had planned for the trial. I needed time to think and consult with Rarity and Rainbow. “We will be taking a recess for deliberations.”

We needed to decide the fate of these two ponies, and I was no longer sure I was doing the right thing.

We had retired to the palace’s royal quarters to decide our prisoners’ fate. Rarity had done a fine job of decorating this wing of the palace, making it both regal and comfortable. Not that I particularly needed them to rest anymore. Keeping everything presentable just seemed to be one of the things Rarity did to cope.

“So that didn't go the way we expected,” Rainbow announced when none of us seemed to be eager to break the ice.

“I don’t think any of us were expecting them to show remorse.” I stood on the balcony, staring out at the wasteland. I had thought the sight of my destroyed home would relight the fire of hatred that had kept me going for so many centuries. However, looking upon the slowly crumbling ruins of Canterlot and the grey desert beyond left me feeling hollow. The rage and determination that carried us through so many years felt like a distant memory now.

Had my world truly died because Twilight and Starlight had a fight and didn't realize the full effects of what they were doing? The idea that everything I knew had been destroyed as an accident felt like some kind of cruel farce.

For so long I had convinced myself that the death of my world must have been because of the malign actions of others. The sheer scale of it necessitated that it was intentional. It simply couldn’t have been an accident. How could the death of an entire world be so utterly meaningless? The collateral damage of two ponies engaged in what was little more than a petty feud.

Yet there it was.

Rarity poured herself a cup of the blood-like liquid we had synthesized for her. “It must be a trick. It has to be. They know we have them dead to rights, and are trying to get out of it. So they came up with some wild story to trick us into showing mercy. You’re right, none of us expected them to show remorse. That’s why they’re doing it, to catch us off guard.”

Rainbow shook her head. “I don't think she's a good enough actress to fake tears.”

Rarity swirled her drink before responding. “Twilight managed to trick a whole dimension into thinking she was worth fighting over. She might be trying to pull the wool over our eyes too.”

Rainbow leaned against the wall and took her time to think. “What if she isn’t? What if they’re being honest and Twilight actually is sorry for what she did?”

Rarity snorted and shook her head. “It can’t be. Don't tell me you're starting to buy their story.”

Rainbow sighed and joined me on the balcony. “Aside from what happened to our world, have they done anything to make themselves look like monsters? Everyone in that other world thought they were great, even the other versions of us. I’m pretty good at smelling when something’s a load of horseapples, and so are you two. You’d think if they were really pure evil, someone would’ve seen through them.”

Rarity scoffed and waved her response away. “Well of course everyone believed them. That was the whole point of their round of time travel genocide: to give themselves a perfect world where they were universally adored and beloved. The ponies from that world probably wouldn’t believe Twilight is guilty if we brought her back and had her confess in front of all of them.”

“I guess, yeah.” Rainbow scuffed a hoof along the threadbare carpets. “Just ... I dunno. They don’t seem like monsters. I fought monsters during the war, as well as plenty of the creeps who voluntarily fought for Sombra, and I’m just not getting those types of vibes from them.”

I found myself agreeing with Rainbow. During my time in Freeport I’d met a lot of liars, and some of them had been very good at it. So I had gotten pretty good at being able to tell when someone was trying to sell me a load of horseapples. I didn’t sense anything but compete sincerity from Twilight, and I had known my own Starlight well enough to know when she was trying to pull a fast one on me.

If they were telling the truth, what did that mean?

Rarity frowned. “Regardless of their personalities and any remorse they might feel now, they're still guilty. They admitted as much.”

Rainbow met her scowl with a look that curiously mingled resignation and determination. “Yeah, but being guilty of screwing up is kinda different from deliberate mass murder.”

“Perhaps,” Rarity conceded. “But do you think it makes any difference to their millions of victims if the deaths were caused by negligence and incompetence rather than malice? Even if we concede that the penalty for each individual charge should be less, the sheer cumulative bulk of their crimes still demands the harshest punishment.”

“I don’t know. I mean, I get what you’re saying. It’s just...” Rainbow’s wings flicked as she struggled to put her words together. “They’re just not evil like we expected. Hay, Twilight was crying during the trial and talking about how she wanted to help us. Sure, they did something horrible, but like they said, nopony knew this was how time travel worked before everything went to Tartarus. That doesn’t make things right, not by a long shot, but I don’t think we should just ignore that either. It doesn't feel right to lop off their heads for an accident.”

Rarity sipped her drink and frowned into its depths. “You remember who they killed, don’t you? Our parents, our friends, my precious Sweetie Belle. There are oceans of innocent blood on their hooves.”

“Of course I remember,” Rainbow snapped back. “But killing them won't bring anyone back.”

“No, but it will give them justice.”

Rainbow sighed and plopped her head down on the balcony railing. “I'm sick of dead ponies, and killing more just because they were messing with time travel and had no clue what they were getting into... Can’t we use them to help fix the damage they caused? Twilight said she wanted to help. Wouldn’t it be justice if she helped undo what she caused? If we just kill them, all we’ve got are a couple more corpses to add to the pile. But if they can help...”

My reflexive answer to that was that there wasn’t anything Twilight and Starlight could do to heal our broken world. It was impossible. I’d spent decades, the majority of my mortal existence, bashing my head against that problem and come up short. But then, I only had myself and the resources immediately on hoof to work with. If she was being sincere with her desire to help...

Twilight was supposed to be a genius in her own right, as well as possessing the resources of a princess in an intact Equestria. Celestia would doubtless offer some degree of assistance as well. I wasn’t so arrogant as to believe that if I couldn’t find a solution it didn’t exist, especially when Twilight had so many material advantages over me. Just having an unbroken world as a point of reference and resources could be a huge advantage. If we fixed the water cycle, it would be far faster and easier to restore our plants with access to seeds from a lush green world.

For so long I had given up my world for dead, knowing that this wasteland would forever be my home. But what if that didn’t have to be the case? Was it even possible? If there was even a slight chance of it, I had to try.

Rarity sat on a cushion, her eyes downcast as she considered the question. “Is there anything Twilight can do that Rising can't or hasn't already tried? Rising has put centuries of work into trying to fix our world, and Twilight's supposed to come in, wave her hooves, and suddenly fix everything?”

Rainbow zipped over to hover over Rarity. “Seriously, what have we got to lose?”

“We could lose the chance to get justice for our world!” Rarity stared into her drink before shaking her head and putting the glass to the side. “Admittedly, even that seems to have lost some of its luster. Things seemed so much surer a couple of days ago.”

Rainbow rubbed the back of her neck. “I know what you mean. It feels like we were acting on incomplete intel.”

“We acted based on what we knew.” Rarity turned her head in my direction. “And what are you thinking? You’ve been pretty quiet this conversation.”

What were we going to do? For so long I had been absolutely sure I was going to kill those responsible for murdering everyone I knew. Everything else had merely been a detail for how I was going to accomplish that singular goal. But now the decisive moment had finally come, and I wasn’t sure how to proceed. The others were looking to me for leadership, and I needed to make a decision.

A great part of me wanted to just go ahead and execute them for what they had done, for the pain they had caused us, and claim justice for all they had murdered. But what would Mom say during a time like this? It had been so long ago since I heard her voice that I worried I no longer remembered what it really sounded like. But I remembered the type of pony she had been, and what she would probably council me to do.

She’d always believed in offering second chances to those who truly wanted one. Of course, she’d also never hesitated to bring the real monsters to justice. She’d tried her desperate plan to save her sister, but when that failed she hadn’t hesitated to do what was necessary to protect Equestria and her subjects.

Perhaps what Celestia would have done didn’t matter anyway. I’d inherited her crown when the world broke, and it was up to me to make the decision.

I turned from the wasteland to face my companions. “I will let them know, then.”

“What's your decision?” Rainbow asked.

“That will depend on what they say next.”

We reconvened the trial a little bit later. Starlight was fidgeting in her seat, while Twilight had slumped down in her seat, her wings and head drooped as she waited to hear her fate.

I saw no reason to keep anyone waiting and jumped right into it. “We have decided.”

“As if I couldn't guess,” Starlight grumbled under her breath.

Twilight lifted her head. “What did you decide?”

I spread my wings and lit my horn, making myself as big and imposing as I could. “Before I announce our decision, do you have any final words?”

Twilight nodded and stood. “Once again, I'm sorry for what happened and for all the suffering you've been put through. If I had known what I know now I would have done something different, looked for another solution. But I can’t go back in the past and fix past mistakes. I mean, I could go back into the past and...” She shook her head. “That path would probably just make things worse. My point is, going forward I want to help you. I know that is asking a lot of you after all you’ve been through. You must be hurting after all that’s happened to you, but I’m hoping you’ll accept my hoof of friendship so that we can move forward together.”

Starlight saw that Twilight was done and she stood. “And punishing us isn't going to fix anything. If we can help you, sure, but it wouldn't be right to just execute us for something that we hadn't intended to happen.” She grimaced and her ears wilted. “But yeah, I’m sorry for what happened to you. As Twilight pointed out to me during the recess, my past isn’t an excuse for future bad behavior, and I need to take ownership for my actions. I ... was a bad pony when I decided to use time travel to get revenge against Twilight. I’m trying to be a good pony now, even if it isn’t always easy. So I’m hoping you’ll give me the chance to prove that instead of executing us.”

I nodded to myself, satisfied with what I had heard. “We have decided that your crimes can only be punished in one way. You must spend however long it takes helping us fix the damage you caused. We will consider that an adequate penance.”

Twilight let out the breath she’d been holding. “That sounds very reasonable, all things considered.”

“We will also make arrangements to allow you to return to your homes.” I internally grimaced as I thought about our invasion of their dimension and the harm we caused. “We will seek to make our own amends for damage we caused to your associates.”

Starlight frowned as her eyes flicked between me and my companions. “Wait, you're going to let us go? Really? This isn’t some sort of trick where you’re yanking our chains for the laughs?”

“We are giving you a chance to prove yourselves.” If I could have smiled I would have. So I did my best to put a bit of mirth into my tone. “Also, you will be able to accomplish far more with access to your home's resources. Twilight is a princess, with all of Equestria’s resources at her disposal, after all.”

“That is true.” Twilight rubbed her chin as the wheels went into motion in her head. “Though first I'm going to need to learn everything you know about your world and what happened. I think there are several avenues we can pursue to help fix your world. But I had to rush through the available material before the trial, so I might be wrong about a few things. Anything you can offer will help a lot, especially when you’ve had a lot longer to study the cataclysm that stopped time and caused all the other problems here.”

I stepped down from my throne to stand before Twilight. I felt strange as I did so. For so long I had pursued revenge, and now it was over and in a way I never expected it to.

Still, the path forward was at least clearer than it had been in a long time, and now we had something more to hope for than revenge. “Of course. To begin with...”

Author's Note

As always, thanks to my pre-reading and editing team for all their hard work. Also, I would like to thank all my dedicated Patreon supporters. You guys are awesome.

Click here if you want to join the list of awesome people who support my writing.

Epilogue

Twilight

I knew getting back to Equestria was going to be interesting, considering how much I had to explain to everyone. The instant Rising opened the portal, I realized it was going to be even more difficult than I’d expected.

Celestia and Luna were waiting for us at the old ruined castle, each of them decked out in their arms and armor. They must have detected the magic of the portal Rising had created, because rank upon rank of the Royal Guard had gathered and were ready to meet any oncoming threat.

My friends were there too, even if Rainbow looked like she’d snuck out of the hospital with all the thick bandages covering her head. My personal guards were on the scene too, though it was hard not to notice that Twinkleshine was leading them instead of Storm. My captain’s absence was an all too painful reminder that solving this peacefully and with everyone happy might not be that easy, especially if she’d...

I didn’t have time to worry about that. Both of the Royal Sisters’ horns lit up the moment Rising and I emerged from the portal, and Rising came to a halt. Rising’s gaze swept over the force gathered to fight her, though whatever she was thinking was hidden behind her metal face. We had left the undead Rainbow and Rarity behind both to help de-escalate things, and make sure they didn’t get hurt. If things did explode then there was a good chance Rising would survive to return to her phylactery and rebuild her body, leaving me and Starlight to explain things. That idea seemed even wiser as we faced a full army ready to attack the perceived invader.

Celestia leveled her horn on Rising. “Release Twilight Sparkle at once, or—”

I placed myself between the Celestia and Rising to stop anyone from throwing the first spell. “No! Wait! Don't attack! Please!”

Celestia didn’t immediately attack, but she and her sister kept her guards up. “Twilight! Are you alright?”

“Yes, everything is fine.” I took a deep breath and tried to make my tone and body language as calm and reassuring as possible. “We talked it out. There's no reason for a fight.”

Rainbow’s bandaged head twitched at the news, and her voice came out even raspier than usual. “So you blasted her with the rainbow lasers and we're supposed to be friends now? ‘Cause after what she did, that’s not good enough!”

“Not exactly.” I rubbed the back of my neck, knowing that I had several awkward conversations to not look forward too. “We came to a kind of agreement. We're still hammering out the details, but Rising's agreed to let me and Starlight go.”

“Surprisingly,” Starlight said as she took a few steps from Rising. “But yeah, things seem to be working out now.”

“I see.” Celestia frowned as she studied us through narrowed eyes. Her gaze turned to Rising, and the scrutiny intensified for several seconds before her eyes snapped wide open. “Sunset? But ... how? I just finished consulting with Archon Shimmer, and she’s already preparing a force of her own to assist us. But ... I would know her magic anywhere.”

Somehow, Rising grew even stiller as she stood, meeting Celestia’s gaze. Considering what she’d told me about her timeline’s Celestia dying to save her, I couldn’t even begin to imagine how she felt. “I was Sunset Shimmer once, long ago.”

Celestia slowly released whatever spell she’d been holding. “I have a feeling this is going to be a very long story.”

“I can explain everything.” I gave everyone a smile that didn’t feel natural. “If we can keep anyone from blasting one another before I finish the story, anyways.”

Celestia slowly nodding. “Come here, Twilight. You too, Starlight.” She eyed Rising. “Assuming that will be okay.”

Rising didn’t immediately respond. I’d noticed that she wasn’t quick to talk, probably a result of only being able to talk to two other people and the state of her world. Why rush a conversation when you had forever to talk? Not to mention it wasn’t hard to see why Rising was being careful with her words when she was being faced down by an entire army all by herself. Especially considering who was at the head of that army. But Celestia wanted a response, so I placed a hoof on Rising’s shoulder to try and reassure her. “It'll be okay, I promise.”

Rising looked down at me before returning her gaze to Celestia and the army behind her. “I am trusting you to do the right thing.”

I patted her shoulder before nodding for Starlight to follow me. We trotted until we reached Celestia and Luna. My friends started running over, but Luna stopped them short with an upraised hoof. Celestia immediately started scanning me for magic, first for compulsion spells and then other forms of magic that might have suggested something was up.

“Relax, it's me,” I assured them.

Luna started scanning Starlight as well. “We apologize for our caution, but we must be sure you are sound of mind and body, and that the fiend is not attempting to pawn off a fake onto us. She attacked Ponyville unprovoked and hurt a great many ponies. Regardless of whatever understanding you might have reached with her, that is not something we can easily forgive.”

“It's ... a bit more complicated than that.” I sighed and rubbed my forehead as a wave of guilt washed over me. “A whole lot more complicated.”

Celestia raised an eyebrow. “Then by all means, explain why a lich who appears to be my old student attacked Ponyville with an army of the dead.”

I explained everything to them, what happened to Rising’s world, her reasons for coming to Ponyville, and the results of the trial.

Applejack blinked a couple of times. “Hold up now, are you sayin’ that hogwash they were spewin’ was actually all true?!”

“In a way, yes.” My ears flattened. “I never intended to hurt them, but none of us really understood the mechanics of Starlight’s time travel spell. In the heat of the moment I didn’t stop to think about all potential moral implications of altering time, even if it was just setting it back to the way I thought it was supposed to be.”

“This is mostly my fault.” Starlight rubbed the bridge of her muzzle. “I should have known better than to mess around with time travel in the first place. Especially when I’d gotten into a fight with ponies claiming to be time travelers who’d come back to stop me from causing damage by time traveling.. I ... I was so mad at Twilight that I didn’t even think about any of that. Though it’s kind of weird that they didn’t mess with history by time traveling ... though I suppose I didn’t really pay attention to the warning anyway. Still, you’d think...” She sighed and shook her head. “I don’t want to think about it anymore. All I can say for certain at this point is that I’ve just collected myself another sentence of lifetime community service.”

Rainbow glanced at Rising and rubbed her heavily bandaged head. “No wonder they fought so hard. I don’t know what I’d do if everypony I knew got hurt like that.”

Rarity frowned. “Though they still shouldn’t have taken things as far as they had. Ponyville’s a wreck, we all got terrorized, and innocent ponies got hurt. Maybe they had their reasons for what they did, but two wrongs don’t make a right.”

My heart clenched as I thought about all the ponies that had been hurt because of my mistakes. “I know. Rising's agreed to make reparations for her attack on Ponyville, while I've agreed to help her repair her world.”

“Reparations?” Rainbow’s wings twitched as she glared at Rising. “Yeah, just helping to pay the repair bill isn’t gonna be good enough.” She took a deep breath. “Storm’s dead, Twilight.”

It felt like I’d just been kicked in the gut. My knees wobbled and I fell to my haunches. My friends moved to stabilize me before I fell over completely.

Storm was dead.

No. That couldn’t be right. I know the doctors hadn’t been optimistic, but Storm was so strong ... I’d been sure she would pull through.

My eyes clenched shut as they teared up, and I started sobbing. Storm was dead, and it was all my fault.

There were so many things I could have done to avoid this. I could’ve handled Starlight’s time travel differently, so Rising’s splinter timeline never got caught in the crossfire. I could’ve refused to have any guards in the first place. I could’ve faced Rising right away instead of standing back. I could’ve ... I could’ve...

But I hadn’t. And now my friend was dead.

“Take me to her,” Rising said. I blinked the tears out of my eyes to see Rising standing near us. “I can see to her, as well as any of the other recently dead.”

Luna bared her teeth. “Our dead are not to be desecrated by your necromancy, lich.”

Rising shook her head. “Of course not. I have had several centuries to study the boundary between life and death, and it is far more flexible than most realize. So long as the tiniest spark of life remains, however faint it might be, I can restore it. Please, give me the opportunity to show my good faith.” Her head fell slightly. “It was never my intention to kill any beyond the two criminals I sought. Though we did all that we could to avoid needless death, there is no such thing as a bloodless battle.”

Was this true? It seemed too good to be true, but if she could do it... I looked to my other princess. “Please, let her try.”

Luna looked to her sister, and after a moment where they locked eyes, Celestia nodded. “Very well. Consider this a chance to prove your good intentions. Be aware that although we have agreed to a truce—our vengeance will be swift and terrible if you abuse our good will.”

“We will be watching closely,” Celestia said. “Though I hope you will show yourself to be the student I once knew.”

Rising froze for a moment before nodding. “Of course. Lead the way.” Celestia and Luna fell in on either side of Rising, both of them keeping a careful eye on her as they guided her towards the palace. My friends helped me to my hooves and supported me as we followed.

The walk through Ponyville was almost surreal. Rising’s forces might have tried to avoid causing too much damage, but there were still a lot of homes and businesses in ruins. Not to mention what she’d done to my palace. The sight of it listing to the side with a massive gaping hole in one side made me wince.

Things didn’t get easier as we headed to the castle infirmary. I knew I should put on a face of firm serenity or grim resolve as we passed by wounded ponies, but after all I had been through, I just couldn’t hold back the tears. So much needless pain and suffering, and no small part of it was my fault. I might very well have stopped and broken down right there if it wasn’t for my friends being there to keep me going.

We stepped into one of the infirmary’s private rooms. Storm was lying unnaturally still on a bed, her eyes closed with Cloud and Star watching over her. Blossomforth sat next to Cloud leaning her head against her, and Fluttershy immediately went over to both of them when we arrived. Star’s shoulders quivered with silent sobs as she stared at her dead sister.

Fluttershy’s arrival snapped them both out of their grief, though when they looked up, the first thing they spotted was Rising herself. Cloud darted in front of her lovers and brandished her wing blades while Star snapped out several daggers from within hidden sheaths in her armor.

“You bitch!” Star snarled. “If it’s the last thing I do, I’ll kill—”

“Whoawhoawhoa!” I teleported between them before things got out of control. “It's okay! There's no reason to fight! She's here to help.”

Star clenched her teeth. “HELP?! She killed my—”

“She is not dead,” Rising announced over Star.

Cloud blinked and her wingblades lowered a hair. “What? But...” She glanced at Storm as she lay silently on the bed.

Star opened her mouth to protest, but Luna raised a hoof to forestall her. “Be at peace, Lieutenant. Everything will be well.” She narrowed her eyes at Rising. “One way or another.”

Once Rising was sure she wasn’t going to be attacked, she went to Storm’s side. Cloud and Star held their weapons close at hoof in case Rising pulled something, which I couldn’t exactly blame them for. I really wanted to trust Rising and believe that Storm would be alright, but if she betrayed me ... well, all my sympathy would be gone.

Rising touched her horn to Storm’s forehead and cast an immensely complicated spell, the likes of which I had never seen before. I could tell it was something like necromancy, but without the sort of cold sickly sweetness feeling I’d felt from most of her spells.

Storm jerked and gasped a lungful of air. Her eyes shot open and they darted about the room.

“Storm!” I cried as I rushed to her side. Star and Cloud were just as eager to get there, and all three of us wound up crowding around her. She was alive! Rising had actually done it!

Storm’s voice came out very raggedly as her eyes fell on me. “Highness...”

I took her hoof and squeezed it. “I-I was so worried.”

Storm squeezed my hoof back. “Are ... you okay?”

Star snorted, wiping her eyes and trying to put on a shaky smile. “You big stupid skunk. You nearly die on us, and the first thing out of your mouth is asking if she's okay?!”

“Duty ... first,” Storm said, her voice weak.

“I'm alright.” I sniffed and Rarity handed me a handkerchief that I blew into. “Especially now that you're alright.” Storm’s eyes fell over Rising and she stiffened. I placed a hoof on her shoulder to make sure she didn’t try and bolt up and hurt herself. “Whoa, it’s okay. She isn’t here to start a fight.”

Storm settled back down, even if she wasn’t quick to take her eyes off Rising. “It seems I missed a great deal.”

“We’ve ... figured out some kind of truce,” I told her. “We’re still working on the details, but the fighting is over.”

Storm smiled up at me. “I knew you would find a way. You always do.”

That was a nice thing for her to say, though I wondered how true that was this time. So many had been hurt because of my actions, but all I could do was press forward and try and make things better. At least Storm hadn’t died. Even after everything she’d gone through, I don’t know if I ever could’ve forgiven Rising for killing one of my friends. Or forgiven myself.

Rising turned to Celestia. “If you will, show me to the other dead, and then the wounded. Once I am done we will sit down and take a full account of the damages caused by the attack, as well as outlining how Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer will make amends for their actions.”

Celestia nodded slowly. “Follow us.” She looked to me, and her eyes softened. “You can stay here for now, Twilight. I think some time with your friends will do you good.”

“Thank you, Prin—Celestia.” I took a deep breath. “And thank you for helping Storm, Rising.”

Thanking her was hard, even if I was grateful. After all, while I appreciated her saving Storm, my guard captain never would’ve been in danger in the first place if not for Rising’s attack. I was still mad about that, but far more than that I just felt ... hollow, and very tired. What would be the point of getting angry? We’d both done a lot to hurt each other, and it was time to heal those wounds instead of making things worse.

“Of course.” Rising watched me for a moment before nodding. “We’ll talk later. There is a great deal we need to discuss.”

Celestia and Luna escorted Rising out of the room, leaving the rest of us to talk. Once they were gone, Cloud let out a long sigh. “Sounds like we missed a lot. I’d ask if you blasted her with the magical rainbow, but I’m pretty sure if you’d used that she wouldn’t still be a flaming skull-headed lich.”

I ran a hoof through my mane as I felt a little bit of the tension leave my shoulders. “A lot happened, yeah. Rising and I talked everything through after she captured us. Now we’re ... addressing the damages, you could say.”

Star frowned at the doorway Rising had just left through. “Sure looks like you worked out something if she's going around healing the wounded. I mean, I’m happy to have Skunky back, but it’s still weird to have some lich who just attacked us walking around helping now.”

I sighed as I summoned up the energy to explain what happened again. “Turns out she was right, while also being wrong. You remember that misadventure when Starlight attempted to change the past? That both created and destroyed her world.”

Cloud thought about that and winced. “Oh. That’s ... yeah.”

I bowed my head and sniffed. “I'm going to do what I can to help her and her world. It was part of our agreement, not that I don't want to help them anyways after what I did.”

Storm squeezed my hoof. “You will succeed.”

“I sure hope so.” I sighed as I felt like I could sleep for a week. “A lot of damage was done to their world. The oceans are all frozen in time, so just about everything is dried up into a grey wasteland. Then there’s tons of damage from the time storms and other temporal anomalies, and with most of the water locked away just about all the plants and animals died off. We’re talking about a project on a scale almost unimagined before.” I bit my lip. “I’ll probably never be able to fix it completely, at least not in my lifetime, but I can at least help them get a good start.”

“How can we help?” Storm asked.

I squared my shoulders as I did my best to sound confident. “I've got some ideas. It's not going to be easy, and it's going to take a lot of time and resources. But then, the most important things are rarely easy.”

Rarity

For the first time in goodness knows how long, rain fell on the ruins of Canterlot.

It truly was impressive how far we’d come. With sufficient time, resources, and determination, anything was possible. Especially now that Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer were making good on their promise to help us with the recovery. Sunset was the most brilliant mare I’d ever known, but sometimes the best way to solve a problem was to get an outsider’s perspective. Not to mention all the resources they had access to by virtue of being in an intact Equestria.

We’d gone through a few changes over the years. Now that we didn’t need to worry about wars and bringing murderers to justice, Sunset and Rainbow had finally allowed themselves a chance to relax a bit. In Sunset’s case, that led to a most welcome makeover. Her old body had been quite effective when it came to filling our enemies with dread, but we hadn’t needed to do that for years.

Naturally, I’d had a hoof in helping with her new design. Gold plating gave her a far nobler appearance, not to mention it let me soften her features until they were almost the ones I remembered from when she’d been alive. I suppose I could have asked her living counterpart to serve as a model, but then she didn’t look like the Sunset I remembered. The one whose side I stayed by for all those long years, watching her grow old and work herself to death trying to restore our world. It truly was heartening to see her finally making progress.

Someday I would have to work up the courage to let her know how I felt. Neither of our bodies really felt the same biological urges that controlled the living, but that just made the emotional ones all the stronger.

Thankfully, Rainbow had agreed to her own changes as well. She had gone through a similar transformation as Sunset to gain herself a metallic body. It had taken quite a bit of work, but with light-weight metals and ferromancy we had made a body that both increased Rainbow’s performance while still letting her look like herself. Though if I’m allowed to say so, we made her new body even more dashing than the last one. We’d colored her mithril frame in the same cerulean blue her old body had been, and in addition to her mane and tail, her wing feathers were also rainbow colored.

It made me so happy to see Rainbow finally be proud of her appearance after so many years of her neglecting her looks because she thought it made her a more efficient flier and fighter. I knew from first hoof experience how gaustly it was to be a half-rotting zombie, and wouldn’t wish that one anyone. Really, Rainbow was made to show-off, and it was a delight to get to see her fly around proudly like she was always destined to.

My own changes were rather more subtle. By and large, I was quite pleased with the changes becoming a vampire had done to me. It was certainly better than being a zombie, even if my appearance did lack the natural vitality of a living body. Most of my efforts had gone into appearing more like a living pony, and while it took quite a bit of magic to pull off, overall I would say I had succeeded. My mane now grew out naturally, my skin had taken on a more healthy living tone, and my coat glistened without needing too much in the way of care.

Sunset drew me out of my thoughts when she spoke. “It looks like they succeeded in breaking the oceans free.”

I followed her gaze to admire the touches of carefully nurtured green that had already returned to the city. “It's beautiful, isn't it? If it wasn't for our trips to the other Equestria I think I might have forgotten what rain even looked like.”

There was much I had nearly forgotten about. The heady liquid smell of humidity in the air, the feeling of the rain pattering along my coat, the sensation of my mane becoming slick with water. It was strange how much I’d missed when I could no longer had it. When I had been alive I had often considered the weather to be an annoyance, something that risked ruining my mane or outfits, not to mention the risk of getting my hooves muddy. But when the weather had broken down along with everything else, I realized just how beautiful the rain was, and deep in my heart I had missed it terribly. Now it had finally come back, like so many things we had lost.

Rainbow’s eyes swept over the skies. She had been a weather pony once, ages ago, and I could see she was appraising the weather. “It is pretty great, though without any weather pegasi we're probably gonna get some crazy stuff. Lightning storms, hail, sleet when it gets cold enough—all sorts of stuff that might damage what we’ve been building.”

I frowned as I considered but a few of the many problems we were facing. “Yes, the pillars that we've set up are weakening the time storms, but they haven't stopped them in all the far corners of the world.”

Sunset shrugged. “Still, it's progress. Especially now that the seeds we got from Equestria will start sprouting en masse.” She waved at the fields beyond Canterlot where the seeds had been planted. “That will do a lot to start to repair the ecosystem, along with the precipitation.”

“I sure hope so.” Old memories of Ponyville drifted into my thoughts. I remembered the sights, sounds, and smells of the farming village as ponies went about their work. An ache formed in my heart as I remembered a time my old and long gone friend Applejack had invited me to her charmingly rustic farm, with its wonderful apple orchards. I wanted that type of thing to return to our world. “Though I must say, part of me would feel better if we had some good earth ponies to help grow seedlings. It really is hard to beat the skill of a good farmer at growing anything.”

“The skellies seem to be doing alright at it,” Rainbow said. Indeed, in many cases we had literally turned our spears into plows, and our army had been turned to the work of repairing the foundations of our world. We had gotten quite good at using our skeletons for any number of tasks, and that experience was paying dividends now. Even if part of me looked forward to the day we could retire our undead workers.

Rainbow flew out, cupping the rainwater in her hooves to look at it. “Though yeah ... even if we make the world green again, it's still gonna feel pretty empty.”

Sunset tipped her head to the side as her eyes seemed to focus on something very far away. “We could always make ponies.”

Seeing an opportunity to tease Rising a bit, I started fanning myself as thought I had been flustered. “Goodness, darling! You can't just make an offer like that out of the blue! What would others say if they heard such a thing?”

Sunset’s shoulders jerked a bit and she turned her head to me, not immediately replying to my comment. It seemed that I had caught her flat-hoofed with that one.

Rainbow narrowed her eyes at me in a flat look. “Pretty sure she didn't mean making ponies that way, Rares.”

I covered my mouth with a hoof as I tittered. “My apologies, but I do like to tease Sunset now and again.” I smiled up at Sunset, and a strange sensation that I couldn’t quite put my hoof on fell over me as I thought about the idea of repopulating our world. “Not that I don't think she would make for a fine mother some day.”

Sunset spread out her now pegasi-like wings as she looked over the ruins of Canterlot, no doubt seeing the endless possibilities now spread out before us as we repaired our world. “I suppose all three of us would be parents in a sense.”

Rainbow’s nose wrinkled up. “Uh, can you actually just make ponies like that? I mean, we’d have to do something really fancy to repopulate the world, especially when we’re all post-equinus.”

Sunset shook her head. “Not yet. But given sufficient time, resources, and determination...”

I nodded in agreement. “Our dear Sunset is a genius, after all. And Twilight and the other Equestrians have been quite helpful. I have every confidence they can pull off another miracle. Look at everything we’ve already accomplished.”

A smile crept onto Rainbow’s face. “Yeah, that is true. And it’d be really awesome if we can do it. After everything else, that should be a snap.”

“I’ll bring it up during my next meeting with Twilight,” Sunset said. “Might as well get the ball rolling on that now that the ecosystem recovery project is well under way.”

“That sounds like a fine idea to me, darling.” A flight of fancy overtook me, and I wrapped a leg around Rising’s while leaning up against her.

Rising arched her eyebrows before her face relaxed into a smile. She wrapped a wing around me, and as always I relished the closeness. “Yes. I think the way forward to a better tomorrow has never been clearer.”

Author's Note

As always, thanks to my pre-reading and editing team for all their hard work. Also, I would like to thank all my dedicated Patreon supporters. You guys are awesome.

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Prologue

I just knew it was going to be a lovely morning for helping out my animal friends. Angel Bunny even offered to come along for my morning walk. I had to be very quiet on the way out so I wouldn’t wake up Cloud, Blossom, or Aurora. It would’ve been nice to spend the morning with them, but a couple of my animal friends told me there was something in the woods that had been bothering them and they wanted my help. I wasn’t quite sure what exactly was bothering them—it was one of those things that didn’t exactly translate well, but whatever it was I was sure I could take care of it. And if I couldn’t, I could always ask my friends to help.

There’s something special about the early morning, right after dawn. Seeing the whole world just starting to wake up at the start of a wonderful new day. There were barely any clouds in the sky, and it was warm enough to be pleasant with a nice cool breeze. The birds were already out and singing, and all the cute little forest critters were poking their heads out of their burrows to greet the sun.

I turned back to the chipmunks who’d come to find me. “Okay, could you please try to explain what happened one more time?”

The creatures immediately started chattering away. It was a bit tricky to follow. A lot of ponies don’t quite understand how communicating with animals works; they think my talent lets me hear them speaking perfectly normal, clear pony speech. It’s actually not quite that simple: I can understand what they’re saying, but they’re still animals. Any creature’s language can only communicate things they understand, and most animals have a very different way of looking at the world than ponies do.

“Dead-smell bad-smell fear-smell from tree-food-shelter-place!” Mr. Nugget answered.

“Strange-smell danger-sounds!” Ms. Pistachio added.

“Okay.” I frowned and thought it over for a moment. They wouldn’t be this agitated if it was just a normal predator, especially since it would be a lot more complicated for me to get involved if it was something like that. I normally tried not to interfere in natural processes. Not that I’d needed to worry about that too much, since being next to the Everfree Forest meant that most of the predators in the area weren’t exactly natural. Besides, after talking to Zecora I’d learned that a lot of Everfree’s predators played a role in their own ecosystem, like keeping the parasprite population in check.

Still, just like parasprites could cause a lot of ecological damage if they got out of the Everfree, any of the predators from the forest could hurt animals from outside of it. If something like a cragodile or a pack of timberwolves had started terrorizing my animal friends, I needed to put a stop to it before it got out of hoof. Especially since whatever they were talking about didn’t sound like anything I’d seen before. Maybe I should ask Zecora or Twilight?

No, not just yet. I didn’t know enough about what could be going on, and I wouldn’t want to bother them until I knew a bit more about what we were dealing with. After all, it could just be nothing.

I followed Nugget and Pistachio deeper into the woods. The Everfree wasn’t as dangerous as it was before we’d rediscovered the Tree of Harmony, but there was a big difference between being less dangerous and completely safe. I wasn’t too worried though. Most of the creatures in the Everfree knew me by now, and knew I wasn’t dangerous. A lot of ponies don’t understand the animals there: they think they’re just monsters. Some of them are very aggressive, but they’re not evil. Animals can’t be evil since they don’t have any choice but to follow their natural instincts. Only ponies or other sapients can be evil, because we have the capacity to know better. Or at least we should.

As we moved deeper into the forest, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rising, and tension building in my wings. Something ... something was wrong. The chipmunks felt it too. “Bad-place danger-place scurry-flee hide-climb!” Both of them bolted for the trees before I could even try to calm them down. Though I suppose I couldn’t blame them, since running and hiding away from something scary was a natural reaction. It had taken me a long time to get brave enough to face my fears.

Whatever was out there, the best way to handle it would be to face it. Especially since most predators would instinctively respond to running away. If you act like prey, they’ll respond like you’re prey. By the same token, if you don’t act that way... “Hello?” I called out. “If you could please come out, I’d like to talk to you. If there’s anything wrong, I’d be more than happy to help you with it.”

I’d seen some very strange creatures in the Everfree before, but nothing quite like what came out of the trees to meet me. For a moment I thought it was a pony, maybe one of Twilight’s guards. It certainly looked like a pony in armor and carrying weapons, but Twilight’s guards weren’t supposed to start patrolling in the Everfree for another month.

Then the pony stepped forward, and I realized it was something else entirely. The armor was a completely different style from what Twilight used, and instead of the purple and gold uniforms Twilight’s guards used it was wearing black and gold. When the pony turned to face, instead of a face and eyes there was nothing but bare bone and empty sockets that burned with a sickly green light.

I gasped and stumbled back, tripping over a tree root and tumbling to the ground. I barely even noticed that, all my attention was on the thing, the monster in front me. This wasn’t a natural creature or a predator, it was an undead. Necromancy!

Not only was this skeleton dangerous on its own, but if it was here it probably wasn’t alone. Someone had to have animated it, and if it was in full armor and wearing a uniform it was probably part of a larger group. There might be a whole undead army hiding in the woods. Ponyville could be in danger! I had to warn everypony!

I tried to get back to my hooves, but they were shaking so much it was hard to stand. I could barely even breathe as my throat clenched up from raw terror. What was I supposed to do?! Were they going to kill me and add me to their undead horde? What if—

No!

I didn’t have time to be scared right now! Everyone needed me! I clenched my teeth and pushed through the fear, forcing myself to stand up. I made my wings unclench from my sides and tried to get out of there.

The tree cover was really thick, so my first instinct was to try and run for a clearing before flying for it. Then I saw more movement in the trees, and I could see other skeleton ponies starting to close in on me. I looked up and was about to risk clipping a wing while trying to fly through the canopy when two more ponies flying on skeletal bat-like wings landed in the trees above me.

Oh no ... I was surrounded. What could I do? A brave pony like Cloud or Rainbow Dash would probably try fighting them, but I couldn’t ... I didn’t know how to fight. Maybe I could try talking to them? Everything I read told me it was impossible to reason with things like undead, but if there was a necromancer controlling them I could talk to that pony, or whoever it actually was. Maybe I could even convince them not to do whatever they were going to do with their army of skeletons that were so dangerously close to Ponyville. Just because I couldn’t fight like Cloud or Rainbow didn’t mean I was helpless, or there was nothing I could do.

I did my best to stand up tall and look more confident and sure of myself than I felt. I turned to the closest skeleton, and hoped that whoever was controlling them would actually be able to hear what I said next. “I don’t know who you are or what you want, but I don’t mean you any harm. I just want to talk to you.”

The skeletons kept closing in around me, but none of them were pointing their spears at me. One of them stepped up to right in front of me, then gestured with a hoof and walking in that direction while the others settled into formation around me. After taking a couple steps the lead skeleton stopped, turned back around, and waved for me to follow.

Okay, so that had actually worked. Good. I didn’t know what was going to happen next, but at least I would get a chance to talk to whoever was in charge. That was better than just being killed and turned into another undead minion, or whatever could’ve happened if I’d just tried to run for it or fight back.

I followed the skeletons as they lead me deeper into the forest. Eventually I realized where they had to be leading me: the old, ruined castle of the pony sisters. I suppose it shouldn’t be a surprise a necromancer hiding somewhere in the Everfree Forest would go there, but I was a bit surprised the Tree of Harmony wasn’t doing anything about it. I didn’t understand all the details about how the tree worked, but surely it wouldn’t approve of a necromancer setting up a base so close to it.

I wasn’t sure what I expected to see when we finally emerged into the clearing around the castle. Probably a tent and a couple more skeletons wandering around attending to their master, and no more than a few dozen at the most. Anything more than that couldn’t have stayed hidden in the forest so close to Ponyville without someone noticing them. Even if the ponies didn’t see them the other animals in the forest would’ve, but Nugget and Pistachio had been the first hint I’d heard of anything out of the ordinary.

Yet, somehow there were hundreds—no, thousands of undead in the clearing. Every last one of them was wearing that same black-and-gold armor, and they were all armed too. They were all standing in neat rows and blocks like some sort of big scary undead military parade. That wasn’t ... where could that many skeletons have come from? Even if there was a necromancer who could make that many of them rise from the grave overnight, where would all the equipment have come from? Their armor and weapons all looked brand new. I only knew a little bit about how armies worked from listening to Cloud when she talked about that kind of thing, but I did know these things took a lot of time to organize. An army this big and this well-equipped couldn’t just pop up out of nowhere.

Except ... it had.

As I looked over the huge horde of skeletons, I finally spotted something alive, and a familiar face at that. “Zecora! Do you know what’s going on?”

Zecora’s head snapped up when she heard my voice. There were several skeletons watching over her, just like the ones who were guarding me. “Hello my dear friend Fluttershy. There are undead here, but I don’t know why.”

“Oh.” I suppose I should’ve known she’d be just as confused as I was. I would’ve asked more questions, but the skeletons escorting me were still walking. They hadn’t done anything too threatening since they’d captured me, but I’d also been cooperating with them. I had a feeling they would stop being relatively nice kidnappers the instant I stopped going along with whatever it was they wanted me to do.

The skeletons lead me through the rest of their camp, and I saw a few other ponies they’d captured. Most of them were farmers like Golden Harvest, one of Derpy’s co-workers from the post office named Speedy Delivery, and Flitter and Cloudchaser, the weather pegasi in charge of keeping an eye on the weather near the Everfree. All of us lived or worked near the forest, or had just been passing by. I guess they were just capturing anyone who might see their huge undead army before it attacked Ponyville.

The skeletons eventually lead me towards a massive pavilion set up in the middle of the undead army. That could only be the headquarters of whatever necromancer was running this army of the dead. I wasn’t sure what I’d been expecting, but it certainly wasn’t the mare I found sitting at a desk tapping several elaborate crystal devices. “R-ruh-RARITY?!”

Rarity looked up at me, and I immediately realized something was wrong. Whoever this was might have looked like Rarity, but it wasn’t her. Her eyes weren’t as bright—quite the opposite, when I looked into them they seemed ... dull. Old. This Rarity might still look like the first friend I’d made in Ponyville, but one look in her eyes was all I needed to know that it wasn’t the same mare. Could it be a changeling? An army of the undead didn’t sound like something Chrysalis would do, and why pretend to be Rarity while leading it?

When the false Rarity looked up at me, there was no hint of recognition in her eyes. Just more proof that she wasn’t the mare I knew. “You wanted to speak to me?”

“Oh. Um...” I’d completely forgotten whatever it was I’d been planning to say once I saw that it was Rarity leading the army. Even if it wasn’t the real Rarity, it had still been enough of a surprise to throw me off track. “What’s ... what’s going on?”

Rarity’s eyes dropped down to the crystal devices on the table, and she used her magic to adjust a few of them. Her horn glowed blood red as she did, not the gentle blue of her usual magic. “We’re hunting a pair of dangerous criminals. Yourself and the others here have been interned for your own safety until the criminals have been taken into custody. No harm will come to any of you, I assure you, we are just temporarily removing as many bystanders as possible from the area prior to moving in for an arrest. We expect the criminals to violently resist before being taken into custody, and considering one of them is an alpha-plus unicorn while the other is an alicorn, the confrontation could be quite violent.”

I was about to ask who these criminals were when Rarity’s nostrils flared open, and her head snapped around. She looked utterly, completely focused on me for the first time in the conversation. “You’re bleeding.”

“What?” I glanced down at myself, and saw there was a small scrape on my knee. That must have happened when I tripped back in the forest. It wasn’t very bad at all, and considering everything else that had been going on it was no surprise that I hadn’t noticed it. “Oh.”

Rarity was still staring at the blood. “Ah,” she murmured, mostly to herself. “So that’s what it’s like. No wonder she warned me.”

“What?” I asked again. I had no idea what she was talking about, but this strange version of Rarity reacting so strongly to me bleeding was just a tiny bit was certainly worrying. In fact, the more time I spent around her the more uncomfortable I felt. My instincts were practically screaming at me to run away but … at the same time, she still looked like my friend.

Rarity cleared her throat and finally tore her eyes away from the scrape on my knee. “I do apologize for losing my composure. Would you please put a bandage on that?” A second later the medical supplies floated out of my saddlebags. I always kept a few things on me when I went out into the woods just in case I came across any animals that needed help. It was technically a veterinarian medical kit, but bandages and disinfectant are pretty much the same no matter what species they’re designed for.

I kept an eye on Rarity while I bandaged my leg. She seemed to be making a point of not looking at me, keeping her attention focused on the strange crystal devices on the table in front of her. It took me a while to put into words what it was about her that bothered me so much, why I kept wanting to run away. The way she moved was just too smooth, too perfect. No little twitches, slight subconscious movements or minor little swaying and shifting. It was elegant and efficient. Too efficient, to the point of being sterile. When I figured out why she could do that, it made it even harder not to want to run away.

Rarity wasn’t breathing.

She never blinked. There was still a whiff of her favorite perfume in the air, but there was an odd little undercurrent to the smell that just wasn’t quite right. Her mane and coat looked just a touch off, in a way that reminded me of when the last time my Rarity tried to give Applejack a makeover and used far too much product and magic on her mane. There were no little trembles on account of her heartbeat. That was why she had that perfect stillness and economy of motion that no living pony could ever achieve.

I suppose it shouldn’t have been so shocking. Of course an army of the dead would have an undead leading it as well. In an odd way, she was even scarier than any of the obvious skeleton soldiers had been. Like being something so close to living without quite being real made it that much scarier. Not to mention that she looked and sounded exactly like one of my oldest and dearest friends.

Once I was done covering up my scraped knee, she finally turned back to face me. “Thank you.” She smiled politely, and I realized she had a pair of sharp fangs along with the rest of her teeth.

Oh. Oh dear. Considering the way she’d been staring at my scraped knee earlier, she probably wasn’t the sort of vampire that only ate apples. Though I suppose the fact that she’d told me to cover it up instead of jumping on me and trying to drain my blood was a good sign. Unless she was just waiting to eat me later.

This strange vampire version of Rarity was staring at me again. “You’re afraid of me.”

Oh. Oh dear. I couldn’t help but remember what I’d been thinking about earlier with predators. That you can’t ever show fear or act like prey in front of a predator. She was a vampire ... and vampires are definitely predators that are inclined to think of ponies as prey. I couldn’t let her think I was frightened of her, even if—no, especially if I was. “I’m not afraid of you, I’m just a bit confused because I don’t understand what’s going on.”

“You are afraid,” Rarity insisted, though she kept her voice gentle while she said it. “I can hear how fast your heart is beating. I can smell the endorphins and the sweat on you. I can see it in the tension running down your spine and the stiffness your wings. The way your eyes keep darting around, like you’re trying to find the best way to get out.” She stepped around the table and put a hoof on my shoulder. It was cold and dead, not warm and comforting like the hoof of a living pony. “You don’t have to be afraid of us. We’re here to help, and to stop a pair of genocidal monsters before they have the chance to kill again.”

I tried to swallow my fear while shying away from the vampire’s touch. “Wh-who are they? Who are these murderers you’re trying to capture? What did they do?”

A new voice spoke up from behind me. “They burned an entire world because it displeased them. They came to it, saw that it was imperfect, and believed our home was less worthy of existence than the world they came from. They doubtless intended to wipe the slate clean and erase us from the pattern of existence entirely. Perhaps they hoped none would ever know of their crime, as happened for countless other worlds, but they made one mistake: we survived. Or at least, we found something close enough to survival to bring them to justice.”

I took a deep breath and turned around to face this new pony. Or ... something that might have been a pony once, a long time ago. Now it was a massive creature of bone, metal and green fire. It looked almost like a skeletal version of an alicorn, with a pair of massive dragon-like wings instead of the feathered ones of a living pony. Its eyes and the gaps between its skeletal ribs burned with sickly green light, and as it drew closer I realized that what looked like bare exposed bone was actually something else. Some sort of strange black metal.

I took a deep breath. “Um ... I’m Fluttershy. Who are you?” I felt silly, introducing myself to this massive undead thing like it was just a pony I was randomly meeting on the street, but it was the first thing that popped into my head.

The undead creature turned to face me. “I’m Rising Fire.”

“Oh.” I tried to get my racing heart back under control. “And, um, who are the killers you’re trying to capture?”

Rising Fire stared at me for a long moment, then spoke two of the last names I’d ever expected to hear. Or at least, one name that really surprised, and one that still surprised me, but not quite as much as the first one. “Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer.”

Author's Note

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