Arc 1 – Long Echoes Chapter 4 – Old War

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There was only the faintest of taps when a gleaming form lowered itself onto the hill, not even the pebbles crunching under its long talons.

Shifting atop the molten core of swirling energy, the arcanium plates encased an ethereal body smaller than one might expect from a dragon, yet still big enough to tower over anypony. That size difference meant nothing in the imposing presence of the figure who had already claimed the snow-peppered mound.

The reality-violating suit hid all the pegasus’ features but her face wrinkled in deep thought. Unwaveringly looking into the distance, she acknowledged the arrival with only a slow blink before the speaker of her helmet came to life.

“Found anything?”

To Rainbow’s annoyance, Spike didn’t hurry with an answer, taking a seat with his long tail soundlessly sliding across the frozen ground to wrap itself around his legs.

“The same as last time,” he finally said.

“I keep coming across traces, too,” the pegasus instantly added.

Calm and measured, the dragon’s retort followed her worried and impatient words, “Yet none of the patrols ever do.”

Rainbow shot him an annoyed glance and huffed.

“This place brings up memories and that’s all I see,” Spike continued, ignoring the indignant reaction. “We’re chasing our own shadows, Rainbow.”

With her eyes still glued to some distant sight, she scowled.

“There’s an enemy out there.”

Far from the hill a blizzard raged, an impenetrable mass of swirling ice hiding in its churning bowels an ancient kingdom. Though that wasn’t where the dragon’s attention was—he turned to regard Rainbow’s frown.

“What enemy? The Crystal Empire?”

Still refusing to meet Spike’s serene gaze the pegasus clenched her jaw, muttering, “That is why we’re here.”

However, following her eyes, he was met with the view of a small settlement. Starting as a tent camp years ago, it had become a village of sturdy dwellings; waxed cloth gradually ceding to stone and wood. Alabaster sheets of snow and ice turned into a broken ground bristling with green. As they observed the teeming with life community, it grew—a new house was being defiantly risen from the permafrost.

Spike faced Rainbow.

“So, when are you going to remind them of that?”

Static from the speaker was her reply.

A whole minute passed before quiet words came from it, tired rather than desperate, “Even your goddess can’t do anything about the Windigo. What do you expect of me?”

“She is not my goddess,” Spike corrected her levelly, “for I’m no machine.” Though there was a hardness to his tone when he added, “And neither are you.”.

The pegasus barked in response, glowering at him, “So, do you want me to go to them and tell them they can pack things and return home?”

Spike sighed and set his sights back on the small town, its dwellers going on with their lives, oblivious to the attention paid to them. The frigid wind brought snippets of boisterous laughter, echoes of tools helping in joyous labour, wisps of warm smells from kitchens.

“I just want you to admit it.”

Once again, there was no immediate reply—Rainbow’s face kept contorting betwixt different emotions until she straightened and snapped, “Enough. We have had this talk already, and I’m not going to change my mind.”

The metal of Spike’s muzzle shifted into a resemblance of mild amusement. Chuckling, he commented, “I’d be concerned if you did.”

Rainbow whipped her head to meet glowing eyes with a glare. Seeing her anger having no effect on the grinning dragon, she answered the harmless jab with a simple statement spoken in a low voice, “I saw what you’ve been doing in the snowfields.”

Spike’s toothless smile only grew a little wider, letting the tongues of energy lick his metal jaws.

“But do you know what you saw?”

Undaunted by the display of his eldritch nature, Rainbow squinted at the dragon menacingly, hissing, “Don’t take me for a fool. While you were having your fun in the Deep Tunnels, I fought things you can’t even imagine.”

Not even the slightest hint of shadow passed over Spike’s features at the remark of his dark past, his sparkling gaze still boring into Rainbow. Yet, his voice was devoid of any merriment when he noted:

“One doesn’t need to imagine anything in the Deep Tunnels.”

The arcanium mask almost mockingly met the pegasus’ stare. Rainbow furrowed her brow deeper and deeper as she silently seethed, but before her expression turned into a scowl, she all but growled, “And you brought it here.”

Disappointment flashed through Spike’s expression and he broke eye contact, shaking his head slowly. As he spoke, his tone betrayed nothing, however.

“You don’t know what you saw, then.”

“I know enough,” Rainbow snapped.

The dragon responded to the challenge by glancing at her sideways “Are you going to order me to stop?”

The greenish-yellow flame dimly reflected off Rainbow’s armour when she took a wide stance—not the cyber-suit she wore once. These days her garment only served to restore her ability to fly with just worn chainmail to cover the eternal fabric.

However, whilst Rainbow refused to let the provocation go unanswered, the pegasus eyed the still dragon with uncertainty. Even if she had her equipment from her days of serving as a captain of the Royal Guard, it would have offered little advantage.

“I’m on your side,” Spike said amiably, seeing the hints of desperation showing themselves on Rainbow’s frowning face.

Another tense moment passed and she relaxed or, rather, deflated. Giving Spike one last concerned look she cast a defeated glance behind her, to the south, and muttered, “My side has a newbie changeling queen and a fucking mechanical goddess.”

“Does that make it the wrong one?”

Rainbow looked back again, but this time she didn’t futilely search the horizon for Hope. She thoughtfully observed her path that had begun on one of those frosted hills half a millennium ago.

Often she wondered if her Element would still respond to her after everything she had done in the name of loyalty. It had been so simple at first—black and white. However, the choices quickly blurred into painful greyness.

“Was there ever a right side?” she asked no one in particular the threadbare question.

Spike shrugged in response.

“It’s said to be those who won,” he added with a chuckle.

So much had been lost over those years, so much sacrificed, but in the end, the Crystal Empire still writhed in the clutches of tyranny and Equestria was no more.

“Then you’re not with us.”

The dragon shook his head, laughing, then launched himself into the sky, leaving the annoyed pegasus alone with the vista of the village.

Fine dust settled upon the chainmail, stealing its glimmer—even windwards there was no escape from the clouds of silt billowing away from the viciously beaten rug.

The pegasus’ muzzle formed a scowl behind the growing opaque visor; it wasn’t the dirt to blame for that, but the complete obliviousness of the mare standing right in front of her.

Yet the wooden stick continued to be erratically swung with complete abandon by a purple aura. Rainbow’s helmet patiently crackled with almost inaudible static as her annoyance ceded to dismay.

She didn’t know the mare’s name.

Her cutie mark was hidden under a camouflage jumpsuit and Rainbow doubted that dusting stuff off was her talent. However, there was a way to work around poking the sky with a hoof.

“Soldier!”

The toned muscles under the unicorn’s burgundy coat twitched as she practically jumped, the ancient spear shaft clattering on the ground. Her muzzle spasmed with different emotions until a mix of seriousness and anxiety uneasily took reign of her pale face, weathered not by the fire of war but the cold of the winds.

“Oh, Captain Dash.” She saluted with her left hoof. As Rainbow continued to glare daggers at her, she added, her voice barely hiding the shaking, “Um, ma’am. Sir..?”

The ‘Captain’s’ expression didn’t soften.

The Royal Guard was disbanded following Stalliongrad’s demand even before Hope got its name and here the ranks were voluntary just like everything else. Holding back a sigh, Rainbow decided to join the ‘game’ as she gave up on a subtle way to learn what she wanted.

“What’s your name, private?”

The ‘private’ was seemingly about to pass out with her quivering hoof glued to her temple like her life depended on it. Yet she managed to muster enough confidence to stammer:

“Glintwine, ma’am.” She gulped. “Sir.”

A frown reclaimed Rainbow’s face—her name was odd and, consolidating the pegasus’ suspicions, Glintwine bubbled, revealing her slight accent, “If you have any, um... military-related questions I’m afraid you better ask my colt—”

“Did you come from Hope?”

“Why, yes.” The unicorn almost didn’t look offended. “About… a year ago?”

It wasn’t Trixie’s expedition that brought her here, then; but Rainbow barely took note of that—a whole year! How many more dwellers were in that village whom she had never met? Years ago she used to know them all by their names and faces—not a daunting task after commanding changelings for ages.

“Why?” she echoed Glintwine without thinking.

“Oh, how do I put it… Between the goat attacks and stuff like… like Black Star… and…” The unicorn hesitated, but then her face became bitter and she all but spat, “They never really accepted us there, you know?”

There it was—the actual reason why Glintwine left Hope. Hailing neither from the Equestrian wastes nor from Canterlot, that left the only option—the ‘City of Betrayers’. Even after everything, that old wound in Equestrian pride still stung for many, adding up to the issues crippling the pony community.

Glintwine finished on a more positive tone, “So I convinced Sharp Whistle to come here.” She then picked the pole up from the ground holding it like the spear it once was. “I’m... not much of a soldier, but there is no work I refuse to do.” The mare shrugged. “And the cold never bothered me anyway.”

A long time ago they betrayed Celestia—she and her legacy perished. Nightmare Moon was gone—Rainbow was one of those who made sure of that. And in the end, the ponies of Stalliongrad paid for their follies, for they had become little different from any Canterlot victim.

She even held a bit of respect for them—with grim eyes hidden in the shadows of their pickelhelms, the Stalliongrad emissaries more than once contributed to Equestrian victories during the Crystal Empire siege. They knew a thing or two about unbreakable sieges.

That obviously didn’t apply to Glintwine.

“Have you been on a patrol even once?”

She blushed and averted her eyes.

“No, ma’am.”

“That’s fine.”

With the current size of the settlement, it made sense that not everyone participated in reconnaissance. Or anything related to the original cause. Still, Rainbow couldn’t help but let out a short sigh before she asked, “What are you doing… instead?”

“I help in the fields. I used to work in greenhouses— it’s not the same, but some of my experience has its use.” Glintwine’s expression suddenly brightened. “Oh, I just remembered!”

With that she disappeared into the nearest building—a cabin modest, yet well-maintained with its windows showing glimpses of cosiness.

Almost a full minute later the unicorn returned with a bottle levitated alongside. Wordlessly, she offered it to Rainbow Dash.

Accepting the gift with a frown, she turned it in her hooves—there was no label and a somewhat thick and cloudy sanguineous liquid sloshed inside.

“What’s that?”

“Mulled wine.”

The pegasus glanced at Glintwine quizzically and then it clicked in her head.

“I made it myself, always wanted to.” The unicorn’s words dripped with pride, but they only made Rainbow pay her a confused look and Glintwine hurried to explain, “I mean, I probably mixed a hundred barrels in Stalliongrad, but never from the real stuff. Funny, it took me a dozen attempts before I finally got it right with the natural ingredients.”

Suddenly, Rainbow didn’t have it in her heart to tell the beaming unicorn she was incapable of appreciating the taste, regardless of if Glintwine was ignorant or just didn’t give a damn.

“Thank you. Glintwine.”

The mare only smiled wider.

“No, thank you for giving us all hope.”

A rhythmic canter of ever-young hooves brought Rainbow outside the village, wandering into the boundless monotony of the frozen in time plains of silence.

It took some time before the snow began to crunch under her marching. She knew why, but refused to admit it; and if asked directly, Rainbow would begrudgingly attribute it to the sheer chance and an exemplary fighting spirit that reigned at the ‘fort’.

Although the warlock and his coven were long dead (most of its members were at least), the pegasus still strode through the snowbanks, sometimes wistfully glancing up—the old habit of avoiding the treacherous sky full of arcane traps. Suddenly, a muffled clang of metal broke through the frigid whistling.

A helmet, its gilding replaced by a lacework of grime and rust. As it turned in her hooves, her eyes fell on a crude etching made by its second or maybe even third owner—a series of bubbles still distinguishable on the aged metal.

A tiny smile crept on Rainbow’s face—that mare was much more likely to just lose it rather than mark her grave with it. Before they fought wing to wing on those fields, Derpy was part of her weather team and briefly Rainbow wondered if she’d returned to Ponyville. To think of it, she never did herself and didn’t know who of those she once knew had gone back home.

In that sense, her coma was a blessing.

Gingerly lowering the helmet back to the frozen earth, Rainbow uncorked the bottle and poured its contents over the ancient armour. At war, all were victims, regardless of making it out alive.

There was no flapping of wings and the sound of living metal effortlessly slithering through the air was indistinguishable from the wind, yet Spike’s arrival hadn’t caught the pegasus off guard. That place made sure nothing ever would.

The dragon respectfully landed at a distance. Barely turning to him, Rainbow called, bitter:

“Came here to mock me again?”

The snow melted under Spike’s unhurried steps, revealing more than just splotches of lifeless soil—rusted weapons, broken armour, darkened bones.

When he stopped by Rainbow’s side, radiance was cast on her through the gaps in the ribs of his slowly expanding chest. A breath, devoid of its main purpose, was followed by a long silence. With half-lidded eyes Spike melancholically observed how rare snowflakes weaved themselves into a blanket for the fallen, the whiteness shimmering with all colours of the rainbow under the low Sun. His gaze shifted to the crimson spot where the wine was offered to the frost.

“I remember that battle,” Spike finally said. “Seven days and nights of unceasing screams and orders to take a single hill.”

Blood dripped from Rainbow, the wind carrying it away whilst futilely trying to tear at her mane plastered to her neck, burning from exertion and wounds. Leaving behind crimson footsteps, she pressed on, her teeth digging deeper and deeper into the salty wood as she ascended. With an animalistic roar, the pegasus thrust the pole deep into the desecrated snow. The flag angrily flapped above her and she collapsed, almost rolling down the hill. There were no cries of victory deafening her rasping gasps—only hollow silence.

With a blink, the memory was gone and the view of the smooth snow rolling out to the horizon returned.

“And it is gone now.”

“It’s all gone now, only echoes remain.” The dragon’s claws unclenched and a single bloom of heather gently fell on the wine-stained helmet. “The war ended five centuries ago, Rainbow.”

She tore her eyes away from the emptiness she once fought so hard for to glance over it. The blizzard met her stare unwaveringly, glaring back with seething cold fury. A veil of preternatural storm hid everything, but it wasn’t hard to imagine the malevolent spires leering at her from the sky—the sight forever burned into her mind.

Five-centuries old pain slipped into her voice as Rainbow whispered:

“Is it ever over?”

The howling carried from the distance was not of the wind, but a feral howl of timeless throats. A gust whisked another bloom from Spike’s claws and he stared at his empty hand for a long time.

“No,” the dragon agreed reluctantly. “But we’re not in it forever.”

He got a scathing look from Rainbow and when no reaction followed, she clarified, “And yet here you are.” The silence went on and she scoffed, “You’re wasting your time.”

“Is it possible for us?” Spike mused, but the pondering in his voice ceded to fatigue as he practically groaned, “You’re still convinced I could find something in Hope, aren’t you?”

The pegasus warily eyed the once dragon whose allegiance never lay fully to the ponykind nor against it.

“There’s always a place for you by her side.”

“I grew out of the role of Twilight’s number one assistant long ago.” Spike chuckled, but there was no mirth to it. Nor was there a single hint of sorrow. “And we both know she’s as much Twilight as I’m Spike. As you’re Rainbow Dash. Those names don’t mean what they used to anymore.”

Rainbow’s brow furrowed and she raised her hoof to stare at the empty bottle, peering into the eyes of green-tinted reflection.

“Then what do they mean now?”

This time there was a flapping of wings—the frantic sound of inexperience aggravated by urgency. Before long it concluded with a thump louder than it should be and snow exploded from the advance of a pegasus clad in simple armour ploughing towards the conversing ancients.

Emerging from the snowbank he stopped abruptly to take a few deep breaths before stiffly bowing.

“Rainbow Dash. Spike.” He gasped for air again. “Sharp Whistle reporting: Our patrol found an intruder. They have put up resistance to any attempts of contact and demanded to see you both.”

Rainbow’s glance in Spike direction lost any of its triumph as the Whistle added, “We… we have wounded.”

When it reached the dragon’s eyes, there was only steel in hers and it was met with fire.

Eight pairs of eyes followed a dragon and pegasus as they swiftly descended into the shadow of a rock marking the end of the snow-flooded valley. The fear and hope in the patrol’s expressions turned into shame as Rainbow’s stern gaze looked into each face before it found a pony lying in the snow.

Shoving the sniffing and unresponsive mare aside, Rainbow scowled at a familiar sight—a ravaged coat slick with blood.

“A... c-crystal… We tried to a-apprehend...” The mare scrambled back to her wounded comrade. “But… I-it… they…” She cast a terrified glance over her shoulder, peering into the boulder as if she could see the attacker through it. “They explo—”

“I know,” Rainbow softly cut off her semi-delirious muttering.

Shallow breaths escaped the stallion’s throat with whimpers in-between. Amongst the red sheen of his side, the crystal shrapnel glistened gloatingly, steadily delivering the unlucky pony into a state of shock with numerous and tiny, yet extremely painful cuts. The growing puddle on the frozen soil that refused the warm drink spoke of mounting blood loss. The crystal berries strewn around from a discarded saddlebag almost gave the impression of Rainbow’s drills going over the rookie’s head and him stumbling onto a derelict but still armed shell.

If not for the figure waiting patiently in the middle of a small clearing.

A simple cloak hid all but an equine muzzle poking from out the deep hood. The small smile on their lips may have once been welcoming, but the stricken down stallion turned it into a menacing grin.

“You!” Rainbow’s hoof shot at one of the pegasi, a shivering mare, “Northward, eleven o’clock, intercept Sharp Whistle. Tell him to alert the fort’s defences while you bring a medical team here.” Then she turned to the duo of pale stallions huddling the spears. “Make stretchers from your weapons and carry the wounded to meet the medics on their way here.”

Wasting no time to see if her orders were being followed, she marched around the cover but a movement out of the corner of her eye made her stop. Whilst two more ponies along with the crying mare were taking care of the wounded, the remaining group of three approached Rainbow.

They all bore stoic expressions, yet worn out guns trembled in their hold, still with the safeties engaged. Rainbow knew none of their names, nor did she recognize those terrified, wide-eyed faces. Her invocation to them wasn’t an order, but a kindly warning:

“Join the convoy.”

One of them, a pegasus mare, hesitated, then backed away with her ears pressed to her skull. Two unicorns, however, stayed, quivering like leaves in the wind.

Rainbow stared at them for a heartbeat then left for the mysterious stranger.

Though the pegasus wasn’t followed, she found Spike by her side. They exchanged a dark look full of unspoken questions and answers they didn’t want to say aloud.

The intruder was still as a stone as they were approached. Their tattered cloak continued to dutifully hide their identity, though not for long. When Rainbow and Spike stopped at a barely safe distance from the attacker, the statue came to life.

The hood fell, revealing a mare, her coat glimmering and her curious eyes with angular irises jumped betwixt the dragon and the pegasus.

“The Crystal Empire wants to negotiate with you, Rainbow Dash and Spike,” the crystal pony spoke in a chiming voice. “Find us in the ruins of Vanhoover.”

As soon as she finished, her hooves produced a massive gem from the folds of her cloak. As it flared up, the air around her rippled and she vanished.

Author's Note

If you notice any mistakes sneaked in through the editing, let me know.

Stay awesome.