Reapers Redemption

by JioafiaTheNoob

Rating: mature
Tags: Alternate Universe, Kingdom Hearts, Narcotics, Twilight Sparkle, Sad, Princess Luna, Gore, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Romance, Fluttershy, Equestria Girls, Sex, Suicide / Self Harm, Sunset Shimmer, Profanity, Violence, Crossover, Death
Length: 34781

Archades is not a kind kingdom. It's king has gone mad, and has trained the worlds most efficient Assassin. After a bout of rebellion, this Assassin is tortured and hidden away. Spirited to freedom by Celestia, she hopes to change for the better.

Her kingdom was crumbling. Once, she would have cared little. But after an event that revealed her Cutie Mark, she rebelled against the mad king. She no longer wished to spill innocent blood, and for her insubordination, she was incarcerated and tortured.

This fallen Assassin, the only natural born Alicorn of Archades, and poorly trained Warlock, is spirited to her freedom by the Princess of the Sun. In Equestria, she hopes to create new ties, and leave her old life behind. But a life of death and destruction leaves one cold and distant.

Will she move past her history? Will she find closure? Forgiveness? And will her new... 'companions' accept her for what she really is? Or will she fall once more, bringing death in unknown measures to the peaceful town of Ponyville? Only time will tell.

Published 2020-01-15 04:20:01 UTC
Last updated 2020-02-05 23:42:34 UTC

Prologue: Escape

Prologue: Escape

The drab nature of this distant land was oppressive. Everything to see wouldn’t stray far from a select few shades of grey and brown. The jagged mountains seemed to scratch at the sky, while the clouds would ravage the land below with hail and lightning. Towns and homesteads were reduced to rubble as hills would collapse from their own weight. A lone castle stood out among the terrible scenery, though this castle was not much better. Moss and vines grew on every inch of this colossal stone structure, with shattered statues and serrated ramparts. Clustered around the outskirts of this dirty city were various mines, all either abandoned or collapsed. At a glance, one would assume this city to be completely abandoned. A closer look would grant the knowledge that even amid the wreckage, some ponies were trying to eke out a living.

These ponies were visibly terrified about something. A rumour on the wind and with hushed voices. Rumours of ‘the reaper assassin’. These rumours were widespread, reaching far off kingdoms and civilizations. Some ponies shied away from these rumours, while others grew intrigued. One of these ponies was headed to this dreadful kingdom in pursuit of this ‘rumour’. A white-haired pony with a long horn and a glimmering mane, aurora in colour. She had a plan for this ‘reaper’. According to the rumour she had heard, the pony in question had been imprisoned. For what reason was unclear, but she didn’t care.

Approaching the castle, this aurora maned pony snuck into a side building, leading to the prison. Some of the guards on the way seemed aloof, as they were sleeping on duty. ‘thank goodness’ was the first thought that crossed this pony’s mind. ‘if they were awake, this would cause a lot of trouble’.

“HEY! Who goes there?!” a guard had awoken and started to pursue the comparably bright coloured pony. Not wanting to enter any conflict, she hurried as fast as her legs would carry her down into the depths of the prison. reaching what seemed to be a dead-end, she glanced into each of the anti-magic cells. In the cell furthest into the tunnel, she spied a lone pony, an alicorn, trapped within. This pony had dirtied, dark purple hair, with an ashen grey mane and tail. She was holding up her head, looking at the sudden ‘guest’ outside the cell.

“…Why are you here? Do you have business with me?” the alicorn said, weakly.

“I had come here looking for you. I plan to take you from this place, and have you return with me. Might you tell me your name?” the white-haired alicorn stated plainly.

“As if we have the time, turn around.” The incarcerated alicorn gestured to the tunnel behind the guest. A group of guards were beginning to turn the corner, spears in hoof. “get me out of here and I’ll deal with them. Don’t, and you will be imprisoned along with me. Surely you have heard of who I am?” Without another word, the white-haired alicorn used a blast of magic from her horn, blasting the lock of the cell into pieces. “I would recommend you look away. This won’t be pretty.” Stepping out of the cell, the newly freed alicorn gathered energy into her horn. At a closer inspection, the horn was in the shape of a double-helix spiral, ending in two points. The energy only gathered on one half of this horn, and it was an energy far darker than most spells.

“What are you?” said the, now confused, white-haired alicorn.

“A lot of things. Reaper, assassin, warlock. At least, that’s what I have been labelled as.” As soon as she had finished speaking, she rushed forwards, completing her spell. In an instant, a wicked scythe lined with blackened ivory appeared in the reapers’ maw. Almost instinctively, the white-haired alicorn closed her eyes, and when she opened them, the guards were gone. No signs remained of the guards’ presence.

“Wh- what did you do to them?” She stammered, worried about the implications.

“it would be better if you didn’t know. The less you know of me the better. Shall we leave?” a cynical tone had entered into the dirtied alicorns voice. She seemed impatient and wanted nothing more than to be rid of the situation.

“Of course. Let us be off.” Gathering herself, she started to move back down the hall.

“Hold. This way is safer.” With a brief inspection of the wall, the scythe-bearing alicorn pushed a cracked brick out of place, and a doorway opened. “I learnt of this during my work. It leads through a blind spot in the guards watch.”

They had been flying for a while. Undisturbed by the guards, they headed south-east, back towards the home of the rainbow-maned alicorn. Trying to ease the tension, she says “Would you mind telling me your name?”

After a brief hesitation, she caved. “…Yamano. Yamano Sagiri.”

“Well then Yamano, I have a proposition for you.”

“And that would be what, your majesty?” Taken aback at these words, the alicorn princess glanced back towards Yamano.

“You know of me?” she asked inquisitively.

“I have heard your description. You are hard not to recognize. You are Celestia, correct? What could you possibly want with me?” Yamano seemed annoyed. Whatever Celestia said next had to be plain, to be sure.

“I wish for you to protect a dear student and close friend of mine. She will be entering an unfamiliar situation, and I would not want anything to happen to her.” the princess spoke with caution. “I would not ask anything impossible of you, and I would not ask for you to take another life.”

“Then you DO know who I am. Why choose a murderer to protect somepony?! Why risk your life and freedom to save somepony like me?!” The still dirty alicorn spoke with a distressed tone, as if this was the first act of kindness anybody had given her.

“Because I believe in redemption. Consider this a chance at a new life.” The princess spoke with a calming tone, trying to ease the wariness possessing the assassin. “I believe there is good in any pony, and all they need is a little help to find it.”

Yamano was quiet for a long time after that. Her internal dialogue written across her face as she considered the proposal Celestia had given her. Eventually, she sighed, and turned to face the princess. “I will do as you ask. I will protect your student. Though I still do not see why you would go to such lengths to hire a guardian. Surely a guard captain from your kingdom would suffice?”

“I believe that you would suit the role far greater than a stuffy guard from a castle. You have seen more of the world, you have seen its dangers and returned unscathed.” Celestia threw a knowing look at the newly appointed guardian.

“I won’t argue with you there.” Yamano looked down at the ground far below, with a gloomy expression. “Though I believe I- “

Celestia cut her off with a slight chuckle. “Please, do not speak to me as if I am royalty. Outside of the palace you should be able to speak how you would normally.”

Yamano considered the princesses words. ‘THIS is a princess of equestria? No wonder they need a guardian… Well shit, might as well.’ After a long sigh, all the reaper had to say was “I’ve seen way too much ugliness and experienced incredible amounts of pain. I guess you could call me…. Unstable? I just don’t believe I was your first choice.” The sudden change in speaking caught Celestia by surprise. “I mean surely you considered SOMEPONY other than the reaper assassin of rumour? It almost feels like you’re asking to get somepony killed.” The aggravation of years of imprisonment started catching up with Yamano. After catching herself about to start rambling, she breathed deep, sighed and asked, “So do you want me to start right away?”

Celestia tried in vain to hide a chuckle. “I suppose we should get you cleaned up first. We are not far from Canterlot now. I will have a bath prepared for you, and then I shall introduce you to your new charge.”

“Alright then. I have been in that cell for a while now. Might be nice to remember what cleanliness felt like.”

Celestia decided to press her luck. “If you wouldn’t mind my asking, why were you imprisoned?”

“I betrayed my king.” The guardian stated bluntly. “I would not follow his orders and drew my scythe to face him.”

“And your horn? Why is it shaped like that, and what spell did you use that was so dark?” Celestia said this with concern that she did not even realise she had.

“That… is a longer story. Unicorns in our kingdom sometimes are birthed with twin horns that twist together in various shapes. Each time this happens, the unicorn in question is born with two specific specialisations in terms of their magic. The magic is split evenly between the two parts of the horn, each half being a different element. Each pairing of elements is named with a title. For example, if you were born with affinities for fire and earth, you would be named a geomancer. I was named a warlock. A dangerous title for a dangerous nature. A warlock is comprised of light and dark. However, these two elements, while necessary for each other’s existence, are opposed so completely that when combined by a warlock, it causes terrible things to occur. The resulting magic can grow and consume on its own, and if not controlled, will cause devastation to surrounding eco-systems and structure. That’s why the spell I used earlier was so dark. It’s because I used only the dark half of my magic.”

Yamano glanced back at Celestia, who had fallen behind while listening. The look on the princess’ face could only be described as dumbfounded. “S- So, you could also use light-based magic on its own too?”

“Yes, but each half of my magic is specialised towards certain aspects of magic. I can’t manipulate objects, for example, because that is more arcane in nature. Teleporting is off the table too… The-” Yamano sighed. “I will go into the specifics later but let’s just say my magic is… Limited in its use.”

“Maybe, just for now, we can forget that I asked?” the look on the princess’ face was that of complete bewilderment.

“Alright then. Let us fly in silence for a while. Though I wish we could walk…” Yamano stretched out one of her shoulders at this and looked onward towards the horizon. She finally had a chance at a new life, and she was determined not to let it go to waste.

Author's Note

....And so it begins...

god, this is going to take a while.

fair warning, its tagged as a kingdom hearts crossover, but that is still gonna take a while to get to. right this second, my plans place it somewhere in season 2, maybe season 3. :D

Chapter 1: Arrival

Author's Note

Chapter one hype! I’ve tried to avoid having such a long section of speech like in the prologue. Should have mentioned earlier, but this is my first fanfic I’ve tried to write out fully! Patience is appreciated, and feedback even more so. Hope you enjoy :D P.S. this is a long one. Encompassing the first episode, plus some bonus scenes for world/character building. which if i can think correctly, should remain (somewhat) consistent for the rest.

Chapter 1: Arrival

Chapter 1: Arrival

Yamano had never seen anything like it. After spending her life in her dark and gloomy kingdom, she couldn’t get used to the bright colours of this new place. “I had heard rumours, but this is ridiculous… Equestria looks rather vibrant.” Yamano mused. “Don’t be surprised if it takes me a while to adjust.”

“I would not expect you to be at home in Equestria straight away. I have seen your kingdom first hoof, after all.” Celestia stated plainly. “Ah, here we are. The bath is ready just through those doors. I will come and check up on you later.” The princess gestured towards a decorated single door.

Yamano didn’t know what to think. Not only this door, but the entire kingdom of equestria that she has seen so far has been far brighter in colour and light than her own kingdom. Nothing seemed to be in disrepair either. The buildings in Canterlot alone were at least three times the size of the dwellings she grew up with.

“Such a fancy door for such a simple addition to a home. You’re sure this is just a bathroom?” Yamano said in obvious amazement.

All Celestia seemed to be able to do was laugh and walk off. “Head out towards the library when you are done. You will meet your charge there.” Celestia spoke with a tone of ambiguity. Yamano wasn’t pleased.

‘What do you mean ‘charge’... I feel like this is going to be harder than I thought.’ Yamano considered what could happen for a while before giving up and heading into the bathroom to clean herself up. Upon opening the door and looking up, she froze on the spot. ‘…This is insane… Th- this bathroom is gargantuan.’

There was a knock on the door. “Come in!” Yamano called out quickly, slightly annoyed at the sudden intrusion.

“I came to make sure you are okay. Anything you need?” Celestia pushed her head through the door and looked at the recently appointed guardian. Now that Yamano was a little cleaner, Celestia could see her features more clearly. The matted grey mane covering most of her face was now neatly combed through, with a cyan streak slicing through the middle. Her tail was split straight down the centre, ending in two points, though not twisted together like her horn. On her rump, her cutie mark was on perfect display. A bright purple shield with a spiked top and a splash of red, blood presumably, on one side. Her eyes were a brilliantly deep blue. Her wings however, looked under-developed, almost as if she had never used them much in her life. “I knew you would look better after a bath” Celestia teased with a giggle.

“Wha- *ahem* hello, princess. I am almost done here. And no, I don’t need anything.” Yamano was surprised at the princess’ sudden visit. “Where exactly is this library I am looking for?”

Celestia took a moment to consider, before saying “It is in a tower a short ways from here. It is hard to miss, as it is almost as tall as the observatory tower.”

“Thank you. I will head there right away.” Yamano stated formally. With a slight flick of her head, and a burst of dark energy, she conjured up her own desired outfit. It was made of coarse cloth and rugged leather and was mostly black, with a few white highlights. It covered her left legs, but kept her right legs uncovered. It had a hood attached, but it was not being utilised. She made sure her wings were hidden underneath her clothing.

Celestia was taken aback by the sudden appearance change. She tried to gather her thoughts. “I didn’t know you cared about fashion” she said cautiously.

“This is just what I’ve always worn.” Yamano seemed to reminisce for a second. “I grew up in a dull environment, remember?”

Celestia sighed at this. “Yes, yes, I remember. But do not think for a moment that excuse will last forever.” Celestia looked knowingly at the moody alicorn. “I shall leave you to it then.” Yamano only nodded as a response.

Coming up to a set of double doors, Yamano stopped to gather herself before she entered. ‘Whoever this pony is, I hope they aren’t too much of a hoofful…’ she thought grimly to herself. ‘I can’t protect somepony if they do not allow me to do so.’

Almost as if it was on cue, a blur of a pony came speeding past her, and barrelled through the double doors. Before Yamano could even process what had just happened, she heard the voice of the pony in question. She was still surprised enough to not be able to process what they were saying, but they sounded flustered. ‘here we go, I guess.’ With a deep sigh, she moved forward to push open the door. “Hello?” Yamano called out cautiously. What she saw was a young, light purple pony pouring over a book, and a small dragon stacking more books on a high up shelf. Seeing that she didn’t get a response, she spoke again, this time a little louder. “Hello?! Earth to all ponies?”

At the sudden increase in volume, the young pony whipped around. “Oh! Uh, hi… I didn’t hear you enter. Can- can I help you?” she asked cautiously.

Yamano rolled her eyes. “I’ve been sent by the princess. I’m supposed to be your protector. Or something along those lines. The name’s Yamano Sagiri.”

“Yamano?” the young pony looked quizzically at the pony in question. “What kind of a name is Yamano?”

The guardian sighed and started scouring the titles on the bookshelf to try and find something that can help. “No books on my kingdom huh...? Well, never mind. I hail from a kingdom further out than you are probably used to. I was brought here by Celestia to act as a guardian.”

“Oh! Well, I’m Twilight Sparkle, and that’s Spike. Sorry, but you caught me at an unfortunate time, there’s something I need to research right now. Spike! Where’s that copy of predictions and prophecies that was here?” With that, she turned her attention to the books again, pulling them off the shelves with her magic, getting visibly and audibly frustrated as she cannot find the correct one.

Yamano cleared her throat before saying “I’d look up if I were you. Seems Spike found something.”

Twilight followed the pony’s gaze up towards an exceedingly high shelf, which Spike was next to on a ladder, holding out predictions and prophecies. She immediately grabbed the book with her magic, pulling spike off the ladder. At this, Yamano immediately manoeuvred underneath the tiny dragon to break his fall. “Are you alright, Spike?” Yamano asked with haste.

“*sigh* Yeah I’m fine. In a rush much, Twilight?” Spike said, seemingly used to the complete disregard for his safety given by Twilight.

Twilight let all the other books she was holding up fall to the ground. Glancing at the mess, Yamano moved to start picking up the loose books and gathered them together. Turning her attention back to Twilight, all she could hear was her muttering “Elements, elements, elements…” while rapidly flipping through pages in the book. Eventually, Twilight whispered to herself again and settled on a page. “The elements of harmony… See ‘Mare in the Moon’?”

At the mention of this, Spike muttered in confusion. “Mare in the Moon? But, that’s just an old ponies’ tale.”

Yamano, who was exceedingly confused at this point, could do nothing but watch in awe as the efficiency of Twilights reading and the tidy nature of Spikes book-sorting continued in full force. Glancing over the shoulder of the young pony, she noticed a page flip by in the blink of an eye, with what looked like, well, a mare in a moon. “You missed it. Page forward about 23 times.”

Twilight froze, flipped forward twenty-three pages, and looked at the page. Sure enough, it was a page on the old legend of the mare in the moon. She turned towards Yamano with a look of shock. “How- how did you see that? I thought I was the best at reading, and I completely missed it…”

Yamano shook her head. “I have an eye for detail, but when it comes to actually reading, I’m worthless. I saw the illustration on that page there.” She said with a slight tone of annoyance and gestured at the page on the right. “Find what you need?”

Twilight went straight back to the book. “The Mare in the Moon, myth from olden pony times, a powerful pony who wanted to rule Equestria. Defeated by the elements of harmony and imprisoned in the moon.”

“That sounds good.” Yamano interjected with an ounce of sarcasm

“Very funny.” Twilight stated bluntly. “Now where was I. Ah, yes. Legend has it that on the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape, and she will bring about night time eternal!” she ended on a gasp.

“Huh. Well that sounds bad.” Yamano muttered, this time with a serious tone. “And I suppose you think that day is coming soon…?” Yamano looked at Twilight with an expecting look on her face.

Before she could get an answer, Spikes’ ladder fell backwards as he was stacking more books. Before Yamano had a chance to do anything about it, Twilight was already underneath Spike, who landed on her back. Without even asking if he was okay, she handed him a scroll and quill.

“Aren’t you at least gonna see if Spike is uninjured?” Yamano snapped at Twilight.

“Spike’s fine, see?” She turns slightly to the side. “Nothing to worry about.”

“That’s not the-… *sigh* whatever… just looking out for your friends’ safety is all…” Yamano walks off, trying to calm herself down. ‘Don’t blow up at the person you have been enlisted to protect. That’d just… complicate things.’ Yamano was so caught up trying to calm down she almost missed Spike breathing fire on the parchment. This caught her off guard. ‘What good will THAT do?!... unless it’s magic fire? It wouldn’t surprise me if it was.’ Yamano considered what could possibly have happened to the parchment but gave up. “Why did he do that?” She asked warily.

“Oh, right! You wouldn’t know about that. Spikes fire sends the letters straight to Princess Celestia. She can send letters to Spike too.” As if her words had summoned it, Spike belched out a small burst of flames, and in its wake appeared another letter. “There! I knew she would want to take immediate action!” Twilight responded without hesitation.

Yamano turned to walk out of the library, earning a confused look from Twilight. “I wouldn’t want to intrude on your private business with the Princess. I’ll be right outside.” However, before Yamano had a chance to exit, Spike called out to her.

“You’re mentioned in here too. Shouldn’t you stay?”

At those words, Yamano stopped completely. It was almost as if time itself had frozen for her. After a moment of consideration, Yamano sighed again. “Alright, alright… lets here it then.” She started walking back towards the unlikely pair.

Spike cleared his throat and began reading. “My dearest, most faithful student Twilight. You know that I value your diligence, and that I trust you completely. But you simply MUST stop reading those dusty old books.” Twilight gasped at that. “My dear twilight, there is more to a young ponies life than studying. So, I’m sending you to supervise the preparations for the summer sun celebration in this years location, Ponyville. And~ I have an even more essential task for you to complete. Make some friends.” Twilight groaned. “I would also like a certain pony by name of Yamano to accompany you, to make sure you make the trip safely, and so that you do not get yourself into any trouble.”

Yamano sighed at the prospect. “At least my job shouldn’t be very difficult...” She mumbled to herself. “So, shall we get going then, ‘my liege’?” She said with a half-smile.

Twilight jabbed Yamanos’ side with her hoof. “Don’t call me that.”

The chariot ride to Ponyville was awkward. Neither pony was comfortable around each-other yet, as they had met a mere twenty minutes prior. Twilight was looking moodily over the side, while Yamano took the time to do some impromptu maintenance on her scythe. This earned a concerned look from Spike, who had never seen a pony wielding a scythe before. A single black gem embedded into the shaft caught Spikes attention, as the gem did not reflect or refract the light, but instead seemed to slightly draw it in.

Yamano caught a glimpse at Spike staring at that gem and dismissed her scythe. “Can I help you?” She said with a slight hint of mockery in her voice.

“Uh… I-I was just wondering what that gem was. Its nothing like I’ve ever seen before.” Spike muttered hesitantly.

“Is that all?” the pony looked at Spike curiously. “It used to be a normal topaz. An enchantment was placed upon it by… somepony with great power. It draws in all light around it, including light from spells cast in its immediate vicinity. It… isn’t the safest, I suppose, but it will be fine as long as I am the one who wields it.” She looked at Spike with a serious expression. “Which means no, you can’t eat it.”

“Oh. Okay… Wait how did you know I want to eat it?!” Spike asked with surprise.

“My kingdom has multiple books on dragons, you know. It was common knowledge.” Yamano said with a distant tone. “Now please, no more questions. I’d rather not remember that place.”

Minutes passed in silence. Yamano had a sour look on her face, and Twilight was still sulking. Spike decided to break the tension and turned his attention towards Twilight. “Hey Twilight, cheer up. Princess Celestia arranged for you to stay in a library, remember?”

Twilight perked up at the prospect. “You know what? That HAS cheered me up. You know why? Because I’M right! I’ll check on the preparations as fast as I can, THEN get to the library to find some proof of Nightmare Moons return.”

Yamano sighed. “You’re going all in on this Nightmare Moon situation, huh? Shouldn’t you go about this calmly?”

“Well can you blame me? This is a HUGE deal.” Twilight responded with a look of someone who was about to panic.

‘Why did I get stuck protecting the biggest worry wort in Equestria…’ Yamano turned her attention away from Twilight again and started nursing one of her wings under her clothes. “Are these aches ever going to leave?...” Yamano spoke without realising, earning another look of concern, this time from Twilight.

“Are you okay? You look like you’re in pain.” The young unicorn looked genuinely worried. This caught Yamano off guard. She wasn’t used to the notion that somepony cared about her wellbeing.

Yamano rolled her eyes after a while. "I've avoided travelling large distances for a large part of my life. Yesterday I had to go continuously for over fifteen hours. I could barely move when I arrived, whereas Celestia seemed perfectly fine having flown TO my kingdom and then walked back again…" Yamano spoke with contempt. "Ever since I was little, I've hated travel, so my stamina has always taken a bit of a hit. So yeah. I'm in pain."

The slight hint of anger in Yamanos voice made Twilight feel nervous. “Are you… Are you okay?”

The look of anxiety on Twilights face forced Yamano to calm down. ‘Way to go you idiot… Apologise already.’ She considered her words for a long time. “Sorry Twilight. I’m just a little on edge. I wasn’t expecting to have to remember my past so soon. Ignore me if I seem annoyed or angry about something. Just… don’t expect to get any further details for a while.” She said slowly and purposefully.

Spike interjected, trying to break the reawakened tension between the two. “So, Twilight, when are you going to make friends like the princess asked?”

Twilight brushed off the question. “She SAID to check on the preparations. I am her student and I will do my royal duty. The fate of Equestria does NOT rest on me making friends.”

“But wouldn’t it be funny if it did?” Yamano said with a prod.

“If it did Equestria would be doomed.” Twilight said with a giggle. The tension was a distant memory at this point.

“So, what’s first on our list?” Yamano looked expectantly at Spike.

“Huh? Why are you looking at me?” Spike looked puzzled.

Twilight chimed in. “Because you’re the one holding the letter.”

Spike looked down at his claws, still holding the letter. “Oh. Heh. Right.”

The chariot touched down onto the ground with a somewhat sudden stop, catching Yamano off guard again. She almost tumbled out but caught herself and rolled to a standing position. She shook out the dirt that had found its way into her mane. When she looked back to the chariot, Twilight and Spike were giggling. Twilight got out of the chariot and thanked the two pegasi that drew it.

Yamano noted Spikes excitement about the new area. It seemed that he, along with Twilight, hadn’t left the castle very much.

“I wonder if the ponies of Ponyville have interesting things to talk about!” Spike said while slightly bouncing up and down. “Come on Twilight, just try talking to someone!”

The trio turned and started walking down the main street, and immediately saw a bright pink pony approaching them. As they approached, Twilight was the first to speak. “Uh… Hello?”

As soon as she had finished speaking, the pink pony in question let out a huge gasp and bolted in a blur. This left all three speechless as they looked where the pony used to be. Yamano broke the silence. “That could have gone better… I think?”

Twilight responded with a hint of annoyance. “It was certainly interesting to be sure.” All Spike could do was sigh.

As the three were walking along, spike was reading a checklist with instructions on what needed checking for the summer sun celebration.

“What’s first, Spike?” Yamano asked.

“Let’s see… Banquet preparations from Sweet Apple Acres. It’s just over there isn’t it?” Spike asked with an excited tone.

“Don’t tell me you’re hungry, Spike? I could have sworn you were snacking earlier…” Yamano said in a bored tone.

Spike looked back in a slight panic. “What? No! of course n-” Spike was cut off as his stomach rumbled. Yamano and Twilight looked at each other sceptically. “Heh. So maybe I am a little hungry.”

Twilight started giggling to herself. “Same old Spike. Always thinking of food.”

Yamano pointed a hoof towards an arch with a sign hanging off it. “I take it that’s Sweet Apple Acres?”

The arch in question had vines and flowers growing in the wooden mesh, and the sign had the shape of an apple cut out of it. Beyond the archway was a large house – or was it a barn? – with red walls and white highlighted edges. All things considered, it was one of the plainer buildings in Ponyville. Beyond the house in question were acres of what were presumed to be sweet apple trees.

“Doesn’t look terrible I suppose.” Yamano mused. ‘I wonder how- ‘

Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud “Yeehaw!” somewhere off to their right. Her head immediately snapped over to where the sound came from, and she along with Twilight saw an orange coated, yellow maned pony wearing a stetson hat run up to and buck an apple tree. Almost immediately, the apples came tumbling off the tree all at once. Yamano was flabbergasted.

“That is NOT how that works.” The grey maned pony said with her jaw hanging open. “Is that how that works Twilight? You probably know more about physics than I do.”

Twilight gave a slight pause. “I have no idea.” She sighed and started walking towards the pony in question. “Let’s get this over with…” After walking a short distance, she raised her head higher and spoke with formality. “Good afternoon. My name is Twilight Sparkle.”

As soon as she was finished speaking, the orange pony immediately was right next to Twilight. They grasped her hoof and forced her into an excessively powerful hoof-shake. “Well, howdy do, miss Twilight! A pleasure makin’ yer acquain’ance! I’m Applejack!” She was still forcing the hoof shake, and Twilight was looking frazzled. “We here at Sweet Apple Acres, sure do like makin’ new friends!”

Yamano chuckled. ‘I like this gal. Seems pretty strong, too.’

Twilight tried to speak through the vigorous shaking of the hoof-shake. “Friends~? Actually-y-y I~ uh-”

Applejack let go at this point, but Twilight continued to shake. “So! What can I do ya for?” She gave a Twilight a wink.

Yamano grabbed hold of Twilights still shaking hoof, which was audible as it sliced through the air. Spike chuckled at the unicorns misfortune. Twilight cleared her throat. “Well, I am in fact here to supervise preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration.” She paused for a breath. “And you’re in charge of the food?”

Yamano rolled her eyes. ‘Guess I don’t get introduced. Whatever.’

Applejack held her head up proudly. “We sure as sugar are! Wouldja care to sample some?”

Twilight had a half concerned look on her face. “As long as it doesn’t take too long…”

Applejack zipped off somewhere before Twilight even finished speaking and started ringing a loud metal triangle. “Soups on, everypony!”

Yamano felt immediate concern as the ground seemed to shift underneath her. “Uh-oh. Bad. Bad bad BAD!” Yamano made a desperate dive for a spot about four meters away. Twilight and Spike looked at her, completely confused. Yamano simply pointed where the rumbling was coming from and merely said “Celestia help you both.”

Twilight and Spike started to turn around, but before they could they were swept straight off their hooves and into the air by a veritable stampede of ponies. They were deposited down in front of a table. Applejack popped up out of nowhere right beside Spike. “Now, why don’t I introduce y’all to the Apple family.”

Yamano immediately felt anxious. Large crowds were one of the biggest things she couldn’t handle. She slowly started to make her way towards Twilights side of the table.

Twilight spoke up. “Thanks, but I really need to hurr-” And before she could finish she was cut off again by an apple dish being thrust towards her face.

Applejack started introducing her family. “This here’s Apple Fritter, Apple Bumpkin, Red Gala-” Each member of the family added another unique dish to the table. “Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Caramel Apple, Apple strudel, Apple Tart, Baked Apple, Apple Brioche, Apple Cinnamon Crisp-” She took a large breath. “Big Macintosh, Apple Bloom, and~” She shoved an apple into Twilights mouth whole. “Granny Smith. Up an’ at ‘em, Granny Smith! We got guests.” The pony in question awoke with a start, absent mindedly mumbling “Soups on” and started meandering towards the table.

Yamano quietly jumped up and grabbed a plate of food off the top of the pile and started munching on it, while keeping an extremely fervent eye on the large group of ponies that showed up suddenly. She also panicked when she realised she didn’t check the food for poison. It was a habit that used to be so ingrained into her mind and body that she started lightly bashing herself in the face with her hoof. ‘IDIOT. Why didn’t you CHECK!?’

The sudden movements caught Applejacks attention. “OH! Uh… an’ who might you be?”

Yamanos eyes widened at the sudden address. After finishing her current mouthful, she spoke in a slightly hushed, shaky, and deeper than usual voice. “I’m Twilights bodyguard. Or something along those lines.” She was sure her fearful dislike for crowds came through, and face-hoofed again.

Applejack chuckled at Yamanos timid response. “Ya got a name, miss bodyguard?”

Yamano hesitated, before introducing herself properly. Her voice normalising as she was adjusting to the influx of attention.

Applejack couldn’t keep back a short laugh. “Why I’d say you both are already part of the family!”

Those words caused Twilight to spit out the half-chewed apple that was still in her mouth. She nervously giggled before addressing the group. “Okay, well, I can see the food situation is handled, so we’ll be on our way!”

A large portion of the apple family groaned in disappointment. Apple Bloom spoke up. “Aren’t ya gonna stay for brunch?” She had an extremely sad look on her face, and was looking up towards Twilight.

Yamano shifted in place. It was obvious she didn’t want to stay, but the look on the faces of the Apple family caught her off guard. “It couldn’t hurt, surely? What do you think, Spike?” All Spike did was shrug at the question. “Twilight? What about you?”

Twilights face fell, and said in an annoyed tone “Fine.”. the whole Apple family cheered in unison at her agreement.

Yamano was in awe. No matter how hard they tried, the mountain of food in front of them never seemed to dwindle. Between mouthfuls, she glanced over at Applejack, who was silently comparing the three new arrivals. “Can I help you, Applejack?” Yamano said with a concerned shake to her voice.

Applejack seemed to snap out of a stupor. “Huh? Oh, uh, it’s nothin’. I couldn’t help but notice y’all seem to be a bunch ah misfits. I mean, you look like you’ve been workin’ yer entire life, while Twilight over there… Well, doesn’t. Not to mention Spike. Maybe I’m just over thinkin’ it.”

Yamano rolled her eyes at the observation. “We come from two… rather different backgrounds. As far as I’m aware, Twilight spends most of her time studying and reading. Back where I’m from, I didn’t have that luxury. Most of my days were spent with intensive, and dangerous, work.”

Applejack chuckled again. “Well, let me know if yah need someplace to stay active. Always willin’ to put a strong pony to work.”

These words hung on Yamanos mind for a while. Eventually she shrugged. “That depends on if you need somepony with a lot of stamina or somepony with raw strength. It would also depend on if Twilight needs me for anything.”

Applejack stared through Yamano for a while, thinking about what would help. “I’d say stamina is more useful. The strength needed to do the things we do can be built up in no time at all.”

The grey maned pony considered her words for a long while. "Stamina isn't one of my stronger points… But, having some continuous work might help improve that. Alright, let me know if there's anything I can help with. I bet it'd beat wandering Ponyville with nothing to do." After she finished speaking, she stretched out her shoulders. "The amount of food here is ridiculous…"

The orange pony started laughing at the sudden change in subject. But her laughter was cut short when Yamano had finished stretching, as suddenly, her right wing had poked out from underneath her clothes. She took a second to look Yamano over again, who hadn’t seemed to notice. Sure enough, she had a horn, AND wings. “You- you’re an alicorn?!”

Yamano froze in place immediately. She slowly turned her head to look at her right side, before hurriedly forcing her wing back underneath the leather tunic of her clothes. ‘Great. And now that little tidbit has gotten out.’ She snapped back towards Applejack, who seemed to be about to say something to the rest of the gathering. She placed a hoof over Applejacks mouth. “Not a word to ANYPONY. Not even Twilight knows what I am.” She spoke in a hushed voice, just barely audible to the farm pony.

Applejack nodded fervently. She responded in a whisper. “But I thought that the only alicorn was Princess Celestia. What’s goin’ on?”

Yamanos face dropped, and she looked down at the table. “Applejack, it’s… it’s a long story. One that I don’t feel comfortable telling right now.” She spoke so quietly; the farm pony had a hard time hearing. “Maybe another time, but right now is too early.” Applejack sat in silence for a while. Eventually she looked back at Yamano.

“Well alright then. I’ll try keep this under wraps for now. Let me know when y'all get more comfortable about it.” Applejack had a tone of genuine concern. This threw the alicorn for a loop, as they had only just met each other and yet she spoke like they had known each other for years.

“Thank you.” She turned her attention back towards her food. “This won’t eat itself I guess.” The sudden change in subject caused Applejack to laugh again.

“Food’s all taken care of.” Spike muttered to himself as the three were walking back down towards the main body of Ponyville. “Next is weather.” He looked back to see Twilight struggling to walk, and Yamano looking like she had more energy than usual. Twilight groaned.

“I ate too much pie…” Twilight strained herself trying to get the words out.

“Too much pie? THAT’s what did it? What about all the other food you ate?” Yamano spoke with scepticism.

Spike interjected with an inquisitive murmur. “There’s supposed to be a Pegasus pony called Rainbow Dash clearing the clouds.” Spike looked up to the sky, no pegasi in sight.

“Wait, pegasi clear the clouds?” Yamano asked with a look of shock on her face. “Back where I’m from the weather changes naturally.”

Both Twilight and Spike whirled around in surprise but decided not to say anything about it. Twilight instead shook her head and turned to look up at the sky as well. “Well, she’s not doing a very good job, is she?”

Yamano heard a disturbance in the wind. Quickly glancing about, she saw a rainbow blur come speeding towards Twilight. “Twilight look out!” She nudged the unicorn out of the way, and the blur hit into Yamano in full force, knocking them both down into the mud. The alicorn pushed off the ground, and looked up to see a blue coated, rainbow maned Pegasus had fallen on top of her, also covered in mud. The Pegasus giggled at the situation.

“Uh, excuse me? Hahaha…” she started flying to get off the back of the muddied pony she had landed on, giggling all the while. “Let me help you.” In an instant, she zipped away and brought back a raincloud.

Yamano glared at the Pegasus. “Don’t even think about it.” The Pegasus was in mid hop as she was about to force the excess water out of the cloud.

“Aw, come on! It’ll get the mud off!” without giving Yamano a chance to respond, she landed hard onto the cloud, causing a torrent of rain to blast out the bottom of it. The rain caught Twilight as well as Yamano, causing their manes to cover their eyes. The rainbow Pegasus started giggling nervously. “Oops, guess I over did it! Uh, how about this?” The Pegasus started flying full speed in a circle around the two, causing a whirlwind. “My very own, patented, Rainblow Dry!” As she flew, Yamano stuck out her hoof and caught the pegasus by the base of her wing.

“ENOUGH ALREADY.” She forced herself to calm down with a heavy sigh. “From the sounds of it, you’re Rainbow Dash?” The Pegasus was squirming under her grip.

“Alright, alright I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to crash into you!” Rainbow was still struggling against the alicorn, whose strength seemed disproportionate to her size.

Yamano released her grasp. The mane of Twilight had become completely frizzy, and stood extraordinarily tall, while Yamanos still covered her eyes, just more rigidly this time. Both the Pegasus and Spike fell over laughing at the sight of the two.

Eventually the Pegasus got her bearings and responded in a dignified voice. “And yes, I am Rainbow Dash, THE one and only.” She took off flying again, hovering over the trio. “Why? You heard of me?”

Twilight responded before Yamano could. “I HEARD you were supposed to be keeping the sky clear.” She sighed. “I’m Twilight Sparkle, and the princess sent me to check up on the weather.” At this point Rainbow Dash was lazing about on the same cloud as before.

“Yeah, yeah, that’ll be a snap! I’ll do it in a jiffy, just as soon as I’m done practicing!” Rainbow Dash had a dismissive tone. This caught Yamanos attention.

“Practicing? For what?” Twilight looked and sounded confused.

Rainbow Dash whipped around, with a look of excitement and admiration in her eyes. “The Wonderbolts!” the sudden loud noise gave Yamano a headache. “They’re gonna perform at the celebration tomorrow. And I’m gonna show em my stuff!”

Twilight looked sceptical. “THE Wonderbolts?” The pegasus agreed excitedly. “The most talented flyers in ALL of Equestria?”

Rainbow Dash nodded. “That’s them!”

Yamano scoffed. “If you can’t even clear the skies, how are you gonna impress the greatest?” The alicorn looked up at the rainbow maned pony. “Tell you what, if you can do better than me, I’ll put in the good word with them. I know how to make connections, so it’ll be worth your while.”

Rainbow Dash looked down at Yamano with a huge look of excitement and awe in her face. “You’re ON!”

Yamano smirked. In a fluid motion, Yamano conjured her scythe, grasped it between her teeth, and flung it upward at a distant cloud. Within an instant, the cloud vanished with a puff, and the scythe vanished with it.

Rainbow Dash looked back and forth between Yamano and the place the cloud used to be. “What did- I mean, how did- I- you- what was THAT?!”

Yamano rolled her eyes. “Well? Your turn.” Yamano impatiently kicked the ground, waiting for the pegasus to make a move. “You have ten seconds before I consider this my victory.”

The look on Rainbow Dash’s face turned from shock to determination in an instant. She took off full speed, barrelling through clouds, dispersing them upon contact. Yamano was keeping track in her head, and it took exactly ten seconds for rainbow dash to have finished the rest of the clouds off. She landed a ways off, on the fence of a nearby bridge. “How was that?!”

Twilight and Spike looked amazed, while Yamano was sarcastically clapping her hooves together. “Ten seconds flat. Well done.” Both Rainbow Dash and Yamano looked over at Twilight, whose mouth was still hanging open. Rainbow started giggling.

“You should see the look on your face! Hah! You’re a laugh, Twilight Sparkle, I can’t wait to hang out some more!” She took off flying, doing a loop mid-air, before screeching to a halt, turning around and flying straight towards the scythe wielding pony again. “I uh, didn’t catch your name, though.”

“Oh. Right. That. I’m Yamano Sagiri, her guard escort.” She motioned towards Twilight.

“So that’s why your reflexes were fast enough to get her out the way! Not bad.” And with that, she flew off again, vanishing into the distance in another blur.

Yamano rolled her eyes again. ‘That one is going to be QUITE the hoof-full. Top of the list on ponies to keep an eye on.’ She paused her thoughts for a moment, before accidentally saying “And she gives me such a headache…” Twilight looked at Yamano quizzically, while Spike was still staring at the place Dash used to be but a moment ago.

Spike broke the brief silence. “She’s amazing!” Spike took a second to look at Twilight again, tried to hold back a giggle and started playing with part of the unicorns mane. Twilight groaned and started to wander off. “Wait! It’s kinda pretty once you get used to it!”

Yamano was looking over Spikes shoulder as he fumbled with the list. ‘He is so strange. I suppose I’ll never understand dragons.’

Suddenly, Spike spoke up. “Decorations.” Spike looked up from the list and froze. “Beautiful!” Twilight walked a ways ahead, her mane still frizzed to kingdom come.

“Yes, the décor is coming along nicely. This should be quick!” Twilight looked happy. “I’ll be at the library in no time! Beautiful indeed.”

Spike shook his head. “Not the Décor, her~!”

Standing on a slightly raised platform in the middle of the town hall, there was a white coated Unicorn with a flowing purple mane and tail, with her cutie mark of three gems on prominent display. She was muttering to herself while manipulating and considering various decorations. “No. no. no~. OH! Goodness, no! Hmm…”

Yamano looked back towards Spike, who had literal hearts in his eyes. Before she could react, Spike started babbling. “How are my spines? Are they straight?!” Twilight shrugged at her companion, and started walking towards the unicorn in question.

“Good afternoon-” Twilight tried to grab her attention, but was cut off.

Barely allowing a glance over her shoulder, the unicorn immediately responded. “Just a moment, please! I’m in the zone, as it were.” She cycled through another three decorations, before settling on one. “Ah, Yes! Sparkle ALWAYS does the trick, does it not? Why, Rarity, you ARE a talent.” The unicorn, whose name appeared to be Rarity, turned back towards Twilight. “Now, uhm, how can I help you-” She cut herself off upon laying eyes upon Twilight. “u-a-a-ahhh! Oh, my STARS! Darling! Whatever happened to your coiffure!”

Both Twilight and Yamano shared a confused glance. Something seemed to click in Twilights mind, however. “Oh, you mean, my mane? Well, it’s a long story. I’m just here to check on the decorations, and then I’ll be out of your hair!”

Rarity looked distressed. “Out of MY hair? What about your hair!” She started pushing Twilight towards the door of the hall.

Twilight looked confused and concerned at the same time. “Wait! Where are we going?! Help!” She turned her head to desperately look back towards Yamano.

The alicorn looked at the situation, then back to Twilight, and shrugged. “As far as I can tell she’s trying to help.” Her voice caught Rarity’s attention, causing her to briefly look back and catch another glimpse of Yamanos mane. “Oh! Not yours too! Come, darling! I’ll fix yours for you as well!”

All Yamano could do was stare. After a moment she shrugged, sighed, and followed Rarity and Twilight towards the door. Looking back at Spike just before she passed the threshold, she could have sworn spike was floating after them using his tail as a propeller. ‘The things love does to dragons, I guess.'

Rarity dragged the group back to her boutique. Yamano noted how fancy the decorations were for this place, everything in some varying shade of purple and white, aside from the yellowish orange curtains and emblem, and styled to look exactly like a carousel.

Standing in front of a full body mirror were Twilight and Rarity. Yamano payed little attention to what Rarity was doing, as after she had fixed Twilights mane, she decided to have the purple unicorn try on many of her outfit designs. As Rarity seemed to settle on an outfit for Twilight, Yamano decided to zone back in on the conversation.

“Now go on, my dear, you were telling me where you’re from.” Before Twilight had a chance to answer, Rarity pulled on something incorporated into the clothing, tightening it and disallowing Twilight to draw in a large enough breath to speak.

Through pained whispers, Twilight tried to answer. “I’ve… been sent, from Canterlot!...to…-” At the mention of Canterlot, Rarity gasped, and accidentally let go of the cords tightening the clothes onto Twilight, sending them both flying in opposite directions.

“Canterlot?! Oh, I am so ENVIOUS, the glamour, the sophistication! I have always dreamed~ of living there! I can’t wait to hear ALL about it! We are gonna be the best of friends, you and I!” Rarity could barely contain her abundance of excitement, her voice rising in pitch multiple times through her speech.

At the mention of friends, Twilights face dropped. Before she could string together a coherent thought, Yamano decided to say something to change the subject. “Hey, you sure emerald was the best choice for that outfit, Rarity?”

The fashionista looked back towards Twilight, and immediately exclaimed. “EMERALD?! What was I thinking? Let me get you some rubies!”

Twilight was done with Rarity’s shenanigans. “Quick! Before she decides to dye my coat a new color!”Spike sighed in amorous bliss, before Twilight scooped him up onto her back, and left the boutique.

Her protector, however, decided to stay put for a little while. She would never admit it openly, but she had a fascination for fashion, and by extension fashion designers. Plus, she still needed to get her own mane sorted, as it was still a complete mess.

Rarity came strolling back through the room, before glancing about and looking disappointed that Twilight had vanished. It wasn’t long until she saw Yamano again, who was staring about the boutique, drinking in the myriad of designs that were on display.

“Did you not want to follow your friend, darling?” Rarity asked with a hint of sadness in her voice.

It took a few moments before Yamano responded. “I still need my mane fixed. Plus…” she trailed off, looking about the boutique again.

Rarity gave Yamano a knowing look. “Are you interested in fashion, my dear? I’m always in need of a new model, so if you want to stick around, I believe I could find something here for you.”

The twin-horned pony spent another long while having a quiet debate with herself. ‘I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to let her know too… I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t interested. But then what if she decides to stick me in something regal, or royal? Although I suppose she would take personal interest into account…’ Yamano sighed to herself, before turning back to look at Rarity. “I’d love to. But anything you see must be kept to yourself, alright?”

The white coated unicorn gave her a look of confusion. “Alright, but I do not understand what could make you say that, darling. In my eyes you look simply divine.”

Rarities speech was cut off by a hollow laugh, originating from Yamano. One half of the reapers horn started glowing and pulsing with an energy of pure darkness. This frightened Rarity to no end, as she was not aware of a type of magic so dark. After a short while, the darkness from Yamanos horn started to spread across her body, making her clothing seemingly melt away. In it’s place, Rarity saw the underdeveloped wings try to unfurl to their full length but failing half way and cramping to her side. Along one of those wings, a spider-web of scars had left their mark. On her front left leg, another, much larger scar was prevalent running down the centre.

Rarity simply looked on in shock, as Yamano started to approach the full-body mirror Twilight stood in front of earlier. “Do you see why I always wear that outfit of mine now? Not only are the scars hideous, but I’m trying to keep the fact I’m an alicorn on the down low. Which is why I must ask you not tell anyone of what you have seen here.”

Yamano turned to look at Rarity, but all she found was a gaze of careful consideration. She tried to grab the unicorns attention. “Well? Anything to say?”

The fashionista looked up in a slight daze at the sudden question. “What? Oh, right, that. Don’t worry, my dear, I will not tell a soul.” Rarity stepped closer, her face unchanging. “Never mind that, this is the first time I have ever had to design for an alicorn. I just don’t want to mess this up.” The scars had gone seemingly unnoticed.

The alicorn sighed away the last of her tension. “If you do come up with something, I do care about practicality in what I wear. I don’t mind if it looks good, but if I can’t use it outside of fancy dress then I’m uninterested.”

Her request was cut short by a light giggle from Rarity. She looked directly into Yamanos eyes and shook her head. “The scarring isn’t hideous, darling.” Yamano couldn’t help but chuckle.

‘That took longer than I thought. But hey, at least I got something out of it.’ Yamano had finally left Rarity to her own devices, after a long session of outfit design. Rarity had insisted on something to show off the wings, but the alicorn was adamant in keeping them hidden, so they compromised something heavier. It was a brilliantly deep blue silk, with amethysts weaved into the material. To go with it was a wispy and flowing scarlet cloak. Underneath the main dress was a white leather tunic to keep her wings flush to her sides. All things considered, it wasn’t her usual style, but she was happy to have something to wear that didn’t remind her of home.

Looking around, the sky had grown darker with an exquisite amber hue. The time spent with Rarity had drained a lot of time, so Yamano decided to head to the library where Twilight was supposed to be staying. Navigating this vibrant town proved difficult, however. On multiple occasions she found herself back in the same place she started. It was almost fully into night-time before she located the library in question. What she wasn’t expecting from a library was the sound of a party emanating from within. ‘Something tells me this isn’t Twilights doing. She would never have a party in a library.’ Yamano hesitated right outside the door. ‘Cramped spaces with lots of ponies all being loud. Why me?’ She tentatively opened the door to the library, as her fears were confirmed. Earth ponies, Pegasi, Unicorns, it looked like every pony in Ponyville turned up for what was probably a welcome party for Twilight.

Gathered in a group nearby to Twilight were a familiar bunch, with one new face she didn’t recognize. Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, a yellow haired, pink maned pegasus and the pink earth pony from earlier were standing nearby, the pink one yammering on as Twilight was trying to have a drink. Suddenly, Twilight looked up, eyes watering, and it looked like her mane was on fire. This caught Yamano by surprise, and she started to quietly make her way over to her charge. She nodded to the three familiar faces as she tried to pass but was interrupted by the pink pony. The unfamiliar pegasus hid behind Rainbow Dash as Yamano approached.

“You’re new too! I knew I didn’t recognize you! Hi! My name’s Pinkie Pie! I threw this party to welcome you two to Ponyville! Is it good? Do you like it? What’s your name?” The veritable word vomit threw Yamanos head for a spin. She looked over at Applejack with a pleading look for some assistance.

“Alright, Pinkie, settle down. This here’s Yamano. She arrived with Twilight and is her protector.” Applejack said, cutting in front of Pinkies view.

Yamano nodded, avoiding eye contact with as many ponies as she could. Rarity came up to her and nodded approvingly. “I knew that blue and red would work with you. You look stunning, darling!”

“…Thanks.” Yamano said in a quiet voice. It was painfully obvious crowds were not her forte.

“Come on, Fluttershy, say hi to the new girl!” Rainbow Dash’s voice rang out over the group, trying to get the shy pegasus to come to the fore-front.

Fluttershy merely shook her head and shrank further behind Rainbow Dash. “…She- she scares me…” Her voice was barely over a whisper, but the group still managed to hear her. Rainbow Dash giggled hysterically, Pinkie had wandered off to go eat a cupcake, and Applejack and Rarity shared a concerned glance. Eventually all eyes except Yamanos turned to Fluttershy.

“Whaddya mean, ‘scares ya’? I don’t see why she would. Maybe yer just paranoid.” Applejack unknowingly shot a glance at where one of Yamanos wings would be.

“I agree, darling. As far as I can tell, she’s perfectly fine to be around.” Rarity simply marveled at Yamanos clothing again.

Fluttershy looked around the group in frustration. Eventually, she tried to look back at Yamano, but hid behind Rainbow Dash again. She tried to speak again, but the words failed her.

Eventually the awkward situation was cut short by Pinkie Pie, who seemed to appear out of thin air beside Yamano, offering a cupcake. “Here! Try this!”

Yamano glanced around in surprise, and hesitantly took the cupcake from the crazy pony. She sniffed at it, and immediately recognized the smell. “Hot sauce…” She stared at the cupcake for another ten seconds. “here goes nothing.” Yamano ate the whole cupcake in a single bite.

She should have expected the next sensation. It felt like her saliva had been replaced by magma, and her eyes felt like a waterfall was trying to force its way through. About twenty seconds passed without her even drawing a breath. Eventually, she managed to swallow the remnants of the spicy cupcake, and as she tried to breath out, a small torrent of flames erupted forth. This forced her to start coughing uncontrollably, before finally being able to take another breath. “Bad- *cough* Bad idea.”

Rainbow Dash burst into hysterical laughter, and Pinkie Pie was looking at Yamano expectantly. Fluttershy seemed calmer after this, but still seemed incredibly wary. After a while, she built up the courage to speak, even if not very loud. “I know a dangerous predator when I see one…”

The strange statement caught everyone except Yamano by surprise, interrupting Dash’s laughter, and causing everyone to turn to face her again. An unsettling silence fell upon the group as Fluttershy tried harder still to distance herself from the seemingly dangerous presence. Yamano was frozen in place, not allowing herself to move even a single muscle. This haze of anticipation lingered for what felt like eternity, until it was finally broken by Rarity.

“Yamano, dear, I’m sure she didn’t mean-” The alicorn cut her off by turning her head and walking towards the back-room of the library, the same way that she saw Twilight head earlier.

“It’s fine. I know why she feels that way. It’s not uncommon for somepony to be afraid of me.” Her tone had darkened, and there was a slight waver towards the start. “Maybe if I ever get a hold on my life I’ll let you all know, but for now I’m afraid I’ll have to keep that knowledge to myself.” She refused to look back at the group, the look on her face would have given Fluttershy a heart attack.

As Yamano was about to enter the door, she heard in another part of the party the instantly recognizable voice of Pinkie Pie. “Time for pin the tail on the pony!!! Woo!” The guardian rolled her eyes and walked out.

“Twilight, you in here?” The lights were off, and a small trickle of moonlight was the only thing making this room visible. “I think I made a bad first impression on Fluttershy. Needed to give her some space. You okay?”

She was interrupted by the door opening again, this time Spike wandered through with a lampshade on his head. “Pinkie Pie is about to start pin the tail on the pony! Wanna play?!”

Yamano rolled her eyes and muttered under her breath.

Twilight looked like she’d had enough. “No! All the ponies in this town are CRAZY! Do you KNOW what time it is?!”

Spike merely shrugged. “It’s the eve of the summer sun celebration. Everypony has to stay up, or they’ll miss the princess raise the sun!” Twilight looked dismissively away, while Yamano had gone unnoticed by the tiny dragon. “You really should lighten up, Twilight. It’s a party!”

Twilight merely mocked the way Spike was talking with unintelligible muttering as he left the room again. As she looked back at the door, she spotted Yamano standing slightly off to the side, leaning against a wall, and partially falling asleep.

“You okay Yamano? You seem exhausted.” The unicorn queried sarcastically. “Was Rarity THAT boring to you?”

Yamano snapped up at the sudden noise. “I, uh, I haven’t slept since getting to Equestria, which was… maybe about a day and a half ago. but it’s no big deal.” The protector tried to shrug off the question but ended up yawning heavily at the end of her answer. Twilight giggled at the irony. “Shouldn’t you be heading to the celebration soon?”

“I suppose I should…” The concerned mare looked down at the floor, and then out the window towards the moon. “I hope the princess was right. I hope it really is just an old pony tale…”

Yamano appeared next to Twilight with unnatural agility, causing her to jump and fall off her bed. The alicorn offered a hoof to help her up. “I’m sure it’ll be fine. Besides, if she is released, couldn’t we go find the elements?” Twilight merely shrugged with a sigh and started preparing to leave. Yamano wandered back downstairs, her brain not sitting still as ideas on how to best protect Twilight bombarded her without rest. ‘Who am I kidding. If she is released, I’d have to not only protect Twilight, but anyone dumb enough to follow us.’ Yamano sighed and rested her head on the wall. ‘But that’s only IF she’s released. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.’

Yamano looked about in remiss. It seemed to her that everypony from Ponyville had turned up to the town hall for the celebration. Try as she might, it was impossible to find a secluded corner to observe everyone, so she picked a spot by the left wall. Twilight and Pinkie Pie were standing somewhere towards the center, just within eyesight of the tired guardian. Being by the wall was the best position for her, as she could use the wall to give her momentum towards the area she needs to go or scale it in case something goes wrong in the immediate vicinity.

‘Too many ponies.’ She looked about again, realising this seemingly small town was much larger than she gave it credit. ‘Can’t we just get this over with?’

Almost immediately, a group of five birds started singing a rehearsed song, with Fluttershy orchestrating. As the song ended, the mayor of Ponyville stepped up to speak. “Fillies and gentlecolts, as Mayor of Ponyville, it is my great pleasure to announce the beginning of the Summer Sun Celebration!” The entire hall of ponies (aside from Yamano and Twilight) erupted into cheers, before quickly settling down to let the tan pony speak. “In just a few moments, our town will witness the magic of the sunrise and celebrate this, the longest day of the year.”

Yamano saw Twilight look away from the mayor and turn her eyes up towards the moon. Following her gaze, Yamano saw stars start to gather behind the moon, as it blinked with power. Yamano was entranced and didn’t hear the rest of what the mayor had to say, up until she announced “Princess Celestia!” and turned to look back. As her eyes settled on the area above the mayor, she saw Rarity pull on a rope and pull back the curtains. Where she expected to see Celestia, was instead… nothing. There was no pony there. Everyone was shocked and were muttering to each other. The Mayor continued with a worried expression. “Remain calm, everypony. There must be a reasonable explanation.” A few moments passed in almost complete silence, broken only by Pinkie Pie misunderstanding the situation and wondered if it was a guessing game. Eventually Rarity came back from checking behind the curtains, with a look of befuddlement.

“She’s gone!” Rarity stated, still reeling from the revelation. Everypony gasped in shock, and Yamano went onto high alert.

‘Something is wrong.’ Is the only thing that was running through her mind at this point. Her thoughts were interrupted by Pinkie Pies cry of terror, as a blue-ish mist was gathering where Celestia was supposed to be. With a sudden burst, the mist revealed a black and blue alicorn, with a nebulous mane and tail made of the same blue mist. Before Yamano had a chance to move, she started speaking.

“Oh, my beloved subjects! It’s been so long sine I’ve seen your precious, little, SUN-loving faces.” She said with both an aura of whimsicality and malice. Before the alicorn could continue, Rainbow Dash forcefully interjected with a shout.

“What did you do with our princess!?” She tried to fly full speed towards the intruder, but Applejack kept her back by holding onto the Pegasus’s tail with her teeth.

“Woah there, nelly!” she exclaimed, muffled due to the grip.

The intruder chuckled to herself and answered in a mocking air. “Why? Am I not royal enough for you?” Her tone shifted to that of annoyance. “Don’t you know who I am?” Pinkie tried to guess again, but Yamano dismissed her words. “Does my crown no longer count now that I have been imprisoned for a thousand years? Did you not recall the legend? Did you not SEE the signs?!”

Her monologue was cut off by Twilight Sparkle. “I did! And I know who you are. You’re the mare in the moon, Nightmare Moon!” The hall echoed with another gasp. Nightmare Moon looked impressed.

“Well, well, well! Somepony who remembers me. Then you also know why I’m here.” Twilight tried to respond, but her words got stuck in her throat. The recently released alicorn just laughed at her attempt. She was about to say something else, but Yamano was done. She conjured her scythe, jumped against the wall and used it to propel herself up to the impromptu stage that Nightmare Moon had claimed. Trying to use this moment of lax banter from the intruder, she brought her scythe down towards Nightmare Moons neck. As the blade reached the alicorn, she vanished into a puff of the same blue mist and reappeared a few steps away. Yamano glared at her.

“Coward.” Her mind was furious. She wanted to say more, but that was the only word that came.

“Well, somepony with a backbone. I must admit, I wasn’t expecting that. But you’re a thousand years too early to be trying something like that with me.” Nightmare Moon seemed to pay little heed towards Yamano after this point. She started laughing again, which ticked Yamano off even further. “Remember this day, little ponies, for it was your last. From this moment forth, the night will last forever!” With that, she started cackling maniacally, and causing a storm of mist to erupt from her mane. Yamano slammed her scythe into the ground and held fast.

‘This is going to be troublesome’ Yamano thought to herself.

Chapter 2: Selflessness Awakens

Yamano was bracing herself with her scythe against the nebulous storm that was Nightmare Moons power. Try as she might, she couldn’t gain any ground, and the raised ground around her was starting to crumble from the levering force. The guardian started to formulate a plan, but her thoughts were cut short by the mayor yelling to the guards.

“Seize her! Only she knows where the princess is!” She said in a panic. At once, a squad of armed pegasi guards flew in from the sides. Nightmare Moon glared at them in disgust.

“Stand back, you foals!” Her eyes started to glow, and the storm of nebulous energy grew even more powerful, causing lightning to strike within the building and knock away the guards.

Yamano started to lose her nerve, as the platform she was standing on had started to crumble even further and started to list off down towards a cowering pegasus. She released her grip on her scythe, dropped down to the ground as fast as she could, and enveloped herself in a vibrant white light, originating from the opposite side of her horn as usual. As the platform collapsed, the rubble came bearing down upon Yamano like an adult dragon had just fallen onto her. The various stones and bricks making up the platform bounced off to the sides after colliding with the thin layer of light acting as a barrier. She turned her head to find the pegasus unharmed, although she couldn’t tell if her eyes were skewed out of fright or if they were naturally that way.

“Derpy! You okay?! Come on, move!” Rainbow Dash had flown over and started dragging the unfamiliar pegasus off towards the door, before whirling back around to start pursuing Nightmare Moon again. The alicorn in question simply cackled, before bringing the powerful storm to herself, and vanished into it. The impatient, and rather angry, pegasus flew off at full speed to try and catch it, as the rest of the town hall was emptying.

Glancing about, Yamano tried to gather her bearings and find Twilight. After a few moments, she caught the unicorn staring with a look of shock towards where Nightmare Moon had vanished. She tried to grab Twilights attention by placing a hoof on her shoulder, before speaking with an air of urgency. “What now?” There was no response. “Twilight?” again nothing. She tried again, this time shaking the oblivious unicorn. “TWILIGHT?!” The third try seemed to snap her out of a stupor. Twilight looked back towards Yamano; whose face was contorted in a picture of rage.

“We need to find out where the Elements of Harmony are. NOW.” Twilight spoke unsteadily, telling Yamano that this is the worst thing this pony has ever experienced.

“Then MOVE! We’re wasting time just standing here!” Yamano snapped out, letting her anger get the better of her, before running out of the building. She was using her unnatural agility to its fullest, trying to get every possible perspective she could to make sure no-pony else was in danger. She eventually saw Rainbow Dash hovering nearby, who looked like the world was about to end. Yamano caught her gaze, and gestured her head towards the Golden Oak library, inviting her to join them. Rainbow nodded back and flew off to gather her friends. Yamano rolled her eyes, some of her anger finally leaving her. ‘I hope I don’t regret doing that.’

Yamano was feverishly searching the bookshelves for any hint on the elements. Twilight had gone into the other room to put her dragon friend to bed, so she wanted to get a head-start. After Twilight had re-entered, she started pulling multiple books off the shelves at a time, causing many of them to fly across the room, landing hard against the floor and walls.

“Elements, Elements, Elements, UGH. How can I stop Nightmare Moon without the Elements of Harmony?!” Twilight was yelling at herself at this point. Yamano tried to go over to calm her down, but Rainbow Dash came flying right up into Twilights face before she had the chance.

“And just what ARE the ‘Elements of Harmony’? And how did YOU know about Nightmare Moon, huh?! Are you a SPY?” Rainbow Dash was bombarding Twilight, not giving her a second to think. Yamano stepped up fiercely to Rainbow Dash’s side, utilising her assassins malice to its full extent, warning the impertinent pegasus to back off. She quickly complied. Soon after, Applejack walked up.

“Simmer down, sally. She ain’t no spy. But she sure knows what’s goin’ on, don't'cha Twilight?” Applejack walked up to Twilight, the rest of her friends following closely behind. Twilight looked about the group, before hanging her head. She was about to speak, but Yamano was having none of it. She stood directly between Twilight and the five ponies accosting her.

“Everypony stay right where you are. I have no idea about you all, but from what I have seen, Twilight is going through a lot of stress. I’d dare say this is the most dangerous, fear inducing incident she has ever been a part of! So please, tell me what right do you have to start demanding all this from her?” Yamanos voice had darkened to a growl, causing everyone, even Twilight, to take a step back. Fluttershy bolted to the opposite side of the room, and Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie all looked at each other with a concerned look. Rarity, after having Yamanos scars revealed to her, understood the alicorns frustrations. She stepped up to talk.

“She didn’t mean anything by it, dear. But I can assure you, this is just as stressful and scary for us. We simply want to know WHAT is so scary for us right now, you see.” Rarity spoke with conviction. “We will apologize if we have caused any undue stress for Twilight, but right now, she is the only one who can settle our minds.”

Yamano looked at Rarity while mulling over her words, before turning slightly to look at Twilight. She had a glint of determination in her eyes, as she was considering what she would say next. Yamano sighed and stepped out of the way. Twilight looked up to speak.

“I read all about the prediction of Nightmare Moon. Some mysterious objects called the Elements of Harmony are the only things that can stop her! But I don’t know what they are, where to find them, I don’t even know what they do!” Twilight was speaking hurriedly, obviously still scared out of her mind. Yamano was looking over the group but couldn’t see Pinkie Pie anywhere. The brief silence that had fallen over the group was suddenly cut short by said pony, who had wandered over to a bookshelf.

“The Elements of Harmony: A Reference guide!” Twilight immediately rushed over, bumping Pinkie Pie out of the way.

“How did you find that?!” Twilight asked in awe as her protector moved to stand next to her. Pinkie Pie started bouncing past.

“It was under E~!” she said in a light-hearted tone. Yamanos anger vanished rapidly after this and gave a slight chuckle.

Twilight merely looked down a bit and said “Oh…” before pulling the book off the shelf with her magic. She opened it and started searching the book.

Yamano looked down at herself, and noticed she was still wearing the blue and red outfit Rarity had given her. She looked over to the fashionista, and to grab her attention, waved in front of her line of sight. “Could I get some help? I need to change.” She started absent-mindedly fiddling with part of her clothing.

Rarity took a moment to grasp what she was asking. “Of course, darling.” Both ponies headed to the back room, earning the attention of Rainbow Dash.

“And where are you two going?” Rainbow demanded, cutting in front of them both.

Yamano was about to forcibly remove the antagonistic pegasus, but Rarity put up a hoof. “It is a private matter, Rainbow Dash. One that you would not quite understand given the circumstances.” Rarity spoke with dignity, before looking back to Yamano and smiling. The alicorn only nodded in agreement.

Rainbow Dash flew in place for a second, failing to glean why they would need to be alone, but eventually caved. “Alright then.” She turned her attention to Yamano. “But if you do anything to hurt her, I swear-”

Yamano simply glared directly into Rainbow Dash’s eyes, causing her to promptly stop talking. She tried in vain to hide her animosity. Fluttershy squeaked in fear from somewhere to their right, causing Yamano to flinch in regret. Eventually she calmed down and forced herself to look back towards Rainbow Dash, this time with a look of purpose. “Unless any of you do something to earn my wrath, you all shall remain unharmed. After all, it is my duty as a protector to guard my charge and her friends with my life.”

The sudden shift caught Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy unawares. Rainbow Dash struggled to come up with something to say, before giving up and just waving indignantly. Fluttershy looked towards Applejack, looking for advice, but the orange pony merely shrugged back. Without saying another word, Yamano walked into the back room, followed by Rarity, who immediately set about undressing the struggling alicorn.

A few moments passed in silence as the unicorn calmly worked. A short while later, she spoke softly. “So, you are sure you wish to keep your heritage a secret, then? It might save a large amount of trouble in the future if you told them early.”

“I understand, but if Twilight were to find out, she would cease treating me as a guardian, and instead she would see me as a royal. After all, the only other alicorns I know of right now are Celestia, and her lost sister.” Yamano muttered wistfully.

Rarity stopped in her tracks at the guardians words. “Sister? I was unaware Princess Celestia had a sister.” Yamano rolled her eyes.

“I was only told about her because my king is paranoid. He never believed she would be gone forever.” Yamanos expression shifted at the mention of her king. “Our kingdom prides itself on its extensive and accurate collection of history. Even for kingdoms we have no ties to.” She stopped to consider the situation they were in. “It’s just… odd. The description I was given is remarkably close to how Nightmare Moon looks. It might just be a coincidence, but it seems too unlikely.”

Her train of thought was cut short by Rarity, who was chuckling to herself. “You’re sure it is your king who is the paranoid one?” She seemed unconcerned as she started neatly tidying away Yamanos outfit. Yamano sighed and started massaging one of her wings.

“Alright, maybe I’m paranoid too.” She conjured her original black cloth and leather outfit over herself and summoned her scythe in preparation. Instead of carrying it around in her mouth like usual, she slotted it into a few small metal fixtures on the back of her clothing. She turned to Rarity, who had just finished storing her work. “let’s go see if they found out where the elements are.”

As the duo entered the main room of the library, the rest of the group had gathered around Twilight, who had settled on a page in the book. Glancing around, Rainbow Dash beckoned them both over to get a closer look. Rarity stood next to Twilight, while Yamano decided to take a position on the opposite side to Fluttershy. After everyone had gathered, Twilight began to read a passage out of the book.

“There are seven Elements of Harmony, but only six are known. Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty, Loyalty, and Selflessness, the last being an augment to the rest. The seventh is a complete mystery, and it is said the last known location of the six elements is in the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters. It is located in what is now…” Twilight paused at the last word. Everypony gathered in closer for a better look, before speaking in unison.

“The Everfree Forest?!”

The unlikely group had headed towards the foreboding forest mentioned within the book. One look at this place set most of the ponies on edge, except for Twilight and Yamano, the latter of which felt a strange familiarity with the way the place loomed. Without stopping, Yamano started to head towards the forest, followed by an excited Pinkie Pie.

“Whee! Let’s go!” The crazy pony could hardly contain her happiness that they were going on an adventure. She was quickly cut off by Twilight.

“Not so fast.” Pinkie Pie skidded to a halt, and Yamano looked back with a tired look on her face. “Look, I appreciate the offer, but I’d really prefer it to just be me and Yamano who do this.” Twilight looked determinedly towards the forest, before Applejack chimed in.

“No can do, sugarcube. We sure ain’t lettin’ any friend of ours go into that creepy place alone.” Twilight visibly cringed at the use of the word ‘friend’. “We’re stickin’ to you like caramel on a candy apple.”

Pinkie Pie exclaimed in excitement. “Especially if there’s candy apples in there.” Twilight looked at her in with scepticism. “What? Those things are good!”

Applejack, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash all started to move ahead of the group, but they had their path interrupted by Yamano, who put up a hoof.

“If you’re joining us, let me go first. I’m the most suited to handling a dangerous situation.” Yamano looked back towards the trio. Fluttershy didn’t seem too bothered by her presence for once, but Rainbow Dash looked annoyed.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever! If anything happens I’LL be the one to protect everyone, just watch me!” The pegasus boasted. Yamano merely stared right into her eyes.

“And if you’re the one who needs protecting? What then?” Yamano spoke as calmly as she could, attempting to hide her growing annoyance with the brash nature of the speedster.

The sudden question made Rainbow Dash hesitate, before speaking with as much certainty as she could muster. “Then I’d just get myself out of danger! Simple!” Yamano gazed towards the ground, her frustration building further. Within the blink of an eye, the guardian leaped back, using her agility to reach the shadows at the treeline. With a sneer, she seemingly vanished into the darkness. “Wh- where’d she go?” Rainbow looked concerned, and slightly terrified.

“Right here.” Yamano had appeared right next to the frightened pegasus and whispered directly into her ear.

“WAOH!!” Rainbow Dash yelled at full blast, causing Fluttershy to jump in terror, and the bigshot pegasus flew high into the sky in a reflex reaction. Yamano walked back towards the forest.

“See what I mean? You’re just as terrified as the others. I’ll take point, you follow. Agreed?” Yamano looked back expectantly at the now petrified pegasi. “AGREED?!”

Both Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash nodded their heads slowly. The tension was under-cut by a chuckle from Applejack. “Who’d have thought the way to get a point across to Rainbow would be scarin’ the livin’ daylights outta her.”

They had been walking through the forest for a long time. Yamano was ahead, flitting between the shadows in the trees, keeping an eye out for danger, while everypony else was huddled together in a loose group, looking about feverishly. The silence was only broken by the wind pushing past the unsteady branches of the wild trees. Eventually, nerves got the better of Twilight, who was the first to speak.

“So… none of you have been in here before?” She whispered cautiously.

“Oh, heavens no! Just look at it! It’s dreadful!...” Rarity squealed back. Applejack nodded her head.

“And it ain’t natural. Folks say it don’t work the same as Equestria.” She muttered worriedly. Twilight looked terrified.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” She was cut off abruptly by Rainbow Dash, who had bounced back well from the scare Yamano had given her.

“No pony knows!” The cyan pegasus spoke in a wispy voice, while hovering out of the darkness of a nearby tree, heading directly towards the group. She touched down onto the ground, and started stalking towards Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, who all looked creeped out. “You know why?”

“Rainbow! Quit it!” Applejack spoke in a greatly annoyed tone.

“Please, stop.” Yamano spoke under her breath.

“Cause every pony who’s ever gone in…” She paused for effect. “Has never… come… OUT!” she yelled out the last word, causing the three ponies to jump up in fright. Before anything else could happen, the ground underneath them crumbled and fell away, causing all seven to yell in surprise. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy managed to catch themselves before they started falling and started hovering in the air. “Fluttershy, quick!” Rainbow Dash flew off towards their plummeting friends.

“Oh, my goodness, oh my goodness!” The timid pegasus flew forward to keep up.

The five of them were sliding down a hill towards a cliff edge. Rainbow Dash managed to catch Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy caught Rarity and helped her slow her descent. Applejack gripped a nearby tree root with her teeth, leaving Yamano and Twilight still slipping. Yamano grasped her scythe, slamming it into the hill, skidding to a stop, but Twilight continued falling. She managed to stop herself hanging half over the cliff edge, barely managing to hold on. Glancing at each other, Yamano and Applejack both let themselves continue down towards the precipice.

“Hold on! I’ma comin’!” Applejack tried to call out as calmly as she could.

Yamano followed her up. “Try not to move! You’ll only loosen your grip!” As both ponies started getting closer to the struggling unicorn, Yamano struck the ground with her scythe again to act as a grip for both to hold on to. Applejack held onto Twilights hooves as tight as she could, using one of her back legs to wrap around the back of the exposed portion of the blade to steady herself.

“Applejack! What do I do?!” Twilight asked desperately. Applejack and Yamano stayed quiet, for they couldn’t think of anything. After a while, something caught Applejacks eye, and gave her an idea. She looked directly at Twilight, and calmly spoke.

“Let go.”

Simultaneously, Yamano and Twilight spoke in shock and annoyance. “Are you crazy?!”

“No, I ain’t. I promise you’ll be safe.” Applejack responded with a pleading look. Twilights eyes shrank.

“THAT’S not true!” Twilight was getting more and more desperate.

“Now you listen here. What I’m sayin’ to you is the honest truth. Let go, an’ you’ll be safe.” Applejack had a concerned look on her face. Yamano was having none of it.

“And I thought I was the insane one!” She grabbed Twilights left hoof and started trying to pull her up, to little avail. “Are you gonna help me?!” The ground underneath her started to shift, and she almost careened off the edge right then and there.

“Quit it! Just quit it! She’ll be fine! It’d make things worse for us if both o’ y’all end up like this!” Applejack looked harshly towards Yamano, who froze in place. After a while, she spoke.

“This had better work.” She adjusted her grip back onto her scythe, before finally seeing what Applejack had so much faith in. before she could process the new information, Twilight closed her eyes and dropped off the edge of the cliff. She started screaming all the way down, before being stopped in her tracks by both Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, who were now carrying her in mid-air. She sighed in relief, before suddenly lurching downwards as the grip of the pegasi wasn’t too great.

“Sorry girls, I’m not used to holding anything more than a bunny or two…” She apologised timidly.

Yamano was looking down at the scene, when Applejack started to scale down the cliff using a few outcroppings of rock to stop herself from falling. Rarity and Pinkie Pie were already down there as well. ‘Thank Faust for that. Well played, Applejack.’ She thought to herself, relieved that nothing worse happened. She dismissed her scythe and conjured up a set of metal claws that fitted over her hooves. She started climbing down the cliff, driving the claws into the rock and managing to find purchase, so she had no chance of falling straight down. When reaching the base of the cliff, the group aside from Yamano gathered together and started heading towards the rest of the forest. The alicorn however was keeping an eye on the surroundings again, before spotting a familiar looking mist of nebulous energy, which flew off in the direction they were about to head. ‘Nightmare Moon was the one who destroyed the platform… Figures.’ She decided that keeping the claws out right now would be more beneficial, as the forest wasn’t a good place for a scythe.

As the group continued forward, Rainbow Dash was bragging and retelling her perspective on the cliff fall, much to the annoyance of Twilight. Applejack decided to catch up to Yamano, for a question was on her mind and it wouldn’t leave. “So, Yamano. What’d ya mean when ya said you thought you were the insane one?” Applejack asked, treading carefully to not sound offensive. Yamano merely shook her head in resignation.

“There is a myriad of reasons I say so. I won’t give you all the details, but my mind isn’t exactly… stable anymore. If you really, REALLY want to know some details as to why, I’ll give you some of them. But I’d rather not.” Yamano spoke in a rush, firing off the answer almost as quickly as Pinkie Pie would have. She sighed, and side-eyed Applejack who was thinking to herself.

“I’d be lyin’ if I said I wasn’t interested. But only if it ain’t too hard for ya.” She spoke a little quietly, hoping she wasn’t overstepping. Yamano sighed, and gave a look that said, ‘you asked for it’.

“Then I’ll tell you.” She spoke bluntly, then spent a few more paces thinking on what to say that wouldn’t reveal everything. She was trying to piece together an answer but threw away that idea and just went with something basic, but true. She spoke with purpose. “…Torture.”

Immediately, Applejack gave a look of shock directly towards Yamano. She opened her mouth to say something but decided against it. Yamano shrugged. “Two years of it, to be exact. Every day.” She sighed at the prospect. “Every day it got progressively worse. Seven hundred and twenty-four, give or take a few dozen, straight days of torture. And I can remember every second of it.” She decided telling the world that she was an assassin would complicate things even further, so she didn’t mention anything before her prison sentence. Eventually she looked back towards Applejack to see what she made of her confession.

Applejack spent a long time thinking after that. Every now and then, she looked to be about to start talking, but quickly stopped herself and continued thinking. This went on for ten minutes, before she finally figured out something to say. “Ah can’t even begin to imagine what that’s like. Two years, ya said?”

“Yeah…” Yamanos voice trailed off as a singular image appeared in her mind. A ghastly looking sceptre, with a pulsing dark sapphire, set in bones. Her self-suppressed memories of the pain this cursed object caused bubbling up to the forefront, causing her to falter in her movement. She instinctually grasped at her concealed scar on her left leg with her metal claw gauntlet and tried to shake the feelings out of her head. Her eyes were held tightly shut, almost as if she was re living some of the pain itself.

Realising Yamanos discomfort, Applejack put a hoof on one of her shoulders. This seemed to snap the ailing alicorn out of her delusion. She spoke quietly. “I’m sorry if I made ya remember somethin’ bad. That wasn’t my intention.” Yamano waved a hoof in dismissal.

“It’s not your fault. It would have happened on its own eventually anyway.” She muttered through a long sigh. She picked up her pace a little, as she wanted to be alone. “I’ll check ahe-”

Her words were abruptly cut short by a loud crashing sound coming from a distance in front of them. She whipped her head around fast, to see a looming shadow of a creature. Everypony present stopped in their tracks as it stepped into the light. It had the head of a lion, wings of a bat and tail of a scorpion. Twilight immediately recognised it and yelled out to the group. “It’s a manticore!” As she finished, the manticore roared at the group. “We’ve gotta get past him!” As soon as she was done talking, the manticore lurched forwards towards the group, bringing its paw down to attempt to strike Rarity, who ducked out of the way and countered with a kick.

“Take that, you ruffian!” She yelled out in pride. But the manticore seemed unfazed and roared directly into Raritys face.

“Don’t antagonize the thing! It’ll only make things worse!” Yamano called out to the now panicking unicorn. She rushed in front of the manticore, who was starting to pursue Rarity, and glared with all the malice she could muster directed directly towards the manticore. This caused the beast to hesitate in its step, giving Applejack a chance to jump onto its back.

“Yeehaw! Git along, little dogie!” Applejack seemed to be enjoying herself as she rode on the manticores back.

Fluttershy meekly called out to the group to stop, but no-pony was listening.

Eventually, the manticore managed to shake off the orange pony, causing her to go careening off towards Rainbow Dash. “All yours, partner!” She spoke with a hint of glee as she fell back towards the earth. The blue pegasus saluted back, and flew off towards the manticore full speed, causing Fluttershy to remain ignored. She flew literal circles around the beast, trying to disorient it. It didn’t work. The manticore merely batted Rainbow Dash away with its tail. This enraged Twilight and Applejack but made Yamano sigh in frustration. Everyone except Yamano and Fluttershy started a full-on charge towards their adversary. Eventually, Fluttershy was fed up, and cut in front of the group before yelling for them to stop. She looked back towards the manticore, while Yamano was keeping a close eye.

“Shh, it’s okay…” Fluttershy started to slowly move up towards the manticore, who looked confused, but simultaneously threatened. What Fluttershy didn’t see was that the beast in question didn’t want her coming any closer. It pulled back its tail and attempted to lash out at the pegasus. Fluttershy saw the tail coming, but she was too scared to move. She reflexively closed her eyes tight, bracing for the sting.

But it never came. When she opened them again, she found Yamano standing in front of her, a pained look across her face. The guardian had used herself as a shield for Fluttershy, and the stinger was buried deep into her side.

“You- ow- you okay Fluttershy?!” One of Yamanos eyes were closed in pain as she looked back towards the timid pegasus. The look on her face was grim, and it seemed like she was only just keeping her wits together.

Fluttershy nodded and spoke in a scared whisper. “Are, uhm, are you okay?” She didn’t get an answer, and instead saw that Yamanos façade of calmness started to crumble.

Yamano was furious. She turned her attention away from Fluttershy, and back to the manticore. She funnelled all her ferocity and rage into a single, bone chilling stare, eyes shifting from her normal blue to a grim yellow, that caused the manticore to stumble back in fear. She had lost herself and was trying everything in her power to stop herself from killing the beast right then and there. It wasn’t until Fluttershy had cut in front of her to soothe the beast when she finally got the stinger out of her side, allowing some of her animosity towards the creature to subside. Eventually, her eyes shifted back, her brief moment of fury seemingly gone.

Fluttershy walked up to the manticore and nuzzled its paw with a look of expectedness on her face. The manticore looked exceedingly confused at this point and revealed its paw to the pegasus. The was a huge thorn embedded directly into the centre. Fluttershy looked at it sadly. “Oh, you poor, poor little baby…” She said quietly.

Everyone in the vicinity looked exceedingly confused. Yamano and Rainbow Dash Both exclaimed simultaneously.

“Little?”

Yamano walked up slowly to the manticore, making sure not to make eye contact to not spook the injured creature. She walked up next to Fluttershy and briefly gestured with a hoof, accentuating her claw-gauntlets. “Allow me.” She said in a hushed voice, barely loud enough for the pegasus to hear. She hooked a claw onto part of the thorn with one hoof, and held the manticores paw steady with the other, making sure not to apply any pressure. The thorn was removed with remarkable ease, as the manticore didn’t even flinch as it was removed painlessly. In a flash, the manticore had picked them both up, as it roared in happiness. The remainder of the group mistook this as an angry roar and yelled in shock.

Fluttershy was chuckling to herself as the manticore purred away, happily licking at her mane. Yamano was uncomfortable but tried not to do anything that would be considered threatening. Fluttershy was very happy as well, as she started talking to the manticore. “Awh, you’re just a little old baby kitty aren’t you? Yes, you are.” She cooed lovingly. Yamano slowly gestured to the rest of the group, beckoning them to move forwards. When everyone was safely past, Fluttershy petted the manticore one last time, and hopped down from the manticores paw. Yamano followed suit but hit the ground hard. She was finding it hard to apply her weight onto her right side as she confidently limped towards her charge. Her head was foggy, but she continued as best she could. Twilight failed to notice and moved her attention over to Fluttershy.

“How did you know about the thorn?” Twilight asked in confusion. Fluttershy confidently closed her eyes as she continued walking.

“I didn’t. sometimes we all just need to be shown a little kindness.” Twilight looked at the pegasus briefly, and then looked slightly towards the floor as she thought about those words. Eventually her face settled into one of relief and happiness.

Yamano, being as paranoid as ever, turned her head to look at the manticore. It had started moving off on its own way, but she just wanted to make sure. She saw the thorn that had been removed vanish into a familiar blue nebulous smoke, which floated away. She sighed to herself. ‘If it really is the lost princess, she obviously has it out for us… but why?’ Similar thoughts, along with a myriad of strategies, stayed flitting through her mind for the next short while as everyone was continuing onwards.

When she turned her head to look forwards, a sudden wave of dizziness overtook her, causing her to collapse onto her side. A burning sensation that she hadn’t noticed from the adrenaline still coursing through her had made itself known in full force, and it pulsed greater and greater pain from the still bleeding wound on her side. Her head was starting to fog up again, and she found it hard to think as she tried to stand again, only to fall back down.

Everyone present noticed Yamano falling over and grew more and more concerned as she started exclaiming in pain. It took a second for everyone to remember what had happened before the situation with the manticore was resolved, and everyone started to panic. Fluttershy was showing the worst of it, as a realisation made her cover her mouth. Applejack was the first to make it to Yamanos side. “You okay? Where’s it hurt?” She asked hurriedly. Yamano merely writhed in agony, holding onto the wound caused by the stinger. “Dang it all. Fluttershy, you know about animals, right? What’s up with that tail of the manticores?” Fluttershy started stuttering, trying to get the words out.

Eventually, Fluttershy managed to spit the words out through a scared and strained whisper. “It’s venomous.” The whole group, minus Yamano, gasped in surprise and terror. She started thinking about how Yamano was struck by the tail in the first place, and started breaking down, realising that it was her who could have been stung, but instead it was Yamano. “I’m sorry! Its my fault!” Fluttershy looked as if she was about to start crying.

Yamano heard something through the intense sound of her own heartbeat. It was Fluttershy, apologising. She couldn’t figure out why. Everything around her was blurry, and she was in a complete daze. But she still heard the pegasus. She altered her breathing, trying to calm her body down. After a while, her grunts of pain had ceased, and a little of her clarity had restored itself. She looked about, and saw Applejack next to her, checking her wound, while Fluttershy was surrounded by a shocked looking Twilight and Pinkie. Fluttershy seemed to be crying to herself, and Rainbow Dash looked completely stunned.

Fighting through the intense burning feeling, she stood up weakly and started heading towards Fluttershy. She only made it about half way before collapsing again though, as all strength had vanished from her legs. She tried to call out, but her voice failed her. She tried again. And again. Over and over, trying to say something, anything. Until suddenly, a thought had occurred. A way to make this situation significantly easier for the injured alicorn. She looked at her hooves, and saw she still had her claw-gauntlets. She focused as much as she could, funnelling some of her dark magic into the gauntlets. With a sickening slice, the gauntlets fully embedded themselves into her hooves. She found that she was now able to manipulate the claws on the gauntlets to full effect, as if they were a new extension of herself. With little hesitation, she brought her right hoof across to her left leg, and slashed hard. In an instant, the new pain replaced the burning sensation as her mind focused all the pain onto that specific area. This allowed her to think and act again, if only for a while. Drawing a deep breath, she yelled.

“FLUTTERSHY!”

Everyone froze, even Fluttershy, who quickly started to apologize again. Yamano growled. “Fluttershy, shut up and listen to me! That goes for the rest of you too! Don’t blame yourselves, I’m the one who threw myself in front of a raging manticore.” She spoke harshly, but without anger. She was as calm then as she had ever been in her life. “I need you all to pay very close attention, assuming you wish for my continued survival.”

After a moment, everyone nodded. “Good. Okay. Fluttershy, I know you must be good with natural remedies, so anything you can do to slow the venom would be wonderful.” Fluttershy nodded and stared with tear filled eyes, as she looked about to gather herbs. “Rarity, Rainbow Dash, I need you two to look for something.” Rarity was puzzled, but Rainbow Dash nodded with determination. “It's a flower, with petals of red and white and a blue stem and leaves. One is enough, but two would be ideal.” Rainbow immediately grabbed rarity and started flying off. “Applejack, I need you to make a controlled fire. If anyone is good at survival it’d be you.”

“I’m on it.” Applejack said with a shaky voice.

“Twilight, you help.” Twilight froze in place. Yamano shook her head, which was a bad idea as the burning sensation slowly started creeping up towards her neck. She clutched down onto her left leg even harder, digging the claw-gauntlet into her leg even further. “Pinkie, you’re impossible, so you probably have a container or SOMETHING with you, right?” Pinkie, who looked torn between three different emotions right now, conjured up a small metal container, probably a cake tin, from… somewhere that Yamano couldn’t see. Maybe her mane? Questions for later. “Go to the nearby river and fill it with water, then bring it to Applejack.” Pinkie bounced off faster than usual, which was a sight to behold. The injured alicorn turned her attention back to Twilight. “WELL?! MOVE!” Twilight hurriedly scurried off to help Applejack, looking back with worry.

The guardian felt something on her right, as Fluttershy had arrived back with various herbs that she was applying to the wound. It soothed the pain and caused the creeping sensation of fire to slow down significantly but did not stop it entirely. She felt a hoof on her back, as Fluttershy started habitually rubbing it to try and assure her that it was fine. She would usually rebuff a gesture like that, but it was honestly helping to calm her.

When she looked up at Fluttershy, she saw that the pegasus was fighting back tears, seemingly like she would break down any second. “Fluttershy, listen to me.” The Pegasus looked at Yamano in surprise. “Don’t blame yourself for this. I know how a mind such as yours works in a situation like this. It isn’t your fault.” Her words were hushed, and she was trying to speak without showing any of her pain, which was difficult. Fluttershy looked like she was about to cry even harder, as Yamano reached up with a clawed hoof and brushed a few twigs out of the terrified pegasus’ mane. “I sent Dash and Rarity out for a reason. They’re currently looking for something. Something that my parents taught me about.”

Fluttershy nodded quickly, not sure what else she could do. She started talking through sobs. “If I – I had just, paid attention then this- this wouldn’t have hap-ppened.”

Yamano weakly shook her head. “The fault is mine. If I had used a light barrier I wouldn’t have been injured in the first place. I fully expected the manticore to just let you approach the first time, so I was careless.” Fluttershy looked to be about to respond, but Yamano merely placed a claw over the worried pegasus’ mouth. “Don’t argue with me on this one. I’ll win.” She smiled wryly, before the pain of the venom started settling in again.

She looked up, and saw that Rainbow Dash and Rarity had arrived, holding one of the flowers she had mentioned. Through pained breaths, she spoke rapidly. “Take that flower to the others. have them grind it up and boil it.” Rainbow Dash grabbed the flower from Rarity and flew it off as fast as she could, as Rarity moved up to Fluttershys’ side. She sat a few steps back, unsure how she could help. Yamano was about to say something, but the pain pulsed back in full force, causing her body to contort. Fluttershy quickly replaced the herbs with fresh ones, as it slowly started dying down again. “How much practice have you had at this, Fluttershy?” She said with a forcefully added ounce of silliness to try and ease the tension.

“More than I care to admit…” Fluttershy spoke back, seemingly calmer now. She was so focused on tending to the wound that it didn’t even register who it was she was helping. All semblance of fear she held towards the once dangerous presence had been replaced with frightened determination and worry. As she traced the veins leading to and from the wound, she noticed that they had all started turning black from where the venom was situated. This didn’t go unnoticed by Rarity either, who was trying her best to stay calm, but was obviously worried, as her eye occasionally twitched violently.

The worried voice of Applejack rang out over the trio. “It’s done!” Twilight was using her magic to carry the burning hot cake tin over towards Yamano. Inside, there was a dark pink, and rather thick, substance swirling about.

With little regard for her safety, Yamano grabbed the tin out of the air, which caused her gauntlets to start rapidly heating up, and started drinking. At once, the black veins on her neck and around the wound started vanishing as the liquid entered her body. The tainted blood that was slowly oozing out of the wound had started to clear up as well, for the substance was neutralizing the venom. Once she was done, she held the now cool tin out towards Pinkie Pie, who accepted it and stashed it away. Taking a clear, deep breath, she looked towards the group. “Thank you.” She struggled to stand, as the venom had left a lasting effect, robbing her of her strength, along with the fresh gashes on her left leg causing her to shift her balance to the right side.

Almost at once, everyone present started to talk over each other. Apparently the experience was far more harrowing for them than it was for Yamano. She shook her head, unable to pick out each voice from the other. She raised a hoof before speaking. “Girls, I’m fine. That flower acts as a powerful antivenom when prepared like that.” Everyone seemed to settle down as she spoke. Applejack spoke again, her face now looking puzzled.

“How’d ya know about that flower anyways? I ain’t ever seen it before.” She asked slowly. Yamano looked to be about to answer, but her face fell into a look of sad nostalgia. It was made obvious how painful this was for her as her claws clasped the ground tightly. “I’m sorry, sugarcube. Didn’t mean ta-” She was cut off by Yamano, who put up a hoof.

“Don’t worry about it. The flower was named ‘Chorynthian’ and it was originally bred by my parents. They are-” She caught herself and sighed. “Were botanical scientists. They taught me about it before… well, I’m sure you get the idea.” She shook her head, trying to think of something else, before turning to continue down the path they were following. “What does it matter? Can we just carry on?” She muttered coldly. She started limping down the path, before landing badly on her left and almost falling over, cursing under her breath. The rest of the group looked at her in bewilderment, before starting to follow.

Rainbow Dash shook her head, before speaking out of earshot of Yamano. “Is she a super soldier or what?”

Tensions were high as the group tentatively made their way through the wild forest. Yamano had ended up being overtaken by Rainbow Dash, who seemed on higher alert than usual. Every now and then, she would feel another pulse of pain as her wounds from earlier hadn’t closed despite the venom being neutralized. She Ignored it as best she could to not worry everyone else, but it made fast movement difficult. This annoyed her to no end, as her training demanded her to use the entirety of a given environment. Being confined to just walking never sat well with her. She glanced across to the faces of her current companions and found a consistent look of fear on each of them. Except Pinkie Pie. She couldn’t quite tell what the crazy earth pony’s face was trying to do as they bounced along at her own pace. The guardian shook her head, which caused her to go temporarily dizzy, before her thoughts were cut off by an indignant Rarity.

“Ohh… my eyes need a rest from all this icky muck.” Almost as if the forest was listening, the canopy of trees over head grew tighter, cutting off the dim light of the moon, plunging the group into total darkness. Looking about in frustration, Rarity muttered to herself. “Well I didn’t mean that literally.”

Yamano lightly tapped Raritys shoulder, causing her to jump slightly, before speaking. “Be careful what you wish for. Places like this tend to grant them at the worst of times.” She spoke quietly, to not draw too much attention from any wildlife in the area. After the manticore, she was determined not to run into anything else. “At least I thrive in this environment.” Rarity looked over at Yamano, as there was just enough light to see something two feet in front of you. She saw the guardians eyes flitting about the place, picking out details that everyone else present couldn’t even begin to see a silhouette of. She was about to say something else but was cut off by Twilight.

“That ancient ruin could be right in front of our faces and we wouldn’t even know it!” She spoke quickly, almost tripping through her own words. As if to prove a point, many of the group started tripping over each other, apologizing between themselves. Everyone froze at a loud squelching sound. Yamano looked over at Applejack, who was looking down towards the ground.

“Oh wait, I think ah stepped in somethin’.” She sounded disappointed, but relieved. Yamano looked back to the way they were going and stopped dead in her tracks as she stared. Fluttershy followed Yamanos gaze, before screaming incredibly loudly. Applejack, not realising what had set this off, merely shrugged and continued walking, with her head turned back towards the terrified pegasus. “It’s just mud.” When she turned back around, there was a tree right in front of her. As she looked up, she jumped back and yelled in surprise when she saw the tree seemed to have a mouth with jagged looking teeth and glaring eyes. The branches whipped around and gnarled together almost as if they were reaching out towards the group. Every direction they looked, there was another two or three of these trees. They were surrounded.

Everyone in the group except Yamano and Pinkie started screaming. Yamano was glancing about rapidly, trying to keep an eye on their movements while looking for a possible way out, while Pinkie Pie was… laughing? She was laughing. At the trees. Yamanos eyes widened as the crazy pink pony started making funny faces at one, before breaking down laughing again. Simultaneously, Twilight and Yamano asked in shock. “Pinkie, what are you doing?! RUN!”

Pinkie merely smiled and looked back, before lightly bouncing in place. Instruments started sounding throughout the forest, creating an uplifting tune. Which baffled Yamano to no end, as nopony else seemed to react to it. Pinkie spoke back with a cheerful tone. “Oh, girls. Don’t you see?” Yamano realised immediately what was about to happen.

“Oh no…” She said in a frustrated tone. “Nope. That’s it. I can put up with a lot but leave me outta this.” She took off as fast as her injured body would let her, but the trees had encircled them entirely, leaving her no escape route. “Now what?!”

Yamanos worst fears were realised when Pinkie started to sing.

:

[pinkie] When I was a little filly, and the sun was going do~wn.

[twilight] Tell me she’s not.

[pinkie] The darkness, and the shadows, they would always make me fro~wn.

[rarity] She is.

[yamano] BUT WHY~?

[pinkie] I’d hide under my pillow, from what I thought I saw. But Granny Pie said that wasn’t the way to deal with fears at all~.

[dash] Then what is-.

[pinkie] She said Pinkie, you gotta stand up tall, learn to face your fears! You’ll see they can’t hurt you, just laugh to make them disappear! Ha, Ha, Ha!

The scariness of the tree in front of her vanished immediately, leaving a boring, plain Everfree tree.

[T, F, R, A, RD] *gasp*

[yamano] NO! NOT HAPPENING.

[pinkie] So~ giggle at the ghostly, guffaw at grossly, crack up at the creepy, whoop it up with the weepy, chortle at the kooky, snortle at the spooky. And tell that bid dumb scary face to take a hike and leave you alone and-if-he-thinks-he-can-scare-you-then-he’s-got-another-thing-coming-and-the very-idea-of-such-a-thing-just-makes-you-wanna hahaha! *squeak* LAUGH~!

One by one the trees returned to normal, leaving everyone present giggling to themselves on the floor. All except Yamano. Yamano doesn’t like to laugh.

:

Yamano stood with a look of livid furiousness plastered onto her face. She waited for a good thirty seconds before finally giving up and walking off on her own. ‘Better to be alone than snap at my charge and her apparent friends.’ She mused to herself, absently trying in vain to remove the gauntlets that were now fused into her hooves. Seemed they’d be here to stay.

She saw one of the trees off to her side was still the same warped appearance as the others were before Pinkies… outburst. She almost considered, just for a second, to test out Pinkies idea. Then she thought the better of it and slammed the tree with her hoof. The hideous façade on the tree vanished in a puff of nebulous energy. “This again? That does it, come out and face me already.” Yamano yelled fiercely. The energy hesitated in the air for a second, before coalescing towards the ground. A familiar form of an alicorn came together from the energy, and it stepped forwards, revealing Nightmare Moon. She looked annoyed but was keeping her composure. She looked to be about to start monologuing again, but Yamano cut her off first. “So, Luna, what brings you to this part of the forest.”

Her question caught the lost princess off guard. She spent a long time thinking before answering. “How did YOU know who I used to be? Not that it matters, but you have made me… curious. It is obvious you are not from Equestria. No Equestrian ponies have EVER been trained in your manner of… combat.”

Yamano smirked at the question. “You’re right. I’m not from Equestria. I come from a relatively small kingdom far to the east of here. Maybe you have heard of it?” Nightmare Moon seemed unconcerned with her presence but started considering what kingdom it could be. Yamano shook her head. “Here’s a hint. It’s ruled by the greatest tyrant known to pony kind, who personally trained an assassin who earned the name ‘Reaper’. Ring any bells?” Yamano stood impatiently, tapping her claws on the ground.

Nightmare Moon spent a long time considering, before a look of realization crept up onto her usually sneering and taunting face. She looked quickly towards Yamano, before taking an instinctual step backwards. “YOU? YOU are the Reaper Assassin?” The dark alicorn spoke with an ever so slight waver in her voice.

“Archades prides itself on history. But honestly I’m surprised that the rumour even managed to spread to the moon.” Yamano took a menacing step forwards. “I don’t want to kill you. But I won’t let you hurt anypony else. And if that’s what it’d take then so be it.” Her voice was cold, devoid of emotion. Her eyes were empty, yet they bored deep into Nightmare Moons soul. She seemed paralyzed with the realisation but looked defiantly back towards the assassin. Her gaze brought her further and further into the dark alicorns soul, her mind relentlessly searching for something to use against her. She had almost found something, before seeing what looked like… a filly. Or somepony not much older, scared and shivering within the deepest depths of this depraved tyrants soul. She snapped back to reality, realising she let her dark magic get the best of her, and that Luna was still in there, alone. She looked away from Nightmare Moon sadly and scowled. She started walking back towards where she left the group, and sighed to herself, before looking back and speaking at the confused alicorn.

“I will save you.”

Little to the groups knowledge, Fluttershy had also left them to follow the one who saved her from the manticore. She hid in a bush and was spying on Yamano during her conversation with the one who threatened to bathe Equestria in the night forever. She gasped at the mention of the guardian being an assassin and struggled with the knowledge for a long time. She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn’t hear Yamano walk up to her, giving her a confused look, before realising that the timid pegasus was within earshot of her previous conversation.

“I take it you heard all that.” Yamano spoke with a sigh, before stopping a few paces in front of the spy. She was still favouring her right side as she walked, as the injuries on her left foreleg still hadn’t fully closed.

Fluttershy looked like a train was headed toward her at full speed and had frozen in place. Yamano closed her eyes and looked down and shrugged towards the terrified mare. Fluttershy looked to be hyperventilating and her eyes were darting about, looking for some help. Yamano looked at the panicking pegasus and couldn’t help but let out a slight chuckle. She walked up to Fluttershy and placed her hoof onto the side of her head, before running her claws through the mares mane. This seemed to calm her down for now, but she still looked afraid and confused. Yamano closed her eyes again and sighed.

“Everything you heard was the truth.” She spoke softly, but the look on her face was serious. “But I have made a vow not to take another life.” She tried to give a small smile, attempting to calm the mare, and herself, down further. “Will you trust me for at least a little while longer?”

Fluttershy just stared at Yamano for a few seconds, before nodding with a timid “mhm” in agreement. As she looked at the assassin turned guardian, her aura went from that of malice, to one of a soothing calmness. The fear that she had felt from her mere presence seemed to dissipate with the promise of trust.

“Let’s go back. The others are probably wondering where we’ve gone. Stay close, just in case.” Yamano started re-tracing her steps from when she left in the first place, while Fluttershy kept a close pace next to her left side.

They walked in silence for a while, before Fluttershy spoke her mind. “I’m, uhm, I’m sorry about when we first met…” She muttered meekly, making it more difficult than it had to be for Yamano to hear. She merely shook her head and looked at Fluttershy with an eyebrow raised.

“Don’t worry about it. Honestly, at the time I would have been more insulted if you hadn’t responded how you did.” She joked with a chuckle. For the first time since, well, ever, she felt safe around another pony. She was going to make sure that continued.

Yamano and Fluttershy started quietly heading back towards the group, who were still recovering from the laughing fit they had fallen into after Pinkie Pies song. It seemed none of them realised Fluttershy was missing, so they were surprised when the duo pushed past some low hanging branches. Yamano held the last of the branches out of Fluttershys way as she re-joined her friends. Twilight raised an eyebrow through the remnants of laughter as Yamano stood a few paces off, not wanting to spoil the moment. As they all started to settle, Yamano motioned a hoof in the direction they were headed next, with a look that merely said, ‘shall we?’.

The group were continuing to chuckle between themselves as they continued, when Yamano stopped at the bank of a river. She almost got thrown into it by her companions as they weren’t paying attention, walking directly into her as she stopped. As the group all peeked out from behind the guardian, they saw that the river was turbulent, and impossible to cross by normal means. Pinkie was the first to speak.

“How are we gonna cross this?!” Pinkie asked, seemingly unfazed by the situation going by the tone in her voice. Yamano shrugged.

“Maybe I could build something to ford the river…” She sighed distantly, as her gaze shifted to the various trees on their side of the river. She had started planning out a bridge in her head, but her thoughts were cut short by a loud wailing sound and crying that came from further downstream. The group meandered cautiously towards the sound, which was revealed to be a sea serpent crying and thrashing about in the river, causing the turbulence. The sea serpent seemed oblivious to their presence for the moment as it continued to cry out.

“What a world. What a world!” The sea serpent continued to wail to itself, before slamming both of its clawed fists into the water. The group shared sceptical looks before Twilight spoke up.

“Excuse me, sir? Why are you crying?” She asked boldly as the rest of the group just stared in confusion. The sea dragon rose to its full height before responding indignantly.

“Well, I don’t know, I was just sitting here, minding my own business when this TACKY little cloud of purple smoke just ah, WHISKED past me and tore half of my, beloved moustache clean off!” He responded in a barrage of words, not giving himself much chance for a breath. “And now, I look simply HORRID!” he declared before dramatically falling over into the river, drenching the group in its entirety, causing all their manes to fall over their faces. Rainbow Dash and Yamano muttered under their breaths.

“Oh, gimme a break.” Rainbow whispered annoyedly.

“Tell me about it.” Yamano seethed as she squeezed some of the water out of her mane and clothes. Applejack took a few steps forwards to speak.

“THAT’S what’s all the fuss is about?” Applejack asked, not quite believing the story. Rarity cut in front of all of them, a look of horror across her face.

“Why of COURSE it is!” she started strutting in front of the group. “How CAN you be so insensitive?” She started walking up to the dejected sea dragon, before stroking its chin as it rested on the bank of the river. “Aw just look at him. Such lovely luminescent scales.” The sea dragon sniffed.

“I know…” it sighed sadly.

“And your expertly coiffed mane.”

“I know, I KNOW!” The sea dragon sat up as it ran a claw through its mane. Yamano looked unimpressed.

“Your fabulous manicure.” Rarity added with a smile.

The sea dragon gasped, before speaking again. “It’s so true!”

Rarity’s gaze dropped as she spoke again. “All ruined without your beautiful moustache.”

This sent the sea dragon into a sad fit. “It’s true, I’m hideous!”

Rarity squinted her eyes with determination. “I simply cannot let such a crime against fabulosity go uncorrected!” She looked back towards her companions, before resting her intense gaze on Yamano. “You, over here! I will need your assistance with this!”

The guardian looked quizzically at the marshmallow pony, before shrugging and walking up to her. “What is it?” She said coldly.

“Conjure your scythe, if you’d please. I need it for something important.” Rarity demanded.

Yamano scowled. “It’s not Conjuration, its Summoning!” Rarity simply raised an eyebrow at her, causing the guardian to sigh. “Oh whatever. Fine.” She pulsed dark energy into the left half of her horn and gestured in front of herself. The dark energy took the shape of her scythe, and it appeared in front of her. She grabbed the handle with her teeth before giving Rarity an impatient stare. Rarity leaned in to whisper something into her ear, which caused Yamano to look sceptically at the fashionista. She then shrugged, and moved to stand behind Rarity, before slicing off the marshmallow pony’s tail with a quick flick of her head.

The rest of the group gawked at Yamano’s actions, concerned that she had lost her mind, before realising that the marshmallow pony simply nodded in approval. Rarity immediately got to work using the part of her tail that she had asked Yamano to cut to mend the sea dragons moustache. The sea dragon looked delighted. “My moustache! How WONDERFUL!”

Rarity smiled at the sea dragon. “You look smashing.”

Twilight walked up to Rarity as she was concerned over the whole notion. “Oh Rarity, your beautiful tail!” Twilight shifted her eyes towards Yamano. “What were you thinking?! You could have hurt her.” Yamano chuckled emptily.

“I didn’t spend most of my life training with this bloody thing-” As she spoke, she placed the scythe onto the ground. “-To mess up bad enough to unintentionally injure somepony.” She gestured towards Rarity. “Besides, it was at her request.”

Rarity smiled at the group. “It’s fine, my dears. Short tails are in this season.” She looked back worriedly at her now much shorter tail. “Besides, it’ll grow back…”

“So would the moustache.” Rainbow added quietly. Twilight chuckled at her comment, whereas Yamano tussled the rainbow pony’s mane, causing it to poke out in a myriad of directions. Rainbow batted the guardians hoof away. Twilight shifted her attention away from the group, and gasped at the sight of the river, as it was now calm.

“We can cross now!” she called out to the group. “Let’s go!” As she was trying to cross, her hooves were suddenly propelled upwards from below, and she was being raised into the air. The sea serpent had used its body to create a series of platforms for the ponies to jump across.

“Allow me!” The sea serpent said politely. The group, minus Yamano, all started to hop across the back of the sea serpent towards the other side of the river. Yamano decided to ford the river her own way, and shrugged at the sea serpent, before gesturing to her left leg, which had stopped bleeding by this point, but was still extremely sore. As she joined up with Twilight, she shook herself dry, much to the annoyance of the lavender unicorn, who was in prime splashing position.

“Really?” Twilight asked unamused.

“Afraid of a little water?” Yamano deadpanned. She started walking in front again, as she managed to pick up the pace a little bit with her leg now healed slightly. She shook her head in frustration as she was thinking to herself. ‘Why must things be needlessly complicated?’

Travel was slow. The uneven terrain, the wild trees and vines blocking various paths through the forest, the general unease of the group causing slowed movement, all of this compounded upon the journey that was already long enough. The silence between everyone was deafening, and nobody could get their eyes to sit still. Everyone was moving forwards slowly, when they heard a twig snapping underneath their feet. Immediately, everyone present jumped into even higher alert. Fluttershy nearly jumped out of her skin and desperately grasped onto Yamano as she started shaking. Yamano considered pulling away, but decided it’d be best to let it continue, as she was obviously scared out of her mind. She merely placed her other hoof onto Fluttershys head and tried to stay as still as possible to not frighten the poor pegasus further. As seconds turned to minutes, the group finally started to calm themselves. Fluttershy was still shuddering uncontrollably as she buried her face into Yamanos shoulder. The guardian looked at the rest of the group for assistance, but they all seemed amused by the sight. Eventually she sighed and turned her attention to the terrified pegasus. She used her claws to gently comb through Fluttershys mane, trying to give an ounce of comfort. It took a long time for Fluttershy to calm down, and when she did, Yamano used her hoof to make their eyes meet.

“You okay?” The guardian spoke softly. Her usual stern coldness had vanished, making way for a relaxing warmth. Fluttershy nodded silently, smiling at the guardian. When Yamano smiled back, it was the first genuine smile she had given in years. Fragments of her old self before her time as an assassin were starting to come through, even though Yamano herself was unaware of it. “Let’s go. The elements won’t find themselves.” Yamano spoke broadly to the whole group, before helping Fluttershy back onto her hooves. She took a moment to look over the group, which seemed to have calmed down, aside from Pinkie Pie who seemed to be ecstatic. Yamano rolled her eyes. “What?”

“That was the first time I’ve seen you smile!!” Pinkie yelled excitedly. “You didn’t smile at the party! You look pretty when you smile. You should do it more!” The group just looked at Pinkie with scepticism, before Rainbow Dash burst out laughing. Everyone aside from Yamano laughed alongside her, but the guardian just looked tired.

“Can- can we just continue?” She said dryly. The moment of happiness had left her at the pink pony’s comment, and she wanted nothing more than to leave the situation. Without saying anything about it, the group started to continue forwards while they all giggled between themselves.

As the group crested a line of trees, they saw that their destination was tantalisingly close.

“There it is!” Twilight exclaimed. “The ruins that hold the elements of harmony. We made it!” She started running full speed towards the ruins. Applejack called out to her.

“Twilight! Wait fer us!” She yelled excitedly as she and her friends all started following the purple unicorn. Yamano looked ahead, and saw Twilight was headed directly towards a drop-off.

“Twilight wait! Stop!” The guardian demanded. “You’re headed for a-”

Before Yamano could finish her sentence, Twilight called back to the group without looking where she was going. “We’re almost there!” the excited unicorn yelled out happily. As she finished speaking, her front hooves went directly over the edge of the cliff, where a ruined bridge hung down towards the base of a cavern. Yamano and Rainbow Dash immediately grabbed onto Twilight, pulling her away from the edge.

“I tried to tell you to stop.” Yamano scolded. “Try listening for once.” She narrowed her eyes at the mare, trying to drive the point home. Rainbow Dash shrugged.

“What’s with you and falling off cliffs today?” Rainbow Dash asked sarcastically. The rest of the group ended up walking to the edge of the cliff themselves. Pinkie Pie sighed.

“NOW what?” Pinkie asked dejectedly. Yamano growled in annoyance, before pointing a hoof towards Rainbow Dash, who crouched down on her fore legs, before fluttering her wings.

“Duh.” She smiled at the party pony before flying down the cliff face towards the opposite end of the bridge. She grabbed the bridge with her teeth before flying it up towards the opposing side of the cavern.

“Oh yeah!” Pinkie added sheepishly. “Woops.”

As Rainbow touched down, both she and Yamano heard a voice on the wind that went unnoticed by the rest of the group. Rainbow immediately dropped the rope of the bridge as she looked about, whereas Yamano started creeping up to the edge of the cliff to get a better look.

“I ain’t scared of you!” Rainbow yelled out before standing on her hind legs and punching the air with her front hooves. “Show yourself!”

Rainbow Dash’s sudden shouts caught Yamano by surprise, and she reactively shifted her weight on the cliff edge. This sudden movement cause the rocks by the cliffside to fall away, causing Yamano to stumble forwards. She yelped in alarm, before digging her claws into the side of the cliff and sliding down a few feet. When she settled, she decided to turn her attention back towards Rainbow Dash instead of climbing back up, not before giving a sigh of relief.

Rainbow Dash looked about feverishly, looking for the pony the voice belonged to, before that same voice rang out around her again. “We’ve been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the best flyer in Equestria.”

The pegasus looked baffled to say the least. She raised an eyebrow before cautiously answering back. “Who?”

“You, of course!” the mysterious voice replied whimsically.

“Really?!” Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but feel excited as her voice rose in pitch. “I mean, oh yeah! Me!” the flyers curiosity got the better of her as she responded again. “Hey, uh, you wouldn’t mind telling the Wonderbolts that would ya? Cause, I’ve been trying to get into that group for like, ever!”

The mysterious voice softened as it spoke again. “No, Rainbow Dash, we want you to join US!” The sound of galloping cut through the dense fog, as three silhouettes of ponies came sprinting forwards, before the fog lifted revealing three uniformed ponies, one mare and two stallions, all of which had similar cutie marks and manes. They stood proudly before Rainbow Dash before announcing themselves as the Shadowbolts. Rainbow officially looked bewildered. “We’re the greatest aerial team in the Everfree Forest! And soon we will be the greatest in ALL Equestria.” The mares’ facial expression shifted to that of mischief and manipulation. “But first, we need a captain.” Rainbow Dash grinned in a full showing of teeth at the mention of captain. “The most magnificent-“

“YEP!” Rainbow Dash interjected quickly.

“Swiftest-“

“Yes!”

“most bravest flyer in all the land!”

“Yes! It’s all true!” Rainbow stated proudly.

“We need…” The Shadowbolt mare paused before getting right next to the cyan pegasus’ ear. “you!”

With little hesitation, Rainbow Dash leaped with all her strength high into the air, yelling in excitement.

“Whoo-hoo! Sign me up! Just let me tie this bridge real quick and then we have a deal!” Dash bent her head down to pick up the rope to the bridge but was interrupted as the same mare that was speaking zipped in front of her in the blink of an eye, standing on the rope in the process. Her tone shifted from admiration to harsh criticism.

“NO! It’s them, or us!”

Yamano scowled, as she could hear the hidden layer of venom within the mares voice. Rainbow Dash merely looked on in scared confusion and consideration. Yamano heard the slight shuffling of hooves, as the group was getting impatient. She was also slightly annoyed, yet entirely unsurprised, that none of them had realised she had fallen.

“Rainbow Dash, what’s taking so long?!” Twilight called worriedly across the cavern, afraid that something may have happened to the pegasus in question. Her vision shifted to give her a clearer view of the happenings across the bridge, where she saw the three Shadowbolts. “Oh no… RAINBOW!” Yamano once again flinched at the sudden raising of voices, and her grip slipped slightly. Frustrated, she climbed back up to the top and shook her head at Twilight. When she turned back towards the cyan pegasus, the shadowbolt mare glared towards the rest of the group, before the fog rolled further in, cutting them off from the arrogant flyer. Twilight tried in vain to call back out to her, but her voice was cut off by the thick wall of fog between them. She turned to Yamano, who she kind of figured had better senses than the rest of them given their time in the pitch-dark areas of the forest. “What were they saying?!” She said hurriedly, her worries coming out in spades in her voice.

Yamano growled slightly and continued to glare back at the previous position of the Shadowbolts. “They were playing to her ego. Trying to get her to ditch us to join them by saying they would surpass the Wonderbolts.” Twilight and co. gasped, except for Rarity who scoffed.

“Preposterous! Rainbow wouldn’t leave her friends just like that…” a hint of uncertainty entered her voice. “…would she?” An expression of shared worry settled on to all of their faces, as Yamano started staring at the general spot she last saw the arrogant pegasus, before channelling a small amount of her magic in the right half of her horn, causing a spell of light to transfer her senses into Rainbow Dash, allowing her to see what was happening. Rainbow was standing dumbstruck as the choice was laid before her. She seemed to debate within herself for a long time, before she started to mutter something under her breath.

“…you…” The eyes of the Shadowbolt mare widened in glee as she misinterpreted the mumbles as acceptance. Her expression shifted to shock as Rainbow Dash spoke up again. “Thank you, for the offer, I mean.” She quickly shifted over and tied the rope to the stone post acting as an anchor for the bridge. “But, I’m afraid I have to say no.” As she started to fly back, Yamano chuckled to herself at the surprise of everypony present.

“She hasn’t left us. She’s on her way.” The group collectively sighed, letting the tension and worry flow from them without care. Yamano cancelled her spell and placed a clawed hoof on one of the pegasus’ shoulders. She smiled mischievously at the now confused Rainbow Dash, before stopping by the bridge with an expectant look. The group all giggled to themselves, as Rainbow shook her head and smiled.

“See? I’d never leave my friends hangin’!” The group started to walk across the bridge, except for Rainbow of course, who flew, and a happy smile crept onto Twilights features. Yamano got onto the bridge just after Fluttershy, who tentatively tested each plank before stepping.

Yamano was gazing at the boards herself, seemingly distrusting of the old wood. She then glanced at a board directly underneath the path of Fluttershys next step, and before the soft yellow pegasus could finish her motion, she placed a hoof under Fluttershys stomach. As the timid caretakers hoof reached the bridge, she lurched forwards with a startled yelp as the slightly rotted board snapped in twain, leaving a perilous drop where once was what she thought was safe passage.

Fluttershy flailed about in fear for a few moments, before she realised she was being held in place by something. When she finally opened her eyes to look, she was surprised at Yamano saving her again. She smiled again at the ‘assassin’ before thinking to herself. ‘I don’t care what Nightmare Moon says about her, she’s too nice to be an assassin.’ She smiled at her own thoughts, but then thought over the events she had overheard earlier. From the sounds of it, Yamano had in fact confirmed the dark alicorns words about her past, which was confusing. ‘If such a nice and caring pony as this is an assassin…’ she shuddered at the implications of this thought process. ‘What made them change?’

She was so engrossed in her thoughts that she didn’t notice she was still being held aloft by Yamano. She grinned shyly before resituating her hooves to find purchase on the bridge but yelped again as Yamano sighed before picking her up and placing the pegasus on her back. Fluttershy immediately started to worry, as their combined weight would surely break through even more boards. It was surprising to say the least that her hoofsteps didn’t cause some of the weaker looking boards to even creak. It was almost as if she was weightless, despite still being firmly rooted to the bridge. This fact seemed to confirm both thoughts she had about the one now carrying her. The assassin was considerate, that much was certain, but she also seemed highly trained. A little too trained. The thought lingered for a little too long, for as the time came that she was on the other side of the bridge, she was still debating to herself. Her thoughts were interrupted by a slight poke to the centre of her forehead, which startled her again. Fluttershy looked about wildly, trying to find the source of the sudden intrusion, before realising it was Yamano who had done so with one of her new claws.

Fluttershy smiled at Yamano in thanks before going to join the rest of her new friends, pushing the idea of her new Saviour being an assassin to the back of her mind. She would ask the seemingly self-appointed guardian angel when she could build up the courage, but for now it was too jarring.

As the door to the ruins opened, a slight gasp was heard from Applejack, although all of them looked in awe. “Come on, Twilight. Isn’t this what you’ve been waitin’ for?” Twilight walked briskly up to a statue of some sort, with six podiums, each holding a dull, grey stone, with one giant stone in the middle.

“The Elements of Harmony! We found them!” She exclaimed in excitement. As the group came to a stop, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash started grabbing and carrying the six stones back to Twilight. They made sure to place them gently, as even though they were made of stone, they looked like they could be fragile. Pinkie Pie started counting them off as they arrived.

“Three, four, five… there’s only six!” Pinkie exclaimed in confusion. Rainbow Dash shared a look before glancing around to the rest of the room.

“Where’s the seventh?” The cyan pegasus said quickly as she was trying to hide her nervousness, much to the cold amusement of Yamano.

“Should have figured all this would freak you out, Dash.” Yamano stated before pausing, before stating in fake mockery, “Need a hug~?”

“Wha- you- grh, shut up! I ain’t scared! I bet you’re more scared than the rest of us!” She paused to think, before adding quietly. “Except maybe Fluttershy.”

Twilight quickly glared at them both. “Stop picking on her Yamano. And Rainbow, that wasn’t very nice either.” Yamano merely shrugged, as Rainbow Dash looked away sheepishly.

“You know it’s true though, right Twilight?” Yamano stated in a bored tone. “Fluttershy does seem to be easily frightened.”

Fluttershy smiled sheepishly at the comment, before Twilight put a hoof on her shoulder. “I’m sure that’s not true. Right Fluttershy?...”

The silence was palpable.

“Fluttershy?” Twilight tried again, but the pegasus in question merely shrugged. “Oh.” She shook her head in annoyance, before deeming it best to change the subject. “Okay. The book said when the six are present, a spark will cause the seventh element to be revealed.”

Applejack narrowed her eyes in frustration. “An’ what in the hay is that supposed to mean?” Twilight shrugged.

“I’m not sure, but I have an idea.” She stared down towards the elements with determination. “Stand back, I don’t know what will happen.”

At her request, all the girls backed away from the lavender unicorn with hesitation. The only one who stayed close by was Yamano, who only took two small steps back. As the rest of the group started to leave the room, Twilight began to channel a spell through her horn. Yamano slowed her breathing down to a point where it was silent, and briefly channelled a dark spell of her own, drawing the shadows from around the room to envelop her, keeping her presence hidden to allow Twilight to concentrate.

A few seconds passed in awkward silence, before Yamano felt another presence behind the both of them. She pivoted her head and saw a familiar blue nebulous mist start floating towards the stones. The mist started whirling around the elements, picking them up in a cyclone of energy. This caught Twilights attention, who yelled out in shock. It was just loud enough to catch the attention of the rest of the group, who were waiting outside. As they came sprinting back through the door, Yamano started to inch closer to the nebulous energy in an attempt to grab the elements.

Before she was successful, however, Twilight leapt forwards towards the elements, getting caught up in the energy. The group all called out to her, before Yamano jumped in immediately afterwards. The mist, along with Twilight, Yamano and the elements all vanished from sight, leaving the group highly confused.

In a flash of light and a blast of smoke, Twilight and Yamano appeared in a different room with a thud. Twilight was on the ground, coughing, and Yamano was recovering from sudden vertigo. Being incapable of arcane natured magic had its drawbacks, such as being unused to teleportation. Their attention was drawn by a low, sinister chuckle originating from elsewhere in the room. Crashes of lightning and thunder rang out around the dark alicorn standing menacingly in the centre of the new area. Both mares gasped, before Twilight crouched down in preparation to charge the aggressor. Yamano subtly raised an eyebrow, and Nightmare Moons eyes narrowed in exasperation.

“You’re kidding.” The alicorn stated tiredly. She turned her attention briefly to the assassin standing nearby. “She’s kidding, right?”

Yamano sighed in frustration. With a cheeky smirk, she turned back towards Nightmare Moon. “I’ll never understand the ponies in Equestria.” She threw a side-on glance towards Twilight, noticing a spell starting to channel through her horn. Realising her plan, Yamano conjured her scythe. Throwing a challenging glare at Nightmare Moon, she clicked her neck and shifted her weight to prepare for a sprint.

Twilight started the charge, running straight towards Nightmare Moon with determination. Rolling their eyes, Yamano and the dark alicorn started directly afterwards. Yamano took up a position directly behind Twilight, scythe held out to the side, with the back of the blade held forwards. Nightmare Moon rushed directly towards Twilight; whose spell started to glow brighter. Just as they were about to collide, Twilight teleported past the aggressor, leaving her to clash against the assassin. In an almost invisible motion, Yamano grabbed onto Nightmare Moons horn, holding her in place. She looked past towards Twilight, before yelling as she struggled against the dark alicorn.

“Twilight, do it now!” She continued struggling against the alicorn, who was much stronger than she anticipated.

Twilight started muttering to herself, too far away for Yamano to hear correctly over the grunts between the two warring alicorns. It didn’t stop Nightmare Moon from sensing the spell she was trying to cast however, causing her to vanish into mist again and reappear in front of Twilight. Yamano attempted to run forwards to protect her, but was intercepted as Twilights spell backfired, sending her flying backwards towards the guardian. Yamano skidded across the floor, taking the brunt of the momentum away from Twilight by catching the unicorn against her chest.

As they looked back up towards Nightmare Moon, they saw the elements sparking with magic, with the alicorns front hooves within the confines of the circle they created. Nightmare Moon started to panic as the elements glowed brighter. Everything was going to plan for Twilight... Until the elements stopped glowing. The unicorn in question gasped in shock, before Yamano helped her back onto her hooves.

“Where’s the seventh element? It should be here by now!” The panic in Twilights voice was painfully obvious to Yamano.

She would have responded, but her voice wasn’t playing along. Instead of words, all that came was a low growl, reminiscent of wild predators growling at their prey. She released her light grip on Twilight and started menacingly walking towards the now laughing alicorn. Her laughter continued, unaware of the assassin creeping towards her.

Yamano burst into full sprint towards Nightmare Moon, with motions more akin to a wolf than a pony, but instead of intercepting the annoyance, the dark alicorn reared onto her hind legs, and slammed down with a burst of magic, shattering the elements of harmony in one motion.

Yamano skidded to a halt, and Twilight stared on in shock. The elements of harmony, the one thing they were there for, destroyed in front of their eyes. A look of indignation crept onto Nightmare Moons face as Yamanos expression turned dark.

“You little foals. Thinking you could defeat me?!... Now, you will never see your princess, or your sun! The night will last forever!” Nightmare Moon bellowed with ferocity and started cackling madly as her power whirled around her in another nebulous mist.

Her laughter was cut short by a flash of silver-ish grey flying past her face. Turning in surprise, she immediately noticed a short dagger with a viciously curved blade stuck in the wall behind her. The guard on the dagger was a black wing, starting at the base of the blade and reaching the small gem pommel on the base of the hilt. The suddenness of the dagger flying past had scared her, and as she looked back towards her opponents, she was visibly shaken.

The look on the assassins face to anyone viewing from outside would seem calm. Serene even. But there were subtle differences. Differences that only made themselves known to the one receiving her gaze. Her normally light blue eyes had shifted to a dirty mix of dark red and yellow. Slight shadows covered parts of her face as her dark magic whipped around viciously and uncontrolled. Even though it wasn’t a particularly frightening sight, the slight differences were enough to throw someone out of their guards, and the anger within her was still able to be felt, even if she didn’t make it obvious.

Nightmare Moon was nervous. This was the first seemingly normal pony she had met that managed to deeply scare her. She instinctively created a shield around herself, the look she was receiving did not sit well and was making her paranoid. She expected the assassin to make a beeline for her and attack without remorse. As such, she was glad when the assassin got distracted by a noise from behind.

Yamanos attention was ripped away from the infuriating alicorn standing in front of her when the rest of her companions voices started getting louder. She turned briefly, glancing at Twilight. The unicorn in question had a sudden smirk on her face, as she turned to look at Nightmare Moon. She spoke with confidence and sass, much to the guardians surprise.

“You think you can destroy the Elements of Harmony, just like that?” Nightmare Moon flinched at the sudden brashness of the unicorn in front of her. “Well, you’re wrong! Because the spirits of the Elements of Harmony are right here!” Everypony present took up positions around Twilight, Yamano standing a little in front while everypony else was behind.

As soon as Twilight was done with her proclamation, the shards of the destroyed elements started floating on their own, away from Nightmare Moon, and towards the group of ponies standing before her. Twilight continued with fervour. “Applejack, who reassured me when I was in doubt, represents the spirit of Honesty!” A group of shards started floating and surrounding Applejack. “Fluttershy, who tamed a manticore with compassion, represents the spirit of Kindness!” The shards then started surrounding Fluttershy as well. “Yamano Sagiri, who threw herself into the face of near certain death in protection of another, represents the spirit of Selflessness!” A small smile crept onto Yamanos face, and she held out a hoof, which the shards that hovered towards her started to surround. “Pinkie Pie, who banished fear by giggling in the face of danger, represents the spirit of Laughter!” Pinkie bounced with excitement as more shards started surrounding her as well. “Rarity, who calmed a sorrowful serpent with a meaningful gift, represents the spirit of Generosity!” Rarity had a look of apprehension on her face as the shards started surrounding her too. “Rainbow Dash, who could not abandon her friends for her own heart’s desire, represents the spirit of Loyalty!” The shards surrounded the seemingly unaffected Rainbow Dash. “The spirits of these six ponies got us through every challenge you threw at us!” Twilights smile widened and she looked at Nightmare Moon triumphantly. The dark alicorn was exceedingly nervous at this point.

“You still don’t have the seventh element! The spark didn’t work!” Nightmare Moon spoke with venom and spite, but a slight undertone betrayed her fear. Yamano spoke up at this point.

“If it didn’t work, Nightmare Moon, then why do you sound afraid?” Yamano chuckled dryly. Her eyes shifted back to her normal light blue.

“Silence! The spark couldn’t have worked! You would have all the elements if it did!” Nightmare Moon was fully panicking at this point. Twilight interjected before she could continue.

“But it did. A different kind of spark! I felt it the moment I realised how happy I was to hear you, to see you. How much I cared about you. The spark ignited inside me. When I realised that you all…” She paused as a few tears broke free. She turned back towards Nightmare Moon. “Are my friends!”

At the exact moment those words had left Twilight, a bright flash appeared above the group. In its wake, another stone with another mark hovered down towards Twilight. At the same time, Yamano choked on her own spit at the mention of her being friends with Twilight and the group. The thought hadn’t exactly occurred to her, but she liked the idea.

“You see, Nightmare Moon, when those elements are ignited by the…” She paused a moment to think. “The spark, that resides in the heart of us all, it creates the seventh element. The Element of Magic!”

The glowing element above the group tripled in brightness, and the shards hovering around each pony started congregating together. Each of the ponies, bar Twilight and Yamano, were suddenly wearing gold necklaces with gems that matched their cutie marks. Yamano’s had traversed to her front left claws, changing the material from their usual steel to a purple-gold alloy, with a new Jet gem where the once-gauntlets met the rest of her leg in the shape of her spiked shield cutie mark. Twilight’s element changed into a golden crown, with the gem adorning the top in a spire.

A burst of magic was released from the now floating ponies, twisting around the group and creating a rainbow, with two extra streaks, one black and one white, on either side. The rainbow energy hurtled towards Nightmare Moon, the main rainbow twisting around her and the extra black and white streaks headed straight towards the dark alicorn. The corrupt energy that made up Nightmare Moon was being stripped away, and the two streaks had latched onto her, pulling in opposite directions. The black streak dragged Nightmare Moon with it, and the white streak had dragged the small figure of another alicorn, seemingly not much older than a filly, out from the writhing form of Nightmare moon. Once they had been separated, all of the ponies opened their eyes, all of which were glowing white with power. The burst of power destroyed the remnants of Nightmare Moon before vanishing.

Yamano was the first to regain consciousness. Glancing around in confusion and panic, she saw the shivering form of a blue-ish purple filly with a dark blue mane, and a cutie mark in the shape of a moon, floating a few inches off the ground. Without pausing for consideration, Yamano ran forwards, using the light half of her magic to augment her speed, and caught the filly before she hit the ground. It was at this time that the rest of her… friends, had started to rouse themselves. She suddenly realised how bad of a headache she had but refused to turn her attention away from the shivering princess still in her hooves. She gently shook her awake, making sure not to aggravate any possible injuries she may have had.

“Are you okay, Luna?” She spoke softly, so softly in fact that her friends hadn’t even heard her despite their relatively close proximity.

Luna shuddered, confused at the unfamiliar touch and voice. It took a few moments to realise who the voice belonged to, and her eyes widened in shock. When she looked towards her saviour, she expected to see scornful eyes and hatred, but instead, what she saw she couldn’t comprehend. It was the eyes of what felt like a mothers love.

“Why do you look at me like that?... I do not deserve your forgiveness for what I have done…” Luna asked quietly, obviously downtrodden.

“Throw that way of thinking to the wayside, princess. No pony will blame you for what has happened this day.” Yamano responded kindly, unexpectedly so even for herself. Before she could continue, or before Luna could respond, a bright flash of magic appeared from behind her friends, and in its wake, Celestia had appeared.

Most of the ponies present bowed their heads in respect, whereas Twilight ran up and hugged the sun princess. Yamano payed little attention, checking Luna over for any injuries. She placed her claws supportively on the princesses back, as she had started shivering in fear of her sister.

“Princess Luna.” Celestia stated somewhat harshly. “It has been a thousand years since I have seen you like this.” As Celestia drew closer, Luna hid her head in Yamanos shoulder, highly unexpected by all present. The princess of the sun smiled softly at the notion, and silently thanked Yamano, who in return lightly nodded her head.

“Luna, listen to her.” She ran a claw through the princesses mane, hoping to release some of the tension built up into the remorseful alicorn. She responded with a weak nod, before turning back to Celestia with her eyes closed.

Celestia broke the brief silence with a soft voice. “Time to put our differences behind us. We were meant to rule together, little sister.” The silence that hang in the air after her declaration could have been sliced with a butter knife it was that heavy.

“Sister?!” Twilight broke the silence in shock.

Celestia continued unaware of the confusion. “Will you accept my friendship?”

All the ponies present, bar Yamano who was still holding Luna in as comforting an embrace as she could muster, were leaning in closer to hear the response. Pinkie Pie ended up leaning too far and fell on her face with a yelp. Luna thought to herself for a moment, a look of grief and guilt creeping over her features. She eventually broke the embrace that the assassin was giving, rushing to her sisters side.

“I’m so sorry! I missed you so much, big sister!” Luna responded sadly and desperately. Both sisters were in tears now that they were in each others embrace.

“I missed you too.” Celestia spoke as calmly as she could manage, which all things considered was impressive considering she was crying equally as hard as Luna was. The touching moment was slightly ruined by Pinkie Pie’s loud crying and nose-blowing, which evolved into literal waterfalls of tears.

Yamano was about to go and console the pink earth pony, but never got the chance as she switched so fast from upset to happy and bubbly that she couldn’t even see the transition.

“Hey! You know what this calls for?!” Pinkie Pie let the question hang for dramatic effect. “A PARTY!!” She announced loudly, much to the chagrin of Yamano who still had a pounding headache. The party pony started leading the charge as most of the group started heading out. Celestia and Luna stayed in each other’s embrace as Yamano moved forward to stand next to them. She whispered into Lunas ear.

“Told you I would save you.” Yamano spoke mischievously. The recent event had her elated, and she felt content with her new life. It was far superior to her old life, which felt like Tartarus incarnate compared to recent events.

Luna jumped at the sudden closeness of Yamano’s voice. All the memories made as Nightmare Moon started creeping back, and she froze in fear at what she remembered. The pony standing before her was an assassin, if her memories were to be believed. She subconsciously shifted away from the purple element bearer and shrank into Celestia’s embrace. She looked to her sister for assurance but was shocked to see her smiling at the assassin.

“Thank you for saving my sister, Yamano. It was more than I had hoped.” Celestia spoke warmly, as if speaking to an old friend. The guardian in question shrugged.

“Just doing my job, Celestia. The history that Archades kept had records of your sisters existence, and her losing herself to Nightmare Moon. I would not let such innocence be lost to something as ridiculous as jealousy.” Yamano’s tone darkened as she mentioned her homeland but didn’t make a huge deal out of it.

Yamano had turned her attention away from the bonding sisters and noticed Fluttershy hadn’t left with the others. Confused, and slightly concerned, she walked up to the pink maned pegasus.

“You not going with the others?” Yamano asked quietly. She still walked cautiously so as not to frighten the pegasus, but after a little observation she realised she had calmed down around the assassin.

“Oh. I, uhm, I was waiting for you. The walk through the forest still scares me.” Fluttershy spoke hesitantly, making it clear she was hiding something. Yamano decided not to pry.

“Are you hurt or something? I’ll carry you back with me if so.” Yamano asked with a half chuckle.

“No. I’m fine. Uhm, I’m more worried about you. You, uhm, didn’t exactly give yourself much time to heal.” Fluttershy stated meekly, shifting her eyes sub-consciously to the spot where Yamano had been struck by the manticore.

Yamano waved a clawed hoof in dismissal. “I’m fine, Fluttershy. I may not be at peak performance, but I’m not going to collapse any time soon.

“Oh. That’s good.” Fluttershy responded quietly. Neither pony continued to speak, leaving an awkward silence looming over their heads. A silence that lasted a little too long, as when they glanced around the room, they realised they were both completely alone. The princesses had already moved on ahead.

The silence went from awkward to painful. Having been fed up, Yamano decided to speak.

“Shall… Shall we get moving? Before they completely leave us behind.”

Fluttershy nodded as Yamano took point. They were both nervous about traversing the forest with just the two of them, but Fluttershy took it to an extreme. She ended up standing extremely close to Yamano, who by no means tried to force her away, but still felt weird having someone rely on her so much for safety. The trip was uneventful however, and they found themselves standing outside of the forest before they knew it.

“That… wasn’t so bad.” The guardian sighed in relief. “Let’s go see what Pinkie has planned, I guess.”

Fluttershy nodded again. She had tried multiple times throughout the trip to ask Yamano about what she had overheard from the conversation between her and Nightmare Moon, but each time she tried, the words failed her. She decided to think about it some more before trying again.

As the duo entered Ponyville, they were greeted by a heart-warming sight. The residents of Ponyville had no qualms accepting the appearance of Luna and were celebrating her arrival. Yamano and Fluttershy split away from each other at this point, and while Fluttershy went to stand with her friends, Yamano moved over to Twilight, who was standing a little ways out, looking sad about something.

“Hey Twilight. Are you alright?” Twilight remained quiet. It was obvious something was bothering her. Yamano had a sneaking suspicion. “You don’t want to go back to Canterlot, huh?” A slow nod was all she got as a response. “I see. I’ll go get Celestia then. Stay here.” Yamano started walking towards the princess in question. She chose a spot just within Celestia’s peripheral vision and beckoned her over. Celestia nodded in confirmation and peeled herself away from the adoring crowds.

“Why so glum, my faithful student?” Celestia asked with the tone of a caring mother. Her tone shifted to amusement. “Are you not happy that your quest is complete, and you can return to your studies in Canterlot?” Twilight hung her head low at the mention of Canterlot.

“That’s just it.” Her voice was laden with disappointment. “Just when I’ve learned how wonderful it is to have friends, I have to leave them.” The new group of friends had gathered around, and all looked sad at the concept.

Celestia gave a patient smile, before closing her eyes. “Spike, take a note please.”

Spike was about to voice a complaint, but Pinkie Pie magicked up a quill and parchment for the baby dragon. Yamano was confused. Again. She needed to do some investigation later.

“I, Princess Celestia, hereby decree, that the unicorn Twilight Sparkle shall take on a new mission for Equestria. She must continue to study the magic of friendship. She must report to me her findings, from her new home in Ponyville.”

All at once, the previous residents of Ponyville-turned-friends gathered around Twilight in excitement. They were all chattering happily, until two of them realised something. Applejack and Fluttershy both asked Celestia something at the same time.

“What about Yamano?/Will Yamano be able to stay?” Celestia failed to hide a giggle at the question.

“I couldn’t exactly separate my student from her guardian, now could I. Somepony has to make sure she stays out of trouble.” Celestia gave Yamano a knowing look and smiled. The guardians eyes were wide with surprise, and all motor functions had ceased. “Besides, I’d say she is as much a friend of yours as Twilight is.”

Yamano struggled with the information for far too long. All her new friends had smiles on their faces, but she couldn’t just accept the realisation too easily. “So I’m… NOT being sent back to Archades? Or thrown in a dungeon? Or-”

The looks on all her friends faces looked confused. Except for Fluttershy, who squeaked in apprehension at the mention of a dungeon, her knowing what Yamano used to be. Yamano realised what she had said and brought a clawed hoof to her face. “That’s going to take some explaining…”

Celestia sighed in slight frustration. “You realise that the moment I brought you here from Archades, you had forfeited all obligations to return to that place? I would never send you back willingly.” Celestia shifted her gaze down to Yamanos left hoof. “And I also wouldn’t send an Element of Harmony to a distant kingdom. Something tells me that it would be rather difficult to part you from yours.”

Yamano didn’t know what to think. So she didn’t. A few moments of complete silence passed. Or at least what felt like silence. Eventually, she let out a short chuckle. Then a longer one. And then collapsed, laughing hysterically at the prospect of being free. It was a moment of pure glee, a happiness she had never felt possessing her entire being. She never had to face the bastard that haunted her nightmares ever again, unless she herself chose to.

The rest of the group all looked at each other sceptically. They didn’t know what had happened to make Yamano break down so completely, but they were glad that she seemed so giddy. It was the first time they had seen her even remotely happy, and were glad they could be there to experience it. The immense jubilance emanating from the guardian removed any and all traces of the dangerous presence that had scared Fluttershy when they had first met. After a while, the joyful laughter from the guardian became infectious, causing everyone else to start giggling and laughing alongside her. Even Celestia seemed to be having trouble keeping up an air of professionalism. Even if they didn’t know why they laughed, they were glad to know the once serious and broody guardian had opened up a little more.

Pinkie, surprisingly, was the first to try and calm herself down. She looked about her friends, and yelled out. “LETS GET THIS PARTY STARTED!!! PRINCESSES, YOU AREN’T GETTING OUT OF THIS!”

Twilight was the next to calm herself, and turned towards the princess. “Thank you Princess Celestia! I’ll study harder than ever before!” The princess smiled warmly at the declaration, and soon cheers were heard from across all of Ponyville. It was a good day. And this party would be HUGE!

Chapter 3: Tension

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 4: Nightmares

“Another quiet night, it would seem. What I wouldn’t give for a pony to speak with on nights like this…”

Luna had been pacing slowly through the streets of Canterlot as the ponies that lived there slept, alone, much to her guards chagrin. The lack of attention had remained despite her loss of jealousy, and she had started to become complacent. As her eyes lazily bounced from window to window, she failed to stifle a sigh. She knew what she was getting into when she accepted the burden of Princess of the Night, but that didn’t make the loneliness any easier to bear. The silence could be so stifling that she had taken to talking to herself to make the time pass.

"And of course, night court was empty, once again... If I did not know better, I'd say they valued my sisters word more than mine." She snorted derisively. "Oh who am I kidding. Of course they do. They all think I'm a usurper to the throne." She shook her head to rid herself of her rampant thoughts. “I wonder how many ponies are dreaming right now… I suppose I could go and see for myself, although It is a little early.” She nodded to herself before heading back to her room in the castle. She was surprised and flattered to find it had not changed at all after her long imprisonment as Nightmare Moon, but now it served as the ideal meditation chamber and quiet area to do what she did best; entering and patrolling the dreamscape. As she settled into a comfortable laying position, she allowed her magic to flow, and to guide her mind into the dreamscape shared by pony kind.

She had always enjoyed the dreamscape as she patrolled it, as it shared the wondrous beauty and design of the stars she so meticulously crafted every night. Even the path she walked was that of stardust, creating a gently glimmering light across each door that represented a different ponies dreams. These doors released slightly different energies based on whether a pony is dreaming or not, and whether they were having a nightmare. Each different energy reacted differently to her magic.

The princess decided that she would scour the dreamscape for any doors giving off a nightmarish energy, and subsequently help dispel the nightmare plaguing the pony. What she had not been expecting was the discovery of a new door. One that was entirely unfamiliar to her yet gave her the slightest feeling of déjà vu.

This door was in a far worse condition than any of the other dream doors she had come across in her previous excursions. It was made of basic wooden planks, cracked and falling apart. Its top hinge had come undone, and it hung loosely on the bottom hinge, as if it was but a push away from falling off in its entirety. That was enough to catch the princesses attention, but it was two other details that kept it.

The first was the extremely familiar scythe embedded into the stardust road just outside the door in question. Luna swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat, as she could remember not too long ago being on the receiving end of that scythe, and it terrified her at the time. She could not dwell on this for long, however. As she flared her magic to read the door, she almost collapsed in pain. The damaged state of the door was allowing all of its energy to flow out and influence the other ponies’ dreams around it. The energy that she felt was not normal.

“This… This is the strongest, deepest nightmare I think I have ever felt from another. It... It may even be comparable to my own.” She glanced at the doors to either side, both of which belonged to two more of the elements. Honesty and Kindness, she recalled. As she took a closer look around, she found that the doors of all seven of the element bearers had congregated in this one area, be it directly next to or across from the other. Turning her attention to the door representing Honesty, she felt the nightmarish energy infecting the dream within. A brief look at Kindness drew the same conclusion. Hesitantly, she pushed the cracked and beaten door open with her magic. When all she could see was a wasteland of blacks and whites, at which a brief touch told her it was stone, her eyes briefly flicked over to the scythe to her left.

“I should bring this with me.” She grabbed the scythe in her magic, a pleasing night blue aura surrounding the vicious weapon. It took a couple of attempts, but she wrested the polearm from its resting place in the floor. She shuddered as she regarded its edge. “Why she would prefer a weapon fit for the Grim Reaper I will never-” A thought hit her like a freight train. “Of course. The Reaper Assassin. How did I miss that?” Shaking her head of the thoughts, Luna slowly entered the dream of one Yamano Sagiri. And only two steps later, she froze.

Lying on the ground, bloody, beaten, and writhing in agony, was the pony to whom this dream belonged. A guttural scream escaped the assassins lips as she tossed about, scratching at herself at some unseen combatant. All of the princess's thought processes ground to a halt at the seemingly invincible alicorn before her being tortured to such a degree. Before her thoughts could start up again, a growling, young sounding voice cut through the dream.

“Do not interfere with her punishment, Princess Luna, lest I turn my power on you instead.” Princess Lunas gaze tore itself away from Yamano and landed on a sight she would never have expected.

Standing in front of her, with obvious pride and surety in their own ability, stood a pegasus stallion. He had a long mane burning a bright crimson offset with a deep ocean blue which flowed similarly to her own, and his coat consisted of a dirtied yellow streaked with red. His eyes flared a similar yellow to his coat, and his teeth were jaggedly sharp. He had a twisted grin that never wavered, and his eyes were opened wide, as if he were mad. Clutched in his right hoof was a sceptre made of bone, with a darkly shimmering amethyst set as the centrepiece, and it radiated powerful magic. A quick trace of the magic showed that it was the object causing the intense pain that Yamano was experiencing. Luna narrowed her eyes and used the royal Canterlot voice she had become so accustomed to.

“Who art thou to inflict such distress upon Our charge?!” She brandished the scythe still held within her magic and aimed it at the intruder. “We will not tolerate such a nightmarish creature to plague Our subjects any longer!” She took a step to advance but was cut off by the mad cackling of the pony in front of her.

“I made her what she is! She is mine to do as I please! You will not stand in the way, Nightmare Moon! She does not even belong to your precious Equestria! And I will TAKE HER BACK!” With a brief gesture, and a widening grin, he pushed the sceptre closer towards the writhing guardian as the pain it inflicted doubled. “I will DESTROY her mind until she has no choice but TO DO AS I SAY!” His cackling returned twofold as he pressed even closer to his victim. Yamano, however, was at her ropes end.

Through gritted teeth, and painful undulations, Yamano screamed as loud as she could. “LUNA! MY SCYTHE! NOW!” With a curt nod, the Princess of the Night threw the assassins scythe as hard as she could to land by its owner. Forcing her body to move through the intense pain of the cursed sceptre, she grasped the scythe in her teeth, and threw herself forward towards the mad pegasus. With an intense roar, she arrived by the tyrant and slashed down.

Silence finally settled on the half and half wasteland making up her dreams. Slowly, the pegasus’ head started to droop, and his body lost strength as he collapsed. When he fully hit the ground, his head rolled from his shoulders, before it and the rest of his body vanished from the dream. As the tension left her body, her scythe limply fell from her maw, and she collapsed back onto her withers. She saw her tears forming, but she could not feel it. Her entire body felt numb, and she started to shudder uncontrollably.

Luna, for her part, was sitting patiently and mulling over what she had just witnessed. She was aware that Yamano was unlikely to hesitate to take a life, so she was not too affected by the rolling of that pegasus’ head. What had concerned her was exactly WHO that pegasus was supposed to be. A sudden realization had her eyes widening.

‘That must have been Archades’ current Monarch. But what could he have done to generate such a realistic dream? One in which the dreamer could feel the pain in full force- such a thing is unheard of!’ She shook her head of the thoughts. ‘Now is not the time. Yamano is in pain. And yet… I do not know how to help.’ Luna turned her eyes back to the reaper she had protected, and almost fell back in surprise. Gone was the look of pain and sorrow that had claimed her. In its place resided pure rage. In her fury she showed that she had access to the royal voice as well.

“I will destroy him!” She slammed her hooves onto the ground in front of her, creating a spiderweb of cracks in the area around her. “He will die even if it is the last thing I do! He will pay for every life he has forced me to take, he will suffer every ounce of pain he has inflicted upon me, and nothing anypony can do will stop me!” Her eyes had shifted into a similar yellow to the pegasus she had slain, and Luna could not find the words to calm her. The enraged assassins breathing became heavier, and she turned to the sky. “DO YOU HEAR ME?! I WILL HAVE YOUR HEAD!” It was at this point she started repeatedly slamming the ground with her left hoof, claws balled into a fist. With every impact, the sound of metal striking stone echoed, and her claws warped further and further out of shape, until the purple-gold metal shattered. She reared back and screamed at the top of her lungs. “YOUR DAYS ARE NUMBERED, ARTORIAS!” Her scream had become amplified by the latent controllability of a lucid dream. It was so loud the fabric of the dreamscape started to shudder and ripple, as if the dream itself was about to shatter. It all died down as Yamanos breathing started to settle, although her eyes remained the same yellow as before.

Luna sat stock still as she regarded the assassin in front of her. She was fully aware that this pony was strong, she experienced that herself, but she had never expected to see such anger. The alicorns trembling was visible, just barely stopping herself from destroying everything in her vicinity. The sharp glow her eyes had adopted upon their transformation gave the feeling of prey viewing its predator. She quickly realised she needed to do something to calm down the enraged pony in front of her.

“Yamano, settle thy mind.” Luna rose to her hooves and approached the fuming guardian. “We have something to-” The assassin in question whipped her head around and glared at the princess, before it could register who she was seeing, she snapped.

“Don’t tell me what to do!” She took threatening strides forwards, forcing Luna to back down. “I am DONE taking orders! From you! From him! From any pony! And I won’t let you stand in my way of killing him!” Their muzzles ended up a couple of centimetres away, and yet neither noticed. Yamano had her teeth bared and was slightly growling, while Luna had her eyebrows raised at the sudden hostility. It took a few seconds for the assassin to realise exactly who had infiltrated her dream, but once she had, she dropped her glare and took a few steps backward, with her eyes phasing back to their normal blue.

“I’m sorry, Luna. I… I’m sorry.” Yamano clawed at her right eye as she covered it and looked away from the princess. She shirked away from the feeble attempt at comfort Luna tried to provide in the form of a hoof on the shoulder, but that did not dissuade the lunar diarch.

“Do not apologize, little pony. From what We have seen, your reactions were to be expected.” She allowed a small smile to grace her features. “Have you calmed down?” Yamano grimaced for a second, before slowly nodding her head. Lunas expression turned serious. “I am afraid there is a slight problem.”

Yamanos attention was immediately focused on the princess in front of her. She walked over and reclaimed her scythe, placing it on her back. “Problem in what regard?”

Luna tried to respond for a second, but she hesitated. Shaking her head, she forced herself to speak. “The state of which your dream door remains has caused your nightmares to infect the dreams surrounding them.” She flinched away from the steely expression on the assassins face.

“The state? What do you mean, the state?” She had clenched her right claws into another fist, before realising her left claws had shattered. ‘Bloody dreams…’

Instead of answering straight away, Luna conjured the exit leading back to the dream hub. The door that she conjured was her own, as shown by the lunar regalia, along with its silver, black and blue theming. She beckoned Yamano to follow her through, before exiting the dream. Hesitating a moment to stare after the princess, Yamano proceeded through the door. She took a moment to look around, seeing the vast expanse of the dreamscape, before turning back around and focusing in on what she assumed to be her own door. She instinctually tensed up and narrowed her gaze at the decrepit door that had taken the place of the one she had taken. Luna failed to stifle a sigh.

“This is a representation of your mind pertaining to your dreams. It is what allows me to enter your dreams and alter them accordingly.” She slowly shook her head as she sorted her thoughts. “Normally, a door as damaged as this would only be an issue for the pony to whom it belongs. However,…” The lunar diarch gestured with a hoof to the doors belonging to Applejack and Fluttershy. “With how powerful your nightmares are, it has started to influence those whose minds are in close proximity to yours.” Luna shuddered at the memory of the mad pegasus she had seen executed. “And I fear it is that… Artorias that may have a hand in this.”

Yamano had stayed silent during the princesses explanation, but at the mention of the insane monarch, she slammed her right hoof down, causing the crash to echo throughout the dreamscape. She narrowed her eyes in frustration. “Leave it to that bastard to somehow still threaten those I protect even when he is safe within his walls in Archades.” She rapidly shook her head to quell her rapidly rising bloodlust, and instead turned to Luna, eyebrows furrowed with worry. “I take it they are experiencing their own nightmares now?”

Luna solemnly nodded her head. “Although you had dispelled your own nightmare, it had been active long enough to influence these two.” She quickly beckoned at each of the doors to the side of the guardians. Yamano growled in anger and started walking to what she assumed was Applejacks door.

“These nightmares are my fault and are thus my responsibility. I will deal with them.” She allowed herself to smirk back at the princess. “Besides, if these really are dreams, I will have much more freedom in actually dealing with them. I can do things I would never be able to do in the real world.” She cracked her neck before gently opening the door to Applejacks dreams. Glancing through, she found herself looking into the Everfree forest from above and spotted something moving through the canopies. When she focused, she saw Applejack surrounded by a group of Timberwolves that were three times larger than they should have been, and not a single source of fire in sight. Applejack looked to be panting with exhaustion and was slowly getting backed into a corner. With a sinister smile, Yamano let her normal garb fall away, and blitzed through the doorway at full speed, extending her wings out and channelling the dream to up her flight speed to something comparable to a specific rainbow maned speedster. Calling upon the dream once again, she enveloped her hooves with white flames, and her smile grew even further.

On the approach, Applejack finally looked up to see Yamano plummeting towards her position covered with glowing fire. As the alicorn touched down, the farmhoof instinctively blocked the light of the resulting explosion with her Stetson. She did not miss how her assailants had all vanished in an instant, with only pieces being slowly burnt to ash. The explosion itself had blasted a twenty-foot diameter circle clear of any of its trees, and it left herself and Yamano in the clearing with just the two of them. Yamano took a moment to let her dream flames die out on their own, before smirking at the gobsmacked Applejack, who managed to recover her wits long enough to speak.

“What ‘n tarnation was that all about?!” Her eyes were wide with shock. “What’d y’all’ve did if ah got blasted by that too?! Ah’d’ve been deader than a doornail in a forge!” By this point she was hysterical, and Yamano had started to hang her head in annoyance. “Ah know y’all ken take a beatin’ an’ carry on like nothin’ happened, but-” Having had enough of her crap, Yamano forced a hoof onto Applejacks mouth to force her to stop talking. The guardian merely raised an eyebrow in the earth ponies general direction.

“You’re dreaming AJ.” Applejack stood stock still at the revelation, prompting Yamano to remove her hoof. “And I’m afraid this little nightmare of yours may have been my fault.”

The farmpony’s eyes went even wider at that, before looking exceedingly confused. “How’s it yer fault if it’s my nightmare?”

Yamano went on to explain everything that she had just been told, about the dreamscape and the state of her own dream door. She made a connection that she hadn’t thought about earlier, however. “Remember back in the forest how I told you I was tortured?” Applejack hesitantly nodded her head. “I’m willing to bet that’s what caused the state of my own dreams. And because of that, my nightmare was capable of influencing yours.” A tired sigh pushed its way out of her lungs. “I still have to go check on Fluttershy, she’s the only other pony in close enough proximity at the moment.” Applejack nodded with understanding.

“Don’t let me keep ya, sugarcube. Thank yeh kindly for tha help, and fer explainin’ things. Must be a mighty strong nightmare to mess with ours like that, though.” She chuckled a bit. “Ah nevermind, just bellyachin’. Go on, get! Go save her.” She smirked at the guardian as she started to walk away.

“Will do. Sleep well.” After getting a reply of confirmation, she headed to where she could see Luna hiding away behind a tree. Upon the approach, she spotted the familiar door that acted as entrance to the dreamscape. “Let’s not keep her waiting.”

“Of course. After you.” Luna spent a second of her own making sure the nightmare wasn’t about to flare back up on its own, before following the guardian, who had immediately made a beeline towards Fluttershys door. She didn’t even pause at the door, upon seeing a rocky mountainous region and the bloody great DRAGON that greeted her upon arrival, she didn’t even think about the fact that the pegasus to whom the dream belonged was still unaware that she was an alicorn. A very quick glance told her that the dragon was in fact about to attack Fluttershy, who had predictably curled up and had started shaking in fear on the floor. Forcing the dream to its limits, Yamano teleported the distance between herself and the terrified pegasus, placing herself in between Fluttershy and her assailant. She watched with her eyes once more turning yellow, only this time traces of red could be seen around the edges. She waited as the dragons teeth grew ever closer.

When Fluttershy briefly glanced up at the new presence in front of her out of instinct, she stopped shaking and had frozen altogether. Here was an alicorn that looked all too familiar. Blue-streaked grey mane and tail, a purple coat riddled with scars, claws on the hooves, scythe on her back. Everything about her screamed Yamano, but her mind refused to allow herself to make that connection.

‘Yamano is a bicorn not an alicorn… but then it can’t be any pony else… but if it is Yamano then...?’ Her eyes flitted unwilled to the cutie mark of this supposedly unknown alicorn, and sure enough it looked exactly like Yamanos element of harmony. Moving on their own once again, her eyes landed on the dragon with its maw opened wide, about to…

‘THE DRAGON IS GOING TO EAT HER!’ She went into a full panic, her mind shutting down as it tried and failed to come up with a solution to her fear and the situation.

The dragon finished its lunge, and Yamano did not even attempt to move out of the way. She just tilted her head so that the dragon would bite down on her shoulder. As Fluttershy looked on, she saw that the ex-assassin didn’t even flinch. Before she could say anything however, Yamano stole the spotlight.

“You okay there Fluttershy?” Her voice was quiet, and kind. Much like she had been during the adventure in the Everfree. It immediately did wonders into calming her down, just enough so that she could say a quiet confirmation. After she had said it, she was almost certain that Yamano would have been unable to hear it, after all, her other friends never understood a word she said when she spoke like that, but the nod of her saviours head proved her otherwise. “Good. Do you mind if I deal with this sorry excuse for a dragon?” Again, she was sure her voice would have been inaudible, but she meekly muttered “If you want to” before hiding behind her hair, and timidly looked back at the ex-assassin. She could just barely see the corner of her mouth curled up into a wicked grin, before she saw something unexpected. The teeth she could see were starting to elongate, becoming needle sharp and three times longer than they had started. As she watched, she spotted the fur around her mouth slowly transforming into stone-like red scales, and eventually her twin horn started to unravel itself and point outwards as well, while also tripling in width. Then, all at once, a terribly great heat blasted over her as the alicorns slow transformation flashed forwards and completed, flooding the area in an impossibly bright red light, forcing her to look away. When the light had died down again, the dragon was nowhere to be seen, and Yamano had returned to normal.

Yamano whirled around with zeal, crouched down and lightly grasped Fluttershys face with her right claws, moving her head slightly to check for any injuries. A passing thought clued her in on the fact that the butter-yellow pegasus was regarding her with wide eyes. Catching her reflection in her focuses teal eyes, she realised her own eyes hadn’t yet transformed back. In reflex she narrowed them, causing the pony in front of her to gasp at the sudden intense look she had started to harbour. She forced her eyes closed and shook her head, trying to reorganize her thoughts.

“I’m sorry you had to see that.” She scratched at the back of her head with her left hoof. “Had no idea it was going to happen myself. First time I’ve ever transformed like that.” She let the silence hang, allowing Fluttershy to catch up with the conversation. Her response came even quieter than usual, but her recent transformation left her hearing more sensitive for a time.

“I-It’s fine.” As if to contradict her own words, the care-giving pegasus shrank away from the ex-assassin. She couldn’t bring herself to speak again, if the minute squeak that tore itself from her throat was anything to go by. Yamano lost her grip on the sigh she was trying to hold back, before falling back to her haunches.

“You’re scared of me again.” It wasn’t a question; she had made sure of that. It was a statement. She nodded to herself, as if realising something at last. “This is going to be a running theme, I can tell.” She let go of the tension keeping her body sat upright, and fell to her back, head and horn painfully smacking the rocky outcropping they were stood upon, and awkwardly folding her wings under her. When she lowered her eyes to look at the pony she had ‘saved’, she had to do a double take when the intense panic seemed to vanish from Fluttershys eyes.

“N-No! I-I’m not scared of you!” Fluttershy quickly placed her hooves over her mouth to cut herself off, before trying again. “I… I-I can’t be scared of you! I won’t l-let myself be scared…” She swallowed a lump the lump in her throat, before looking at Yamano again. “A-after the f-forest you deserve much b-better!” She went to stand, but nerves got the better of her and she almost fell forwards. Yamano felt a sigh building but kept it from making itself known.

‘And yet she refuses to close the distance.’ She sat up and rolled her shoulder that had been bitten by the dream dragon, before raising a brow at Fluttershy. ‘If she weren’t scared of me, she’d have jumped at the prospect of helping me recover from injury.’ Yamano made to stand with a roll of the eyes and forced her ‘wounds’ to vanish. With a dismissive wave of a hoof, she started heading back to where she had entered. She spotted Luna staying just around a corner, out of sight of Fluttershy. Hesitating in her step, she turned and looked at the butter-yellow Pegasus straight in the eye. “You should consider re-shaping this dream to something more pleasant, Fluttershy.” She idly waved a hoof at her current surroundings. “An environment like this within the dreams of somepony like you would not be considered healthy.”

Despite the outcroppings being made entirely of rock, flames licked at every precipice and plateau. Upon closer inspection, not all of the flames were that of a dragon, which was a dull combination of the normal yellows and oranges. The overwhelming majority of the fire was undercut with writhing red and gold and released no smoke. It twitched like tendrils of malice as apposed to actual fire. As all present stared at the strange fire, Yamanos statement finally registered in the mind of Fluttershy.

“W-wait, dream?” She looked forlornly towards the ex-assassin. “S-so, you weren’t really here?...”

A chuckle escaped from the alicorn as she turned to look back at the lunar princess, who was still hiding out of sight of the timid pegasus. “I am here, just as real as you. You’d have to thank Luna for that one, though. She brought me here.” She bowed her head in shame. “It is my fault you had this nightmare in the first place, after all. It’s only fair I’d be the one to release you from it.”

Words escaped the grasp of the timid caregiver as she mulled over what the assassin had said. Before she could properly register it, she bore witness to a spell of light being channeled through her saviors horn. In an instant, the rocky plateau vanished, and in its place her own cottage had appeared. The removal of the multiple levels of cliffs revealed Luna to the sole pegasus, alongside the same door they had used to enter the dreamscape in the first place. Yamano had turned to start walking away, but twisted her head around to speak to Fluttershy.

"Sweet dreams, Fluttershy. I'll see you around." A small smirk graced her visage. "And hey, seeing as you know it's a dream, why not have some fun?" She successfully broke the tension surrounding the group as Fluttershy smiled back and nodded. Turning her attention back to Luna, she idly gestured towards the dream door. "Now that I'm lucid, I have something I need to look for. Meet you back in my dreams." With nary a word spoken after that, She made her way back into her own dreams.

As Luna re-entered the dreams of a certain assassin, she saw something she had not expected. Rows upon rows of what seemed to be filing cabinets as far as the eye could see, hovering in a grey void. There were no labels of any kind, but upon opening one she could see why. Despite how organized the dream seemed, each cabinet was filled with a random assortment of files, and in each of the files lay sub-levels of information, and some even opened up to completely different areas filled with even more cabinets. Turning a curious gaze to the owner of such chaotic order, she saw her scouring each and every file she came across. With her curiosity getting the better of her, she made to speak.

"What are you looking for? And how do you expect to find it in such a... Such a mess?" The strangeness of the situation finally caught up with her. "Where even are we?"

A mirthless chuckle resounded throughout the whole of the dream. As Yamano spoke, it came from within her mind, instead of through the air as she would have expected. "This is merely a representation of my damaged mind. Think nothing of it." The ex-assassin scratched the back of her head with her right hoof. "I'm looking for the location and rarity of a few materials and reagents I need for that project of mine I had you take a look at. If I'm correct, I should be able to find it... Somewhere in this Faust-forsaken mess." As she started rooting through another set of sub-files, she started shaking her head. "Egh, the shit do i know. Sometimes I retain everything, other times it gets buried behind seven hundred different sub-folders."

With a roll of the eyes she continued. "Not even exaggerating either. Literally seven hundred sub-folders to find the knowledge on the hunting patterns of dragons. Took the better part of a week." She smirked at the princess of the night. "And that was after I had already explored the entirety of this section. Turned out that it was in..." She turned to look at a particular file half a mile down the line and on the opposite side. "That cabinet, seventeenth draw down, folder third from the back, and within the section in that folder, it was the nine hundred twenty third cabinet down on the left, eighth draw down, fourth folder from the front. That was where I had to go down seven hundred sub-folders." When she had finally turned back to look at Luna, she started laughing at her widened eyes.

"How do you keep track of all of this?" The flabbergasted princess shook her head to reorganize her thoughts. "I... I'm not even sure my sister would be able to deal with this."

With a shrug, Yamano turned back to searching. Deciding to make herself useful, Luna started upon the opposite side and started scouring the files for what the ex-assassin was looking for. Until, of course, the realization hit that she still did not know what she was looking for. Seeing the annoyed expression present on Luna's features, Yamano's laughter doubled its intensity.

"I'm looking for raw Cobalt to make the base, MagiSteel for a specific enchantment, and the Giant's Breath mushroom to make wax. The oils make a good base when you crush the stalk into it, and if you add the cap as well it can be used to make an extremely powerful adhesive." She idly waved a hoof at the myriad of cabinets to choose from. "I'm absolutely certain that we will be able to find it in this section. The only question is where?!" The sudden exclamation echoed throughout the mindscape as her eyes narrowed, before she gave up and turned back to her search.

When Luna gave herself a moment to think, she remembered seeing one of the items three files prior. With a cursory glance, she found what she was looking for. "MagiSteel can be most commonly found within the northern tundras of Equestria, although it can rarely be found deep within mountains of a grand scale."

With an excited grin, Yamano warped straight to Luna's side. "One down, two to go. This shouldn't be too bad!"

At this, Luna groaned. "You do realize you have just jinxed us?" All she got in response was a face-hoof.

Author's Note

i know this one is a bit shorter, but i usually continue untill i find a good stopping point, and that seemed to be one in my opinion.

OH! and this is also the first chapter i've started writing directly into Fimfiction itself, so i'm using some of its features for more flavor and also technically lore. have fun with that!