Fire and Shadows

Starlight Glimmer’s POV

I wake to the sound of a huge BANG echoing through the landscape, followed by screaming and shouting. I begin to shout as well when I open the bedroom curtains. It's only about three in the morning, but the sky is filled with orange and gold. Ponies run around the village, unsure which way to go. Which is more deadly: the fire and smoke, or the army of Solar Guards who have caused all of this damage and are now marching towards my house?

I'm in trouble. Huge trouble. My track record with the Royal Guards isn't as clean as I'd like it to be and I'll be lucky to avoid Tartarus. But that isn’t my worst fear at the moment. The village is on fire, and I’ll be even luckier if everypony makes it out alive.

I sprint down the stairs and out of my house. I’m greeted by a group of armed Solar Guards snarling at me.

“Oh my Celestia, what’s happening?!” I demand.

“Starlight Glimmer, you are under arrest for the use of highly dangerous illegal magic and treason against the Princesses of Equestria,” a unicorn stallion tells me sternly. The others try to surround me and point their spears at me.

“You can arrest me once I’ve made sure that everypony in my village survives the night, thank you very much.” I teleport behind the guards and bolt away from them.

Double Diamond emerges from Sugar Belle’s house, with her and her family trailing behind. Her two foals are absolutely terrified, and Sugar Belle herself has a singed tail and burns on her hind legs. Diamond has wrapped his favourite blue scarf around his muzzle to stop himself from breathing in the fumes. He is as loyal and trustworthy as he has always been.

“What happened?” I say.

“The Solar Guards turned up to arrest you and a few others,” Diamond answers. “We didn’t let them, and they attacked us. We were fine until they started setting things on fire.”

“Magical fire?”

He nods. “It spreads a lot faster than normal fire.”

“Any casualties?”

“No deaths, but I haven’t been able to get to all of the houses.”

“Where are you taking everypony?”

“The Cutie Mark Cavern, where the Vault used to be.”

“Good.” I turn to Sugar Belle and her family. “All of you, get to the cave. Diamond and I will handle this.”

They nod and run off in the direction of the mountains. The Cutie Mark Vault isn’t too far away, so I hope that they can get there without the Solar Guards causing too much trouble.

Diamond and I get to work helping as many ponies as we can, and we use our magic to try and stop the spread of the flames. Party Favour and Night Glider rescue a whole ton of balloons and water cannons from his house and somehow use them to put out a few fires and make paths to safety. But all of their work is soon undone when I watch a unicorn fire a blast of magic at Double Diamond’s house. On impact it causes a large explosion. A large piece of rubble knocks Night Glider out of the sky, and I feel huge amounts of pain as the wave of heat and magic heads straight for me. I’m sent flying all the way back to my house and land on the ground with a hard thud.

I lay still, not just because of the pain but also to play dead: I can hear the voices of ponies and the sound of marching growing closer. It works, as two mares in armour walk straight past me. To my surprise, one of them is a bat pony wearing Lunar Guard armour. I’d assumed that all of the Night Guards were on Luna’s side, but maybe I’m wrong. I listen to them in the hope of picking up any useful information, whilst trying not to give myself up at the same time.

“To be honest, I feel a little bad about this,” one of them says, looking around at the remains of my village. She’s a unicorn with a blue-white coat, green eyes and a pink mane. Unfortunately, her armour hides her cutie mark so I have no way of identifying her in court. The same goes for the bat pony. Her own distinguishing features are her mane and tail. Both are black with a red and blue stripe down the centre.

“You get used to it,” she replies cooly. “I’ve had to do stuff like this before. Had to go after ponies who used to be my friends, my family.” She sighs. “Sometimes I miss them, but The Princess showed me how powerful they were and how dangerous they could become. I decided it was for the best.”

“Do you think anypony will find out about this?”

“This village is tiny, like a lot of the other railway villages. It’s not important. Nothing will happen if somepony finds out.”

“And the press?”

The bat pony waves a hoof. “The press? They wouldn’t be interested, and even if they were, The Princess would make sure they didn’t tell a ton of fibs. We’re doing this to stop traitors and to win a war against dark magic. We’re not being idiots for the sake of it.”

“I guess that’s true, Astral.”

“Hey!” the bat mare called Astral shouts suddenly. I crane my neck and look at what she’s worried about. Double Diamond is trying to sneak away from the village, but by the looks of things he won’t get far.

“Don’t go after him,” the unicorn says. “He’s got this far. Give him a chance to live.”

“A chance my own bucking brother didn’t give me, but I guess you have a point,” she replies. “Just this once, I’ll let him leave. If he survives, that’s good for him.”

The two mares walk off, and I crawl back inside my house, wincing with every step I take. It’s the only building still standing. I’m aware that there could be more guards, that they could have gone inside in the search of anything they could use against me in court, but I find nopony there. Thank Celestia for being ever so slightly merciful and giving me something to work with.

I rummage around for a piece of paper and something to write with. Eventually I find a pencil and a sheet of scrap paper with a half-completed shopping list on one side. Not ideal, but it’ll do for now. I pack those, as well as a couple of tins of food, into my saddlebags. At the last minute, I decide to grab yesterday’s newspaper, simply because of the article about the recent murder of the bat pony Golden Sunset. Then, I teleport to the edge of the village and run off away from the destruction, trying to ignore the numerous pain signals being sent to my brain.

Nopony comes after me, and after what feels like hours I make it to the cave where the Cutie Mark Vault used to be. When I get there, Sugar Belle, Double Diamond and Night Glider all hug me. I can’t help but notice the tears rolling down Night Glider’s cheeks, though, and my stomach lurches.

“Starlight, we thought you didn’t make it!” Diamond cries.

“No, I’m fine, but what about everypony else?”

There’s a moment of silence. Then, Sugar Belle speaks up. “Quite a few didn’t make it. Party Favour was one of them.” She sobs. “Cherry Bakewell and Strawberry Swirl are gone too. Both Licorice Bootlace and Cobblestone Pie are missing, but we’re preparing for the worst case scenario.”

“Oh Celestia,” I gasp.

“Is there anything we can do?” Night Glider says in between sobbing.

“I grabbed some paper and a pencil. I know who we need to speak to. If I can get a letter to them, they’ll send somepony here, and the Solar Guards won’t dare to stay here.”

“You’re not talking about-” Diamond tries to say.

“King Sombra and Queen Moonlight? Yes, I am. I feel like I’m grasping at straws, but it’s worth a try. If anypony can help us, they can.”

“What if they don’t come and help us, though?” Night Glider cries.

“Don’t worry, leave this to me.” I think for a moment about how to get their attention and show how urgent the situation is; then, I scribble down a quick message and send it with magic. All I can hope is that it gets there in time, before the Solar Guards find this cave.

Moonlight’s POV

I smile as I take a bite of a slice of toast and watch Cozy absolutely slaughtering Wish in a game of chess with that new set that Skywalker gave to her. Poor Wish lost both rooks and a bishop early on in the game, so she was always at a disadvantage. She’s trying hard, though. She managed to take Cozy’s queen and I thought she had a chance of winning at one point, but it looks like Cozy actually meant to sacrifice her queen to allow other pieces to target Wish’s king.

“Ugh!” Wish sighs. “You’re too good.”

“And don’t I know it?” Cozy answers cheekily, taking Wish’s last rook with a satisfied smirk. “Oh, and I should mention: you’re in check!”

“Watch it, Cozy. One of us might challenge you next,” Hope giggles.

“Ooh, another chance to win!”

Wish rolls her eyes, moves her king out of imminent danger and turns towards me. “So, what are you going to do today?”

“Queen Rabia’s going to visit us. There’s going to be a large appeal to find recruits for the Crystal Army. Speaking of which, has anypony seen-”

Swift Lightning walks into the room. “Skywalker and Hanzal ain’t joining us fer breakfast today. Said summat about wanting to get to work early. Ah told ‘em Ah’d rather have a slice of toast and a cuppa before Ah start walking around an’ asking ponies about this Crystal Army lark. Ah think they took it pretty well, didn’t yell at me or anything considering Ah ain’t working mah butt off from the moment the sun crawls over the horizon.”

“Yup, that’s an achievement,” I laugh. “Crystal berry jam?”

“Butter’ll do.” He sits down next to Cozy, smiling in amusement at Wishbone’s unfortunate situation. She’s being driven towards checkmate, but Cozy seems to be having a lot of fun taunting Wish in advance. That little devil really needs Luna to put her in her place.

I pass him the butter and he covers a slice of toast with it before pouring himself a glass of water. I look at Sombra, who is in deep discussion with Hope. I can’t hear much of what they’re saying, but I distinguish the word ‘queen’ and assume it’s something to do with chess. I’m waiting for somepony to realise we don’t have all day to sit around playing games. Otherwise I would’ve set up a game of poker by now.

“Hey, Mum! It’s checkmate, but Wish reckons she can still move. Could you take a look?” Cozy calls.

I get up, walk over to them and grin as my eyes scan the board. “Sorry, Wish, but it’s checkmate.”

Wish slaps me on the back of my head with her wing.

“Hey!” I cry.

“I can still go there.” She moves her king to another square.

“You forgot about the knight.”

“Snap.” The realisation dawns on her that she’s lost, and she slides a coin across the table. “There you are, you won fair and square, Cozy.”

“Good game. It was quite difficult. Hmm, I still think I should challenge Sunbutt for the rights to rule Equestria. Would make this whole fighting-a-war business a lot simpler and-”

Suddenly, Hanzal and Skywalker burst into the room, both covered in beads of sweat and Hanzal holding a scrap of paper with his good wing.

“Letter from Equestria,” Hanzal pants, almost skidding across the floor. “Mare called Starlight. Her village is in danger.” He places the letter in front of me and I scan the page.

Dear King Sombra and Queen Moonlight,

Hi, it’s Starlight Glimmer. I know I haven’t been in touch with you recently, but I really need your help. Last night, we were attacked. I’m sure you’ll know who did it if you read this. The whole village was burned down, and not everypony survived. I’m keeping everypony in the caverns right now, but I don’t know how long it’ll last, and we don’t have much food or water. If you can help us in any way, no matter how small, we’d appreciate it.

Hope to see you soon,
Starlight

“No,” I whisper. Sombra was right. If I’d just been sensible and not held that party for Cozy, we could have spent some time planning and preparing the Crystal Army for something like this. If I'd known that this was going to happen, I'd never have made that promise with the foals. Now I have to put things right again.

“Sombra?” I ask. “Do you think we could have that honeymoon a little early? Like, right now?” I turn to Skywalker and Hanzal. “And would it be rude to tell the new Crystal Army recruits that we need them to travel hundreds of miles into enemy territory today?”

“Moonlight, are you being serious?” Sombra says dubiously.

“You remember what the Town of Starlight looked like, right? Because it’s now a pile of smouldering ruins,” I say flatly.

Cozy gasps. “Gosh, who’d do something like that?!”

Skywalker remains still, apparently thinking deeply, whilst Hanzal shoots a glare in Swift’s direction. The latter gulps and tries to avoid eye contact.

“Ah got an idea yeh think it’s mah lot, the Solar Guards,” he mutters. “An’ Ah gotta say, yeh’re probably right. But yeh know as well as Ah do that it could be somepony else too.”

“What do you mean?” Hanzal wonders.

“Coulda been the Sun Worshippers.”

“All of the records we found before we left the Royal Guard are from centuries ago. They don’t exist any more, Swift.”

“Ah hate ter be the one to start this whole argument about Astral Charm again, but she and Ah were pretty close, and she told me a lotta stuff that she would never have told the two of yeh. She became a member not long before Hollow Shades.”

Skywalker bites his lip and grows tense, refusing to speak or look at any of us. Hanzal looks up at him, but finds himself being ignored.

“Gee, somepony tell us who or what we’re talking about here,” Cozy says, breaking the silence.

“The Cult of Sunlight,” Skywalker finally whispers. “They sometimes called themselves the Guardians of Sunlight, just to hide the fact that they’re a Celestia-darn cult. There’s no record of them anywhere in recent Equestrian history… But we already know the buckin’ Sunbutt is good at hiding secrets.”

“Of course she’d like ter hide the fact that there’s a whole ton of ponies who go to church to worship her, yeh dimwit. If all of Equestria knew it, she’d be kicked out the country in a week! But Astral found out an’ she wanted ter be a part of it, an’ Ah nearly got roped in too. Ah’d forgot about ‘em until now if Ah’m honest, but now Ah think of it they could be causing trouble.”

“Somepony is good at forgetting vital pieces of information that could save lives,” Hanzal shoots.

“Ah’m sorry, but Ah woulda told yeh if Ah remembered.”

“No you wouldn’t, because you’re too worried about what your dead marefriend would think.”

“Now how about we stop talking about Astral an’ try ter move on?”

“Agreed.” Skywalker replies. “Though I think you still owe me a lot for helping to turn my own bucking sister against me!”

“Ah can only apologise so many times, for Celestia’s sake!”

“Well, yeah. Though I’d appreciate something more than an apology.” He glares. “Perhaps pulling your own weight and not slacking when we’re working hard to convince the innocent Crystallians to go into battle against a bucking tyrant alicorn!”

“Ah still don’t think she’s a tyrant, yeh know. She was nice to me an’ mah friends-”

“Because you kept your mouth shut even though you knew she was being an idiot!” Hanzal answers back.

“But look where it got you, yeh-”

“QUIET!” I slam a hoof down on the table, sending a wave of dark magic through the room, powerful enough to silence everypony. I’m tired of listening to them. “Are we going to keep arguing about this, or are we going to try and save the ponies who are still with us?!”

The three of them look at each other, stuck in a deadly stalemate. Everypony else watches, expecting the fight to continue, but the moment of anger has surpassed and the reality of the situation is setting in. Finally, Hanzal mutters, “The Queen is right. We’ve got the lives of other ponies in our hooves right now, so we need to think about that first. We can sort out our differences afterwards.”

“Yes,” Skywalker says slowly. “Yes, we can sort out our... differences later, Swift.”

“Ah’m in deep trouble, Ah know. But if Ah’m honest, it ain’t lookin’ pretty either way. If Ah go back to Celestia now Ah’ve spilled a ton of secrets ter the King and Queen, Ah’m dead. But if Ah stay here, Ah’ve got you ter contend with, and Ah ain’t sure how far yeh’re willing ter go to make me pay fer what Ah did. Fine, Ah probably deserve a lot of it, but…” Swift trails off. “Ah don’t particularly fancy the idea of bein’ killed.”

Skywalker looks down at the ground. “You insult me, Swift. I would never go that far for revenge... not after Astral.” He looks at his Lieutenant. “And there’s a few in this room who know why.”

Another moment of silence fills the room. Sombra and I share a look and read each other’s minds, silently agreeing to find some way to help Skywalker move on from the past when we get the chance.

Sombra clears his throat, signalling for everypony to look at him.

“I need everypony to listen carefully, because there is a lot to do in an incredibly short space of time. Hope, I need you to contact Queen Rabia of the Umbrum and inform her of the circumstances at the Town of Starlight. Tell her that we will be travelling there to bring them basic emergency aid. If she offers any help, accept it. Afterwards, you and Wishbone will need to gather as much first aid equipment and food as you can find.”

“Lieutenant Swift Lightning, I would like you to speak to Queen Chrysalis of the Changelings about this situation. I trust that she will be willing to offer assistance, whether in the form of extra changeling soldiers or something else. Once again, whatever she offers us, accept it. Cozy Glow, it is up to you whether you join him or if you help Wishbone and Radiant Hope.”

“I’ll be more helpful if I stay here,” she answers immediately.

Sombra turns to Hanzal and I recognise the spell he uses as a telepathy spell. “Commander Hanzal and Colonel Skywalker.” He continues. “Both of you have been hard at work, I see. You have recruited a lot of ponies and also some Yaks and Changelings for the Crystal Army. It is too early to ask them to pack their bags and prepare to enter a war zone, so I would just speak to the guards for now. Tell them about the situation, and that we need at least twenty of them ready by one o’clock this afternoon at the latest. This is an emergency, so they should understand.”

Both of them nod in unison before the older stallion gestures to his partner as a signal to follow him; they trot away from us quickly, leaving the room in a matter of seconds.

“And you, my love,” Sombra says, looking at me. “I will be in contact with Starlight, but I will need somepony to brief the guards on the situation in the Town of Starlight whilst I find a safe location to teleport to. Before then, however, I am sure that you will be able to help the others gather supplies.”

“Ok.” Something feels wrong. There’s a dull ache in my temples, and I feel dizzy. But there are ponies who need me, and I can deal with a headache if there are ponies who I know are in a lot more pain than me right now.

“Moonlight, what is it?” he says.

“Just a headache. But I’m fine. If everypony else is ok, we should get to work.”

Everypony in the room nods, and we head in separate directions, all worried about each other and our friends in the Town of Starlight. The thoughts racing through my head worsen the headache, but I’m determined to see Starlight and do whatever I can for her village.