Not Always Hugs

Chapters

1 - A Just Reward
2 - Seven Steps
3 - Toby's Flight
4 - Moonrise
5 - Past to Present
7 - Follow My Lead
8 - Pow
9 - Friendship is Magic
10 - Be Better
11 - An Army Unified
12 - Reinforcements Have Arrived
13 - A Gathering of Light
14 - Forward March
15 - Sneak Attack
16 - Cities Burn
17 - In Darkness
18 - Regrouping
6 - Measures of Strength

1 - A Just Reward

Toby nodded softly, watching the caravan bound up towards the exit of their cave. Great feats of athleticism, they jumped from one craggy outjutting of rock to the next as if they were no further apart then a set of stairs. The heavy satchels on their back clearly didn't slow them down enough to bother them, and soon they were gone, vanishing outside the distant hole up top.

He turned to his co-ruler, Sombra. "They like."

"They like, and will pay dearly." Sombra laughed with perhaps too much pleasure in the idea of economic action. Nevermind that the ponies gladly traded with them. In his mind, it was an attack, and one he was winning. "I look forward to the news of their victory."

Toby had long ago learned not to question how one 'won' such a thing. Both sides left happy, so there was no loser. Everyone was a winner! "Week. Seven days." He repeated that last bit as if to explain the first. "We wait."

Up above, the leader of the caravan landed on all fours in the deep snow, only to bound up to standing on his hinds easily, the snow no match for his great stature, especially in that position. "Role call!" Names began to echo as tsuki landed all around him. Bucks and does, each landed and most stood up as he was doing, calling out their name and saluting with a slap of their hand against their chest as they lowered their heads as if showing off their horns.

"That's everyone, good." He turned in place and pointed. "We can't hop there, things will get damaged." As simple as Toby's speech was, the caravan leader was one of the newer generation, just at the edge. Old enough to gain a leadership position, and young enough to learn how to speak properly from the revamped educational system the tsuki were enjoying. "We walk and stay together."

And so the walking began, trudging through the snow. Their thick fur shielded them from the chill of the north. There had been a time when tsuki danced unclothed under the moon's watch, bouncing through the snow as if it were normal, which it was, for them. Clothing was new. Bipedalism was new, though their natural habits drove them to two legs when they were quarreling or lobbying for domination. It was a little thing, but it was enough to let them walk with a grace no pony could match, even if they preferred bouncing on all fours given half a chance.

His heavy ears twitched faintly, too massive to stay erect for longer than an instant. A noise he should not have heard reached him and he veered to the right, cutting off a doe. "What was that?"

She bared her bucked teeth in a smile. "Nothing," she lied nakedly, shying back half a step.

"Is that their name?" He returned the smile, less broad, less teeth on display. "Come on out, Nothing."

A little head poked free of her backpack, immature ears fully erect and wriggling. "Hello! My name isn't nothing."

"I imagined not." He reached for the little female kit and gently ran his fingers over her head. "Kits aren't supposed to be here, it's a long trip. Wouldn't you rather be back home?"

"No!" She hugged the back of her likely mother's neck firmly. "I wanna be here, with Mom!"

The larger tsuki laughed nervously. "I swear, I didn't know she had snuck in there until we had already left. Please, I'll keep an eye on her." She was a young doe, perhaps a few years younger than him, barely an adult in his eyes.

"Keep a close eye on her." His eyes were on the kit. "And you listen to your mom, alright?"

"Yuh-huh!" She slapped her little chest in a crude display of their salute. She barely had any horns to display, and it only made the gesture insufferably adorable to him.

He put her out of his mind for the moment and returned to his position at the center forward of the band, confident that he was back in knowledge of everything going on in his band.

They stopped for lunch beneath the bright sun. Despite the cold beneath them, they could feel the gentle warmth of the sun above and many sprawled out to soak up as much of it as possible as they ate and talked. Eating time was a social time and soft jokes and stories spread through the band. It was a happy time.

A sharp cry of a bird of prey had him sitting up just in time for talons to dig into his shoulder. The griffon responsible barreled into him, using speed to compete with the tsuki's greater mass and drive him into the snow. He could hear screams, some of panic, others ready to fight. He kicked up powerfully, sending the griffon attached to him free and propped into the air, but with the chunk of his shoulder that was held still firmly gripped, red lines forming from his injury.

"Attack!" he shouted. It was a keyphrase they all knew, but never had to use before. Their caravan was being assaulted, and that meant he had to defend it. It was his job. "Don't panic!" He dropped to all fours just to immediately rebound even if his shoulder ached from the intense pressure his powerful legs could create, sending him high into the air.

For just an instant, he could see it all, but he hardly had time to process what he was seeing when a griffon was closing in on him, no talons reaching out. Instead a length of hard steel glinting in that previously comforting sun. The tsuki commander lashed out a hind paw, his most powerful limb, aiming to kick the bird-cat away with bone-shattering force.

Metal met flesh and his flesh proved weaker, the sword biting right into the flesh. His howl joined that of others, woefully unprepared to deal with armed brigands.

A small kit, the doe from before, quivered beneath a pile of snow, where she had been shoved just as the fight began. Her mother had joined the battle, fighting fiercely, bravely, but they were outmatched. Before her trembling eyes, all the adults there were laid low. It was all over so quickly. The quiet was almost as bad as the sounds of fighting and hurting.

Where was her mother? Her eyes darted around, trying to get a peek of where her mother was, but all she could see were the slumped forms of what had been her friends.

One of the griffons stomped through their makeshift camp. "Take everything and anything worth having," he grunted out, waving a talon around even as they wiped their sword clean on the snow. "Help the injured, carry the dead. We leave nogriffon behind."

Stern words of agreement rose as they began grabbing the bags the tsuki were carrying not long before. They turned them inside out, taking what they decided was the most valuable and leaving the rest to lay forgotten in the snow, much like the still forms of so many of her adult friends. Tears stung at her little eyes, but she dared not move. She barely dared to breathe, lest the griffons see her.

She was certain the would see her, hear her, smell her. They would find her and she would join the rest, laying there, so still... It took some time after they were gone before movement came to her and she let out a little choked sob. Snow fell from her as she took an unsure step forward, a timid little hop. "Mom?"

She bounced from figure to figure, her tears flowing all the harder at what she saw. None of them had met a good end. "Mom?!"

There she was, fallen over another rabbit. Had she tripped, or simply fallen on top of another after she was... The little kit surged over, landing just beside her mother. "Mom, mom! Wake up." She reached up with little hands and began to shake her mother, but no matter how vigorously she tried to coax life into the doe, nothing happened. "Mom..."

That is where she was found as the sun was setting. A pegasus landed quietly, looking around with wide eyes. "What... happened?" she asked, wings fidgeting on her back. "Poor things... Who, what... what could do this?!" Her wings wings flared out as she turned. "Who's there?!"

She had heard something, but could see nothing. She began looking around slowly. "Is... somecreature--" She paused to swallow heavily. "--still here?"

The little kit watched the pegasus, looking for weapons like the ones that had hurt everyone, but the pegasus had none of those. She took a slow breath and chanced it, stepping out from under her mother's still form.

The mare turned quickly, spotting the movement, only to go still, staring at the little kit, her eyes trembling. "Oh no... oh no! No no no. You poor thing." She almost tackled the little rabbit, hugging the little kit close. "You're safe now. You're safe," she hurriedly murmured, clutching to the little one. "Nothing will hurt you, I promise... I'll take you to the other bunnies, alright?"

The kit stiffly nodded and pointed where she thought home was. "Can you help mom?"

The pegasus drew in a ragged breath. There was nocreature on that field that she could help... "Maybe we can find some help there, back in bunny land." She set the kit down and turned. "Can you get on and hold tight?"

With a thump of small feet against snow, the kit bounced right up onto the offered back and hugged tightly, perhaps a bit too tightly. She was clutching to the only living friendly creature she had. The mare offered a pained smile, unable and unwilling to even chastise the child. "I'll get you back to your people. They'll take care... of this." How, she wasn't sure, but no other ideas came to her.

The mare flew straight and true, carrying her precious cargo into the tsuki cave. It was a steep hole, basically straight down, but for a flying pegasus, no particular problem. When the tsuki saw her coming, they cheered and waved. The tsuki were a happy people, a friendly people. Who could have...

She landed lightly and tsuki approached in all directions.

Toby was there with a big smile. "Hello!" Then he saw the kit clutching to her and blinked in confusion. "How get?" He reached for the kit who shied away at first before actually looking at him. Suddenly he had the kit wrapped around his neck instead, hugging him tightly. "Hello," he greeted the kit with a silly smile. "Where mom?"

The mare coughed softly, perhaps in part due to being able to breathe properly again. "She's... hurt. Real hurt... really really hurt..." She glanced left and right. "Hurt enough that we shouldn't talk about it around her child?"

"We left her," wailed the kit suddenly. "We left them all! They're all hurt so bad. I tried to wake them up and it didn't work and then she came." She waved a paw at the mare, a moment of reprieve that didn't last before she was back to clinging to Toby. "They're all hurt! They took our things, all the things we were gonna trade!"

Sombra rose from the shadows with a deep scowl. "We were attacked? Who did it? Speak clearly, child."

"Birds, long tails." She fell from Toby, using her paws instead to pantomime wildly. "Wear metal, use metal, cut... cut..." She trembled and the tears began to flow anew. "Cut..."

A wing draped over her, the mare looking to the kit with growing concern. "Nocreature should have to see that, especially not a little one... Please tell me she has family or something?"

Murmurs began to spread through the crowd, news of the event and the surviving kit. The peaceful life of the tsukis had been shattered.

Author's Note

Welcome to the start of a story that may have an insufficient quantity of hugs. Perhaps Toby can fix this? Or is this beyond his power. He raised his people from the shadows, it is perhaps time for them to stand for themselves. Will you take this walk with me?

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2 - Seven Steps

Celene, Toby's mated partner, was low to the ground. She was laying on her belly, as low as she could be. That was a proper position for approaching a scared and lost cub. "You are safe," she gently repeated. "Safe."

"Mom isn't safe," sniffled the cub. "Help her. Please!"

Celene knew exactly how likely that was, but how to explain to the cub... "She will not come back..."

"Why?!" The cub suddenly jumped for Celene, little paws grabbing Celene's lips and pulling at them in a futile show of her confusion. "Why she leave?! She hurt, need help!"

"She not hurt no more," assured Celene, tolerating the lip tugging. "She go, no hurt."

"She didn't take me," whispered the cub, sinking down off Celene's snout. "Why?"

Celene canted her head. "Only old and hurt go there. You not old or hurt. She wants you stay, be happy." She sat up a bit, rising far over the cub.

"Not happy!" loudly proclaimed the cub, confident in that fact more than any other. "Which way?" She began circling. "Which way she go? Will go."

Celene put a paw down on the cub, keeping her from bouncing away. "Where she go, no follow. Not alone, safe."

The cub began to beat a foot on the ground in a rapid thump-a-thump only a rabbit-like creature could muster. "She not safe! Why not help mom?!"

Celene's expression hardened. Perhaps it was time... "Want help, cannot. No help." She scooped up the thrashing cub and bounced off with her, held firmly in one paw. "Show."

"Show?" Her fighting ebbed a little. "What show?"

"Truth." Celene landed in a dark and moist cave and pointed to a big fat worm that was peacefully slithering along. "See?"

"Grubworm," stated the cub. "Good to eat."

"Good to eat," agreed Celene. She displayed the claws of her free hand. "Alive, happy for worm."

"Alive," agreed the cub, confusion creeping into her voice. What exactly was the larger tsuki driving at.

Celene suddenly stomped, slicing the worm cruelly down the side. Oozing blood and thrashing showed the worm's pain. "Now hurt. Like mom."

The cub's eyes went wide as saucers. "Help! Help help!" She suddenly kicked Celene, propelling herself forward to land beside the worm and frantically she started to try to hold the blood in, a futile effort. "Help!"

The gash Celene had cut was deep and true. The worm's frantic struggles began to slow and the blood refused to slow meaningfully until there was just less of it left to come out. It began to slow despite all of the cub's efforts, then it went still.

"Dead," stated Celene in a single cold syllable. "No fix. No hurt. Dead."

"Dead..." The cub staggered back, her paws covered in worm blood. She bounced right back forward again and shook the worm. She jostled and bit and hopped around it, but the worm refused to respond, for it was beyond such cares. "Dead... Fix?"

"There... no fix. Dead. Dead." Celene flumped to the ground. "Once dead, always dead. No come back. Dead. Mother... dead. You not. You not follow."

Visions of her mother's still body returned to her, so very still. Unmoving, unresponsive.

Dead.

Her wails were loud and her tears seemingly without end, but the impossibility of the situation had been burst. Celene cradled the little cub, waiting for it to end.

Sombra clopped a hoof down with the force needed to splinter the rock beneath him. "Revenge will be ours! Nocreature attacks me and gets away with it."

Quick Stroke nodded with firm approval. "As you say it, m'lord. Lead with kindness, and have the strength to enforce it, as you have said. It is time to make that strength clear to the world entire." The scowling unicorn looked to Toby. "How many soldiers are at the ready?"

Toby pointed off into the caves. "Have halften guards."

Sombra raised a brow. "Five gu--

"--Five," suddenly interjected Toby, remembering what number half-ten actually was. "Five guards."

"Is that all?" Sombra leaned forward, dark energy crackling from his eyes. "That will not suffice." He turned to Quick. "You and Celene achieved some mastery of their strange magic-altering properties, didn't you?"

"Yes, m'lord. Celene's gathering are not members of the guard. The guard are not soldiers, Sir. They barely qualify as a policing force, as much as the tsuki need one of those. Shall I fetch Celene? I imagine she is ready for battle."

The mention of his mate had his attention. "Battle?"

"Battle," grunted Sombra. "To fight. To destroy. What they did to us when they ambushed our traders."

Toby shrank back, thinking on the lost tsuki. They would return the favor? "Is only way? Not like fighting. Not fight you." He pointed at Sombra directly. "Not fight, make friend. Now good friend, good king."

Sombra's nostrils flared in a mighty huff. "Then you will be--"

"--Ponies!" suddenly blurted Toby. "Make friend. Ask for help. They know what do."

Sombra glanced aside at Quick, who was returning the look. Quick lifted his shoulders. "He has a point. We have signed treaties with the ponies. If we make it clear we have been attacked, support should follow."

A wicked grin spread over the stallion's face. "The ponies have soldiers, weak as they may be. Better they suffer than my own people. Yes, we will contact them. In the meantime..." He looked between the other co-rulers of the tsuki, the upper echelon of the command structure that was himself, Toby, and Quick. "Bring me a tsuki that knows how to fight."

Quick winced, teeth clenched. "There is one I know can fight. She has a warrior's spirit hidden beneath her simple face." He reached his true hoof to tap against his crystal foreleg. "It is she that caused this. A cruel sign of disobedience, but an undeniable display of skill."

With a sudden soft thump, Celene landed, a little sleeping cub cradled in one arm, the other three limbs supporting her landing. "Need go." All three others looked at her with varying levels of confusion. Celene inclined her head towards the cub. "Hurt, need help."

"Ponies help," noted Toby with a big smile. "Bring to ponies, they help. They smart, help." He thought back to the last pony visitor they had, Moondancer, who had helped reshape their shoddy educational system. "Yes, will go." He reached for the cub.

Only for Sombra to get between them. "You and the ponies see eye to eye. You will approach their leaders." He turned to Celene. "You will see to the cub, then return. We have work for you. This attack will not go without reprisal. Quick, draft a letter for Toby to bring."

"Already on the case." A quill danced beside him, held in his magic as it scribbled busily. "Shall I draft another for Celene?"

Celene snorted softly. "Not need letter. Ponies see kit so sad, they will not need words." She turned away from all present and bounded away, clearly determined to get where she wished to be and taking the cub with her.

That left Toby angling his head left and right. Suddenly a little smile appeared. "See Luna?"

"And Celestia," corrected Sombra as he took the letter just as it was finished and passed it, folded, to Toby. "Bring them this, then explain in your own words. They favor you, I am not ashamed to admit. Convince them their help will be... appreciated." He pointed in the same direction Celene had fled. "Speed is an asset we desire. Waste no time."

"No time." He tucked the letter away and thumped his chest, showing his horns to Sombra in proper tsuki salute. "Be back." And off he went, thumping down the hallway in great bounds.

Quick watched in the direction they had both gone before looking to Sombra. "I will see to gathering those I know trained with Celene. We'll get a fighting force started. There is no reason to be idle."

"Good, good..." He raised a hoof to his chin, stroking lightly. "Perhaps it is time for me to ride alongside my soldiers, to teach those that cross us how foalish an idea that is."

Celene sprang high into the air, soaring over the snow-covered lands, her eyes set firmly on her destination. A faint sound caused her to look over her shoulder in time to see a griffon divebombing at her. She spun mid-air, grabbing the chain-armored birdcat from the air with a snarl as they both crashed into the snow. "Last mistake," she hissed, sparing but a momentary glance to see that her precious cargo was safely attached to her back.

The griffon was far from unarmed, jabbing a dagger into Celene's unarmored ribs quite suddenly. Despite the pain and wet feeling, Celene's great digging claws clenched tightly on her assailant and she began to pull, all four paws wrenching the griffon in different directions. "You kill. You get killed," she snarled, each pop and splinter of the griffon's sinew and bones bringing her greater satisfaction.

The dagger embedded in her was abandoned, hanging there as its wielder was drawn and quartered. He screeched in agony, trying to drive his beak into her, but the angle made it an awkward proposition at best.

Other cries echoed, the griffon was not alone. Celene scowled, suddenly flipping around, tossing the griffon roughly into the snow and springing into the air. Pain exploded through her midsection, the movement upsetting the dagger before she wrenched it cleanly free and sent it flying at the next griffon she could see. It nicked their arm, their cry of pain music to her ears, but it didn't stop them. She was being actively chased.

"I got it," called one of the griffons, bringing up a glowing staff in both hands and directing it at Celene. "Die, bunny!" Crackling magic burst free of it, racing for Celene's back.

She was suddenly as metal, her fur aligning to the magic coming towards her. It ran over and through her and gathered in her horns. She hit the snow and threw her head at the staff wielder, throwing his magic back at him before bouncing away, not even taking the time to see if it hit or not.

She had a place to be, and a kit that only she could protect. None would stand in her way, or so she promised herself as the wind howled past her, causing her ears to whip and flop about with all the speed she could muster.

"Where we?" asked a little voice. The kit had woken up. Then she screamed, seeing a griffon closing in on Celene and herself. Celene bent with a sudden twist, the incoming sword missing her screaming rider to bite into her paw instead as she shoved the sword aside. Her other hand grasped firmly onto the griffon as they began to fall. Instead of trying to wrench this one apart, she slammed her head forward, proving that tsuki horns were made of tougher stuff than the front of a griffon's face. They hit the ground roughly, but only one of them scrambled to her paws, surging ahead.

"Let her go," called the griffon that still held the magic staff, though his fur and feathers were singed by the reflected attack. "Not worth it." The other griffons scowled at the idea of giving up on the fight, especially against a rabbit that was clearly losing blood, but they obeyed the command given, allowing Celene to make good her escape into the mountains that separated the frozen north from Equestria-proper.

"Sir." A griffon flew up from below. "The first to make contact is hurt."

"Put a bandaid on it," spat the staff wielder.

"More hurt than that." The griffon shook his head. "Maimed."

"Ugh, send him home. He's fired. What about the other?"

"I'm alright, Sir." Another griffon approached, his face bloodied, a great gash over an eye. "She surprised me, but I'm ready to fight, Sir."

"Good." He clapped the soldier on the shoulder. "There's plenty of fight left to do."

Author's Note

What are those griffons up to? Celene breaks the line to reach the pony lands. Will she get her little kit somewhere safe? The tsukis prepare for what may be a proper war.

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3 - Toby's Flight

Toby was not headed in precisely the same direction that his partner had, though fairly close. Unlike Celene, he was armored. Sombra had insisted, to give a 'proper impression', or something like that. Toby thought it was very silly. As if Best Princess would need to be given any new impressions. She already liked Toby, and Toby liked her.

And Celestia would be there too.

Wearing armor was a bummer in a few vital ways. He couldn't properly feel the cold caress of the wind through his heated fur. Jumping so far and fast built up a lot of heat, on the inside, and without all that... stuff... it could get out and away. Tsuki were made for naked bouncing in snow! He could have slowed down a little, sure, but the faster he got there, the faster he'd get to give Luna a big hug. Wasn't that more important than a little discomfort?

Something bounced right off his head. His helmet was thick, and perhaps so too was his skull. Tsuki settled disputes as often as not by ramming their horned heads against one another. He looked in the direction the strike had come from to see a birdcat, er, griffon, reloading a crossbow hurriedly.

Toby was terribly confused. Was that a game? "Oh, is it. Will get back." He hit the ground and rebounded directly at the griffon with a big happy smile. The griffon swerved wildly out of the way of his grasping paws, leaving Toby to bounce back, then entirely enthralled with the notion of returning the tag to the potential new friend.

"Help! Help!" called the griffon in a strange display for one having fun. "He's comin' after me!"

Toby tilted his head. Ah. It was like a little kit, pretending to be hunted for fun. Yes, he understood that. "Gonna getcha," he threatened with a laugh, thumping off the ground to make a new attack run. With a sudden loud thwip, the griffon fired his reloaded crossbow. It didn't knock off his well-armored head, instead sinking into his shoulder.

It was abruptly not a game. Toby grabbed the bolt and tried to pull it free, but even jostling it brought new pain. It was stuck in there. "Bad!" he scolded, not that the griffon seemed to have much care for his scathing word. Toby hit the ground and vanished suddenly, sliding under the snow instead of bouncing back up.

"Where'd he go?" asked another griffon with a dagger in either hand as she flew in.

"Down there?" The other griffon wasn't even pointing, busily reloading their crossbow. "I got them on that one, did you see?"

"I saw them get away," grumped the she-griffon. "That makes two. Boss says that means we back off."

"What?!" He threw his crossbow around onto his back, attaching it to a hook there. "We just got started."

"I'll finish you, if you want so bad." She raised a dagger at him threateningly. "Get moving."

"Who made you boss?" he scoffed, but did take flight, her just behind to watch him go.

Toby burst free of the snow, no arrow jutting out of his shoulder. It was still in there, he knew that. He had just broken off the bit that poked free and hurt when touched. The ponies would help. They had to! That is what friends were for, right?

"You hurt..." The little kit carefully stepped, not even hopping, around Celene. They were in a cave. It was dark, but not too dark for tsuki eyes to see entirely. "You... die?"

"Not die," grunted Celene, though she didn't move. "Just need rest." Her eyes followed the kits erratic movements. "You guard?"

"Guard." The kit bobbed her head. "What do?"

"Something come, shout." Celene shut her eyes, snorting softly. "Loud."

"Very loud," promised the kit. "Sleep. Feel better." She glanced around nervously. "Watch. Guard."

"Guard," agreed Celene before she faded off, her breathing becoming slow and even.

That left the kit to peer into the darkness, circling and looking determinately for trouble that could bother her guardian. She wouldn't lose someone else...

Sombra tilted his head back faintly and a great crag of crystal thrust up from the ground forward and to the left. A tsuki who had been standing there leaped out of the way, another two jumping for him, but struck hard stone as a column rose beneath him.

The fourth landed on his platform with bared teeth. He turned calmly with a nod. "Very good. Are you all ready to fight what will not hold back?"

"They hurt us first," scoffed the one that faced him.

"We hurt them back," continued another, landing just beside the other. They were all does, he took idle notice. Were tsuki females stronger, or of more will?

Sombra casually dismissed the thought. "We will hurt them twice as hard." The platform he was on lowered to the ground under his will. "They will stab you."

"We dodge," remarked a third one that came into view as they reached the ground.

"They will attack you." His tone was deep and steady, marching past them.

"We will attack first," retorted a fourth, the group falling in behind him. "They hurt."

His ear twitched, a moment of struggling with that awkward grammar. "They will hurt."

"Will hurt," agreed that fourth tsuki. "Maybe stop."

"Because dead," noted the first with a wicked smile.

"How deliciously bloodthirsty." Quick emerged from a nearby shadow. "Scouts report they are withdrawing. Toby and Celene have broken through a clumsy attempt to keep us here. Celene severely injured one of them on the way."

All four reared up onto their hinds, thumping their chest and flashing their horns, their faces fiercely proud of the word of their commander's achievement.

Quick was paying them little mind at that moment. "Both were injured, but did not pause in sight of the scouts."

Sombra scowled, a frequent expression of the recent days. "Why did the scouts not attack?"

Quick lifted his shoulders. "The scouts are the fastest, not the fiercest. They returned with news and suffered no injury in the process, all that was asked of them." His eyes turned to the four warriors. "The best of the lot, but not all of them. Where is the rest of Celene's warren of strength?"

One of the four stepped forward, still standing on two legs. "One follows Toby. Two hunt enemies."

"Rest train," noted another, tossing her head. "Not best, not ready. Train hard, harder than ever."

Sombra wheeled upon them. "They are attacking? I have not given this command!"

All four of them shrugged at that.

Quick scowled, expression much like Sombra's. "Their loyalty is to Celene, m'lord. A dangerous trait in a soldier..."

"Fools..." He thrust a hoof at the group. "When next you see them, tell them to remain still. We have reinforcements coming. We will strike them together. Friendship will be our weapon and we will make them bleed with it."

That got their attentions, glancing at one another before one of them slapped their chest, lowering their horns. "We attack, with friendship." The salute rippled through them, agreement reached swiftly.

A sly smile spread on Quick's face. "Sir, what of the Crystal Empire? If they cleave to the edicts they claim, they would willingly bleed for our sake."

Sombra's eyes flashed with dark magic. "Yes... delicious... Send a scout with word. Princess Cadance will have little choice but to send her ponies into danger, or admit she has been speaking falsehoods."

Quick snorted at that. "We shall see if they have the strength to back their words." He melted into the shadows, eager to see Sombra's will be done.

Toby slumped against a wall, resting much as his partner had. He had jumped as hard and far as he could, burdened with his armor and his throbbing shoulder. With a tired wheeze, he sank down to his belly and flopped over onto his good shoulder, trying to get some rest.

But a noise reached his immense ears. "Who there?"

"Friend." A tsuki emerged from the darkness, a doe with a concerned look. "Hurt." He didn't stop her from coming close. She was a tsuki, which meant she was a friend. Even when her paws felt his injury and pain lanced through him, he was patient, watching her, but not stopping her.

She dug the bolt out despite the pain and tossed it aside, clattering against the cold stone. "Bandage." She drew out a roll of gauze from a bag around her hips and began to roll it around his arm and shoulder. "Get better."

"Thank you." He kicked one leg, wincing at the pain, but a smile on his face. "Good tsuki."

"Bad griffon," she corrected. "Hurt mate of leader. Want to hurt back." She slapped her paws together. "Feel better?"

Toby sat up, looking down at his bandaged shoulder and rolling it slowly. "Hurt. Better. Thank you." He reached with his good arm to deliver a hug, but the doe danced away.

"You belong to leader," she chastised. "Not want fight her. I protect. Not hug."

Toby inclined his head left and right, trying to reconcile how the two were at odds with one another. "Going to ponies." He pointed the way. "Rest, then go."

"You rest, I watch." She thumped her chest and turned to face the exterior of the cave. "Sleep."

It was a sleepover? The day was looking better by the moment. With a happy smile, Toby drifted off into the realm of dreams, unbothered.

The kit's squeal drove the darkness away from her in an instant. Celene scrambled to her paws in time for a cloud of flapping creatures to wash over her, some crashing into her. Bats, she quickly realized, flopping flat to the ground and letting them pass overhead. "Where are you?"

"Here!" The kit came running into sight, not bouncing, instead performing more of a rabbit's gallop. She skidded to a halt right in front of Celene. "Feel better?"

"Better." Celene waited for the cloud to pass before she slowly sat up. "Bats. Bat home. We not belong here." She turned to offer her back. "On. We go."

The kit bounced up into place, cuddling down into the carrying sleeve that attached her to Celene. "Guard good. Not let anything close. Saw bat, shouted. Shouted loud."

"Very loud," complimented Celene as she jumped free of the cave. It was morning, very early morning. The sky was still dark, but the faintest hints of the coming morning were there to be seen and smelled. She propelled herself in great arcs across the mountainside, her injuries less immediately painful than the day before. "Good guard."

"Was scared," she admitted. "Never closed eyes. Sleep?"

"Sleep," easily agreed Celene. "Celene guard."

"Good guard," sleepily murmured the kit, fading off in the shelter of being in the presence of Celene.

As simple as much of the conversation was with the kit, Celene quickly missed it, speeding in silence. The air was beginning to warm, both with the coming of day and her descending from the mountains. They were entering Equestria proper. But where were the ponies?

She turned her head left and right as she sailed, admiring the bright green grass that seemed to be overtaking everything that didn't have a tree on it. Equestria was a vibrant place. But it was a vibrant place with no people in it that she could see so far.

There. She swerved to the right and soon landed beside a rail line, a cautious smile on her face. Trains ran along those lines. And they led to where people were. It was the only place they went, as far as she knew. Would the tsuki get one of them? It wasn't time to consider that. She threw herself into the air, following the tracks away from the frozen north, hoping it'd reach a town before long.

He whistled softly, his tail swaying idly as the countryside flew past. Piloting a train was a curious sort of work, much it spent admiring the train doing what it did best, moving. When everything was working right, he had little to do but wait, and everything seemed to be going just fine. Little puffs of smoke raised into the air from the engine and they were right on schedule.

He had done his job well!

There was also something coming towards the train. "What the?" Something was flying down at them, something large and... fuzzy? "Do you--" He didn't get to finish asking the question of the other pony there. Celene crashed into him, sending both sliding towards the back of the conductor's train, coming to a thudding stop against the far door.

The assistant blinked with wide eyes. "S-sir? You alright?"

"Mmmmf!" he angrily replied from beneath the huge rabbit on top of him.

Celene rose up and shook herself. "Pony!" she declared, both proud and relieved. "Found you."

"Ya sure did." The conductor sat up, his head wobbling with the impact he had just endured. "Now kindly tell me if... oh hey, ain't you one-ah those snow rabbits?"

"Tsuki," she corrected as her head bobbed. "Look help. Wrong way." She pointed in the direction the train was coming from. "Go that way."

"No can do," reported the conductor with a shake of his head. "We're headed for the Crystal Empire."

"No help." And just as suddenly, she jumped free of the train to resume her journey.

The assistant approached cautiously. "What do you think that was all about?"

"Nothin' for train conductors to worry about." He took his place by the engine. "Let's stay on time. If she wants a ride south, she should wait at a station like anypony else."

"Toby?" Luna inclined her head. "What are you doing here?"

He was perched on a bridge of stars, casually hopping on it as if that was a normal thing to do. He was also not in his own dream, instead in the shared dreaming world that Luna patrolled. "Sleeping," he replied truthfully, bobbing his head. "Is good see! Best Princess!" He jumped for her and she didn't stop him from hugging her firmly around the neck.

"I can see that, but this is not your... When did you begin to escape your dream?" She shook her head slowly. "Not that I regret seeing you, dear friend." She walked past him. "I have dreams to patrol. If you are used to walking these lanes, perhaps you can accompany me?"

And so it was that Toby followed Luna to a dark little swirling of stars. Luna peered into them. "Troubled slumber. Wait here. Hopefully it will be but a moment." And she vanished into it, leaving him there alone.

Toby rubbed at his cheek with a big paw, considering the situation. "Not say why here!" he suddenly blurted. "Luna?" He leaned forward and promptly vanished, drawn into the dream.

He landed on a soft bed. There was Luna, speaking quietly to a little colt.

The colt saw Toby land there and blinked. "What's that?"

Luna looked over and raised a wing as if to block the sight of Toby. "Just a friend of mine, pay him little heed. Now, what did your father say to you?"

"H-he said I'd never fly!" wailed the little foal, waving a hoof frustratedly. "Mom said I can do whatever I want. I wanna fly. Why doesn't dad believe in me?"

Toby landed suddenly on the opposite side of the colt. "I not fly, jump real real high," he informed with a happy smile. "Almost as good."

"Wow, you're good at that," agreed the colt, bobbing his head as he looked over the curious bunny. "What if I could jump really good?"

"Then almost as good as flying." Toby seemed entirely confident in that logic. "Go fast, go far. Free."

"Free," echoed the colt, looking increasingly happy with the idea. "Yeah, gonna jump real--" He didn't finish, waking up.

Toby and Luna appeared back on the bridge of stars. Luna proceeded to bonk Toby right on his head with the flat of a hoof. "That was irresponsible! That was my subject, not yours. It was my duty to comfort them."

Toby inclined his head at his angry friend. "Not mean hurt. Look happy."

"Yes, he did... appear happy, but will he ever leap with the skill of a tsuki?" She rubbed a hoof behind one of her own ears. "He is neither a pegasus nor a tsuki. His odds of flight are small indeed."

"But not nothing." He clapped his paws together. "Why not reach?"

"You are a kind thing, but it may hurt him..." She rose to all fours, looking ready to resume her journey. "Have you come for a reason, or is this chance alone?"

"Oh, yes!" He walked alongside her in little hops. "Tsuki hurt, attack!" He dug out his missive despite it being in the real world.

Luna took it in her magic and unfurled it, but all that was on it was the vague impression of words. Toby did not know what it said, and could not recreate a scroll with words he didn't know. "Where are you?"

"Here." He pointed at his own chest. "Shoulder hurt." Suddenly bandages appeared with his remembering of the injury.

Luna hissed in a low breath, realizing her friend was hurt. "Where are you outside of this dream? I will come fetch you."

"I come to--"

She put a hoof on his lips. "You are hurt. Tell me where you are. Where did you go to sleep?"

So he began to explain what he had seen before picking the cave, and of the tsuki that he was having a sleepover with. "Not let me hug. Say only can protect or hug. Why? Not make sense..."

Luna's lips quirked in a little smile. "She must be a doe of propriety. Allow her this. I will be at your side soon. Please, don't move." And she vanished back to the waking world, leaving Toby behind.

Toby sat up with a big yawn, looking around the cave. It wasn't nearly as dark anymore, light spilling in from outside. The doe was still there. "Hello."

She turned her head towards him. "Awake? Good. Feel better?" When he nodded, she stepped towards the entrance. "Bye."

"Wait!" He jumped suddenly, narrowly missing smashing his head on the ceiling. He came down just in front of the doe. "I sleep. You sleep?"

"Not sleep." She pointed past him. "Go."

"No." He crossed his arms. "Luna comes here. Wait. You sleep."

"No," she retorted just as forcefully, rising up to her hinds with an angry snort. "You. Go."

"No." They both began to stomp the ground, their heads lowering, brandishing their horns. Though not thinking of it out loud, they were performing ancient rites of challenge. Neither wanted to give up their side of the argument.

The doe suddenly jumped forward into him, crashing as her hands wrapped around his midsection, not in a hug, but trying to wrestle him to the ground. "Listen!"

"You listen!" He rolled and kicked powerfully, sending her flying back as he bounced to his feet. "Stay. Luna comes."

She landed on all fours, but bounced back upright instantly. To remain on all fours would be to show submission. "Moon not help." She lowered her head with a hiss. "Stupid jack."

"Sometimes." He thumped the floor once with a heavy floor before lowering his head. They crashed into each other, their horns locking and clacking off one another with a great noise as she tried to wrestle the other down and force submission. They fell to the floor, kicking and struggling.

While Toby kept trying to use rounded force, pulling or pushing, the doe did not hesitate to bring her claws and teeth into the game, and she was a fairly equal match for raw strength, causing the fight to go against Toby's more gentle approach the longer it went.

She shoved him against a wall and he sagged, breathing hard, new wounds bleeding. She stormed towards him, looming tall over his tired form. "Listen," she demanded, hands going to her hips. "I win."

"You win," he miserably admitted, head hanging.

"Not want hurt Celene partner. Stop being stupid." She fell forward to all fours and bopped him once on the head with a paw. "Stop."

He adjusted his position, sitting on his haunches. "Hurt."

"Rest," she said as if it was obvious.

"Okay." He turned away from her to hide his little smile. It wasn't exactly how he had planned it, but he had won even while losing. He gave himself one point for being clever. He would be there when Luna arrived. He hoped.

A wiry tsuki landed just before the castle, looking up at the great crystal thing that held the ruler of the crystal ponies. He considered it a moment before bounding towards the stairs. There were two guards there, but they weren't the ruler, so he ignored them.

Or tried. As he bounced over their heads, one of their horns began to glow, grabbing him and putting him right on the ground in front of the guards. The one without a horn lowered a spear towards him. "You have to talk to us to go inside."

"Oh. Sorry." Why did ponies have funny rules? "Hello!" There, they had talked. He sprang forward.

The magic grabbed him and pulled him right back to where he started. The horned pony pointed with a hoof instead of a spear. "What is your business in the castle?"

"Talk boss ponies. Nice, pink." He had seen her when she visited. "Cadance!" he blurted, remembering her name. "Where Cadance?"

"She's very busy," noted the earth pony. "What do you need with her?"

"Boss is busy," easily agreed the scout. That just made sense really. "Need talk. Tsuki attacked, hurt." He began patting himself down and pulled out a rolled scroll. "For Cadance, for Sombra."

The crystal unicorn shied back at the mention of Sombra.

The not-crystal earth pony was less impressed, reaching for the note. "I will deliver this note to her."

The ponies would finish his job? Well, that was handy. "Thank you!" He jumped away without a doubt in his heart, sure that his pony friends would get it done without issue.

The unicorn frowned at the rolled up paper. "Sombra's letter. We should tear it up before the princess ever sees it."

"That isn't our job," grunted the earth pony. "She will not be hurt by a letter, and it is not our job to decide otherwise." He turned inside. "Keep watch while I deliver this."

The unicorn sulked, but did remain there to watch for any other would-be intruders.

The other guard soon arrived at Cadance's side where she was discussing something with Shining Armor. He waited patiently until she took notice of him. "Your Highness." He dipped his head and pulled out the scroll in his teeth. "A missive, from Sombra. It was delivered by one of the tsuki."

"A trade concern?" Her horn glowed, accepting the letter and unfurling it. She and Shining Armor both read it, eyes sweeping left and right. Both of their faces hardened at what they read.

Shining Armor let out a great snort. "I will not stand for this. Griffons, attacking trade caravans?!"

Cadance let out more of a weary sigh. "If I had no other information, I would think this a jest or a ploy, but..."

Shining nodded. They had both received the worried tale of the returning pegasi, but the details had been muddied in the mare's words. The letter laid it out clinically precise. "The tsuki have been nothing but friends, and friendly to everycreature I have seen them interact with. The thought of anycreature attacking them like that..."

"It's nauseating," agreed Cadance. "We must stand with them. Such a force is as much a threat to our people as theirs. We can't have bandits roaming the Crystal Empire."

Author's Note

Welcome to 4k updates! Instead of 4/week, this will be 2/week with larger updates, making it the third such story of mine to take up that update cycle. The pieces are hurrying into position across the chessboard called politics. Who will make the winning move, and which pieces will be knocked clear of the board when the dust clears?

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4 - Moonrise

"There." The tsuki on her back was pointing at a little dot in the distance. "There."

It was along the tracks. Celene was already following them, so they would see what that dot turned out to be. "Going. Is good?"

"I am good," reported the little one in a moment of superior grammar. "Thank you."

"Is welcome." Celene kept her eyes forward as she sailed through the air in arcs. "If ponies, good. If not, find safe, sleep."

"Ponies... They are nice," noted the little one with a hopeful smile. "They are nice like tsuki. Not mean like birdcats!"

"Not mean like birdcats," Celene echoed. "Safe." The dot had ceased to be just that, growing into what looked to be a town. Ponies seemed to like living on the ground instead of in it in a safe warren. It was a strange habit, she thought, but it seemed to work for them.

The town was becoming larger as she approached it, as things tended to do. It was a sizable place, so large some of it had escaped. She could see little houses far away from the others, barely qualifying as being in the town. Maybe they weren't? She could see a huge jutting structure that stood out from the rest.

And was also familiar. A big pointed tower of crystal, similar to the castle in the Crystal Empire. Was that were the pony in charge was? Ponies did seem to really enjoy marking their rulers with crystals. Another odd habit, but equally as harmless.

"Look!" With a sudden fit of motion, the kit scrambled against her, becoming free of the harness and climbing on top of her. "Look!" She was pointing at motion. They were coming close enough they could see ponies walking along, some talking to each other, others just trotting towards where they wanted to be.

"Not fall," Celene noted with a stern note, but the kit wouldn't settle down, or return to her harness. Fortunately, they were close enough that Celene instead aimed to land just in front of one of the ponies. "You."

The pony tilted their hat as they craned their head to look up at the huge presence that was Celene. "Me. The name's Applejack," she introduced. "You one ah those... shoot, what's th' word fer it?"

"Tsuki," cried out the little kit, bouncing down off Celene and landing in front of Applejack. "Hello! I am Little Hop." She put a paw on her chest, bouncing in place a little. "That's the name my..." Just like that, her mood crashed. She landed and didn't bounce again, going quiet with remembered pain.

Celene reached and put a paw stop the kit, softly rubbing her. "Little Hop mother killed. Little Hop need help."

Applejack's ears pinned back against her head. "Killed?! That's..." She drew a slow hissing breath. "Look... Little?" When the kit looked to her, Applejack smiled faintly. "Look, ah know what that's like."

"How do you know?" challenged the kit, rising up on her hinds as if ready to challenge Applejack, as poorly as they would likely go for her.

Applejack reached for her hat and pulled it off to press it against her chest instead. "Mah folks are gone too... Miss 'em somethin' fierce. That ain't never a hurt that goes away entire-like. Ah know..."

Little Hop fell forward back to all fours. "Oh... I am sorry." She looked away and back, tears leaking from her eyes. "It hurts."

"Yeah... real talk there," agreed Applejack, moving in closer and offering a hoof. Soon the two were gently embracing in solidarity in the missing of their parents.

Celene inclined her head left and right. That hadn't been what she had planned, but it was working out pretty well... "You watch Little Hop?" She pointed to the kit. "Take care, make better?"

"Who's yer friend?!" Applebloom came rushing up with the other two crusaders beside her, all three eyeing the rabbits curiously.

Little Hop looked past Applejack to the smaller ponies coming closer. She buried her face against Applejack's chest. Applejack gently rubbed the kit's back. "This here's Little Hop... She's havin' a rough time, bad news with her mom."

Two of the crusaders looked ready to ask questions, but Applebloom stiffened. "I see," she said, two words of clarity that seemed to drive the questions away. "Little hop?" When the tsuki looked up at her, Apple Bloom smiled a little. "Ah was real small when it happened... barely knew her... Ya wanna tell me about yours? Ah'd like to hear."

The tears flowed more powerfully, but Little Hop did detach from Applejack, sniffling as she awkwardly hopped over to Apple Bloom. Applejack nodded at the two with a confident expression before she looked to Celene. "Ah think this'll work out. Now, you ain't her mom, that wouldn't make no sense, so who are you, in relation?"

"Not mom," she agreed easily with a little nod. "You. Take care?"

Applejack put her hat back on her head. "Now see--" But Celene had already bounded away, heading back home. "--here..." She turned to see the crusaders crowded around Little Hop. AJ let out a little breath. "Looks... like we have a new visitor."

Little Hop seemed to notice Celene's departure at about the same time, suddenly hopping over the crusaders' heads to land beside Applejack. "Where did she go?!"

"Home, ah reckon..." Applejack turned to Little Hop. "Fer now, yer already home."

"This... isn't home," she sniffled, shaking in place.

Sweetie Belle set a hoof on the kit's back. "We're here."

"Fer sure," agreed Apple Bloom. "We have a clubhouse. Wanna see?"

"What is a club house?" Her young ears were still small enough to twitch and turn. "Wait... are you--" She pointed at Applejack. "--my mom? You are not my mom..."

"Ah know that." Applejack leaned forward towards the kit. "Ah ain't. But ah can give a roof. Consider me a friend."

"Us too!" cried Scootaloo, clopping her forehooves. "We have so much to show you. For as long as you're here, Ponyville'll take good care of you."

The doe warrior snuck away from the sleeping jack she was charged with keeping an eye on. How long did it take him to recover from a little scrap? She hadn't hurt him that badly. Or was he a wimp? Why would her battle-hardened leader choose a wimp?

Either way, he was still sleeping, and she was certain she heard something. Creeping-hopping along, she thrust her head around a corner to see some large contraption being tied in place by two large figures. An even larger figure was speaking in a female voice, "Keep an eye on the carriage. I'll be right back with Toby, provided this is the right cave... which it may not be."

The two smaller figures sighed, but didn't argue with the largest female.

The doe frowned. Who were they? She ducked down and low, turning in place and waiting patiently. The large figure strode right past her, not noticing her. With a lash of her feet, she kicked the pony with a low thud of impacted flesh.

Luna squawked as she bounced off the far wall of the tunnel a foot away. Her magic flared to life, grabbing for the doe that lunged for her, but she was slippery to the magic, the telekinesis washing over the doe as she landed on Luna, sending them both to the ground.

"Who you!?" demanded the doe, wrestling with Luna and trying to get her teeth somewhere more menacing than her shoulder. "Not have him!"

"Unhand me this instant." Luna lashed out a hoof, showing she could return a thump with the toughened foot. "Be you a tsuki?"

"Luna!" suddenly feeling all better, Toby entered with a powerful bounce, only to gasp in alarm. "Not hurt!"

The doe withdrew an awkward reverse hop. "This luna? She not moon."

Toby was at Luna's side in an instant, gladly helping her back up before pointing right to the princess' rump. "Is moon."

The doe leaned forward. There it was, a nice icon of a moon right there for all to see. "Huh... Is moon..." She looked between Luna and Toby. "Friend?"

"Friend!" Toby hugged close to the still perplexed Luna.

Luna raised a hoof to gently return the hug. "It is good to see you as well, Toby. Who is this? She is a fierce warrior."

So much had happened, Toby frowned considering it. "Have partner. Friend partner." He pointed to the doe. "Not tell name."

"Take." She gestured with a toss of her head at Toby. "Take to ponies?"

Luna softly nodded. "That was the intention, yes. What--" The doe was already retreating, bounding around the corner and towards the exit of the cave. "I see... Toby, come with me. We will see to your wounds." Her eyes had slid to his shoulders, taking note of his bandages.

"Not bad," he assured as he walk-hopped with her back towards the cave exit. "Wait, like asked. Knew you come." His smile didn't diminish at the sight of her guards, moving to close with them. "Hello!" And soon he had an arm around either of them, hugging them warmly. "Is good to see!"

Luna's magic took hold of him, lifting him up and placing him in the chariot. "We will ride there. Relax for now." Her magic began pulling and undoing the ropes they had just placed to secure it. "Our journey is at an end. We return to Canterlot."

The guards saluted crisply and began turning the chariot around towards the exit.

"I have a question." Luna stepped up beside him once the chariot had finished turning. "Why could I not take hold of your friend? It was as if my magic could not touch her."

"Not know," he confessed, not having received that lesson in tsuki magic-bending. "Work with partner, learn fight." He made a few mock punches at the air and almost collapsed over backwards as the chariot began to move under him just at the wrong time. Luna's magic pushed him back forward and he nodded. "Thanks."

They were in the air, soaring out over the mountains, then the green lands of Equestria. Her winged guards were propelling them along with powerful flaps. "We will arrive in Canterlot soon. In the meanwhile..." Her magic gently poked him and began to feel around his injury. "Does it hurt?"

"When you touch," he noted, but he sat still despite that, permitting the examination of his friend. "Or when... I move." His speech slowed, trying his best to speak properly in front of Best Princess. "Oh! I have... letter." He pulled out the scroll and offered it towards her.

It was bent and scrunched from his various motions, but a scroll it remained. She unfurled it carefully and her eyes began to sweep over it quickly.

"Sombra requests aid?" She folded the scroll, a brow raised. "I did not think he could be so humble as to request assistance."

"Traders..." He worked his fingers together, fidgeting. "Attacked. Many hurt, all the way hurt... All hurt."

"Dead?" asked Luna. "They killed tsuki? Who would be so uncivil as to end such a harmless life?" She stomped and the platform under them lurched dangerously. "Any so uncivil could turn their ire on ponies next. Sombra remains troublesome, but in this, he is correct." She waved the magically-held scroll at Toby. "We will not stand idly by as any foul creature predates on our friends."

One of her guards peeked over his shoulder. "Your Highness, we can only hold it so steady. Please, for your safety."

"Ah, yes, of course." She raised a hoof before her blushing snoot. "Still, this is quite vexing. Were they... friends of yours?"

"I am friend... of all tsuki." He thumped his chest and inclined his head in a muted display of his horns. A sloppy salute in tsuki standards, but such was the way of Toby. "Knew them. Good tsukis... gone." He sank softly as if only just realizing what that meant. "Can... save?"

Luna's ears danced, piecing together what her large friend was experiencing. "We will do our best, Toby, to see that not another need experience that. We will stop them."

"Can rescue?" He leaned forward, eyes hopeful even as moisture began to gather. "Sleep. Go sleep world. Find them."

Luna recoiled at that, her ears flattening on her head. "No! You must swear you never look there. The dreams of the dead are not to be approached. If even you can find them... They are gone, dear friend. We will mourn them, and miss them, but there is no rescue."

Toby inclined his head left and right in a slow pendulum of movement. "Try? Try? Not know if... I do not try."

Luna placed a metal-clad hoof on his chest. "If you will listen, I will tell you a tale I have told not a creature else. Even mine sister is unaware of it. Sit and listen and speak not of it, and I will share this precious memory with you."

The gravity of the offer had him go still. He nodded firmly, his mouth closed as he adjusted his seated position, sitting on his butt instead of on his haunches. "I will listen."

So she began to speak, sharing a sad tale she had kept close to her heart.

A pegasus in glittering metal armor landed among cheering tsuki. They had seen her long before she had even entered their cave. Welcoming banners were being waved and smaller pennants were clutched in the hands of eager tsuki. It was as if her arrival was a little holiday all of its own.

Their cheer couldn't be entirely resisted, a little smile on her face. "I need to speak to your leaders. I have a message from Princess Cadance and Princess-consort Shining Armor."

Rising from a shadow, Sombra's assistant came into being. "Do you carry a reply to our message?"

"I do. Are you their leader? I thought it was Sombra?" She looked him over, lacking the instinctive fear of her crystal peers. It was for a reason she was chosen to deliver the message.

"I am his left hoof, as Toby serves as the right. Speak freely and I will convey it to him." He was examining the pegasus intensely as he approached, his crystal foreleg clacking against the stone beneath him.

"Princess Cadance expresses her grief at the loss of your people and promises to stand at your side," crisply reported the pegasus guard. "She is already scouting the area for signs of the brigands and is sending for help to track them down. Banditry will not be permitted in the Crystal Empire." She snapped a sharp salute with a folded wing. "Shining Armor has requested you send somecreature to work with them for greater collaboration."

Quick Stroke tapped his crystal hoof. "I will have to confer on that matter." And, like that, he was gone, vanishing into the shadows and leaving the guard behind.

Not that she was alone, tsuki closing in to enthusiastically welcome her to their warren.

"Cadance has agreed to lend us her strength," reported Quick Stroke. "She is not the fool I imagined. She wishes a hostage to speak through and hold close at her side."

Sombra snorted, dark energy pouring from his eyes. "I under-estimated her... We will require a hostage in turn."

"Already handled." Quick smirked viciously. "One of her guards is being entertained by ours. We will keep hold of them."

"Excellent." He sat and raised a hoof to clap Quick on the shoulder. "Excellent work. Send them sometsuki we will not miss."

"One of the kits, Sir? They have comparatively greater vocabularies." He raised his living hoof to his chin. "We could make it sound like a great honor."

"Yes, perfect. Do that. One of them will get the honor of serving the warren, act as hostage, and act as both eyes and mouth for us for a time."

"I will see it done." He vanished into the shadows without further word.

A great wall of tsuki fur separated Stroke from the kits. "No," she said with clear finality.

"They will come to no harm. The ponies are our friends, are they not?" he reasoned. "And their moral code prevents bringing harm to young and helpless, both of which they are."

"I'm not helpless," cried a little boy kit, waving a paw from atop the protective mother tsuki.

"Of course you are not. Then, perhaps, you would be interested in gaining glory, hm?"

"What's glory?" The kit slid down the protector's side to be closer to Quick. The mother tsuki reached for him but he hopped too quickly for her to catch easily. "What is that?"

"Glory is the acclaim of others for knowing you have done brave and valorous things," explained Quick, not moving from where he started, watching the kit. "All the others are scared to go talk with the ponies. Are you scared?"

"Nuh-uh!" The moment he took to shake his head, the larger female caught him. "Hey!" She was putting him back with the others. "Lemme go! I can do it!"

"No. Mother mad." The female pointed at some other female they couldn't see, presumably where the kit's mother worked. "Not let danger."

"Not mom," noted the kit, rolling his eyes. "Besides, ponies fun. Ponies are nice. He hopped up and bounced off his caretaker's head, springing right over her back towards Quick. "I will get all the glory!" He was quickly in front of Quick with a big grin. "What I do?"

"This way." Quick turned in place and began to lead the kit away. "You will have quite the tale to share with your friends." The kit's joyous whoop of cheer told him he had played his hand correctly. Their hostage would turn in for duty with a big smile.

"All according to plan." The figure leaned forward on their throne. "They gather?"

"Scouts report Princess Luna is returning with a tsuki by chariot." The griffon was at stiff attention. "We can surmise it is--"

"--Yes, him. As we predicted. A few lost lives is enough to get the entire pony military in motion." The figure leaned back, tapping talons together softly. "But they leave their flank wide open." He slammed down a balled fist on the armrest as he laughed with visions of military success. "Tell me, what of Magic?"

"Designation Magic has not moved, Sir. We predict she will mobilize shortly after Luna returns." The scout dipped his head. "Do you want us to do something to her?"

"Perhaps... She represents an unwanted wild card. She could throw this out of balance very quickly. Servant of harmony, you will not stand in our way. Your harmony is not ours.'

"Your harmony is not ours," echoed about ten others nearby as if it were a religious mantra.

It hadn't been a yes. But it also hadn't been a no. The scout saluted before withdrawing away from the throne.

Applebloom waved at the orchard. "Ya can see mah house just over there."

"And there's mine." Sweetie pointed the way.

"And mine!" Scootaloo wouldn't be left out.

"And fer now, this is yours." Applebloom pointed up at the clubhouse. "If ya prefer, ya can stay with me. Applejack already knows aboutcha."

Scootaloo rubbed behind her head. "I'd have to ask my aunts, but I bet they'd say yes."

Sweetie Belle did not rush to make a similar promise. "Are you hungry?"

Little inclined her head a little. "Can ponies jump?"

All three blinked. That question was surely not related to anything they had asked. Scootaloo suddenly pulled her scooter close. "I'm the best at jumping! When I'm going full speed, I can touch the sky!"

Little nodded as she looked to the others.

Sweetie Belle laughed nervously. "I'm not any jumping expert. Uh, here." She pushed off the ground, denying gravity for all of a moment before she came right back down, having gained only a few precious inches of height.

Apple Bloom scoffed at the display. "Izzat the best ya can do? At least try." She hopped up, hit a tree and bounced off of it, coming down on her knees, her forehooves spread wide. "Ta da!"

Little brought her paws together in a polite clap. "That was better," she admitted. "Will you feel bad if I show my jump?"

Scootaloo waved dismissively. "If you're scared of showing up those two, pfft, go ahead. Jumping is more my thing. I'm the daredevil of the group."

Accepting that as a go-ahead, Little suddenly sprang into the air. She easily sailed over all their heads, going up about three feet before coming back down towards Scootaloo. Scoot squeaked as she dodged aside, allowing Little to hit the ground gracefully.

Little tilted her head. "I was going to land on you."

"That's why I moved."

"But I meant to. I was going to jump off you."

Scootaloo tilted her head a bit. "You do that? That's pretty cool. Alright, let's try something." She kicked her scooter into position. "Hop on and hold on tight until I'm in the air."

The other two sat beside one another, watching the stung be set up. Sweetie leaned a bit closer. "We have the bandages ready?"

"Fully stocked," assured Apple Bloom. The two had seen that wild look in Scootaloo's eyes before.

Once Little was mounted on the scooter, hugging the upright Scootaloo from behind, they started down the road, the pegasus' wings fluttering for speed that they were rapidly gaining. "Here comes the ramp!" They hit it, the sound of dirt turning to rolled-over wood, then they were thrown into the air.

Scootaloo cheered wildly as they soared, and then things changed. Little suddenly jumped the instant they hit their apex, pushing Scootaloo and the scooter down as she gained extra height, propelling herself higher than she ever had on her own. Forgetting her problems for a moment, Little Hop joined Scootaloo in a wild cheer.

A pity Scootaloo slapped to the ground, propelled by the sudden bounce. Despite that, she was laughing without control. "Oh wow! That was intense! Look at her go!" Her eyes trailed Little Hop as she began to fall and she sped quickly to get back under her.

Little Hop hit the scooter just behind Scootaloo, hugging tight as they both came to a skidding halt.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie both clapped, a wild clopping of their hooves at the stunt. Sweetie Belle flashed a huge smile. "You two are a natural pair. Did you have fun, Little Hop?"

"That was great." Little Hop stepped down from the scooter and fell back to all fours. "I never used one of those before. Can you show me how to do that?"

"With pleasure." Scootaloo wrapped one arm around her newest friend. "You'll be the best tsuki rider in Equestria."

Also the only one, but she didn't bother to mention that part.

Celene sped towards the mountains that seemed to rush at her faster than when she had been going the other way. She knew exactly where she needed to be. She was going home, then she was going to fight. Everything was nice and planned.

She went as quickly as her jumps would allow. Her sisters would not fight without her if she had any say in the matter. She also had a husband to make sure didn't get into too much trouble.

She had a lot to do.

Author's Note

Welcome! Little Hop gets left off with the ponies, who welcome her with open arms and WILD SCOOTER RIDES! That is how we get over grief, right?

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5 - Past to Present

"When I returned to this world, my mind freed of the shackles of my hatred... My sister forgave my weakness, even as she struggled to forgive herself for her failures..." Toby had gone entirely still, listening raptly to Luna's words. "I was lost, adrift..."

Before I had gone, I had a purpose, but then, even that little calling had seemed so far distant. My sister had taken the position in my absence. There was not a thing I could do that wasn't something another pony could do, arguably better than I could.

But my sister... she is a clever mare. She had prepared for that day. One of her visions, I should think. She knew I was coming, and she planned so fastidiously. When I was lost and miserable, she came to me, that serene little smile on her face. "Sister, I have something for you."

But she held nothing. nothing floated beside her. No box was lurking just out of sight in the room. It was just her, Celestia, my sister, looking at me with a kindly little smile. "Something only you, ruler of the night, are capable of doing properly."

"Some ruler of the night." I sat up, vision a blurry mess. Maybe there had been a box and I had missed it. "You can move the moon as well as I can."

"I can, if I must... but for me, it is a chore, and for you, a calling. The day is my domain, and the night is yours."

"A lonely domain!" I shouted at her. "I don't want to go back to being alone... Sister, we just... I don't want to go back to that!" I hopped up and threw my small form at her, grabbing onto her leg as if I could just hold tightly enough to stop her from retreating to her day realm, away from me.

Toby raised a paw.

Luna frowned faintly. "Yes?"

"You not... that smaller," he objected.

"I was at the time," she patiently explained. "As small as any foal." She raised her hooves. "So far separated was I from my purpose and so weak from my banishment. Now, shall I continue?"

"Yes, please." Even as visions of tiny Luna danced in his head. Oh, if only he could hug Mini Best Princess.

She had brought a gift without a size or shape, because it was knowledge. She taught me a magic that was, she said, quite hard for her to do. "For one," she explained. "The best time to use it is when I am normally quite tired. You, on the other hoof, would be just waking and ready to begin."

"It's a night magic?"

"Precisely so." She showed me each step. Each little magical bit. "But it is far from a lonely thing. You will approach ponies when they are most vulnerable, when they are most exposed. You will be their comfort, their closest confidant. You will know them in ways I never could and never will."

It was so difficult to even imagine, back then. I would be closer to ponies than my sister? Ruler of the day? What they accepted as the true princess of Equestria? They would... love me? I see your doubt. I know you adore me, dear Toby. This was a different time. I felt very alone...

But I learned. I eagerly devoured the knowledge she shared with me, and soon I was hurling myself into the dreamworld. You know it. You, who sneaks in there without magic. How do you manage that? Nevermind, I suppose you don't really know. Be that as it may, I began to roam those shifting avenues of slumbering minds.

Some where peaceful, others exciting. But the ones that needed me were frightening or sad or angry. The ponies that suffered in so many ways, unspoken in the waking hours. The things that they dared not speak, but gnawed at their thoughts. But there I was, to offer some help.

At long last, I... I'm getting off track. You are not interested in how I stopped my pity party.

"Never bored Best Princess," assured Toby, bobbing his head. "Want... I want to hear more," he said with slow methodical words, trying to impress Best Princess by speaking correctly. "Please."

She smiled faintly. "If you insist..."

The crusaders pointed at their various trophies and mementos of their adventures. "We help ponies," explained Apple Bloom.

"Find their purpose," continued Sweetie Belle. "Sometimes even not ponies."

"Like Gabby!" Scootaloo grabbed a picture of Gabby off the wall and showed it to Little Hop.

Little Hop squeaked at the picture. "Birdcat! Birdcats are mean." She frowned at the birdcat, even if it was all smiles in the picture.

Sweetie inclined her head with confusion. "I know a lot of griffons can be kinda... rough."

Apple gestured at the picture being held by Scootaloo. "But Gabby's an exception. She's totally nice! Even for a pony, she's just... great. She's a crusader too!"

Scootaloo bobbed her head. "Uh huh. Gabby's totally a nice creature. You run into griffons before?"

"Griffons... hurt my mom," her voice became smaller as she went. "Killed."

All three of them tensed, sharing glances with cringes on their faces. Scootaloo put the picture back where she found it, pinning it back on the wall. "Bad creatures are bad, but..."

Sweetie joined, "But we can't blame all of them because some of them were... bad."

Apple Bloom pointed at Little Hop. "But let's put that aside fer now. You can stay here." She spread her hooves to indicate the room as a whole. "Nice an' comfy!"

"That is more than bad," flatly noted Little Hop, frowning at her new would-be friends.

"I can't really argue that." Scootaloo shrugged softly. "But Gabby wasn't involved in that. She'd sooner get hurt herself before she let anycreature else get hurt. You don't have to like her--"

Sweetie bobbed her head. "But don't hate all griffons. That isn't nice either."

"You don't know!" Little Hop pointed and swept her paw in a wide accusation. "Did your parent get killed?" She homed in on Scootaloo.

"Uh, they're fine... doing adventuring stuff." Scootaloo scratched behind her head helplessly.

"You?" She pointed at Sweetie Belle.

Sweetie squeaked. "Well! Um... no..." She sank. "They're fine."

Little Hop pointed at Apple Bloom with less anger, her voice softening. "Was she... killed?"

Apple Bloom cringed, ears falling. "No... were an accident... Shoulda been safe as anythin'... but it was just an accident. A stupid accident..." She suddenly clopped the floor. "'Least your mom... you know why. I never quite got it. She just... fer nothin'. Like that. She was there, then she weren't no more."

Little Hop's moment of rage bubbled oddly, her eyes wandering and her words having a hard time coming out. "It's not better!" she finally got out. "It isn't..."

"Yeah..." Apple Bloom came closer, offering a hoof.

"It isn't better." But she took the hoof, grabbing it between two paws and squeezing it.

She didn't say it wasn't worse either.

I was timid at first. I did not understand their pains and their little personal triumphs. They were living in a world I scarcely understood, but, most importantly, they were still ponies. They still feared pain and being left alone. They still wanted to be loved and respected. They were people, and so was I. Even with so little perspective, this much I knew, and that is where I started.

I showed them they were loved. I told them they were worthy of respect. I pointed them towards their strengths and encouraged them to reinforce them. I tried not to judge, not until I knew more. I became... the princess of dreams, there to chase away nightmares and cast the silvery light of the moon on their uncertainty, to banish that confusion, even if only for a moment.

They... began to love me. That love was not what they had offered to Celestia. I did not compete with her, nor her I. Our relationship was entirely different. I became as a friend, a confidant, intimate. They whispered secrets in my ear that I will carry without repeating, knowing that it was safe with me, that... I would respect its importance, and their importance.

She ruled their waking moments, but I was the princess they turned to when their eyes closed and their mind could remind them of what they had left undone, unsaid. When they rolled and wailed in bed, unhappy... I was there to rock them back to peaceful slumber, and with it, I earned a place. I... was my sister's equal. I grew in size quickly as the weight settled on my shoulders, not pushing me down, but instead forcing me to stand taller.

And that is how I became the princess of dreams.

"Best Princess," corrected Toby with a broad smile. "Thank you for sharing. I liked that story."

She reached to boop his nose softly. "But it is a secret. You, fellow dream traveler, must do for me as I have done for others. Speak never of this tale, for it is for you and I alone. Do you accept this?"

His ears perked for just a moment before gravity drew them back down. "Oh! Yes, yes, yes." He began to nod quickly. "I will never say. Safe, here." He put both forepaws on his chest over his heart. "Best Princess secret." He licked his fuzzy lips, slowing back down. "Is the story done?"

"It is not." She inclined an ear at him. "I am duly impressed you thought to ask. Let us continue."

One pony I met was quite old. She had led a good life, and was satisfied with it, but she held fear, so much fear. "What happens, after that?" she had asked me. "What happened to my parents, and their parents? Are they just... gone? Will I just be... done? Gone? I'm tired, but I'm not that tired."

She held the most ancient of fears, of death, of the end of any life, no matter how long. "Was your life not full of wonder?" I asked, trying to distract her from that.

"I have... but it seems smaller by the day. I know I'm getting close. I know I will die soon. What then?" She suddenly grabbed me with her hooves. Hooves were especially good at grabbing things in dreams. "There's still so much of the world I haven't seen. They're making new things... and I never got a chance to see them either. I don't want to go."

"But go... we must eventually," I noted, unsure how to soothe that particular pain.

"At least tell me where." She sat back, crossing her wrinkled arms across her breast. "I heard some ponies say you're born again. That wouldn't be the end of things. Then I'd get t'see it all." Suddenly she clopped her hooves, a big smile on her face. "IF that's true, my daddy should already be here, jus' as some new pony. Can ya find 'em? Tell me he's alright, even if he's, I dunno, a unicorn or something strange like that."

So she told me all about him, all she could remember. As it turned out, she remembered quite a bit about her father. It was impressive, considering how old she was, and how long ago her father must have passed on. Still, I listened, as was my duty, and left her with a little smile. She was a little happier, knowing I'd look for him.

And I did. As I visited others' dreams, I kept searching for hints of this pony long past. I did not have faith that ever I would find such a thing. Even were a pony to return in such a way, they would surely be a new pony in any way that mattered. I could have passed right through his dream and likely saw no hint of previous experiences.

But I found something. It was... an echo? A strange patch in the dream fabric, not quite a dream, but more than a simple decoration. I stopped to examine it, and there, appearing only for a moment, the cutie mark of the pony I had so long hunted for. I reached for it and fell into it as if it were a dream.

But it was not a dream.

"What was it?" Toby inclined his head. "Find pony?"

"Neigh." She shook her head softly. "An impression, half-formed and tumultuous, co-mingled with other abandoned thoughts. I was lost until my sister found me there, tossing and turning in my bed as so many ponies I had helped. She shook me awake and held me as I wept."

Her expression hardened. "There is nothing to be found in the dreams of the dead. You must not search for such things. If ever you were to happen on something like it, avoid it. They are gone. Take solace in this unquestioning fact. They are at a peace we shall never know."

Toby sagged. "Not best story ending..." He perked up. "What about old mare?"

"I told her what I found... She smiled. I still do not understand it precisely." Luna gazed past her flying guards. Canterlot was approaching them swiftly. "She said that it was enough. That something had outlived him, even if it wasn't him precisely. She didn't fear what was coming, and she thanked me."

Toby shared in the lack of understanding, inclining his head left and right. "Not want that. I do not want to be dangerous to you." He thumped a paw on his chest. "Never that."

Luna curled her neck forward, gently resting her forehead against Toby's, their horns jostling for space without poking one another. "If ever I happened on yours, I trust it would be a confusing but welcoming place, where my greatest danger would be being embraced by countless Tobys all at once."

Toby's dour expression brightened, imagining that. "Yes! That is better." He turned in place as they came in for a landing. "We are here. Remember when this Toby home? Happy memories." He hopped/stepped off the chariot before it had come to a proper stop, not that this bothered him too greatly, coming to a smooth stop on his own. He was ready to offer a paw towards Luna as she disembarked.

She stepped down, one leg raised to accept Toby's paw as she did so, not that she likely required it. "I do. Those were good times. Let us work to make more of them." She moved the hoof that had been held to point at the castle. "Come with me. Tell me all that has happened, and we will act to turn things right."

Together, they strode through the city.

Cadance paced before the rows of armed ponies. They were all ready to fight, for her, for the Crystal Empire. She didn't like it. "My dear ponies, not a single one of your lives is worth the price we are being asked to pay. Scouts continue to scour at this very instant, hoping to find what is truly behind this, that we can find an answer, something better than... this... But until that bears fruit, we must stand ready, together."

The ponies, stallions, mares, crystal and not, all shouted in a great cheer of solidarity. They were all ready. Cadance wondered for a moment if she was the wrong one, for being what felt like the only one that wasn't prepared. "As gruesome as this event has been, it has shown no sign of being more than the activities of a lone band of ne'er-do-wells. We will show them the might of a creatures united. Tsuki, pony, yak, dragon, and all else that have signed friendship accords with Equestria. To attack one of us is to attack all of us."

The cheer was even louder, joined that time with the non-pony members of her soldiers. Since the expanding influence of Equestrian friendship values, exotic creatures had begun to immigrate, even as some of her ponies went farther afield to explore the world outside their country, to places so far removed they didn't even have them on the map. Their world was shrinking. And it had no room for such violent brigands.

"Shining Armor." She looked to her husband. "I turn it over to you for orders."

"Yes, Ma'am!" He saluted sharply, but that didn't stop him for going for a smooch when she passed, or stop her from returning it, the two locking lips and forgetting all that was around them for a moment. Their little army roared with a new approval. Their royal family was not bound by pomp and circumstance, but a love that still burned so brightly it kept away the snow of the far north.

"Ahem." He cleared his throat as he let her go. Facing his force, he nodded once firmly. "Thank you all for being here. Our first order of business is to ensure that our tsuki allies can resume trade unmolested. They left their territory and were in ours when they were attacked. It was our failure that let them be attacked, and killed. We will not allow a repeat." He had to pause, a new roar rippling over the force, tinged with anger at the unnamed attackers.

He began dividing up his forces, giving some the assignment of ensuring safe passage between the Crystal Empire and the Tsuki warren.

"What I do?" Shining Armor looked down to the little tsuki cub they had sent him. "I am here to help!"

"You need to pay attention," advised Shining. "What we're having them do, you have to write home to tell everyone else about, so we're all on the same page. If they write you, you should come tell me as soon as possible. The faster we talk, the better."

The kit saluted in the tsuki fashion, thumping his chest and flashing his horns. "I will not fail!"

Shining smiled at the youth's vigor, reaching to muss the fur atop his little head. "I feel better with you at our side."

Nothing stopped the equestrian forces. The trade lines were clear as the sky above and the cool breeze that blew across them.

The same count not be said for the scouting forces. A lone pegasus was soaring at full speed, craning his neck left and right as he scanned for trouble. Then there was pain. He hadn't seen what struck him, just that it hurt, everywhere. He began to plummet, barely righting himself enough to hit the snow at an angle, tumbling with a great spray of snow in all directions. He slid to a stop with a pained groan. The landing had been at least as bad as whatever had forced him out of the sky. "What was... that?"

A figure had dropped just in front of him, holding something that glowed unfriendly shades of red and blue. "The pony hegemony on magic is at an end," spoke this figure in a male voice that held not a drop of pity or concern. "They will hide behind it no longer."

The pegasus scrambled, or tried, barely managing to start to rise when the figure twisted the rod in their hands, causing a crackling beam to engulf the pegasus. The smell of burning feathers and fur wafted in the air as their desperate gurgles for mercy were ignored. The former pegasus limply crashed to the snow that puffed up around their lifeless form. "Don't get up on my account." The figure launched up and away, leaving the evidence of their meeting there to be found later.

Celene landed in the great hole as she had intended, plummeting at dangerous speeds, but her legs were out and ready. When she slapped against hard stone, she compressed, that power binding up in her powerful legs in the instant of impact, extending that frightful moment of exchange from lethal to merely stinging. "I home!" she shouted.

Other tsuki looked up. Some hurried towards her, others moved away. All reacted to the arrival of their most physically powerful doe one way or the other. Her loyal were closest at hand, hugging and exchanging sniffs and pats. One saluted, flashing her horns. "Your partner with ponies. Get there safe, thank me."

"Thank you." Celene slapped her fellow doe on the shoulder. "Not sound happy."

"Not mad... partner weak." The doe rolled her eyes. "Why like?"

Celene shoved the other doe, and got a shove in return, the two facing each other with anger in their eyes. Celene was the first to smile. "Bet he clever."

"Clever? Is one of worst talkers." She shrugged softly. "Not clever."

"Bet clever," insisted Celene. "Is very clever. What you fight about?" And the doe told Celene of their argument, about his not wanting to move, and challenging, and being hurt. Celene was laughing by the end of it. "He trick you. Not move hurt buck, so be hurt, not move. He wait for friend. Friend come. He win, you lose." Celene flashed her teeth, bright and sharp. "Why like."

The others nodded with growing understanding. Their alpha doe had good taste in bucks and could see hidden qualities they had missed.

Celene shrugged as she turned away. "Bet he not hurt. Be he already jumping around favorite pony." She snorted softly. "Have news. Deliver kit. Kit safe with ponies. Attack again, hurt them." She slapped her forepaws together. "Hurt bad."

Her does cheered at the personally delivered news of her martial victory. "We need fight more. We make them hurt. Make them regret."

"Welcome back." Quick Stroke stepped forth from shadows as he was wont to do. "The scouts spoke of your confrontation. Care to add your own perspective?"

"Strong, but not strong as Tsuki." Her does cheered at her words. "One use magic." She made a motion, imitating pointing the stick at something. "Bad magic, turn. Throw it back." The cheer resumed. "Not hardest magic."

"Hardest?" He raised a brow.

"Magic Sombra use harder. Harder turn. Harder shape." She wriggled her fingers and dropped, grabbing a clump of dirt, shaping it into a little bowl. "Shape. Hard shape." She threw the bowl aside. "Not as hard."

"If it isn't that hard," argued another doe nearby. "We can shape."

A cheer erupted, their confidence swelling.

"Careful," cautioned Celene. "Sharp knife not shape. Sharp claw not shape. Sharp beak not shape. Fight."

"Fight!" They roared, thudding their chests against one another in what could have been fighting postures, but the feelings in the air were that of solidarity, not a fight among them.

Quick nodded at the intel provided to him. "I see. Magic users... but not ponies?"

"Not pony," grimly confirmed Celene. "Birdcat."

"Griffons? Curious... I will relay this to Sombra." And he vanished, fading into the shadows he had come from.

"Your majesty," he greeted as he stepped out just behind Sombra. "They use magic, but are not unicorns."

"Kirin?" Sombra turned to face his assistant. "I heard of them. Their horns are unnaturally knobby and curved."

Quick had the sense to not mention Sombra's curved horn. "Not kirin, griffons, according to Celene, and I have little reason to doubt her in this instance. I have never known griffons to be magic users. Is this a talent they developed while we were locked away?"

"Perhaps..." Sombra raised a hoof to his chin thoughtfully. "We should share this information with our allies, so they know to distrust the griffons. Perhaps they know more of it and will allow such secrets to be spilled, in the name of 'friendship'."

"I will see it done. Our hostage was delivered to the ponies successfully. They have accepted our offering without complaint."

"Fools." Sombra licked over his lips with a smile. "And of ours?"

"Their guard has been agreeable thus far. I wonder at times if they even realize they are a prisoner." He softly shrugged. "That the tsuki treat them as an honored guest surely has something to do with it."

"Excellent... We will have revenge."

Author's Note

Welcome! Considerations of the past turn towards the present in this chapter. What's really going on here?

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7 - Follow My Lead

"Class." Cheerilee was looking out over her students and standing next to her newest one. "We have a new student joining us." She gestured towards Little Hop. "She's a tsuki from the far north, near the Crystal Empire. Does anyone remember that?"

She pointed to Twist, who hopped upright in place. "The crthtal empire is where Princeth Cadanth is the printheth!" she got out quickly, if also with a heavy lisp. "I always wanted to vithit," she added a bit more slowly and quietly.

"Very good, Twist." Cheerilee looked back to Little Hop. "Go on and have a seat... there." She pointed to an empty desk.

Little bounded for it, the eyes of others following her up and down motions. Her cheeks warmed at the intense attention as she began wriggling into place, sitting as the ponies did. It meant she had to sit up more than she usually did, but she did it and her attention suddenly slid, spotting a pencil there on the desk. She grabbed it up and began twirling and fiddling with it as if it were the most interesting thing in the world.

Cheerilee slid a piece of paper in front of Little. "You can keep notes here. Now, last time we left off..."

Celene made subtle gestures with her right hand, her battle sisters nodding at the silent commands. They were at the forefront. They didn't fear the magic the griffons wielded.

Inside the cave, several guards stood in stiff watch, waiting for something, them perhaps.

"Attack," screeched a griffon from further in the cave. "We are being attacked!" They pointed directly at where Celene had been hiding, detecting her somehow.

Celene shouted, joined by the others in a great echoing din as they bounded inside. Being spotted was only a signal to advance. She threw herself up in a bound up over the snowy patch she had been hiding behind. A pulse of energy was racing at her, but she barely paid it here, her fur going as lustrous as metal as the power was caught, held between her horns.

The doe that had accompanied Toby crashed into the front of one of the guards, her feet lashing out as she came in to deliver a kick with the momentum of her body added to it. The griffon rolled with it, almost becoming an uncontrolled twirl with the force of the blow, but his sharp spear flew with it, bringing him to a stop as it bit into her arm. She hissed in pain as she threw her head forward, slamming her horns against the forehead of the griffon, causing him to stagger backwards, neither untouched in the exchange.

Another doe landed on the guard, throwing him down and sinking her teeth into the back of his neck as if trying to rip his throat out from the wrong end, red spilling on the ground in the attempt. She was forced to leap away an instant later, a spear thrust violently into the space she had occupied a moment before. More griffons were arriving, not all holding spears. Some had daggers, other longer blades. One had knuckles around his fingers, crashing them together with a ring of metal as he charged into the frey.

"The ambush has been... ambushed," reported a griffon towards the throne. "Tsuki have engaged with the soldiers there."

"Tsuki?" He scowled at that. "When did they have fighting spirit? There was only one strong one. Are they being mauled by her alone?"

"They seem resistant to magical attacks," added the same reporting griffon, implying multiple even as they paused as if listening to something. "They are not especially armored."

"Cut them to pieces then. Bash them bloody!" screeched their leader, slamming a balled fist against the armrest of his throne. His commands were being relayed as he turned to glare at a dragon leaning against his throne. "You, why do I pay you to do nothing?"

She flashed a wicked smile, teeth on display, her dark green scales rippling with her sinuous adjustment of her stance. "Because I charge more when I get to work. You need me?"

A bright bolt of power sailed over the tsuki, crashing against an equally brilliant shield that hadn't been there before. "Take prisoners," shouted Shining Armor, at the front of the equine forces, about a dozen of them in total charging into the cave.

Celene threw her head, the magic held between her horns coming loose, hurled at a griffon clashing blade to blade with a pony. The angry ball of magic exploded on contact, sending both combatants skidding backwards, tumbling over themselves. That hadn't been her plan, but there was no time to consider it, already she was closing with another griffon. "Die."

The griffon she was approaching broke their staff in half, revealing two sharp spikes they held in both hands and began to spin and twirl in readiness. "Ladies first," he almost purred, a wave of light sweeping over his form in a display of magic that wasn't a hurled bolt.

She reached for him with grasping fingers, to be met with a sharp swipe. She yanked her hand back, blood flying in an arc from the thin line she'd received. Fury welled in her eyes as she stomped the ground, circling him warily.

"Fighting barehanded? How uncouth." He didn't wait for her to consider another way forward, charging in, deadly implements dancing in the air, forcing her back quickly to avoid being sliced open. "Your tricks won't help you."

Magic slammed into his side, knocking him off balance a precious moment. "Friends will," shouted a crystal unicorn, saluting before he resumed his own battle. Celene was already lunging forward to capitalize on that moment.

Sharp pain lanced from her chest, the griffon yanking the bloodied point free of her and bringing in the other spike. She grabbed the hand holding the spike and rolled, lifting the griffon from the ground and sending both crashing to the ground. One of the spikes rolled away from his momentarily numbed hand, her grip forcing it loose.

One of her sisters landed on his prone form, claw coming in for a swipe when she was bowled over and off, a magic blast catching her unawares. Celene howled with fury, brutally yanking the wrist she had a grip on. She felt something pop, a mute pleasure in the agonized cry of her combatant. She ignored him, scrambling to her paws to see who had struck her sister.

Sombra nodded towards the tsuki that approached him. "Do you have news?"

"Yes, sir!" He reached into a bag hanging at his beltline and produced a letter, holding it towards Sombra. "It's from the cub with the crystal ponies!" he gushed excitedly. "What'd he say?"

Sombra accepted the letter in his magic, tearing the seal open and unfolding it. "Do you not have other letters waiting to be delivered?" The postage tsuki had also been an eager absorber of words. Their diction was excellent, and they could read and write among the best of the tsuki. They were also a bit of a nosy annoyance at times.

He was leaning his head, trying to get a peek at the letter even as Sombra was reading it. He turned to put his body between the letter and the tsuki. "Thomas, your presence is no longer required."

"Nope," easily agreed Thomas, nodding his head. He hadn't left. "Oh!" he suddenly gasped. "He found something!"

"What?" He turned back to Thomas, but the mail-tsuki was already bouncing away. Sombra grunted in annoyance, turning his eyes back to the paper he had been too distracted to read properly.

The ponies had a clue and were chasing after it. They were taking Celene. He frowned before a little smirk pulled at the edges of his lips. "She will give them an interesting time."

"She is ready to fight," spoke his right hand pony, stepping from the shadows. "But this is the first of its kind, for her. She fought me, many against one. She fled when it was many against her. Never before has she faced a group with another group behind her. Such tactics have not been instilled in her."

Sombra considered Quick Stroke. "Then is it not time she learned?" He raised a hoof, flat-side up. "She will be tutored on the crucible of battle. A fitting place for a fiery warrior as her."

"This I cannot argue." Quick stroked his chin with a crystal hoof. "She will make the enemies hurt. She did that even while fleeing them. It seems to be a second nature to her. Curious, for a tsuki. Most are so... gentle." The last word was spoken as if it were a clear negative, snorted with disgust.

"But she is not." He turned to Quick. "And she surrounds herself with other hardened tsuki. What she sees in Toby, I can only guess, perhaps power. As dundering a foo--"

"--Hello!" Toby landed beside them. "Am back! Have news, good."

"The ponies of Equestria are coming?" questioned Quick as if it were barely a question.

"How know!?" He shook his head quickly. "Send friends. Send guards. They are..." He slowed down, trying to get his words out better. "They are going to crystal place, to help." He nodded once firmly, satisfied. "Not abandon their friends." He pointed to himself, them Sombra and Quick. "Us."

Sombra chuckled darkly. "Excellent. They are bound by the ties of our friendship accord. They will risk their lives on our behalf." He sat to rub his hooves together with a malignant joy in how friendship operated. "Did they speak of me?"

Toby inclined his head. "Sun Princess said... impressed." Sombra smiled with smug victory. "Surprised call fast." His expression fell into dourness.

"Is she calling me weak?"

Quick rolled a hoof. "Me thinks she is in awe of your diplomatic mastery, my liege. Perhaps she knew what was happening and was hoping you would not invoke your right as a signer of the accord."

That brought his smile back. "Ah, yes. My mastery of the arcane powers is overwhelming. She hoped to avoid it, but I have invoked them, and she must act. Hmm, there is certainly a power in... friendship." He turned away with a snort. "Celene is fighting," he threw at Toby as an afterthought.

He pricked up, sitting as tall as he could. "Is safe? Where? I can help!"

Quick slid in front of Toby. "You are of the ruling class. It is the duty of the ruled to fight in our stead," he explained calmly. "Besides, you are not--"

Toby suddenly barreled into Quick, even as the unicorn faded into shadow and reformed to Toby's side. "How rude," criticized Quick, frowning at Toby. "Your partner did this, not you." He pointed to his replaced limb, glittering crystal as it was. "You don't have the nerve to do the same."

The ground shook as he thumped away, bouncing back the hallway he had come through. Sombra shook his head at the sight. "You've spurned him into action."

"Do you think much will come of it?" Quick smiled his easy little smile. "I should doubt it. Expect him back within the day, possibly having forgotten the entire thing."

Sombra was not as quick to write off Toby, grumbling softly. "If we had word of Equestria's movement sooner, we may have delayed our attack."

"We can only work with the knowledge we have," noted Quick. "To do more is beyond even one as yourself, my liege."

"That does not make me happier..."

Toby hit the ground, bits of rubble spreading from the point of impact, but the stone ground was firm enough to not show large signs of his arrival. "I need your help," he spoke to the tsuki there, their fur matted with soot and singed with fires. "Can you help me?"

The smithing tsuki raised one of his ears, though it fell back down quickly. "Toby? Hello Toby." He reached to clap Toby on the shoulder. "Use young word. Big? What need?" He sounded old and wise in tone despite his simple language, at least to Toby's ears.

Toby's edginess ebbed a little. He returned the clap to them and moved in for a full hug, the two sharing an embrace before he stepped back. "Good to see. Need fight." He clapped his hands together. "Need hit. Need not be hit. Help?"

"Hmm." He reached out, grabbing a big slab of metal, still red hot near the edge of it. He swung it at Toby, stopping just short. "Big. Hit."

"Yes!" Toby bobbed his head, but his eyes were on where the older tsuki was holding the bar awkwardly. "Not good hold." He mimed what he saw, trying to share his idea.

The smith watched patiently a moment before it seemed to dawn on him. "Yes! Not club." He set the bar down and grabbed his hammer. "Make good. You. Wait?"

"Not be hit," Toby reminded.

"Not forget," chastised the smith. "Make not hit. You, wait."

Toby hugged him from behind, squeezing the smith. "You good, so good. Thank." He released him, the hammering already started. He didn't bother the professional again. He bounded off with a hopeful smile. He'd fight, just as well as Celene, even if Quick Stroke thought he couldn't.

Three undulating waves of power crashed into Shining Armor's shield and he was forced back, his hooves sliding against the rough ground of the cave and sweat pouring from his brow as he struggled to keep his shield firm.

As if synchronized with words none of them said, three tsuki does jumped in the way of the magic at once, each taking one for themselves, causing them to divert wildly on contact and smash into walls instead of constantly testing Shining Armor. Debris and rubble began to fall, the ceiling giving way under the sudden assault.

"Out," roared Celene, pointing the way just before ducking under a savage spear stab. "Die." She lashed out a foot, twisting in air to hit the ground ready to bounce away. The pained grunt she heard was confirmation enough that she'd struck true.

The two sides were separating, with the Equestrian/tsuki forces retreating for the entrance of the cave, and the griffons pressing further inside. There was no time to argue the facts of the matter. The fighting ebbed along with the proximity. A great roar of stone sundering filled the air as the roof came down, dust kicked up, making the field as dusty as it was suddenly quiet save for the tinkle of a few slower rocks reaching the ground.

"Is everycreature alright?" called Shining, his shield fading away, allowing a new smaller wave of rocks to pepper them from above. "Role call!"

Names began to be shouted out, at first pony ones, but the tsuki caught on and began adding theirs.

Several names were not called. Shining found Celene and gasped, seeing that she was bleeding from several significant wounds, blood staining her fluffy fur matted and dirty. "Stay calm. Medic!" His horn glowed as a beacon through the dusty mist. "Over here!"

A pony burst into vision, spotting Shining. "I'm here, sir. Where am--" She trailed off, seeing the wretched form of their ally. "On it!" She galloped to Celene's side and cashed to her haunches, hurriedly getting to work on stopping the blood from escaping more than it already had. "These are not clean..."

Shining knew he couldn't help and turned away, leaving the medic to do their job. "Look around. See if you can't find others who are here but unconcious," he called out to his soldiers. "I want a full tally of who's here and in what state." He came up short, a tsuki doe suddenly in front of him. "Are you alright?"

"No." She pointed past him, back towards Celene. "Hurt. Help?"

"We're doing what we can," he said in an assuring tone. You all did well. Thank you all..." He shook his head softly. "But, for now, I need a complete check of who's here or missing."

"Hunt." She bounded, lost to sight in the dusty cave immediately.

He went for the back of the cave. It was much smaller than it had been. The cave-in had sealed it off from the midsection on under roughly broken bits of rock and stone that reached all the way to the ceiling easily. He reached with his magic, pulling a few rocks aside to peer behind them, but there were just more rocks. The wall that was created was not a thin one. "We may as well use this as a campsite for now. The injured can't be moved yet."

Sounds of reluctant agreement came from the others. The dust was settling, at least, allowing them to see each other and work more effectively. Soon the injured were gathered in one place for triage.

"Sir." A mare stood, horn glowing, a letter floating in her magic. "A full report."

The color of the glow around the letter shifted as Shining took hold of it and she released it to his grasp. His eyes skimmed it, skipping the reports of those uninjured, giving the barest of looks even at those who were injured. Two ponies had met their end that day. One was missing. One tsuki was confirmed fallen, one was missing.

The missing could be crushed under the rocks they were camped beside. They could be prisoners. They could be dead further in the caves. It was impossible to know. The ones they knew were dead, at least... had a finality. They were gone, forever. There was nothing more to be done for them than perhaps to arrange a tasteful sending off.

Shining let his head sag a little, crushed under the weight of things for a moment before he sat back up. "Thank you." He passed the note back to her. "See to the comfort and care of those still injured. I need a report of who will not be mobile come the morning. Also, get somecreature to take a tally of the enemy we can. Injured, captured, or otherwise."

"As you command." She sharply saluted, the note slipping away into a pocket as she trotted off to see the commands fulfilled.

He kicked a rock away, sending it bouncing along. "If I had been stronger..."

"Sir?"

He looked over his shoulder to see a stallion, a standard earth pony in armor, standing there. "Yes?" He turned to face them. "New news?"

"No, sir." He dipped his head. "You just looked... You did what you could, sir."

Steel felt a faint smile come. "It is not a soldier's job to comfort their commander."

"What about a friend, sir?" He pointed back towards the entrance. There, a fire crackled softly. "They're about to serve dinner, sir. It will help you feel better. You did what you could, sir."

"You already said that," noted Shining, a brow raised.

"You need to hear it, sir." He turned towards the fire. "We can't do anything else right now, sir."

Shining fell in with his soldier. "You. You're usually stationed with Flash Sentry, aren't you?"

"Even Watch," offered the stallion as he walked along. "That's me. Flash is still back at the empire, with Cadance. He got upset at the idea of leaving her defenseless." He snorted softly. "As if the rest of the guard wasn't there. Whatever. You have me, sir."

"I'm lucky for that." He patted the soldier on the side before advancing to sit and accept the food being offered. "Rest up. We leave with the coming light."

Luna saw one mare barking orders at the others and approached with a confident walk. "Excuse me. You are the captain of the guard, yes?"

"Mm?" She turned to see who was speaking to her. "Ah, Princess Luna, a pleasure. What can I do for you, ma'am?"

"A pleasure," she echoed back. "I am in need of a fighting force."

The captain stiffened. "Of course. What is the mission, ma'am?"

"Rogue griffons, wielding magic. They are capable of hit and run tactics. Motivations unclear outside of banditry." Luna inclined her head. "They will be joining Crystal Empire and tsuki forces."

"We need soldiers that can operate on the field," muttered the captain to herself. "Open to cooperation with other creatures besides ponies. Not averse to dealing with magic. Got it. How many?"

Luna's ears danced atop her head. "I admire your focus. Give me the best fifteen you have for this assignment."

"Right away." She saluted sharply. "Where should they report?"

Luna turned, pointing to the railway out of sight. "I will be waiting at the train. We will ride there at earliest convenience."

The captain raised a brow. "I appreciate your need for speed, ma'am, but gathering the soldiers and reassigning them is not instant. May I suggest meeting in two days time?"

Luna's teeth clenched faintly. "If that is the earliest?"

"That's already cutting corners, ma'am." She turned in place. "Hey, you! Full push ups!" She shook her head softly. "They see you distracted and they slack off. I'll have them there, ma'am. Noon, two days."

"Two days," Luna echoed, turning away. "I will be ready. Thank you." She trotted off, thinking of other things she could do to be prepared."

Twilight set her hooves on the friendship map, looking to her friends arranged at their thrones. "We're being called."

"Ah know that," noted Applejack with a smirk. "We all read the letter."

"It sounds... scary." Fluttershy shook her head softly. "This isn't like the other times."

Rarity rolled her eyes at that. "The last time we went to the Crystal Empire, we were fighting Sombra. This time, we're on his side. Oh, how things change, darling. Still, we musn't keep your brother waiting."

"Nope! That's why I have snacks." Pinkie dumped a heavy-looking bag on the table. "So we can eat on the train," she explained. "Let's go!"

Rainbow snorted with a smile. "Pinkie, you are something else. I talked with the Wonderbolts. They said reporting for military duty's not only alright, but totally in line with what Wonderbolts are for." She cracked a sharp salute. "I'll be showing up for them and me at the same time."

Rarity laughed gently at that. "That does figure, darling. I'll be leaving my business in good hooves, but I'm glad to hear you're not abandoning your own."

"The Cakes will have to make do without me." Pinkie hugged her bag, tucking it away. "But they said they understood."

Applejack sighed, eyes going to Spike. "You alright with this?"

"Huh? Yeah, totally!" He hopped up to his feet. "I'll help Big Mac keep everything in order."

Twilight set a hoof on his back. "You're absolutely sure?"

Spike waved it away. "You don't need Spike the Hero distracting all the crystal ponies. Go on and take care of things. I'll hang out with Big Mac while you're gone, promise."

The heroes of Ponyville shared a nod. They had a mission and they left the table, trotting for the train station that would take them towards the Crystal Empire and those attacking it. Rarity strode up alongside Twilight. "Do you imagine, dear, they have anything to do with that sudden attack we were unfortunate enough to be victim to?"

"What are the odds of that?" questioned Twilight with a shrug. "Bandits are not halfway across the world at the same time, and why would they do that? It wouldn't make sense." She shook her head firmly. "Let's take care of one thing at a time."

Author's Note

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8 - Pow

Little was looking around on the little playing area, unsure of where to go or what to do.

"Heya." Apple Bloom came up beside her. "It's lunch time. You eaten already?"

"No." Little inclined her head left and right, ears wobbling. "What food?"

Apple Bloom clopped a hoof to her face. "Did we not bring you somethin'?"

"What's wrong?" Sweetie Belle joined them. "Heya Little Hop! Enjoying your first day?"

"No lunch," explained Little. "It's alright, so far."

A loud snort drew all their attention towards a new pony joining the mix. Diamond Tiara had entered the conversation. "They send you bunnies without food?"

"Tsuki," corrected Little nervously.

"That, right." She turned and waved, an old stallion marching up, her butler. "Get her something to eat."

"As you command, miss." And soon he had a little table set down and a wide variety of little plates, each with something different to sample.

Apple Bloom peered at it wide-eyed. "You just have him bring a spare lunch just in case?"

"No, that'd be dumb." Diamond rolled her eyes. "That was all mine, but I'm full. Go on." She pointed at the selection. "Eat up."

Little stepped up uncertainly, nose dancing as she took in the various scents. She homed in on a big ripe mushroom. A big fat portobello mushroom plate, grilled and appealing to her developed senses. She grabbed up one of them and began nibbling excitedly, happy noises lifting from her quivering form.

Apple Bloom tilted her head to the left. "Huh, who knew tsuki loved mushrooms? That was right kind of you, Diamond."

"Very kind," agreed Sweetie Belle. "I already ate all of mine," she added with a note of regret. "If I had known..."

Diamond buffed her chest softly. "I have it, so I can share it." She walked up to Little, watching her eat. "You look like you're enjoying that."

Little stuffed the rest of that mushroom into her mouth, chewing in great munches before it was gone in an equally big swallow. "Thank you!" She reached for Diamond, embracing the stunned-looking filly. "Good pony."

Diamond squirmed out of that grasp. "Easy there. Your hands have grease on them." She rolled her eyes, a smirk on her lips. "The name's Diamond Tiara."

"Little Hop." She pointed to herself, then began to point at the others. "Apple Bloom. Sweetie Belle."

Diamond laughed at that. "Oh, I know their names just fine."

"Friends? Good!" Little brought her hands together in a loud single clap before reaching for the other mushroom that remained. "We are friends now, yes? Nice to make so many friends. Fast."

Apple Bloom slid in next to Diamond Tiara. "Be gentle on her. She's new in town."

"New in the country," spat back Diamond. "I know that. I never saw a tsuki before. Look at those horns." Her eyes moved to the horns atop Little's head. "Not like a unicorn at all. Can she do magic with them?"

"I don't think so." Sweetie Belle lifted up a roasted carrot in her magic, lifting it slowly towards Little's snout.

Little did not reply with magic. She just grabbed the floating carrot and it was soon gone. Her eyes went to Sweetie though. "Thank you."

Sweetie nervously laughed. "I was testing something, I admit. Can you do magic?"

Little inclined her head left and right. "Tsuki don't do magic. Tsuki do better." She stood up, bouncing in place a little. "I saw other tsuki working on it. Do magic."

"Better?" Sweetie shook her head before lifting her shoulders. "This I wanna see. What kind of magic?"

"Magic."

With that clear instruction given, Sweetie settled on making her horn glow brightly atop her head. "Ta da!"

Little's eyes fixed on it even as they slowly closed. She tried to do as she had seen the adult does doing. She felt for the flow of magic, and she tried to slip along with it, to follow its trail.

Soft gasps made her open her eyes, and ruined the moment. "What?!"

Sweetie pointed at Little. "Your fur started changing colors."

"All wild like," agreed Apple Bloom. "But mostly where Sweetie was. That's a neat trick ya did there."

Sweetie giggled. "I got distracted." Her horn wasn't glowing anymore.

"And so did she," noted Diamond, looking to Little. "You done eating?"

"Much better." She patted her belly and fell back to all fours. "Thank you."

Diamond made a little shooing motion and her butler was on the case, packing up the food for later use or disposal. "You're welcome. Now we should get back to class or Miss Cheerilee will get mad at us."

Scootaloo skidded to a halt right beside the table, flipping an entire plate off of it onto a waiting hoof that she bounced towards Little. "That wasn't nearly enough. You're a big fil--um, whatever little tsuki are called."

Little caught the plate with an alarmed squeak for fear of it smashing against the ground. "Are you sure? You don't need it?" She was looking to Diamond Tiara.

Silver Spoon leaned a bit against Diamond Tiara, joining the crowd. "She is, like, too cute."

"She is kind of sweet." Diamond made a wave of a hoof. "Go on, eat it. I offered to share, didn't I?"

"You are a very good pony." Little Hop grabbed a dangling napkin and cleaned her hands in a flurry of motion before reaching to grab for Diamond anew.

Diamond danced back with a little laugh. "You have to earn hugging rights. Finish your food and head inside." Scooting around Little, she returned to the classroom.

Silver Spoon peered at Little skeptically as she went past, just to pause. "Do you like hugging all ponies?"

Permission given to eat, Little let the pasta slide off the plate into her maw, chomping it noisily and mesilly, her snout becoming a mess as she tried the new food. "So good! I never tried this before, what is it?" She looked to Silver Spoon who happened to be right there. "Do you know?"

"Looked like wheat noodles with a tomato sauce and stuff." Silver nodded in agreement with herself, just to be grabbed by Little. Luck was with her, the tsuki's hands and arms still clean even if her face was a mess. She was being hugged warmly. She tensed, but soon relaxed. Being hugged by a tsuki was kinda nice... "You're, like, welcome."

Sweetie floated over a cloth napkin, dabbing and cleaning at Little's face. "Come on, we have to go."

It was time to return to class, but Little had gained two new friends, which meant it had been a very good lunch indeed.

Shining looked from one to the next. Some looked sullen, others glared at him defiantly. They had captured five griffons. "Two of you we couldn't save," he started. "I apologize for that."

"Fool," spat one of them, spitting on the floor towards Shining, but not quite reaching him. "Do you think we weren't trying to do the same?"

Shining frowned at the spiteful bird-cat. "Unlike you, we do not relish in the idea of death. You are our prisoners, but you will not be abused. You will be given trials and judged for your crimes."

Another griffon sagged with a miserable groan. "Then it's off to jail forever instead of just killing us and getting it over with. So much better!"

Shining circled in front of that griffon. "So long as you draw breath, things can improve. You can improve. I am sorry two of you were denied that. Some of our own also saw their last yesterday. We are going home, you're coming with us. Think on what you did, and what you will do." He turned away and began walking.

Other ponies closed in to get them up on their feet and the procession began in earnest to emerge from the cave and begin the journey back towards the Crystal Empire.

A crystal mare trotted alongside the prisoners. "You know," she spoke to none of them specifically. "I bet whoever knows what they're up to... and shares it... probably will get a lot less of a punishment." A few glanced towards her, but none of them spoke, yet. She smiled faintly, continuing her strategy. "Just a few words, between friends. Nocreature else needs to ever know..."

It was her job for the trip back, to put on such pressure, in the hopes that one of them broke and gave valuable intelligence. it would make their intense battle worth it.

"Toby." The smith landed nearby, a strange new thing on his back swaying with its own weight and the changing momentum. "Have. Try."

"Try what?" Toby turned in place, rearing up to meet the smith in a warm hug. That was when he took a closer look at what was attached to him. "Oh! Hit hard." He pulled the sheathed sword right off the smith's back into his inexperienced hands, giving it a testing swing. It was about ten pounds of steel, weighted for the strong arms of a tsuki. "Big!"

"Hit hard," agreed the smith with a slow nod. "Come." He bounded away, trusting Toby would follow. He led the way to a small area set aside for tsuki practicing more martial things. Landing before a dummy, he pointed at it. "Hit. Hard."

Toby landed nearby and bounced up to his feet, drawing his new blade free from where it had been bouncing around on the way there. "Out of the way," he cautioned, not trying to swing it until the smith was shuffled aside. He griped tightly on the hilt and brought it down, just for it to bounce off, his arms and hands stinging. "Ow! What do wrong?"

The smith chuckled as he stepped forward. He reached for the length of metal and grabbed it. "No cut." He reached around and pointed instead of grabbing. "Cut." The heavy blade was only sharp on one side. "Hit. Cut." He hiked a thumb at the dummy. "Hard. No hit, cut. Again."

Toby turned the sword around, rotating it so the sharp part aimed the way he needed it to. "Sharp. Cut." It made sense! He hadn't spotted the difference before. "Hit. Hard." He raised the sword up and brought it down in a terrible slash, hopping up just as it came down, his entire body getting in on the rotation.

The sword bit into the hard wood of the dummy, creating a huge gash about three inches deep and about as wide. One of its arms dangled a moment before falling to the ground with a clatter. "Hit Hard!" declared Toby with the happiest grin. "Good. Good good. You are best." He let the sword drop so he could give the smith a fresh hug. "Need practice."

"Practice lots," agreed the smith, returning the hug. "Not done."

"Not done?" Toby peered back at the blade. He wasn't sure how it could be improved. "How not done?"

The smith grabbed for Toby's hands, turning them around to see where they had begun to swell painfully. "Hold, hurt. Not want hurt. Fix." He then thumped Toby right on the chest. "Not Hit."

"Not hit!" Toby realized then, remembering he had asked for armor, and that wasn't there. "Yes. You good tsuki."

"Do best." He hopped forward and grabbed the sword from the ground, putting it into a sheath on his back. "Work. Make better. You like."

"Already like!" gushed Toby with brimming joy at what was being made. "Even better. Thank you."

"Enough thank." He crossed his beefy arms. "Thank by hit hard, not be hit hard."

Toby nodded firmly, reaching for the sword, but the smith danced away, hopping back with a laugh.

"No," he stated simply, though he was smiling. "Not done. Be ready." He was gone in a great bound, leaping down the tunnels with practiced hops.

The left Toby behind, rubbing his hands together gently, trying to dismiss the pain they felt. "Get better." He moved to grab a stick that had been left there and gave it a swing. "Practice." He would do that, even if his sword wasn't ready. He would get his hands tough enough to not be hurt when he used what the smith made.

He would do his best!

Cadance hurried towards Shining when his head crested the stairs leading towards the throne room, but her approach stopped almost as quickly, seeing what was behind him. Many of the soldiers with him were in various stages of bandaging. The number of outright lost were low, but few had made it through the day without a scratch that needed a bandaging.

Then came the bodies and she took a step back. Each was on a stretcher, their faces covered. Those too injured to walk had not been covered. They were, by and large, awake, some even hopeful and happy to be home. Even the sleeping ones, their faces were visible.

The dead were wrapped tight, enemy and friend alike. "By Celestia..."

"Speaking of her." Shining broke off from his column. "Have we received any word from Canterlot?"

"Are you alright?" With him closer, she closed the distance, circling to take him all in. "You don't have any bandages."

He smiled at that. "The guards and the tsuki were fierce defenders."

With a soft thump, Celene landed beside him. "Say stupid. You protect." She pointed at Shining. "What you do."

Cadance inclined her head. "She does have a point there. Oh, Celene..." She came in closer, reaching a trembling hoof to trail among the many bandages that dotted her form. "Poor thing."

"Fight, hurt, be hurt," she grunted as if it should have been obvious. "Hurt more than be hurt. Is good."

"I'm certain you fought with all your power." Cadance drew a hoof back. "You must stay. The least we can do it give you a meal fitting such bravery." She turned to the soldiers still setting up. "That goes for all of you. We will hold a banquet, for the returning soldiers, all of them, even those who cannot join us..."

The tone grew a little more somber, but the energy grew. They would celebrate their mission, with its good and bads. They would see their beloved battle companions on with their heads held high.

Cadance closed with the prisoners. "Shining tells me you were with the bandits." None of them had words for her. "I would invite you as well."

One of them, a female, stood up awkwardly, bound as she was. "Why?! Why would you want to do that? That doesn't even start to make sense."

"Perhaps it does not." Cadance glanced away. "But the dead will remain dead. You fought, for what you believed in... I would hear more of it. Perhaps you can tell me why these creatures had to die. Maybe there is even a point to be found in it. Come, eat with us, and we can learn together." She raised a hoof to her chest. "Perhaps you will see our way of things. Either is possible, is it not?"

Shining set a hoof on her shoulder. "They're enemy combatants."

"They are our guests, forced or not," she replied with a scowl. "My invitation stands. Provided they will attend with manners, they are welcome."

The female shook in her bindings. "Well, whatever! If you're offering, I don't see no good reason to say no. I'll take a good dinner over jail slop if you're giving the choice."

Shining gestured, guards moving to undo her arm bindings, though her talons were still secure. "You understand you are still under arrest, and you are expected to be on your best behavior."

"The best I have," promised the griffon hen with a bit of a smirk on her lips. "Don't expect me to sing any pony songs by the end of it."

Shining flagged down a passing soldier. "You're with her. Make sure she behaves and see to her comfort. Make sure the rest arrive safely in jail."

"On it." The stallion got right to business without questioning Shining's order.

Cadance looked to the slings being dragged away, their contents secured. "How many of them... are ours, and how many are theirs?"

"We lost less than them." He turned an ear to Cadance. "But it was cut short. It wasn't a decisive victory for either side, barely a conflict before the fighting was forced to stop."

"Forced to stop?" She sat, raising a hoof to her chin. "I do not oppose the idea of stopping a fight, but what would cause that?"

"Cave in," he grunted. "We could have rushed in past it as it came down on us, or leave. We took the latter option... I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry for." She touched her nose to his cheek. "You brought home as many as you could, and fought bravely. This dinner is for you too, don't forget. Did you learn anything?"

"Not as much as I would have liked to... The ones truly in charge either got away or were crushed. We can't know." He kicked the floor in an impotent display. "They do have magic, and not just blasting."

"That's more than we knew before." She slid against him, supporting him. "We've learned something at least."

"More than that." He stepped away, almost causing her to flop over artlessly. "They're too much, for bandits. They were prepared for us, and ready to fight it out. Only the cave in changed those plans, and that wasn't something they were trying to do."

A different tsuki doe landed near them. "Celene. She go home." She pointed at herself. "We go home."

Cadance stood up at the news. "Wait, please. There's more to be discussed, and many of you are hurt. Please, be our guest for a little while longer."

Shining was suddenly approaching the doe. "You were one of the ones that deflected their magic."

The doe inclined her head. "Stop magic, yes." She made a gesture from the front to the side in a swoosh. "Send away."

"Did you get a look at how they were doing it? The magic, I mean." He waved a hoof a little. "We really need to talk."

The doe shrank back a step. "Talk Celene." She was gone, leaving a Shining there with questioned unanswered.

"We can't force them." Cadance advanced to be at his side again. "We could try talking to their diplomat?"

"The tsuki kit? It couldn't hurt," he sighed out, sounding as if he had little hope in the effectiveness in the plan. "Try."

"I will do my best. You go wash yourself and be ready. That dinner is for you," she reminded. "Let's try to look at the positive side of things." She trotted off, leaving him behind for the moment.

At the sound of a clop at the door, the tsuki kit hopped to his paws and bounded to the door in one leap. He grabbed the knob and pulled it open. "Hello!" Then he say who it was. "Oh! Hello pony princess. How help?"

"Hello to you as well." She dipped her head. "The other tsuki came back from a big fight."

"Did they win this time?" he asked without delay.

The immediacy of it took Cadance by surprise. "They didn't lose," she went with, considering the stalemate her husband had described.

"Good." He clapped his hands and hopped back as he did in what looked like an awkward gait. "I will write a letter to Sombra to let him know."

"You are faithful about that job." She inclined her head faintly. "Do you know Celene?"

The kit stopped cold. "Scary. Good fighter. Why?"

"We want to thank her, for helping us. Do you know a good way to keep her from going home right away?" Cadance smiled gently, hoping the kit could have the answer. "Just a day or two. She seems eager to rush home."

"Thanks are good," he mused. "I will talk to her." He jumped to a window and pushed it open. It seemed tsuki saw any window as a door, as he jumped right out of it without a delay.

Cadance peered at the point. "They don't have wings," she reminded herself, wondering how healthy that habit was. Tsuki were tsuki, which were not ponies. "I won't judge them for what works for them." She resumed her trot past his room, her magic drawing the door shut. She had a dinner to plan for her precious husband and their equally important and needing soldiers.

A shining crystal pony in a maid's outfit nosed into the room. "I'm here to change your linens and offer you a change as well." She trotted past the griffon sitting in a chair. "You look like you could use a bath as well."

"What does that mean!" roared the griffon hen, gaining a glare from the guard also in the room. The griffon rolled her eyes. "I don't look dirty."

"I apologize if I have offended." With a glowing horn, she began to undo and redo the bedding in the room. "I simply meant that you may enjoy a soothing bath before the dinner."

"Oh..." She glanced away and back. "Yeah, that doesn't sound too bad."

"I'll draw it up immediately." She trotted across the room to a fair-sized tub and pulled it with her magic beneath a spigot. With a press of a button, hot water began to flow into it. The maid turned to regard the guard. "You must go."

"No can do, miss." He shook his head firmly. "She's a prisoner, can't leave my sight."

"You do not need to leer at her as she bathes," chastised the maid. "I will keep her safe."

"You heard the lady." The griffon made soft shooing motions at the guard. "Buzz off. I'm takin' a shower." She rose to her feet and began to shake off bits of clothes as she went.

The guard began to color and scurried from the room. "I'll be right outside. Just shout if I am needed."

"Thank you," called the maid, her magic closing the door behind him. "Please come closer. I will help you to relax and be clean at once."

"You sure are trusting." She left a pile of dirty clothes behind, dotted with filth and blood. "What if I hurt you?"

"Why would you do that?" The maid inclined her head. "I am bathing you. You want to be bathed, do you not? Come, sit, and enjoy." She tapped at the tub with a hoof, her magic pressing the button and causing the water to stop flowing. "You will enjoy yourself, and you will emerge refreshed."

"Yeah..." The griffon walked up to the tub, peering at the steaming water. She reached for it, testing it. It was as warm as it looked, but not scalding hot. With careful steps, she entered and began to sink. Magic glowed around her shoulders, gently pulling her down. "Hey! Lemme sit my own self down, thanks." With a rough huff, she settled at her own pace.

As soon as her client was seated, the maid got to work, cleaning fur and feathers with soapy cloths and humming a gentle little tune as she did so. "Doesn't that feel better?" she asked as she worked. "Oh, you must have worked so hard, you're hurt..." She carefully dabbed the injury, the cleaning not pausing, or even slowing.

"I got it fighting ponies," she casually reminded. "I may fight them again."

"Why would you want to do that?" She dutifully cleaned despite the admission. "We are far better to be friends with, than to fight."

"Friends that throw you in jail," she scoffed. "Some friends."

"Creatures in jail are being bad." She leaned over the side, allowing her cleaning to reach further down when she could see more. "Will you be bad? You could not be bad, then you would not belong in jail, and you wouldn't have to go there."

"As if it was that simple."

"Who says it's not?" argued the maid with a little smile. "Don't you feel better?"

Author's Note

Little Hop makes friends, yay! Shining Armor arrived back home, and help is on the way. Things are looking up! We hope?

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9 - Friendship is Magic

"Little Hop." Cheerilee had called her just as the class was being let out, forestalling her escape. "Can we talk?"

Little looked to Apple Bloom, who pointed to Cheerilee. "Go on, she's a nice mare. You know how to get back?"

"Yes." Little bounded in one arc, landing on Cheerilee's desk. "Hello."

The teacher squeaked, not expecting a student to rush up to her in quite that fashion. "Oh, yes. You're a little... different than my usual student, and I wanted to check in with you. Your seat looks uncomfortable from here, but I'm not you."

"You not tsuki," agreed Little easily. "You are a silly pony." She was smiling, amused at the idea of Cheerilee thinking she was a tsuki. "The seat is small." She hop-walked back to the desk she had started from and waved at it as she circled it.

"You're quite large, for a foal," noted Cheerilee. "But, I want you to be comfortable. Getting a larger desk isn't something we can do right away."

She grabbed the paper she had been doodling on and sat down on the ground, slapping the paper down in front of herself and resuming her writing. Cheerille watched with a tilted head. "Are you comfortable?"

"Better. I will bring a writing rock next time." She bobbed her head quickly. "A good flat rock. Makes it better." She bounced up. "Thank you. Good pony." She lunged forward, grabbing up her teacher in a happy hug.

Cheerilee laughed awkwardly in the embrace. "I'm glad you're learning. You're an attentive student." Little hadn't been distracted by anything that she had seen. "How long are you staying with us?"

Little released the mare and blinked at her with confusion that only grew deeper with thought. How long was she staying there. Would she return to the north? What was she returning to? Did she have a proper home? Little sank to her belly, lower lip trembling as uncertainty filled her form.

Then she was hugged. Cheerilee put an arm around her, hoof pressing into Little Hop's side as she was drawn in. "I'm sorry, that was a bad question. Forget it. You are welcome here for as long as you want."

Little's gloom was banished, the pony's hug like a hot needle to that bubble of doubt. She smiled brightly and climbed to her paws as quickly as the hug was released. "I will come back. All done?"

"All done, for today." Cheerilee pointed to the exit of the school. "Come on back tomorrow and we'll learn new things. Ask Applejack if she can get you a notebook and some pencils."

"Yes!" was her enthusiastic, if simple, reply, already bounding off towards the Apple's farm at full speed.

Celine glanced to the left as a small form thumped to the ground, landing. "Why you here?" She glared at the little kit. "Too far."

"Is my job," countered the kit with a proud and smug look on his face. He pointed at Celine. "Like is yours. I write letters. You fight."

"You talk," she huffed. "What want?"

The kit low-hopped forward, ascending the roof they were on to approach Celine. "Ponies want you to stay."

"Not stay," she grunted with finality.

"Be good," he chastised despite her being more than capable of breaking him in half. "They want to celebrate a good tsuki." He pointed at her. "Good tsuki. Let them be happy, then go home."

A low growl bubbled from deep inside her. "Need tell others," she argued, scowling at the kit that knew not to fear her.

"Tell me. I will write a letter and they will get it." He reached back and pulled out a pad and a quill, slapping both on the rooftop as his tail wagged, ready to write. "Tell."

She swatted at him, but he was still a tsuki, bouncing away and landing further away, but still holding his tools. "Stupid kit." Celine turned in place to face the new direction of the kit as another form dropped beside her, one of her battle sisters. "News?"

"Ponies happy." She looked curiously to the little scribe. "Big party. Want us, there." She pointed down to the road far below. "We eat?"

Celine turned her head towards her sister, surprise clear on her face. She was being betrayed by a dear battle sister?! "What happy for? We not win. They get away. We get nothing but hurt!" she shouted angrily. "Why party?"

The doe looked far less certain than when she began. "Because... we fight, friends. Make it. Show..."

The little kit came back closer in little hops. "They want to look at the bright side," he offered more eloquently. "Celebrate the good parts. You're here, so they can try again. They're here, so they can try again too. Better than the other way around."

Celine thumped to the ground, sinking. "Better than other..." She pointed at the kit. "Use big words. Think so smart..." She glanced at her cowed sister. "Want go?"

"Please?" She smiled hopefully. "We fight... deserve food."

"We eat, then home," allowed Celine with a heaving sigh. Just as the kit made a cautious hop, she lunged, grabbing him right out of the air and driving him to the rooftop, pinned under her large paws. "No move! Stay, write. Letter."

"Yes'm!" he quickly assured, wriggling to get his paper and quill ready, even if he was still being held firmly by her. "Ready!"

Luna looked left and right slowly over the band of ponies before her. "You're who she sent?"

One of them, an earth pony mare, saluted sharply. "We are the most qualified for the task, Your Highness. We will not disappoint."

A unicorn raised a hoof. "I've perfected a spell to keep an entire brigade regulated. This will be an exciting time to put it to practical use."

Luna frowned at him. "Regulate what, exactly?"

"Temperature." He nodded as if it was obvious. "We will be in a place where temperature regulation is vital. The spell should move heat from where it is uncomfortably high to where it is most needed. The harder we march, the more heat it will have to work with, preventing hypothermia and reducing fatigue simultaneously, even within a specific pony, adjusting from core to limbs and reversing as the moment demands."

Other ponies murmured, some curious, others debating the practicality of the spell. Luna cleared her throat for attention. "Very good. You are a wizard then?" The word wizard meant a specific thing to ponies. Any unicorn could, and likely did, cast a few spells. Most were not wizards. Wizards made spellcraft their specialty and often reached beyond what came naturally to them. "Protect him." She pointed at the stallion. "The enemy has wizards as well, I am told, though how they manage it remains a mystery."

A train rolled up behind and to the side, filling the station with the squeal of breaks and hiss of steam. Ponies began to disembark. Luna's voice raised to be heard, "This is our ride. Let the civilians disembark first, then board in an orderly manner. The train will not be pausing at any other stations."

The ponies emerging wove around the gathered guardponies. Some noticed Luna sitting there and peered curiously, but most kept moving rather than stare.

At least most. One mare was peering right at Luna with unblinking eyes. "Woah," she finally got out. "You're, like, my favorite princess." Despite her excitement, her tone was flat and low. "We are tied together, moon sister," she continued, not as flat as the legendary Maud, but not rising despite her obvious excitement.

Luna hiked a brow at the curious unicorn mare of blue-grey pelt and dark blue mane. "I'm sorry, you have us at a disadvantage, and we are on a mission." Then it clicked. "Moonlight Raven."

A faint smile spread on Moonlight's face. "You know me."

"I do, I visited your dreams before." Luna inclined her head. "You were just as taken with me then, if I recall properly."

"Woah, that wasn't just a dream?" Moonlight raised a hoof to her chin. "Far out," she breathed. "Can I come with you? We have so much to talk about."

Luna peeked at the mare's cutie mark, a dark heart with curves pointing towards it. "I travel only with trained operatives this time, Moonlight. I do not want you being hurt. This is a military excursion."

"Woah..." Moonlight seemed to consider silently a moment. "I'll burn a candle for you. Be safe."

She left them then, the gothic mare seemingly pleased to have run into Luna. "Call me when you get back," she bade on her way off the platform.

"As we were." Luna's horn glowed as a floating arrow appeared, pointing onto the train. "Let us disembark. The sooner we are all aboard, the sooner we can get to work." With a chorus of approval, she advanced on the train with her squad. Next stop, the Crystal Empire.

Sunshine Smiles hugged her friend tight. "You are not going to let her get away!" she cried, pointing at the train that hadn't left yet. "This is your chance to do something important next to Princess Luna, and she knows you? I'm totally jealous." She danced in place. "You have to go!"

"She said I shouldn't," noted Moonlight plainly.

"Of course she'd say that. She has to, and I bet it's a test anyway." Sunshine leaned in, thunking her head against Moonlight's. "Pass the test!"

"Woah... Do you think?" When Sunshine bobbed her head with a nervous grin, Moonlight Raven turned to the train she had just stepped off of. "Burn two candles, for both of us." And off she galloped to make a date with destiny.

"Missive." Quick Stroke held a closed envelope in his magic, the flap sealed with a Crystal Empire symbol. "From our hostage."

Sombra hummed as the glow around it shifted, passed from one grip to the other. He brought it close and broke the wax. "Let's see what he's found out for us." He unfolded the letter twice and began reading, eyes sweeping. "Celine is returning to us after a celebratory bit of nonsense." He rolled his eyes. "Good of her to realize we have to maintain appearances."

"Of course, Sir." Quick inclined his head, though his eyes were on the letter, reading it as well. "It seems the hostage has including a message of their own."

"Hm?" Sombra inclined his head as Quick had, allowing him to more easily see some writing done to the side of the main body. "Ha, our hostage is clever." He pointed to the words where the kit had claimed credit for Celine staying. "See that he is rewarded, if he returns."

"It is bothersome, sir, that we did not secure a victory."

Sombra waved that off. "Reinforcements are already on the way. The fact that the battle was cut short is to our advantage. I would have called off the entire thing had I known earlier, but it seems fate is on our side for a change." He swatted his advisor on the back with a hoof. "They will be rested and ready to be joined by a force of Equestrians. Our enemies will fall before our combined might."

"Friendship surely is a fearsome weapon," allowed Quick Stroke. "Speaking of which, where is our ambassador to the Canterlot princesses?" He glanced about, but Toby was not in sight. "Not that we have immediate need of his services."

Sombra grunted nom-commitedly, but a smile was forming. "You continue to underestimate the power of my people."

"Sir?"

"It is not by accident that I found them." He brought up his fore hooves to press together. "They have a delightful determination that is impossible to quell. You lit a fire in him, and he works feverishly to prove you wrong, to see you thrown aside and himself made the stronger."

Quick frowned at that. "Are we speaking of the same tsuki, my liege? Toby? The only thing that has fear of him is his lunch."

Sombra laughed, an echoing thing, bouncing off the hard rock of their home. "And this is why you will not see it coming, even with my warning. I look forward to seeing it." He turned to Quick, thumping him on the chest. "He is a kind creature. He will let you serve me even as he aims to prove he is better than you."

"Inconceivable." He vanished into the darkness without further word.

Sombra chuckled darkly to himself. "This should prove entertaining."

Elsewhere, Toby was garbed for battle. Heavy armor adorned his front and back. Unlike the ceremonial set he had worn before, it was sculpted to his body, made for movement as much as protection. A helmet sat nearby, but he hadn't put it on. His sword had been returned, resting across his back, one hand reaching up to grab it, clad in a thick glove.

"Show," ordered the smith, pointing to a series of wooden practice dummies. "Bad birds. What do?"

"Hit hard." Toby leaped, denying gravity in an instant, the sword coming free along with the motion. When he touched the ground, he was hitting it at the same instant that the head of the first doll was landing, driven there by a brutal swing on the way down. "Hit fast." He threw the sword, impaling the chest of the next.

He was on it in a flash, wrenching it free of the wood. "Not be hit." He ducked and bobbed despite no blows incoming, showing that he could. "Win." He swept low and hard, knocking one dummy off its base, its supporting column severed entirely and allowed to fall with a clatter of wood against stone. "How fight."

"How fight," echoed the smith with a smile. "Good. Do more." He stepped up to Toby, slapping him on both of his shoulders. "Do more." They hugged, a warm exchange before he bounced back and kept bouncing, twisting in the air to face where he was going, back towards the smithies he called home and work.

"Thank you," echoed Toby's call to his friend, even if the smith was rapidly lost to sight. "Do more." He swung the sword down in an arc, practicing his pacing and the feel of the metal as he swung it. He was a warrior, like Celene.

Like Celene? He considered that a moment as he practiced his swings into the air over and over. Was that what Celene felt when she was working? Maybe he understood her a little better. "Not need be mean," he grumbled. He would still smile, even if he was a warrior too!

He brought down the sword only to come up short, coming within inches of a pony that hadn't been there a moment ago. "Careful," he advised Quick Stroke, inclining his head at the dour unicorn. "Not want hurt."

"Don't you?" He inclined his head in the other direction. "Your partner ripped a piece free from me."

"Sorry." Toby turned away and resumed his swings. "Do more."

"Do more!" Quick's eyes flared with angry purples and greens. "How dare you!"

Toby kept right on swinging without looking to see that display. "Not you. Me. Me do more. Fight... Keep safe."

"What do you know of that?" He flowed around Toby as if made of angry smoke until he became solid, interrupting Toby's practice with his presence.

Toby huffed with growing impatience. "Not first time." He turned away, seeking peace that wasn't coming. "Fight. Fight better."

"You fought me," reminded Quick. "You impressed Lord Sombra." He ran his tongue over his teeth. "And you're aiming to do it again. Little fuzzball, what do you know of the darkness of a proper fight?"

"Protect." He swung through the air. "Keep safe. Fight... for other, not me." He brought his sword too far down and it bit into the stone, chips flying with a bright spark of the impact, Toby breathing audibly from the efforts of his practice. He hopped up on the two feet he was standing on, landing facing Quick. "What you fight for?"

"What do I fight for?" Quick swelled in place, his form wreathed in boiling shadows of dark magic. "What do I--" He trailed off, watching Toby swing and swing as if he wasn't being shouted at. "Are you too simple to know when you are being lectured?"

"Be quiet." Toby brought down his blade into the center of a dummy, cleaving into it with the loud thunk of abused wood. "Work harder, do more. I protect. What you do? For who?"

"For Sombra!" he boomed, veins bulging at the top of his face. "What sort of inane question is that!?"

"How talk to me help?" questioned Toby, focused on his practice and barely taking the time to get out the few words of reply. "Do more." That time it seemed clear, he was pointing that at Quick, not himself.

Dark magic swirled around his horn, considering how best to crush the fuzzy insect that was half-ignoring him. "I am at his side, ever loyal. What more is there?"

"All can think?" asked Toby as he cut off one of the halves of the stick of wood, sending that half of the target dummy to the ground. "Have magic?"

"More than you will ever know!" boomed Quick, standing tall and proud.

"Fix mess." Toby pointed at all the bits of target dummy he'd been cutting down. "Help other do more if not do more."

"You... impertinent creature. Face me!" He became as mist, swirling in a chaotic mess at Toby just to meet his sword in a bright clash, sword meeting horn and neither yielding.

Toby was smiling. "Do more. Fight. Get better." He leaned forward with a terrific swing, forcing Quick back. "Fight." He puffed out his chest, ready to perform the instinctual challenging poses, but he wasn't lobbying for position or authority. He gripped his sword firmly, ready to do battle with Quick Stroke, perhaps to both of their benefit, in his eyes.

She sat down at the table, surrounded by mostly ponies, but there were other creatures there with them, her included. The griffon hen stroked her beak, amazed she could even do that. She wasn't shackled. She wore no collar. She was dressed even better than some.

The rabbits seemed to be just fine in their fur, clustered at one end of the table, the most bandaged, toughest, meanest looking rabbit at the center of them. The ponies were dressed to emphasize their position. The guards wore gleaming armor, polished and new. Their princess was resplendent, as ponies went, her mane glistening with interwoven jewels.

One rabbit stood out, because he was wearing formal clothing like she was. He was conversing with others with polite words, quite good at it, as if he had traded size in for linguistic ability.

"He is a cute little one," noted a pony seated beside her. The griffon jumped in surprise, grabbing for a fork in her talons. "Oh, sorry, didn't mean to surprise you," assured the mare that was in the next seat over.

"Yeah, cute." Not the word she woulda picked. She reached across the table, securing a plate of steaming legs. Why did ponies even have meat? Whatever. She grabbed a leg off the plate and thudded it onto her own with a grin. "So, do you treat all your enemies like this?"

The mare inclined her head. "Are you our enemy? You seem like a dinner guest to--"

"--cut it," interrupted the griffon as she began chewing on her morsel. "They put you next to me on purpose. You know who I am and why I'm here. I refuse to believe the ponies are that dumb, or trusting."

"Is that so bad?" asked the mare, nudging a glass towards the griffon. "We want you to be happy."

"You want me to talk," corrected the hen as she snatched up the glass and took a swig of what seemed to be a fruity and alcoholic sip. "Ha, I can hold down way stronger than this if you think it'll get my lips flapping."

"Happy people do talk more," gently agreed the mare. "But is that bad? You didn't answer. If we want answers and we're willing to get them by being nice and treating you like a creature should be treated, is that a bad thing?"

The hen set down her drumstick and put her hands flat on the table. "If you plan to throw me in jail the moment I say what you're looking for, that doesn't make you out for half as nice as you're pretending to be."

"Jail is for bad creatures." The mare leaned forward on her forehooves, chin on them. "Nice creatures do not belong in jail, that is how jails work. Are you a nice creature, or a bad creature?"

"Is that a line you're trained to say?" The griffon grabbed up her meat and tore a big chunk off, chewing moodily a moment. "The maid spat the same thing at me on the first day."

"Because it's true," noted the mare with a smile. "Nice creatures are friends, and we do not put friends in jail. I've... heard griffons can be quite cruel, and I am sorry if you were hurt, but you won't be, here."

"Easy to say." She pointed across at a dish that seemed to feature corn. "The hell is that?"

"Corn casserole," reported the mare with that bright smile of hers. "Delicious. Have you had some?" The moment the griffon shook her head, floating plate and knife approached it, carving out a portion. "Then you simply must. This party is also for you, I remind."

"Bloody... Look, I get it, you want me to sing, but this?!" She waved a set of fingers up and down the table. "This isn't for me. You were fighting us. You want us to kiss off, not treat us to dinner. Get real!"

The mare set down the steaming serving of casserole in front of the griffon. "A party can have more than one meaning. Oh, look, Princess Cadance wants to say something."

Cadance rose to her hooves at the front of the table and attention was on her quickly, other conversations dying. "I give thanks on this day," she said with solemn seriousness. "That my husband returned to me." She inclined her head towards Shining, blushing just beside her. "To those who returned to worried families, and... to those who couldn't, who gave all they could to make sure the others are here, to hold and be held by those who love them. Let us not forget their sacrifice."

Her horn glowed as she plucked up a goblet full of rich purplish drink. "A toast, to the fallen." It was silent, heads bowing as she raised it high, then drank it without a moment for breath, her eyes swimming in a hint that the drink of the dead was no idle offering, potent brew surging through her. "But there are... brighter things." She turned her head to look at the griffon at the table. "Of their number, one accepted a friendly hoof." She inclined her head towards that hen. "Though she looks at us with doubt and scorn, we hope she will learn what good friends ponies can be, and we can fight the evil that drove her against us."

Polite clapping sounded out, paw to paw, hoof to hoof, circling the table. They were all looking at the griffon who looked like she was ready to vanish into the floor instead of be the center of attention. The mare gently nudged her. "They've already forgotten you."

Despite her words, a soft thump announced the arrival of another. The young tsuki scribe had landed, his feet planted just between the food, narrowly avoiding a mess. "Hello!" he bade the griffon. "You fought Celene, and you're still here. You must be very tough!"

"One of the toughest," gladly accepted the griffon with a wry smirk.

"Can ya tell me about it? The fight? I want to hear."

"Uh..." She glanced at the mare, who didn't seem to mind. "Well, sure... There we were, waiting..."

Author's Note

People struggle to find their place in tremulous times. Does that hen deserve a hoof of friendship, or a nice cold cell?

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10 - Be Better

Toby slid back, breathing hard, sweat matting the fur of his brow and sticking his armor to his body uncomfortably. But still, he had a smile as he clutched his massive blade.

Across from him, his body glistening not with shadowy magic, but with his own sheen of sweat, Quick Stroke scowled at the one that he had fought to their mutual exhaustion. "You... are not stronger..."

"Good." Toby nodded firmly. "Get food, rest, do again?" He swung his sword around, sheathing it across his back as he rolled his shoulders, working out the tight spots that had formed in the battle. "We get better."

Quick peered at Toby, who was just standing down, like that. No pomp, no declaration of victory or plead for mercy. Just a request to... do it again? "You have taken entire leave of your senses."

Toby fell to all fours, grabbing tough rocks as he contorted to stretch his entire body in place, loud pops sounding as he succeeded at the task and letting out a happy sigh as the tension was forced free. Rather than flop bonelessly, he turned towards the food halls. "Work hard. Eat. Work harder." He inclined his head at Quick. "Want ride?"

"We were battling. For supremacy..." And yet, his opponent seemed to have no particular desire to finish it. That he had fought to fatigue didn't leave him terribly eager to take up the fight anew, but he expected to have to be clever, not for the fight to simply... end. "Do you know how this works?"

Toby inclined his entire body, offering a place to Quick in silence.

Quick swatted the large tsuki. "I can move on my own, and I am not hungry." His words were countered with a low rumble from his belly. "It is past time for breakfast," he defended. "I skipped it to settle matters with you."

"Then we fix." He grabbed Quick suddenly, plopping the pony on his back and surging away without delay, bounding down the tunnels. They would eat, and perhaps spar again, harder. He would be ready to defend his friends.

"Enough time has passed." The ruler clenched the arm of his throne with a heavy scowl. "Send the signal. They had their chance to escape."

And his will was done. Those who were being interrogated or rotting in prison would suddenly know how to escape. They just had to bite down in a specific way, and magic would whisper them away.

Or so they would think. Ponies would shriek in horror as their prisoners were found, dead.

But one griffon didn't feel captured. The tickle came over her, but she didn't need escape, and didn't follow that way out. Why should she? "You're back?" In her room, she had a room, the little tsuki stood on her window sill. "What do you want?"

The little tsuki hopped down into the room. She hadn't told him to go away specifically, which was as close to a greeting as he expected. "Hello," he cried with a big smile. "I was hoping to hear more about your adventures."

She raised a brow. "Come clean." She dropped down, putting them closer to eye to eye. "I already told you about the attack. That's all that 'mattered', so you got your big bonus and you don't need to know more."

"But I want to know more," assured the tsuki, bouncing in place. "You're really interesting, and you've done interesting things. Please?"

The hen smirked a little. She wasn't used to having an actual fan, but it was starting to grow on her. "You want to hear something tense, something dramatic, or something violent?"

He tilted his head left and right, ears flopping as he considered that. "Why not all of them?"

"All of them it is." She sank to her bottom and soon had a tsuki in her lap. She gently petted the over-eager little scribe. "Hope you have your quill ready." The tsuki held up a quill proudly. "Good, 'cause I ain't repeating this!"

And the story began of the time she almost lost her hand in a bet with what she thought was a friend.

When he penned the last bit of the story, he rolled over and looked up at her. "That was a great story, but something's still bothering me."

"Yeah?" She huffed softly. "Ain't much more to tell about it."

"Not about that," he assured, wagging a paw. "I heard griffons learned how to do magic, like unicorns."

"Yeah?" She crossed her arms under her chest. "Is that what you're hoping to hear? Too bad. I don't know much about it. You done with me then?"

He sat up in her lap and reached up to poke her on the break, testing how sharp the tip was, which was pretty sharp. "No, you're fun." He clapped his paws together. "The other tsuki left. The ponies are all serious. You're fun."

A faint smile dared to appear on her beak. Maybe he wasn't just buttering her up, considering she had almost nothing left that could even possibly be useful. "Look, kid. All I know is some griffons have stuff, usually sticks or whatever. They point them, stuff happens." She threw up a hand. "And they never gave me one! Trust me, I asked."

"Oooo." He bounced free of her and grabbed a fireplace poker, thrusting it to point it at things. "That sounds fun! If you find one, will you let me try it?"

"Yeah kid." She chuckled softly at his energy. "I'll share it, at least a little. So how long are the ponies going to have me taking up space in their palace? That ain't normal, is it?"

"No." He hopped, landing facing her and throwing aside the poker in the same motion. It landed with a clatter beside the fireplace. "When you get a job and a new house, you can move there." He inclined his head. "Ponies and griffons are weird, having houses."

"Yeah? What do rabbits have then?" She twirled a finger in the air. "If not a house, what then, smart guy?"

"Dens," reported the little tsuki with proper gravity. "We live underground, so we dig out little cozy places." He fell just to curl on himself, displaying how well tsuki could become little balls of fluff.

"Looks... cramped," admitted the hen, not entirely enthused on the idea. "We griffons like to have stretching room." She reached for the ceiling, but the hand fell about halfway up. "A job, huh? Guess I can't be a lazy jerk forever... What can I do that ponies want to pay for?"

"You tell neat stories," he offered, uncurling and bouncing to his paws. "I write things."

The griffon clicked her tongue against her beak, considering it. "What if you write them down into books, so ponies can buy them? Do ponies like griffon stories?"

"We can find out!" He bounded, landing on the sill with one perfect bounce. "I'll test with one of the stories you told me."

"Yeah... you do that." She pointed at him. "But don't go spreading it all over the place. That's our product."

His eyes went wide and he began to vibrate, his paws coming together in excited little claps. "We're partners!" And off he went before she could argue the fact with him.

"Guess we are..." She mused it over in her head. "Giselle and Arnavon... publishing, yeah..." She turned away from the window, wobbling her talons in the air. "I could get behind that."

Perhaps there was a life for her in that pony city.

Luna lifted an ear, a thump rousing her momentarily, but trains were many things, quiet not being one of them. She pushed it aside. "Are we are prepared as we can be?"

The mare she had spoken to before, who seemed to have taken charge of the unit, nodded. "There isn't much more we can do, Ma'am. As soon we we arrive, we will meet with the local forces and get updated on the situation." She seemed to consider something. "Do you have any means of communicating with them at a distance?"

Luna shook her head firmly. "My ability to enter dreams has a host of requirements. It is a matter of confidentiality that I not simply impose myself save to alleviate the mental issues of those I visit." She raised a hoof to her chest. "If you cannot trust me, I cannot help you, so I take my limits quite seriously, so none need fear my unwanted approach."

"Pity." She tapped her chin lightly, her eyes on the landscape that scrolled by. "Your sister can send letters to Spike, the dragon, can't she? Anything similar?"

Luna tensed as she was compared to her sister. "I know not the specifics of that magic. She did not share it with me. I feel the origin of Spike plays a part in making it work. In either event, he is not in the Crystal Empire, so sending him a letter will do us little good."

"Where is he?" She looked over to Luna. "I thought he'd be first in line. Don't they basically worship him there?"

Spike nodded softly, bobbing a quill as he counted barrels. "Wow, more than I thought you could do. You get a Harmony Point."

Big Mac cheered as he pranced past Spike towards the farmhouse. "Yup!" he announced with a smile. He glanced around the empty yard and the house where Granny resided. "Is Discord coming today?"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world," announced the chaotic spirit, stepping out of nowhere behind Big Mac as if he'd been hiding back there the entire time.

Big Mac and Spike yelped in surprise, but Spike was soon laughing. "You're too good at that. Game's on tonight, be there!" He shot both with finger guns and started towards Ponyville.

"Wherever he is, it is likely of importance," replied Luna with a soft nod. "Twilight would have brought him if she could. Speaking of that, I do wonder where she is at current. 'Tis rare for sister to not send her and her friends towards such troubles."

"Why doesn't she send us?" asked a stallion on a seat behind the mare in charge. "We're ready to tackle Equestria's problems, but she sends Twilight more often than not."

Another mare shrugged. "She has a good record. You can't really argue that."

Discussion rippled across the train car as people discussed the efficiency of sending Twilight to solve Equestria's various issues.

Moonlight hugged close to the car roof she was on, shivering from the cold wind rushing over her form. "Should have... worn more," she complained softly, but she remain attached, listening to the conversation below her as best she could.

She looked forward and over her shoulder. "Fortune favors the bold," she spoke, tone far more even than the dardevil words that had escaped her. She had climbed up along the train, listening at each car. The one way at the back, where she started, was the quietest one.

"Woah," she breathed out, realizing. "Harmony tried to throw me a bone." She rose up to her hooves and started scaling back along the train with slow and careful steps. "Hope they don't lock the windows..."

Her hooves slipped on the smooth steel as she stepped between cars and she vanished. A soft thud of hooves on metal announced her arrival on the platform below. "Woah..." She reached for the ladder on the target car and began pulling herself back up, one clop of her hooves on the rungs at a time.

Hefting herself up onto the roof, she clambered to her hooves and began forward, shivering against the cold. "A hot bath would thaw my soul," she lamented, not a single even warm bath in sight. Just her and the cold windy platform of the train's roof.

Her hooves slid out, her entire body rocking dangerously, but she didn't fall that time, just clinging desperately a moment before she got a hold of herself and pressed forward. "They should make walk strips." There, the last train. She dropped to her belly and threw her head over the side, peeking into a window. Inside was dim and dark, but she could see no ponies in there. With a glowing horn, she unlatched the window and pulled it up. She swung down and collided with the sill, tripping into the room in a pile.

But she was inside, and pins and needles announced she was warming up. She decided to just lay there and enjoy it. She didn't even notice she had fallen asleep until well after the fact and it was too late to act on.

Later, a soldier came to take a nap. He was quite surprised when his hoof hit something mid-stride and he fell forward, crashing to the ground in a grand strip over the body there.

"Woah," came the waking noise of the sleeping one. She sat up, noticing the dizzy but very awake guard. "Oh. Sorry."

"You're not supposed to be here," sternly noted the guard as he turned to face her. "Get off the train."

Moonlight looked at the terrain going past outside the still open window. Her horn pulled the window shut and redid the latch. "I can't do that."

"I... guess you can't," admitted the soldier, rubbing behind his head. "You wait right here." And off he marched out of the room.

Moonlight was alright with that idea. With a little more energy, she flopped onto the bed and was soon lost to the world.

Luna arrived a few minutes later, her horn glowing as she peeked into the window on the door to see the form of the mare fast asleep on the bed. "Moonlight," she sighed out, seeing who it was. "Why is she here?"

"I don't know, ma'am," reported the soldier. "I figured you'd be the best to report this too."

"Yes, yes... Thank you." She raised a hoof to pat his shoulder. "We're on a tight schedule. This train isn't stopping until we get to the Crystal Empire."

He inclined his head. "Send her back once we're there, ma'am?"

"Ideally," agreed Luna as she turned away. "For now, let her sleep."

"Ma'am, um..." He pointed at himself. "I never got my nap, ma'am."

She rolled her eyes dramatically. "Then sleep beside her, or across a set of seats." she pointed to the many benches that adorned the train. "What do you think I'll be doing? They have not a single thing built for my size."

"Of course, ma'am, sorry to bother." He saluted sharply and marched off, presumable in search of a good place to collapse.

Luna looked through the window, peering at the sleeping one. "You are a foolish mare to chase me..."

It was, a little, flattering. "We do not go on a pleasure voyage, this I do promise."

Sombra tapped at a letter floating in his magic. "Unacceptable." His magic grabbed a quill and began writing. "If the prisoners you have were involved in the harming of my..." He almost wrote property but canceled at just the last moment. "citizens! They should be surrendered to me, for public punishment. This will please the surviving family members." He folded the letter tight and sealed it with a flash of magic. "See this reaches our hostage." And off it went.

Arnavon landed and knocked on her window from the outside. It was closed at that moment. "Hey?"

"Yeah what?" He could hear her coming closer, then it swung open violently, slapping him against the wall. He squeaked, scrambling to cling to the wall awkwardly before he bounced off, skidding past her before a final hop took him past her into the room.

"Good, you're here." He clapped his paws. "I had... a little question, just a little one." He smiled nervously.

She noticed. "Did they want you to pump me for more info? They got tired of paying for me?"

"Neither of those," he assured. "When the griffons first came, they... hurt some tsuki." He rubbed behind his head, claws scratching. "The bad kind of hurt you don't get back from."

"Killed," she offered. "The word is 'killed'."

"Right, that." He swallowed heavily, adjusting from one hind paw to the other. "Were you... there for that?"

"Yeah." She dropped down to meet his eyes. "I did what I was told. It's what you do when you're a mercenary."

He shrank back. "O-oh... Oh..." He sank miserably. "Oh..."

"What? You going to guilt trip me now? They said that was water under the bridge. I'm not hunting tsuki, we're going to make books, right?"

"Yeah..." He flopped to his belly. "They want to punish you. Lord Sombra."

"Who?" She cocked a brow. "Never met the jerk."

"He's our leader, of the tsuki," Arnavon explained. "He's a bit... mean, but he does a decent job. He wants to make the tsuki that lost family members happier by offering them the griffons that hurt them."

Giselle lifted her shoulders, throwing her talons to either side. "You think that'll help? Be serious with me. You ain't dumb. You throw me to them, they'll get angry and do painful things, then right back to being angry and sad. Won't help a single creature."

"Just one more dead creature," he allowed miserably. "And I like this creature." He worried his fingers together. "I don't want them to hurt you, or kill you. You did a bad thing, a very bad thing..."

"Yeah, I did," she admitted nakedly. "But now I'm not. You want to punish the old me, or the new me?"

Giselle leveled a talon at him. "Your pony friends said I'd be shown friendship, that it was all a big mistake, and we were over it, so which is it?"

"Stop saying it like that!" He hopped up to two legs, little chest puffed as if ready to challenge the much larger griffon to a battle. "You killed good tsuki, and you don't even sound sad."

"It was the best thing to do, at the time." She wobbled a hand in the air. "You showed me other ways. Look, I'm not trying to do it again. This works out, it'll never happen ever again. Isn't that good enough?"

"I'm not sure," he sniffled, deflating. "I have to tell him..." He jumped for the window, but she caught him in the air, grabbing him by the scruff as his legs pedaled wildly. "Leggo!"

"You don't have to tell him," she corrected. "We're friends, aren't we? All the other griffons died, what's one more in the report?"

Arnavon gasped. "I can't lie!" he shouted as if she had just suggested he casually skin himself. "You're right there. They'll notice."

"So tell them I wasn't involved if it's that big of a deal. It's up to you." She gently lowered him to the ground. "We can have a happy ending. Nobody but you has that control. Ain't not another creature that knows what I said, and I said it because I trust you, Arnavon. Was I wrong to do that?"

He sank to his haunches, breathing a little rapidly for how little he had moved. It was silent for a long moment. "Yeah," he finally admitted. "It is up to me." Without warning, he was gone out her window.

Magic washed over him, burning through his armor, but it flew past him almost as quickly. He was growing better at deflecting it even as he spun around with the sharp edge of the sword coming at Quick Stroke.

The unicorn faded to nothing, appearing with a pop a few feet away, heaving for breath, but largely unharmed. "You are getting faster."

"You too," complimented Toby with a tired smile. "We get better." He approached, but his sword was being tucked away, not swung. He grabbed Quick with his paws instead, hugging the unicorn close. "We work hard."

Quick snorted softly with derision at the physical contact, but he didn't fade away. "There is only so much to be learned this way."

Toby drew back, confusion on his face. "What do wrong? How do we do it better?" he added the last bit more eloquently, looking serious about it.

"That is a good question." He raised his crystal hoof. "Invite your mate. She is a fierce warrior, one neither of us can deny. If we can meet her in equal combat, then we know we have grown."

Toby's eyes went wide. "Oh! Yes! You are so smart!" He clapped his hands once in a muffled clap of his gloves. "I ask." He turned to bound away but paused, looking over his shoulder. "Tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow," agreed Quick, watching him flee to ask. "Our rematch... You will tear no limbs from me this time..."

Sombra stepped up from behind Quick, arriving silently. "You look satisfied."

"M'lord!" Quick lowered his front towards Sombra. "Pardon. I am not in any seemly state to be in your splendor."

Sombra waved it off. "You are thick with sweat as you struggle to better yourself for me. I think I will forgive that." He reached then to set a hoof on Quick's lowered shoulder. "Rise. You have been clashing with Toby constantly, but you don't look nearly as angry as you used to."

"M'lord..." He was without words a moment, eyes darting. "You were right, as always. Forgive this fool for not understanding your wisdom."

Sombra looks quite pleased with the praise lavished upon him. "It is too easy to assume you have reached the top, but I see you have climbed higher. How do you feel?"

"Sir... M'lord... Would you do me the honor, perhaps not today, of crossing horns with me?" He inclined his head. "We can sharpen our abilities, together."

"How your tune has changed." He drew his hoof back. That was signal enough for Quick to rise to full height. "Even a ruler should know how to fight, should the need arise. Yes... I will accept your offer, but do not cry if I overpower you."

"I will learn, and improve," he assured, thumping his own chest. "If Toby can rise again and again when he loses a match, I will not be second to that."

"Good... I would see my minions learning from one another." He turned away, starting a light walk. "I hear you challenged Celene. Bold... I will watch that match with quite some interest. She bested you once, but... Perhaps not this time?"

"She had help," he grunted, walking a little behind Sombra. "I was a fool to assume a group of tsuki made no difference, and she is our most fierce warrior." Quick glanced aside at his master. "I will not be so shamefully crushed."

"And if you are," counseled Sombra. "You will rise up, and work all the harder. You will reach a peak, only to cast your eyes on the next, larger, and begin climbing."

"Is that what you see in them?" He watched a tsuki bouncing past. "Were they always that way?"

"Oh... certainly not... They were meek and afraid." He raised a hoof to his chest, the other three carrying him along. "But Toby woke them up, and they are eager to make up for lost time." He turned his darkly glowing eyes towards his lackey. "Much as you. It seems to be a talent of his."

"A terrible, if useful, talent, m'lord." He broke away, slipping into the shadows to seek a good long shower.

Author's Note

Oh boy, there were some points in this chapter I really liked. And you?

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11 - An Army Unified

Twilight stepped off the train, her friends piling out behind her. "Welcome to the Crystal Empire."

Rarity glanced around with discerning eyes. "It's just as charming as the last time we were here. Pity we so rarely visit under pleasant circumstances."

Rainbow flew a few feet over everyone else, flapping casually to hover. "Yeah, it's either because something went wrong... or is about to go wrong." She chuckled under her breath. "I prefer it when we know what's the problem, which we do. Right?"

Applejack strode free. "Might fearsome squabble between the griffons and everycreature else." She raised a hoof to her chin. "A shame they don't have no proper leader sort we could just hash it out with."

Fluttershy darted out, hiding behind Rainbow Dash in the air and not joining the conversation until a soft thump on the roof made her squeak, but her alarm turned to adoration. "Aw!" She rushed towards the little tsuki perched there on the roof of the train station. "Well, hello there. Aren't you just the cutest thing?"

Arnavon tilted his head at Fluttershy with a little smile. "Hello there. They asked me to show you to the castle." He pointed at himself. "I'm Arnavon, nice to meet you."

"Oh, my... No offense, but you speak so much better than most other tsuki we met." Fluttershy rubbed at the side of her face with the flat of a hoof, impressed at the little tsuki kit. "I'm Fluttershy." The other girls began giving their names and Fluttershy waited for her turn. "I'm very happy to meet you." The others joined in the chorus. "Do lead the way."

Twilight shook her head. "Not that our chances of becoming lost were very high." The castle was the largest building by some measure, right in the center of everything. "Still, nice to meet you, Arnavon. Are your parents nearby?"

Arnavon smiled as he bounded at an easy pace, matching the rate the mares were moving at. "Nope. I'm an ambassador," he declared so proudly. "I... represent," he had to say that word slowly, a few grades above him, but one he knew. "--the tsuki! You've come to help us, and the crystal ponies, right?"

Pinkie bounced up, matching Arnavon's bounds easily. "Bouncing places is fun!" she gladly noted. "And yep. We'll teach those griffons to stop picking on other creatures. Meanie faces!" She stuck out her tongue with a raspberry blown.

Arnavon was hardly the only tsuki interacting with ponies. Little Hop stood at the front of the class with a nervous smile. "My favorite historical figure..." But much of tsuki past had been lost to fog and mystery. "Is Toby!" Sure, he was alive, but he counted, she decided.

She spread her hands wide, wagging them in the air. "He came from the outside world and freed the rest of the tsuki, freeing us from Sombra!" The foals gasped but also tilted their heads.

Sweetie Belle raised a hoof in the air. Little looked towards her. "Sorry, um, but didn't you mention Sombra is your king? How did Toby liberate you from Sombra and he's still your king?"

All eyes were on Little, but she knew that one! "He was a bad bad king, at first." She clapped her hands together. "Then Toby came! He showed him how to be a better king. Way better" She started bouncing in place a little, excitement growing. "Now Toby and Sombra are in charge, and we're way way wayyyy happier!" She had to throw her hands wide to properly display just how much things had improved.

Soft clops echoed around the room as approval was given. Cheerilee approached with a gentle smile. "That was a fascinating little tale. We'll have to learn more about that. Now, Twist, your turn." She gently dismissed Little Hop to her seat, her assignment complete.

Later, Little sat in the CMCs clubhouse. "I can't get one of those," she casually pointed out as she more literally pointed at Apple Bloom's back end.

Apple Bloom peeked over her shoulder, spotting her cutie mark. "Oh, yeah. Was that something you wanted?" She suddenly smiled. "You wouldn't be the first not-pony to join the CMC. Remember Gabby?"

Little cringed a little. "Yeah." Her eyes darted to where the griffon hung there on the wall, smiling so innocently. "I don't have much to offer." She shrugged gently. "I don't need a picture on my butt though." Her expression lightened to a smile. "What would the picture be?"

Scootaloo frowned with obvious thought. "A picture of a tsuki mid-jump over an anthill?"

Sweetie burst into giggles. "That'd match her name, but not her personality much." She tilted her head. "I didn't imagine my mark, it just... kinda happened. That's how ponies work."

Little hiked a thumb at herself. "I am a tsuki, not a pony." She hopped forward, knocking Sweetie over as she grabbed the filly up in a hug. "And that's alright."

Sweetie giggled as she returned the embrace. "Aw, thanks. You're pretty great just like you are."

Apple Bloom nodded in agreement. "Tsukis are neat, like ponies, just... different." She inclined her head a little. "Speakin' ah that, how's school? Ah mean, we're there with ya, but that doesn't tell us what you think of it none."

Sweetie bobbed her head as she sat up on her haunches, no longer being pinned under warm tsuki fur. "Are you enjoying the experience?"

Scootaloo pressed in with the others. "Making all kindsa friends besides just us?"

Little giggled a little, pawing away her encroaching pony friends. "Yes and yes." She tilted her head. "Was Diamond Tiara really that mean before? It's just like Sombra!" She began to clap. "And you were Toby."

They blinked, but Apple Bloom got it first. "Oh! Yeah, we showed her a better way, and she's way more fun to hang out with now."

"Very fun." Little inclined her head. "And she brings lots of food every day. Why?" All three shrugged at that. "Before I came, what did she do with it all?"

Sweetie Belle pantomimed wiping a plate clear. "Threw it out, I imagine."

"What a waste," sighed out Little. "Good thing I'm here." She rose to her full height, hind leg kicking as she casually took care of an itch that was bothering her. "She's nice though, but she doesn't like hugs."

Apple Bloom tilted her head. "Silver Spoon does."

Little's smile broadened. "Yes. She takes every hug Diamond Tiara doesn't want, like I take the food Diamond Tiara doesn't want." She brought a hand to her chin, thinking. "Diamond Tiara sure does leave a lot for other creatures to have. That's very nice of her."

The girls shared a look, perhaps knowing better, or not. Sweetie nodded though. "Glad to hear you're getting along. Do you... feel better?"

Little looked confused a moment before she sank, remembering why she was there in the first place. "I still miss mom. I... think I always will." She sat up, her hands folding in front of her. "But I'm not... the same sad... I made new friends, like you." She pointed at each of them in turn. "I am learning new things. I will make her... proud. She would be sad if I was sad all day." She ventured a little smile. "When I was sad, she'd... always get me to smile again."

Suddenly she was surrounded by her pony friends, hugging her from all angles. Apple Bloom swatted Little on the back. "That's the way fer it. Ah know I'm doin' proud by her, even if she ain't here..." She glanced away and back at Little. "Still hurts a little, but we're doin' good, right?"

"Doing good," echoed Little, releasing the sudden hug with a quirk of a smile on her face. "I bet she didn't think I'd be here, with ponies."

"Is that bad?" asked Scootaloo with a little smirk.

"No." Little emphasized her blunt statement by tackling Scootaloo. The filly was ready for it, the two wrestling for dominance with laughter from them both, neither realizing they were engaging in Little's instinctual need to vie for dominance in such acts, to play at it as a child in preparation for adulthood.

"So..." Giselle peered at the tsuki on her sill. "You rat me out or not? The suspense is the worst part. They didn't drag me away, but that don't prove much." She crossed her arms, eyeing him. "You look like you got somethin' to share, out with it."

Arnavon fidgeted in place, working his hands over one another. "I couldn't lie."

"Figured." She rolled her eyes. "When are they haulin' me off?" A little quirk touched her beak. "Still gonna make my book?"

Arnavon blinked at the question. "You'd want me to?"

"Why not?" She shrugged emphatically. "I'm feathers either way, 'least some people can read my stories, maybe even like it... That'd be nice, I figure." She raised a brow. "But you better not waste the money, jerk. I'll come back if I have to just to haunt your furry butt if you don't make it big."

Arnavon tilted his head left and right. "I told them you did it, and you were here..." He fidgeted his hands nervously. "I told them I wouldn't give you to them."

Giselle hiked a brow at that last part. "Say what now?"

"I wouldn't give you... to them. It told the truth, all of it." He hopped down from the window. "You did a bad thing, a really bad thing. They deserve sorry, so many sorries. More sorries than you will ever have to give." He thumped the ground with a hind paw. "But you don't deserve to die. Two deaths doesn't make someone not dead."

"Hard to argue that." She shrugged lightly. "But ain't your boss gonna be super pissed with you?" She approached, practically looming over him. "Don't think 'nah' is enough to make anyone like Sombra back off just like that."

Arnavon smiled awkwardly. "I told him more than no. I told him why I wouldn't give you to him." He rubbed his hands together. "I found a book binder. She made a book out of your story."

Giselle's eyes lit up. "Yeah? Show it!" She thrust a hand out, fingers wriggling in demand to see the tome.

But no book came. "Can't." He held up his hands as she looked sour. "Gave the book to a pony to read. If they like it, we can make more," he reasoned. "Sorry."

Giselle huffed, but didn't lash out at him. "That makes sense, I suppose... but as soon as she's done with it, I wanna see it! Does it have a cover?"

His expression lightened. "I got an artist stallion to draw something nice." He tilted his head. "I had to spend some bits, but I like the way the book looks."

She punched him in the shoulder, but it was a light thing. "Oh, sure, make me want to see it even harder when you can't show it to me! You rotten thing." She moved for her bed. "Alright, so... maybe it works out, and we both get bits." She pointed at him. "You pay yourself first, little punk. Take back what you spent, then we split it. I don't want to owe you things."

He smiled at her, watching as she settled in, perhaps for a nap? "G'bye," he wished as he bounded away, leaving her to her peace. At least he had told her what he had done, and she didn't hate him forever. Not an awful day, as days went.

"Missive." Quick's magic held up a letter towards Sombra. "From our surrendered hostage."

"Hmmph." Sombra's magic swept over it, taking it from Quick and tearing it open. "Tactical updates?" His eyes swept quickly over it. "Ah, yes, good. That impertinent bunch of mares that led to my... inconvenience... have arrived to lend their assistance." He nodded, pleased to hear his once-enemies were prepared to fight at his behest. "With more reinforcements scheduled to arrive soon."

"Outstanding, Sire." Quick dipped his head before righting himself. "Anything else?"

"Mmm, yes." His eyes dipped lower. "It would seem most of the griffons captured took a coward's way out." He scowled at the paper. "They ended their life, rather than give my people the satisfaction of ending it for them."

"Lamentable," grunted Quick. "I would have come up with a creative end for them..."

A malicious smile spread on his lips. "Would that I could have seen it." His eyes trailed forward. "What? what?!" The paper, held in his magic, spun about and slammed into the side of Quick's face, though it was still paper, crumpling on impact. "Our hostage betrays us!"

Quick's magic took hold of the paper, unfurling it back out to read it. "Hm, he reports the ponies are interested in the one griffon remaining, and that he has taken personal interest."

Sombra slammed the ground with a hoof, the rock quaking at his fury. "How can their petty wants compare to mine?"

Quick set the letter aside for the moment. "It would seem he wishes to have her dictate intelligence."

Sombra's angrily glowing eyes flared before dwindling down, a laugh erupting from him. "Oh! Oh! Our hostage is clever... very clever... Better a living intelligence source than a dead example? Hmm, yes... I see the wisdom there..." He leaned forward towards Quick. "You selected that hostage, did you not?"

"I did, M'lord." He dipped his head reverentially. "He satisfied, I hope."

"He does," agreed Sombra, grabbing the dropped letter to resume reading it. "Clever, possibly too clever. Be watchful for that one." He wobbled a hoof, looking over the letter. "It seems little else will proceed until the last of the reinforcements arrive. How proceeds your training?" He tossed the letter aside, letting it flutter to the ground, forgotten. "I have received no invitation or word of your clash with Celine."

Quick's wince was a subtle thing. "She claims to desire only to spar with her battle sisters until this... situation is behind us."

"Nonsense." He allowed his smile to grow. "There are some things only a king can properly handle." Without another word, he fell into shadows and was gone a moment later.

"--ladybugs awake!" The two were smiling joyfully, performing the dance they both knew by heart, clopping their hooves together and shaking their bottoms with giggles.

Rarity approached Shining Armor as the ritual continued. "Well, I feel certain she isn't a changeling in disguise, but that wasn't what we were summoned for, was it darling?"

"A few changelings would be relatively simple to handle compared to this." Shining turned away, pointing at a map of the Crystal Empire. "Griffons came from here, we thought they were brigands at first." His magic held a pointer, drawing a line where the intrusion began. "They assaulted a trade caravan from the tsukis..." He glanced at Rarity.

Rarity hiked a brow in kind. "What are you delaying for, dear? What happened then?"

"They... killed everyone but one small kit they missed."

The gasps of the other former element bearers rang out across the room.

"The poor things!" cried out Fluttershy, her hooves at her snout, clutched together against the horror.

Shining cleared his throat, looking to Twilight, who seemed to have concluded introductions. "Not much we can do about that, it's already done. We mounted a force to face them, but met with stiffer resistance than expected."

Twilight frowned at Shining. "Shiny, be even with me. Is this... a friendship problem, or...?"

"It's war," he breathed out, looking over the map. "Both sides have had losses, not decisive on either side, but the line's been drawn in the snow, clear as day." He turned an ear back to his sister. "You are a princess of friendship, Sis. If you want to go home, I won't hold it against you. Friendship isn't the sort of magic we're counting on right now."

Rainbow Dash waved off the warning. "Please! As if. We're here to save the day, kinda what we do, if you lost the memo." She rolled her eyes. "Run off and hide, ha, not what we do."

Fluttershy worried her hooves together. "Well, I mean, it's not a terrible idea."

Pinkie threw a leg over Fluttershy's withers, drawing her closer. "Are you really gonna sit back and let some meanie pants hurt those cute tsuki? Imagine that little one we saw. You wanna let him get picked on?"

"N-no." Her thoughts went back to the little bunny that had led them towards the castle. "That would be... very mean. Why would anycreature want to pick on them?"

"Ya got me." Rainbow shrugged. "But it's up to us to make them stop." She clopped her hooves for emphasis, eyes moving to Twilight. "You're on board, right?"

"I don't like it," Twilight noted flatly. "It's too much to be a coincidence."

Rainbow frowned. "Say what? Are you chickening out?"

Twilight waved it away. "Not that. I mean, we were attacked by what was probably a griffon, thinking back on it, and they're already making trouble here. That's hard to accept as a wild coincidence."

Rainbow huffed, landing with a lash of her tail. "If Gilda's involved on the wrong side of this, I am going to be so mad at her!"

"That there's much the issue." Applejack shook her head slowly. "No obvious griffon to complain ta 'bout these ones being what they are. How do you fight a 'war' with no obvious creature in charge on the other side? What do you plan to do, fight bad griffons one at a time and hope fer the best?"

"Well, in part." Shining put a hoof behind his head before looking to Cadance.

Cadance advanced. "That is the first step, but can't be the last. This has already impacted our tsuki friends, and we've lost precious ponies fighting them." Her eyes fell to Twilight. "He wasn't joking. If my sister got hurt... or worse... in this, I couldn't forgive myself."

Twilight raised a hoof at Cadance. "And if I backed away and allowed something terrible to happen to you, I wouldn't be much better, so how about we promise to face this, together, and neither of us is allowed to get hurt."

Cadance's face brightened as a smile spread. "You heard her. Neither of us are permitted to get hurt until this is thoroughly dealt with."

A quill danced beside Shining Armor. "Taking a note. All official." Of course, the quill wasn't touching any paper, so no notes of quality were produced. "Welcome, all of you." He dipped his head at the collection of mares. "I thank you for coming at our call for help. The Crystal Empire owes several notes of gratitude, even if Spike is their favorite."

"Speaking of that." Cadance's eyes swept over the room. "Where is he? I wouldn't have thought he'd miss a chance to come here."

A mare let a dice tumble. The die happened to be her own size, rolling away massively. She craned her neck to see what the result was. "Fifteen?"

"Ooo, very nice," complimented Spike, er, Garbuncle stated. "You succeed at picking the lock just in time." The door in front of the mare opened and she scooted out just in time to avoid the band of skeleton warriors that were painted onto flat boards.

She giggled as she fled. "Sir Mcbiggun! Catch!" She jumped out a window she was about to run past, plummeting with an expression of fear and fun at the same time. "Catch!"

"Ah..." Big Mac was cut off, reality pausing. Spike was there, waving a die at him. "Oops." He grabbed the die from Spike and sent it flying, growing to full size as it bounced and jostled. 11. Big Mac did not look entirely confident, turning to Spike.

Spike pointed up, vanishing.

He looked up just in time for Sugar Belle, er, Lady Lulu the Sweet to fall onto him, the both collapsing to the ground, though he had broken her fall nicely. "Ooof, you alright?"

"With my hero there to catch me, how could I not be?" She planted a smooch on the end of his nose as she picked herself up. "Woo, this game is fun." She sat and clopped her forehooves. "I'm so glad you decided to let me join in on it. Now, we're better get a move on before those horrifying skeletons catch up with us."

"Yup." Big Mac took off with her, trying to fight the blush raging in his cheeks. Gaming with his mare had advantages.

Applejack tossed her head. "He volunteered to keep Big Mac company and help out around the farm, right neighborly of 'em."

Cadance's question seemed to melt away. "That is sweet of him. Very well, we'll make do without Spike the Magnificent." She turned to the others. "You remember where your rooms are? We kept them as they were last time. There's one more batch of ponies coming from Equestria, then we can start new plans."

Most of the mares wandered off, leaving Pinkie behind. She bounced up to Shining. "So, hey, is that little tsuki working for you?"

"Arnavon?" He glanced in the direction of the tsuki's room. "The tsuki sent him to us to serve as a go between, an ambassador. I didn't know ambassadors came so young, but he's taken to it quite eagerly."

"Wow!" Pinkie brought her hooves together with a loud clop. "He must be so lonely, being far away from his family." She leaned in closer, whispering, "Permission to throw him a party?"

Shining considered that a quiet moment as Pinkie vibrated with excitement. "Well..." she leaned in all the closer. "Yes, but..." She leaned in closer still. "It should be a 'getting to know us' party, instead of a 'sorry you're so far away from home' party, get it?"

"A welcome party! For us... for him?" She shrugged. "A party's a party. I'm on the case!" She vanished so quickly, a smokey outline of her was left behind.

Cadance gently bumped her side into her husband's. "It's good to have them around, even if we're worried."

"Even then," he gently agreed. "Arnavon did something... quite brave." He turned to Cadance. "I read his letter."

"You shouldn't have," she chastised. "That was a private letter."

"He forgot to seal it," he defended, waving his hooves a moment. "I did it for him afterwards... The only griffon left, Giselle? She was involved in the original attack."

Cadance stiffened. "She... was there, or she was... hurting those tsuki directly?"

"It didn't go into that much detail, but he refused to turn her over to Sombra." He smiled a little. "That was very brave of him. I'm proud."

Cadance lifted a hoof to her forehead just beside her horn. "I can only imagine that was tough, for all of them. What a child, forgiving someone who hurt people so close to him." Her brows went up. "Wait, isn't he working with her? He gave me this." Her horn glowed as she produced a book that showed a griffon on a branch, sneering at two other griffons below. "I've been reading it."

Shining peered at the book curiously. "Any good? Uh, that aside, good! Seriously, them working together sounds a lot better than grudges being carried forward. Maybe she really has turned a new leaf." He smiled a little. "I have a feeling he'd know if she was being hollow."

"I think you may be right there." She tapped the spine of the book on Shining's nose. "I promised to give this back the moment I was finished. You'll have to buy a copy for yourself when it's released."

"Aw..."

Author's Note

Not much war going on in this chapter, but it felt nice. Pieces are moving into position, and Little Hop is growing up well in her pony environment. Yay!

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12 - Reinforcements Have Arrived

"We will arrive in four hours," announced a stallion, saluting at Luna crisply.

Luna nodded, glancing towards the front of the train. "Excellent. It will be good to begin our tasks properly." Soft murmurs rose up in agreement with her words. "Ready yourselves. When we arrive, I want everypony up and moving. Get our 'guest' signed up to ride the train back."

A soft knocking was her hint that someone had arrived, besides the hoofsteps. "We'll be arriving soon. Then you'll be riding back home."

Moonlight rose to her hooves, trotting to the door. "Hey, can I come out now?"

The face returned, having been about to walk away. "Hm? We're preparing to disembark."

"I should get ready too." Not that she had a lot to do, but her impassive face did not reveal her deception.

"That makes sense," muttered the guard, considering it. With a loud clank of a metal bar, the door was unlocked and swung open with a faint glow of unicorn magic. "Mind yourself."

"Woah, thanks." She stepped free of her prison with a smile. "Which way is Princess Luna totally lurking? I bet she's planning awesome things."

"Now is not the time to bo--" The guard's words were interrupted by the car under them lurching upwards, an explosion ringing in their ears as they were thrown to the ground violently. The car slammed down, throwing them up into the air for a precious moment of flight.

"Woah," was all she got out before she came down roughly on the ground. "Ow." The guard in front of her hadn't landed as well, bent at an uncomfortable angle over the equally deformed and warped back of a chair. "Oh, harsh..." There was screaming coming from ahead, from the cars that had more ponies. It was only then that she noticed she wasn't sitting on the floor. She was perched on a pulverized window, the entire car on its side. "Not cool."

Much as she fancied such terribly dark times, actually being in the middle of one was something else. "I'll find help," she promised the unconscious guard. "Luna will know what to do." She began climbing forward, pulling loosened benches aside and climbing over others to win her way forward one set of chairs at a time. The roof, or what had been the roof, was too badly warped to dare getting any closer towards, forcing her to climb along the side of the car. "Anypony hear me?"

The door between cars exploded inwards. A pony was revealed, standing the wrong way. No, they were the right way, Moonlight had to remind herself that she was the one standing on a wall. "Woah, hey, over here!" She waved before turning to point back where she had come from. "The guard's really hurt bad, help them."

"Stay still," they shouted, a mare advancing past the one in the front, wreathed in glowing magic that let them soar through the torn car.

The car screamed in metallic agony and things began to shift. "It's falling off," came the shout of the pony that had been at the door.

The flying mare was just arriving at the broken body of the fallen soldier. "Breathing, weakly," she shouted. "Should I move them?"

"Move them now or bury them later," came the call from beyond the door. "You, the other one, move. Tartarus take it all, move!"

Moonlight scrambled atop the bent bench that seemed to be melting under her, bending under the pressure of the dissolving car around them. "Woah." She threw herself forward, her body wreathed in her amber magic for just a moment, helping her make that harrowing jump to the next bench side.

It didn't appreciate her weight, crying in inorganic pain as it crashed beneath her. She kept climbing, barely making it onto its back as it hit the ground, already galloping along it towards the next. "I'm doing my best!"

"Get closer," shouted the stallion in front. "A little closer, and we'll grab you."

"Full up," grunted the flight-capable unicorn, soaring back with heavy breaths as she struggled to keep her cargo aloft.

This left Moonlight to scramble wildly up the next bench, each one seeming to rise on forever in the vanishing time she had. She could feel the ground, the benches included, shifting, the groan of bending metal. The car she was in was getting ready to cease existing. Whatever cart she had started in, likely already gone. "Woah," she breathed out, imagining how close she had been to already being a lost cause. "My soul is having second thoughts..."

It was only at that point that she fully realized how terribly things had compacted and crunched, stretching in ways train cars were not designed. A crack filled the air. She hurled herself forward, leaping into the air as the car around her fell away, leaving her pitching through the void with nothing under her but the plummeting car into the valley below. There was screaming, but not of metal. She was normally a quiet and soft spoken pony, but in that moment, she was wailing, terrified that she had met the end she had enjoyed the music of.

A pony rushed up next to Cadance and whispered in her twitching ear. Her eyes went wide. "No!"

"I'm afraid so." He dipped his head. "We just received word." He glanced aside at Shining Armor. Cadance nodded, and he continued. "Our reinforcements were attacked. They blew the bridge. There will be no trains coming or going until repairs can be done."

Shining's teeth set. "If Twily had been one train later..."

Cadance set a hoof on his shoulder. "I'm glad she wasn't, but Luna! Poor Lulu, tell me she is alright."

The guard shook his head. "She is alive, the report didn't extend beyond that."

Cadance let out a slow breath, extending her hoof with the exhale. "Alright... alright. She's fine, and she still has her ponies, they're just delayed... and we have to repair the bridge." She flipped an ear back. "It could be worse."

The guard put his hoof behind his head. "She's, uh, intact, Your Highness, but not all of her companions can say the same."

The girls gasped in union. Rainbow lifted into the air on angry wings. "Where's this at? Let's go kick them into next year!"

Twilight's magic grabbed Rainbow's closest hoof and gently tugged her back down. "Let's not be hasty. Ponies are already moving to assist, and the ones that did this have, undoubtedly, already fled. We're not dealing with open attacks... They know we're gathering power, and they've moved on."

"To guerilla tactics," concluded Fluttershy, drawing all their eyes. "Um..."

Rarity inclined her head faintly. "Surprised as I am that Fluttershy, of all ponies, would know of that concept, yes, that does sound correct. Darlings, if this is how it will be, we can't look forward to any chivalrous clash of forces on an open field. Their lesser numbers may, in fact, be to their benefit."

Twilight raised a hoof. "Only in the shifting of the battlefield." She drew as many looks as Fluttershy had. "I read, it's what I do... I didn't expect to be putting it to practical use, but I've read my share of war books." She cleared her throat as she sat on her haunches. "Once we've changed our footing to match theirs, our numbers will stop working against us."

Applejack hiked a brow. "Well, way I see it, we're already a step ahead there." She waved her hoof around at the others. "What are we, if not a small elite squad? We already are on that footin' you were talkin' 'bout."

Rainbow landed next to Applejack and offered a hoof. "Now that's what I like hearing." The two met hooves with a clop of solidarity.

Pinkie rolled a hoof in the air. "Except... everypony knows who we are, so we're not super super subtle, like they are in the middle of the snow where nopony knows who they are at all."

Rarity nodded. "Too right, dear. While we're nice and comfortable, we're not very good at being stealthy." She puffed up her mane with little presses of her right hoof. "Not that I want to hide my marvelousness, but if that's what you're trying to do, we're not off to a good start."

"Besides." Pinkie bounced in place. "We have two parties to do now."

Twilight hiked a brow. "Tonight we're greeting Arnavon, the tsuki, right?"

"There is that," sang Pinkie. "But we also get to do one for Princess Luna and her people. They've been through a lot. A good welcoming party will put smiles on their faces."

Rarity inclined her head. "Dear, you are singularly focused in your thoughts. One of your charming qualities." She smiled gently. "Oh, who am I to speak of that? We all have our fixations. Now, yes, once Luna reaches us, we should comfort her and hers as best we can."

The conversation drifted to other things, somewhat haphazardly trying to reach a consensus on their next action.

"Got you." Moonlight opened her crying eyes to see she was wreathed in bright magic, being brought in towards several sets of hooves. They grabbed her, pulling her into a many-pony embrace as they all fell away from the twisted metal that marked where the links of one train had come clean free, allowing the next car to tumble away.

Luna was not far away, walking meaningfully towards a triage. "How is he?"

Ahead of her, a pony was resting on a cot in the snow, their eyes closed. "Not good," reported a pony with a heart on their shirt with a cross in the middle of it. "He's already deep in shock, and we can't even keep him properly warm. The odds of him pulling through are dropping like that train just did." He sat up onto his haunches. "It's a miracle he's even breathing, and I don't expect that for long."

Luna clenched her teeth. "If he survives, how badly is he injured?"

"His spine is severed," announced the medical pony. "He has a life of... that to look forward to."

Luna took a slow shaking breath, looking away. "Then... perhaps this is a mercy, cold as it is... We lack the facilities to do more. Get a letter to Cadance, informing her we are on the way." Another pony saluted, a quill dancing as the letter was written. "We move out, now. The enemy could still be nearby. Staying and waiting is asking to be finished off." She turned and reached out a hoof, setting it on the still soldier's barrel. "I am sorry I cannot do more for you."

Others who had heard the decision whispered, scowls on their face. "We don't leave one of our own," suddenly spat out a mare, fur bristling.

Luna turned to address her, but another was already in front of her. "Belay that! Luna is the acting CO, and as much as it hurts to even consider, she isn't wrong. Risking everyone for him... He wouldn't have wanted that."

"He's still alive!" she shrieked at her commander. "You're already talking as if he's gone!"

The medic put a thin cloth over the fallen soldier's face, murmuring soft entreaties that the pony would find some measure of peace.

"He's still alive," she shouted so shrilly her voice abandoned her in the middle of the explosive cry, scrambling for the medic, but she couldn't reach, other ponies, her squad mates, tackling her and bearing her to the ground in a sobbing mess.

The commander nodded towards Luna. "I apologize and accept full responsibility for her actions... Everyone, we're moving, now!" He pointed along the tracks. "We dare not follow the tracks dead on, move to the left, barely keep it in view to avoid becoming lost, but do not walk on it."

"Luna!" Moonlight came up in a scramble, her advance petering out as she noticed the atmosphere, and the cot. "Isn't... that... Woah."

"Woah?!" The mare fought against her fellows, at least managing to face Moonlight. "If you hadn't been there! If you'd just stayed home, he'd still be alive. He'd be alive! He died for you, you stupid piece of--" She was dragged down under the mass of her fellow soldiers, screaming hoarsely and thrashing impotently.

Luna slipped around the knot of soldiers, eyes on Moonlight. "Come, walk. We have much walking to do. While we're at it, you can explain how that soldier's death may be your fault and I will judge for myself." She turned in place, gesturing with a toss of her head. "This way." She began to lead the way with her soldiers trailing behind, broken in spirit.

Moonlight was just behind her. "I didn't mean for this to happen."

"Tell me what did happen," advised Luna.

Moonlight hurried her steps a little, drawing beside Luna. "He came to tell me we were getting off soon. I asked him to let me out, and he did."

Luna rolled her eyes. "He had no authority to do that, but do continue."

"I left my room and... it all started." She shook her head. "You know the rest there. He was thrown, like, woah... way hard, with me, when the car jumped. He came down... right on the back of a bench." She took a slow breath. "I never saw a pony bend like that before."

Luna turned an ear. "Well, that will ease one mind."

"Huh?"

Luna did not turn, marching ahead. "The unicorn who retrieved him was worried her moving is what caused the injury, but odds are in favor of that damage being done before she arrived..." She glanced over her shoulder. "Sky Thought," she shouted. "It wasn't you."

The named unicorn dipped her head, another soldier, a male, thudded against her side. "You heard her, it wasn't you."

"How can she know that, for sure?" Sky pinned her ears back. "I was his only chance, and he still didn't make it."

"Hey," argued her fellow squad stallion. "We think like that, we're all guilty."

"Maybe we are," bitterly noted a mare with swollen red eyes, the one that had screamed and shouted. "Will you leave me behind in the snow when it stops being convenient?"

"It isn't like that," bemoaned the stallion caught between two emotionally distraught mares. "Look... you're family. If my going keeps you safe, you take that. You take it and gallop, alright? That's the kind of promises we made, to each other. To Equestria. Other ponies, other creatures, they're waiting on us. We gotta keep walking."

"Keep walking," sighed out Sky. "Yeah..."

Luna closed with the one non-military pony present. "They will be sore with you for some time, but know this." She leaned in. "They were not the only pony lost today, and there is no assurance your not being there would have spared him." She glanced over her shoulder. "If you hadn't been there, disturbed his sleep, he would have been napping at about that time. His schedule--"

"That was him, Woah..." She raised a hoof to her forehead beside her horn. "Totally not cool."

"It wasn't," calmly agreed Luna. "But he would have been asleep, in that car you narrowly escaped from. You changed the nature of his passing, but not the time of it..."

Moonlight became quiet, tumbling with thoughts, at least until a wing draped over her and forced her into the snow. The entire line sank, many of its members burying themselves in the snow.

In the direction they had come from, figures that could barely be seen landed where the train had come to a stop. "--ind them!" came a loud call, and the forms scattered.

Moonlight screwed her face tight, her horn glowing with dark amberish magic. A blanket of darkness fell across the line as she squirmed, concentrating on keeping it up. In the dark of the ditch they had thrown themselves, there was nothing to see, at least from the skies above that their pursuers flew, looking for them.

Luna sat up, still in the blanket of dark. "What a marvelous spell. Is everypony alright?"

Soft noises of agreement rippled from behind as others began to stand up.

Moonlight let out her breath explosively, the light returning to them. "Are they... gone?"

She turned to see the commander of the soldiers regarding her with cold eyes. "Woah, uh..."

She prodded Moonlight in the center of her chest. "You cost me a soldier, but you may have saved others. Don't think that gets you off the hook. You wanted to be here, well, you are here, so I'm conscripting you." She leaned in. "Please resist."

Moonlight's ears danced with confusion. Luna moved to get between them. "She is a civilian."

"She chose to leave that behind." The commander pointed at Moonlight. "Are you a burden or are you joining us? Pick, now."

Moonlight gently put a leg around Luna, nudging her aside. "Woah... I made this bed, so, like, I can sit on it." She inclined her head. "How can I help?"

"Good!" The commander turned to the rest of her line. "Say hello to Private Moonlight. She's the new girl, so show her how it works." Her lips curled in a faint sneer. "And she's the new girl. She acted quickly and decisively to keep our flanks intact, good on her, that won her a place. Let's see if she keeps it. She has a lot of debt to work off."

She was welcomed by the others, some in friendly tones, others a bit less sure. The red-eyed mare glared at her, forcing out her greeting with obvious enmity. "Regs say I can't throw you off a cliff, but don't think we're suddenly chums now. Watch yourself and keep your snout clean," she barked, marching past Moonlight to join the rest of the line in its movement.

The commander closed with Luna. "You made the right call."

Luna turned an ear. "There was no right call, but it was the logical one."

"Can't argue that." The commander peeked over her shoulder at where the figures had landed. "If we were still trying to triage, we would have been caught in the open, probably torn apart." She let out a slow breath. "We would have gone down fighting, but we still would have failed. The ponies counting on us deserve more than that... He would have understood..."

Luna's eyes remained straight, determined to complete the march to the Crystal Empire. "This is not the entrance I had envisioned. Perhaps we can make up for this shameful start."

"We plan to try." The commander nodded lightly. "Apologies for our failure, Your Highness. We did not escort you to the Crystal Empire as planned."

Luna threw a hoof as she walked. "Now you jest. This was not your doing. Now, let's go. We have ponies awaiting our arrival, all of our arrival. Let's not keep them waiting any longer than we have to."

"The explosives did their job perfectly." A griffon bowed low before his lord.

"Completely eradicated?"

"The bridge is no more." The griffon stood up. "The train attempting to cross it was also severely damaged beyond usability."

"And the ponies riding it?" The griffon lord leaned forward with a cruel smirk. "Were there survivors?"

"None we saw."

Not what he wanted to hear. He grabbed the low-ranking griffon by the scruff and dragged him in. "Were their bodies scattered to the winds?"

"One was dead, body abandoned in the snow," admitted the other, swallowing nervously. "Still cooling when we arrived."

"Cold... but practical. Still, if they left one like that, that implies there are others. Were there not tracks?" He threw the quivering griffon back. "This does not sound 'perfect' as you said. It would appear your definition of words is not mine..."

"Sorry, sir... Sorry... The snow was disturbed. If they fled, they took the time to hide their tracks before going." He swallowed heavily. "They'll die in the snow before reaching warmth. Equestrian ponies are not made to survive that sort of chill, Sir."

He made a dismissive wave of a talon. "You'd best pray that is true, or we will have further... words."

Moonlight trudged along with the rest. Her legs were cold and numb, but she forced herself forward, like the others. "It's cold... like my soul, dark numbness chasing away the light of day." She sighed out, tiring even herself a little. "Sorry."

"We only have so much heat," noted a unicorn apologetically, brushing himself off of some snow. "I'm trying to balance it as best I can, but we need a heat source to distribute. All of our bodies are lacking in heat. It's all I can do to stave off some amount of frostbite." He looked past Moonlight to their commander and Luna. "Permission to light a fire."

"Denied," announced both mares.

He sighed softly, teeth chattering. "I can only move what heat is here, sorry. At least our core temperatures are mostly consistent. Leeching just... a little keeps our extremities within tolerable ranges."

"Tolerable," sighed out another stallion. "Not what I'd call this... Still, uh, thanks. Better than just stopping." Soft grunts rose in agreement. However miserable they were, they were pushing ahead.

Moonlight suddenly pricked up, ears going erect, though they wilted in the cold air quickly. "I have something." Her horn glowed as she plucked out a little packet and thrust it at the unicorn that could even temperatures. "I was saving this for night watching..."

The stallion's horn glowed as he took it, bringing it up to his eyes. A heat packet! He had to laugh at the delightful serendipity of it. "Your love of Luna's sky has done us a favor. Now..." He unfurled it out of its packaging and slapped it against his own side, stretching and activating it. His ongoing magic took hold of the heat it began to spill into him, sending it flying out.

Sure, it was only enough heat to provide soothing to one pony at a time, but spread out to chilling limbs in dire need of that heat, the entire line let out a collective sigh as the worst pain began to ebb, their overall temperatures evening, just a little. It wasn't the same as being under a blanket by a fire, but they were one step away from having their legs just freeze off their bodies.

"Woah, thanks... I'm curious though, if your magic doesn't keep us warm, what is it, like, for?"

He shook his head. "It'd work fine if we were all dressed for the cold. It'd keep us from sweating and warm up the cold parts. That's what it's made for. We fled the train with what we had, and that wasn't winter gear. We were in normal--"

"--We were thrown off," cut in a mare. "We're lucky for whatever gear we were wearing. Thank goodness Luna had us preparing to disembark the moment we got there. If we hadn't... We might all already be gone."

"Thanks," noted another stallion. "I'm not afraid to admit I woulda been tempted to keep that to myself."

The mare slapped the stallion, bonking his head with a solid hoof. "Moron. Think of your fellows for a moment. Besides, we all live or die together."

"Sometimes," grunted the red-eyed mare, glaring over at them.

The first mare slid between Moonlight and the tear-stained one. "Don't think about it... Look, thanks. You're doing the right thing, now. I appreciate that. I like to think he'd appreciate you helping us get to safety. You do what the commander says and we'll get through this, alright?"

Moonlight forced a nod. "Like, yeah, I get it... I didn't think I'd ever be a guard." She raised a hoof to her chest. "I'll try to not mess it up."

"A bit late for that," grunted the red-eyed mare. She trotted past. "We all mess up, I guess... but I'm keeping an eye on you."

Author's Note

No skipping around! Well, a minor one or two, but just one major plot thread we are following here. Poor Moonlight, poor guards. This was not a good day. Does Moonlight deserve more chastising for her part in this?

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13 - A Gathering of Light

"You..." Celene clenched her fists, body tense, eyes narrowed in a scowl.

Sombra stood to the side. "No dismemberment this time," he casually reminded. "This is a fight for improvement, not to the death."

"As the lord says," agreed Quick," his horn glimmering with dark magic. "Come, I won't go down as easily this time."

"Quiet, fight." She lunged at him without any further wasted words. Her frightful speed would have ended the fight at the start, but he had learned from his engagements with Toby, twisting with her approach to shove her past and vanish into dark fog.

He appeared above her, tossing his head with a blade of magic extended from his horn, but she was already gone. The fight was on in earnest, the two clashing. Toby inclined his head, watching them and mouthing something silently. "What is on your mind?" asked Sombra, not facing him. "Are you worried for their safety?"

"I am watching them." His eyes darted, following each motion, taking note of it. "Learning."

Sombra raised a brow at that. "You continue to surprise. Well, since you've invested the time and effort, do you plan to fight for me as well?"

"Fight for everyone." He threw one hand wide. "We all go to ponies." He nodded with set resolution, watching the fight continue. "After fight?"

"At least after the fight," agreed Sombra, considering the two as they slowly chipped at one another, neither able to get a telling blow, until suddenly it was over. "Hold."

Celene had pinned her opponent, trapping Quick under herself, glaring murder in her eyes. At the call to hold and the sound of Toby hopping closer, she withdrew, licking her bloodied teeth.

Quick sat up, rubbing the last injury. "You remain as fearsome."

"Better," she said simply, only to spring away without any further delay.

Toby offered a hand to Quick. "Good fight."

Quick accepted his paw, allowing it to be wrapped around his right hoof without complaint as he rose. "A better display than the last time we clashed, but there is room yet to grow."

"Yes, be better." Toby nodded firmly. "Good." He spread his arms wide, coming in.

Quick smirked at the display, accepting the hug, but not reciprocating. "Tomorrow, we spar. Did you learn anything?"

"Yes." Toby backed up a step, bobbing his head. "Good fight."

"Good fight indeed," agreed Sombra. "It would seem she still has the advantage over you, Quick, though that gulf has narrowed."

"I will strive to hone myself further, m'lord," he faithfully promised, dipping his head.

"See that you do." Sombra turned away and strode off smoothly.

The next day, Quick rose, washed, and flowed through the tunnels, navigating the shadows between to arrive at Toby's room swiftly. "It is time to spar." Quick Stroke looked around the dark little burrow. He expected to find Toby in it, perhaps Celene? Either would be a fine spar.

But neither of them were their. The bedding was abandoned, not even made as if abandoned. "Where...?" There, a note, laying half-pinned under a small rock. He willed the rock up and tossed it aside to get at the note.

Hello-bye!

No spar. Fight. Go ing to ponies. Come?

Love,
Toby

There it was, typo included. Quick started to crumple the note but thought better of it. Sombra needed to see it.

The heating pad had run its course. It only had so much material to effectively burn in the process of making its heat. It was just a stuck pad to the side of the unicorn, but he hadn't removed it. It was another little layer, as ineffective as it was. Removing it wouldn't help their hike.

One hoof in front of the other. It was the mantra that kept them moving. Moonlight Raven considered her options as they trudged. It was dark, but not the comforting dark of a still night. It was cold, too cold, wet, too wet, and they were too far away from any measure of safety. It would still make for a pretty wicked song...

She didn't have another heat pack. One was more than enough to make a night cozy. Her talent only let her make things darker, not warmer. "Darkness wrap around me," she whispered in soft prayer. "Keep me warm and safe." The darkness had never betrayed her before. It was warm, in her eyes, always close at hoof and comforting.

And it was gone. She took one step and landed on green grass. She was so surprised she staggered and fell over onto the surprisingly warm ground. "Woah..."

They had arrived. The other troops let out cheers as they stumbled onto the grass. Rough and tired, soon they were collapsed much the same as Moonlight had been. Only Luna was still standing in the end, though even she didn't fight the moment. She breathed hard, but refused to sink. "We have survived," she announced. "Good job. When you are ready to move--"

The commander, still flopped on the ground, thrust a hoof up. "Ten minutes, you get exactly ten. I'm already counting." The unit grumbled, but did not argue her command.

"As she said," agreed Luna with a smirk. "For now, enjoy the warmth. I will report in." She spread her wings and accelerated forward, leaping, and almost throwing herself off balance, but she made it into the air, soaring towards the palace in the distance.

"She's acting strong." Moonlight rolled herself upright. "She didn't have to."

The commander was also on her belly. "She wants to inform them we've arrived. I don't think she could have relaxed until that was done." She inclined her head. "Like her?"

"Not that way..." Moonlight darkened faintly. "I understand her. I love her nights. I love the dark... I get... where she comes from?"

"I don't know if she likes the dark as much as you." The commander rose to her hooves, kicking each of them at a time, testing her footing and strength. "Reminder, you're still in my unit, even if we've arrived. I don't tolerate deserters."

"Woah, no." She shook her head. "Promises are binding." She raised a hoof to her chest. "Um, for how long? Is this a 'for life' thing?"

The commander considered Moonlight. "For most guards, it can be." She leveled a hoof at Moonlight. "But I'm not a complete jerk. You're in at least until we have this issue under control. When I can send you home on a train and know you'll get there, we'll revisit the topic."

Moonlight allowed a little smile. "That's cool. Alright. I'm here. I should help while I'm here."

"Exactly." She turned to the others who were also starting to sit up. "Everyone alright? Report!"

"My horn will hurt for a while," complained the unicorn that had been carefully balancing their heat. "Still, the spell was a complete success!"

A sharp grunt cut him off, a mare looking over her shoulder and rubbing at her rump with a hoof. "It just keeps hurting... more..."

Their medic closed in quickly. He reached up and quickly confirmed, "Severe frostbite. Your tail was frozen entirely."

Her eyes went wide, but he kept on going, "How did you not feel this?"

"I did... I just... I figured it wasn't important. We had to keep going."

"We did," agreed the commander. "Get her to the closest triage facility." She turned in place. "We're in a city now. They must have something. Now!"

Other ponies closed in around the injured mare, lifting her up in a field of magic that scintillated with different colors from combined effort. They trotted off with her towards what they hoped would be assistance.

Moonlight looked over her own shoulder, giving her tail a soft swish. It responded to her will and she was glad for it, though her face was impassive. "Woah, harsh. She gonna be alright?"

"She may lose the tail," noted the commander with a frown. "Nothing we can do but get her in front of a doctor in a proper facility as quickly as possible. For now, since we're all standing, let's move." She turned and pointed, leading the way into the city for the rest of the unit.

Moonlight's attention slid to the unicorn that had been working hard to keep them going. "Hey, woah, why didn't--"

"I didn't think of it," cut in the unicorn, his expression pained. "Tails? Who thinks of tails...? Our legs had to keep moving... There wasn't enough heat."

"Harsh," she quietly whispered. "Sorry. You did your best." She offered a hoof and soon had the unicorn's withers under her leg. She could feel him shaking faintly, clearly rattled by his failure. "Hey, I messed up too," she gently reminded. "I'm making up for it. You can too. At least she's still there to, like, apologize too and stuff. Better a missing tail than a missing... everything."

"Yeah..." He didn't sound entirely convinced.

"Out of the way." The commander moved in between them, nudging Moonlight back. "Idiot. You saved us. If you get focused on what you couldn't do, what will Luna do?"

"What does Princess Luna have to do with it?" asked the Medic, looking confused and trying to back away, but the commander still had him securely in place, a leg over his withers as Moonlight had offered much more gently. "This isn't her mistake."

"She sentenced a pony to die, to keep the rest of us alive," reminded the commander with a loud equine snort. "You think that isn't weighing on her? You made a decision. You kept us going so we could be here, at all. You lost a tail maybe? Now imagine what Luna's facing. She lost a pony. She will hear about this, and she will look to you, to see how you're doing. If she sees you falling apart over a tail, how will she take it?"

His ears pinned back against his head. "I guess it's not... that bad."

"I should think not." She shoved him away. "You did good, idiot. We're here, in the warm, because of you. We're getting her the best we can, but that's outside your control."

"Wish I had brought another heat pack..."

The commander wheeled on their newest recruit. "Not you too!"

"Woah, um, I was just saying... It would have been nice, right?" She inclined her head faintly. "But I didn't. We're on a different path, and we'll walk it."

"We'll walk it," echoed the commander. "Exactly right. Everypony, get to the palace. Seeing your faces will cheer up Cadance, so put on your best smiles and pretend you're happy to be here."

He landed right next to the excitable pink pony. "You wanted one?"

"Sure do!" she cried, grabbing the book in her mouth even as several bits flew in response to be caught in Arnavon's paws.

"Thank you." He stuffed them away. "Why did you want one so bad?" He tilted his head. "Not that it's bad anypony wants a copy."

"I'm friends with a griffon," she reminded as if it should be obvious. "An actual griffon book? Sounds cool." She tucked the book in her mane, lost to the world until she had need of it. "Good job."

"I didn't write it." He waved his hands in quick denial.

"Silly." She booped him on the nose. "'Course you didn't. You made it a book though. That's still important." She tilted her head. "You're the first tsuki, um, person who... makes books?"

"Publisher," provided Twilight, emerging from their room. "You are the first tsuki publisher I'm aware of."

"That's the word!" Pinkie clopped her hooves with joy at the mystery being put to rest. "Twilight really loves books, bet you could sell one to her too."

Arnavon inclined his head. "I'd feel bad. You all were so nice in that little party. I'm not trying to make you all pay me."

Twilight gently set a hoof on his shoulder. "Don't be silly. I wouldn't think of demanding your book for free. Charge me the street rate, as if I was anypony else, and that will be fair to us both." Soon Twilight had an order in for a book, though he didn't have it.

"They only print them so fast," he demurred. "I'll have another tomorrow."

Twilight inclined her head. "Of all the problems you could have, that's one of the better ones. Congratulations."

"Oh oh!" Pinkie waved a hoof in the air excitedly. "Why don't you just copy my book." She dug out the book. "You already paid for it, so it's not even cheating."

Twilight let out a little, "eh..." She looked to Arnavon, who shook his head quickly and gestured for her to continue. "If you're sure..." She lowered her horn towards the book.

A window beside them burst open, allowing the large form of Luna to land, huffing for air. "At last... I have arrived."

"Luna!" cried the two ponies.

"Best Princess," noted Arnavon, wagging a finger as if to correct the ponies.

Luna sat up with a blink, her wings hanging at awkward angles. "Oh, a tsuki. Are you related to Toby?"

"No!" he cried with a big fuzzy smile. "But I heard him talk about you before. You're the best princess, friend of tsuki." He bowed forward properly before advancing, his arms spread wide to deliver a greeting in the proper tsuki fashion, though he came up short. "Are you alright?"

"That is what I was wondering," added Twilight, coming closer with a concerned look. "Is that 'I'm tired'?"

"I'm tired," agreed Luna with a smirk. "And in need of a warm bath. My wings refuse..." She tried to get them folded properly, but they seemed to prefer being awkwardly splayed on the ground. "I did not use them for long," she groused, frowning.

"Luna, you are in need of medical attention," informed Twilight evenly. "Please remain still and allow us to help. Pinkie, Arnavon?" The two moved in to help and soon, with her magic, they had her carefully hefted up, her magic gently keeping her wings even as they proceeded down the hallway. "I'm glad you're here, but in such a state."

"Yeah, what happened?" demanded Pinkie. "I heard you had an accident with the train."

"'Twas no accident," huffed Luna. "Allow me to explain when Cadance is present, doing so repeatedly will not help us."

Twilight did not go to the throne room, where Cadance most likely was, instead directing her company to the nurse's office. The doctor on duty was quick to have her set gently on a bed and began fussing over her. "You flew on these?" he questioned as he worked. "I'm going to give them a nice little bath, how does that sound?"

Luna inclined her head faintly. "Can you put the rest of me in it?" A little smile formed. "That sounds delightful."

"We have to focus on the worst parts and I don't want you moved again right this moment." Two tubs were brought in and filled with warm water, her droopy wings settled in them.

She winced on contact, and the pain only seemed to grow the longer they were in there. "Doctor... is... something in the water?"

"It's what's inside you," he cautioned. "Your wings were frozen. Please, try to be still. Hopefully the damage caused can be minimized."

"Frostbite," whispered Twilight, ears sagged. "It can be quite cold outside the reaches of the Crystal Empire proper."

Arnavon inclined his head, the idea of cold too cold to weather an alien one to the tsuki. But he did know a cure! He hopped up, landing on Luna's back, his legs spread to straddle her, trying his best to not put pressure on her, but he was too small to entirely avoid her. Despite this, he hugged her tightly from above as best he could, nuzzling her back.

Luna sagged, relaxing under the affection. "Is this a tsuki thing? I feel certain Toby would have done the same... and I would have enjoyed it much the same. But you are a young creature." She swiveled an ear back towards Arnavon. "Tell me your name again?"

"Arnavon," came his muffled reply, his face lost in her fluff in his attempt to warm and comfort the much larger alicorn princess.

"Arnavon, such a complex name." She inclined her head. "Did you select it?"

"Yes!"

"A complex name for such a well spoken child, of course." She nodded, confident in her thoughts. "Twilight, Pinkie, can you inform Cadance I am here, and that my soldiers are on the way? They are within the borders."

"Got it!" Pinkie saluted sharple and began pronking off.

Twilight remained there, with Luna. "Is he... bothering you?"

"He is not." She closed her eyes, accepting the painful warmth on her wings and the small tsuki cuddling her. "Though there is less chill in the rest of me, it is still comforting. Were I my sister, would you have moved to provide the same?"

Twilight's cheeks began to go dark red. "Princess!"

"I thought not, you are a formal one, Twilight." She lifted her wings slowly, spreading and retracting them. "Though they sting, I can move them now. I feel I am past the--"

The doctor's magic wreathed them, gently guiding them back to the water. "Please don't move until I say so. We want to maximize the odds of a full recovery, Princess."

Luna cast him an unkind look, but did not try to raise her wings again. "Where is--"

"--Luna!" Cadance hurried into the room, Pinkie behind her. "I'm glad you're here, but what happened?" She looked to the doctor.

"Frostbite," he replied. "Thankfully not widespread, but it got her right in a joint. I'm doing our best to help it thaw evenly and completely."

"Of course." She stepped up to Luna with a quirk of a smile. "This is not how I wanted to welcome you to my kingdom."

"I am welcomed," she assured, her glowing horn forming an arrow that pointed at Arnavon on her back. "Do all injured creatures get one of these?"

Cadance reached for the young tsuki, her horn glowing as she gently extracted him. "Let her rest," she gently chastised. "She's been through a lot."

"That's why I'm here," he complained. "She deserves a hug."

"She deserves even more than that," agreed Cadance, setting Arnavon down on his haunches. "Luna, are you up to telling me what happened?"

"I am. My soldiers will arrive soon, I imagine." She glanced in the direction of the door they entered through. "Our enemy is armed and clearly able and willing to attack with lethal force. They arrived soon after the attack to finish us off, but we managed to hide from them. This is not the act of random brigands. They didn't loot, just killed. They were going for a military victory."

Twilight hissed softly. "I... was fearing as much. I'm just glad you're here, and your soldiers too? They failed?"

"They did not fail," huffed out Luna. "I lost three soldiers, the civilians were lost, save one. I can't call that an entire failure on their part, not even speaking of the bridge's destruction and the train's loss."

Cadance inclined her head towards the soaking wing. "To say nothing of injuries. Are your soldiers alright?"

"They were intact when last I left them." Luna sat up, leaving her wings in the tubs. "When they arrive, we can be certain."

"Moonlight?" Rarity closed rapidly with the mare walking alongside the soldiers. "Whatever are you doing here, darling?"

Moonlight's eyes widened slightly, recognizing Rarity swiftly. "Woah, Rarity? I could totally ask the same question." She raised a hoof, slowing as the others walked past her. "I followed the darkness and, like, here I am. It's been... quite the trip."

"My trip here was uneventful." Rarity paused for thought before it clicked. "You were on the attacked train!"

Moonlight glanced away. "Yeah, like, not the best day. Not the best week." She raised a hoof to point at herself. "I'm Private Moonlight Raven now."

"Surely you jest." Rarity slid in next to Moonlight, heading in the same direction the soldiers had gone. "This simply must be a mistake! You are not a soldier, Moonlight."

Moonlight shook her head though she walked along. "I am now. At least until this is done." She looked up and down at Rarity. "Why are you here?"

"Well, much the same as you, really," admitted Rarity. "But I've gotten used to it! I've been on world-saving little expeditions no few times. I don't recommend them to other ponies. Really, dear, let me talk some sense into them."

"Woah, chill your harsh. The darkness needs me." She walked with conviction. "I will not allow her to go alone."

"Her?" Rarity hiked a brow, but saw the rest of the guards, arranged in formation. "You just wait here." She hurried towards the mare that was standing like a leader. "Excuse me, Miss?"

The commander turned, eyeing Rarity critically. "Rarity, filly of Hondo Flanks and Cookie Crumbles, former wielder of an element of harmony, associate of Princess Twilight Sparkle." There was an awkward pause. "How can I help you?"

"Yes..." Rarity cleared her throat softly. "You appear to have me at a disadvantage. Miss, that mare--" She pointed at Moonlight, joining formation. "--is no soldier." She leaned in closer, whispering, "She's just a goth!"

"Her taste in music is beside the point." The commander pointed at Moonlight. "Step forward!" Moonlight came in without delay. "Do you want to resign?"

Moonlight shook her head. "Woah, not until it's safe. I will do my best." She glanced at Rarity, but said nothing to her.

The commander nodded softly. "Though it was not a typical recruiting situation, she has been branded by the situation, and we can't send her home until the train's running in either event."

"Be that as it may." Rarity pointed with her horn. "She could just stay in the city here, with the rest of the civilians. Which she is. Dear, be reasonable."

"Are you related?" asked the commander bluntly.

"Oh, no, darling. She's just a customer of mine, when you get down to it..."

"Then your advice has been noted, but we need to move on now. Please get out of the way." The commander pointed beyond Rarity, bidding her to depart.

Rarity huffed, but did move out of the way. "I'm not forgetting this." She stomped off a determined look.

The commander put the agitated unicorn out of her head. "Moonlight. This is a safe place. Drafting you to get you out of danger, that's one thing. If you want to do as Rarity suggested and wait here in the Crystal Empire, I will not hold it against you."

"No way. My soul says I'm needed here." She raised a hoof to her chest. "Like, woah, I can't just give up, Commander." She turned to face the mare that had wailed for her friend. "We gave up enough already."

The mare's expression twitched, the faintest smile. "Damn right," she whispered.

"Alright, but, all the same, I do need to make one thing clear." She leaned in closer to Moonlight. "As soon as we step out of the Crystal Empire, when our hooves touch a speck of snow, there is no room to give up. We finish the job. Giving up on the field? That gets you hurt. That gets us hurt. Ponies will die. Do you understand that? Do you accept that?"

Her ears quivered faintly, but her eyes didn't flinch. "You can count on me." She glanced around. "Before we go into the snow again, like, maybe we should get some coats."

"A damn fine idea," laughed the commander. "Get back in line." Moonlight hurried to do just that. "Welcome to the Crystal Empire. You're all off duty for the rest of the day. We'll be joining the local guard in their barracks. Don't make a mess out of somepony else's room, alright?" The unit saluted and shouted their agreement before they began to disperse to enjoy what little time off they had earned.

Author's Note

Moonlight makes commitments to finish things and Luna has arrived. Only two cases of frostbite, lucky really.

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14 - Forward March

Shining stepped out to view his assembled troops. All the available guards of the Crystal Empire, minus those who would remain to keep order. And Luna's brought reinforcements. "I am happy to see we remain united, as ponies." His nod was returned by them. "We've been on the defensive, but--"

A furry figure landed in front of him, a second just a moment behind. Toby rose, tall and imposing in his armor. "We are here to help," he announced formally.

Shining allowed his head to incline, eyes drawn towards the heavy-looking blade on Toby's back. "Toby?"

"Yes." He smiled at Shining, that smile, guileless and warm, removed any doubt as to which tsuki it was. "You did not see?"

"I see you. It's just... surprising."

Celene shoved in front of Toby. "We are ready to fight. My sisters are with us."

"They are?" Shining looked out over the crowd, but no extra tsuki were in sight. "Where?"

"Waiting."

Toby nodded in agreement. "Will join when we leave." He spread his hands suddenly. "Learn tsuki magic. More help this time, promise."

"I have no doubt." He wondered about that big sword a bit more, but turned back to the assembly. "Our scouts have found a fortification of theirs. We will be on the offensive this time. It's long past proper we returned the favor."

The crowd gave a unified shout, hooves clopping on the ground in eager agreement with the idea of taking the fight to the enemy. "Be it known." Shining pointed off into the distance. "These are not random thieves, opportunists. We are fighting a war. They will not hold their attacks, and we shouldn't expect them to."

There came a murmur, eyes turning to some new presence distracting them as somecreature began to nudge through the crowd. With a flap of wings, they took off to make a flight-assisted leap towards Shining. "You ain't goin' without me." There stood their griffon captive.

Shining considered her. "You would fight your friends?"

"Trust me, we weren't friends." Giselle scoffed at the idea, brushing imagined lint off her chest. "I was there to be paid, end of that story. You'll pay, right?"

He arched a brow at that. "I can't say my confidence swells with soldiers only here for their next allotment of bits."

"Hey, no." Giselle wagged a finger at Shining. "I'm here 'cause I want to be. The bits are just a nice side effect of that. Put me on payroll and I'll give you my all."

"You're worried. About him." Cadance, who had been a silent bystander, broke her silence. "Arnavon."

Giselle colored as she looked away. "What? No! Still, seriously, you want him to fight? I don't think so. Us grownups have to handle that kind of thing. Besides... it'll make for a great new story for him to write down."

Shining smiled, understanding coming to him. "Join the others. Welcome to the effort.

In the crowd, Moonlight leaned forward. "Woah, is that a griffon? I never saw one of those before." She'd heard about them, and they made great subjects of high-tempo music. "Is she coming over here?"

Her commander elbowed her. "Silence in the ranks. Of course she's coming here, we're about the same compared to Crystal Army soldiers, we're attachments, outsiders." She raised a brow. "Though we may be a step up, being proper Canterlot recruits."

Giselle moved to stand next to them as she had been told to do. "Hey."

"Like, hi." Moonlight raised a hoof to shake it in a loose wave. "Welcome to the squad."

"Don't sound too excited." Giselle rolled her eyes, mistaking Moonlight's usual monotone for a bad attitude. "I'm ready to fight what you are."

"Good." Moonlight looked towards the front, where Shining was. "Is he coming with us?"

"He is," cut in her commander. "Now be quiet."

Small details were gone over, and movement began. Unlike when she had first arrived, Moonlight and the rest of her unit were garbed in warm clothes. In the range of the crystal heart, it was too warm. Fortunately, Even Pace, the unicorn that had kept them going, easily dispersed the extra heat with promises to use it properly where it was most needed when they reached the snow.

"How have you been doing?" asked another mare quietly, not out of shyness, but to not disrupt the motions they were in, or attract the attention of the commander.

Moonlight glanced over. It was the mare that had suffered a bad case of frostbite. "I'm alright. How are you?" Her eyes wandered back to see, or not see. "Woah..."

"Yeah..." She cleared her throat. "They had to take it off." She was a pony without a tail, a... "It's... I don't like it. It was part of me."

"Yeah," echoed Moonlight, imagining the loss of her own tail. A tail was a part of a pony's identity. Especially ponies that took the time to make it look just right. That mare had decently groomed hers, and... it was gone. "Harsh..."

"Them's the breaks," sighed out the mare. "But I'm still here. And I'll still fight!"

Despite her eager words, her body language did not, nor could it, match. She could not sway her tail to show her determination or eagerness. It was just a part of communication that was entirely cut off. "Is she still mad?"

Moonlight's ears folded back, thinking on the grief-stricken mare. "Yeah, but we're... alright." She glanced away and back. "That hurt won't go away, but she isn't, like, as mad. At me."

"I get that." She gently nudged into Moonlight before facing forward, focusing on keeping in line as was proper instead of chatting.

Elsewhere, Celene glanced aside at her armored and armed mate. "Why?"

"Why what?" He inclined his head. "Why here? To protect friends."

"Not that." She leaned over and bit at the hilt of his sword with a clang. "Why this?"

"To protect friends," he repeated. "To fight."

"Fight with claw. Fight with teeth," she argued, baring her own of both. "Not need."

"Not need," he agreed more gently. "But good. Fight good, be better. If better, why not?" He inclined his head. "Don't like?"

"Don't like," she admitted with a lack of subtlety. "Slow."

"Not slow." Well, alright, compared to just swiping something with his hand, it was a bit slower, but... "It's good." He closed in and nipped her on the shoulder.

She returned the gesture. "Stay safe."

"You too." Despite their argument on fighting styles, the affection flowed easily between them. "You good fighting."

"Best," she boasted with a little smile. "If scared, hide behind."

He shook his head at the idea. "No. I will protect." He thumped his shoulder with a gloved hand. "If hurt, hide." He reached for one of her large ears, stroking it gently. "Want you safe."

Her initial fury ebbed at the affectionate touch. She mouthed words, struggling to find just the right one, only to settle on, "Fine." She suddenly grabbed him, and he grabbed back, the two in a firm embrace before they resumed their bouncing movement to catch up and take their place aside the rest of the mass. There was less confusion between them, both determined to keep the other safe.

Pushing out into the snow, the column of Equestria's forces and allies left the safety of the Crystal Empire, their eyes set on distant foes and future battles.

"They are impossible to miss," reported a griffon with her head bowed. "They have left the Crystal Empire, headed directly towards the nearest encampment. Our fortifications are being re-d--"

"--No." The ruler scowled at her. "Send word, have them withdraw, immediately."

"But... your highness, our... I mean, we'll have no tactical place of action near the enemy."

"A small price to pay." He held his fingers close. "When you could be striking instead. Let them come and find dust. We'll already be putting them to the torch." He dismissed the griffon hen away in favor of looking to another. "What is the progress?"

"We are in position." He clapped a hand over his chest. "We only await your word."

"They can't be any further distracted." He shook his head slowly. "There is nothing gained in further delay. Attack. Make that sun tyrant rue her every decision that led to this sad point." He clenched his talons tightly. "Her soft smile hides centuries on centuries of oppression and subtle manipulation." A chorus of agreeing voices rose as he pushed up to his feet in a sudden movement.

"We've planned long enough. Schemed long enough." He threw his hand wide at his crowd of loyal followers. "Our decrepit land is nothing compared to the ever green of Equestria. Let us take it for our own. They can beg for scraps as we've been forced to." The crowd roared with rising fervor. "They suffered us to rust, we will treat them well to ash."

The griffons moved with a new vigor, marching to deliver missives and join the effort themselves. It was time to act, to reclaim the glory of past years. They would shake off the rust he had spoken of and spring to life, renewed and ready.

Little Hop was perched on the roof, looking down from the barn across the great orchard that had become her new home. She could see the small forms of industrious Apples working to harvest the year's produce. She could hear different family members shouting to one another, working together.

There were more Apples than usual, even distant family coming in to help. "This year's a good'un," assured Granny before. So they had put out the call, and their family had responded, filling the orchard with ready bodies to help bring it all in.

"They sure are busy." Scootaloo sat down next to Little.

"Really busy," she agreed before jumping a bit, realizing Scootaloo was there. "How did you get up here?"

"I climbed?" She pointed to a ladder. "We can't all just jump up to places, doesn't mean we can't get there." She grinned at Little. "That is cool though, how you do that."

Little beamed with pride, bouncing in place with youthful energy. "I didn't want to ask before, with the others, but since we are alone, may I ask a question?"

Scootaloo arched a brow at that. "'Course ya can. We're friends. Friends ask questions, kinda normal."

"Normal..." She fidgeted a bit. "Tsuki bounce. It's what we do. Earth ponies are strong and tough. Unicorns have magic. Pegasi fly... Why don't you fly?"

Scootaloo shrank at that question, not seeing it coming. "O-oh! Um..." She started to squirm herself. "It's... not like I don't want to."

"Are you hurt?" Little began to look Scootaloo over, as if some obvious injury had just somehow missed her looks before. "Can I help?"

Scootaloo suddenly shoved at her. "Not that kinda hurt... I'm not... hurt... just..." She rolled a hoof impotently, struggling for words. "Hey, you ever see somecreature that couldn't see?"

Little inclined her head left and right before nodding. "Old old old, but yes, couldn't see anymore."

"Well, I'm not old... but it's like that? It... just doesn't work." Her wings buzzed softly. "I'd like it to... but it... doesn't."

"Oh..." Things grew quiet between them before Little suddenly pounced Scootaloo, delivering a big hug as if a hug could chase away any problem. "If you could fly, where would you fly first?"

Scootaloo grinned a bit lopsidedly, squirming in the great fuzzy hug. "Oh, um... up to Rainbow Dash's house, and we'd race!"

"You'd win," confidently declared Little with a big grin. "Leave her in the dust."

"She'd be so mad," laughed Scootaloo, starting to relax into the hug and the supportive person giving it. "But that won't happen."

"Your wings are still cool," Little assured. "They make you go fast, on your scooter." She inclined her head, releasing the filly. "Not usual, but good. Different. Different isn't bad. Normal tsuki live under the snow, in caves. I don't do that. That isn't bad, right?"

"Not bad, just different," agreed Scootaloo. "You're the coolest tsuki I know."

"I'm the only tsuki you know," Little laughed, bouncing in place. "Want to fly?"

"We... just went over that. I can't." She buzzed her small wings, gaining little altitude. "Just not... a thing I can do."

"Can." She grabbed Scootaloo and plunked the filly on her back. "Hold tight." She waited just enough to feel Scootaloo hug her from above and behind. "We fly!" Sure, a tsuki couldn't, technically, fly, but a good bounce was almost as good, the two soaring through the air in broad arcs.

Scootaloo cheered, little adrenaline junky she was. Cheering and whooping, her wings began to buzz wildly, helping to direct and assist their jumps as they went. She couldn't fly, but she could help, adding propulsion to get Little Hop bouncing all the further and faster, both starting to cry out in mutual fun.

Down below, Apple Bloom saw them zoom past over the tops of the trees. "She's gettin' better."

"Ayup," agreed Big Mac stoically before resuming hauling a load of apples towards the barn. Their work was far from over, but seeing Little Hop doing so well buoyed their spirits.

"And she brushed me off!" Rarity marched alongside her friends. "As if I was not a pony of import. Really, darlings, can you imagine it?"

Rainbow snickered softly. "That's happened to us before. I'm a Wonderbolt and you don't see ponies bowing the moment I show up."

Twilight nodded in agreement. "Besides, that isn't... really how Equestria works, Celestia and Luna aside." She inclined her head. "We don't have a lot of 'important ponies' that everything has to stop for."

"Be that as it may." She pointed into the crowd. "That doesn't excuse that little delicate flower being treated as a soldier. She could... She could get hurt, and she's not like us, dears. We're used to it. She's just a normal pony. She should be somewhere safe, letting us get our hooves dirty."

Twilight's eyes fell to the fluffy boots on Rarity's hooves. "The odds of your hooves getting dirty seem low."

"I know how to handle myself, dear." She fluttered her lashes with a confident smile. "As I said, I'm used to this. She's just a random mare. Whatever qualifications could have her with us, ready to fight? I just don't like it, not one bit."

Fluttershy was flying slowly just over them, next to Rainbow. "Well, um, we were all just random mares, until we weren't." She lifted her shoulders softly. "Who are we to tell her not to?"

"Yeah!" Rainbow pumped a hoof. "I'm not gonna tell a pony not to reach for adventure."

Applejack chuckled at that. "Since when were you encouragin' ponies to make like Daring Do?"

"Since ever," she hotly huffed. "Besides, we're here. We'll help everypony out. Nothing's gonna go wrong when we're on the scene. Not what we do." The girls echoed soft agreement, remembering their general record. "Seriously, when's the last time a bad guy won?"

Rarity raised a booted hoof. "Well, our track record against Chrysalis is anything but shining."

"Ugh." Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Right, besides her. We don't do great against changelings."

"Technically." Twilight rolled a hoof as she went. "Cadance ended up taking care of Chrysalis and Sombra."

Applejack thudded against her side. "Now you cut that out! If ya didn't leap into action, there'd be no way fer Cadance to do what she did. That there was a team effort at the worst. And there ain't nothin' wrong with a team effort, the way ah see it."

"True," Twilight allowed, eyes sweeping over the horizon. "Still, this is our first time really... mobilized precisely this way." Sure, she could remember aborted timelines where that had happened, but they were just that, aborted. Her friends had never been soldiers. "Are you all alright with this? It's alright to say something. Nopony should feel forced."

"That's what I'm saying," grumped Rarity with a scowl. "Poor mare is being pressured into this. She should be collecting dark clothing and muttering about the burning emptiness of her soul, not marching off into war, darlings. Don't you understand?"

Fluttershy looked over to the military unit that included the named mare. "I'll go ask her." And off she flapped.

Twilight looked at ease. "She'll ask, gently. I trust Fluttershy to get us to the bottom of this particular issue. If somepony's pressuring Moonlight, Fluttershy will, gently, coax it out of them."

The others muttered in agreement, allowing Fluttershy the chance to solve the issue.

"Hello." Fluttershy landed beside the winter-dressed unicorn. "I, um, hear you just joined."

Moonlight perked an ear at the newcomer. "Like, yeah," she admitted. "It's harder walking in all these clothes than I thought." Despite her little complaint, she was trudging on, one hoof in front of the other. "Keeps the cold away."

"It does," agreed Fluttershy with a little smile. "What did... you do before this?"

"Like, woah, really?" She hiked a brow. "You wanna know?

"Um, please?"

"Sure." Moonlight shrugged softly. "I was mostly quiet, and enjoyed the darker times. Like, peace, quiet, still?" She inclined her head faintly. "Now I'm working for the darkness directly, woah, kind of far out if you think about it."

"How does one... work for 'the darkness'?" Fluttershy looked around as if something with that label would come into view.

"She's right there." Moonlight pointed to Princess Luna far ahead. "We helped her get to the Crystal Empire, and now we're her unit. Woah, kind of still really trippy to think about.... Working for the darkness... My soul smiles at the idea." She was barely smiling, but still, a little smile. "I'll do my best."

"I'm sure you will," Fluttershy gently encouraged. "It will be dangerous though."

"Yeah, woah, it's already been. I... saw a pony die." She swallowed heavily even as Fluttershy gasped with horror.

"Really?! That's awful!"

"And another pony got too cold and they had to cut her tail off, woah, way too heavy metal..."

Fluttershy clopped her hooves to her face, trembling at the visions offered. "How terrible! Um, are you... alright? I mean... It's okay to be scared."

"Thanks." Moonlight was still marching forward despite the offer. "Nice of you, little sun pony, but my spirit feels the call of the night. When I close my eyes, I can feel it all around me, wrapped like a warm blanket. The darkness will protect me."

Fluttershy tilted her head faintly. "I'm more of an animal pony than a sun pony."

"Whatever makes your spirit sing," easily agreed Moonlight, focused on her march rather than arguing. "I'm not an animal though." She seemed to lapse into thought. "But maybe I am. Maybe we all are. Woah. Animals lost in the dark. That's, like, pretty intense."

Fluttershy seemed confused at the thought provided. "If you look at it that way... yes, that is a little intense." She raised a hoof behind her head, ambling on the other three. "I prefer to make sure my animals get just as much light, or darkness, as they like and can thrive in."

"Oh." Moonlight looked aside at Fluttershy. "Are you checking my light levels? Woah, that's kind of nice. Thanks. I'm feeling just the right amount of shade right now." She leaned in. "There's a smart unicorn keeping us all balanced. He's really good at it."

Fluttershy smiled at the report. "Oh? That's rather nice. I'm not a unicorn." She could only imagine what magic was actually in play, though, brought up, she could see the faint glow around the entire unit. She was not included, but she wasn't a part of that unit. "You're a unicorn, do you know that spell?"

"Woah."

"Is it that hard?"

"I just never thought to ask. I should." Moonlight wandered away without a word of parting.

That left Fluttershy behind, blinking. "Oh..." Rising on her yellow wings, she returned to the girls. "She seems pretty happy where she is. She doesn't strike me as the, uh, soldier sort, but she's rising to the occasion, and she's really happy with herself. I'm almost a little jealous." She smiled gently. "I'm never that confident when I'm trying something new."

Applejack nodded firmly. "Alright, well, it may be a new step, but it's her hooves doing it then. Sounds like she's alright. Let's keep an eye on her, like we would anycreature else, but don't sound none like she needs rescuin'."

"Really..." scoffed Rarity, doubt still heavy in her tone. "Fine, but I'm watching her. The 'fun' of being a soldier will run its course right quick, and she'll begin to panic and look for a way out. I will not let her be trapped!"

Pinkie shook her head as she bounced along. "Sometimes I like trying new things. Sometimes it works out, and sometimes it doesn't, but ya don't know until you try, and if you don't really try, well, how can you know?"

"'xactly," agreed Applejack, tipping her hat forward. "Ah say let her do her thin' unless she's gettin' hurt, which she aint from the look of it."

It was on the second day that they arrived ready for battle, to find an abandoned fortress. Somecreature had gone through the considerable effort of constructing the place that looked like it could easily room hundreds of creatures, just to leave it abandoned. There were no supplies inside, not much of anything really. Just cold hallways and long-snuffed fires. The snow that sprinkled down was the only sign of life outside of themselves.

They had come ready to battle, to find no enemy. Shining scowled at it. "I don't like it."

Toby crossed his arms. "Empty."

"Knock down," suggested Celene. "Not use again."

Shining considered the idea. "Alright, yes." He turned to the gathered soldiers. "Tear this place apart. It's not part of the Crystal Empire and has no business being here."

With a rough cry from the crowd, ponies and tsuki began tearing apart the fortification in the hopes that it would be denied to their enemies should they ever return to it to see the damage. It was better than just admitting they had found nothing to do.

Author's Note

The war is on properly now, I do think, and it opens up on a few fronts for extra fun. What could go wrong?! PS: Today is miserably hot and I hate it.

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15 - Sneak Attack

Screams. That is what he heard first, rearing up and putting his small paws on the will to peer outside and down from the palace. Plumes of smoke rose in many places through the city. Ponies fled in the streets, small dots that scattered. What was going on? Arnavon didn't know, but he shoved the window open and threw himself out of it.

There was one sure way to find out.

"I'm so glad we found an equitable solution." Celestia gently tipped her head towards the diplomat, walking alongside them through the throneroom. "Expect our first shipment within the week."

"Always a pleasure, Celestia," agreed the pony that was just as large as she was, being a Saddle Arabian. "Long may our friendship end--"

The floor shuddered beneath them, throwing both of them and the guards in attendance to the floor with a violent jolt. The closer guards scrambled back to their hooves, moving to surround Celestia and her guest. Others took flight, soaring out the closest window.

"What is going on?" she demanded as she stood up. She heard a glass smash and saw that an array of fine drinking glasses were slowly sliding off a table, without magic or hoof pushing them. It was as if... everything were on an incline. Her eyes widened.

Down below, the foals of the school were enjoying themselves. Scootaloo was on Little Hop's back, where both had apparently decided was a comfortable place for her to be. Scoots was displaying her satisfaction with the arrangement with a loud whooping cry, Little Hop bouncing as far up as she could in demonstration to the other foals her tsuki-given talent.

Scootaloo wasn't just shouting, she looked around from her vantage point. More temporary than the ones Rainbow Dash could provide, but far easier to get one's hooves on, and she didn't feel like she was holding back Rainbow from her many awesome duties. She looked around with a big grin, until it ended, her smile fading from her face.

They landed gently, Little Hop absorbing the impact with her great legs coiling as if winding powerful springs that would send her back up if she wanted to. She looked over her shoulder and blinked, spotting Scootaloo's expression. "Something wrong?"

"I... think so." Scootaloo pointed up and away, towards Canterlot.

Little looked, along with much of the class on recess. The entire city was listed to the side, a little, but noticeably. That was not normal. The great city of Canterlot, rock solid, untouchable, part of the mountain itself, had moved.

"Move your hooves," called out Shining, leading the march back towards home and safety. "Warm beds and hot meals are waiting for us!" A rough cheer at the vision of future comforts that awaited them. "You all did great. Stay in formation and keep the pace up." They were marching briskly back through known territory.

Rarity shook her head softly. "Well, now I feel a bit silly. All that fuss, and for what? We didn't even really do much, dears. Tear down a few stones? Even Moonlight can handle a chore such as that." She rolled her eyes with a little snort, puffing steam into the cold air. "If all of our outings are this easy, maybe I was being a bit overprotective. Here I was, thinking this would be a bit more... harrowing."

Rainbow shrugged mightily as she plodded through the snow aside the others. "Gonna have to side with Rares on this one. What a waste of time!" She threw a hoof wide just to come back down on it with a crunch of snow beneath them. "Total waste of time."

"It doesn't make sense." Twilight was plodding along with a frown on her face. "It was obvious somecreature had been living there. Why would they just... go away?"

Rainbow waggled her brows. "They saw us coming and booked it?"

"Maybe... that is exactly what happened." Twilight kicked a bit of snow out of the way as she went. "And I don't like it, not at all. If they gave up such a large tactical position, it must be because they saw no use in it. If they weren't preparing for a seige, what were they doing? There is no way that this is good news..."

"Yes." A new form landed beside her, the scowling form of the she-warrior of the tsuki, Celene stalking along Twilight. "Not good."

"Not good," came Toby's agreement, landing on Twilight's other side. "Want us go ahead?" He pointed forward. "See?"

Twilight skewed her ears. "I don't think we're in risk of ambush, and we have scouts looking for exactly that."

"Is true," admitted Toby, plodding along in little mini hops to keep even with his pony companions. "Not get to protect. Ready."

"I do appreciate you were ready to do that." She inclined her head to the right towards Celene. "Both of you. Right now, the best thing we can do is get home and look for a better chance to strike... quietly."

"Quiet!" blurted Celene in a fit of not being quiet. "Smart pony. Yes. Send us." She thumped her chest just before hopping to keep up. "We go fast, no sound, stay not see. Find them. Not let run!"

Twilight seemed to consider that a moment with quiet crunches of the snow. "You should tell that idea to Shining Armor. He's in charge of that."

"On it." Toby bounded off towards the commander of the force, confident he could relay the idea better than his fearsome, but limited in speechcraft, partner. Not that he was that better, still, a step. "Shield," he greeted as he came down beside the unicorn leading the progression of all the other ponies. "Celene has idea."

"Hmm?" He turned an ear towards Toby, but still was marching on, along with the rest, towards home and warmth.

"Send us." He hopped to keep up, slow powerful leaps that covered the distance, the snow far less able to get in his way. Tsuki were made for snow. This was his home, and he showed no ill effect of the frigid temperatures. His armor, though heavy, would not have been very warm, if it were supposed to protect against that. It wasn't. His own fur and flesh did quite well on its own.

"Send you where?" His attention was starting to slide towards Toby, though his pace didn't let up. "For what?"

"To enemy. Find, send us first." He patted the snow just before leaping forward. "We go, attack, not let run, come help. We catch!" He tilted his head left and right. "Come quiet, not seen. Surprise!"

"What a surprise that'd be," he chuckled out, imagining a force of angry tsuki emerging from the snow as if the snow had just delivered them into the world, their fangs and claws at the ready to assault an unexpecting defensive force. "That does sound like an interesting idea... If we find another... I'll bear that in mind." That the tsuki could resist magic increased the odds they could hold the battle long enough for assistance to arrive. "Thank you, Toby. That is a very brave idea."

"We are ready," he assured, thumping his chest and rearing up so tall and large, not challenging Shining, even if it looked like it a little. He was challenging the potential future danger. He was larger, he would win. He would protect all that was valuable to him.

Arnavon hit the ground, rebounding off of it without delay as he sped towards the loudest noises. Harsh cries, panicked screams. Windows were breaking, doors exploding with the sound of broken wood and crystal. It was chaos all around him, but he went towards it, not away. Even as his heart thundered, it felt distant somehow compared to the noises of pain and horror around him.

He saw it at the apex of a jump, two heavily armored fighters with sharp weapons, spears? They were closing in on a crystal pony, a body only a foot away, blood spreading, unmoving. They had killed. They would kill again. There were no guards.

There was no salvation.

That pony would die.

The griffon thrust their spear forward. "Shut up!" they shouted, directing the spear towards the throat of the pony that had the nerve to make so much noise. Arnavon landed on the spear, driving down that tip. It bit into the paved road. With the momentum of the thrust, it bent powerfully and snapped, sending both the griffon and Arnavon sliding away from one another.

"T-thank you." The pony broke into a gallop, taking the opportunity to get away provided them.

Arnavon hissed. Despite how well he had aimed that descent, it hadn't put the other soldier on pause. He jerked back, blood running from a new slice he had received from a swipe of the other spear. The first was already drawing a fresh spear. His eyes darted between them, gauging his odds, which looked worse by the moment. Still, if he ran, that pony would be caught, and hurt. He felt certain of it.

He had not learned how to fight beyond little childish wrestles. He had no weapons besides the claws on his hands and the teeth in his mouth. He was a writer, and a publisher, not a warrior. And still, he saw no other creature that could hold that spot, that moment, other than him. If he ran, he consigned that pony he didn't even know to being hurt, maybe killed.

He didn't run, growling low as his legs tensed, ready to launch him.

"Don't use magic," one of them warned, likely having heard of the tsuki ability to avoid such things.

Arnavon had to be grateful for that, considering he actually hadn't learned how to do that. Heard of it... sure... But nothing beyond that. He sprang to the side, a sharp bit of metal piercing the space he was just in a moment ago. His feet hit the light post and be bounced off of it, coming back at the griffons at a new angle. One of them raised a sharpened tip towards him and he flailed, barely getting a finger lower enough to snag a cobblestone and bring him to a rough sudden halt, slamming into the ground.

Dizzy and bruised, he could hear them stepping closer. "Kill it," one of them said. "We have plenty more to do." He heard a clang? Something striking metal, like a bell? He flipped over into an upright position to see one of the soldiers holding their head. Another rock came flying in, swatted away by the other with an angry grunt.

The same pony he had sent running had come back, and was hurling stones at the griffons. Arnavon smiled, and feared, all at once. The intervention had bought him time, but they were both in danger again. He hadn't saved the pony. He grabbed the abandoned spear hilt, even if it had no top, the tip torn free with its rough shove against the ground. Still, a weapon was better than nothing, he figured, with his skills, or lack thereof.

"We're needed," hissed one of the griffons, tugging the other and pointing. A glance revealed what had their attention. Though most of the guards had gone out to attack, not all of them. A battle had broken out with the remaining defenders and the assaulting soldiers. The two broke away, abandoning Arnavon for sake of the larger battle.

The other pony was at his side quickly. "You alright?"

Was he alright? He looked to his sliced arm, the blood was still oozing. It hurt... "No," he whispered out, shuddering. "You?"

"No." He nuzzled under Arnavon, propping up and working under the tsuki to carry him away from the conflict. "Thanks."

"Welcome..." Arnavon watched as the fight receded, his ride trotting away from it. "Sorry... I... I wish I could fight better."

"You... did good." He turned an ear, tickling Arnavon who was partially pinning it down. "You saved me. That makes it pretty good."

Author's Note

Mini chapter, mostly because this chapter really feels like it finished. The attack is on. Things just got real. I'll get to writing the next one, because I assume my patron will be upset if I stop here for the day.

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16 - Cities Burn

Black smoke raised from the city, her city, their city. She spread her wings. "Forward!" Her Shining was not there. It fell on her entirely to oversee the defense of their kingdom, to see that the Crystal Empire still shone against the darkness. "Evacuate any unarmed creatures towards the palace, press on!" Her guards were doing just that, pressing against the violent tide of griffons assaulting them, but there weren't enough of them.

She was an alicorn, certainly, but she as no wizard, like Twilight. She had no great shields, like her beloved Shining. She could not rise the sun or moon. She was a princes of love, and that felt like a concept so far removed from the current condition as to basically not exist. "Shining..." She could only hope he was intact and safe, even as she wished he was right there to provide her a helping hoof. But he wasn't. She could only send him well wishes.

The crystals wolven in her mane jangled as she turned sharply to address an approaching guard. "What is it?"

"They've gathered." The guard pointed to where the fighting seemed to be a fierce melee the pony guards were ill-suited for. "And are pushing. I don't think they can hold them back, Your Highness."

Her beloved was not there, nor was her niece, or aunts. She was alone. The city... was alone. They were alone, and losing. Dread gnawed at her as she turned away from the guard, struggling to think of what to say, to do, to turn it all around. They were all relying on her, to lead them, to keep them safe. She had to protect them!

"Your highness?" The guard took a step after her, not catching up, but looking to her, worry in his eyes clear as the sky overhead where the smoke hadn't interfered. "Are you alright?"

"We are not alone." She turned back to her guard. "We need to get a message, to the tsuki, yesterday."

"Ma'am?"

With a glowing horn, a scroll appeared, words rapidly scribing onto it as he eyes darted across it, ensuring it was right. "With all speed. Do we have any guard that can teleport there?"

"I'm afraid not. Pegasi are the fastest method we have." It would take them time, even otherwise unburdened. A pegasus flying in the cold would need to be dressed for it, slowing them down considerably.

She needed it faster than that.

A guard hurried to the room, shoving his head in even as the rest of him slid, the tilted hallway ruining his timing. "Your highness! What's going on? What should we do?"

"There is little time to explain." She gestured with her wing for the emissary to hurry past her. "The city may well be falling. We must get every creature to safety as quickly as we can."

"Your highness!" He saluted sharply, then fled, his calls echoing out to others. The guards would start moving, but to others, it was a time of panic. She could hear the castle start to scramble to safety.

Celestia heaved a soft sigh. That was not the day she had seen coming. "There can only be a few places this could be coming from." She trotted to the window and burst free, her wings pumping to carry her up above the damaged city. She could see lazy fires that had stared. Perhaps gas leaks and running furnaces and ovens that had been damaged by the sudden movement?

She couldn't tell, and it wasn't her business, not at that moment. She looped around the city, streaking with folded wings in a dive to get a look underneath it all.

Movement in the corner of her eye prompted her to turn in time for a lance of magic to strike her in the right of the chest, driving her back with a pained yelp, her own magic flaring in a too-late shield that at least prevented it from digging in further.

"Your Highness!" Other guards were coming, unasked for, to assist.

"I'm alright," she got out in a hurry, scowling at where some creature was scurrying away, not daring to try striking her again. "They're--" She didn't get to finish, another beam lancing up from below and striking her left rump from behind. The pain was localized and burning like acid. Her position dipped, her wings failing a moment, and that was, perhaps, a blessing as it carried her out of the way of the beam.

"Princess!" came another worried shout, the guards hurrying, some towards her, others zooming past her towards whatever had fired magic at her. "The Wonderbolts are mobilized," informed the guard that reached her side first, moving to support her flight as best he could. "We have to get you out of here." It was one of the guards' first duties to ensure the safety of their princess.

A battle, a proper one, broke out as griffons and guards clashed violently. Bright beams of magic came from both sides, unicorns and griffons both equipped with battle magic that allowed them to make ranged strikes as their foe.

A griffon staggered back, a hand at a spear impaling it from the front, coughing as they tried to get out words. Magic wasn't the only ranged weapon available.

"Fall with your city," boomed a voice, like the Royal Canterlot Voice, but far more sinister. A griffon brought down a brightly glowing axe on one of the great supports that held up the city, slicing into the metal with a deafening screech of abused pillar. All of Canterlot began to shake and shift.

It was all about to come down.

Celestia reached for the griffon, as if she could take hold of the unfolding fortune before them, unravel it, somehow, turn it all back, save the city she had spent years, decades, centuries, some could even argue millenia building, but the guard beside her was hurrying her away, out from under the city, towards a safer place, away from the fighting.

"No," she called out, both forever, and feeling so empty and small. As if such a cry could deny destiny. As if she could shout it all better. As if she had any real power at all, in the face of such horror. Some of those who could fly were already in the air, but the rest was coming down. Stone broke from stone, metal snapped as if it were little more than loose clay. The plate that was Canterlot fell away from the mountain that had been its home, collapsing down the mountain with a deafening rumble that shook all of Equestria. Even ponies in far away Baltimare and Manehatten turned towards the noise, some of them at the right angle to see the rising smoke.

They couldn't know what had happened, but somewhere in their hearts, they could feel something had done terribly awry. The not knowing was, for them, perhaps the worst part of it.

This meant nothing to the citizens of Ponyville.

Canterlot was not entirely over them. By some measures, it wasn't at all. It was up on the mountain, with much of the mountain separating them, but as the city came down, countless ponies and other creatures with it, the mountain did little to stop it. It fell. It rolled. It slid. It was a landslide, started not with gravel, snow, or sand, but with an entire metropolis, breaking into smaller and smaller pieces, spreading, shattering larger stones as it went and creating even more mass that joined in the tumult.

Canterlot was falling, and some of it was heading towards them.

"The horror. The Horror!" wailed Rose, her cry, for once, not at all overplayed for the moment. Her flowery peers were passed out at either side of her. "Help me! Help us!" They could, all of Ponyville, see the oncoming disaster. It wasn't coming instantly, but it wasn't slowing either. That made it, in some ways, worse. They could see their end, and no immediate solution was at hoof.

Those at the train station were shouting, shoving, even fighting to get onto the train. "Back off," barked Bon Bon, lashing out a hoof and sending Time Turner flying back. "We have this ride." She threw a leg over Lyra and hurried her onto the already full train. The doors closed behind them, forced by conductors that knew if they didn't start moving, they just wouldn't move at all. There wasn't even any assurance they'd get out of the way in time, but they rolled out of the station, engine trembling as they pushed it as far as it'd go.

Spike rested his hand on Big Mac's side. They could see it coming. All the Apples could, struck silent, staring, watching it come towards them. "Maybe... it won't reach us." Big Mac had no reply, just watching. He reached up a hoof and nudged free the harness around his neck, turning to place it around Spike. Sure, it didn't fit, and it made Spike wobble even holding it up, but it was a gift. Perhaps the last.

"Thanks." The wave had hit the bottom of the mountain itself, spreading out in untold tons of debris and broken stone. "Don't suppose Discord could... do his stuff?"

But there was no Discord in sight to save the adventuring party he was a part of. "We're gonna have to build that barn again."

A faint little smile touched at Big Mac's face. "Yup," he spoke quietly, leaning in a bit closer to Spike.

Suddenly they were both hugged, Sugar Belle finding them and wrapping an arm around either of their necks, no words, just tears, chocked sobs as she held close to them as if she could hug them hard enough to banish the problems away.

Big Mac suddenly shoved Spike, sending him sprawling. Big Mac thrust a hoof into the sky. "Go."

"What? I mean, no!"

"Go," joined Sugar Belly, burying her face in Big Mac's neck. "Stupid little dragon. Don't just... Go!"

"Go," repeated Big Mac, a few lonely tears escaping from him.

Spike lifted a little into the air, but not very far. There had to be something he could do, for his friend, for all his friends. But he was just a dragon, a little dragon. He could barely carry more than himself into the air. The destruction was coming, too quickly. "I'll dig you out if I have to," he promised, teeth clenched. "You better be there when I get to you."

Big Mac nodded softly, then turned away, hugging Sugar Belle all the tighter.

Spike ascended into the air, safe from what was to come. He would, at the least, bear witness to it. It would be some small task he could accomplish, even as a small dragon. Even as his friends suffered so close, but so impossibly far away, out of his grasp to help.

It was a fast destruction, but it was so painfully slow. Trees had joined, soil and dirt intermixed with the rolling metal and stone. Spike could see it impact with the buildings closest to the mountain. They did not buckle and give. They were brushed aside as if by the arm of a foal tired of their placement. They simply ceased to be, crushed and joining the mass. "I'm so sorry, Twilight." He had, to add to the other things, failed to protect her home, or any of their homes.

The girls would come back to ruin on a magnitude none of them could imagine. Well, except maybe Twilight. She had seen the world reduced to dust. She had seen the world reduced to war, to paranoia, and to darkness as well. Twilight had seen a lot. Of them all, Twilight, at least, had seen worse.

But there would be no easy way back. There was no undo button for what Spike beheld. It was slowing, coming to a stop, misshapen and strange, jagged bits of what might have once belonged to something poking free of the broken ground. There were little hints of the town. Twilight's castle was visible, if only for its odd color, washed down stream and broken into great uneven pieces. That was all that was left of Ponyville.

Author's Note

Um.

Well.

That hurt to write. Poor Spike. Poor Big Mac and all the other ponies. Think Bonnie got away on that train?

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17 - In Darkness

From above, it was still. Rubble, trees and rocks littering where once foals had learned and played.

One rock wobbled and fell as if thumped. The ground beneath shuddered faintly. With a muffled cry, the ground exploded upwards, revealing a panting purple-pink filly, heaving for breath that had only just been returned to her. Next to her, Little Hop rose from her position of trying to shield all her classmates. It was a laughable attempt, as she was not that much larger than any single one of them. "Everyone alright?"

"No," came Diamond Tiara's quick reply. "What..." She trailed off, looking around. She only then saw what had happened, and she was not alone in struggling to comprehend what she was seeing. "What...?" she repeated, weakly, one hoof raising, wobbling in the air before it fell, too heavy for her to hold.

Apple Bloom scaled up the closest bit of debris to get a better view. "This is horrible! We have to rescue anypony we can!"

"Where do we even start?" argued Scootaloo. "Not against the idea, but, what, just dig random holes and hope for the best?"

Sweetie grabbed Scootaloo, a hoof on either shoulder, her eyes brimming with tears. "If we were stuck under there, you'd want someone to be digging holes. Dig holes all day long! Maybe they'd find you, maybe not, but you keep right on digging!"

Several of the foals gathered looked towards Little Hop. Silver Spoon smiled. "They're not wrong. You're the best digger. I mean, like, you saved us!" The other foals nodded, quickly muttering their recollection of those final moments. Little Hop had dug like a creature possessed, creating a crude burrow and rushing them into it barely in time, going in last herself to plug up the hole and try to protect them all.

The foals were not unified in thought, some just crying, as young people, or even older people, did in the face of such calamity. Others were crowding close to Little, praising her, as if their compliments could make the situation better.

"Miss Cheerilee," insisted Pipsqueak, pointing into the debris. "She couldn't be too far. We have to try to find her!" The thought of their teacher, buried, maybe hurt, maybe more, caused a new wave of dismay.

But Little Hop was not one of them. "Lost one, not another," she grunted. "Not on my watch. Not today!" She grabbed a stone and tossed it aside, finding looser dirt under it. She attacked it with her claws, starting to dig as quickly as she could. "Wait for me! Be safe in there!" She was but one little tsuki, but she would do all she could.

Cadance reeled back, licks of dark magic flickering from her eyes. Her soul felt dirty, her mind reeled, but she had done it. "You'd... better get that message." Wobbling on her hooves, she staggered back towards the pitched sounds of battle. Her people could not wait a moment longer to have her and what little direct assistance she could offer.

Elsewhere, Sombra's left ear twitched upwards. "Your majesty?" Quick Stroke flowed into shape beside him. "Is something wrong?"

"Your understanding of me is uncanny at times." He had said nothing, barely a motion, and yet, there he was, eager to serve. "I heard a scream of pain, a wail of agony." He licked over his lips. "And I didn't cause it. It felt like somepony stupid enough to fall into one of my traps, but I felt certain they would have gotten rid of those..." His brows fell in a scowl. "There was an intent behind it, and a... familiarity. Mmm."

"I felt a shudder," agreed Quick. "But little more than that."

"The cry, female... pink."

"Cadance?" proposed Quick, knowing of few other pink females, or too many living ponies really other than crystal ones.

"Princess Cadance, yes," roared Sombra with a wicked smile. "That is exactly who it was. She reeked of desperation." He leveled a hoof at Quick. "She is begging for help, pathetic fool."

"Pathetic indeed."

"And we will provide."

Quick raised a brow, looking confused. "We will?"

"Of course. The world will know how the tables have turned, how it is my nation that stands with strength while hers grovels for aid." He raised a hoof to his chest. "Go. I will dispatch soldiers to aid you, but you are far faster. Be there, now."

"Before you even ask." He faded into shadow, traveling at the speed of darkness itself, arguably faster than even light, or at least equal to it. It was not time for him to consider such ephemeral things. It was time to move, and he swept across the snowy fields that seperated the tsuki lands from the Crystal Empire.

What could have driven the call? Something petty, likely. He would crush whatever it was and earn the adulations that Lord Sombra so rightly deserved.

"What?" A common thought for the day. Twilight squinted through the snow, spotting something out of place in the distance. "Is that smoke?"

Rainbow Dash lifted on flapping wings. "I'll go check it out!" She didn't wait for confirmation, taking off with a contrail of rainbows. With a great set of two thuds, two tsuki took after her in great leaps, though even Toby and Celene had little hope of keeping up with Rainbow at full speed.

Rainbow arrived first to find a small farmstead. "Oh... wow..." she muttered, looking over the destruction. The place had been razed, its occupants were still there. Strung up and made into a display for those who found them, but present. "Not cool..." There were no remaining signs of what had done it, not even trails leading off. "How?!"

Celene and Toby arrived, looking around sharply. Toby gasped, seeing the macabre display. "No! Why? Who... Why...?" He timidly approached the slain crystal ponies, arranged so visibly and horribly. "Crystal ponies are so nice, why would anyone hurt one...?"

"Because they are not nice," grunted Celene as if it were obvious. "Tell boss Shield."

"Yeah," muttered Rainbow, looking very unsure a moment before she was gone, carrying her grim news with her.

"We'll take the palace by sundown," laughed one of the griffons, holding their staff high and directing scintillating pain on his enemies. "Don't let up!"

"Wasn't this supposed to be, you know, quick in and out?"

"Coward," shrieked the first at the other. "We are winning. Why would we leave now?"

"Because you would have lived longer," answered a male voice, a pony forming from the shadow with a cruel smirk. "Thank you for not taking that option."

"Get him!" shouted the first, redirecting his staff. The beam was fired true, elemental fury unleashed. Unfortunately for him, he was entirely unaware of how ponies comprised of shadows worked. The beam pierced directly through Quick's chest as they laughed maniacally.

"Is that the best you have?" he asked as he casually closed the hole that had been made. "Such petty magic." He was gone, shadow again even as bolts flew past, lightning and fire racing to strike the pony that wasn't there anymore.

"How boring." He slapped his hooves together around the head of the first, wrenching it cruelly aside. It wasn't a clean kill, but more than enough to send the griffon down, howling in pain and grasping at their neck. "Want to see some of my magic? I've been saving it just for such an occasion."

A sword came down at him and he parried it aside with his crystal limb. "Thank the ponies you are bothering for this lovely thing." He danced around the griffon, slamming it into their side with the sound of creaking bones from the point of impact. "Marvelous thing, I'll give them that. Traitors, the lot of them, but good at their craftponyship."

Elsewhere, Cadance lashed out a hoof at a griffon trying to climb over their crudely assembled blockage of the main door of the palace. "Back off," she hissed, her horn glowing with the promise of magic reprisal. "Are they slowing?"

It was a subtle thing, with them still trying to gain access to the palace, but the rate at which they came had dimmed somewhat. "I think so, your highness," agreed a guard just before they thrust a spear forward, trying to dissuade others from braving the climb over the barrier. "Are they tiring?"

That would have been nice... "Keep it up!" It was all they could do, to buy time. With a bolt of her magic, she caused one of their shields to flare up. Fighting another force that had magic made everything so much harder, and her crystal ponies were all earth ponies, besides their crystal-ness.

The barrier erupted in a pressure wave that sent the various bits of it flying in all directions. A rough cheer erupted from the invaders, rushing through the gap.

"Not cool, not cool." Spike flew over the land he couldn't even recognize. How had it fallen so far, so fast... He thought of the ponies he knew in Canterlot, so many he'd never even gotten a chance to... "No." He hadn't proven anything. They could be alright. It was too early to assume things.

He laughed a little to himself, a silly mental image of them tumbling out the side of the mess as the rest rolled past them. Boy... that would have been nice...

He darted to the left, barely dodging a rock that had come flying at him far too quickly and suddenly to be comfortable. "What the?" Looking in the direction it came from, a grey pony a yellowish grey pony climbed up into view from below. "Maud!" He ducked down, zooming towards her at full speed. "It's so good to see you!"

Maud looked up towards Spike as he approached. "Hey," she said in her monotone way. "You found us."

"Technically, we weren't lost," added Mud Briar.

"Bad news!" He threw his arms wide. "Everypony is buried! Can you find them? You're, what, the best digger pony I know, by... a lot, really."

Mud Briar nodded in agreement with the assessment. "Her expertise in rock management is second to none in the vicinity."

Maud inclined her head left, then right, then dropped down to put the side of her head to the ground, still a moment. "I see," she spoke in her even way, righting herself.

Spike grinned with rising hope. "Please... Do your best." He clasped his hands together. "Can I help?"

Mud considered as Maud wandered off. "She is the most trained," he emphasized, as if that was not clear. "We can't do better than her."

While technically true, Spike wasn't happy with it, lifting into the air. "Well, you do what you can, I can't give up." He zoomed for one of the few things in sight. Those jagged, broken, crystal lines. The pieces of Twilight's castle thrust up through the ruin. "Please be something in there." Besides all his stuff, knocked over, probably ruined.

But that wasn't important. He had a friend to dig up.

He promised.

"I am a nightmare," he rumbled with a malicious grin. "Your nightmare, if we're terribly specific about it." His body moved, he moved, so quickly, swiftly. His training with Toby had dividends that he could feel, swirling around the combatants, turning their means of attack as if they were moving through tar. Had they not trained? Was that the best they had. "Pathetic."

Pain exploded through his shoulders. A lucky strike, or an accurate one, the difference was hard to tell in the instant. Fury welled in him regardless, twisting around to see where it had come from, a wicked female bird sneering at him, another beam already coming, but he, already moving.

Each bright flare cast deep shadows as bright as the light she was making. Darkness he would flee in and through. She only knew he was coming when he bit her, sinking his teeth into her filthy feathered neck in a way one might not expect a pony to do, but he was no normal pony.

He growled almost soundlessly, but that hen he held could hear it, shuddering through her form, her blood allowed to flow across his teeth, his unnatural fangs parting her flesh. It didn't stop her from screaming, oh no, he relished in the wail she made. He thrilled in the wide eyes, the shuddering arms, and the gaping nothing that her co-soldiers offered. He was everything they did not expect from the ponies.

Good. Just the way he'd have it.

He fed, drank deeply, not of her blood, that was nothing but dirty filth. No, her fear, that was full of power, dark and terrible power. The sort of deliciously sweet power that had drawn him to Sombra in the first place, and he felt it emanating not just from the griffon he held, but every other creature that watched it happen, not acting, too afraid, surrendering themselves to him without even consciously being aware of it. He was their nightmare, and nightmares had all the power you gave them. They gave so much...

One turned to flee. He could feel it, that terror, a specific hint, a flavor? A smell? Whatever it was, he knew the urge to flee, and he seized on it. The fear was reaching an apex, and he rode it. The bit griffon sagged forward, but before she could finish hitting the ground, he was diving on the back of the first to flee, cackling as he drove the griffon down under savagely beating hooves. "You thought you could come and hurt our allies? They have a purpose, to us, and you are getting in their way. Your sentence is decided." He leaned in, face inches from the pinned bird. "Oh yes, very decided. Do you know? You don't?!"

He bent backwards, laughing with his entire torso undulating under the force of it. "Death. Death. You deserve death, and I, your kind host, am here to deliver."

She grunted through clenched teeth as a halberd sank into her side. She didn't cry out, she couldn't. She had to be strong, to lead what remained, to be the leader they deserved. She pushed up and forward, forcing the griffon back a step as blood specked her lips, her very breath seeming specked with the abuse she'd suffered.

A scream echoed through the hallway, all sides slowing, confused. That was not a combat sound. That was not the sound of a pony or griffon dying in pitched battle. That had been the cry of someone losing all hope, of having their very essence torn asunder, of seeing the depths of the abyss and wailing in an unknowable horror as the abyss not only looked back, but tore them lovingly into shreds, wallowing in the gore that resulted.

It had just been a scream, but it communicated so much. The worst part was that it wasn't alone, another cry. "That's Gerold!" squeaked a griffon, trembling in abject terror.

"Something's gone wrong." The one holding the halberd threw it away, wings unfurling. "Get out. We've done enough."

"Don't need to tell me twice." A third griffon took to the air. The battle was broken, forces scattering even as the pony defenses collapsed, unwilling to chase, battered and beaten, but they had won, perhaps?

The screams were getting closer. Laughing. Laughing was accompanying it, as if some cruel jester heralded each death with a wild call to the darkness.

"What... is going on?" asked Cadance, her eyes focused on the door, barely conscious through her injuries and blood loss. "Stay... strong."

The room went dark. Baleful eyes opened in the midst of it, as if there were nothing outside those glaring orbs. They fixed on each pony in turn, the broken bodies of the fallen, And Cadance, still glaring back defiantly. "Still alive?" Quick spoke in a sickly sweet tone. "Good. Lord Sombra sends his regards."

Cadance was not sure how to feel. The crystal guards whimpered, backing away with abject terror. They knew exactly what the dark figure represented, and they had no strength to fight it. "Your assistance is appreciated," spoke Cadance as clearly as she could, which wasn't nearly as clear as she would have wanted it. She knew she would soon collapse, whether she wanted to or not. "What... did you do... to them?"

"Hm?" The darkness began to withdraw, becoming the form of a pony once more. "Those griffons?" He huffed softly. "I tore at them with the strength of my lord. They have no business here, save to die, loudly." He licked his bloodied lips, eyeing Cadance. "Which you should not do." His eyes fixed on a pony peeking out from a room. "You, fetch a doctor. Your princess demands it! I shouldn't have to remind you."

He rolled his eyes as the pony scurried. "I swear, finding good help... These are troubles we can agree on."

Cadance forced the faintest smile, but lost control. She wasn't awake when she hit the ground, passing out entirely.

The detachment of soldiers hurried forward, in a forced march home. "Twily... She's alone. We took so many with us. Why did we take so many?" Shining was marching with all his power through the snow, glaring forward as if he could will themselves to move faster. "We rushed out there to do nothing and left them unguarded. If she's hurt..."

"Shining, brother... We have to stay calm," gently encouraged Twilight. "Don't get me wrong, this is a pretty good panic time."

Rainbow twirled upside down, flying alongside them, just above Twilight. "Speaking of that, how are you not in full Twilinanas mode right now?"

Twilight rolled her eyes with a little huff. "My sister is relying on me to keep it together. I can panic... later." She took a breath, extending a hoof as she did it, just as Cadance had taught her. "We have no time for 'Twilinanas', or Shinynanas."

"That isn't a thing," noted Shining.

"It isn't," agreed Rainbow. "But it could be." She snickered as she darted away.

Shining rolled his eyes, raising his voice, "We march for home. Keep your eyes and ears open. If you see anything out of place, don't hesitate the pass it along."

Were they marching into a siege, or would things be perfectly normal? Both were entirely possible.

"I didn't get a single new story worth telling," huffed Giselle, glancing aside at the gothic soldier. "You don't look happy neither."

"I didn't really get to help," admitted Moonlight. "I thought I'd be working off my debts, my soul was ready for freedom, a lifting of the dark veil of debt."

Giselle raised a brow. "You don't actually sound that upset."

"That's, like, how I talk." Her voice was largely even, gravely and brooding. It was what she was. "You sound annoyed."

"'Cause I am!" She threw a hand wide. "Ugh, gonna see that little Arnavon and he'll laugh at how little we got done. No way this'll make a decent story."

"Story?" She smiled faintly. "You go to war for stories? That's kind of metal, thinking on it. I like it."

"You say that like it's a good thing." Giselle shook her head with obvious confusion. "Look, let's just get back so I can get this over with. I still miss his stupid face, even if I'll want to punch it when he laughs."

"You must be good friends."

"The best," she agreed in deep sarcastic tones.

"I have a friend like that." She seemed to miss the sarcasm thrown. "We're so not alike, but she is the light that makes my shadow." She raised a hoof to her chest. "Woah, that came out better than I thought it would. I like it..."

"Yeah?" Giselle reached back, holding the grip of her weapon a moment despite not drawing it, holding it there in that awkward stance. "He's a bit like that. Stupid little rabbit, always smiling, always bugging me."

"Yeah," more calmly agreed Moonlight. "Always a big smile, like, woah, everything's just perfect, but you know it's not. And, like, you wonder what you're missing, and they hug you."

"Oh, wow. I didn't even get into the hugs." Giselle suddenly swatted Moonlight on the withers. "We got more in common than I woulda thought. Yer alright, fer a pony."

"You're alright." Moonlight looked Giselle over. "For a friend."

"That was a super pony answer, just so you know."

Moonlight nodded softly at the accusation. "I blame her. It's what she woulda said, and I went with it."

"Don't let them corrupt you." She nudged Moonlight with a chuckle. "We gotta keep it sane and dark around here."

"Like, woah... hey, yeah. It's nice having a fellow sister of the dark." She inclined her head, eyes moving to Luna so far ahead. "Have you met her, the mistress of the dark? She's so, like, totally amazing. Ruler of the night, of dreams. She knows what's inside you, and she isn't scared of it. She knows everything about you, but she still likes you. Tell me that isn't, like, magic."

"Huh." Giselle hadn't thought of it quite that way before. "Kinda creepy, but... sure, yeah, I get it."

"Not entirely." She inclined her head, marching on ahead. "But you will. Just let her in, and she'll help, no matter how big your problems, or small."

"I don't got no problems," huffed out Giselle. "She can save her whatever for ponies."

"No matter how small," assured Moonlight in her even tone. "Just sit and relax. Let the dark moon light bathe you." She considered Giselle a quiet moment. "She's a dark sister too, like, you know, us."

"Dark sister." Giselle hiked a brow doubtfully. "We'll see."

Author's Note

Prickle Berry! I missed you from your story, that was such a lovely trip. Maybe your super strength can help out, eh?

The catastrophe calls on the ponies present to lend a hoof. Ponyville does not lack for defenders even with the Mane 6 not being present.

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18 - Regrouping

Spike landed before the jagged crystal of the crushed castle. Unlike many other buildings, it still could be seen, thrusting upwards at an unnatural angle, tilted with the tide of debris. "Something." Surely there had to be something that could help. He dashed to the closest window and hopped in, peering around.

With the building submerged partially as it was, everything was darker, and listed to the side, making navigation tricker than usual. Not that it really slowed him down. Imagining his friends, suffering, maybe worse, kept his legs moving franatically. "Anyone?!"

"Spike!" Starlight appeared with a pop of unicorn magic. "What in Equestria just happened?!"

"Starlight!" He pounced her, hugging her tight around the front and clinging desperately. "I'm so glad to see you! Tell me you have a spell to help with this!"

"Start by telling me what 'this' is besides feeling like the biggest earthquake ever just rolled through." She looked ready to push Spike back before thinking about it again. "Are you alright?"

"No," he admitted flatly. "Big Mac, all the Apples, they were farming, and... boosh!" He threw out his hands. "Buried. Everything's buried! We need to save them, right now!"

"What?" She did push him aside at that, marching up to the very window he had come through before. "It can't be..." Her words failed, reaching the window and seeing the fields of ruined nothing where there should have been a town. She wobbled in place, slapped across the face with the enormity of it. Even Tirek had not managed that level of wanton destruction.

"Now you see." He was at her side, rushing up to peer out with her. "But we can't just... do nothing! Please, tell me you can do something!"

"Something, right." She shook herself out, freeing herself from the moment of utter shock. "I'm on the case!" Starlight vanished just as she had appeared, presumably off to do...

"Something," sighed out Spike, jogging deeper into the castle. "There has to be something I can do."

Arnavon peeked aside from his bed, smiling a little. "Uh, nice to share a room with you."

"And I with you." Cadance nodded softly, bandaged and resting.

"Not that I'm complaining or anything... but shouldn't a princess be somewhere not here?" His eyes darted over her injured form. "You fought hard."

"You did too," she gently deferred. "I heard you saved a few lives. Thank you. For... a creature your age, you've been asked too much, and you delivered. If I could, I'd go over there and hug the stuffing out of you."

Arnavon smiled at that, his ears, though long, still young and small enough to twitch in excitement. "I'll hold you to that!" A royal hug from the princess sounded lovely. "Though... you alright?"

"I will be." Cadance flopped over to the side, facing closer towards Arnavon. "We both fought very hard, to protect the ponies we care about."

"Yeah..." He shook his head. "I hope Giselle's alright. If we faced that, she musta really been fighting hard out there."

"You two will exchange stories." Cadanced lifted an ear at the tsuki. "Perhaps this time you will be the one with the grander tale."

"I doubt that." He scratched at the cheek, trying to be still as the doctor had commanded. "That would be... kinda cool... but she'd be mad."

"Maybe for a little while." Cadance let out a slow breath. "But, as your friend... I imagine she will be more happy that you are alive, and well... Just tell the truth."

"The truth, right." He brought over a hand to clap against his less mobile one. "I hope you feel better."

"And you too... Let's rest and rush that along."

Things grew quieter, but they both had company, and both felt better for it.

"Finally!" Rainbow burst into the warmth of the Crystal Empire. "What the...?" There were still thin trails of smoke rising up from places where fires had broken out, or been set intentionally. She couldn't tell. She darted back towards the others. "Hey, Shining! Something's up!"

That was how the attack force came to first realize what exactly happened behind them. Shining and Twilight raced to the palace, the rest of the force scattering to help where it could and reunite with loved ones they had left behind. The campaign was ended with very little formal affair.

"Where is she?!" Shining clopped up the stairs, looking around wildly. "Is she alright?"

A maid hurried forward, ears spread. "Sir, welcome back. She's resting."

"Resting?"

Twilight caught up, heaving. "Is she... alright?"

"She's recovering," insisted the maid, pointing the way to the medical wing. "She insisted on resting with the other protectors of the city instead of her own room."

Shining smiled thinly at that. "That does sound like her."

"There you are." Rising from a shadowy corner, Quick Stroke stepped towards them. "At least tell me you've struck a meaningful blow on our enemy's flanks while they were delivering this?"

Twilight peered at the strange pony. "I'm sorry, you are?"

"Sombra's right-hoof pony," huffed Shining, approaching him with a frown. "Why are you here?"

"Ask your wife," he taunted. "I saved her, and your precious city. You can say thank you at any time."

Twilight blinked softly. "Oh, thanks." It was that easy to extract a kind word from here. "We were tearing down their fortress and they came right behind us..."

Shining let out a low deep noise. "We wasted our time, and they took advantage!" He slammed the ground. "We need to get ahead of them. Chasing after them will get us nowhere!"

"In this, we agree." Quick sat on his haunches, bringing his hooves together. "Lord Sombra is sending others behind me, not the best of the bunch, those went with you." He lifted an ear. "And who are coming."

With two thuds, Celene and Toby landed on que. Toby approached Quick without delay, embracing the brooding unicorn warmly. "Good see!"

"You should have seen it." Strangely, for him, he did not push Toby away. "I fought with a renewed spirit. Our matches brought a vigor in me that I unleased on our enemies." He laughed, imagining the looks of horror of his enemies. "They regretted their decisions thoroughly, and I relished in their every moment of pain."

Shining peered at the two. "Can you explain exactly what happened, from your view?"

"I'll go check on Cadance." Shining nodded to Twilight as she slipped away, grateful to have a trusted pony on that job.

"Lord Sombra sent me." Quick poked his rival and sparring mate in the chest. "The ponies here begged for our help, and he thought I was the best for the job."

"You did well?" asked toby, a little smile on his face, sure that a good job had already been done.

"Magnificently," confirmed Quick. "They were like children before me, mewling for mercy as I severed every last thread they had. Ah... good times." He blew a kiss into the air to compliment the chef of his delight. Even if that was himself. "I broke the siege on this city in minutes. Minutes." He raised a crystal hoof. "Now I want to try it."

"Try what?" Toby spread his hands wide. "Do good. Thank you protecting ponies."

"As my lord commanded it," he brushed aside. "But I will ask him if I cannot partake in these games." He clopped his hooves together. "The excitement... I would drive them away and make them regret ever taking up arms against us."

Celene shoved Toby aside suddenly. "Stop talk."

Quick went quiet a moment, sitting there, looking past Celene to something behind her. "You have a point."

Toby scratched at a cheek softly. "What point have?"

Quick gestured at Celene, but it was Shining that butted in, "We have a kingdom to repair, ponies to reassure, and an enemy already planning their next move."

"Yes." He smiled gently at Shining. "You, request my assistance."

"Pardon?"

"Request my assistance." Quick inclined his head faintly. "My orders are to give you the assistance you requested. Do so."

"You want to help take care of the griffons?" Quick did not answer, watching him. "I would... appreciate it?"

"I have so many other things to do." Quick turned away with a dramatic huff. "I sacrifice much to please my master. If I must, I suppose..."

Shining looked baffled at the exchange. "Oh, well, welcome to the team."

"I should think not." His eyes went to Toby and Celene. "Battle Partners, let us plan how to strike true terror into their hearts."

Celene broke into a wicked but sincere smile. "Now talk right."

Toby looked less certain. "Not work with friends?" He gestured at Shining and the other ponies.

"They don't need us foalsitting them every step," sighed out Quick. "We will come on them like a bolt from the blue, and they will lament the day they bothered Lord Sombra and those that belong to him."

Celene shoved him suddenly. "Not belong. Still hurt. Go."

Despite her insistence on not belonging to Sombra, the two were moving off to plan the downfall of their enemies.

Toby did not follow, instead looking to Shining and reaching to set a hand on his shoulder. "Go."

"Hm?"

"See wife?" He smiled a little. "Bet she miss you."

"I... thank you." He turned and trotted in the same direction Twilight had gone. "Your own is likely waiting for you."

Toby launched without further word, in pursuit of the aggressive fellows he called friends.

"What do you mean he was hurt?!" Giselle shook the doctor pony about. "Where is he?!"

"He's... recovering," got out the doctor between vigorous shakes. "Please stop!"

Giselle shoved him back, glaring. "If he's alright, why can't I see him?"

"He needs to... rest." He regained his breath with soft gasps for air. "He was very brave."

"Brave is not the word I'd use for him." Clever, a smartass, a decent writer... A good friend? "Let me see him!"

"It's too late in the day," repeated the doctor more firmly. "Come back tomorrow, a little before mid day. The princess is keeping him company. He's safe, I promise."

Giselle cocked a brow. "He was good enough to get the princess to play nurse... Damn..." She stroked her beak softly, considering it. "He musta did something really good..." What, she was powerless to say. "Tell him I was here, and I'll be back, got it?"

"Yes, ma'am!" The doctor saluted sharply, remaining in the position as she stalked off, grumbling. "I swear, the family can be worse than the patients more often than not..."

"That's not right." Moonlight was seated next to the agitated Giselle. "I'd be annoyed if they kept my light away from me."

"They are," noted Giselle. "She's like a million miles away." She pointed in the vague direction of Canterlot, or at least the rail line.

"But she's safe," noted Moonlight calmly. "She'll be waiting for me, when I get back. For now, like, I'll pay for my sins." She put a hoof to her chest. "And maybe make a few new friends."

"Yeah?" Giselle huffed, her claws tacking at the cobblestone they were perched on. "Like who? Gonna make friendly with the 'mistress of the night' or whatever you call her?"

"She's Princess Luna," corrected Moonlight in her patient gravelly tone. "And no. My sister of the night is right here." She pressed the flat of a hoof into Giselle's side. "I won't leave until we're sure your friend is alright."

Giselle was quiet a moment, watching other ponies hurry by on their business. "That's messed up, attacking while we were going to them for a fight..." She glanced aside at Moonlight. "Thanks. Don't you want to relax or whatever?"

"I can relax with a sister of the night." Moonlight sank to her belly, tail swaying idly. "Let's just be quiet and enjoy the darkness, outside and in."

"Yeah..." Giselle didn't argue, the two sitting in companionable silence. Maybe Moonlight wasn't awful as friends went, though she wanted to see Arnavon.

"Katydid!" gushed Shining Armor as he hurried to the bed that housed Cadance, flanked by Twilight as it was. "Twily, how is she?" She was, he could see, quite unconscious.

Twilight nodded to the prone form of the princess. "Sleeping well. I got to talk to her briefly before she passed out. She fought off an invading force of griffons." She let out a long sigh. "There were thankfully very few serious injuries. Even hers are more of exhaustion, though she's suffered a number of lacerations."

Shining snorted with renewed anger. "We have to find them, and stop them. This isn't a game anymore."

"I don't think this ever was a game." Twilight sat up tall. "But it is all the more worrying... I should have brought Spike." She applied a hoof to her face. "Informing Celestia what's going on and getting feedback would be..." She deflated with a renewed sigh. "I can't rely on her forever."

"Sis?" He perked an ear. "You must be upset..."

"You're the one..." She glanced at the sleeping Cadance. "You must be beside yourself."

"Just one of me," he assured with a lopsided smile. "But you're the one saying you'll do it without Celestia, and she's still there. That isn't like you."

"She may as well not be." Twilight sat up tall. "We will have to solve this without her." She set down a her left forward hoof, a stern look in her eyes. "It won't be the first time, and I still have my friends. We'll figure this out."

"You sound sure..."

"I'm really not," she admitted, deflating. "But we have to try."

Not that Celestia was in much a situation to help. She landed, folding her grand wings as she took a perch on a narrow rock. "Any news?"

"The rescue efforts continue," reported a guard with a sharp salute, inclining with his nose at the sizable group of moaning ponies, hurt and dizzy, reeling from their literal upheaval. "The lucky ones weren't immediately crushed under the city itself."

Celestia cringed at the mental image of it. She had almost been flattened herself, starting under the plate. She had soared to the side, her city, her ponies, crashing down on her. She had tried to stop it, but Canterlot was not a sun, and her pushes only did so much, buying her barely enough time to get away from the plummeting stone before it added her to the rapidly growing list of fatalities. "Any sign of the..." What was the right word. Invaders? Terrorists? Both felt hollow and insufficient. "Them?"

Thankfully, the guard seemed to understand her. "Not a squawk. We suspect it was, in part, a suicide mission. Those not swift enough to get out of the way were probably crushed."

"If you find any... keep them alive." They were, perhaps, the only leads she had. "But the priority goes to the citizens of Canterlot." Not that the city existed anymore. The thought of that made her ears fall. "Do... we have enough information to even... estimate the losses?"

"Your secretary made it," noted the guard with a little smile.

It was a smile returned by Celestia. "How... While I am gladdened to hear that, I... struggle to imagine how. Is she awake?"

Following the direction of the guard, she took flight, landing in a medical triage, one of many that dotted the mountain-side to treat the injured. There were many, which could be taken as good news in a matter of speaking. The doctors nodded towards her respectfully, but kept moving. They had work to do, and a princess would not make them any lighter.

She allowed them to do their good work, stepping firmly as her eyes swept the area. "Raven, raven... There." She veered to the right, coming up on a bed with a sleeping unicorn in it. "Raven Inkwell," she sighed out with a smile. "I feel guilty, having my friend survive when so many are saying goodbye right now."

"That's terrible logic," complained Raven, cracking open an eye. "If it makes you feel better, I didn't entirely make it."

Celestia blinked rapidly. "What?!" Her magic glowed, wrapping around the blanket and yanking it free, revealing that Raven was missing her left hind leg entirely, the area thoroughly bandaged. "What happened?! Poor Raven... I failed you."

Raven reached up, bopping Celestia weakly. "I won't have that, ma'am... Give me two weeks medical and I'll be right on duty again."

"You are going nowhere until the doctors say you can." Celestia set the blanket gently over Raven. "Stop being a hero... You must be in incredible pain."

"A little," she admitted. "I was caught, pinned and buried at once when they found me... My leg... They decided it was more important to get me out of there. I don't disagree with that assessment, looking back... Better alive with three legs than dead with all four." She coughed into a hoof softly. "Besides, I have my horn. I feel certain I can continue being of use to you, madame."

"That is not what is important right now." She leaned in and planted a little kiss on Raven's forehead. "You rest and know that I am will wait however long it takes for you to be ready. Even if that's forever..."

"Perish the thought," gasped out Raven as if the very idea were anathema to her being. "I will report for work as soon as possible." She pushed against the bed to sit up a little. "Your highness... working for you gives me purpose. I will be unhappy if I set it down. For me... in my selfishness... please allow me to return to duty as soon as I feel able."

Celestia was quiet a moment, taking in the form of her crippled, but entirely loyal, secretary. "Rest well then, so you can do that with confidence."

"With pleasure." She sank back down, half-slipping. "I will keep you informed." And she closed her eyes, allowing herself to slip away.

Celestia strode back towards the front of the tent. "Do you have all the supplied you need?" The doctors began giving her a rundown of what they had, and didn't. She nodded along with them, making idle notes of what she could remedy. "Thank you." And she took off.

Equestria had been attacked, and there was very little she could, personally, do about it.

"Of course there is," taunted an internal voice, causing her to looked around in mid-flight. "Don't bother. You weren't ready, and still aren't."

"Who are you and why are you whispering in my head?" Was she losing it due to stress? It was quite a trying time...

"I'm you," taunted the voice. "It's time you showed your people your true power, and your enemies the power of the sun."

Celestia landed on a broad rock, giving her a commanding view of the activity. Ponies digging, searching for others still buried. Many tents with the injured and sick, being treated. It was a mess.

"And you let it happen."

"I did not." Celestia clopped down a hoof, scowling at the voice, though it was hard to aim at internal monologues.

"We tried peace for untold moons... thousands of years. Let me out, let us out and we can get the revenge our ponies deserve and get them peace that's more than paper thick."

"Daybreaker, you are just a vision, a dream."

"A possibility," added the voice. "Let me out. We both want the same thing. They deserve punishing, and our ponies deserve security. I will deliver both, we will deliver both, together."

"Never!"

"Oh, fine... I'll just sit back... and wait for Manehattan to crumble. For Baltimare to be bombed. For every city you know to be brought to ruin. Oh, I bet they'll make the weather factory topple from the air..."

"Don't even joke," she got out through clenched teeth, trying not to think of such dire things."

"I don't need to joke. The reality is right ahead of us. Now, you, me... Will we take action and make sure it never happens, or will we sit back and weakly accept what comes?"

"My ponies are suffering..."

"And we're not helping," noted the voice. "Unleash the full power of the sun. We've tried being a gentle queen. The world will fear us, and our ponies will adore us. We will shield them and burn our enemies... As they deserve..."

"No... creature deserves--"

The image of Raven's body sprang into her mind, one leg missing, but that innocent look on her face, pleading to return to work as soon as possible. "You would have them suffer, like Raven? Will you make her sacrifice in vain, or will you do something?"

"Why are you attacking me?" Celestia sank to her belly, breaths coming slow and labored. "I need to concentrate."

"We need to concentrate on this never happening ever again," argued Daybreaker in her mind. "Together. They don't want peace, those griffons. They will respect force. They will know fear. When they burn half as hard as Canterlot fell... then perhaps we'll know peace, and not before then."

Celestia sank her head to the stone. Her eyes closed against the images, external and internal, tears stinging at them.

It wasn't what she wanted. It wasn't the Equestria she had envisioned, or the way forward she had worked so hard to achieve.

But, perhaps... Daybreaker wasn't entirely wrong. All of her allies were so far away, struggling in the Crystal Empire. There was only one pony present that could fight for Equestria.

And she was crying on a rock.

Author's Note

An offer is made. Should Celestia accept it? I don't know if folks have any idea how hard it is to write this story.

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6 - Measures of Strength

"Your highness." A crystal stallion saluted sharply, hoof raised. "We found the missing scout."

Cadance's expression brightened, but it was a brief thing. She could see the guard held no good news. "What happened?"

"They were..." He cleared his throat softly, then turned on himself, producing a letter. "We found this."

Her magic glowed around the paper, drawing it near, eyes sweeping left and right rapidly. "Is this what they had found?" The guard didn't know, there was no way he could. "You perished to get it to us." She turned to face Shining Armor across the room, advancing on him as the paper accelerated faster than her.

It reached him, floating in front of his face and interrupting the chat he'd been having. "Mm?" The glow around it changed as his magic took charge of it, taking his turn to sweep his eyes across it. "What is this?"

"This is intelligence it seems a loyal citizen died to retrieve." Cadance closed at his side. "What do you make of it?"

"Were they... Did they give us this?" He pointed at the floating letter.

"They were... gone. They found the letter." She shook her head slowly. "This needs to stop, yesterday."

"Which is exactly why we're on the case." He leaned against her, the gesture returned as they drew some small measure of strength from one another. "But we can't be sure."

"Sure of what?" The pink princess hiked a brow high. "Our guards do not deliver news of death lightly."

"I'm not uncertain of that." He pointed at the paper firmly. "But they didn't hand us this paper. It may not be from them."

"They killed a scout and put this on them?!" Cadance's voice rose to a shrill note trying to envision that grisly scenario. "To what end?"

"We can't know." He folded the letter in half, then again, tucking it away. "But one thing is clear."

"Now is not the time for suspense, dear."

He leaned in, touching his nose to her cheek. "Sorry. I just mean, whether it's a trick or not, we have to investigate. This is our only clue. We just have to make sure it doesn't hurt us more than we hurt whatever we find."

Cadance looked ready to object, but she took a slow breath, extending a hoof with the exhale much as she'd shown her sister in law. "Yes... Are you going with them?"

"I planned to." He nodded firmly. "I'll keep them safe."

"I know you'll do your best." Her wings fidgeted restlessly on her back. "Travel swiftly, quietly, and surely. Take those you trust who can fulfill those requirements."

"Way ahead of you." He was smiling confidently. "Already thinking of a crew. Oh, tell the tsuki's rep. It's about time he had something significant to write home about." He turned away, starting to trot. "I'll be back, with some good news."

Cadance turned, watching him go. Her words were quiet, "Just come back."

"Now, look, ah know this ain't what ya planned." Applejack was gently patting her new ward on the head. "But ah ain't gonna raise no filly without no proper education like. So you get on with Apple Bloom and learn ya somethin' good." She nodded firmly with conviction.

Little Hop looked far less certain of her adult caretaker. "Not pony," she pointed out even as she indicated herself with an extended finger, another thing that marked her as not a pony. "Go to tsuki school?"

Applejack inclined her head. "If we had a tsuki school, well, sure, ah'd send ya right there. But... we don't. We only got the one, so it's the one ya gotta go to. They'll teach ya good things, promise. Tell her." She looked to Apple Bloom.

Apple Bloom started upright. "Huh? Yeah! Cheerilee's a great mare and she knows all kindsa stuff!" She cantered in place. "Ah'll walk with ya there. Show ya around, introduce ya to the others. They'll like you, promise!"

"If you're sure..." Little Hop hesitantly nodded. "I will try." She hopped up, landing facing the outside world and its mysteries. "When?"

Apple Bloom trotted up beside her. "We can go now, if ya want. Meet some ponies that hang out afore school starts." She inclined her head to indicate the space before them.

Little glanced back at the watching Applejack, then her sister, both smiling at her hopefully. "May as well," she allowed, reaching up to run fingers along one of her horns. "They won't make fun of me, for being different?"

"Different ain't bad," assured Apple Bloom. "I mean, they may say some stuff, but that's 'cause they're curious."

"And need some learnin'." Applejack walked to a low desk, grabbing a quill and jotting out a note with it held in her teeth. "Give this to Cheerilee. She should be on extra watch, 'till ya fit right in."

Apple Bloom grabbed the note once it was folded and tucked it away in a saddlebag. "Got it. Let's go!" And off she charged.

"Bye!" Little waved before springing forward, a little hop to get past the door, then a grand bounding motion to catch up with Apple Bloom. She was no grown tsuki yet, her speed wasn't such that she could sail easily past Apple Bloom, but she caught up at least, the two hurrying off to school.

Twilight glanced off to the side, a motion catching her attention. Was that a tsuki? She caught sight of it just as it landed beside some foals, just about as small. "An exchange program?" She smiled at the thought of it. "How charming." Applejack had not shared with her the tale of the small tsuki, and she paid it no further mind, continuing on her task. "Spike, isn't it nice to see my school is starting to influence other educational institutions to follow suit?"

"Yeah?" He was peering at the tiny tsuki in the distance. "Kinda fast, but cool. Hey, now that you bring it up, why don't we have any tsuki at our school?" He lifted his shoulders high, hands upturned. "I never thought of that before, but it seems funny now that it's brought up."

"You're not wrong." She nodded once firmly. "I'll send a letter to them. Perhaps they'll send some bright-eyed eager little students for us to teach." She had to pause, rearing up to clop her fore hooves together. "Wouldn't that be exciting!?"

"Sure, yeah." He flew ahead of her a few paces, wings flapping at a sedate rate. "The way that one was bouncing though, wonder how they do with doors?"

Twilight inclined her head, considering that. "Surely they have doors of their own... You do remember Toby, do you not? He navigated doors."

"True." He made double guns at Twilight. "Can't argue that. Oh, hey Rarity." He raised a hand, waving at Rarity, a happy smile on his face. "How's it--"

"--Lovely to see you, Spike, but, Twilight." Rarity tossed her mane. "Have you heard?"

"Heard?" Twilight frowned a moment before the expression eased. "A tasteless fashion trend?"

"Not that, darling. I do have other concerns." She waved it off, looking mildly offended. "There's talk all through the upper crust. Something terrible is going on up north. Haven't Cadence or Shining Armor talked to you about it?"

"No?" Twilight's advance slowed to a stop, her eyes on Rarity squarely. "Are they alright?"

"From what I hear, they are, themselves, just fine, dear, but the empire itself, and their poor little bunny friends, less so. Some brigands are--"

They were thrown aside in opposite directions, Spike sent flying to the side as an explosion ripped apart the area between them, showering other ponies who were nearby with dirt and debris. A shrill cry was soon joined by others are ponies began to scatter in abject panic.

"Magic is aware of the situation," reported a griffon with an ornate earring, taloned hand feeling over it. "An agent in the town has activated and is attacking her."

"Fool!" barked the griffon on his throne. "Withdraw, instantly. We don't need that kind of attention there."

"As you command." The jeweled griffon turned away, speaking lowly to themselves, "Withdraw immediately. Abort the fight. Continue observation when it is safe to do so. Yes..."

Twilight hit the ground with a grunt of pain, her horn glowing as she erected a hasty barrier around herself, just in time for the next explosion to detonate against its side. The two fought in a brilliant flash that sent her flying anew. She spread her wings, hovering in the air as a new bubble formed around her. "What's going on?!"

"I'm oh k--" Spike did not get to finish his statement, a bright bolt of energy smashing the ground far too close for his comfort and sending him scurrying away with a squeak. "Hey!"

"There they go!" Rarity pointed to a winged figure obscured in the raised dust and debris. "They're getting away!"

"On it!" Twilight vanished and appeared much higher, trying to get a view of who had attacked them, but their assailant had dived back into the houses of Ponyville, ducking behind some building or another, and she saw nothing. "What in Tartarus...? Spike, Rarity, you two alright? Everycreature else?"

Noises of affirmation came from her friends and anyone else in the area that hadn't already fled. Spike got up to his feet, wiping his face with an arm just to gasp in alarm. His arm was bloodied, though a napkin rapidly approached and began to fix that. "Poor dear." There was Rarity, tending to the bleeding nose. "That was most unkind."

"You can say that again." Spike stood still for her to work, a little blush in his cheeks. "Seriously, what was up with that? I'm used to monsters of the week, but spontaneous magic explosion attack isn't usually on the list."

Twilight landed beside the two. "I'm just glad everyone's alright. Mostly alright." She amended herself when she saw Spike being dabbed clean of his nosebleed. "Whatever, or whoever, that was, that was powerful. They tore the road apart, and my shield barely held up enough to keep the same from happening to me."

"Equal to Twilight," gasped Spike with obvious awe.

"Don't say that like it's an impossible thing." Twilight rolled her eyes. "While I am an eager student of magic, for raw power, I am not the most powerful pony I know. Have you seen what Starlight can do with brute force alone? That's what makes our spars so stimulating, power versus learned finesse. Truly, a timeless--"

"Darling, dear, shoosh." Rarity raised a hoof to place on Twilight's nose. "This isn't the time to obsess over magical spars. Really, that could have seriously hurt somecreature, or worse. Are you going to accept that?"

"Of course not. Spike, how are you feeling?" Twilight brushed Rarity's hoof away. "You alright?"

"Yeah, promise." He gave an emphatic thumbs up. "We should make sure the school's alright. If they were after you, maybe they'd--" Twilight vanished mid-sentence. "Or you could do that, sure."

Rarity shook her head. "She's a little rattled. I can't blame her, as if I'm not. This is scarcely the way to begin a day." Her horn glowed as she plucked up Spike, placing him on her back as she began towards the school.

Spike knew she was telling the truth. A properly coherent Rarity would not so swiftly grab him. Still, he didn't object to the good fortune hidden in the bad and he placed his hands on her shoulders from behind, holding respectfully. "So, what do you think that was? It had wings. Unicorns don't have wings."

"Unicorns don't usually blast us like that," countered Rarity. "... except when they do," she admitted, looking pensive. "Either way, I suppose this rules out Starlight, not that I thought it was her. What else has wings and does have magic? An alicorn? Well, clearly, they would qualify on that front." She looked over her shoulder at Spike. "But I cannot fathom a single one that would behave in such a manner! Really, can you imagine Luna, or Cadance, or even, forfend the thought, Princess Celestia engaging in such uncouth behavior? Heavens forbid! No, no. Not an alicorn."

"Probably not," agreed Spike, his eyes on the school they were approaching. "Hopefully nothing bad happened."

"This was certainly bad enough." Rarity gave a firm nod, her horn drawing the door open.

"Sister." Luna strolled into the throne room, Toby at her side. "There are matters that require your immediate--"

"--Sister dear." Celestia was smiling, that patient expression she had trained so well. "I am occupied with an important matter. May we speak as soon as this is complete." She inclined her head at the Saddle Arabian. "My apologies. Where were we?"

Toby tilted his head sharply left then right, but did not dare to question the ways of the Boss Princess. Instead he looked to Best Princess, walk-hopping to her. "What do we do now?"

"We wait." She gestured to the side and led him to sit near a window, giving her sister room to finish what she was doing. "My sister is doing what she does best, speaking well to other ponies." She snorted softly. "If that were the measure of a princess, she would be without rival."

"More than that." Toby shook his head, then pointed at Luna. "Best Princess."

Luna's sour expression brightened a little. "I am gladdened you are so firm in this belief. Still, she need know of what you told me. It is not every day one of our sworn allies is attacked, and in such a vicious manner. Did you contact the Crystal Empire?"

"Yes." He bobbed his head for emphasis. "They send me here, because you know." He pointed at Luna, then himself. "We are friends. Less time asking 'who is this?'"

"I understand." She smiled faintly. "The logic is sound. I have little reason to doubt your words. Equestria will not be known to abandon friends in need. That is not the pony way." She clopped the ground lightly with a metal-clad hoof. "We simply need speak with sister."

They sat together, watching Celestia exchange her quiet words with the representative of the larger Saddle Arabian tribe. The stallion nodded at her and walked towards the door, seemingly pleased with the result of their chat. "I will send a letter," he promised on his way out.

"Thank you for coming." Celestia looked to her guards. "We are in recess for an hour. See that any others waiting are seen to their every comfort." As the guard saluted, Celestia was already turning in place towards her sister and Toby, approaching at a sedate walk. "Now, what is it you've come with? It looks serious."

"Very series," agreed Toby, mangling the word. "Tsuki hurt, bad. Mean giffons--"

"Griffons." A letter floated clear of Luna, floating towards Celestia. "The details are here, written by Sombra, or someone close to them with good penponyship. They have requested our aid, invoking the right to do so as part of the agreement of friendship they signed."

Celestia hiked a brow at that. "Truly?" When Toby bobbed his head, she shook hers in response. "I did not think Sombra would be so swift to admit any fault or weakness. To call for us the moment they are attacked... Perhaps he has learned something."

Toby looked lost at what was being implied. "You will help? Please."

"Of course." She set a hoof on his shoulder. "Dear Toby, we will not abandon your people. They have been nothing but delightful friends to us, especially the Crystal Empire. But the description is that of a bandit raid. The call to mobilize our army seems... hasty."

Luna inclined her head. "Do your guards have more pressing business? Do you need them to stand immobile in more obvious places to uphold the peace of your domain?"

Celestia's kind expression dimmed faintly. "Luna, you are needling me without reason. I said I would take action."

"Then tell me, and be truthful. You intend to send Twilight and her friends to take care of it." Luna leaned forward, eyes half-lid with heavy doubt. "Tell me I am wrong."

Celestia could not meet the gaze and Luna circled to keep their eyes locked. "I knew it! This is a matter between nations, not a petty squabble for Twilight to handle."

"Just because some tsuki got hurt--"

"--hurt real bad," interjected Toby. "All the way hurt." He rubbed his hands together worriedly. "Can help?"

Towards Toby, she felt less sibling rivalry, extending a wing to rest on his side. "Of course we will. I will send a missive to Twilight--" She met Luna's eyes. "In addition to sending a contingent of guards to assist in the matter. The Crystal Empire is surely involved. I'll send them there to assist Princess Cadance in the matter."

Luna nodded with satisfaction. "Just how large is a 'contingent', sister dear? There were over a dozen tsuki, entirely wiped out." She clucked her tongue reproachfully. "I trust you will send more than a pony or two."

"I will at that." Though she was already turning away. "Toby, inform King Sombra that he has Equestria's support. We will dispatch assistance along the railway, to convene with forces in the area around the Crystal Empire."

Luna looked to Toby. "Help is coming. It will be at the shiny place and work with the shiny ponies."

"Oh!" Toby bobbed his head quickly. "Okay. Have you ever met a shiny pony?" he asked in slow careful constructions. "They look hard, but are just as soft and friendly."

Luna smiled at that. "They are curious, are they not? But just as soft, and just as friendly. Tsuki, at first glance, also seem hard and worrying, but they are also soft, also friendly. There is something to be learned there, is there not?"

"Yes." He clapped his hands, though his smile was short lived. "The gi--griffons are not soft, and not friendly. Why?"

Luna inclined an ear. "Let us not judge the race entire for the work of outlaws. There have been ponies that have done terrible things. We will find these outlaws and punish them. Equestria is for friendly creatures."

"For friendly creatures," echoed Toby in full agreement. "Should I stay?"

Luna pursed her lips, looking thoughtful a moment. "Neigh... You should go home and tell Sombra what you have learned, that we are on the way."

Toby suddenly grabbed her, hand right on her horn in a naked ignorance of personal space and royal decorum. "Can you come with me? With Best Princess, we will be safe."

Luna started, but resisted yanking herself free of his grasp, watching his face so full of hope, adoration, and naive love. "Dear Toby... My duties do not allow me to go, but I am yet at your side." She gently pulled her horn down and back. "I will patrol the dreams of those in the realm. Perhaps, with some amount of luck, I will happen on those who work against your people."

"Find bad griffon." Toby nodded firmly. "Best Princess." He gave her a huge hug, arms wrapped around her neck. "Come visit. Come soon." And he was off, bounding for the nearest window in great leaps. Doors were for other creatures, as far as he cared, and he soon had it open enough to wriggle through and bound away on the way for home with important news.

"He still adores you."

Luna turned swiftly to see her sister smiling at her in that patronizing way. Luna snorted at the sight of it. "Do not be so smug! We are friends. It is not improper for friends to wish for the company of their allies."

"As you say. I must write a letter. Luna, since you have taken an interest, why do you not command the guards?"

Luna's eyes widened a moment, a giddy smile on her face. "You mean it? That is usually your task."

"You are a grown mare." Celestia advanced, touching nose to nose with her sister. "I trust you." With that, she turned and walked off, a scroll appearing with letters forming under her magic.

Luna clopped her fore hooves together before rising and clearing her throat. "Of course. I am perfectly capable of ordering a few guards around." She turned to one of the guards standing at the entrance to the throne room. "You. Where would a guard expect to receive an order?"

"Ma'am." He saluted briskly. "If I may advise?"

Luna inclined her head. "You may. Thank you for asking first."

"It would be better to approach the captain of the guard." He pointed a hoof. "She's doing drills in the back, ma'am. She will be able to choose which guards are proper for the assignment you have in mind and get them in motion."

"Fantastic." Luna began to trot. "I will do just that, excellent idea. Did you say she?" Last she had bothered to check, Shining Armor was captain of the guard, but that position must have moved on when he had done the same. "I look forward to meeting this mare."

Shining Armor adjusted his goggles. They were deep in the snow, the blinding wind howling against them. Only such protections allowed him to keep his eyes open. "Keep alert."

"We're ready for anything, sir," barked a crystal guard to his right. "They won't surprise us!"

"As much as that, keep an eye out for someplace to rest the night." In the snow-covered darkness, finding such places was more difficult than he would have liked. "No point rushing on them tired from the march. Going blind won't help our odds either. Got it?"

"Yes, sir!" He separated and began to spread word to the others, ponies and other creatures alike. It was too loud and muffled to shout commands to them all easily.

With a crunch of snow, a creature landed beside Shining. "Look for rest?" asked the tsuki doe, their fiercest if the reputation was to believed. Celene was step-hopping, matching his pace. "I find place." The ground crunched in protest as she propelled herself without a reply.

Shining shook his head as he advanced, knowing there was no chance of stopping her. Perhaps she'd find the right sort of place. "Whoever we're approaching, they can use magic. That can throw off basic strategies, so keep that in mind."

One mare smiled at Shining as she marched. "But we have you, sir. You can deflect their magic."

"I'll do my best," he assured. "But I am one pony, and who knows how many of them will be throwing magic. Don't assume I'm there. In fact, it may be better to assume I'm not. Duck for cover, use the strategies you've been trained with. Don't let them get you, and take down the spell casters first."

"Sir, yes, sir," echoed about a dozen ponies that had been close enough to hear it. They began to echo the commands, spreading it through the armed force.

Celene landed in front of Shining Armor, blocking his progress. When he stopped, the others stopped with him. She seemed satisfied with that. "Find cave."

"Good, where? Why aren't you leading us to it?" He looked around her, but beyond her was just blinding snow, not a hint of shelter.

"Not empty." She frowned softly. "Birdcats waiting. Hunting. They hunt us. Attack?"

It took Shining a moment to piece that together. "They're waiting in ambush... Good job, spotting them. Maybe we can turn this around." He turned towards the others. "Here's the plan."

Author's Note

Is it time for a spot of good news on the Equestrian side? Nothing like a fight in the middle of a blizzard to get the blood pumping!

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