At The End

The screaming in the distance was painful to my ears. I peered through the curtains of the library’s front window. Outside, I could see a few columns of ponies. Unicorn ponies, all facing the town square.

Despite the screams of pain, the ponies only winced and seemed to hang their heads. None ran away from whatever was hurting their people. They were resigned, moving slowly forward one by one.

I watched as the line began to disappear. Further towards the market place. My friends watching over my shoulder, confused and slightly worried.

Twilight had warned us earlier of a daily magical collection. All unicorns who did not have a form of employment that required the use of magic were given papers ordering them to come to their local collection centre and submit to magic collection.

There were signs outside mentioning this when we had arrived but I had paid little attention. We had been tired and we knew so little about our bodies that we weren’t even sure if the rules applied to us. Apparently it did.

“Just stay with me, and they won’t even come near you.” Twilight had explained while showing us some papers making her an exception to the whole process.

“So if they’re collecting magic from unicorns why are you allowed to have your magic?”

“It’s not as simple as just a complete magical draining. If you completely drain the harmonious magic from ponies, then that’s it. The magic doesn’t grow again until a very long time after.” She explained as she moved things about the library. There was still a bit of mess from when she had once lived here. Books were still strewn over the floor, probably from when the Shadow had escaped.

“My magic was taken when… well you know.” She sighed as the closed the curtains, obstructing our view of the outside.

“The magic that I have now is Chaos magic from Discord.” Going back to what she was doing, I watched as she floated books around, dusting off the shelves and putting the books away.

“Which means that collecting this magic is important. Important enough that it needs to been farmed.” I frowned. There was so much I did not understand about this place. Twilight’s explaining was very insightful, but the jigsaw pieces were not fitting up with what I was trying to theorise.

“Growing magic to then collect it and do what exactly?” Jack asked, moving back and forth between his gear and the kitchen. He was still trying to clean his clothing as much as he could while we were still in relative safety. Despite having to go back to the Everfree.

“All of it goes to Canterlot. There, the Shadow uses it for... something. I’m not sure what, but it must be a weapon.” She said as she handed me my gear that had been bothering her cleaning route.

“When I was returned here, we had tried to find the elements of harmony. But we couldn’t find them. The vault that housed them was empty. When I turned myself in, the Shadow wanted to know why we hadn’t used the elements against him.”

Twilight turned as Spike came into the room, holding a stack of books and was somehow able to hold this three foot stack without any trouble whatsoever.

“I told the truth. That the elements were gone and that I had come to surrender to save my family. Only after that had he devised a plan for a system that would allow for a daily collection of Harmonious magic from Unicorns and other spell casting creatures within Equestrian borders.”

Spike stopped near Twilight and stared at all of our gear in wonder. I made my way over to Twilight and gave her a comforting hug. I knew that this must be a huge strain of her mental health. Ponies did not seem to act like humans, they seemed more willing to just roll over and play dead. Maybe that was why there had been so little resistance from ponies to having their magical powers stripped from them.

“My friends will be here soon.” She observed the clock on the wall. Half nine.

Twilight had already explained that her friends were coming over. They were apparently accompanying her in their search for us, basically. Element bearers she had said, I guessed that she meant the bearers of the elements of harmony like herself.

I had lots of questions about how the elements worked. What it was about them that Twilight needed so much. They could apparently defeat great evils but how?

She had asked Spike to find me a book earlier. He hadn’t found it, Twilight had scolded him for forgetting where the magical history section was. I didn’t mind, but the book I had been given did shed some new light on the situation.

The elements were objects tied to how these creatures viewed harmony. Harmony was representable with 6 elements and once combined against an evil that could not be persuaded to stop, it would, purge them of “evil” ambitions. Or turn them to stone… ‘ouch’.

The fact was that despite this nice piece of information, I still had no idea what me and the others were suppose to do here. We had already gone through most of the books earlier this morning trying to find answers.

But this was a small town library, what we needed was a library that held older and more sensitive information.

“Canterlot’s archive is the best place for information, but it has been… removed and turned into the Shadow’s private quarters.” She said, moving past me as I continued to re-read the information about the elements and how they worked.

“And we’re not going there unless we have to.” Mark said, tightening the straps around his right hip with his mouth. The moment Twilight had explained how she had known about our arrival, we quickly understood that we were being tracked. So we had to limit our use of magic to essentials only.

“Anywhere else that’s got a reasonably large bank of information?” I asked, moving to follow Twilight as she made her way to the basement entrance. She hesitated before the door. The question wasn’t what stopped her. It was this place. She had demons here, I could almost see them from the look she had.

“It’s empty down there Twi. We’ve checked.”

“I know…” I followed her as she seemed to wander down the steps. Broken.

The others followed suite. Watching from the stairs as we both made our way into the centre of the room. She was silent, moving the pieces of reflective glass back and forth with a hoof. Before looking up at me. There were no tears. Just a solemn look of guilt.

“It’s all my fault. You wouldn’t be stuck here if it weren’t for me. None of you would.” She looked at all of us, returning her gaze to me, I hugged her once more. The others joined in, moving to close Twilight within a protective shield against her own self doubts.

Despite how we felt about our journey here. None of us could deny our eagerness to help Twilight out. Not one of us would abandon her over returning home. Despite all the loss that we had suffered, even my family had become secondary. For the time being, only Twilight and Equestria were all that interested us.

“The castle of the two sisters, there’s a library there.” She sniffed, melting into our embrace as if nothing could be better for her.

A top the stairs, Spike watched with a content smile. He seemed to be really happy to see us all hugging and sharing this loving moment, all of us together. Despite this, the moment I noticed him, he scampered off, out of the room.

Maybe he was still a bit nervous around us.

XXX

Out of all the ponies we had met on our visit to Equestria, Twilight’s friends were the probably the most interesting. They were all a variety of colours but also of personalities. When they had first arrived, they had kept their distance until Twilight cleared the tension in the room.

The five were close friends of hers and she had told them all about us it would seem. Well at least to Rarity, who spent more time asking about our clothing and who our tailors were, when she wasn’t asking which one of us wasn’t in a relationship.

When Mark had accidentally let slip that I had ‘dated’ Twilight, if you will, she spent the rest of the morning asking me all sorts of details about all sorts of things that revolved around me and Twilight.

I was in to Twilight, but I still had no idea how to approach the subject of me and the others returning home and maybe never seeing any of them nor Equus ever again. It had crossed my mind… so had the idea of staying here.

The greetings shared with the others, was something that neither me nor my friends could have ever expected. Each of them were uniquely driven, each of them had seemed bleak when they first arrived, now they were all beaming. I swore that I could see a distinct physical change.

Especially in that Pinkie pony. The vibrancy of her pink coat seemed to almost glow when she got to sing her ‘welcome to Ponyville’ song to us. It was so strange, even her hair seemed to gain some shape to it. Fluffing up instead of dragging down the side of her face.

I could see why they represented the elements of harmony, they all seemed far nicer than anyone I had ever met. Despite Rarity incessant nagging about our relationships with Twi.

They were there for her. And while they may have suffered too, none of them blamed Twilight for anything when they spoke with us.

I didn’t hesitate in hugging Twilight with a wing, as she tried desperately to not give in to Rarity’s demands.

The collective gasps from discovering us to be Alicorns was also something that had an impact on me and the others. Twilight had to try explain to us why this was so important for them. Alicorns were not just a rare breed. They were royalty.

Mark had audibly gulped at that and decided to leave his wings hidden from view under his cloak.

With the whole team assembled, Twilight had laid out her plan. I butted in a few times to give my advise. Especially when it came to getting back into the Everfree. None of us really wanted to go back there after yesterday’s long trek, but we apparently had no choice about that.

The castle of the two sisters had apparently been the same castle that we had spent our first night in. The ruins had contained an archive full of antique books dating back thousands of years though we were quick to dismiss that. Most books would probably crumble to ash if that were the case.

Twilight had defended her case, but I left it to: believe it when I see it.

The route planned was the same that we had taken, it was the safest to avoid… Manticores? Whatever those were. Apparently this was their late autumn mating season and they could quickly get out of control and angry. Fluttershy was the one who explained in more detail. Jack and her actually spent a lot of time together. Talking about magical animals and other mythical creatures.

It was past mid day by the time we left. Two hours had passed by so quickly for introductions and planning. Our group of nine ponies and one dragon made its way through Ponyville as we headed back towards the orchards in the distance.

The citizens of Ponyville were as attentive today as they had been when we had first arrived. The looks that me and my friends got were a little unnerving. It looked like they wanted come and say hello. Or maybe rob us, who knew. Not me.

The guards that we saw seemed a little nervous too. When we approached, they flung themselves onto the ground. Twilight, it seemed, was the one who commanded their fear. She ushered them to rise, and to continue with their work.

Controlling ponies papers, protecting the town, stopping thieves… I could think of a few things these guards could be doing instead of whimpering on the floor.

Looking at them, even a civilian could tell that they had no experience here. They were not soldiers here to enforce martial law. They were “three week wonders”, with not nearly enough training to make them intimidating. But maybe that was the whole point?

Equestrians had seemed rather resigned to their fate. Despite the talk of war, the atmosphere didn’t seem too worried. They may not fatalists, but pacifists seemed highly plausible. Maybe they were trying to let the invading forces take control.

Where was the ‘evil’ control? In all honesty, for a nation that seemed desperate to overthrow its ruler. I had seen very little forms of violence against the creatures of this land. The forces here seemed to be rather complacent here and there.

Only five guards to hold control over, what I considered a large settlement, seemed careless.

Twilight had explained that the war was drawing soldiers from all over the nation. They were fighting two fronts. The Yaks in the North and the Griffons in the South-East. Yet despite this, the ponies had not tried to revolt. Instead they followed their orders without question.

Was I missing something?

There had to be something. I had been told about the resistance, though they seemed more keen to just target food and medical supplies, not trying to overthrow the tyrant. From what I saw, there was very little oppression. The daily magical collection was probably enough to keep ponies frightened, but after three years?

Maybe the Shadow wasn’t being nearly as oppressive as what Twilight and the others seemed to think he was. Though that could all be due to the difference in our cultures. Tyrants and dictators were probably not something often found here.

Maybe he had taken enough extreme measures to exact control over the equestrians without actually having to go and make public displays of murder.

My thought’s were stopped as new ones came in. Just ahead, a large dust cloud could be seen. From the clouds emerged ponies, though they looked weird. Freaky even.

Totally black, holes in their legs, armour made from carapace. They were bugs, but they still shared a basic similarity with the ponies of Equestria.

“Changelings.” Someone had said, maybe Spike. My friends and I were shocked, watching as this herd of creatures entered the town. Soldiers. They were soldiers!

The 5th changeling guards were apparently part of a force sent south to defend the border against the Griffons. They had been suffering skirmishes over the past month.

Twilight had no information about troop movements, she wasn’t one to know about the Changelings. That was for someone she called Chrysalis.

My friends and I could only spare them lowered glances. I remembered seeing the same thing with different companies throughout the campaign. It was hard to watch these people just trundle past as they limped their way back for medical care. Just how far was the border?

Many of the creatures spared momentary glances towards Spike as he sat on Twilight’s back. The drake never even sparing them one in return. He must have had a bad time with these things in the past. The bugs could only lower their heads out of, what looked like, shame.

XXX

Despite leaving at mid day, the arriving force of Changelings had slowed down our trek as we had let them pass. When the last few limped by, we saw them disappear down the main street before completely vanishing to the other side of town.

Going past the orchards, we could see the forest slowly rising ahead. An orange ‘earth’ pony within the group called Apple Jack told us a great deal about the orchards here. It was her family’s farm. And they had produced cider. In fact, they were one of the greatest in “All of Equestria!” she had declared, earning some very convincing nods from all the others.

Mark had shared his desire to taste one when all of this was over. She held him to that.

The sun was slowly beginning to set as we finally entered the dark forest. The trees closing in around us once more, now the light was fading. But we kept going. Pushing forward along the path, passing the Zebra and her snug little house. Our torches were on now, I gave mine to Rarity to use. My eyes adjusted perfectly to the darkness and I could also see quite far ahead. So much so that I took point over Twilight who had been leading since Ponyville.

“It’s well documented that Thestrals and bat ponies have excellent nocturnal vision!” She said, almost as if quoting a dictionary. She did always look cute when she would close her eyes and go on to explain everything without missing a beat. She looked even cuter when she realised that she was being stared at and would begin to blush furiously.

“Where have you been all my life?” That got her to blush harder, so much so that she began to try and find an excuse to keep moving faster.

The night had fully settled in now. The Everfree was every bit as inhospitable as Twilight and her friends had claimed. The air was filled with strange sounds. Roars and wooshing sounds that reminded me of Guadalcanal.

Another hour of marching before the first in our group, Rarity, collapsed with exhaustion. They all were. Mark, Jack and I could have continued, but the girls were worn out. Moving slightly slower now, we approached a clearing. It contained some ruined buildings from the castle town. We weren’t far, despite this, we set up camp within the foundations of one of the more sturdy buildings.

The girls had brought sleeping bags, so had Spike. We had not. Well the angel hadn’t given us any when we had arrived.

Pinkie and Apple Jack prepared the meal. It was now that I got to witness the crazy reality breaking pony at work. Pulling ingredients from behind her back as they both prepared a rather appetising dinner of baked beans and potatoes.

The dinner was exquisite, it just tasted so nice. The ingredients were so fresh!

Clearing our stuff away, Apple Jack had explained that she would clean up tomorrow. There was a kitchen in the old castle. That would have been nice to know when we had been there…

As everypony and dragon went to bed, my friends went to sleep, curled up together for warmth. I waited a moment, checking the surround before joining them. At least I would have, had Twilight’s magic not pulled me towards her and dumped me next to her. She pulled a blanket from her saddle bag, gesturing for me to lie next to her. I obliged.

That night, we slept peacefully. The sound of the forest roaring and wooshing drawing us into a deep sleep.