Chasing Rabbits

Chapters

Prologue: Remember...
I: Nothing So Very Remarkable
II: Tell You Where to Go
III: When Logic and Proportion Have Fallen Sloppy Dead
IV: Because I'm Not Myself, You See
VI: Snicker-Snack
V: I Think She'll Know
Epilogue: And the Mome Raths Outrgrabe

Prologue: Remember...

His armor gleaming in the sun, the knight headed home. It had been a score of months since he had seen his wife, but her liegelord had told him that she was on a special mission for Queen Faust and would return any day now, but for now, he had to stand his duty as the warden of the Western Lands, the area known as the Unknown West, the very edge of the queen’s realm.

It wasn’t as though he would miss her much, or she him, truth be told. Their marriage had been one of typical political convenience, more for her family’s sake than his, and their marriage had not even been consummated – she had nerves that day, she claimed, but then next day she had journeyed to her master’s keep, where she had undertaken her mission since.

But those were the edicts given them by the Throne of Everfree. The Queen of All, the great alicorn herself, did this for the sake of her people and it was not his to question her orders. It was his duty to merely obey and keep the faith.

The earth stallion wiped the sweat from his furry brown face as it stung his eyes, locks of his lavender mane slipping down under his helmet. It was a beastly hot day, the kind of day that would give a lesser pony the vapors. It certainly was enough to make him hallucinate a few minutes back; he thought he’d seen an oversize hare on the pathway leading to the tiny village midway towards his home, and as he reached the crossroads that led towards all directions of the compass, he had to wonder if there was a purpose to it all.

“Help me.”

The knight stopped in his tracks, slowly withdrawing his sword. “Who tr’spasses anon?” His eyes drew towards a copse of trees, and something about them looked…unnatural. They appeared twisted and gnarly, as if they weren’t a part of this world.

Out of the trees came a strange figure, the kind of which the knight thought he had imagined if he wasn’t on his guard. The creature appeared to be a mouse at first glance, but no mouse moved upright on its hindlegs, as if it were an Abyssinian or a minotaur. The strange beast was dressed in a strange outfit the likes of which were unfamiliar to him. It was holding a codex in its forelegs and it was bleeding profusely from its side…and was clearly dying.

The knight acted quickly. Even though he was merely an earth stallion, he had tinctures and nostrums available to him that could be used as short-term curatives should a healer not be nearby. But even as he reached the mysterious being, he knew what he had would not be enough.

“Rest,” the knight insisted. “‘T’is but a short vent’re to the nearest ville. Yond be a simple there and—”

“No. I will not survive,” the creature said, its voice raspy and weak. With flagging strength, he held the tome out to the knight. “Please, hide this! He will only get stronger! He has become mad by this…this….” He coughed up blood. “I cannot even explain this madness. But he must not find this! He must not!”

The knight unsealed the largest bottle he had; it would hopefully keep the creature alive. “Drinketh this. This shall holp ‘til we can sally the simple.”

“No!” The creature thrust the book into the knight’s hooves, spilling the potion. “Take this and go! Leave me before it’s too late! Before all becomes—” he coughed again, with more blood spurting out. “Before your world and mine becomes snicker-snack! Chase the rabbit! Chase the rabbit!”

The knight looked at him oddly. “Thee maketh nay senseth, neighbor, but if’t be true t’is imp’rtant, I shalt doth so. Alloweth me to proffer this from thee and then I shalt see to thy rest once thee passeth to th’ Great Pasture.”

“No, leave me! Each minute the codex is in the open is one he will use to find it! Go!” And with the last bit of his strength, he grabbed the stallion’s surcoat, pulling himself up so that he was face to face with the stallion. “Remember these words! Remember them!” He then whispered something into the pony’s ears before collapsing to the ground, his strength spent.

The pony looked at the creature, shaken. “I shall remember. I vow it.”

The creature looked at him, his eyes nearly glazed over. “I thank you, good sir. May I have your name before I breathe my last?”

The knight removed his helmet. “Blazing Lance, Mast’r of the West’rn Keep, steadf’st and true sw’rn knight to H’r Majesty, Queen Faust. And thee?”

“Radourmeire. Sworn tailor to my—” He began to cough up blood, and his body shuddered, the sign of a death tremor. “I breathe when I sleep,” he said, then breathed no more.

Lance held his helmet at the ready in honor of the strange creature. I must bury this poor soul, he thought. He deserves not to be left as a body to be carrion for the beasts. He began to undo his saddlebags, to unearth the small spade he carried for occasions such as this.

But then, for an unnaturally hot day, a cold breeze suddenly flittered through the area, and the world seemed to turn gray. The nearby grassy fields moved and shifted in the breeze, but the most worrisome part of it was the trees that the creature had come from. They now seemed to shimmer with a radiance of eerie magic, flickering through the colors of the rainbow in maddening, wild ways.

That was enough for Lance. He quickly shoved the strange book in his saddlebag, tied it and slipped his helmet back on. “Thou shalt not be f’rgotten, Radourmeire,” the stallion swore. “And I shall keep the faith. Thou hast my vow.”

Moving as fast as his legs could carry him, Lance galloped away from the crossroads and down the road that would lead to the village. Once there, he would eat, but not stay, instead heading to the Western Keep. He would need to send word to his queen and to Lord Starswirl. Hopefully, the strange old wizard would send his wife to aid him – though he and Jade held no love for each other, Lance knew his wife was a formidable magic wielder and would be able to help him figure this out.

And as the world got colder, and his breath began to crystalize in the midsummer sun, he wondered if he would even survive to tell them.

I: Nothing So Very Remarkable

Nestled in the far western portion of the Unknown West, Radourmeire’s Rest was a small but proud town. The heart of Potok province, it was the last stop of the Western Express, the train that came from points east; it was also the first stop of the Seacoach, the stagecoach that took travelers farther west to the seaside towns like Megan’s Shoreline or Saltwater Reach. As such, the town was an important hub in the daily life of the Unknown West and while it didn’t have the aura (or size, for that matter) of such big towns as Canterlot, Manehattan or Ponyville, it was still critical to the region.

Light shone in the window and stabbed at the eyes of a young unicorn as she awoke. Beat yawned and stretched, ready for another day, such as it was. Clambering out of bed, she quickly made the bed up via a spell, vaguely remembering the dream she had the night before; chances were, it was a memory of her grandfather telling her a story about her ancestor, Blazing Lance, the Great Master of the Western Keep and one of Queen Faust’s most valiant knights. There had been so many stories about him over the years and so many that she’d read, that she was sure by the time she was six, her grandfather had probably exhausted telling her all the known ones and had likely made up more than a few out of whole cloth for her entertainment.

She walked over to the desk, looking at the picture of the old stallion, who had gone off to join his wife in the Great Pasture over a decade ago. Step Forward had been the sheriff in his time, and his wife Treasured Path had been the mayor, part of a family well-respected that had been here in this part of Equestria since even before it was technically part of Equestria. She missed them both, both her grandfather’s tall tales and her grandmother’s geranium sugar cookies.

“Miss you, Grandpop, Grandma,” she said fondly to them before taking her brush in magical grasp and heading to the mirror. Her cornflower-and-cerulean mane needed a quick run through with the comb before she tied it into her familiar docktail, then added her favorite scarf to the mix before finally slipping on her glasses. The third part she was annoyed about, because she’d already broken two other pairs this week and it was hard enough to get replacements as it was.

Finally, she headed out the door of her bedroom, and no sooner than she’d taken the first step out, a small white rabbit came bounding to her feet. “Oxford! There you are, you little pest!”

Oxford just looked up at her with his soulful dark eyes, and that look that basically said, I’m cute, you’ll forgive me.

She picked him up and hugged him, surely enough doing so. She’d had Oxford ever since she was a filly and he was certainly a rarity; very few domestic rabbits lived as long as he did or were even as remotely spry as he was. She’d heard stories about a similar rabbit out in Ponyville (or was it Sunhillow?) but chances were, the rabbit wasn’t as much of a nuisance or as creatively troublemaking as Oxford was.

“So, did you get into the—”

“Beat, honey, we need to talk about how Oxford got into the carrot bin again!” a voice railed as she came downstairs. It was her mother, Marketplace, who, along with Beat’s father Well Stocked, were the town grocers. “I thought you said you were going to keep him out of the grocery store!”

“Mom, I have no idea how this little pest keeps getting past the magical wards and stuff!” she insisted. “I keep laying them down and he just finds a way in!”

“Well, fortunately for him I’m expecting a new shipment of carrots from Ponyville tomorrow. Celestia knows Oxford’s eaten all our local supply!” Marketplace went over to the stove and grabbed a spatula with her wings, easily flipping a small stack of pancakes onto a plate. “Breakfast is ready, honey,” she said. “You might want to hurry up and eat, since your father’ll need you to help him open early. I can’t do it because I have a meeting with the town Ladies’ Club in an hour.”

“Sure thing, Mom,” Beat stated telekinetically grabbing the plate as she sat down at the kitchen table. As always, Oxford managed to climb up on the table and demand his due; fortunately, he wasn’t a fan of pancakes. So instead, Beat let her pet rabbit nibble away at one of her radish-and-beet sausages, which was okay, as she wasn’t a huge fan of those anyway.

“Isn’t your friend Rocketfuel supposed to be back from Canterlot sometime soon?” Marketplace asked.

“I think so. I’m pretty sure the coronation of Princess Sunset was a couple of weeks ago and Rocky was going to spend some extra time there doing research for the newspaper, so she should be back soon.” One of Beat’s two best friends, Rocketfuel was both the town mailmare as well as the publisher of the Radourmeire Register, the weekly town newspaper. As a result, she was also the unintended focal point of much of the town’s gossip about affairs in parts beyond, much to that thestral’s dismay.

“Good. She should have the mail as well. Looking forward to the results of the Academy Exam?”

There was a silent pause from Beat as she suddenly remembered that. “Uh, no, not really. Whatever happens, happens, right?”

“I’m sure everything will be fine, dear,” Marketplace assured her daughter. “You’re the best mage in town, honey!”

Except I’m not a mage, not really, Beat mused silently. Wolfing down the last of her pancakes and finishing up the remainder of her carrot juice before Oxford thought to try to drink any of it. Done, she gave Oxford a stern look and said, “You stay out of trouble, okay?”

The rabbit gave her a bored look, as if to say Don’t count on it.

Giving him a pat on the head, she then carried the dish to the sink and kissed her mother on the cheek, pausing only to say, “Okay, off to the store!” before rushing out the door, for another day of Adventures in Grocery™.

After leaving the house, she walked down the plain cobblestone streets, past the train station and stagecoach stop, waving to those up this early, getting ready for the busy day. Finally, she walked by the statue in the center of the town, an image of a giant bronze mouse on upright feet placed atop a large marble plinth. The plinth had a simple engraving that said REMEMBER and nothing else.

As she paused to look at it, she always wondered why and what it was here for. Supposedly it was the likeness of Radourmeire, the strange creature that her ancestor Blazing Lance had befriended, but the history books didn’t have anything about giant mice that walked around like Abyssinians. Heck, there was more information on the Megan and most ponies still weren’t sure that she existed, so how could a mysterious creature like this one be around?

It made her wonder, as always, what her ancestor was like. She knew practically everything recorded about him: that he had once been married to a mage named Jade Lily, who had betrayed the Crown and her master Starswirl the Bearded before vanishing into parts unknown; that he had married Latch Hook, who was said to be the most beautiful mare of her age, and they had foals who had continued Blazing Lance’s lineage of brave knighthood. Her family line was filled with them: Vambrace the Valorous, Bluestreak the Bold, Saffron the Strong, and so on and so forth. Even centuries later, her family still had connections to protecting the land and its ponies; her older brother Sturdy Steel was a member of the Guard stationed with the Friendship Guard in Ponyville.

“Oh, look, it’s the nerd!” a grating voice called out and Beat rolled her eyes. Once again, it was time to deal with the idiocy.

Beat looked up and faced the speaker, a bright white unicorn with a four-tone mane that was dyed and styled to look as though the wearer was imitating Princess Celestia. The mare’s lime green eyes practically radiated arrogance and contempt, and her cutie mark, a simple sun, flashed with virtual sunlight thanks to a cosmetic spell that had been placed on it. Next to her were two other ponies the same age, equally as vapid and cliquish. Beat had bothered to remember the name of the main goon; she’d never bothered to learn those of the hangers-on.

Her tone dripping with annoyance, Beat muttered, “Oh, it’s you, Aurora Star. What brings you here aside from being the usual pain that you are?”

“You should be lucky that I even bother to grace you with my presence, nerd!” Aurora crowed. “As for what I’m doing, I’m showing off around town, as is my right and duty as Radourmeire’s Rest’s fashionplate and model! Now get out of here, you’re ruining the shot!” As if to make it clear, one of the two goons, who Beat had mentally labeled Left Goon held a camera, while Right Goon seemed to do something with her forelegs as if trying to coax the sun to come out just a little more.

Beat sighed. “I think you’re forgetting something, Aurora. One, we’re not in school anymore – haven’t been for years – so your schoolyard insults are not only pointless but also show how immature you are. Two, the fact that you need to keep picking on me even after we graduated years ago shows that you have some deep-seated insecurities that you seriously need addressing. And do you remember what number three is?”

“As if I need to bother!”

Beat rolled her eyes again. “Yeah, I suppose it must be so hard learning to count beyond one – I really don’t know how you mastered it,” she drolled. “Anyway, number three is that if you’re wasting your time talking to me, then you really have nothing better to do with your life. Also, I should point out that your goon is an idiot. The sun is not going to come out any faster just because you want to get that perfect shot. Oh, and while you’re at it, you might want to tell your other goon that holding a camera upside down is only going to ruin the shot.”

Aurora took a few seconds to process the insult before she snarled. “Well, I never!”

“I really, really doubt that,” Beat commented as she left her would-be verbal assailant’s location. She had better things to do than to be held hostage to some idiot’s inflated opinions of herself.

But as she left, she heard Aurora call out, “And that’s why you’ll always be a useless nerd! At least your brother and sister made something of themselves – and so will I, when I leave this town! What will you ever do? After all, you’re just a useless dreamer, your head stuck in the clouds or in those stupid books of yours!”

Beat just shrugged it off; she wasn’t going to let her daily dose of Aurora Annoyance get to her. She’d been putting up with it for years, and it was clear that Aurora wasn’t ever going to learn.

As she approached the general store her parents owned, she noticed her father sweeping the front of the steps. “Hey there, sunshine!” Well Stocked called to her, adjusting his glasses. “How’s the town mage doing?”

“Pop, I’m not a mage,” Beat reminded him.

“Well, not officially, but I’m sure you’ll pass the test this year!” he said affably.

“Maybe,” she shrugged. “So, where do I start?”

“Actually, before you do anything, there’s a note in your office from Mr. Hospitality. He left it in the drop box last night. Something about another infestation.” The older earth stallion shuddered. “I have no idea how you do what you do, honey.”

Beat blew a strand of mane out of her eyes. “I try. Anyway, let me go take a look and see what it’s about.”

“Sure thing. Oh, also your friend Bram came by and wanted to know if you were still on for lunch today. I told her that wasn’t an issue.”

“I hope not; these things with Mr. Hospitality take forever to finish!” Beat told him as she went into the building and climbed the stairs towards her office.

The office itself wasn’t anything big; the building had been reconditioned and at one time, it had been a two-story house, so said office wasn’t much bigger than her bedroom. But it was the fact that her name was on the door, along with an unusual sign: TROUBLESHOOTER. That was the part that bothered her: without a Guild license, the highest thing she could ever accomplish was Troubleshooter, which was an unofficial designation. It meant she could deal with local problems in town and cast a certain range of spells, but anything beyond that range required an official Guild license and membership in the quasi-military governmental organization.

She set aside her concerns for the moment and looked for the note her father had mentioned; if Hospitality had come by to drop off a note, that meant that he had issues again, and that meant that she could deal with it for him. It was a messy job, but it paid well enough. Sure enough, she found the note and read it, seeing the standard pay contract.

She bounced downstairs. “Pop, I’m off to the hotel,” she told him. “If it takes long enough, I’ll head to Bram’s place for lunch, and then I’ll come back. Think you can handle things without me?”

Well laughed. “I’m not that old, honey. ‘Sides, if worst comes to, I can ask Paintpot next door if he’ll give me a helping hoof; he’s always glad to.”

“Okay, well, wish me luck!”

The Top Shelf, the only hotel in town, was by no means a five-star hotel (or four or three, for that matter) but it was as good as it got, and so was always busy, as it often was patronized by ponies that either missed the eastbound train or the westbound stagecoach. In any case, that meant that whenever there were problems at the Top Shelf, they needed to be taken care of immediately, whether said problem was a new coat of paint, some extra training for the lone bellhop who always seemed as though he was lazier than anything…

…or in this case, an infestation of burnbrite ants. Somehow, for the third time since the Winter, they’d managed to get past her wards and into the town proper again, and last time they did, they’d caused significant fire damage to both the bank and Farmer Wheatstalk’s Flour Mill and Public Notary. Needless to say, it was going to be a problem if the Top Shelf ended up being burnt to cinders.

So here she was, crawling amongst the dank, humid labyrinth of pipes that made up the bowels of the hotel’s boiler room, looking for the extradimensional pests. Generally, very little was known about burnbrite ants, other than despite the name, they weren’t really ants; that according to a news report from last year they’d slipped into the native dimension as a result of something tied to the freakish Winter that had been caused by Princess Celestia; and that because Radourmeire’s Rest had the misfortune of sitting on a leyline intersection, it was drawing the burnbrite ants like honey would real ones.

Normally, this would be a job for the local Guild office to deal with, but this being the Unknown West, the nearest Guild office was over in Los Pegasus, about four hundred miles to the southeast. Fortunately for the town, burnbrite ants had been declared a low-level problem, and so could be passed down to the Troubleshooter level, which meant that it was a steady paycheck for Beat…

…much to her chagrin.

After a few seconds, she crawled out from underneath a huge rusty pipe, her coat caked in dirt, oil and grime to the point that it was hard to tell what her coat color was. Her mane was caked in grease and Celestia-knew-what, and if she hadn’t taken the time to cast a clearsight spell on her glasses, they’d probably be just as much a mess as she was.

I swear I’m going to need a shower, then a bath and then a sterilization spell regime, and then I can start getting clean! she mentally groaned.

She heard skittering behind her and on instinct, fired a spell behind a nearby pipe. She then heard the telltale sound of her ice spell freezing something then after a few seconds reached behind the pipe, grabbing something and pulling it forward. It was an ant, frozen solid by an ice spell…if ants were typically the same size as a housecat, had twelve legs and were from another dimension.

“Ugh, just looking at this thing gives me the creeps,” she said to herself, shuddering. Either way, she needed to get rid of it. Setting the frozen creature on the ground, she then cast a magic circle around it. Subcircles within the larger design spun and magical motes danced around the barycenter, while glyphs glowed with an occulting effect. Finally, the circle disappeared, and with it the creature.

She wiped her brow. That should be the last of them, she thought, before she started to hear increasing knocking on the other side of the room.

Hearing that, she groaned to nopony in particular, “Of course I would miss one behind the main boiler.”

Immediately afterwards the boiler began to shudder and glow a deep red, which suddenly grew brighter. A second later the steel cannister cracked in two, great gouts of steam erupting from the hole as a flaming red creature, identical to the frozen one appeared, only this one was closer to her in size than a cat.

“Great,” she grunted. “Found the queen.”

Clawing its way out of the shattered boiler, the beast let out a roar that sounded very much akin to the shrieking metal that had been torn apart just a few seconds prior.

“I don’t suppose there’s going to be a peaceable way around this, is there?” she asked the burnbrite queen ant. In response, the beast spat out a blast of acidic spit at her. Beat dodged, but not entirely in time; her glasses were hit and she threw them off quickly. Within seconds, the bile projectile had reduced her glasses to nothing but melted glass and metal.

The unicorn fumed. “THOSE WERE MY THIRD PAIR THIS MONTH!” she snarled as she charged her horn up and let loose a counterattack.

Hospitality, an older unicorn stallion, his nose crinkling from the unearthly reek coming from the muck-and-ichor covered pony in front of him, reluctantly handed over a bag. “150 bits, as we agreed. Plus a little extra for your damaged glasses, so it’s ₿200 even.”

“Thanks, Mr. Hospitality,” Beat replied with a clearly faked smile. “I cast a double ward spell this time, so hopefully you shouldn’t have any more issues with burnbrite ants, but I strongly suggest you invest in a new boiler and heater system. Whatever magic you had on it clearly drew them there.”

“The salesponies that sold it to me – Flim and Flam were their names, if I recall correctly – said it was the newest advancement in comfort magic from Inari.”

“I think you got ripped off; those boilers are already rusting to pieces. The queen ant ripped through the main boiler like it was paper.”

That was not what Hospitality wanted to hear. “Great. Another useless expense. Well, we already agreed to this one, and I can’t take back the extra. So please, take your pay and leave my establishment,” he stated, his tone that of a stallion who didn’t want to cause a scene that could attract further attention.

Beat reached out to grab the bag, but a small droplet from the ichor that covered her fell to the ground and sizzled on the carpet. She gave him a sheepish glance and instead used a spell to teleport it out of his hooves and back towards her office.

“Go, please,” Hospitality said, clearly reaching the limit of whatever civility he had.

“Have a good one!” Beat said, clearly not meaning it as she left the hotel, as occasional spatters of the ichor fell to the ground, staining the carpet as it did. Likely, it was going to ruin it and possibly even burn through the material.

As she departed the hotel, she took a quick peek at the town’s central clock tower. 11:30. Took way longer than I wanted. Well, if I can make it home, I’ll take a quick shower, grab my spare glasses and head to—

Her words cut off as she walked headlong into a tree. “Owwwww,” she grumbled, rubbing her nose.

“You okay?” a passerby asked.

“I’m fine,” she grunted, clearly not. “I just need to get home before I feel any more terminal damage to my dignity.”

“Looks like it was a lucky thing Ah went t’ the bank, sugarcube.” Beat looked up from her malaise to see a friendly hoof – literally, a dusty pink hoof being held out to her by a pegasus with a flaming red mane and sympathetic deep green eyes. It was Beat’s best friend, Bramble Rose.

“Heya, Bram, you always know how to show up right when I need saving,” Beat said morosely.

Bramble looked at the grime-crusted pony up and down. “Rough job?”

“The worst. Sometimes I wonder if the pay’s worth it, but then I realize that it’s the only way I get to do what my cutie mark is telling me, so I’ll take it. As it is, I broke another pair of glasses thanks to those bugs.”

“Well, tell ya what: y’ can take a shower at mah place, and while that’s goin’ on, Ah’ll head t’ yers and get your spare glasses. That work?”

“Great! Let’s just get out of here before Aurora sees me. Already dealt with her idiocy this morning and don’t really want to deal with it again.”

Bramble laughed. “Oh, sugarcube, c’mon! That mare’s dumber than a diamond dog at a jewelry show! She’s th’ way she is ‘cause she knows she ain’t ever gettin’ outta this one-parasprite town, no matter how much she thinks she’s th’ next up-an’-coming fashion designer. Hell, she doesn’t even know who Rarity is!”

“Bram, the only reason I know who Rarity is, is because you’re addicted to fashion magazines,” Beat replied, feeling much better now that she had some backup.

“Yeah, but Ah’m not th’ one claimin’ to be the town prettymare, am Ah?”

“You have a point,” Beat conceded.

“Well, let’s get ya t’ mah place, get some shower therapy fer ya an’ we can talk a little more,” Bramble insisted.

“Thanks, Bram, really.”

“Hey, Ah always got yer back like y’ got mine.”

A half-hour later, a now-clean Beat sat across the kitchen table from Bramble, who was setting down a platter of her famous cheese-and-clover pizza.

Beat adjusted her glasses; they were ugly, utilitarian and something she hated wearing, but they would have to do until the pony that ran the Glasses & Trashcans store came back from his vacation. “So, you hear anything from Rocky?”

“Yeah, she left Canterlot yesterday and is flying back instead of taking the train, because she said she has something important.” Bramble thought about it for a second and said, “Now that Ah think about it, arentcha s’pposed to get the results from yer Academy exam?”

“Yeah,” Beat said glumly before biting into a slice of the pie.

“C’mon, don’t tell me yer worried, are ya? Y’ll pass, no sweat! Ya were th’ smartest filly in school!”

“Yeah, so smart that I’ve failed the Academy test every year since I’ve taken it and this is the last year I can before I’m permanently disqualified! And if I fail, what’s left for me, Bram? Stuck running my parents’ general store and serving as the town pest control, because we’re unlucky enough to be on a leyline that pulls things from other dimensions? I can’t even be a schoolteacher or the town librarian, because those jobs are already filled, so I’m stuck in perpetual nothing!”

“Ah think yer beatin’ yerself up over nothin’, sugarcube,” Bramble told her.

“I mean, as much as I think Aurora’s a bully that needs to grow up…she’s right,” Beat moaned. “My brother, Sturdy Steel? He’s an ensign with the Friendship Guard. His last letter says that he’s probably going to be picked to be a coronet soon. And my sister, Dancefloor? She’s making some serious waves in Manehattan and she even says that she’s planning to record some wubs – whatever that means – with a mare named Gracenote. And before you ask, no, I have no idea who that is either. Even my parents are doing what they were meant to do, which is run our family shop.”

“Trust me, sugarcube, Ah think this year’s the year. Ah have faith in ya.”

“That’s more faith than I have in me,” Beat sighed.

There was a knock at the door and before Bramble could get up to answer, a blur of dark gray and bright orange flowed into the room, quickly coalescing into a dark-coated thestral with a curly flame-orange mane and bright blue eyes currently covered by goggles. She quickly grabbed a slice. “Oh, Luna, that hits the spot! Bram, your pizza’s the best in town, you know that?”

Bramble laughed. “We don’t have a pizzeria here, so mah pizza’s the only one in town.” She gestured to an empty chair. “Take a load off an’ have ‘nother slice!”

“Thanks!” Rocketfuel chirped as she sat down, pausing only long enough to remove her saddlebags before she grabbed a second slice of pizza, nearly downing the thing in one bite. “Wow, I am hungry – flying all the way from Canterlot makes me hungrier than a bugbear! And believe me, with the news I’ve got to tell, there’s no way I’m going to miss your pizza, Bram!”

“Shucks, sugarcube, ‘t’aint nothin’.”

Beat did some quick calculations in her head. “Rocky, if you just flew here from Canterlot…wow, that’s gotta be a record or something! You really should try out for the military – I’d bet you’d be the fastest mare alive!”

Rocketfuel waved it off. “Naah, I may be fast but I’m not the military type. Besides, can’t be the best newsmare and mailmare in town if I’m in uniform, right? But anyway, wait until I tell you gals what went on in Canterlot – it’s going to completely floor you all!”

Several minutes went by as the batpony went over everything she’d seen and heard during her week in Canterlot and when she was done with the tale, both of her friends looked at her as though she’d lost her mind.

“Wait – are you trying to tell me that Princess Celestia isn’t the princess anymore?” Beat asked, trying to pick her jaw up off the floor.

“An’ Princess – Ah mean, Queen Luna – executed ol’ Queen Chrysalis?” Bramble added, equally floored.

Rocketfuel nodded. “Yup. I know that it seems – well, weird and all, but it’s true, all of it! It’s why I stayed a couple extra weeks instead of just a day – that much stuff went down and I had to record it all for the newspaper! Anyway, Princess Celestia abdicated in favor of her sister and Luna, instead of becoming princess regnal, took over as queen! And apparently around the same time they finally managed to capture Queen Chrysalis, who was the one behind all the unrest against the Crown over the past few weeks, well, Queen Luna – still going to be hard to get used to saying that! – did what she felt she had to do.”

“Good riddance to bad rubbish,” Beat said, with Bramble merely nodding; while their town had been mercifully changeling free, they had heard that some of the other towns had suffered changeling incursions, especially during the Winter.

“Wow, and to think that you went just to cover Princess Sunset’s coronation. How did that go, anyway?”

“Well, I told you about the whole fracas that occurred during it, but the weirdest part were the humans – apparently Princess Sunset doesn’t live in another country, she lives in another dimension where the dominant species are humans!”

Beat’s eyes suddenly lit up. “Wait – did you say humans? Like the Megan?”

“I guess? I really don’t know much about history or stuff, you know that. But anyway, I got some pictures of the humans with my camera, and they look like…well, I’m not sure how to really describe them, but anyway, regardless… real live humans! And I guess Princess Sunset trusts them, because they were there with her, so….” She shrugged. “But that’s trivial in comparison to the news I’m going to have to drop for the town!”

“Yeah, no kiddin’, sugarcube,” Bramble agreed. “Ah can just imagine when some o’ the folk ‘round these parts start readin’ it. You know Ol’ Apple Dumplin’s gonna freak like no t’morrow.”

“Yeah, and her daughter Apple Splash is just as bad,” Beat agreed. “Maybe you should talk about this with Sheriff Stonehoof and Mayor Burgomaster. I’m sure it’s important information.”

Rocketfuel patted her saddlebag. “I have some letters for them from the Crown offices that I need to deliver after I’m done here,” she explained. “Probably really important ones, too.” Then a grin came over her face. “Oh, and that’s not the only one I’ve got that’s important.” She reached in and grabbed a letter, pausing to look at the address before handing it to Beat.

“Looks like th’ moment of truth’s here,” Bramble said.

Beat held the letter in her hooves, not sure how to react. She was primed for disappointment after so long, but what if she succeeded? Would it be okay to just this once allow herself a chance to be happy?”

“C’mon, Beat! The suspense is killing me!” Rocketfuel told her.

The unicorn took a deep breath, as if to steady herself for the future, whatever it portended. Meanwhile, her two best friends continued to watch her, leaning forward in their seats in anticipation.

Finally, with her magic, Beat tore the envelope open, withdrawing the letter within and bringing it up to read.

“Dear Miss Beatrix,” she began. “We regret to inform you that….”

Evening came and she sat on the roof of her home, needing to be alone. She was still processing all the information that Rocket had told her about while attempting to cheer her up – although most of it would be in the newspaper by tomorrow morning – but the truth was, she was devastated, to put it mildly. Her life’s work, her hope of hopes, completely dashed.

She recalled the letter that she’d read. She had failed the practical exam by ten points. Ten measly points. It wasn’t fair, it just wasn’t – every year she’d taken the test, and every year she’d been failed for some technicality, whether it was being off on the written portion by fifteen points, or off on the practical portion. She’d appealed each year, but in vain; the threshold for appeals was five points or less and she wasn’t within that margin.

So now, here she was, playing her guitar, because it was the only thing she had left. Music ran in her family and though she wasn’t as good at it as her sister was – Dancefloor was the one with the musical cutie mark, after all. Even still, it brought her comfort, especially now. And currently, she played a particularly dark tune. The song had been in the family for years, and was likely composed by Blazing Lance himself, as he was reputedly a hobbyist musician himself. Dancefloor had heard the song herself and declared it “unfit for wubs” but did admit that it was an important song for the family.

So, tears streaming down her cheeks, Beat continued to play “Blazing’s Blues,” the title she gave it, as the song had never had a title originally. Her hoofs went across the strings, drawing F#, G, F#, G, A, C, D, A, in repetition. A simple, droning tune, but probably what she needed at the moment.

She heard the flutter of wings behind her, then felt the embrace of feathers. “Oh, honey, I am so, so sorry,” Marketplace told her daughter. “I know this was so important to you. I can’t imagine how you feel right now.”

“Thanks, Mom. Does Pop know?”

She nodded. “He wants to take the train to Canterlot tomorrow and put in your appeal himself. He even said he’ll argue with the Archmagus herself if need be and he’ll make Princess Twilight listen.”

“Uh, Princess Twilight hasn’t been the archmagus for a couple of years now. It’s a mare named Raspberry Beryl,” Beat explained. “Either way, it doesn’t matter anymore. I’m not within the margin of error, so I can’t appeal. And because this is my fifth failure, I can’t take the test anymore.”

“I’m sorry, sweetie. I wish I knew what to say that could make it better.”

“I wish I knew too, Mom.”

The thoughts still plagued her mind as she got ready for bed. As she passed by her mirror, she couldn’t help but look at her cutie mark, flush against her azure coat, and wonder how it all went so wrong. A simple gray circle symbolizing the moon, with three yellow and one pink star, clearly one of the magical-type ones. But apparently in the end, it meant mediocrity. She was smart, but again, just not smart enough to qualify for an academy. It basically was the story of her life: more advanced than her peers, but not enough to be considered gifted. The highest run-of-the-mill, as one pony described her as.

But run of the mill was, in the end, just that. And now that she looked at herself in the mirror, she had to truly wonder if her only purpose in life was just to be the perpetual butt of Aurora’s jokes.

As she crawled into bed, she wasn’t sure what the answer to that would be, either.

II: Tell You Where to Go

The world was aglow with unnatural colors, and underneath Beat’s hooves, an endless checkerboard of white and red stretched out as far as the eye could see. After a second, a glowing white hare rushed down a verdant field that seemed to cut its way through the checkerboard, carving a path for her until it led to the ruins of an ancient castle. The animal turned to look at her, and from the cast of its pink eyes, somehow the hare seemed vaguely like her pet rabbit Oxford, and yet at the same time, not him. Nonetheless, from the glance, the message that was sent was undeniable: follow.

Doing as bid, Beat took another step, but as she did, the ground gave way, the white and red tiles on the ground shattering as if they were made of spun glass. Down, down she fell into an endless inky darkness, with no company but that of the broken tiles and strange noises that she couldn’t even hope to identify. After some time, it felt that she hadn’t so much having fallen into a perpetual darkness as into an endless sea of black water, because around her the world felt less and less like air and more like the watery reaches of a pool or lake.

Eventually, a dim light began to shine from below and she swam towards it; the fact that she had yet to take a breath or even needed one not somehow occurring to her. But as the dim light grew ever so slightly brighter, she then saw something that would have removed whatever breath she had in a gasp of shock: below, in the dim gray watery illumination, she could see faces of ponies screaming for help. Pegasus, unicorn, earth pony, thestral and others, all tried desperately to seek her aid and yet a gulf existed between the herself and them – she tried swimming to them, and in turn they tried to stretch out to her, but to no avail on both sides; the expanse between them seemed to be precise and forever out of grasp.

But the horror did not abate. As she thrashed harder, doing her utmost to try to save even one of the lost souls below, she noticed that the number of the anguished grew in multitude: not only could she see the faces of strangers, but she could now see the faces of loved ones, such as her parents, her siblings, Bramble, Rocket and more. Eventually even non-ponies tried to reach out to her, and while she practically sprained her forelegs doing her utmost to save them, she could not.

She heard an ominous chuckle behind her and before she could react, she felt herself pulled away from the desperate crowd. A moment later, she faced a new being, appearing as nothing more than a massive, smoky pillar of green, thicker than the tallest tree and far more ominous, despite the friendly-appearing rainbow sparkles that twinkled in the green like newborn stars. At its apex, two sulfurous lights looked at her, eyes filled with madness and hatred. She heard the deep titters of the creature and with it, an unusual scent filled the air: dead, earthen and sickly sweet. Regardless, the message was clear: It had her in its grasp and it would make the innocents below suffer.

It is wrong from beginning to end. Beat swore she heard those words, but before she could do anything else, a light, brighter than the sun and yet as warm as candlelight, enveloped her.

When the light went away, she found herself at the start of a lengthy hallway as it coalesced into her view. The passageway was lined with endless shelves, upon which were countless books, ancient tomes that looked as though they had not been read or even opened in ages; even still they looked vital somehow, as if they had performed a task and now sat in a place of honor. Beautifully ensconced lights hung above, stained glass chandeliers that were emblazoned with the image of hares.

With nowhere else to go, she went down the passageway, giving the books no mind. Eventually she reached its end, after which the hallway opened into a great rotunda. At the far end, facing a gorgeously ornate window, was a pedestal, upon which lay a book, its cover ornate and filigreed with gold leaf; the tome was shut and revealed nothing about its contents. Yet even more striking was the fact that the book was protected by a pair of individuals that Beat could not believe stood there: an alicorn and a human, both wearing armor and bearing swords, stood in procession as if their sole purpose was to be protectors of the book.

At first, Beat thought the pair to be Faust and the Megan, for what other pair as such existed? Yet as she thought about it, the alicorn was clearly not the Queen of All, and though the description of the Megan was scant, from what she could remember, this individual had not the description, either. She then thought about the only other alicorn-human pairing that was known: the recently “retired” Princess Celestia and her daughter, the alicorn Sunset Shimmer, who often spent time in a human form. Yet as Beat recollected the two, it didn’t fit that, either.

The alicorn, with a queenly air about her, had a long, flowing mane of magenta, which contrasted with her apricot-colored coat and green eyes. Her armor was red and had a beautiful white surcoat with no adornment. Brandishing the sword briefly in her magical grasp, she held the sword out before her.

“Remember,” the alicorn said.

At the opposite end, the humanness raised her own sword in her hands. Her skin was fair, with soft brown eyes and a long brown mane that reminded Beat of fertile soil. She wore a brilliant white armor, and her surcoat was of red, also with no adornment. She held the sword briefly above her in her head as a sort of salute before bringing it to a rest, bladepoint down on the ground.

“Remember,” the humanness said.

Suddenly the book opened, and a beautiful aura of light poured forth, out of the strong came forth sweetness. The window behind the book shattered as if nothing, and in the distance was the castle from earlier, now restored to its original form, shining and bright, beautiful and keeping watch upon the hill.

Words, unclear and inexplicable, yet verbiage nonetheless, echoed and reverberated in her mind in one voice, then two voices then a multitude. And though she wasn’t sure how she knew, something within her told her it was the voice of Blazing Lance and her ancestors and ancestresses uttering something of vital importance to her.

The dream faded off, with F#, G, F#, G, A, C, D, A, flowing into nothingness.

Beat sat up with a start. The dream that had seemed so vivid, so real, began quickly vanishing into the corners of her mind. All she could recall was the face of Blazing Lance, his image the same as the picture she’d seen in her history books, whispering something to her, though she knew not what it was.

I guess I’ve thought about him a lot lately, she realized. She remembered from the history books that when his first wife, Magus Jade Lily had vanished, he had been briefly accused of both infidelity and even possibly murdering the unicorn mare. Had it not been for Starswirl speaking up on his behalf as well as Lady Frostburn thanking him for saving her daughter Latch Hook (who became Lance’s second wife and the mother of his line), history would have likely remembered him as a cad or worse. He had obviously been through some hard times and persevered despite them; though her struggles weren’t as life and death as his had been, certainly she could overcome those as well, couldn’t she?

As she headed out of the room, she noticed the first thing that was at her door was Oxford. He was sitting upright, carrying a carrot in his paws and without any ceremony, he placed it on his head and moved towards her hoof, as if offering her his most precious treasure.

“Oh, Oxford,” she said, completely touched by his gesture. “You don’t have to do that, but I appreciate it.” Picking him up in her magical grasp, she nuzzled him briefly as he returned the caress.

Placing him on her back, she said, “Let’s go see what’s for breakfast this morning, shall we?”

As she descended the stairs, she could hear both of her parents sitting at the table, chatting; the fact that her father hadn’t gone to open the store as usual was a sign that he certainly intended to follow through with his plans, futile or no. Beat mentally began to plan a rejoinder to let him know she was going to give up that dream and focus on the reality she had now, when she heard a third voice, once she was unfamiliar with. And as she entered the kitchen, she noticed they were speaking with a stallion she’d never seen before: a tan unicorn with a teal mane and expressive brown eyes. He looked strong, but at the same time also carried a saddlepack full of books and had a professorial attitude about him.

As she came into the kitchen, Marketplace smiled. “Oh, honey, you’re up! This is Mr….” She paused. “I’m so sorry, I quite forgot your name again! I don’t know where my mind is some days, for Celestia’s sake.”

The stallion drank from a coffee cup and smiled. “That’s quite alright. I’m Prof. Hitchhike and I’m from the Historical Department at Royal Canterlot University. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Beat.” He offered a hoof in friendship.

She bumped it and sat down at the table, just as her mother got up to get her breakfast. “A pleasure to meet you, Professor. What brings you to Radourmeire’s Rest?”

“Well, the official explanation would be long and boring, I assure you. The short story is that I’m here to study the petroglyphs over in Mareington Gulch. I was told that you were the best pony who could provide protection, especially since….” He winced. “Well, I’m sure you’ve heard about everything that went down in Canterlot.”

“We don’t get much news around these parts,” Well stated. “Would you care to fill us in?”

Several minutes went by as Hitchhike went over the events of the previous week. The look on the faces of Well Stocked and Marketplace went from interest to amazement to horror and finally shock, and even though she’d heard the ongoings the night before from her friend, even Beat had a hard time processing the news.

“I can’t believe it. Princess Celestia…gone? That monster, Chrysalis – dead? And humans are real?” Marketplace lost her footing from shock and was only caught by the quick reaction of Beat safely teleporting her mother into a chair.

Beat nodded. “Rocket got back from Canterlot yesterday and she told me the same thing,” she added.

“It’s all true, unfortunately: Princess Celestia was forced to abdicate in order to protect her nephew Prince Divine Right from a group of nobles who were wielding the law against her. Fortunately, they hadn’t counted on the Princess activating an old law from the Ancien Régime and as a result, Luna not only became the ruler, she declared herself as queen for extra protection. From what I understand, the nobility is in an absolute tizzy right now, with the loyalists actively trying to discover if they have any other potential rebellious types amongst them and everyone is tripping hoof over teakettle to stay on Queen Luna’s good side.”

Somewhat recovered now, Marketplace got back up to her hooves to check on breakfast before it burnt. “Oh, my, that is incredibly frightening. I hope all is okay within Canterlot!”

“I wish I could say that it was,” Hitchhike told them, “but most of it the Crown is keeping a lid on for obvious reasons. Not just that, but also the fact that by coincidence, the Navy managed to do the impossible and finally captured Queen Chrysalis and Queen Luna executed her for her crimes against ponies.” Hitch then paused as he added, “But even that’s more than what it seems, I’m afraid.”

“How could anything be difficult about dealing with that monster?” Well asked, a rare bout of anger flashing on his face. Beat remembered that while they hadn’t been directly impacted by changeling incursions, many of her father’s clients had been on the bad side of changelings, one of which had even been killed by them in a place called Nightshade, where they got their almond orders from.

“Well, apparently it was discovered by the Guild that while the changeling queen had been responsible for innumerable crimes against ponies, it may very well be that the reason why Chrysalis became what she was to ponies was the fault of ponydom.” Seeing the disbelieving looks on their faces, Hitchhike then went on to detail the discovery of The Rose with the Broken Neck, and how King Sombra had detailed what he had done to a human long ago, turning her into a vicious non-human hellbent on destroying ponykind for what it did to her.

“I have an advance copy of the book for peer review in my bag here,” Hitchhike commented, “though I have to admit, it’s disturbing information and going to be very shocking when it’s finally made available for public consumption. Definitely not something I’d let the foals read, you know.”

“And what about the humans?” Well asked Hitchhike. “Are we in danger from them, especially if we did something to one of their kind?”

“I’m afraid I don’t have that kind of information, but given the publicity tour that Princess Sunset did regarding her endorsement of humans, I gather that the humans are likely forgiving of the whole incident. From those I know who spent more time with them, I was told that the myths about them are really just that – myths, and that they’re closer to us than we think. Or at least like the old pony tales of the Megan.”

“I guess,” Beat shrugged as she sat at the table and her mother put some haycakes in front of her. “So, what brings you to come see us, Professor?”

“Please, just call me Hitch,” he replied with a smile. “And actually, I’m specifically here to see you, Miss Beat.”

“Me?”

He nodded. “With everything that’s going on in Canterlot right now, the helping hooves that I’d originally hired for this mission have been counterhired by the Crown as militia until they can figure everything out with the military situation – apparently the conspiracy was very deep and even affected some parts of the military. And since I’ve been told repeatedly it’s not safe to head to Mareington Gulch alone, it was suggested that I hire somepony local, as they likely know the place better than anypony else. I arrived last night and had a chance to speak to Sheriff Stonehoof, and she immediately recommended you. Said you’re the local troubleshooter, since your town doesn’t have a Guild office, and while I don’t have any idea of what the lay of the land is out there, the recommendation was enough to have me come and see if you were available.”

“I wasn’t aware that there was anything out there worth looking at in Mareington Gulch. There’s the remains of the old Western Keep, but it was destroyed during the Moonfall War and really isn’t anything more than a collection of rocks that used to be castle-shaped at one time,” Beat noted.

“Well, it would take too long to explain the full particulars, but the Royal Canterlot Museum believes that the old ruins may have an old altar of the Church of the Unicorns that might provide some extra information regarding the claims that Chrysalis stated. Granted, while Sombra himself gave explicit detail – perhaps too much, to be fair – it never hurts to obtain additional information when it comes to his point of view. Who knows? We might even uncover some new information regarding the Megan herself.”

Well looked at the professor. “We’re, ah, descended from the lord that used to run that castle, and from our family history, I don’t think there was any information about King Sombra or the Megan or even Queen Faust, though I could be wrong. If you’d like, we’d be happy to let you look at our family records afterwards.”

Hitch nodded. “That would be most appreciated, Mr. Stocked. In any case, normally there would be better planning and a full expedition to take care of this, but given the urgency of the situation, the museum contacted our university for assistance, and since I have a passing fancy in old ponytales and legends, I volunteered.” He then looked at Beat. “So, interested?”

“We should be able to take care of things while you’re gone, sweetie,” Well assured his daughter, “and besides, you’re always saying that you need more adventure in your life, so why not go? Who knows? You might even find a room full of treasure!”

“Or maybe even a new haycake recipe from centuries ago!” Marketplace added.

Beat rolled her eyes. A foalsitting job, essentially; there was nothing really out there except a collection of old rocks and such. She’d been there before and hadn’t really seen anything of interest. However, if she was going to give up on her dreams of being a Guild mage, this was likely going to be the best chance she had for something in her preferred line of work. Moreover, given that there was nothing out there, it was an easy way to make cash.

“I think I can do that. How long would it take? It takes about a day to get there and a day to get back.”

“Taking that into account, maybe a day or so of looking on-site. If we don’t find it by the end of the day, we can leave without problems. If we do find it, we might be tied up for an extra day or two. Will that be a problem?”

Beat looked at her parents, who nodded their approval. “Worst comes to, I can send a message back to my parents – I learned the flamefax spell just in case – and I think they should be able to manage for a couple of days without me.”

“Plus, Paintpot can give me a hoof,” Well reminded her.

“Lastly, my pay is ₿500 per day, plus expenses. Will that be an issue?”

“Well, given that the original ponies I hired were going to be ₿1500 a day each as well as expenses, I think I can easily match that. In fact, since you’ve been so helpful, I insist you accept ₿1000 per day. I won’t accept anything less.”

Beat tried to hide the shock from her face; if all went well, she could easily clear ₿5000 for an easy job and that would be enough for her to make more than a few changes around the place. Plus, chances were, she wasn’t going to see that kind of money anytime soon otherwise.

“Okay,” she said, offering her hoof to bump in agreement, “you got yourself a bodyguard, Hitch.”

It was a breezy spring afternoon as the two made their way through the box canyon known as Mareington Gulch; though it wasn’t hot by any means, the gust was a welcome cooling effect for both as they had worked long and hard to make it as far as they did. They had made good time and now, a third of the way through the canyon and into its first major bend, the two sat down for a hearty lunch of cheese-and-bluegrass sandwiches.

“So tell me about Radourmeire’s Rest,” Hitch asked. “I’ve heard some of the old legends about it, like how it’s named after a strange creature that one of Queen Faust’s knights came across.”

“Did you see the statue in the center of the town? Supposedly that’s Radourmeire, and our family legend has it that Blazing Lance came across him and tried to save him but wasn’t able to. In return, when he made it back to the village, as the local lord, he buried the creature in a place of honor in the village cemetery and named it ‘Radourmeire’s Rest’, after the creature. The modern-day town sprung up to the west of the cemetery, while the old village eventually was destroyed during the Moonfall War. There’s also a couple other historical markers in the area that commemorate it: at the old crossroads to the east of both towns, there’s a plaque detailing where Lance found him, and at the site of the old village, there’s another plaque commemorating it as ‘Radourmeire’s Refuge’, which is what the town renamed itself until it was destroyed.”

“That’s a shame,” Hitch told her. “I wonder where the creature came from? Like you said, there’s no record anywhere of upright mice.”

“He might have come from another dimension; that tends to be a problem here.” Beat then went on to discuss the major issue of Radourmeire’s Rest and its location atop a leyline intersection and all the problems it brought, from blatterbeasts to burnbrite ants and even a singing parade of donuts that marched down the main road of Radourmeire’s Rest before vanishing from wherever it came.

“Okay….” Hitch said. “If I didn’t know any better, it sounds like your town is trying to outdo Ponyville for Equestria’s weirdest city.”

“Well, we’re nowhere near as big as Ponyville, but yeah, I guess you could say that,” she laughed.

“Still, though, I’m rather surprised that the Guild hasn’t taken note of that. I have a friend in the Guild, and if I remember correctly, back when she was archmagus, Princess Twilight ordered any town within a hundred miles of a leyline intersection should have a Guild branch office, if not a full office outright. I have to wonder if this is tied to the recently exposed corruption within all branches of the government, somehow.”

“No idea. Obviously Princess Twilight is loyal to the crown, but I really don’t know anything about the current archmagus, other than that Raspberry Beryl is a descendant of Sombra.”

“Oh, don’t let that worry you; I met her once before when she came to the University for a consultation on magic research that the historical department was doing,” Hitch told her. “We talked briefly and from what I gather, she’s not only very much unlike her ancestor, but Princess Twilight trusts her enough to have made her the Friendship Court Mage, as well as her successor for Guild archmagus.”

“I see,” Beat said, though she didn’t say anything further. This stallion knew nothing about her issues with the Guild and how it had become the bane of her life, and now that she was putting that out of her mind, she was bound and determined to keep it that way.

The day went on and the pair managed to make it as far as the halfway point through the canyon; apparently there had been a couple of landslides that blocked easier paths and as such made travel that much more difficult. At one point, they had to climb over a previously safe portion of the canyon which now was home to stone scorpions; while they were mostly harmless, occasionally they accidentally stung ponies and caused them to be petrified for about a week until the magical venom wore off. As neither of the two wanted to deal with that kind of headache, they swung well to the east to avoid the nest, which added an extra couple of hours to the journey and as a result, by the time they’d reached the watery oasis at the center of the canyon, the sun had dipped over the horizon and the stars had begun to come out.

Finally, as the two set up camp, Hitch insisted on making dinner for the two; in fairness, Beat went about and did everything else, allowing her range of spells to be able to set up the tents, a couple of safety wards and the campfire, so that by the time Hitch had begun working on the mushroom and fennelgrass stew he was making, he was incredibly impressed by the effort he had seen.

“Okay, I’ll admit it: I’ve been on some expeditions before and I’ve never seen anypony who is as organized with spellcraft or even camping as you are, Beat,” he told her. “I have a hard time believing you’re just a troubleshooter. Have you considered applying to the Guild Academy or another magic school?”

Beat debated telling him, but she couldn’t really think of any other way to explain her situation without being rude, so she admitted her issues with them and her repeated attempts, and how she’d always been labelled “good but not good enough” to make even any of the lesser magical schools, much less the Guild Academy. The fact that she’d run herself through the wringer so many times, only for it to amount to nothing in the end.

“In fact, I got my final rejection letter last night,” she said, her voice holding a touch of melancholy. “I had just about given up my dream this morning and have to accept that I’m not going to be anything more than a troubleshooter. Maybe I’m just grasping for too much, I dunno.”

“It’s better to shoot for the stars and land on Cloudsdale than to stay on the ground and forever wish otherwise,” Hitch told her.

“Maybe. I’ll just have to learn to make the best of it, I guess. We can’t all be Starswirl the Bearded, you know.”

“Well, if it’s any consolation, I think that y—” He immediately stared into the distance. “What in Celestia’s name is that?” he asked, pointing and nearly dropping his stew.

In the distance, a bunch of boulders suddenly stood up on spindly legs. Eyestalks popped out of the top and a second later, so did arms bearing giant pincers. They scuttled in the direction of the campsite, but then immediately moved away from it and towards the opposite direction.

“Oh, don’t worry about those,” Beat told him. “Those are rock crabs. They’re generally harmless, and they help keep the stone scorpions in check. Once in a while, you get an oversized alpha crab that wants to pick a fight with anything that moves, but if you know what you’re doing you can hit its weak spot for massive damage.”

“All this knowledge and experience? With all your talent, I’m beginning to think that not only is the Guild making a mistake not wanting you, but that the Army and the Guard – heck, maybe even the Agency – would love to have you amongst their ranks. You’re clearly an asset and from what I get from my friends working in government, Queen Luna is always looking for talented ponies, now more than ever. She could use somepony like you.”

“Thanks, Hitch,” she insisted. “I appreciate that, but I don’t think it’ll ever happen. Like I said, the Guild’s final letter of rejection is just that, and I don’t think I’m cut out for the Army. Never thought about the Agency, but maybe I should think about the Guard. My older brother, Sturdy Steel, is an ensign with the Friendship Guard.”

“That’s interesting. You should have him put in a good word for you.”

“That sounds a little too much like nepotism, and I don’t want to abuse whatever advantages he has working for Princess Twilight’s guard. Besides, if I’m going to get anywhere in life, I need to do it on my own four hooves, just like my ancestors did. If Blazing Lance overcame his issues, so can I.”

“Well, I hope you don’t mind if I make an inquiry or two. From the time we’ve spent together, I think you deserve much better. When I get back, I’ll talk to my fillyfriend about it. She’s got a connection to both the Guild and Princess Twilight’s office, so she might be able to pull some strings for you.”

“Thanks, Hitch. I do appreciate that.”

The two chatted on more about several things and as the hours wound into night, Beat decided to while away the remaining hours and broke out her guitar, opting to play “Blazing’s Blues”. It was then that she caught Hitch’s attention again, but in an entirely different way.

“That song you’re playing,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard it before. It doesn’t sound like a pony musical progression.”

“I…uh…never thought about it. I just know that the song has been passed down in my family for generations. Heck, even my sister, Dancefloor, who is a professional musician, never commented on that; she just said that it wasn’t something that she could make a hit song out of.”

“Well, given what we’re researching, I have to wonder whether it might not be a pony song, but a human song. The text of The Rose with the Broken Neck implies that Chrysalis was originally a noble woman – that’s the female of their species, from what I’m told – and nobles of the time tended to spend their free time making music and other such pursuits. It might very well be that you hold the key to solving an ancient puzzle!”

After agreeing to write down the notation that she knew of the song, the two talked for a bit more and planned the next day out before deciding it was time to call it a night. “I’ll take the first watch,” Beat offered. “While the ward should keep us safe, it never hurts for one of us to be awake in case there’s an emergency, like some wayward pegasus from Megan’s Shoreline flying where she shouldn’t be.”

“Fair enough. Wake me up at midnight and I’ll take the rest.”

“Sure thing,” she chuckled as he retired to his tent. As he did, she watched the moon cross the sky and thought about his words and how they unintentionally made her feel like she could fly to Cloudsdale and at the same time, feel like she was in the bowels of Tartarus. If he was right, she had skills the average pony didn’t have, the kind that was usually found in either the military or even Church knights? The words felt almost as if something was forcing her to remain behind, alone and forgotten, in the Unknown West, where she lived up to its name. She thought about the news that the government had been corrupted, but she just as quickly dismissed it; if there was a conspiracy to keep her out of where she could help, they would have likely done the same with Sturdy Steel.

No, far easier and more realistic to believe that she just wasn’t good enough, because that was probably the truth.

Either way, she had to make sure that her spells were ready for tomorrow. While she didn’t expect to run into otherworldly monsters or extradimensional problems, out here she didn’t want to get caught off-guard by something a bit more mundane, like a bugbear or a cactoyote.

Still…she couldn’t help but think about what Hitch had told her. And she had gotten the short end of the stick for so long, it seemed like destiny was forever meant to deny Beat her due. Her parents had named her after the ancient Equestrian words for traveler, but what travel was to be done if she couldn’t actually journey?

The moon gave no answers. Maybe if she was lucky, Queen Luna would visit her in her dreams and give an answer instead, but maybe she was too busy to do so already.

It would be par for the course.

On a rocky cliff above, a pair of eyes watched the events below with great interest.

Things were happening and soon all would give way to great clarity. Things would be seen in psychedelic reality, dripping in technicolor for the world to see.

It had been denied enough, and there was no longer anything to stop it.

A tendril of loam-scented smoke drifted into the air, turning into a butterfly with fangs. The being watched as the mad creature attacked a nearby unsuspecting lizard, shredding it to a bloody pulp before turning back into smoke and nothingness.

It had heard once about a creature named Discord, and how it too had seen reality with great clarity and understanding.

The being chuckled. If this world feared Discord’s clarity…how would it react to its own?

Soon.

III: When Logic and Proportion Have Fallen Sloppy Dead

Skyward Strike looked at the still-smoldering ruins of the Western Keep. The castle had done its duty and served as a hidden retreat for many of the Solar Forces in their struggle against Nightmare Moon and her Lunar armies. And though the battle had taken place with enough power and magical force to tear a massive castle down to its very foundations, it had held out long enough and she had done her duty to her liege, even if it had cost the pegasus lord her very home.

“I am sorry for what you have lost,” Princess Celestia told her knight. “This home has been yours for generations and I even recall it fondly from when I was a filly. My mother had brought me here once to enjoy the view while she visited one of her most trusted knights. I will have this rebuilt, Skyward. I promise.”

“No, my lady,” the pegasus told her. “The land suffers so under Nightmare Moon’s dark whims and malice and so long as she rules free, our ponies cannot have a moment’s rest. Besides, your own castle, Everfree, not only suffered as badly as mine has, but her dark magic is tainting the very forest around it as well. That cannot be a good portent, my Princess.”

“You have the right of it,” the alicorn sighed. “Still, to lose the great Western Keep….”

“It will be a worthy loss once we win this war,” Skyward told her liegelady. “Plus, I have a summer manor in Radourmeire’s Rest. I can make that my main home, and it will suffice. A greater reward for me would be to ensure that you remain on the throne of Equestria, my princess. Our ponies – and dare I say it, the world – needs you there. The Western Keep has fallen, but the reason behind it never will.”

Celestia gave a soft smile. “You do me an honor I don’t deserve, Dame Skyward.”

“If you do not deserve the honor of being the daystar we set Equestria’s hopes by, none of us deserve honor,” the knight replied.

Beat’s eyes opened in the tent. She wasn’t sure why she recalled the passage from The Skyward Sword, a fictionalized retelling of the Battle of the Western Keep and its aftermath, but it almost felt as though she’d lived it in her dream, word for word. If her ancestress, Skyward Strike had been half the mare that she’d been depicted in the book, Beat felt honored that she was of that bloodline.

Hitch poked his head into her tent. “Hey, morning! You hungry? I made breakfast burritos!”

Beat climbed out of her sleeping bag. “You made breakfast burritos? Here?”

He mock-pouted. “I’ll have you know that my girlfriend loves my breakfast burritos!” he insisted.

“Well, then, can’t say no to that! Let me run a comb through my mane and I’ll join you shortly!”

“Okay, I have to admit I haven’t been this way in a while,” Beat admitted, “but I don’t remember this being here.”

As they reached the far side of Mareington Gulch, a wild, psychotic landscape greeted them: several groups of giant mushrooms, each with unnatural colors and their undersides glowing with powerful magics, had sprouted up, each nearly as big as a house. Flowers of various types never seen before in Equestria and in a riot of colors, stood tall and majestic as if they were fanciful replacements for trees. It had been as if someone had challenged Discord to come up with something to make the Everfree look positively normal and then after he was done, bombarded the whole place with poison joke concentrate just to make sure.

To their chagrin, even the blades of grass were larger than normal; while it was, thankfully, the normal everyday turf that was encountered in Equestria, it had grown to barrel-height and made it harder for them to get through, to the point that Beat had to take lead and summoned a machete to cut their way through.

“You seem to be pretty capable with that thing,” Hitch noted.

She laughed. “Not anywhere near as good as my brother. He and I used to spar a lot, because the neighborhood colts weren’t interested in joining the Guard or such. So, me and Stonehoof were the only ones who practiced with him and as you can guess, being a sheriff doesn’t call for much need for a sword,” she commented. “As it is, this is a machete. It’s not anything like the sabers and swords the Guard carries. It does its job against plants and such, and that’s about it.”

“Have you ever had to use one against pests in your, um, job?” Hitch asked.

She shook her head. “I don’t know if I’d be comfortable enough to. I’m not saying I haven’t dealt with creatures before; parasprites are incredibly hard to put down. But I haven’t had to rely on anything other than my magic an—”

The two noticed a gray lizard crawling up the side of one of the glowing mushrooms and then take a bite. It seemed to blow up for a second like a balloon before popping with a scream that made both shake.

“I, er, don’t recommend that we cut the mushrooms,” the professor noted.

“I would agree with you,” Beat nodded in agreement. “Wait…what’s that noise?”

A deep rumble sounded from behind them and something sleek and massive began to roll at them at a high-speed. The pair dodged out of the way, seeing what appeared to be a giant grayish-black wheel, which crashed against one of the massive fungi, stopped and began to flatten itself, until it looked at them with beady eyes.

“Is that a…?” Hitch asked.

“Yes, that’s a giant roly-poly bug,” Beat told him as the thing just continued to watch their movements.

“Don’t they just eat decaying plant matter?”

“No, they eat decaying matter, period. And I don’t intend to find out if it eats anything alive, either!”

As if on cue, the oversized armored beast began to run towards them, its dozens of short legs giving it a speedy gait for its size before it conglobated into a ball once more, threatening to squash them.

“Quick, this way!” Beat shouted, as the pair dodged the titanic bug once more. “If we head due east, we should hit the mouth of the gulch. Either way, it’s probably safer than sticking around here!” she barked as she started galloping in the intended direction.

“What gave you that idea?” Hitch snarked as he rushed to keep up with her and in fact had passed her.

“Look, I just don’t want to know if we’re going to be in hot water!” The steady rumbling of the land crustacean rushing towards them filled her ears and she was once again in a situation where she knew she was going to have to deal with the abnormal.

But that’s my job, and I have to protect Hitch! she thought. With that, she turned and fired a spell from her horn, cutting the ground behind them. While it wouldn’t stop the pillbug, it would slow it down enough that it would have to temporarily unroll itself to cross.

“Did whatever you do work?” came Hitch’s question.

“Not a clue, but just keep running!” she told him.

Seconds seemed to stretch into minutes as the pair rushed through the ad-hoc forest of mushroom stems and floral stalks, desperate to get away from their pursuer and hoping not to run into anything else that could end their journey before they even got to their destination. As for the giant insect, it seemed to take a hint and ran at them in its normal form, the steady drumbeat of its multiple feet providing a haunting melody in the ears of both ponies as it slowly began to get louder.

“It’s gaining!” Hitch told her. “Can you do anything else!”

There was a screech behind them and Beat turned to look. The pillbug had been attacked by a starspider, turned impossibly huge somehow, and intent on feeding.

The two ponies skidded to a halt, crashing against a boulder that, given the scale of this bizarre landscape, may as well have been a pebble. “I take it you didn’t do that?”

“Not at all,” was Beat’s answer as she began to rush off once more. “I suggest we don’t stick around and find out what else is going to need a new exhibit in the Royal Canterlot Zoo!” Hitch said nothing and instead caught up to her, both practically hurtling themselves in the direction of safety while there was still a chance.

The two finally came to a halt as the sun reached its zenith in the sky. They climbed over a series of boulders that had fallen, cutting off the bizarre garden from the rest of the gulch and into what had been normally a dry, dusty crossroads, but instead had become a lush, verdant, grassy area. To their absolute relief, on the farthest hill, surrounded by a sea of green and thankfully not any titanic flora, were the remains of the Western Keep.

“That’s a sight for sore eyes,” Hitch said, audibly grateful that the first part of the trip was coming to a close.

“Something weird is going on here,” Beat told him. “The Mareington Gulch has been dry as a bone ever since I was a filly, and even my pop said that when he was a foal it wasn’t any different. For all of this to sprout in a year….” She thought. “I don’t know if it’s safe to continue, Hitch. I mean, I’ll still protect you as that was the agreement, but now we’re getting into a situation where it might not be entirely safe – and it’s definitely not safe to go back the way we came. As it is, when we’re done, I’ll probably have to send a flamefax and let them know that we’ll need somepony to arrange for a hot air balloon or airship pickup for us, and that might add a couple of extra days to the trip.”

“Sometimes that’s just how the research rock rolls down the hill,” he said sardonically. “Remind me to tell you sometime about the trip I made in the south, well beyond the range of Equestria’s borders. We had a report of a temple dedicated to the Megan in the hedgehog lands and so me and a friend went exploring. We didn’t exactly find anything, but it was a journey dealing with a bunch of savage creatures and a whole bunch of other things I’d rather not discuss. Thankfully my friend was a retired Navy combat pegasus, so she was able to put the hurt on them with her combat magic, but even still….” He chuckled. “I guess a man’s reach is meant to exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for?”

Beat looked at him oddly. “Uh…what’s a man? And what’s heaven?”

He thought about it for a second. “Has to do with humans, I guess,” he explained. “I briefly spoke to one of them during one of the coronation balls I had to attend – it’s tough having to go dance and be wined and dined on university expenses,” he laughed.

“I thought you said that you didn’t meet any of them earlier?”

He gave an apologetic glance. “Apologies, but your mother didn’t seem to take the news well, so I thought it would be best if I left that out. In any case, I got to meet one: she had a long pink curly mane and blue eyes, kinda reminded me of Lady Pinkie Pie, the Knight of Laughter, to be honest. Funny and charming, but she also reminded me a lot of the Megan, if you can believe that. Anyway, she told me that phrase and said it basically means that humans – and I assume ponies, too – always try to reach beyond what they can do.” He grinned. “To be honest, I see that in you, too.”

She gave him a smile as she fished out some sandwiches, as it was lunch time. “I’d disagree, but thanks for the compliment all the same.”

After a quick lunch, the pair headed up the hill towards the Western Keep. Despite Beat’s earlier jokes about it being “a collection of rocks that used to be castle-shaped), the truth was that most of the castle still stood; though it looked as though it was a shadow of its old self, there was still enough of its majesty that reminded both ponies that history had been recorded here, that generations of ponies had stood the protective watch on its parapets and that it had fallen in service of protecting Equestria from such monsters as Nightmare Moon and the Calamity.

“This is….” Hitch’s words trailed off. “I really don’t know what to say.”

Despite everything she was going through now, Beat couldn’t help but feel a swelling of pride in her chest as they entered the ruins of her ancestral home. “Dozens of my ancestors stood the watch here, both for Queen Faust and for Princess Celestia,” she said, softly and solemnly as they entered the shattered foyer. On the ground, there was a mosaic in the shape of Blazing Lance’s cutie mark: a burning lance behind a round shield decorated with a pony’s head, while the script underneath it read EVER WATCHFUL.

“I suggest we split up,” Hitch told her. “We’ll cover more ground that way.” He reached into his saddlebag and pulled out a paper. “This is basically what I’m looking for. If you find anything, take the time to record it and then come find me. As old and weathered as this place is, I don’t want a wall with important information to fall and break because we were being careless, you know.”

She nodded. “I’ll do my best to get everything.”

“Thanks, I appreciate that.”

With that, she walked through the halls of the western wing of the castle, looking at the ancient rooms filled with moldering books and ruined furniture from a bygone time. In one case, she saw an ancient sword, bent from having been crushed by part of the ceiling falling on it and left behind, a reminder of what the structure’s main intent was. The dusty and grimy marble flooring beneath her was cracked with plenty of tufts of grass growing in between the cracks and at one point, she had to cast an illumination spell in order to keep going, as there was no light at all.

But even as she moved through the ancient bones of the old castle, she could still feel the power of magic, strong and cloying, everpresent and potent, surround her. A grand mystic strength still remained in this place after all these years, more than she, or maybe anyone else, ever expected. It wasn’t unheard of; the Battle of Everfree had so soaked the very ground with various magics that the place was forever marked, wild and uncontrolled; the Crystal Empire vanished for a thousand years due to the complex magics that had been placed into the grounds in the frozen north. Maybe this wasn’t anywhere near as powerful as the other two, but it was clearly strong enough to remain after all this time.

Wondering if this was a clue to what Hitch had been looking for, she turned a corner and walked southwards, down a long hall whose walls were adorned with shelves and filled with books. Something about the passageway made every hair of her coat stand on end, but she wasn’t sure why. Had she been here when she was younger and didn’t recall? Was there something in the spell that was calling to her, a distant daughter of Blazing Lance’s line? She wasn’t sure and she didn’t have an answer. She just continued on, knowing somehow that the answer would be waiting for her at the end.

Finally, she reached a room with closed doors. As she attempted to open them, the rotted condition of one of them finally gave way to the weather and so both collapsed, revealing an oval-shaped room. Filled with a checkerboard marble floor of ivory and ruby, the room was surprisingly clean even though the great window that let sunlight into the room was all but ruined. Within the room, lining the walls at locations were small statues of the masters of the Western Keep, ancestors all, with each statue detailing the strong countenances of earth pony, pegasus or unicorn, mare or stallion, in their armor and ready to do their duty for their respective leigelady.

Something in the room reminded her of the dream she had from the other night and she felt a powerful emotion pierce her heart: shame. These were her ancestors, great heroes of Equestria, and what was she in comparison to them? Nothing, an ember where a spark should have existed. If fate had been kinder to her, she could have been a Guild mage, and while not at their level of fame and legend, she could have felt worthy of being part of their bloodline.

“I’m sorry,” she told the statues of her ancestors; she felt she had to. “I’m not as good as you were, though I tried. I wanted to be, I really did.” The shame grew greater in her heart and before she realized it, she’d run out of the room, feeling the accusing stares of the statues on her back, pointing that she was the end result of the fall of the bloodline and that the halcyon days were well and truly over and done.

She finally came to a pause at another room, her heart hammering in her barrel as she gasped for breath. She needed to get a grip, she realized. Though she would never be worthy of the same level of note as her ancestors, it didn’t mean that others didn’t rely on her. Now that she had to give up her dream of being a Guild mage, others would need her, more than ever, especially the pony that she had come here with, the one that had paid her for assistance and protection. And now that the job was far more complex than she’d originally thought it to be, she had to see it through to the end.

With that set in her mind, she decided to go look in some of the other rooms in this part of the castle. In fact, she was so focused on that, that she barely noticed the metallic sound of something as her left foreleg accidentally kicked it while taking a step forward.

What was that? She looked down and noticed the very modern opened can of beans that lay at her feet. Finding that incredibly odd, she looked around the room and found more examples of modernity within the ancient room: blankets, a magic lantern for light, a portable cooking plate and various other things. Lastly, however, was a small diary, the kind that was sold at her parents’ general store. In fact, it wasn’t beyond reason that a lot of this had come from either their general store or Mr. Paintpot’s hardware store next door.

But why would anypony want to come here of all places? she wondered. Was there somepony here to study the bizarre garden that had popped up in the eastern portion of the gulch? And if so, why didn’t Hitch know about it? He would have said something if he had, she figured. Curiosity got the better of her and she picked the diary up in her magical grasp, rifling through the pages until she found something that caught her attention:

DAY 46

Thanks to our source within Nobility House, my group has finally come close to unearthing the secret of the Western Keep: The Bane of Blazing Lance. Captured by the knight millennia ago, the creature is said to be of incredible potency and, given that it was trapped here by the loyal forces of the Solar Tyrant, I have little doubt it wishes to enact a revenge. We will release it and let it know that King Sombra is on its side and will aid in its attempt to gain its revenge.

Oracle Dynamine and Lord Lux both told me once that even in the dimmest hour the Covenant must continue, that we are the only true hope left for Equus and ponykind. There will be unfortunate deaths caused by this, but if it will help to return our true master to the throne, it will be a payment that is worth the price. The martyrs will be sung about in the halls of the Imperial Palace for ages.

The Bane is our salvation, and I will see to it that it is so.

Beat nearly dropped the log as a look of horror quickly spread across her muzzle. The Covenant? That meant that the magic she was feeling wasn’t some ancient spell left over, some remainder of some great enchantment left behind by an ancestor or one of their allies, but was instead a sealing spell, possibly meant to hold an ancient creature here – and the Covenant was trying to free it.

They’re here to find something that my ancestors buried a long time ago – that can’t be good! I’ve gotta find Hitch and we need to get out of here. Quickly rifling through her brain, she found a dimming spell; while she didn’t have the training or experience to be able to use an invisibility or stealth spell, anypony with enough training could use a simple dimming spell. Casting it, she moved slowly through the shadows, hoping that she wouldn’t run into somepony or give herself away in some manner.

She managed to make it all the way back to the lobby when she heard the shouting. Still hoping that her spell would hold, she moved in the direction of the ruckus, and just before she got in, she could hear the voices reverberating, a sign that the ceiling in that room might have collapsed and it might be accessible from the upstairs. Quietly and carefully, she moved upstairs, afraid that creaking steps might give her away and end with both her and Hitch captured. Fortunately for her, though, that did not happen and as she entered the already-open door from downstairs, she noticed she’d entered the upper viewing floor of the castle’s great ballroom, where she got a better view of the situation, one she soon regretted: Several ponies had captured Hitch, who was being held in a very secure binding spell. They were taking magical shots at him to try to pry information from him and from the looks of the trail of blood dripping from the side of his mouth, they had already started.

A unicorn mare with a verdigris coat, beige mane and red eyes glared at the professor; she had yellow goggles around her neck and wore a green top hat and a stained labcoat; if the situation weren’t so dire, Beat would have declared her the ideal “mad scientist” type. But the lightning spell she cast at Hitch was no joke, nor was his grunt of pain as his body convulsed from the blast.

“Did you really think you could hope to catch us unaware, as if we were some foals on a field trip?” she hissed at him in a Trottingham accent. “We knew you were coming – we still have those loyal to the cause in Nobility House and elsewhere, those prepared to give all for our lord’s return. You were given up the moment you departed Canterlot!”

Hitch defiantly spat a glob of blood at the mare. “Thanks for confirming that; we were wondering if we’d caught all you Covenant goons. I guess some of you managed to scurry away like rats for a little bit, so we’ll just have to do another sweep. I’ll give you this much credit, though: you’ve managed to be a bigger pain in the plot than the changelings were.”

“You say that because you know your position is precarious, fool.” A second pony, an earth stallion with a blue coat, balding yellow-and-red mane and orange eyes took a swing at Hitch, slamming him against a wall hard enough to make some of the crumbling plaster fall like rain. “You may have toppled one of our garrisons, but you will never extinguish the fires that are kindled by the One True King of Ponydom! You will all be swept clear from the chessboard and we will stand upon your corpses and laugh!”

Beat watched the ponies below, counting five of them. Were there more? She wasn’t sure. But these five held Hitch and if she could find a way to overcome them, they had a chance to escape. But between Goggles and Baldy, they clearly had exceptional magic and muscles. She wasn’t sure what the other three had, but she did notice a sword on the batpony, which likely wasn’t just for show.

It was then that somepony else actually did laugh – Hitch himself. Chortling as if he’d heard the funniest line in the world, he ignored him, his guffaws echoing in the room.

“I think you broke him, Manxome,” the mare told her. “He won’t do us any good if we can’t question him further.”

“I doubt it, Millinery,” Manxome told him. “Anypony that can survive your magic blasts is made of sterner stuff.”

Hitch grinned. “Glad you think so; my Aunt Luna would agree with you, though I respectfully disagree.”

“Aunt Luna?” What’s Hitch talking about? Does he mean….? From her cover, Beat covered her mouth before she could give away her position via gasp. Does he mean Queen Luna?

She wasn’t the only one that caught his words. “Aunt Luna?” the batpony, a mare with a white coat, black mane and red eyes, pulled her sword immediately. “I thought this guy sounded familiar!” She looked at her henchponies. “Handle, Candle, search the rest of the castle. If I’m right, we’ve got trouble!” The two other ponies also drew their swords and rushed off.

“What’s going on, Mischmasch?” Milliner asked.

“Think about it, Millie – what kind of bookish professor would have that kind of bravado? Or would refer to Princess Luna as his aunt?” The batpony pointed her sword at Hitch. “He’s got a disguise spell on, I’ll bet on it.”

“Then let’s find out who this deluded fool truly is,” Milliner stated as she cast her magic, as red power encircled her horn before lancing out at the bookish academic…

…revealing a far more muscular, white-coated unicorn stallion with a purple mane and golden eyes.

“You!” Mischmasch accused. “It’s—”

“So glad you remember me, though I’d like to know how you escaped prison,” the stallion replied. “I’ll spare you the effort of introducing me; you’d probably get it wrong anyway.” Looking at the trio, he announced, “Prince Divine Right, Captain of the Friendship Guard, definitely not at your service.”

“I should gut you for what you did to me,” Mischmasch said.

“What, for having you arrested, cashiered and thrown in prison for trying to steal the Emerald of Zebrazabar? You do know that’s a national treasure of Zebrica, right? If we hadn’t caught you, the zebras would have, and trust me, even they say that Equestrian prisons are nicer than theirs. As it is, you were part of my platoon, Mischmasch. I wasn’t going to let a traitor like you stain the good name of the Guard.”

Mischmasch looked at Millner. “Can I kill him?”

“No. We still need him – for now. Afterwards, you have my blessing.”

From her perch above, Beat’s jaw practically dropped. Hitch…was an officer in the Guard? He was Prince Divine Right? She covered her mouth to prevent a gasp of surprise from coming out. He was a prince! Why was he acting like a normal pony, even if in disguise? He acted no different than any other pony on the street. Granted, the only noble she’d ever come across was her distant relative Baron Seigneurie, whose side of the family had inherited the family title; he was a fat, stuck-up earth pony who only ever came back to the province of Potok when it suited his needs. Needless to say, he wasn’t popular amongst his constituency and most were glad that he remained in Canterlot to “avoid the country stench”, as he was reported as saying.

But Seigneurie was a small fry compared to a prince, especially one who held such a major rank in the Guard. And yet, Hitch…Prince Divine? He seemed so down-to-earth he may as well have been an earth stallion.

Regardless, she had to save him. Not because he was a prince, or even because he was in danger, but because it was the right thing to do. Even if it had been Aurora down there – a pony who, in Beat’s mind, probably deserved it – she wouldn’t do that. Not here, not in the home of her ancestors and not while she held their blood.

They had all been cavaliers…and that meant she couldn’t afford to be cavalier.

With that, she began to focus on a particular opening spell she tended to use. It was a particularly difficult spell for Troubleshooters and typically used by basic Guild mages. She definitely needed a Guild license to legally use it, so if she got caught doing it without one, she’d be in trouble. Nonetheless, she knew it would hopefully provide enough of a distraction to allow the prince to escape safely.

A violet glow began to envelop her horn.

Meanwhile, Mischmasch refused to withdraw her sword from the prince’s neck. “He’s too dangerous to keep alive, Millie,” she told her boss. “He’s trained in the courser combat style, a particularly fast blend of swordfighting and magic casting. Keep an eye on him, or else he might catch us unawares.”

Despite everything, Divine grinned; his smirk only served to infuriate his captors even more. “Thanks – I try.” The result of that was that Maxnome belted him once more across the face, drawing more blood. But all it did in the end was to let Divine give an even cockier grin towards his captors. “Figured you’d try to deal with an unarmed captive. The cowardly way is the only method you understand.”

“He’s trying to get on our nerves,” Maxnome said before turning his attention back to Divine. “Well, let me tell you something, punk; I’ve already dealt with the biggest plothole there is and if a jackass like Barkeep can’t get on my nerves, what makes you think you can do any better?”

Divine thought about it. “That’s that slobby, boorish moron that was one of the top Covenant operatives, right? I distinctly recall Princess Sunset backhoofing his ass hard enough to knock the stubble off his muzzle.” The unicorn leaned forward, so that his face was inches from Maxnome’s. “Just like I’m going to do to you.”

“That’s it. I’m going to end this pain once and for all,” Mischmasch snarled.

“No. Not until we find out from him the status of our operations. It’s been too long since we’ve received a flamefax from Oracle Dynamine or Lord Lux. We shall have the Bane freed soon and we must inform them of our progress.”

Divine’s eyes lit with glee. “Wait…you don’t know? You really don’t?” He broke into laughter once more. “You guys lost! Canterlot still stands, and the Covenant has been defeated for once and for all, thanks to our new human allies.”

“Humans? You really think me stupid enough to believe that old ponytale?” Milliner retorted.

“You’ve probably been here so long that you don’t even realize how badly wrong it went for you guys, do you?” Divine asked. “Well, let me tell you: Lux is dead. Your Oracle Dynamine is also dead. The seniormost of your troops left is Barkeep and his plot is sitting in the palace dungeon awaiting trial – if he’s even still in a condition to know if it’s the sun or the moon in the sky. We’re busy rooting out your conspiracy – gotta give you that; it was a large and well-planned one – but we have allies now, and if you think I’m dangerous…the humans on our side now make the old stories of the Megan look like Tales of Princess Primrose the Peaceful.”

“ENOUGH WITH YOUR LIES!” Millner snarled. She looked at Mischmasch. “Fine – end him. We’ll get our information another way.”

“And gladly,” the batpony said, raising her sword.

It was at that point that Beat jumped down from her location and activated the spell. The moment she hit the ground, a massive electrical blast channeled from her horn to her legs and as all four of her hooves connected, the Downburst spell sent a combination of strong bursts of wind and lightning into the three offenders, lighting them up like Hearth’s Warming trees. The trio screamed as they fell in unison, hitting the ground unconscious.

She immediately moved to undo the binding spell on him. “Are you okay, Your Highness?” she asked him.

“So you heard then,” “Hitch” – or Prince Divine, to use his actual name – stated. When Beat nodded, he said, “I apologize for misleading you on the real reason on the whole Prof. Hitch thing, but I couldn’t exactly tell you the real reason we’re here, both for security and logistical reasons.”

“I’m sure you have a very good reason,” she said matter-of-factly, though the tone of her voice intended that she sounded pissed about it.

“Look, Beat…we’re still dealing with issues in Canterlot as some of Tirek’s holdout forces are still out there, so the nation’s security forces are stretched more than a bit thin and this whole Covenant thing has practically pulled it to the breaking point. Add to it that we don’t really know who we can trust right now and I thought the safest bet was to go with the town troubleshooter instead of the sheriff or deputies.”

“Look, I’ve known Stonehoof since we were foals—”

“You’ve known her. The Ministry of Justice’s files on this part of the country are sketchy at best, so I rolled the dice,” he told her. He walked over and picked up Mischmasch’s sword. “Okay, let’s go find the other two and end this before it’s too late.”

“Don’t worry, took care of Tweedledee and Tweedlestupid for you,” a new voice crowed. A forest-green pegasus mare wearing a combat flightsuit showed up, dragging the two unconscious ponies by her wings – the fact that she had that kind of wing strength, combined with the fact that she dealt with them, said volumes. Setting them down, she then stretched. “Oh, and I also shattered that large spell-enhancing crystal they had in the back courtyard; the spelljammer scroll really came in handy.” She felt something on her back and then remembered the third thing; she then removed a sword holstered on her back and passed it to him. “I guess you’re going to want this?”

“Wouldn’t hurt. Anyway, glad to see you’re in one piece, Corner Shot,” he told her.

“Yeah, well, it’s my first major mission as an Agency combat flyer, so getting you killed would look bad on my report,” she cracked. “Besides, putting the hurt on those other Covenant idiots and wrecking their favorite toy let me take out some frustrations I needed to work on.” She then looked at Beat. “This the mare you were telling me about last night?”

Beat looked at Divine with shock. “When?”

“While you were asleep,” he pointed out. “But like I told you, Corner, she’s completely trustworthy.” Divine slipped on his sword belt, then handed Beat Mischmasch’s sword and scabbard. “You’re going to need this.”

“That bad?” Beat said, taking it without a question. She then looked at Corner. “Who are you?”

“Ens. Corner Shot, Agency Special Activities Squadron 3. I’m kinda a big deal,” she boasted. “Anyway, I saw what you did to them. That’s some pretty advanced combat magic for a civvie. You sure you’re not a pegasus or something?”

Beat chuckled. “Fairly sure.”

“Well, let’s get these guys wrapped up and we’ll call for an airship pickup,” Divine told them. “Of course, Beat, I’ll still pay you for the original time and expenses as agreed.”

“I guess. So does that mean I get a raise for protecting a prince?” Beat said with a grin.

Divine nodded. “I’m pretty sure I can arrange for that.”

Without warning, the three were slammed to the floor in black fire. “What the hell?” Corner shouted before the rest of her words devolved into an anguished scream of pain.

“Black magic?” Divine grunted, trying to counter it with a magic shield, which immediately began to buckle under the pressure of the black magic spell.

Beat’s jaw dropped. “That’s a forbidden spell! Are they nuts?!”

“Like you wouldn’t believe,” Corner said, watching Divine’s golden shield begin to warp and buckle under the onslaught of the other spell.

Cruel laughter suddenly sounded. “What, surprised? I have been a true and faithful follower of the One True King and so I took the time to learn the true path of magic when I quit the Guild!” Milliner stood up, her body blazing with black magic. Behind her, the others got up as well, though something seemed a bit…off about the other four.

With that the dark unicorn began to cast a second spell, slamming it down against Divine’s shield harder. Cracks began to form and he grunted, “I can’t hold this!” Beat immediately pumped her own magic into his, trying to boost the spell. However, without formal Guild training, she wasn’t able to do much and the counter attempt failed. The shield shattered into nothingness, and the three suddenly found themselves slammed hard enough to the ground to knock the air out of them, pressed to the ground by the massive dark wave of eldritch energy.

“You’re not going to get away with this!” Divine snarled.

“You don’t even know what it is we’re most definitely going to get away with!” Milliner taunted. “Admittedly, you broke the crystal I spent time making, but that’s easily remedied!” The look on her face took on a very creepy look, the kind that heavily implied she wasn’t entirely there mentally any longer. “So, let me show you what true devotion to a worthy ruler is!” She turned to her four allies. “Are you ready?”

“As always,” they droned as one. Their eyes seemed blank, empty, as if they were in a trance – or worse. Seeing that, Milliner twisted the spell around her horn…

…and as one, the necks of the four snapped.

“You killed your own allies?!” Beat asked, horrified.

“Our lives are to give to our master,” Milliner cooed, as if speaking words of love. “He will forever remember us for this devotion.” As one, she brought the four corpses of her allies together and as each cadaver touched one another, they began to twitch and writhe as the dark magic began to envelop them. A second later, a second massive dark spell crystal appeared, malignant and cunning.

“Granted, I’m sure any of the four Scions could have created such a great work, but I don’t believe I’m a slouch myself,” she said with a note of pride. Though she didn’t know it, a look of guilt briefly washed over Corner’s face.

“You’re out of your mind,” Corner spat.

“Perhaps, but my dearest lord will forever remember me when he is reborn! Perhaps he will think of me fondly enough to take me as a concubine!”

“Oh, now you’re really out of your Faust-damned mind, lady!”

“MAD WITH FAITH! MY LORD AND MASTER WILL PREVAIL, THE ONE TRUE KING!” Milliner maniacally roared, cackling in insane fervor as she sacrificed herself to the spell, the flames enveloping her body as her face took on a diabolical cast. “WE WILL WIN AND THE ALICORNS WILL BE FOREVER FORGOTTEN! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!”With that, her own neck twisted and hung grotesquely before her body merged into the crystal, expanding it to encompass nearly the whole room.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Divine commented.

The crystal flickered with an eerie iridescence before cracking and shattering at an ear-splitting volume. The world collapsed into a black tunnel and the three felt themselves fighting to stay conscious as incredible magics, far more powerful than they’d felt a second ago, buffeted the room.

“A SOMBRAIC SPELL!” Corner shouted. “We’ve got problems!”

“Are you sure?” Divine called back.

“Might not be able to cast one, but I know what one is!”

The building began to crumble around them, a centuries-old piece of historic antiquity now reduced to nothing more than rubble and detritus. The tremors, now having expanded into a full-on earthquake, grew fiercer, and it was by sheer luck that none of the three had been hit by any debris large enough to seriously injure them.

Finally, with a loud, inequine roar, a massive figure of green erupted into the sky in rainbow fire. Beat looked up and saw the creature from her nightmare. What looked to be a titanic caterpillar the size of a mountain, glaring at the world with burning, sulfurous eyes, its spots glowing red and yellow as if they were made of pure flame.

“i Am FrEe,” it boomed, “AnD sOoN tHiS wOrLd WiLl KnOw My PaIn. iT iS wRoNg FrOm BeGiNnInG tO eNd – I wIlL mAkE iT rIgHt!”

It’s real, she thought, looking at the beast as it towered over all in the area. The Bane of the Western Keep. It’s real – and it’s free….

Unable to withstand any more of the magic forces buffeting her, she slid into darkness.

IV: Because I'm Not Myself, You See

It was the raindrops that finally brought Beat back to consciousness. This far from the big cities, the weather was usually allowed to exist on its own, though Radourmeire’s Rest did have a small volunteer weather team to deal with emergencies if needed. But nopony scheduled rain in this part of the country and so when it came, it came naturally.

Looking around, the first thing she noticed was her vision blurring, the result of a pain that echoed through her body like wildfire. She noticed that most of what was left of the keep had been shattered and ruined beyond identification: The ground was blackened and scorched and by some minor miracle, she had survived whatever blast had incinerated everything else in the area.

Forcing herself to her hooves, her body ached with pains she didn’t even know could exist. As she finally stood on all fours, she wobbled dizzily for a second but soon righted herself. As she looked around, she noticed she was covered in ash and soot, the result of whatever had burned, but she was still alive.

A groan sounded next to her and ignoring her own pain, she moved towards it, helping Divine dig himself out of the ash as the rain began to turn everything into so much gray mud. “Wha…what happened?” he asked.

“I don’t….” Her jaw dropped.

“Oh, buck me,” a third voice sounded as Corner dug her own self out. “Never drinking that much again…wait, I wasn’t drinking, was I?”

Divine looked at the shocked unicorn mare, then his eyes followed her own. A second later, his own jaw joined hers on the metaphorical floor: everything around, as far as the eye could see, despite the rain was still aflame with rainbow fire or scorched into near nothingness. The distant entrance to Mareington Gulch, having been blocked by the boulders and leading towards the bizarre garden, had been torn open, with a massive blaze of prism-hued forest fire burning, and gray-tinged rainbow-colored smoke rising into the sky.

But worst of all was what was happening in the east: the sun was beginning to rise, an indicator that they had all been unconscious for hours.

“No,” Beat gasped, a look of terror coming over her face before she took a step and collapsed from shock. “Nooooo!”she shouted, trying to force herself back to her hooves.

Divine moved to her side immediately. “Beat! Calm down, you’re going to get hurt!”

She tried to get out of his grip. “No! The town! That creature’s going to flatten the town and then who knows what it’s going to do? My family’s there, Your Highness! I have to—!”

“I know! But panicking isn’t going to make things better, you should know that!” he told her. “Please calm down. I’m going to let you go now, so promise me you’ll relax.”

As he did, she sat down, looking with dismay at the wreckage of where they’d been the past two days and how it had been destroyed by the giant caterpillar monster that was so far ahead of them it was no longer even on the horizon despite its size. “I’m just worried.”

Having slid on her goggles and activated their binocular function, Corner looked towards the ruined remains of Mareington Gulch. “That overgrown bug is so far ahead of us, even if we knew what to do about it, I don’t think we have the hoofpower to stop it. Plus, I don’t know about you two, but I feel like I just wrestled with a manticore and came out the wrong side, so I couldn’t even carry one of you much less both.”

“I guess we’re going to have to teleport then,” Divine told them.

“Uh, Your Highness, if I—”

“Please, all my friends call me Div,” he told her. “Half the time I don’t feel princely enough as is.”

“Maybe because you’re dating a bookworm?” Corner teased and the stallion rolled his eyes.

“Okay, okay, I get it,” Beat stated. “But unless you have alicorn-level power, I don’t think anypony would be capable of teleporting from here to home!”

“You’re right: under normal circumstances, I couldn’t. But I have an edge in case of crises like this one.” He unsheathed his sword, then tapped a hoof on the nebula amethyst embedded in its hilt; at the tap, the gem rang with a musical sound and flared with purpure power, as the inside of the precious stone roiled and glittered as if it were made of the purest magic available. “This is my sword, Violaine. Given to my ancestor by Princess Celestia so very long ago, it has been passed down in the family because it is a sword of honor, a sword that defends. Needless to say, this sword is special; it has a spell enchanted on it that will allow me to use the stored magic power within it as a conduit to be able to do a single alicorn-level spell…like a long-distance teleport, for example. However, once it’s done, it’ll completely drain the magic from the sword for a month – and from me for at least twenty-four hours. Under normal circumstances, I’m going to be magically useless for a day if I cast this. But given how weakened we are right now from that spell from earlier? I don’t know what it’ll do to me.”

“You sure you want to do that?” Beat asked him.

“Without a doubt,” he told her, conviction in his voice and eyes. “As I always say, it’s my divine right to protect my fellow ponies from harm – and I’ll do anything it takes to do so. However….” He looked at her and deflated slightly. “Normally I would be able to do this on my own, but I don’t know enough about this part of the country to be able to pinpoint a safe landing location, so I’ll need your help with that.”

“What can I do?” Beat asked, her own eyes filling with the same surety.

“Take my hoof,” he told her, putting his right hoof out, “and concentrate on where we need to go. I’ll do the rest.” He looked at Corner. “Grab onto my tail or something, so that you don’t get left behind.”

“Normally I would joke about Princess Twilight being angry that I got a piece of your tail, but I think the situation doesn’t call for that,” she said semi-seriously.

“I would appreciate that,” he responded drily then turned back to Beat. “Are you ready?” She nodded wordlessly and as she did, he slammed the blade into the ground, and a violet circle of magic blossomed out from the center, blowing the rain away in cascading sheets until it seemed as though it had added its own small vortex around the spell. Motes of violet light danced around the three ponies, intertwining from the spell cast from his horn and the magical power flowing from the gem. Ribbons of gold and purple twisted and danced around them, enveloping them both in a warm caress.

“On violet wings I fly,” Divine incanted, “for my sword is true, my aim is noble and my heart is pure.”

With a sudden burst of power, the spell spattered raindrops everywhere and kicked up ash and dust as the trio vanished.

With a massive helix of energy spraying up everything around them, the three appeared in a ruined, smoldering field of what used to be the freshest clover in the Unknown West. But now it looked like cheddar cheese and the ground appeared to have a strange, checkerboard-like look to it. Small tufts of rainbow fire burned here and there, an ominous sign if there was one.

“BRAMBLE!” Beat shouted, instantly seeing the remains of her friend’s home. It was twisted and distorted from its original shape, and it took a second for the unicorn to realize it had been reshaped into a sort of mushroom-like appearance. Rushing into the house, she found it to be a riot of what it was a couple of days ago: everything had become a misshapen mess of various sizes, lengths, and configurations, with the table on the ceiling and chairs on the wall as if gravity decided to just give up.

She rushed through the house, desperately looking for her friend and her husband, but thankfully neither of them was there. Finally, she left the house just as Divine and Corner had arrived. “They’re not here,” she said. “I hope that’s a good sign. You okay?”

“I feel like I just hoofwrestled with Tirek for two straight weeks,” Divine said, catching his breath. “I might be a bit winded and slightly worse for wear, but I can still fight even without my magic.”

“I think I’ve recovered enough to get airborne again,” Corner told them. “I’ll fly around and check for damage.”

“Hopefully everypony should be at town hall,” Beat told her. “There’s a safety shelter there. Be careful.”

“Oh, if there’s a baddie, you can be sure as hell I’m going to give as good as I get!” she shouted back as she vaulted into the air.

As they entered Radourmeire’s Rest proper, the view of the chaos that had been wrought on the poor town had become immediately apparent: more of the strange mushrooms from earlier sprouted in the streets, and several buildings had been toppled by flowers taller than trees. Corpses of oversized bugs littered the ground and what few buildings remained had been twisted into distorted, funhouse versions of themselves, including, Beat was saddened to see, her family’s general store.

But worst of all was the central statue of Radourmeire. The bronze depiction of the creature had been shattered beyond comprehension, with only the head left. And while the visage of the sculpture had shown a mouse with a pleasant smile and kind face, the strange magics had twisted it into a parody of itself, the face of the mouse-like creature showing alarm and terror, as if it had been a living creature of its own that had seen hell just before it was slain. She wondered, if Radourmeire truly had existed, would his final moments have been like that?

“Beatrix?” She turned to see her mother and father looking at her, relief washing over their faces as they realized she was safe.

“Mom! Pop!” She rushed over and glomped both, the family holding each other in relief as adrenaline and joy overcame them.

With a flourish, Corner came to a landing next to Divine. “Just did a sweep of the town. Had to put down a couple of oversized crickets; exhausted half my throwing knives on them,” she said. “Spell’s going to take a few to regenerate them, assuming it wasn’t affected by whatever that thing is.” She paused. “What do you think it is?”

“I honestly don’t know,” the prince stated. “At first, I’d say it was like Discord, but the chaos god has always been capricious and mercurial, not…mad. This is pure and utter insanity, and it looks like it’s intending to do something.”

Letting go of her parents, Beat said, “We’d better get to town hall. Most of the survivors are there.”

“Most?”

“Some…didn’t make it,” Well told them. “I take it you’re here to oversee rescue?”

“As much as I can,” Divine promised. “Lead the way, sir.”

A few minutes later, the trio arrived at the town hall, where Stonehoof and her deputies had already prepared a safety zone. All around, the wounded and the traumatized sat, in silence from shock or trying to help where they could. But what caught her attention most was Left Goon – the mare was crying over two figures covered by sheets and it didn’t take a great stretch of the imagination to figure what was going on.

Beat walked up to her. “What happened?”

“It…it…the thing attacked Rorie,” the mare sobbed, wiping her eyes. “Thought she was Princess Celestia herself, said that the world was wrong and topsy-turvy, and it had to be put right, whatever that means. It tried to step on her, but Grassie got in the way and….” The mare started to break down again, crying once more. “Why did Princess Celestia do this to us?”

Divine opened his mouth to argue, but suddenly heard, “The Princess didn’t do this to us.” He turned to see Corner, a stern but firm look on her face. “The Princess didn’t do this, nor did Queen Luna. This is the work of a mad creature who has a vendetta against ponies and we don’t know why. Even if he said that the Princess is to blame, then why attack an innocent pony?”

“Aurora tended to try to look like the Princess,” Beat explained.

“Even still. Trust me, mare: I’ve seen ponies with legitimate reasons to hate the alicorns, and I’ve seen ones with reasons that aren’t really good, but they don’t think anypony is listening to them. This is neither case – this is a mad creature, just like Discord once was, and maybe if somepony like Discord can be saved, maybe this one can be, too.”

Beat took the mare’s hoof in hers. “I know it’s hard to believe in the Crown right now, especially with the news we heard the other day and now this. But there are good ponies in government, good ones who are trying their best to protect and help us. You can’t just give up now, or else what’s the purpose of being a pony?”

“Are you sure?” Left sobbed.

“Absolutely,” Beat said in her most resolute voice.

“I guess Rorie wasn’t completely right about you,” Left admitted, wiping her eyes. “I know we shouldn’t have picked on you all the time, but I think Rorie was jealous, because you knew what you wanted in life. Me, Grassie, Rorie? We’re never getting out of this town because we’re not good enough. But you, ner…I mean, Beat…you have what it takes.”

“May I have your attention? May I have your attention, please!” A voice sang out and ponies turned to see the mayor, Burgomaster, standing on the steps of what remained of town hall. “Now it’s come to my attention that the initial danger has passed. So with that in mind, town ordinance 3499.D specifies that you must all clear out of the shelter and go back home as soon as possible.”

“What home?” a pony shouted. “My house got flattened by a giant petunia!”

“My husband got squashed by a giant ladybug!” another shouted, her eyes red from tears and indignation.

“That doesn’t matter,” Burgomaster told them. “Under the provincial laws established by Baron Seigneurie and town ordinance 138.J, you are required to depart as soon as—”

“No, they’re not. These ponies need help, and laws or not, you’re going to give it to them,” Divine argued.

“On whose authority? Yours?” Burgomaster told him. “I’m the town mayor, and I make the rules here! I’ll have you know I was assigned this position by the Baron himself!”

“SILENCE!” Divine’s Royal Canterlot Voice split the air. The look on his face was stern as he raised his sword. “For those of you who don’t know who I am, let me familiarize you: I am Prince Divine Right, a member of the royal family.” He showed Stonehoof his identification as proof. “As of now, I am implementing Midnight Protocol One. Your ordinances, and the province’s, are null and void until I say otherwise. And the first thing I’m going to say is that these ponies need help and you’re going to help them, am I clear?”

You can’t do that!” the earth stallion spat. He looked at Stonehoof. “Tell him he can’t do that!”

Stonehoof, in turn, gave the mayor a glance that said, Really? However, just for formality’s sake, she looked over Divine’s identification. “It’s legit. Are you taking over as Guard captain or prince?” she asked.

“Whatever it takes to take care of these ponies who need help,” Divine said.

“Works for me.” Stonehoof looked at Burgomaster. “He’s the boss now.”

“But-but-but…town ordinance 225.A.2 specifies that—” sputtered Burgomeister, only to be cut off by Divine’s glare.

Divine pushed the mayor aside; if any angrier, he likely would have done so literally. “Okay, here’s what needs to be done: grab all available supplies from wherever you can: the general store, remaining houses, the hotel—”

“But what about my hotel?” Hospitality shrieked in a tone far too high for him to hit normally, as he reached his threshold. “And how am I going to have to pay for sheltering and feeding all these…deadbeats?”

“Would you rather be at the mercy of all these so-called ‘deadbeats’?” Beat snarled, getting in his face. “Your Highness, would you be so kind as to do me a favor?”

“I’ll take it under advisement,” Divine said in a tone hinting he would very much agree with her request.

“If he says something stupid again, arrest him, please?”

“I think that’s my job,” Stonehoof interjected, “and yes, I’ll be happy to do that as town ordinance 9935.C allows me to do that in case of emergencies.”

Divine grinned. “And who says town laws are all pointless?”

It took another couple of hours to get everything under control, but by the time the sun reached high noon, the relief effort was underway, and Beat was relieved to see her friends Bramble and Rocket, tired but unharmed, having served as auxiliaries on the volunteer weather group and had moved the rainstorm away from the town in order to redirect it to put out the strange fire.

“Ah’m glad t’ see that yer okay, sugarcube,” Bramble told her. “Wuz thinkin’ the worst when that big’un trampled everything.”

“No kidding!” Rocket added. “Glad to see that you’re okay, Beat!”

“Yeah, but I….” She shook her head; now was not the time to feel guilt for not stopping the creature. “Nevermind, it’s not important. Did you guys see where that thing went?”

“Ah dunno, sugarcube. Too worried ‘bout the strange fire,” Bramble admitted. “Hell, even th’ storm we brought over wuzn’t puttin’ it out for a while there.”

“Yeah, but at least most of the town survived, although it’s going to need some extensive rebuilding,” Beat told them.

The rest of the day had been spent either helping with the relief effort or trying to get the train ready for the next day; due to the now-ongoing emergency, the rest of the passenger cars would be decoupled, leaving only the engine, which would take Divine and Corner eastward in order to find the strange creature and save whatever ponies were in danger – and no mistake, a colossal caterpillar with powers on the scale of a draconequus but without the charm and whimsy of such was an absolute threat.

By the time the sun began to sink over the horizon, Beat stumbled her way back home. By a minor miracle, her family home had been one of the very few properties in town that had survived. Bramble and her husband were staying at Rocket’s home, which had also survived, and to regain their strength, Divine and Corner were staying with Beat’s family as well. Though Well and Marketplace apologized profusely for having a guest room “not worthy of a prince”, but Divine waved it off, saying he wasn’t there as a prince but rather as a Guard captain, so it was more than adequate; furthermore, given that he’d first been there under the disguise of Hitchhike, it was more than enough for him.

“Then maybe you need to become the one to stop it,” an unfamiliar voice spoke. Beat looked around the room, seeing nopony.

“I guess I’m more tired than I thought I was,” she said, heading towards her bed. “I’m beginning to hear things.”

“You didn’t hear things, you heard me,” the voice said, sounding a bit cross. “And I would like to think I’m hardly nothing.” This time a warm glow lit in the room and Beat turned in the direction of the aura. To her absolute shock, Oxford sat there, on her desk, looking as if it was just a normal day.

But the fact that her pet rabbit wore wire-rim eyeglasses, a sharp-looking blazer, waistcoat, shirt and tie gave that lie away.

“It took you long enough to notice,” the rabbit said, a matter-of-fact look on his face.

“WHAT THE BUCK?” Beat shouted at the top of her lungs, loud enough that it woke the entirety of the house. A split-second later, a small stampede of hooves were sounded and the others within the house entered Beat’s room.

“I heard something,” Divine said, his sword already in his hoof. “Are you…?” He paused. “Is that rabbit…glowing?”

The rabbit bowed. “Why, yes I am, Your Highness. Thank you very much for noticing.”

The rest of them filled in and shortly, all eyes fell on the pet, who just sat there as if he were a teacher patiently waiting for the class to come in so he could start his lecture. “Wait…did you do something to Oxford?” Marketplace asked her daughter.

“No, no one’s done anything to me, Marketplace,” the rabbit told her, “although…I do remember the time when you tried to give me radishes. I do so dislike those; they give me a tummy ache.”

“Sorry!” she said, before a thought then crossed her mind. “Wait – I’ve never given you radishes! You’ve always fed yourself or Beat has fed you! In fact, the only rabbit I ever gave radishes to was Mr. Grasshopper, Well’s pet rabbit from back when we were dating!”

“And do you remember when Mr. Grasshopper passed away?” Oxford asked her. As a blank stare came over both Well and Marketplace, the pet chuckled. “I’m fairly old for a rabbit. One could argue I’m fairly old in the same way that Her Majesty Princess Celestia is fairly old but let us not get into that.” The rabbit had a suddenly sad cast, his smiling muzzle fading away into timeless sorrow. “The fact is…it’s time.”

“What’s time?”

“The Huqqa…it is free. And in its madness, it has embraced the worst of its chaotic nature. You see, I….” The rabbit moved as if he was dizzied. “No, I…I can’t…”

“Oxford?” Beat said, her voice worried.

The rabbit reached behind him, and with a flash, brought out a pony-sized pocketwatch. It glittered with both magic and the golden sheen of its cover. “I don’t have much time. And this time I truly mean it. The Huqqa…he has taken too much….” The rabbit took an ungainly step forward and fell, plunging off Beat’s desk. She caught him in her magic, but he suddenly looked weak and old, far more than he had just seconds before.

“I am…I am a creature of magic, not of flesh and bone. Or perhaps you are creatures of magic, and my flesh and bones are too worn out. It is all the same, really,” he coughed, looking at Beat with rheumy eyes. “But I have served this family faithfully since the day my first master, Radourmeire, asked me to keep watch on the line of Blazing Lance. He—” The rabbit started to cough violently, enough to make his body shudder. Worse, his glow began to weaken.

“Don’t die on me, Oxford. You can’t!”

“Take the watch and Remember. Please. You are the next, Beatrix. You are the Wonder.” The rabbit, his strength flagging, reached out a gentle paw to caress her muzzle. “In all the centuries, in all the masters I’ve had, your father and you have been the kindest to me and I have cherished every moment of that.” The now-blind, aged pet, his hair starting to fall out, looked in the direction of Well. “You have done me a great service when you decided to keep me after your cousin did not. And now, I will repay that love in my own way.”

With what little strength he had, Oxford pointed at the pocketwatch, still seated on the table, glowing on its own. “Take it and Remember. Only you can do this. The line has nearly faded into nothingness…but nothing is ever gone until there is nothing left. You have the chance to take nothing and make it something.”

The rabbit gave Beat one final look of love and whispered ancient words:

“It is wrong from beginning to end – you must make it right.”

And then he breathed no more. And a second later, the rabbit faded away into nothingness, as if he had never been there at all.

Beat sat there, silent for the longest time. Then she stepped forward and took the pocketwatch in her left foreleg. “I have been surrounded by it my entire life,” she said. “And I didn’t know. I just didn’t bucking know.”

Well looked at his daughter. “I don’t understand, honey.”

“I have a hunch,” she thought, “but I will have to work on it later. Right now, as weird as it sounds? Apparently the world needs me.”

Marketplace looked at her daughter. “Beat, honey, you’ve had a rough day, sweetie and I don’t think—”

“No. I’ve been thinking. And that’s the problem. I’ve overthought. I thought when I should have moved. I pondered when I should have taken action. And this is the result.” She clicked the top of the watch and with an audible snap that sounded like the thrum of a rabbit’s racing feet, the watch opened, with a flash of light spilling out, bright as the sun.

A second later, a letter, along with small bottles sat on the table. The letter seemed to be made of the finest parchment available, the kind that typically was used for royal proclamations. The bottles, each made from an ornate, expensive crystal, held a single pill in it, one small red pill and one large blue pill.

Beat picked up the letter and opened it, looking at the very ornate hoofwriting:

“One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small,
And if you go chasing rabbits, and you know you’re going to fall,
Go ask her, and feel ten feet tall”

Come to where the beginning is the end, and the end is a beginning. Come…and Remember.

-A&S

“I need to go back,” she suddenly announced.

“Back? To the Western Keep?” the others asked at once, surprised.

“No! You’ll be hurt! Or worse!” Marketplace said, her face a mask of utter worry.

“No. No, she won’t.” The pony that said that was surprisingly not Beat herself, but Well. “She might be the first one in our family in ages that truly does understand what’s going on.” He looked at his wife. “You know that ever since our branch of the family didn’t inherit the title, that we pretty much left the military life behind. Our son, however, is the first in a long while that has returned to the family roots.”

“And if I may say so, he’s served admirably,” Divine stated.

“Thank you, Your Highness. But the truth is, there’s somepony just as capable, possibly more so. Even though she’s somehow been found wanting each and every time, our daughter has had skills and talents above that of the ordinary station. I just don’t believe our daughter is meant for something as small as this town. In a sense, I’ve always known it.” The stallion looked at his daughter, pride showing in his eyes. “You do what you have to do, Beatrix. We have everything under control here, and when you’re ready to come home, come home. But until then, chase the stars. It’s your time to shine.”

The following morning, the trio, along with Beat’s parents, met at the train station. The railponies had worked themselves to the bone overnight to make sure that the track was clear and that all the previous cars had been decoupled from the engine; now it was warmed up, its stack smoking – a signal that it was ready to rush off as quickly as its wheels could carry it eastbound.

Looking a little better, Divine gave a worried look to Beat. “I wish I could go with you,” he admitted, “but we don’t know where the creature’s heading and all we do know is that it has a grudge against the alicorns, and that means that my aunts are in trouble – and by extension, Canterlot and the nation as well. I have to find a way to stop it, and that means that we need to part ways.”

“Not a problem,” Beat said. “I have a feeling this was my own path to tread.”

“It won’t be yours alone forever, you know,” he told her. “When this is over, I’m going to ask Twi to look into it. You’re an incredibly talented mare, Beat, and for all the times you’ve been turned down and such, I suspect that something was done on purpose. I don’t know why, but I have my suspicions.”

“Yeah, you’re not the only one. From what I can tell, you buck serious ass, mare, and knowing the Covenant like I do, I think you were targeted,” Corner told her. “I can’t promise the same things that Div can, but I can promise you I got your back if you ever need it. But for now, I’ve got a long flight ahead of me; I need to make it to our nearest Agency base if I’m going to get this info to Director Smokechaser in time.”

Beat looked at her two new friends; she hadn’t met them all that long ago, but the experience they’d been through made her feel as close to them as she was to Bramble and Rocket. “You two take care, okay?”

Div chuckled. “That’s my line, isn’t it?”

Corner, for her part, flashed a cocky grin. “Oh, mare, don’t you worry: When I see that overgrown bug, its biggest worry’s gonna be me.”

Beat went over and hugged her two friends, and then with that, Corner slipped on her goggles and threw herself at the sky and was gone in a flash. As for Div, he teleported onto the train engine, and with a final “all aboard” cry from the engineer, he waved as the “iron horse” (as the bison tribes tended to call them) began picking up speed and heading away.

“And that’s that,” she said a few minutes later. She turned to her parents. “I need to get going. It’s going to be tough, but I’ve gotta do what I’ve gotta do. Don’t tell Bram or Rocky where I’m going because they’ll be worried otherwise.”

“And we won’t?” Marketplace said, hugging her daughter. “I don’t want you to do this, Beatrix! It’s dangerous!”

“Mom, I have to, or else…look, I really don’t want to entail what ‘or else’ could mean. Just…this is what I have to do. I’m sure Princess Twilight’s mom never told her not to do what she does.”

“I really doubt that,” Well said as he hugged both of them. “But I suspect the Princess’ parents took the same stance I am: you might be a hero, but you’re also our daughter and we’re going to worry.”

Her new sword at her side, Beat had begun a steady canter out of the town in order to head to Mareington Gulch and the ruins of the Western Keep. She knew galloping wasn’t going to be worth it; for one, she was no earth pony and she’d wear herself out in a heartbeat. Second, even still, with the place in ruins because of the giant caterpillar’s rush through the place, she had no idea how bad things were now and what used to take two days might now take longer. Lastly, with all the gulch’s normal fauna completely spooked by what had happened in the past couple of days, being worn out might not be the best condition to be in if she had to defend herself from something.

So with her mind focused on her destination, she was so tied up in that, that she almost didn’t hear the other pony call out for her. Finally, Beat came to a stop, coming to face with Left Goon. “Look, I don’t have time for any distractions,” she explained. “I need to get back to the Western Keep as soon as possible.”

“I know,” Left said. “I’m going with you.”

Beat shook her head. “No. For one, you probably can’t defend yourself. Secondly, the town needs every able-bodied pony that they can for emergency relief, and I’ve been tasked with this by Prince Divine himself. Lastly—”

“You were brave enough to stand up against Rorie and us when we picked on you,” Left told her, a look of shame coming over her face. “I knew it was wrong and I should have said something. But I didn’t and I found out the hard way how an adult pony shouldn’t act. And how one should. So….” She offered a hoof to bump. “I’m hitching my star to you. Maybe I should have done that a while ago.”

“Look, thanks. I really appreciate that except….” A sudden thought then came over Beat as she looked – really looked – at the mare. “Wait…why haven’t I noticed you were a pegasus before?”

The mare laughed. “Probably because me and Grassie…Grasslands have the same colors, so people thought we were twins. We’re not even related, and as you can see,” she said as she spread her wings, “I’m not an earth pony.”

“Uh, what’s your flight weight ratio?”

“I can carry more than the usual flight weight-load of a pegasus and have faster speed than average – that’s my cutie mark’s special talent – but I’m no Rainbow Dash and I can’t carry a full-size pony. Why?”

Beat immediately took off her sword and saddlebags and handed them to the mare. “Here, I need you to take these. You wanted to make it up to me? Now’s your chance.”

“Sure, I can do that, but didn’t you catch me when I said that I can’t carry a full-size pony? Even foals would be an issue.”

“Don’t worry, I have that covered. But you’ll have to be quick.”

“Quick? I can do quick, no sweat.”

Beat looked at the mare with new eyes. “Then welcome to the team. Let’s get this started once more.” She offered a hoof to bump. “Beatrix.”

The pegasus reached out and bumped back. “Pinion Feather. Now, how are you going to pull this off?”

Beat reached into her bag and pulled out a small crystal vial containing a small red capsule.

“One pill makes you small….” the unicorn said enigmatically as a grin flashed onto her face.

VI: Snicker-Snack

In the tent, Pinion woke to hear commotion. She scrambled out of the tent to see Beat, moving on her hindlegs, a rapier in each hoof, slicing the air to and fro. She then dropped down to all fours as she took the swords in her magical grasp, continuing to strike as needed. She looked focused, as if she had been at it for a while and didn’t stop until Pinion had shown herself.

“Good, you’re up,” Beat said. “Let’s eat breakfast and get going. We’ve got an overblown caterpillar to stop and a world to save.” While Pinion offered to make breakfast, Beat started to slip on the armor; she did it as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

“Where did you get that?” Pinion asked.

Beat told her.

“Okay, seriously, where did you get that?”

“I just told you. I know it’s weird, but it’s true.”

“You’re telling me that a human and an alicorn queen from another dimension gave you the swords and armor and told you to stop the caterpillar, because it’s got a fragment of the power that Discord is supposed to have but doesn’t because a book that’s now alive stole it?!”

“Yeah. I told you it was kinda weird.”

“Weird doesn’t begin to explain it, but…I’ll take it on faith that you did. After all, you did find this sword and said it belonged to me now. So what do we do?”

“We’re going to leave everything here. Don’t worry about it, we’ll come back for it later. But we have to catch up to that caterpillar. It’s had a couple of days’ head start and I’m really worried it’s going to do something dangerous.”

“How are we going to catch up? It’s several hours to fly back home as is,” Pinion said, “and going beyond that is going to—”

Beat immediately grabbed Pinion’s sword, then took the other mare’s hoof in her own and blinked—

—and a second later, after her vision shifted, Pinion found herself in the middle of a recently ravaged town. Relief ponies were everywhere and prismatic smoke filled the air as a result of rainbow-colored flames.

“What the…where are we?” Pinion asked.

“Roc’s Roost.”

“Roc’s Roost?” Pinion looked around. “Yeah, now that I think about it, this place does look like….” She then realized. “Wait – that’s a hundred miles east of where we were!”

“Closer to two hundred, actually, but not the point.”

“How did you—?”

“Not important right now; I’ll tell you later.” Beat looked around and saw who she was looking for, a naval officer. She was a griffon wearing a flight suit and had the pins of a navy commander. “There’s someone I need to get a hold of.” She then chased after the griffoness, calling out, “Excuse me, I need to talk to you!”

The griffoness stopped and gave her a weary glance. “Look, I already told the mayor that my forces are stretched thin. Half my fliers are wounded, and I have no way to call the reserves, plus Capt. Galliard already took off with the rest of our combat capable fliers. I don’t know if I can—” The griffoness looked at her. “What are the Church Knights doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be taking the lead on this operation?”

“I’m, uh, not with the Church Knights,” Beat told her quickly.

“Funny, you look like the type. Heavily armored, mostly focused on fighting monsters with swords and magic?”

“Trust me, I’m not – never even met one,” she explained, offering a hoof. “Anyway, name’s Beat. I work for, uh, Cpt. Divine Right, Friendship Guard.”

“Ah, him. Met him once; great guy. Anyway, name’s Gateaux, and I’m the XO of the Thunderheads. I take it the mayor pointed you in my direction?”

“No, actually, you’re the first one we spotted. We just got into town. Been chasing the Huqqa since it left the Unknown West.”

“Not moving fast enough,” Gateaux told her. “That thing is wrecking everything around it. We found out about it and were the closest squadron, so we threw everything we had at it. Didn’t work – it not only shrugged it off like nothing, but it killed some of my folk.” She pointed at a blue mushroom not far from them. “See that mushroom over there? That thing used to be Ens. Gallivant. He was only with us for a week, and now I’ve got to explain to his parents that he was KIA. And I’ve got a dozen like him. This thing…it’s Calamity-level, isn’t it?”

“Hopefully not, but we’re going to do everything we can to put it down.”

“Good. After Tirek, the Winter and now this shit with the Covenant and a new changeling queen, I don’t know how much more the realm can take. Even if Queen Luna’s a hoofbuster, everypony’s stretched too thin and I don’t think we can take another massive disaster.”

“We’re going to do everything we can. Do you know what direction it was headed in?”

“How can you miss it? Damn thing screamed, and I quote, ‘ThE QuEeN WiLl fEeL My pAiN FoR EnSnArInG Me! iT Is wRoNg aNd sHoUlD Be mAdE RiGhT!’ Pretty creepy if you ask me. But the good news is that for some reason, it seems to be headed not towards Canterlot, but the Everfree Forest. The bad news of course is that the nation’s Number One Disaster Capital is in the way.”

“Ponyville?” Pinion said, with the tone of someone who knew a long-running joke.

“Yeah, exactly. Personally, I would never want to live there. The insurance costs must be through the roof. Anyway, if you have a few minutes, I have a flier with us from Long March squadron. They’ve been coordinating information from both Army and Agency sources and can give you better info than I’ve got. As it is, I’m going to be busy fighting that thing’s partners in crime.”

“Partners in crime?”

“Yeah. Everywhere it goes, it seems to be turning bugs into massively-sized pains in the plot that are attacking everything, and I mean everything.”

“Well, we don’t want to hold you up. Thanks for the information, Commander; we’ll be getting on our way.”

Gateaux pointed towards an olive-green tent. “Flier should be in that command tent there; ask for Maj. Skysight. She should give you all the information you need and point you in the right direction. Anyway, do what you have to do to stop that…Huqqa, I think you called it?” Gateaux replied. “Too many chicks and cubs are in danger, and the whole country can’t take another blow like this.”

“On it. Thanks for the tip.” The two saluted each other and with that, Beat headed off to the tent.

“You’re…not military, are you?” Pinion asked.

“Not in the least.”

“Does she know that?”

“Does it matter right now?’

“I guess not,” the pegasus stated.

The two went to the tent, where a harried looking petite pegasus mare looked like she was one step away from a meltdown; the name tag on her flightsuit read SKYSIGHT and she had the appropriate rank insignia. “Guess you’re the one Gateaux said I needed to speak to,” Beat said.

“Not even going to ask why you’re here, paladin; just tell me I haven’t been fired yet.”

“You haven’t been fired yet. I’m here for information, Major, nothing else. Gateaux said that you had information on where the Huqqa went?”

“Is that its name? I think we’ve all come up with enough four-letter alternates as is,” Skysight said. “Anyway, yeah, it seems to neither notice Canterlot nor doesn’t care. It’s making a beeline towards Everfree Castle, and several towns, from Sunhillow to Ponyville are in the way. Last info I have is that it completely decimated Canterdale.”

“Give me everything you’ve got,” Beat told her.

“I’m sorry, but who are you? I know you say that Cmdr. Gateaux pointed you my way, but you know the protocol that was put in place since the whole Covenant thing: need to see ID.”

Beat tried to keep a sudden flare of worry off her face. “I, uh…”

Pinion got in her way. “I can’t believe you! We have an emergency right now and you’re asking Swordmaster Beatrix for her identification? Do we really have the time for this?” She turned back to Beat. “I’m sorry, Dame Beatrix, I should have taken the time to let the local authorities know of our mission.”

Skysight’s eyes opened wide. “Swordmaster?” she gasped.

Pinion pointed at the unicorn in armor and surcoat. “It’s a crisis right now. Who else runs around in heavy armor and throws their weight around to get things done? You think a regular Church Knight’s going to do that?”

“Okay, guess not. Sorry about that. Anyway, if you’ll come over to this table, we have the latest charts on the creature’s location as well as a recent report on its size – it seems to be growing….”

Several minutes later, Beat and Pinion left the tent. Beat had a horrified look on her face. “You told her I was a swordmaster?”

“Well, I couldn’t get away with telling her you were a vice master or even the grandmaster, right?”

“You know we could get exiled or thrown in a dungeon for impersonating a senior military officer, right?” Beat reminded her. “Maybe even thrown into a dungeon in a place we were exiled to or something!”

“Yeah, well, at least we won’t explode twice or whatever,” Pinion said. “I got us the info, right?”

“Yeah, and I guess I can get Div to cover for us.” A worried pause. “If he and Corner are okay.”

“I’m sure they are—”

“There you two are!” Gateaux came up to them. “Look, we have an airship landing in two minutes, picking up whatever available troops we can – order is that they’re building the next line outside of Sunhillow, and that Queen Luna herself is leading the fight.”

“What?”

The griffoness nodded. “Yeah. Word is that if they can’t hold the line at Sunhillow, the final line of defense is being built between Berryville and Ponyville, and Princess Twilight and the Bearers are going to hold the line. If it gets serious enough….” Gateaux shook her head. “No, can’t think about that right now.”

“If what gets serious?”

“Sorry. It’s just…my best friend lives in Ponyville, and I’m worried sick about her. Have to keep detached, since I’m a military officer, but you know how hard it is, right?”

Beat didn’t, but everything that was going on and the worry she felt when she could do nothing to protect her own hometown? She knew all too well. “Don’t beat yourself up over that. You’re only pony, after all. Well, in a manner of speaking.”

The griffoness gave a humorless chuckle. “True.”

Corner crashed painfully against the ground, as the impact knocked the breath out of her. She bounced a few feet before crashing painfully into the nearby ruins of a house that was still aflame. She gasped for breath for a few seconds, then managed to crawl out of the way before a giant flea smashed the remains of the house. The town of Mountainview had been the most recent combat zone before final defensive lines had been planned for Sunhillow and Ponyville and Berryville, and now this line, like so many others, had fallen as if it were nothing.

“I am not your Celestiadamned playtoy!” she roared, flinging several knives at the thing. The knives sank into the bug’s exoskeleton before the magical explosive charge went off, tearing out its side, sending ichor everywhere. The blast, however, threw her further, where she came to a halt in the muddy banks of the nearby stream.

“Ugh,” she said, wiping the mud and ichor off her. “I am not getting paid enough for this. Sometimes I wonder if it was wor….” Her words trailed off as she saw the nearby corpse of a pegasus, just down the stream from her; worse, the pegasus wore the black and blue of the Agency Special Activity Squadrons, the same group she was a part of.

Biting her words off in shame, she went over and looked at the body…or what was left of it, as half of it looked chewed off. She immediately recognized who it was: Big Cookie. Like Corner, she’d been a Covenant member, but from a different cell and had turned in evidence against several nobles who were part of the Covenant. She’d ended up working in Squadron 2 instead of hers, and while they hadn’t really known one another, they did have enough shared experiences that they’d spoken a few times.

Corner remembered that Big Cookie was raising her little sister, after her family had died during the Winter. And now, that little filly was alone.

“Agent Shot?” Corner turned to see an Army medic coming towards her. “Cpt. Right sent me after you. He saw you go down and thought you might need some help.”

“I’ll be fine,” Corner lied. “But make sure her body gets taken care of. And let me know when it does; I need to speak to my command and inform them of…of her loss.”

“Will do, ma’am. But you might want to go see the Captain.”

Corner nodded, then flew off.

She found him in the middle of the town square, pulling his sword out of the head of a very nasty – and thankfully very dead – humongous scorpion. “This is starting to get out of control,” Divine muttered to nopony in particular.

“Yeah, tell me about it,” she told him as she landed. “How are you holding up?”

“Twi’s worried sick about me, but knows I need to do the job. Moreover, I’m more worried that if we don’t stop this thing, it’s going to make it to Sunhillow and it’s going to be up to my aunt and cousin to deal with it.”

“That and a regiment of Hooves?” Corner asked.

“Undoubtedly; probably the top ones as well,” Divine added.

“And if it makes it to Ponyville and Berryville?”

“I don’t even want to think that far. I know that Twi and the girls can handle themselves, but…that’s my job, you know? They shouldn’t have to put themselves at risk. Plus, if it gets that far, then Earth is potentially threatened and under the new regulations, the SIRENs will have to get involved. And you know better than I the bloodbath that’s going to cause.”

“Don’t remind me; I still get an ache in the knife and bullet wounds I got from them not all that long ago,” Corner admitted. “You don’t seriously think they’d do that, would they?”

“We’re talking about a situation in which we’re still fighting the forces that Tirek left behind and then had to deal with the Winter and your old friends’ uprising,” Divine growled. “And now this – and Ponyville is the main access point to Earth. It’s not a matter of thinking about just ponies or even the species here on Equus anymore. Now we have to consider the humans as well, and take our own human forces into account, too.”

“Well, hopefully Twi and Razz and the others can take care of it before they unleash those three lunatics on that beast. Otherwise, I have no idea who’s going to come out on top.”

An ear-splitting roar sounded in the sky, and the two looked up. The reports had stated that the giant caterpillar had continued growing as it had made its way towards the populated portions of Equestria, but many dismissed it as hyperbole. The creature was now big enough that it was blotting out the sun and that had every pony obviously worried.

“Let’s get back into the fight,” Divine said with a bravado he didn’t quite feel. “I’m not going to let that thing near my fillyfriend.”

“I got your back, Captain,” Corner said, taking to the skies despite her own exhaustion.

Now growing larger and larger, the Huqqa knew it was all wrong and that it would be made right. As it absorbed the very magic from the lands around it and set its fellow arthropods free, the creature knew that once it reached its destination, it would have enough power to cocoon itself, and to turn from a mere caterpillar into an imago. And then, what sights would be seen!

It had seen so much already. The words whispered into its ears, telling it the truths of this world and that the Queen of this world had denied the Huqqa its due. That so much that it had known and believed in had been twisted, changed, mutated by the Queen – a mere horse that had dared to grow wings and a horn, as if it were some grotesquerie, a cross between a narwhal and an eagle! How mad!

It longed for the days when it would just easily live in its garden, surrounded by the beautiful flowers and mushrooms, not having to be concerned with anything else in the world. And all of that had been taken away from it, as it had been forced into a prison. Only the Cat knew, and only the Cat had the courage to free it from all this. And the Huqqa was not prone to violence, but even the most pacificist of creatures could be pushed too far.

Soon, this world would be its, and it would remake it into the paradise that it deserved to be. And while the Huqqa had no interest in being a king, he hoped that making this world into a utopia would remove the need for such.

All it had to do was to reach the castle to blame for all this – Castle Everfree.

“OhmiCelestia – would you get a look at the size of that thing?!” The group of troops, onboard the naval ship Slow Fast Hazel, looked in horror at the size of that thing. “We’re miles away from that thing and it looks to be the size of Canterlot castle!” one of the deckhoofs cried.

“Castle nothing – that thing looks to be the size of all of Canterlot!” cried another.

“Size or not, we’re putting that thing down,” the captain told them. “Bring us about midships and into firing position. We’ll put some cannonballs into it and show the beast what we’re made of, right?”

Before anyone could answer, a blast of rainbow light tore through the sky, lancing right past the Hazel. Behind it, the Hazel’s sister ship, the Cadriopo, burst into flames and exploded, taking the lives of all aboard.

“EVASIVE MANEUVERS!” the captain shouted as he spun the helmwheel. “We can’t take a hit like that!”

Beat rushed up to him. “Captain, what are you doing?”

“Getting away from that thing! It hit us from miles away, Dame Beat!” he told her. “Only our most advanced magic and weapons have that range and we certainly don’t have either aboard this thing!”

“I need to get to the Huqqa!” she told him. “I’m the only one who can stop it!”

“Yes, maybe, if you were Princess Celestia. But I’m not seeing wings to go with that horn, Missie, and as long as I’m in command of this ship, I’m saying, no, got that?”

“Then lend me all your pegasi. Combat fliers, deckhooves, hell, even the ship’s cook! If they’re a pegasus, I need them on the weatherdeck and I need them there pronto.”

“And I’m saying no to that!” the captain countered.

“And I’ll inform Prince Divine Right – you know, the nephew of Queen Luna, as well as a senior military officer in his own right? – that you turned down my request!” she countered back.

“Fine, fine. I’ll pass the order. But if I lose any of them, it’ll be on your horn, got that?”

“If I fail at this, it won’t matter if you have my horn or not,” she told him, then rushed towards the weatherdecks.

Pinion immediately joined her. “What are you doing?”

“Something stupid.”

“How stupid?”

Beat then explained her entire plan, finishing up with, “and you wanted to know how I could get us to Roc’s Roost? There you go.”

“You’re right – that is phenomenally stupid. Unfortunately, I don’t think we have a better plan.” As the naval pegasi started to gather on deck, Pinion called out, “Okay, anyone who is capable of flight, get over here and let me explain what has to be done, understood?”

“You don’t have to do this,” Beat told her. “You’re not involved.”

“Yes I am.” She held up the Sword of Airdrop. “You said this belonged to me, and that Airdrop was my ancestor. My ancestor apparently did everything he could to make sure your ancestor was able to win the battle. That tells me that what he did was in his blood, and it’s in my blood, too. And if you’re out there doing this because you’re the only one who can, you need somepony who can watch your back. I might not be the bravest or best one out there, but…I got you.” She offered her hoof.

Beat bumped it. “It felt like just a couple of days ago we didn’t get along.”

“Yeah, but I got over that. Besides, I’m not just doing this for you. I’m doing it for Grassie and Rorie, too. Even if you didn’t get along with us…they were still my friends.”

“I know. And that shouldn’t change, no matter what.”

Pinion smiled. “Thanks. Now let me go do what I need to do, and you get ready to do what you need to do. Good luck out there, Beat.”

“You too, Pin. You too.”

Cutting off the head of a centipede just as it was about to maul a mother and her foals trying to escape the madness, Corner came to a harder landing on the ground than she thought. She’d exhausted her knives, and while she was waiting for the reload spell to kick in, she fell back on the short swords she had as a backup. She remembered the magenta-maned human she’d fought against and how she used the short swords in a unique way; while Corner wasn’t sure that she was imitating her to the best of her abilities, she hoped that humanness would have approved, especially since they were now technically on the same side.

She heard a crack above and looked up to see one of the naval ships explode from a blast that could only be from the behemoth creature. The more that the battle raged on, the less chance there was that they would hold out here. Already the Army had moved some of their forces towards the second line of defense at Sunhillow and that only volunteers were remaining behind to help with evacuation and fighting whatever remaining battles there were. Divine and a group of hoof-picked ponies were staying behind to manage the fight and Corner requested and received permission to stick with his group – it felt like the right thing to do.

Besides, somepony’s gotta get justice for Big Cookie, she thought. I don’t know how her sister’s going to get the news that now that Cookie’s gone, that little filly’s going to be all alone in this world. Nopony deserves to be alone.

She looked towards the sky again and watched as the lead ship sent all of its fliers – and apparently not just combat fliers – out to do…cloud wrangling?

What?

Corner signaled for a couple other lower-ranked ponies to follow her. Forming up on her, the flight rushed into the air, meeting up with a mare who seemed to be giving orders.

“What in Tartarus are you doing?!” Corner told them. “Now is not the time for cloud wrangling!”

“Uh, yeah it is!” the mare told her. “My boss is going to end this, and to do so, she’s going to need a clear cloud path.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong, since I’m exhausted from fighting for the past day or so, but isn’t putting clouds in the way the exact opposite of clearing a cloud path?”

“No, I said a clear cloud path, not clearing one. Trust me, it’ll make sense in a second.”

A few more clouds were pushed in the way and a burly pegasus called back, “Ho the chief! Last cloud’s in place!”

“Thanks! Now stand back and let her do her work.”

“This is crazy.”

“Yeah, but I’ve found out very recently that this is how she operates.” Reaching into her saddlepack, Pinion quickly pulled a signaling device out and sent the signal.

Aboard the Hazel, the captain looked at the sky and saw the signal. “And there’s your signal to go. Are you sure this will work?”

“Absolutely not,” Beat said, looking at the clouds. “But I have to make it work anyway.”

“This is suicide, madam! You’re not an alicorn!”

“Don’t tell me what I can’t do simply because I haven’t done it yet!” Beat said with a grin, and stepped forward, her body picking up immense speed as she took each step.

She thought about the clouds and how pegasi and other fliers operated. It was a magic unique to them, and impossible for non-fliers to achieve. Even spells that allowed non-fliers to walk around on clouds didn’t allow for fast speeds; the most they could move at would be a steady clop, but not an outright gallop.

But this…this armor she had on, the Armor of Wonderland, was given to her by Alice. The armor, the humaness had said, worked on the principle of the impossible – that it worked because it wasn’t expected to do so. And so she moved with the one spell that Alice had taught her would help Beat to catch up to the Huqqa, a little something that ponies had no need for, but in the impossible possibilities of the Armor, humans such as her used with little issue.

It was a spell humans called a “flash step” and it was essentially rapid-fire teleportation, moving so fast that she would literally not run on the clouds, but instead on the raindrops the clouds were made from. And now, as she blasted down her makeshift path, rushing fast enough that even legendary speedster pegasi like Rainbow Dash or Lightning Dust would be envious she focused on her path. Even with the running platform, she insisted that it stop a mile away from the Huqqa, as she didn’t want to risk the lives of the pegasi involved.

She continued to barrel along the path, the distance between her and the end of the runway growing shorter and shorter by the second, her body a practical blur of white, especially as she pulled out her rapiers. Another gift from Alice and from Queen Sunny, the vorpal blades had come from the book itself, created by it to stop the madness that had somehow come about. And these swords were truly powerful; Alice had explained in the human variety of Equish, English, that vorpal was a word that meant an object could cut through anything. And now she had the swords in her hooves, Gyre and Gimble, and even though she was pushing herself with just her hind legs, leaning forward enough that inertia was keeping her upright, it was still going to be a stretch.

She was going to have to clear that last mile of space between her and the Huqqa on her velocity, or else she would fail and the world would fall. But she wasn’t going to allow that to happen, because everypony depended on her. Moreover, she was the descendant of Blazing Lance himself – he wouldn’t allow himself to fail, nor did his descendants. She couldn’t – wouldn’t – be the first to break that noble tradition.

From being a zero to being a hero, all in a matter of days – was this how her ancestors did it? Or any other brave pony, for that matter? She thought about it briefly, but didn’t dwell on it, as she focused on pouring on that last bit of speed. And with that, as she reached the end of the cloud runway, she threw herself off, being probably the first unicorn in the history of ever to take flight without the aid of wings, spells or anything else.

As she hurtled towards the Huqqa, she roared, “HEY, I’VE GOT A MESSAGE FOR YOU! FROM ALICE!” As expected, the behemoth turned its head skyward to look at her, its sulfurous eyes filled with madness and a mind that was less and less there by the moment. This wasn’t just justice; this would be putting a creature out of its pain.

“REMEMBER WHAT THE DORMOUSE SAID!” she roared as she slammed onto its nose and brought up Gyre and Gimble for the final strike.

“FEED YOUR HEAD!” she then bellowed, slamming the blades of the two swords right into the creature’s eyes and poured all her magic into the spell. Her magic, nowhere near enough to affect the creature, went through the impossible magic of the swords and amplified, as the creature began to quickly turn to stone.

“It HaS bEeN MaDe rIgHt,” the Huqqa whispered, the last look on its face a smile as it was freed from the madness of it all. Then it completely petrified and began to crumble, falling apart like a great ziggurat surrendering to oblivion. Pieces of the now-dead creature plummeted to earth, big and small and crushing all within its path, even as the parts that still remained on the ground, crumbled into nothingness, leaving massive boulders of formerly living stone everywhere around the ruined town of Mountainview.

Unfortunately, this also meant that with nothing to hold her airborne any longer, even Beat had to succumb to the forces of gravity and what went up now was going down – and down very quickly. She felt herself fall, hearing Pinion’s cry from a distance and wondering if her friend would make it in time.

It didn’t matter, though, did it? She’d finally done what she’d set out to do: leave town and become better than she’d ever intended. Maybe her father was right: she could move on beyond the Guild. She didn’t need the Guild to accomplish what she had done and she didn’t need to wear Guild robes to succeed in saving the world.

The world felt so much lighter as she realized Pinion wouldn’t be able to save her in time.

The world felt so much brighter.

V: I Think She'll Know

From this high up, the sky seemed like it stretched on forever, and the ground was nothing. Beat had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity years ago to ride in a hot air balloon when one of her mother’s cousins, a pegasus that was a licensed hot air balloon pilot, had come to visit Radourmeire’s Rest. Only a foal of ten at the time, Beat had the chance to go up and ride and was amazed at how beautiful and small everything seemed from a pegasus’ view.

Now, seated in her own saddlepack as a result of ingesting the pill that made her small, Beat felt the wind whip around her ad-hoc seat as Pinion made good to her word and climbed the skies out to the Mareington Gulch. She chanced peeking out of the pack at the ground below and bit off a cry of shock: what had once been the Mareington Gulch and the surrounding desert was a bigger, larger canyon, a massive gash in the earth that made the previous one look as if it were nothing.

“Wow,” she could hear Pinion voice; the last time the pegasus spoke, the size in voice differential made her normal speaking voice loud enough to be ear shattering, so Beat had to cast a volume modulating spell; it worked both ways, as Beat’s temporary size made her current tones high-pitched and ear-bleeding as well.

“Something wrong?”

“Yeah. I used to fly out this way all the time whenever I needed to pick up something from Saltwater Reach,” Pinion told her. “Everything down there’s been destroyed. It’s going to take decades, even with earth pony assistance, to make it grow back to normal and even then it’s not going to be the same.” She sighed. “My older brother Trailblazer wanted to set up a tour guide service for any ponies interested in going to the Gulch and it looks like it might not be safe to do that for a long time.”

“Sorry to hear that.”

“Thanks. But I feel sorry for my brother; he and Grassie were dating and….” Beat heard the mare choke away a sob and continue to focus on her flight path; it immediately helped her to rethink her opinions on the mare she had previously mentally labeled Left Goon. “Just…if you can do anything about this monster, I hope you can, but I don’t know why going to that ancient castle ruins will help.”

“Neither do I, Pinion, but it’s the only chance we have. Otherwise, two friends of mine are going to be throwing their lives away for nothing.”

“I won’t let that happen,” the pegasus insisted and Beat could feel the increased flutter as Pinion increased her speed.

It was late afternoon when an exhausted Pinion nearly crash-landed on the ruined slopes of the hillside that held the Western Keep. From above, Beat had seen the damage done; the hill that overlooked the sea was mostly destroyed and now the ruins sat on what was left, precariously perched over a makeshift bay, and by her guess, it would only be a decade or two at best before gravity and nature took its course and sank the whole thing into the sea.

Landing harder than she intended, Pinion collapsed onto the grass. “We’re here,” she panted, stretching her wings out and laying on the scorched grass to let her heat bleed into the ground. “I feel like I’ve flown through a hurricane with one wing tied behind my back.”

Beat struggled to climb out of the saddlebag, finally doing so and falling for what felt like a few feet before crashing onto a small tuft of unburnt grass that felt like landing on a bush, strangely enough. Focusing her magic, she withdrew the bottle containing the blue pill, though it felt like she was lifting a massive boulder. Letting it crash to the ground, she struggled with removing the top and pulling the pill out. In her normal size, it was nothing more than a slightly lengthened capsule, but in her current condition, it may as well have been larger than a loaf of bread.

“You going to be okay?” she heard the booming voice of Pinion, reverberating through the ground because of the size difference.

“If I don’t eat this soon, some ant might think I’m dinner!” Beat cried and immediately started chowing down on the pill, which tasted to her, strangely enough, like a blueberry muffin. She felt herself stretch, warp and woof and for a moment, she thought she could see sounds and hear colors as her mind swam in a strange, twisted way and it felt like she was moving low. Between this and the other pill she’d taken earlier to shrink, they had felt like no magic she had ever experienced before

But then the world returned to normal and she found herself lying on the ground next to Pinion. Pulling herself back to her hooves, she helped the other mare up. “You ready?”

“Not really. Do I need to go in there with you?”

“Do you want to take your chances with whatever might still be out here, given the titanic caterpillar and the oversized insects that ran roughshod throughout our town?”

That was enough for Pinion. She immediately began to remove Beat’s saddlebags and sword to return to her immediately.

The two entered the only part left of the building, the western wing. Even then it still looked like it had seen better days from before the giant caterpillar had been unleashed. Preparing for everything, Beat pulled a small magic lantern out of her bag and took it in her magical grasp; she then did the same with the sword in case any remaining Covenant members were present. It wasn’t very likely given Milliner’s grotesque spell, but Beat wasn’t going to take a chance regardless.

“Do you know where we’re going?” Pinion asked her.

“Yes, I think I do,” Beat replied. While she wasn’t running, she certainly moved with a purpose. She moved into the area, and walked down the hall, through the darkened area and then down the hall with the books, and finally into the area with the statues. Nothing had changed at all, and while she still felt the sign of an immense magical power, she could feel that it was somehow hidden, stealthed away from her.

“This place is a mess. Rorie was the fashionplate of us three, but I’d have to agree with her if she were to say that this place is just buried in dirt,” Pinion told her.

“Yeah, I guess.” Beat felt confused. She was sure this was the place and that the answer led here, but she wasn’t sure why. It had to be something else. She reached into her saddlepack and brought out the letter.

“One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small,
And if you go chasing rabbits, and you know you’re going to fall,
Go ask her, and feel ten feet tall”

Come to where the beginning is the end, and the end is a beginning. Come…and Remember.

-A&S

A thought hit her as the words seemed to sear into her mind. With no fanfare, Beat immediately jumped out the broken window, right to where they had landed initially. Following her instincts, Beat gave Pinion the lantern and detached her left saddlebag. “Go ahead and set up our camp,” she told her. “I don’t know how long it’s going to take, so I’m going to assume we’ll be here overnight.”

“Are you going back in there…without the light?” Pinion asked.

Beat nodded. “I think this is something I need to do completely on my own,” she explained. “I think it has directly to do with me, because this is my ancestral castle and these are my family’s lands. Like I said, there’s something here that we can use to stop that thing…but I suspect that only I – literally just yours truly – can do this. So I’m going to leave you here and I’m going to do it.”

“I don’t like this,” Pinion said.

“I don’t either, but it’s the only chance we might have,” she said as she headed towards the gaping hole that led to the western wing.

“Best of luck, Beat,” Pinion said.

Beat turned and gave the mare a smile. “Thanks. I’ll be back as fast as I can.”

Once again, she entered the halls of the western wing, though the last time she had been rushed and filled with purpose. This time, however, she carried herself as she did the previous time, peeking into the rooms filled with detritus and relics of bygone ages. She saw the damaged sword once more and this time pulled it out from where it had been crushed by the falling ceiling; to her surprise, the sword bore a cutie mark on its ricasso, a raindrop with wings. Beat thought for a moment about who the sword would belong to and remembered the name Airdrop, a pegasus that had served alongside Skyward Strike and had given his life to make sure that Skyward had survived to continue the fight against Nightmare Moon.

Setting the sword back down, this time she did so gingerly, promising that if she made it through this, she would see that the sword would be restored and either given to Airdrop’s descendants, or placed in a position of honor. This sword had been history, was history and as a scion of history herself, she had to make sure that it was respected.

Eventually, she entered the part where it had been dark. Part of her wanted to cast an illumination spell, but she didn’t; the other part of her wanted to go back and get the lantern, but for some reason, that didn’t seem like the right thing to do.

“And if you go chasing rabbits….”

The words from the letter suddenly made themselves present in her mind and she remembered her pet Oxford, and how both troublesome and loving the rabbit had been. Apparently, he had more secrets than she thought: it had not been a rabbit, but instead a rabbit spirit, an animistic force that had taken a liking to her family and stayed. And now he was gone, lost forever to history, leaving Beat with a strange pocketwatch and more questions than she had answers to.

On a hunch, she opened the pocketwatch and a flash of warm, inviting light erupted from it briefly. A flare of light leapt from it and as it did, it coalesced into the very familiar shape of something she had known and loved for all her life. Standing there, now nothing but a glowing shape of light, was somehow her beloved pet Oxford, as if beckoning for her to follow. He immediately rushed off into the darkness, and with that, she followed him without question.

The darkness suddenly gave way to light, as warm as candlelight, and as it did, the rabbit-shaped magical construct vanished, but somehow, she knew to keep going. A few steps more and she found herself in the hallway from her dreams: lined with endless shelves with innumerable books, each shelf buttressed on either side by a suit of ancient pony barding, an indicator that this was a place of honor and glory. Above, the stained-glass chandeliers, each covered with the symbol of a rabbit, gave an amicable, inviting glow, urging her to step forward and finish what she started.

She made her way down the hallway, noticing the names of the books as she moved along: THE DEEDS OF STURDY SPEAR, read one. THE BEAUTY AND STRENGTH OF ROSETHORN THE RANGER, read another. So many of these books held the names of her ancestors and distant relatives, not just those she directly descended from, but their siblings, and other heroes who had served in the Western Keep. It was all a bit daunting and while part of her wanted to read about these brave ponies and their exploits and adventures, she knew she had to keep going. Something was awaiting her presence, something that had been long awaiting the return of a pony.

Finally, she reached a pair of doors at the other end, just as she had before, but instead of being rotted away, these were sturdy, made of what appeared to be the finest oak and completely featureless, except for a strange indentation in the right door. She looked at it, then at the pocketwatch, realizing it was the same size; the pocketwatch somehow had to be a key, as well. Taking the chance, she placed the watch into the slot and with a glow of light, the watch vanished and the doors opened, revealing her dream to her once more.

The great rotunda opened before her once more, revealing the gorgeously ornate window, the pedestal standing there, still containing the book on its surface. As for the tome itself, it now lay open, its pages glistening and glowing with potential. On the far left of the room sat the statues of the lords and ladies of the Western Keep, now polished to a beautiful sheen and gleaming, as if they were proud to be represented by such hewn marble.

But the thing that most caught her attention was the table on the right side of the room. The human woman in armor sat down with the unfamiliar alicorn and the two chatted as if old friends. Finally, the human woman turned to Beat and gestured to the seat. “Please sit down; we have much to discuss with you and there isn’t much time.” Her accent was that of Trottingham, same as in the dream, yet there was something else about it that Beat couldn’t pin down.

The alicorn lifted her own teacup to her lips and took a sip. “Oh, I don’t know; I think there’s plenty of time. Here in the Netherspace, we’ve got nothing but time.” The alicorn’s accent was like hers, standard Equish, and it only made Beat wonder all the more who the alicorn was.

The young woman looked crossly at the alicorn. “Not now. She looks completely confused as is.”

“Yes, I am,” Beat said, curtseying to both before approaching the seat. “Are you…are you two Faust and the Megan?”

The two looked at each other…then broke into peals of laughter.

“I don’t understand what’s funny,” Beat said.

“Oh, I can assure you, she is most certainly not me.” Beat turned to her left and saw a pure white alicorn, far taller than the one seated, with blood red hair and blue eyes.

“And I really don’t have time to gallivant around Equestria right now.” Beat’s head whiplashed to the right and saw another human, one with ruby and gold hair and cyan eyes, wearing clothing that looked nothing like the armor that the seated human did. She had what looked like a bag slung over her shoulder and carried a disposable coffee cup in her claw…if that was the right term for it.

Beat blinked and rubbed her eyes, and when she looked again, the two were gone.

“Sorry about that,” the human said with a smile. “But we had to show you we are neither the Queen of All and her faithful human companion, nor are we the former Princess of All and her strangely human daughter.”

“I’m still amazed there are so many alicorns here,” the alicorn said. “Not to mention I could really go for some good coffee right now.”

“All we have is tea in the Netherspace, you know that,” the human replied.

“I know. Still doesn’t mean I couldn’t use a cup of Foalgers right now. That or a haybacon double tofuburger. I would do practically anything for one of those right now!”

“That sounds entirely unhealthy.”

“Yes, Miss ‘I eat things named kippers and spotted dick’, that sounds like the very model of deliciousness. Blegh.”

“Would you two please explain what’s going on?” Beat asked.

The human laughed and set down her own cup. “Sorry. We’ve been together here in this place for so long, we’re almost like an old married couple. Except that I had a weird old pedophile write a story about me once, then I got married, had children, got old and died and ended up here, I think. Still a bit unclear on that one.”

“Well, as for me, I’ve got this stallion I’ve got my eye on and I hope he notices me. Because if he pays attention to my Court Mage instead, I’ll be kinda heartbroken, but at least I’ll support them. She is a dear friend of mine after all.”

“Assuming they’re still around. We’ve been here for what, thousands of years now?”

“I have no idea! It’s not like there’s a clock in here and I have no idea if time in the Netherspace is supposed to flow like normal time.”

“Okay, for Celestia’s sake, will you two shut up and tell me what’s going on?” Beat, at the end of her patience, finally said.

“Oh, sorry. This place…it does that to you,” the alicorn apologized. “Anyway, we’re in the Netherspace. It’s a place neither here nor there, not a part of Equus nor of Earth yet part of both Equestria and England, if that makes sense.”

“No, it doesn’t. Who are you two?”

“I’ll go first.” The young woman smiled. “My name is Alice Hargraves, though in my youth my surname was Liddell. A man named Charles Dodgson, who also went by the name of Lewis Carroll, wrote a story about me. He also tried to marry me when I was eleven, which even back then was extremely creepy, doubly so now. Anyway, I lived a full life, got old, died and my soul somehow became intertwined with the book. I might not even be the Alice Hargraves, but instead the embodiment of Alice itself. I don’t know and I’ve spent a lot of years thinking about that. I just know that I am comfortable with who I am now, and I am not some blonde dipshit in a blue dress working for a fucking mouse.”

“Are you sure about that one? The book is public domain.”

“The book is enough of a headache as is for me, Sunny, you know that.”

“Sunny?” Beat said.

“I guess it’s my turn to speak.” The alicorn smiled. “My name is Sunny Starscout and I am the Queen of Equestria.” Before Beat could ask, Sunny stated, “Oh, no, not this one – where I come from, I was originally born as an earth mare, and was raised on stories of Princess Twilight Sparkle and her paladins, and of the alicorns before her. My dad never quite told me whether the stories were history or myth. Anyway, we were building my castle in Maretime Bay and having to talk diplomacy with Zephyr Heights; as far as I’m concerned they can be a separate country. It’s pretty confusing.”

“You’re not the only one lost,” Beat admitted.

“Anyway, when I got here, Alice explained everything to me. She is the White Knight and I am the Red Queen. We had to fill those spaces, or else the original placeholders would do so and….” The alicorn shrugged. “Al, you’d better explain it all to her. This is all your fault anyway.”

“Yes, sure, blame it on me because some old pervert wanted to write the child version of me in as a character in a political satire of the time that somehow got morphed into a timeless children’s book. I don’t think I need to say this, but humans are bloody weird.” Alice shrugged. “Anyway, it all starts with that bloody book on the pedestal over there – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. Best not touch it, though; it’s caused enough problems as is.”

“How so?”

“Do you know a creature named Radourmeire?”

Hearing that, Beat then went on to tell them about the legends of Radourmeire and how her ancestor found and tried to rescue the poor creature, to no avail. The creature had been honored as much as he could have and was now central to part of the history of Radourmeire’s Rest, the former Radourmeire’s Refuge and to Potok barony and province as a whole.

“I see. The poor soul,” Alice said in a surprisingly sad tone. “He was the first to realize what was happening and between him and Blanc, they ventured out to see if they could get help. Unfortunately, by then things had changed and what was topsy-turvy had become completely, murderously chaotic. May I ask, are you also familiar with a creature named Discord?”

“The Calamity? Everypony is familiar with Discord! From what I understand, he’s reformed now, thanks to Lady Fluttershy, but before then, he was a monster,” Beat explained. “A villain, a—”

“No he wasn’t. He was a victim. So much of what you think Discord was responsible for, I can say with certainty, without ever having met the chap or knowing what he did, he was not at fault. I gather that he is a chaos entity, but does your history indicate that he has ever slain someone? Taken the life of an individual?”

“I’m not as versed in Calamity History as some others I know, but from what I remember from school, not really. Why?”

Alice pointed at the book as a glare came to her eyes. “That book – that damnable book is to blame. That book has destroyed—”

“Al, calm down. She’s here to help, not to listen to you pontificate. I think I’d better take it from here, since I’m somewhat of a third party and kinda neutral except not entirely. Trust me, like everything else, it doesn’t make sense.” The alicorn gestured towards the book. “The book is alive. Somehow, the book fell into this universe from the human one – or a human one, we’re still not clear on that and somehow swapped, uh, ‘chaotic polarities’, for lack of a better term, with your local chaos entity. But in doing so, two things happened. A malicious creature was neutered because it received magic of a lesser chaos level, while the book somehow got his powers and in doing so, became alive. In turn, all those powers were shared between the beings in the book and things got…confusing. How am I doing so far, Al?”

Alice shook her head. “The first to be affected was the Cheshire Cat. He had always been an odd bird, in a manner of speaking, but he’d never been malicious before. But by the time we all realized it, he had murdered several creatures and was trying to find a way to get to ‘the real’, which we had no idea what it meant; I thought that he was referring to my own world. It was Radourmeire, who had once been a sleepy, feeble creature, who had somehow grown courage and figured everything out. He convinced Blanc, who had been just as useless in the old ways, to go with him to ‘the real’ to seek help.

“Things didn’t go well and for the longest time, both were gone – none of us knew what happened to them. Then Cheshire murdered the White Knight and the Red Queen. Both of them had, due to the chaotic nature of the book, become sane and knew that Cheshire meant no good. By this point, he had gathered the Carpenter, the Tweedles and many others under his banner. He was going from a curious creature who observed everything to a mad – a truly mad – despot. And by the time I knew what was going on, Wonderland was at war. And now he’s found a way to get to your world, by infecting the mind of the Huqqa – the caterpillar, who was just a knowledgeable soul, if a bit too much on laudanum and opium for his own good – and turning him into a monstrous, insanely murderous juggernaut.

“So I stepped into the White Knight’s role. I think I may have sealed my own fate this way, but I’ve been tied to this whole thing for so long…like I said, I don’t know at this point if I am Alice, or Alice.”

Beat looked at Sunny. “And how do you tie into this?”

“I’m not sure myself,” the alicorn replied. “Our archeologists were researching some evidence of the existence of Discord, because honestly, all the stories about him seem to be completely unbelievable. But after a while, our archeologists hit a brick wall and since they needed some pretty extensive magic support, I was pretty much obligated to go.”

“Why so?” Beat asked. “Surely you had enough unicorns available, didn’t you?”

Sunny shook her head. “In my world, Equestria – the whole world, in fact – lost its magic a long, long time ago. As the first alicorn in thousands of years, I probably have more magic than anypony else and I can already tell it pales compared to you, who I assume is a typical unicorn. In any case, I joined them at the Ponyville archeological site and while looking around the area that our researchers believe was the home of Duchess Fluttershy, I found a cave located in the rotting remains of a chicken coop and when I went in…I found myself here. I suspect it was the book, or maybe somepony from the book did something to try to call for help and somehow breached my reality.”

Beat was silent for a moment. “Then how do I play into this?”

“Radourmeire apparently trusted your ancestor to take the book and keep it safe,” Alice explained. “And while this was originally a very secure vault, over time the magic of the book turned it into the Netherspace. Only those who have the true power and courage of your bloodline are able to access this space, or else it just becomes a room that means nothing.” Pointing to the statues, the woman said, “I take it those statues are familiar to you? If so, you were in the normal phase of this room, where the statues sit to inform the unworthy that they shouldn’t be there.”

“I see. But I still don’t understand why I’m here.”

The woman laughed. “Daft, isn’t she?”

“Al, be nice.” Sunny looked at Beat. “It has been a long time – a long time – since we have seen one of your bloodline here. The last one was Skyward Strike, so long ago. And for the longest time, we simply thought that was because things had calmed down somewhat. But apparently something has happened in your world, and whatever it was, allowed the Huqqa to be free. I suspect either Cheshire freed him or something else caused the mad beast to roam free. And in its insanity, it is no longer the thinking, relatively rational being it used to be. We need someone worthy of your bloodline to stop it, and Blanc chose you.”

Alice gave a smile. “You have his watch.”

Beat looked down at the table and there, before her, was the pocketwatch that Oxford had given to him. But…his name had been Blanc? She now knew he had been a rabbit spirit instead of a mere rabbit, and that he had been named Mr. Grasshopper when her father had him by his side, but how long had the rabbit truly existed?

“Blanc was the page of the Red Queen so long ago. When all this happened…he became Radourmeire’s right-paw assistant, the White Rabbit who would help the fight against what had been done to us. But if you have his watch, that means like Radourmeire, his duty is done and he has passed his trust to you, the last in your bloodline capable of doing what needs to be done.”

“But I’m just—”

“The descendant of Blazing Lance, the first Lord of the Western Keep, who stood watch over the western ocean for Queen Faust and who secretly guarded a book from dangers without and within,” Alice said, rising from her chair. Standing at her full height, even though she would have seemed petite to another human, to a pony she was immeasurably tall, a virtual giantess. “I can see it within you, even if you cannot see it yourself: your bravery, your kindness, your honor and a stiff upper lip. You are truly the daughter of knights, even if you do not feel so.”

Sunny rose from her seat as well. “Radourmeire once told your ancestor words that must be remembered, for they are all: knowledge is paramount. The knowledge to know oneself. The knowledge to protect another. The knowledge to know right from wrong and morality from depravity. You have that already, but you must know it deep within your heart if you are to save everything.”

“But I’m not a hero. I can’t even pass the Guild exams. I’m not good enough, just barely above mediocre.”

The two other female folk, the humanness and the alicorn, stood there, taking in the whole of the doubting unicorn mare, then looked at one another.

“You are stronger than you know. You saved a prince when he would have given all to save you instead,” Alice told her.

“When your town was in danger, your first instinct was to return and to save not only those you loved, but even those you cared nothing for. And even now, you have forgiven one of your former bullies, who sits outside and waits for you to return,” Sunny reminded her.

“To us, there is no other finer sobriquet. Blanc was a sharp mind and a keen heart and knew what to look for when he needed to choose an individual to save the world. And he chose you – he knew you are a knight and that you are worthy.”

And so, the alicorn, with a queenly air about her, had long, flowing mane of magenta, which contrasted with her apricot-colored coat and green eyes. Her armor was red and had a beautiful white surcoat with no adornment. Brandishing the sword briefly in her magical grasp, she held the sword out before her.

“Remember,” the alicorn said.

“Remember,” the humanness said.

A beautiful aura of light poured forth, out of the strong came forth sweetness. The window behind the book shattered as if nothing, and in the distance was the castle from earlier, now restored to its original form, shining and bright, beautiful and keeping watch upon the hill.

Words, unclear and inexplicable, yet verbiage nonetheless, echoed and reverbed in her mind in one voice, then two voices then a multitude. And though she wasn’t sure how she knew, something within her told her it was the voice of Blazing Lance and her ancestors and ancestresses uttering something of vital importance to her.

“Take the vorpal blades, Beatrix…and save the world.”

The sun had long set when a light came flickering out of the ruins of the Western Keep. To Pinion’s surprise, it was Beat…but it was Beat like she’d never seen the mare before. The mare walked out wearing beautiful silvery armor, with accents of red gold, and a surcoat of red and white checkerboard, as if it was an amalgam of something. At her side, she carried two swords, rapiers with individual hilts of red and white.

“Beat?” Pinion asked, nervously.

Beat withdrew a sword. It had been rusty and damaged, but now it shone brightly in the moonlight, the silvery luminescence flickering on the ricasso. “This is yours,” she told Pinion. “I don’t know how I know…but Airdrop was your ancestor and had served my ancestress well during the final battle of this place. And now, the sword will be needed again, and there is no finer hoof to wield it.”

Pinion looked at the restored sword of Airdrop and then looked at Beat with utter confusion. “But I’m no Guard, and I don’t know the first thing about using a sword!”

Beat smiled. “You will know,” the unicorn said, as if she was now privy to some hidden truth that had never been revealed before and now she was its mistress. “All will be clear tomorrow.”

“You’re starting to freak me out, Beat.”

“I know. I was somewhat lost as well. But I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.” Another enigmatic smile, then a tired sigh. “Let’s get some food, and then get some sleep. We’ve got a long day tomorrow and we’re already running behind.”

“We are?”

Beat nodded. “We’re late…for a very important date.”

Epilogue: And the Mome Raths Outrgrabe

Dressed in her armor, Beat stood in the Room of the Book, the place in the Netherverse where the Book was kept safely away from the world. Except it wasn’t that room, but the real world’s equivalent, the Statuary Rotunda. The room looked as it likely did in the olden days, pristine and perfect.

And before her, not statues, but the living, breathing ponies that were her ancestors. All stood before her, and as one, they bowed.

“Thou hast p’rform’d a duty well beyond our ken,” Blazing Lance told her. “Daughter of daughters, thou art truly a hero and worthy of thy swords. Thou art truly a knight of thy liegelady.”

“But I’m no knight,” she told him.

In the back, Skyward Strike grinned. “Mayhaps, mayhaps not. That is not thine to disc’rn,” she said.

Beat opened her eyes and found herself staring at…herself? She blinked and the pony was still there, looking down at her.

“Hello.” The voice spoke softly, and with a slight smile on her face. “It’s good to see you made it, Your Grace.”

“Who…who are you?” Beat asked.

“The same as you, in a manner of speaking. A distant relative, to be honest, which is why we look alike.” She offered her hoof to bump, then pulled it back when she recalled how wounded the pony before her was. “Sorry. Still getting used to court formalities. Anyway, my name is Beatrix Lulamoon, though my friends call me Trixie. One of said friends is Princess Twilight, and I’m here serving as her unofficial attaché, since she’s still tied up with business related to this whole incident and asked for a friend to look into things.”

Lulamoon? Beat remembered, instantly: the name her side of the family had abandoned when the other half had chosen to go away from the family legacy. It didn’t matter much, as her family had been separated from the title in any case and was little different than the Lulamoon branch.

“So, we have the same name, as well as looking alike – weirdly like twins, though we’ve got different cutie marks, thankfully,” Trixie stated. “I presume you don’t go by Beatrix or Trixie?”

“Beat, actually,” the prone unicorn said. “Where am I?”

“Berryville Army Hospital. You were struck by a piece of that creature when you fell from the sky. Fortunately, we were able to rescue you in time. The doctors said you burnt out your magic and were dehydrated from windburn and several other factors. You’ve been unconscious for the past two days, but not in any serious medical condition. They’re flying your family in, by the way, although since I’m technically family I’m here to represent your needs until your parents or siblings get here.”

“I see.”

There was a knock at the door and a midnight blue alicorn came into the room. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”

“No, Your Majesty,” Trixie replied. “I think she’s confused enough as is.”

“Well, it has been a confusing past few days, admittedly,” Luna replied.

Beat’s eyes opened wide and she tried to get out of bed to bow, though struggling due to her wounds and exhaustion. “Your Majesty!” she eeped.

Luna chuckled. “No need to stand on ceremony; I’m a queen and so I can remove formalities whenever I wish. Call it the luxury of privilege. And Trixie will tell you that I am not as fond of formalities as my sister was.”

Trixie rolled her eyes good-naturedly. “She’s always like this,” Trixie said in an aside to Beat.

“Well, be that as it may, I do believe we are in the presence of a hero of Equestria. You have been wronged, Miss Beatrix, and normally while I would ensure that it is my duty to make it right, you have gone above and beyond, performing a feat of honor that will be mentioned in legend for years to come. As my nephew Divine told me, you pretty much lived up to – and went beyond – your ancestral line. And while as I said, I was intending to make amends for the wrongs done to you, I feel it is my duty as queen to do so much more.”

“I don’t understand,” Beat admitted.

“You may be familiar with Baron Seigneurie, who was the noble in charge of Potok barony and province. I say was, because a few days ago, he was found guilty of the charges of sedition, public endangerment, and interference with harmony. Sedition, because he was one of the nobles that had conspired with the Covenant to gather information against the Crown and so put all of Equestria at risk, for the sake of building his own power base. Public endangerment, because Crown law states that any town that resides near a leyline should have proper Guild oversight – and Seigneurie not only hid that, but he hid the fact that it was an active leyline, putting the townsponies and nearby areas at extreme risk. And, lastly, interference with harmony, because he directly interfered with the life of a pony that should have gained much more notice than she did – you.”

Beat looked at the queen with surprise. “Me?” she asked.

Luna nodded. “At Divine’s request, Archmagus Beryl has personally gone through your academic records and found that all the tests you have taken for the Guild entrance exam were falsified on behalf of Seigneurie, who apparently was wildly jealous of your magical prowess. Miss Beatrix, you aren’t ‘merely’ middling in power for a unicorn, but adept enough that you should have been offered a full scholarship at the Guild Academy. It is Archmagus Beryl’s belief that had you been trained as you should have been, you would be a very high-ranking Guild mage right now. As it is, she plans on having a mage instructor informally give you training for your future needs.”

While she should have been elated at hearing that she’d actually been qualified for the Guild several times over and furious that some relative of hers that she didn’t even really know had screwed her over just as many times purely out of spite, what the alicorn was saying still left Beat more confused than anything. “Future needs?”

“Yes. Unfortunately, because of circumstances, I cannot allow you to be admitted into the Guild, and while I understand that is your dream, I would ask that you listen to what I have to say. The fact is, as a result of his punishment, Seigneurie has been stripped of his title and all that it encompasses. Now, normally, when that happens, a noble line is extinguished and the province is turned into a governorship-based province. But as of recent, a member of that bloodline has proven their worth, far above that of the former titleholder. So much so, that I am compelled to raise the province in rank, from a barony to a viscounty.” Luna gave a warm smile and summoned her own sword. “And for your services to Equestria and the world, to save us from something we didn’t even know was there, Beatrix of Radourmeire’s Rest, in our position as queen we name and entitle thee Viscountess of Potok, so you may rule the province wisely from your soon to be new home – the restored Western Keep.”

Beat blinked. “What?”

Discord’s jaw fell on the ground and continued to sag for several more feet before he grabbed a turnkey, stuck it on the side of his face and turned it until his mouth was whole once more. “I can almost taste the chaotic power!” he whined. “And you’re saying it was supposed to be mine and somehow my power got switched with its and now I’m weaker?! Oh, life is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo unfair! Exclamation point, exclamation point! One! Eleventy!”

Looking at the ruins of the Western Keep, Raspberry Beryl nodded, giving the draconequus’ tirades little thought, as she was used to it. “Discord, it was tough enough having to find you as is for this, please don’t make it difficult, okay?”

“Look, just because I was hanging out with the kirins—”

“I don’t really want to know,” Fluttershy huffed.

“Not like that!” he told her. “They had one of the Tirek remnant armies invade and that’s my job right now, right? Right?” He donned a cape, ill-fitting spandex with a red D in a golden shield and a domino mask – made out of a literal domino piece, with his eyes where the single dots would have been. “I’m supposed to be the good guy saving the day, after all. But anyway, you’re telling me that this book from Sunny-set-set’s world did all this?”

“That’s the thing, Discord,” Twilight told him. She was looking at her cellphone, reading a text. “Sunny says that she just did an extensive Google – whatever that is – and apparently no such book by that name exists. The closest there is, is a book called Wonderlands, but that was written about two years ago, and according to what we know, this book is far older than that. Plus, given that Celestia said that the Megan is supposedly from another human dimension, maybe the book is from her universe instead. Or maybe one entirely different.”

“Makes you wonder if there are other pony dimensions,” Raspberry commented.

“While I find that intellectually interesting, I don’t think we should focus on that right now, Razz,” Twilight replied. “But if you can feel the power of the book, Discord, that makes it far too dangerous to put in Canterlot’s palace vaults or even the Guild’s Silent Room. If there are things like that Huqqa within it, then it might be best to keep it out here, safe from others.”

“I’ve given it some thought,” Divine, quiet until all this time, spoke up. “That has to be the real reason why the Western Keep existed. Supposedly it was set up by Queen Faust to watch over the western ocean in case of invasion, right? But back then, nopony knew about the kirin, kitsune, or other nations in that direction, so it made no sense. So the true reason had to be for keeping it away from the populated areas.”

“You might be right about that. The fact that Discord can sense the Book’s magic, but can’t actually tell where it is, means it’s already well hidden, and that only the Covenant’s interference freed that creature. Plus, it does fit Queen Faust’s modus operandi; there was that book Inspiration Manifestation that Spike somehow found buried in a secret vault in Castle Everfree. Had he given it to Rarity like he’d intended as opposed to me intercepting it in time?” She shuddered. “Well, there’s a reason that book’s hidden much the same way as the one we’re discussing. So, I’m all for rebuilding this place. Especially if we can put a Guard garrison here and protect it.”

“And hopefully, once Beat accepts, she’ll assign brave and true ponies here. From what I understand, she’s already got the descendant of Airdrop working for her now, and I’m sure Shining, Swifty and I can work something out to have a Solar Guard detachment sent here to be under her command.”

“That might be for the best, Div. Until we know more, we can’t let this fall into the wrong hooves. And who better to watch it than the bloodline that has watched over it all this time?”

Seated in a chair in the orphanage in the distant town of Bitburg Pass, a small pegasus filly with orange fur, white and pink mane and green eyes looked at the adult mare in front of her, tears in her eyes. “And I’ll never see my sister again?”

Corner looked at her sadly. “Big Cookie was a hero, Breaking Dawn,” she said softly. “And she did everything she did to make sure you would be safe.”

“But now I’m alone! My mom and dad…they died because of the Winter and now my sister and….” The filly’s words disintegrated into bawling as she realized she had lost the last family member she had.

Corner hugged the filly. “It’s okay. You’re not going to be alone. I promise.”

Dawn wiped her eyes. “You do?”

Corner felt the own edges of her eyes mist as well. “I was an orphan just like you and was in an orphanage until I was taken under the wing of a pony who cared about me. But I never knew my family and I didn’t even know I had relatives until recently. And I know how hard it can be growing up in an orphanage; even though the ponies running the orphanage try their hardest, they can’t be there for everypony.”

“That’s sad.”

“Yeah, it is. So I’m not going to let that happen to you – I’m going to be there for you. You’re going to come live with me.” Corner smiled. “I’ll be the big sister that Cookie couldn’t be, even though she wanted to. I mean, I’m not the greatest pony in the world, but it wouldn’t be fair to let you grow up here because your sister isn’t here to take care of you anymore. I can’t promise that I’ll be as good as Cookie, but I’ll do my best. You just have to give me a chance, okay?”

“You mean that?”

Corner hugged the filly close to her once more. “I mean that.”

Watching from a respectful distance, Lockbox wiped a tear from her eye. And I was wondering why she showed up, asking me to come with her because she needed a favor and didn’t want to ask Razz about it. Lockbox shrugged; if this was the price of making Corner a normal functioning mare in society (albeit a normal functioning mare who was an Agency combat flier), then it was worth the small inconvenience.

Inwardly, Lockbox grinned. Three of the Scions – Raspberry, Lockbox herself and Octavia, had never desired to be part of the dark destiny before them and had denied it. Now, the last of them, Corner, was taking her own steps to be free of it. Sombra’s legacy was once again due to be nothing more than the smoke and mirrors it deserved to be.

Instead, Lock was sure as she watched her distant cousin agree to be a foster sister for a young filly in need, they’d all make sure that someday, the legacy of House Sombra would be one far different than its progenitor. It would have a true legacy, one of love and light.

Wearing her armor, Beat stepped off the train and onto the grounds of the restored Radourmeire’s Rest. As she did, she couldn’t help but notice the mainstay addition to the town: a rebuilt statue of Radourmeire, now accompanied by Blanc, or Oxford, as she had known him. The two stood there, smiles on their faces and bright eyes looking forward into the future and friendship, while the plinth the two statues sat on had a brass plaque that now read WE WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER.

She looked and saw the crowds before her. The town had been rebuilt and the word of Beat’s heroism and bravery had inspired many ponies to either return to town or settle down. All in all, the town had actually grown slightly in population, and many of those who had come to see their new noblemare were faces she didn’t recognize at all. Hopefully, they would prove to love this place as much as she did.

“Welcome, Your Grace,” a familiar voice said. Beat looked at Rocketfuel, who had been promoted as the town’s mayor after the previous one was found to be part of Seigneurie’s circle of conspirators.

“Rocky, I’m the same mare I was a month ago, you know that,” Beat said.

“Yeah, but I’m not. Now I’m the mayor and I have to look official, you know. Besides, now that we have a real mailstallion and a real newsmare, I don’t have anything else to do in my spare time!” she laughed. She then looked at Beat’s counterpart. “And a good day to you, Lt. Feather.”

Pinion blushed. “Look, I’m not a real lieutenant yet. As it is, Beat’s brother will be returning tomorrow to temporarily take command of the new Guard garrison here, at least until I’m trained enough to take command myself,” she said. “I just feel weird as is that Queen Luna decided to go around the rules to do that.”

“She said that I needed a trustworthy pony to help me defend the keep, and you’ve proven yourself, Pin,” Beat assured her.

“Plus, any friend o’ Beat’s is a friend o’ mine!” Bramble went over and hugged Beat, then hugged Pinion, whether she expected it or not. “An’ Ah got a surprise fer both o’ ya!”

“Oh?”

“Of course.” Beat turned around to see her parents, wide smiles of pride on their faces. “You’ve gone above and beyond what we ever thought you would, dear,” Well said to her.

“I’m so proud of you, honey,” Marketplace told her daughter as she gave her a huge hug.

“Thanks,” Beat said, blushing. “I couldn’t have done it without your support.”

“You could have,” Well told her, “but that’s what parents are for – to help anyway.”

“Yup!” a voice in the crowd sang as a stage at the far side started to launch fireworks and a band came on. To Beat’s surprise, the vocalist came on, and it was none other than her sister, Dancefloor.

“And I’m proud to perform my latest concert at my kid sister’s homecoming. You might just be my kid sister, Beat, but you’re my hero, too!” the unicorn songstress said into the mic, and with that, Dancefloor broke into song.

As the town began its celebration, Pinion looked at her boss and friend. “So what happens now?”

“Well, we’ll live here, in Seigneurie’s old mansion, until the Keep is rebuilt, and then we can move there. After that, I’ll turn the mansion over to the Guild, who is building a major office here – they said that the number of dimensional intrusions are extremely strong here and might have been what influenced the Book, so they can’t afford to ignore it; one Guild researcher said it was a minor miracle that something really dangerous hadn’t already made its way out of the intersection yet. In any case, Archmagus Beryl promised she’s planning to send her best ponies to staff this office, so we’ll be okay in the long run.”

“And the Book?”

“Resting for now. And hopefully for good.”

Rising from her seat, Queen Sunny Starscout looked at her friend of thousands of years. “I can feel it. The rift is opening and a path is letting me go home.” Her eyes filled with relieved tears. “Finally – I can go home.”

“You can?” Alice asked.

As if on cue, a tear in space opened behind the alicorn. Sunny looked at it and her mouth opened in surprise. “It’s…it’s only been five minutes back in my world. All that and I’ve only been gone five minutes.”

“You don’t look a day over four minutes,” the humaness teased.

A frown of doubt came over Sunny’s face. “I…I don’t know what to say. I’m not the same pony I was when I left. Thousands of years have changed me, even if I don’t look it. I don’t know how to react or how to do anything anymore. I don’t know if I’ll be a good queen – I didn’t have much of a chance to be one when I got sucked into this Netherspace and now? I just don’t know.”

“You don’t have to know. You just have to be.” Alice went over and hugged her old friend. “You’ll do fine. I know you will.”

“But what about you?”

She looked at the book. “I…I don’t know. I can’t go back to my old life. I died back in my world and I had a full life as it was; to go back now, restored to life and youth? I don’t think I’d fit in any longer. And I’m pretty sure while I am Alice, I’m not the Alice. Not the character. Maybe not even the girl the character inspired, not anymore. I’m…me. And now? If you’re gone, I’m going to be alone, and I don’t know what I’ll be.”

“Then come with me,” Sunny offered.

“Me?”

The alicorn nodded. “Faust had her Swordbearer, the Megan, who was human and was her best friend – that’s what the legends here say, though I don’t recall a Faust or Megan in my world. And you are my best friend, Al. I think I’d be lost without you.”

“How will the ponies of your world react? From what you told me, your world only has ponies.”

“Then it’s high time we make a change for the better. Besides, you never know – some human guy might get stuck in my dimension sooner or later, and you always said you wanted a boyfriend.”

“That’s not what I said and you know it, Sunny!” Alice retorted.

“Well, let’s go find out then: You and me, what do you say?” Sunny went over and hugged the girl and laughing and crying tears of joy at the same time, Alice nodded. And with that, the two stepped into the rift, which closed, just as the Book flickered once in acknowledgement.

For the first time in millennia, the Netherspace was finally, deservedly, empty.

Empty enough not to see the two eyes floating in space, great orange blisters radiating hate and madness. It had been rebuffed, by both the Book and the residents of the Netherspace, and the power that it had wanted was denied.

Well, now there was none left to stop it. The damn human bitch and her horse friend were gone and the only one who could stop it was another horsie, one inexperienced in power and unprepared for what was to come.

And there would be more to come. The power of the Book would one day be its. It was inevitable.

Under the eyes, a malicious and unnatural smile, as wide as it was cruel, opened, breaking into venomous laughter. And then both eyes and mouth vanished, leaving the room truly empty.

For now.

Author's Note

This was a hard story for me to write. Seriously. I'd spent a year on it, with no success. The original plan was to make a slice of life and make Beat somewhat of a sad sack. It even had a different cover, as evidenced below. I don't even recall if I ever finished it.

I don't know where I got on the Alice in Wonderland kick, but I'm glad I did, because from that point, I literally retooled a story that I'd struggled to write only two chapters of to a full seven chapters within forty-eight hours.